Table of ContentsView AllTable of ContentsDefinitionCharacteristicsDiagnosisCausesTreatmentCoping
Table of ContentsView All
View All
Table of Contents
Definition
Characteristics
Diagnosis
Causes
Treatment
Coping
The fear of failure for many people is so intense it can impact their daily lives and ability to complete tasks. When thought of as a specific phobia, the fear of failure is known asatychiphobia.
Read on to learn about how atychiphobia is characterized and what can be done to alleviate it.
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What Is Fear of Failure?
Everyone worries about failing at some point in their lives, but for those with atychiphobia, the fear of failure is pervasive and extreme.
People with atychiphobia may internalize failure, viewing it as a reflection of their worth. This causes them to see failure as a constant threat. They worry it will lead to embarrassment or that others will view them negatively.
Ranging from mild to severe, this irrational fear of failure can prevent people from trying to achieve goals and can cause paralyzing anxiety.
Fear of failure may also be rooted in other anxiety disorders and is tied toperfectionism.
Atychiphobia vs. PerfectionismWhile atychiphobia and perfectionism have some similarities, there are distinct differences. A person with atychiphobia will primarily focus on and worry about failure. Someone with perfectionism typically has high personal standards and will strive to be (or appear to be) perfect.
Atychiphobia vs. Perfectionism
While atychiphobia and perfectionism have some similarities, there are distinct differences. A person with atychiphobia will primarily focus on and worry about failure. Someone with perfectionism typically has high personal standards and will strive to be (or appear to be) perfect.
What Is a Phobia?
Characteristics of Fear of Failure
Fearing failure to the point that it causes you to avoid situations and prevents you from achieving goals could mean you’re experiencing atychiphobia.
The fear of failure can manifest in a number of ways, both physically and emotionally.
Physical Symptoms
Emotional Symptoms
Diagnosing Fear of Failure
Although more complex than many other phobias, atychiphobia can fall under the umbrella of specific phobias. If the fear of failure is impacting your life, it’s worth seeking professional help, such as with a mental health professional.
Mental health providers use criteria in the “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM–5) to diagnose a phobia.Persons diagnosed with a specific phobia have a persistent and excessive fear (typically lasting more than six months) that interferes with daily activities at school, work, or home life.
Your mental health provider will ask you specific questions about your symptoms. They may also ask about your medical and psychiatric history. This information will be used to determine if you meet the diagnostic criteria for a phobia.
Types of Mental Health Therapy
Famous Failures
Even successful people fail sometimes:
What Causes Fear of Failure
Some factors that may be involved with fear of failure specifically include:
Treating Atychiphobia
Professional treatments are available for specific phobias, including fear of failure.
Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy is a broad term that encompasses many types oftalk therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a type ofpsychotherapyoften used to treat phobias.
Psychodynamic psychotherapy is an approach that helps people better understand underlying conflicts and dynamics contributing to irrational fears of failure.
Cognitive Behavioral TherapyCBT involves identifying unhealthy or harmful thinking and behavior patterns and changing them into healthy ones.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT involves identifying unhealthy or harmful thinking and behavior patterns and changing them into healthy ones.
CBT for phobias may include exposure therapy, in which you are gradually introduced to the source of your phobia with increasing intensity in a controlled environment.
What Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy?
Medication
Medication is used less commonly than therapy for fear of failure, butantianxiety medicationsmay be prescribed if you and your healthcare provider feel it would be beneficial.
Coping with Fear of Failure
Self-help is often suggested as a first-line treatment for fear of failure, depending on the severity of the phobia, access to professional therapy, and the amount of support needed.
Some ways to address your fear of failure include:
Redefine Failure
Changing the way you see failure can help you cope with it.
Look at failure as:
Be Pragmatic
Try to look at the situation or task as it really is, asking yourself:
Be Kind to Yourself
Mindfulness TechniquesMindfulness and relaxation exercises can help you feel calm in the moment. They can also help to manage your overall anxiety. Exercises to try include:Deep breathing exercisesEngaging your five senses—sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste—to help bring you to the present moment. For instance, notice four things that you can feel. Observe and describe their texture to help ground yourself.Meditation
Mindfulness Techniques
Mindfulness and relaxation exercises can help you feel calm in the moment. They can also help to manage your overall anxiety. Exercises to try include:Deep breathing exercisesEngaging your five senses—sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste—to help bring you to the present moment. For instance, notice four things that you can feel. Observe and describe their texture to help ground yourself.Meditation
Mindfulness and relaxation exercises can help you feel calm in the moment. They can also help to manage your overall anxiety. Exercises to try include:
How to Build Self-Confidence
Summary
Atychiphobia is an extreme fear of failure. It falls under the umbrella of specific phobias. This irrational fear of failure can prevent you from trying to achieve goals and can cause paralyzing anxiety.
Certain self-help techniques, like practicing mindfulness and challenging negative self-talk, can also be beneficial.
What Causes a Fear of Success?
15 SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.National Institute of Mental Health.Specific phobias.Kentucky Counseling Center.Atychiphobia, fear of failure: how to overcome it?Dinç S, Ekşi H.A psychological counseling study on fear of failure and academic procrastination with a spiritually oriented cognitive behavioral group. Spiritual Psychology and Counseling. 2019;4(3):219-235. doi: 10.37898/spc.2019.4.3.85Curran T, Hill AP.Perfectionism is increasing over time: A meta-analysis of birth cohort differences from 1989 to 2016.Psychol Bull. 2019;145(4):410-429. doi:10.1037/bul0000138HelpGuide.Phobias and irrational fears.Dinç S, Ekşi H.A psychological counseling study on fear of failure and academic procrastination with a spiritually oriented cognitive behavioral group. Spiritual Psychology and Counseling. 2019;4(3):219-235. doi: 10.37898/spc.2019.4.3.85Ph.D IM, Ph.D REM.Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear: The Psychology of Irrational Fear.ABC-CLIO; 2015.World Health Organization.Phobias.Penn Psychiatry.Specific phobias.Reader’s Digest.14 ironic “failures” of wildly successful people. Updated October, 2021.American Psychiatric Association.What is psychotherapy?National Health Services.Treatment - phobias.Greater Good.Three ways to overcome fear of failure at work.Brock L.3 Easy anxiety relief exercises you can use anywhere. Michigan Medicine.Montero-Marin J, Garcia-Campayo J, Pérez-Yus MC, Zabaleta-del-Olmo E, Cuijpers P.Meditation techniquesv. relaxation therapies when treating anxiety: a meta-analytic review.Psychol Med. 2019;49(13):2118-2133. doi:10.1017/S0033291719001600
15 Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.National Institute of Mental Health.Specific phobias.Kentucky Counseling Center.Atychiphobia, fear of failure: how to overcome it?Dinç S, Ekşi H.A psychological counseling study on fear of failure and academic procrastination with a spiritually oriented cognitive behavioral group. Spiritual Psychology and Counseling. 2019;4(3):219-235. doi: 10.37898/spc.2019.4.3.85Curran T, Hill AP.Perfectionism is increasing over time: A meta-analysis of birth cohort differences from 1989 to 2016.Psychol Bull. 2019;145(4):410-429. doi:10.1037/bul0000138HelpGuide.Phobias and irrational fears.Dinç S, Ekşi H.A psychological counseling study on fear of failure and academic procrastination with a spiritually oriented cognitive behavioral group. Spiritual Psychology and Counseling. 2019;4(3):219-235. doi: 10.37898/spc.2019.4.3.85Ph.D IM, Ph.D REM.Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear: The Psychology of Irrational Fear.ABC-CLIO; 2015.World Health Organization.Phobias.Penn Psychiatry.Specific phobias.Reader’s Digest.14 ironic “failures” of wildly successful people. Updated October, 2021.American Psychiatric Association.What is psychotherapy?National Health Services.Treatment - phobias.Greater Good.Three ways to overcome fear of failure at work.Brock L.3 Easy anxiety relief exercises you can use anywhere. Michigan Medicine.Montero-Marin J, Garcia-Campayo J, Pérez-Yus MC, Zabaleta-del-Olmo E, Cuijpers P.Meditation techniquesv. relaxation therapies when treating anxiety: a meta-analytic review.Psychol Med. 2019;49(13):2118-2133. doi:10.1017/S0033291719001600
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
National Institute of Mental Health.Specific phobias.Kentucky Counseling Center.Atychiphobia, fear of failure: how to overcome it?Dinç S, Ekşi H.A psychological counseling study on fear of failure and academic procrastination with a spiritually oriented cognitive behavioral group. Spiritual Psychology and Counseling. 2019;4(3):219-235. doi: 10.37898/spc.2019.4.3.85Curran T, Hill AP.Perfectionism is increasing over time: A meta-analysis of birth cohort differences from 1989 to 2016.Psychol Bull. 2019;145(4):410-429. doi:10.1037/bul0000138HelpGuide.Phobias and irrational fears.Dinç S, Ekşi H.A psychological counseling study on fear of failure and academic procrastination with a spiritually oriented cognitive behavioral group. Spiritual Psychology and Counseling. 2019;4(3):219-235. doi: 10.37898/spc.2019.4.3.85Ph.D IM, Ph.D REM.Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear: The Psychology of Irrational Fear.ABC-CLIO; 2015.World Health Organization.Phobias.Penn Psychiatry.Specific phobias.Reader’s Digest.14 ironic “failures” of wildly successful people. Updated October, 2021.American Psychiatric Association.What is psychotherapy?National Health Services.Treatment - phobias.Greater Good.Three ways to overcome fear of failure at work.Brock L.3 Easy anxiety relief exercises you can use anywhere. Michigan Medicine.Montero-Marin J, Garcia-Campayo J, Pérez-Yus MC, Zabaleta-del-Olmo E, Cuijpers P.Meditation techniquesv. relaxation therapies when treating anxiety: a meta-analytic review.Psychol Med. 2019;49(13):2118-2133. doi:10.1017/S0033291719001600
National Institute of Mental Health.Specific phobias.
Kentucky Counseling Center.Atychiphobia, fear of failure: how to overcome it?
Dinç S, Ekşi H.A psychological counseling study on fear of failure and academic procrastination with a spiritually oriented cognitive behavioral group. Spiritual Psychology and Counseling. 2019;4(3):219-235. doi: 10.37898/spc.2019.4.3.85
Curran T, Hill AP.Perfectionism is increasing over time: A meta-analysis of birth cohort differences from 1989 to 2016.Psychol Bull. 2019;145(4):410-429. doi:10.1037/bul0000138
HelpGuide.Phobias and irrational fears.
Ph.D IM, Ph.D REM.Phobias: The Psychology of Irrational Fear: The Psychology of Irrational Fear.ABC-CLIO; 2015.
World Health Organization.Phobias.
Penn Psychiatry.Specific phobias.
Reader’s Digest.14 ironic “failures” of wildly successful people. Updated October, 2021.
American Psychiatric Association.What is psychotherapy?
National Health Services.Treatment - phobias.
Greater Good.Three ways to overcome fear of failure at work.
Brock L.3 Easy anxiety relief exercises you can use anywhere. Michigan Medicine.
Montero-Marin J, Garcia-Campayo J, Pérez-Yus MC, Zabaleta-del-Olmo E, Cuijpers P.Meditation techniquesv. relaxation therapies when treating anxiety: a meta-analytic review.Psychol Med. 2019;49(13):2118-2133. doi:10.1017/S0033291719001600
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