Writer: Kenzy Hatem
Editor: Doha Mohamed
Have you ever heard of philophobia? If you haven’t or if you have but need a deeper insight, let me tell you what philophobia actually is. Philophobia is a fear of falling in love. It can also be a fear of getting emotionally attached to someone or committed to a relationship fearing that you will not be able to maintain it. Many people can experience a minor fear of falling in love at some point in their lives.But, in extreme cases, philophobia can cause isolation and lack of connection because people who experience philophobia often feel unloved and duffer from trust issues.Philophobia can come from past traumatic experiences like betrayal, infidelity and heartbreaks, as this may contribute to the graduate development of this fear, because at this point love feels dangerous and uncertain the fear of going throughanother experience will stay with you even if the experience is over. You can also notice that cultural experiences where the person is feeling pressured and forced to peruse an unwanted relationship or marriage for social status and image by thestandards of their culture can make them hate the idea of relationships. But perhaps, the most common reason is being afraid of rejection. Studies show that rejection can have similar results in the body to pain. I think the real reason we’re afraid to love is that love always costs us something, effort, time, attention, bravery, it always comes with a price and you never know if the other person willreceive or reject if they will appreciate or ignore, or if it will even reach them the right way. I think that’s the scariest part. You’ll have to really put yourself out there and show that vulnerable side of you, you’ll have to be completely comfortable with taking the risk and never know how it will end or what you might get. People fall away from love because it hurts and it doesn’t always work, they try their best not to get hurt and that’s fair.But, it is the thing that keeps us human. Out ability to love is what holds and destroys our communities all together. Love is something god blessed us withsomething out society keeps trying to strip away but we hold onto it anyway, just because it’s in our nature and it just feels like the right thing which is so so brave.It keeps us together in some magical way and it’s only thanks to love that we grow into something more beautiful. This free love is all we can afford.
