The term “Haphephobia” was coined for the first time by Spanish psychologist Rafael Santandreu. The expert wanted to define with this word the fear of not having something to do . It is one of the problems of today’s society that is beginning to take off without even realizing it. Psychologists have noticed it when they have begun to have more and more obsessed patients from work or people who went to work to escape from problems they did not want to face.
It seems that people are getting more and more panic when they have free time , empty . Leisure that they did not plan or that was not planned because they have already finished every activity and that seems to have no place anywhere.
How is it that we have come to the point of being afraid of free time? Our parents or grandparents saw it as a gift. The free time was made to rest or to have fun. Anyway, he never gave a feeling of aversion. In fact, all the opposite: he was agitated. What happened?
The fear of free time and boredom
Everything seems to suggest that boredom has reached the status of capital sin nowadays. Who is affected by “idiophobia” is afraid of being bored . This feeling is intolerable and causes panic, literally. “Lose” time, do nothing, it’s almost like contracting the plague.
People with this phobia are desperate when they have nothing to do. They see leisure as a powerful threat. If they could draw what they feel, it would be a big black hole that threatens to absorb them .
Compared to free time, they develop unclear fantasies. It is as if they had the presumption that something terrible would happen to them. As if the main feature of the show was something strange and scary that they do not want to face.
The symptoms of those affected by “Haphephobia”
The most visible symptom of those who suffer from Haphephobia is anxiety . It manifests itself with great intensity when the person in question has nothing to do but also before a weekend without programs and increases before the holidays.
People of this kind are strongly influenced by ideologies of effectiveness and productivity. They give greater priority to success than happiness. The worst thing is that they measure their achievements in quantitative and non-qualitative terms . They boast of the many activities they have accomplished or the many goals they have achieved. They do not mention the real quality of these achievements.
It is equally serious that these people try to convey that lifestyle to their children. They are the classic parents who enroll their children at any course. They want to speak German already ten years and that 13 already know how to play the piano perfectly. In one way or another they teach their children to be anxious . They send them the idea that the time they are not devoting to producing or learning is the worst mistake they can make. Woe to laze! Woe to get bored!
Rafael Santandreu, father of the concept of “Haphephobia”, says we should learn to get bored more . There is nothing wrong with this. There’s nothing terrible about spending an hour staring at the wall and thinking about stupid things. Not only is there nothing wrong with this, but it is necessary. This is an aspect that fits perfectly into the equilibrium concept. It’s okay to work and have various interests, but it’s just as well to get it back and get bored from time to time.
Santandreu reveals that idle minds are far more productive. It also states that “the ideal proportion would be one hour of work and 23 of leisure.” Let us not forget that the lions go hunting only once a week and that Cervantes wrote his Don Quixote of La Mancha in the moments of leisure in Castile. There was no trace of his use as a tax collector, but the result of his leisure has resulted in a transformation of the Spanish language and literature that has come to our day.
It would be good if we could regain the ability to look at the landscape as we cross the city on foot. You need to reduce the pace, start to go more slowly. Better to do a few things, but with pleasure, to do too much under stress. It is better to spend the short time of life to love and create, rather than writing relationships or meeting timetables and deadlines . It is no shame not to do anything. It is not a sickness to bother you from time to time. All the same, they make us better.
