While summer evokes for many relaxation, holidays and the beach, a new disorder darkens the table: the Sunxiety. This term, contraction of Sun (sun) and anxiety (anxiety), designates a form of anxiety in the face of the very idea of exposing themselves to UV rays. For some people, the sun is no longer a source of pleasure but of stress, to the point of transforming the slightest summer outing into a nightmare. “The Sunxiety is this anxiety which is born at the idea of exposing the sun. Not a simple prudence. A more invasive fear. A diffuse – even completely obsessive apprehension – faced with the harmful effects of UV”, explains Amélie Boukhobza, a clinical psychologist, For Doctissimo.
This phenomenon, still very little studied in scientific literature, seems to emerge as a side effect of awareness campaigns on solar risks. “The prevention campaigns against the dangers of the sun have done their job. Perhaps too well. We can no longer do as if we did not know …”, underlines Amélie Boukhobza. If the clinical observations of the psychologist are precious, the term “Sunxiety” is to date validated by any publication in a scientific program with a reading committee. It is an emerging concept, used in the media or marketing studies, but which still requires being defined rigorously and corroborated by independent research.
However, the manifestations of this fear are tangible in some (…)
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