A teen in Mexico fears the idea of aging and is doing everything he can to avoid it.
According to an article in Live Science, there is a boy, who remains unnamed, in Mexico who doesn't like to grow up. According to a research he's believed to be suffering from a rare phobia called gerascophobia, or the fear of aging. Aside from it's a very unique type of fear, the other previous cases relate to adults.
The 14-year-old boy is said to have restricted his food and thus calorie intake starting when he was 11 years old. This restriction led to a weight loss of more than 10 kilograms. He also tried to control his voice so his was high pitch, a common trait among children. He also walked and stood stooped to prevent revealing his actual height.
Like any other boy who's already in puberty, many changes were happening in his body, which only worsened his level of anxiety and fear. He even thought about going through surgeries to remain "young."
His fear was further compounded by the wrong notion that adulthood meant death or sickness for him, as well as the treatment she got from her mother, who was treating him like a child.
He had already seen a psychologist to no avail. He was eventually referred to a treatment clinic in a university found in the northern region of the country, which then diagnosed him with the phobia.
The article further mentioned that a person's excessive fear, which can already be a medical condition known as phobia, can be caused by many factors.
For example, in the case of the boy, he developed separation anxiety disorder before he was 6 years old. He also experienced bullying. A neighbour also sexually abused him when he was barely 7 years old.
Nevertheless, other experts believe that it's possible what he's experiencing is not really a phobia but another condition, perhaps body dysmorphic disorder.