Gymnophobia
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Gymnophobia is an irrational, abnormal and persistent fear or anxiety about being seen naked, and/or about seeing others naked, even when it is socially acceptable. Gymnophobes may experience their fear of nudity before all people, or only certain people.
Sufferers experience undue anxiety even though they realize their fear is irrational. This phobia often arises from a feeling of inadequacy that their bodies are physically inferior, particularly due to comparison with idealized images portrayed in the media. The fear may also stem from anxiety about sexuality in general, or from a feeling of vulnerability associated with the thought that after initial disclosure of one's body their nakedness leaves their bodies—and their personalities—exposed and unprotected, as others would still imagine the person naked.
In some cases the fear is commonly manifested in dreams. A typical gymnophobic nightmare would be that the person is in an ordinary situation with other (clothed) people and then becomes aware of being naked, as though one simply forgot to get dressed.
Gymnophobia is derived from the Greek gymnos (naked) and phobos (fear).
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