DR.JOHN'S CASE NOTES : DECIDOPHOBIA

Far too many bridge continue to play this game with a crippling disability : decidophobia. This condition is defined as the fear of making decisions. Not only that , but the fear is both overwhelming and irrational. The player coping with this phobia is painfully aware that the game is full of choices, at every turn,  on which decisions have to be made. Choices over bids, defensive leads,  and lines of play as declarer. The decidophobic player, when fearful of making the wrong decision, becomes so paralysed that he cannot make any rational decision at all. Random selection ultimately takes over.

Indeed, research has shown that many players, berated and accused of slow play, are victims of this condition. Unmake to make decisions when multiple choices are made available, they sink into a soporific state of nothingness , out of which they return with no idea at all as to what to do..... other than to make a blind guess. 

Often, the person coping with decidophobia has experienced traumatic, past events , where  decisions taken at the table were greeted with derision and scorn, outrage and abuse, not to mention mockery and ridicule. Those experiences then automatically develop and feed this insatiable fear.

As beginners, bridge players are encouraged to make judgement calls and tight decisions after careful thought and consideration. Maybe these learners were consistently encouraged to simply stick by the guiding principles laid down by their teachers. Needless to say, when they are thrown into the lion's den of competitive bridge, only to discover that these book or " safe " decisions proved to be unwise, the phobia then quickly starts to develop. The devastating consequeces that follow will cause the victims to experience both anxiety and emotional turmoil, which completely disrupt his/her thinking processes for evermore. Tragically, this in turn takes the fear of decision making onto the next level. 

The symptoms of decidophobia are all too obvious. Victims when confronted by this fear will feel slightly uncomfortable, become nauseated or begin to perspire. At the extreme end of the spectrum of variable responses, some sufferers are so severely impacted by their fear of having to make a decision, that they experience full blown panic/ anxiety attacks or, as mentioned before, soporific blackouts. Moreover, all those with the condition have confessed to having feelings of being out of control, trapped and unable to escape, or having visions of impending disaster. 

And on a final, but rather disturbing note, this particular phobia can start up when a player witnesses, or has knowledge of, another player who makes a seemingly harmless decision, but one which unfortunately results in severely negative consequences. The infectious nature of this condition might well explain why it has become so prevalent in every bridge club across the world.