Manias: what they are and how they differ from phobias
En español: lee sobre las manías en Fobias.org.
A phobia makes you want to get away from something, while a mania pulls you towards it, often with a brief sense of relief followed by regret. Here is what the word means, how it differs from a phobia and where to find help.
What is a mania?
In everyday English, a mania is a craze or an intense enthusiasm, the kind of thing behind Beatlemania or the tulip mania of the 1600s. The word comes from the Greek mania, meaning madness or frenzy, and it first came into English in the late Middle Ages to describe a state of wild mental excitement. By the late 1600s it had also taken on the looser sense of a fad or an urge that is hard to control.
As a word ending, -mania names an intense urge, preoccupation or compulsion towards something. In that sense it is the opposite pull to a phobia: a phobia is a fear that pushes you away, while a mania draws you in. Many -mania words were coined in the 1700s and 1800s, and a lot of them are now old-fashioned, informal or simply not real diagnoses.
The manias covered on this site are recognised conditions that doctors and researchers study today, and each page gives the modern clinical name alongside the older one, such as hair pulling disorder for trichotillomania or hoarding disorder for syllogomania. Each page explains the signs, what keeps it going, what the evidence says about treatment and where to get help in the UK.
Manias and phobias: the difference
| Phobia | Mania | |
|---|---|---|
| Core feeling | Fear, dread or panic | An urge, pull or preoccupation |
| Direction | Pushes you away from something | Draws you towards something |
| Usual response | Avoiding the trigger | Acting on the urge or holding on |
| Straight afterwards | Relief at escaping | Brief relief or satisfaction |
| Later on | Fear grows the more you avoid | Regret, shame or frustration |
| What gets affected | Places, plans and opportunities | Time, money, body, home or relationships |
| Main help | Talking therapies such as CBT | CBT and approaches suited to each condition |
| First step in the UK | Your GP | Your GP |
Put simply, a phobia is about getting away and a mania is about being drawn in. Both can bring quick relief that keeps the pattern going: avoiding a fear feels better for a moment, and so does acting on an urge. Over time, though, both can shrink your life, and both usually respond best to help that tackles the pattern itself rather than just willpower. Whichever one you recognise, your GP is a good place to start.
The manias on this site
- Trichotillomania (hair pulling): A strong, repeated urge to pull out your own hair that is very hard to stop.
- Dermatillomania (skin picking): Repeated picking at the skin that is hard to stop and leaves marks or damage.
- Onychotillomania (nail picking): Repeated picking or tearing at the nails and cuticles that is hard to stop.
- Rhinotillexomania (nose picking): Nose picking that has become frequent, hard to stop or harmful.
- Kleptomania (urges to steal): A rare urge to take things that are not needed, with rising tension and brief relief.
- Pyromania (fascination with fire): A rare condition involving a strong fascination with fire and urges that need medical help.
- Oniomania (compulsive buying): Shopping urges that feel out of control and cause money worries or distress.
- Hoarding (syllogomania): Great difficulty letting things go, so that clutter takes over the home.
- Ablutomania (compulsive washing): An urge to wash or bathe over and over, often linked to OCD.
- Compulsive cleaning: Cleaning again and again to ease worry or a feeling that things are not right.
- Arithmomania (compulsive counting): A strong need to count things, steps or actions, often linked to OCD.
- Graphomania (compulsive writing): An urge to write constantly, far more than you need or want to.
- Abulomania (extreme indecision): Getting stuck on choices, even small ones, until it holds your life back.
- Mythomania (compulsive lying): A long-standing pattern of lying, often with no clear gain.
- Bibliomania (book hoarding): Collecting books until it causes problems with space, money or relationships.
- Clinomania (urge to stay in bed): A strong pull to stay in bed, often linked to low mood or tiredness.
- Dromomania (urge to wander): An old term for a powerful urge to leave, travel or keep moving.
- Erotomania (De Clerambault’s syndrome): A rare, fixed belief that another person is secretly in love with you.
- Mania (manic episode): A period of very high or irritable mood and energy, usually part of bipolar disorder, that needs medical care.
- Hypomania: A milder form of mania that still needs a GP and a mental health assessment.
- Megalomania (grandiosity): An inflated sense of your own importance; in medicine it can be a sign of another condition.
Each page except erotomania, mania, hypomania and megalomania has a free self-check test. It is a guide, not a diagnosis.
Mania in the medical sense
In medicine, the word mania on its own means something quite different from the manias on this site. It describes a mood state, most often part of bipolar disorder, in which someone feels extremely high, excited or irritable for days at a time. Signs can include needing very little sleep, racing thoughts, talking fast, feeling invincible or unusually important, spending a lot of money and taking risks that are out of character. Hypomania is a milder form, while severe mania can include losing touch with reality and often needs treatment in hospital.
Clinical mania needs urgent medical care. If you think you or someone else may be in a manic episode, ask for an urgent GP appointment the same day or contact NHS 111 and choose the mental health option, and call 999 or go to A and E if anyone is in danger. Hypnotherapy is not a treatment for clinical mania. Bipolar UK and Mind both offer information and support for people affected by bipolar disorder, mania and hypomania, and for those who care about them.
Read more: Mania (manic episode) · Hypomania · Megalomania
Other -mania words you might hear
Some habits on this list, such as nail biting, teeth grinding, gambling and sex or porn, are covered in more depth on my other site, Addiction Experts.
- Bruxomania: An old name for grinding or clenching your teeth while awake, often under stress; today it is called bruxism, and a dentist is usually the first person to see. Help with teeth grinding on Addiction Experts.
- Dipsomania: An old term for an uncontrollable craving for alcohol; it is no longer used as a diagnosis, and doctors today talk about alcohol dependence instead.
- Egomania: Extreme self-centredness; it is an everyday word, not a medical diagnosis.
- Ergomania: An old word for an obsessive need to work; it is not a diagnosis, and most people today would call it workaholism.
- Ludomania: Another word for gambling addiction, known today as gambling disorder; it is a recognised condition, and the National Gambling Helpline is free on 0808 8020 133. Help with gambling on Addiction Experts.
- Monomania: A term coined by a French psychiatrist in the early 1800s for a madness focused on a single idea; it is no longer a diagnosis and now just means an obsession with one thing.
- Nymphomania and satyriasis: Outdated terms from early medicine for supposedly excessive sexual desire in women and in men; they are not used as diagnoses today, and sexual urges that feel out of control are now described as compulsive sexual behaviour disorder. Help with sex and porn on Addiction Experts.
- Onychophagia: The medical name for nail biting, a very common habit that for some people becomes hard to stop and damages the nails. Help with nail biting on Addiction Experts.
- Toxicomania: An old term, still used in some other languages, for drug addiction; in English, doctors now talk about drug dependence or substance use disorder.
- Tulip mania: A wild craze for buying tulip bulbs in Holland in the 1630s; it is a historical event, and the phrase is still used for any market frenzy.
- Beatlemania: The intense fan excitement around the Beatles in the 1960s; like many -mania words today, it simply means a craze, not a medical condition.
Common questions
Is having a mania the same as being manic?
No. The manias on this site are urges or preoccupations, such as hair pulling or hoarding. Being manic usually refers to clinical mania, a mood state often linked to bipolar disorder, which needs urgent medical care.
Are manias the opposite of phobias?
In a sense, yes. A phobia is a fear that pushes you away from something, while a mania is a pull towards it. Both can bring short-term relief that keeps the pattern going, and both are recognised problems that help is available for.
Is every word ending in -mania a real condition?
No. Many -mania words are old, informal or used jokingly, like Beatlemania. The conditions covered on this site are recognised today, and each page gives the modern clinical name.
Can hypnotherapy help with manias?
For some of these conditions, hypnotherapy can be used alongside, not instead of, evidence-based treatment such as CBT, and each page explains this. It is not suitable for pyromania, erotomania or clinical mania, where a GP and medical services should be the first port of call.
Further reading: NHS: Bipolar disorder symptoms · Mind: About hypomania and mania · NHS: Where to get urgent help for mental health · Bipolar UK · Online Etymology Dictionary: Mania · Merriam-Webster: Monomania