It’s hard to say how many people have hangups. The data just isn’t there, according to an AI roundup of Google results. Some hangups seem to be more common, though — and if you’re wondering what they are, the below list of “top 5 biggest hangups” may be eye-opening.
What a Hangup Is
A hangup is something that you worry, fixate or obsess about, or a psychological block that negatively affects your life.
Hangups can also vary in their severity. They can be relatively mild but annoying insecurities or obsessive-compulsive behaviors that impair your daily function.
What People Get Hung Up About
What do people commonly get hung up about? A lot of things. Here are just five of the biggest hangups.
1)The Need to Please Others – This hangup often has its roots in childhood and one’s family of origin, where the behavior may have developed as a coping mechanism. People pleasing or “fawning” can often arise as a response to trauma, according to Dr. Beau A. Nelson, who is Chief Clinical Officer at FHE Health, a national behavioral health provider. Sometimes the compulsive need to please others can become so ingrained that a person begins to see it as a personality flaw, when in fact it is a hangup that can be unlearned with practice and therapy.
2)“The Endowment Effect” – This term describes what happens when someone develops an irrational emotional attachment to something they own and perceives it as more valuable because they own it. If they’re trying to sell their car, for example, they may get hung up thinking that it is worth double its actual Blue Book value — simply because the car belongs to them.
3) Body Image Concerns – Body image hangups are incredibly common among men and women. A survey by the National Organization for Women found that these issues start young, at least in women: At age 13, 53 percent of girls are “unhappy with their bodies,” and “this grows to 78 percent by the age of 17.” Meanwhile, many men have body image hangups, too. According to one estimate by Bradley University, as many as 90 percent of men struggle “in some way with body image and negative affect.”
4)Social Anxiety – Social anxiety is very common and in some instances is diagnosable, like other treatable anxiety issues. “Social anxiety disorder,” characterized by intense fear in social situations, is the third most common mental health condition after depression and substance use disorder, according to the Cleveland Clinic.
5)Sexual Hangups – Many men and women have insecurities about sexual performance, struggles with poor body image, or unhealthy or unrealistic ideas about what sex should be like.
While these five hangups are among the biggest, people can develop hangups about all sorts of things. It’s also not uncommon to have more than one hangup. We’re human, after all.
This doesn’t mean that a hangup, however large, must define you. It’s not a personality flaw or bad luck or fate. Many people have overcome their hangups. It may take hard work and practice, but with time you, too, can shed your hangups or learn to manage them.
