Meningitophobia: characteristics, symptoms, causes and treatment

To all of us, in a certain way, we are scared by the possibility of suffering from a disease in the future. But when this fear is disproportionate and maladaptive, the person ends up developing a phobia. And when, in addition, the disease in question is meningitis, we are talking about meningitophobia.

There are more phobias to certain diseases, although this one focuses on brain diseases. In this article we will learn what it is, what characterizes it, how it differs from other disorders such as hypochondriasis, its symptoms, causes and possible treatments.

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Meningitophobia: what is it?

Phobias are intense and disproportionate fears of a specific stimulus or situation. This fear comes to incapacitate the person to function normally. Thus, phobias differ from fears in that the intensity of the former is much higher, as well as the interference it causes in the daily life of the affected person.

In the DSM-5 (Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders) phobias are classified as "specific phobias" and constitute a type of anxiety disorder. Specific,

meningitophobia is the phobia of having a brain disease (especially meningitis).

Brain diseases can be of different types; can be related to genetic and metabolic alterations, cerebrovascular accidents (ACV's), infections, tumors, trauma, substance use, epilepsy...

Meningitis, the disease typically feared in meningitophobia, consists of an infection of the meninges (membranes that cover the central nervous system), usually caused by a virus (in 80% of cases). cases). Meningitis, however, can also be caused by bacteria (between 15 and 20% of cases) or by other factors: poisoning, drugs, fungi and other diseases.

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Characteristics

Meningitophobia is about a specific phobia classified as “other types of phobia” in the DSM-5. Remember that this manual groups specific phobias into 5 groups, according to the feared stimulus: phobia of animals, blood/injection/injury, natural situations, situational phobia and other types of phobias.

Along with it, we find more phobias classified as "others": phobia of choking, phobia of vomiting, phobia of contracting some type of disease (as in the case of meningitophobia), etc. In children, common phobias considered "other types of phobias" include phobias of people in costumes, clowns, and loud sounds, among others.

Phobia to get sick

Like meningitophobia, there are more phobias related to the fear of contracting a certain disease. Some of them are: caridiophobia (pathological fear of heart attacks), carcinophobia (pathological fear of suffering from cancer) or luiphobia (pathological fear of contracting syphilis).

This kind of phobias They can make the person suffering from it believe that they have really contracted the disease they fear so much, even feeling the symptoms of it (which actually "do not exist").

This causes the person to misinterpret each symptom as belonging to the disease, even though they do not have sufficient evidence to do so. As a result of this, checking behaviors, security behaviors, etc. (typical of other disorders, such as hypochondriasis) may appear in the patient. The same thing would happen in meningitophobia.

Symptoms

The main symptom of meningitophobia is the intense, irrational and disproportionate fear of suffering from meningitis or a brain disease in general. This fear appears even in the absence of evidence of suffering from it or of being at risk (which is why it is considered a disproportionate fear).

Logically, contracting diseases causes a certain fear or respect (and more if they are diseases of the brain), but when this fear becomes pathological (excessively intense or disabling), the meningitophobia.

This fear can manifest itself through other symptoms, such as: high anxiety, irritability, nervousness, sweating, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, etc. When the fear is very intense, panic attacks can even appear.

Causes

Etiologically, the fear of getting sick (in general) can be related to ancestral and evolutionary responses of the human being, who has been avoiding getting close to stimuli or situations that could cause some type of disease, as an adaptive mechanism and survival. Thus, evolutionarily this type of response had a certain meaning and a certain function.

However, in phobias this adaptive mechanism is dysfunctional, and appears in an exaggerated way. This is the case of meningitotophobia (and other disease-related phobias).

Other possible causes of it are previous traumatic experiences related to some brain disease, vicarious experiences, conditioning, etc., as well as a genetic predisposition to suffer disorders of anxiety.

Differences with hypochondria

In order to correctly diagnose meningitophobia, we must make a good differential diagnosis. One of the disorders with which it is recommended to do it is with hypochondria, due to their similar characteristics:

Hypochondria

Hypochondriasis (referred to as “disease disorder” in the DSM-5) is a disorder classified under the category of “somatic and related disorders”. Its main characteristic is that the patient expresses high concern and an intense fear of suffering from a serious illness.

In some cases, this fear appears from the conviction of already suffering from the disease. But how does the disorder arise? It arises as a result of the erroneous interpretations that the patient makes of all his symptoms (or signs), associating them directly with the disease in question. Actually, but, there is no disease (or if there is, the symptoms are not related to it).

The main difference between hypochondria and meningitophobia is that in the first, fear appears in the face of various diseases (or any that are taken into account). mind), on the other hand, in meningitophobia, fear appears only in the face of the possibility of suffering from a brain disease (generally, as we have seen, the meningitis). Besides, while hypochondriasis is a somatic disorder, meningitophobia is an anxiety disorder (as a phobia that is).

Finally, another distinctive feature between the two disorders is that many other symptoms appear in hypochondriasis. associated (checking behaviors, visits to numerous doctors, histrionic symptoms, misinterpretations of symptoms etc). On the other hand, in meningitophobia the fundamental fear is the fear of suffering from meningitis.

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Treatment

Specific phobias are treated with exposure techniques and cognitive techniques. In fact, exposure therapy is the first recommended therapeutic option, since it is the one that offers the best results. This implies that the patient gradually approaches the feared stimuli (through a hierarchy of phobic items ordered by the degree of discomfort they cause).

Exposure therapy can be accompanied by relaxation and breathing techniques (in this case we are talking about systematic desensitization, a type of therapy where a relaxing response incompatible with anxiety is executed during The exhibition).

In the specific case of meningitophobia, the exposure may consist of the patient gradually "approaching" the disease, rather metaphorically; This can be done through access to explanations of the disease, photographs, videos, contact with people who actually suffer from meningitis, etc.

In the case of this particular phobia, in addition, it will be advisable to combine expository therapy with cognitive techniques such as cognitive restructuring, since it is a phobia where the stimulus is difficult to "face" (since the patient does not really have the disease).

In this way, cognitive techniques will help the patient to have a more realistic vision in relation to the probability of contracting meningitis, and will allow the intense fear of suffering from it to be reduced and/or remove.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2014). DSM-5. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Madrid. Pan American.
• Belloch, A., Sandin, B. and Ramos, F. (2010). Manual of Psychopathology. Volume I and II. Madrid: McGraw-Hill.
• Pérez, M., Fernández, J.R., Fernández, C. and Friend, I. (2010). Guide to effective psychological treatments I: Adults. Madrid: Pyramid