Autodysomophobia (fear of smelling bad): symptoms, causes and treatment

It is likely that on some occasion, traveling by public transport, some of the people reading these lines have experienced how some of the passengers gave off an aroma considered unpleasant, such as the smell of sweat, humidity or some food or drinks.

And the truth is that the idea that oneself could generate this type of odor is aversive, since practically no one cares. like to smell bad (something that can be attested to by the fact that there is a whole industry that makes perfumes, fragrances and deodorants).

But although the idea of ​​smelling bad can be unpleasant, most people just take care of their hygiene and try not to have a bad smell, without worrying too much about it even if on some occasion they are the ones who fire Bad smell. However, some people may develop a genuine fear of smelling bad, to the point of develop a phobia of it that can become so severe that it greatly invalidates your activity daily. It's about autodisomophobia. Let's see what it is.

• You may be interested in: "Types of Phobias: Exploring Fear Disorders"

What is autodysomophobia?

Receives the name of autodisomofobia the phobia or fear of stinking or smelling bad, although sometimes it also includes the fear of a bad smell in general, even if it comes from others. It is a specific situational phobia, although it is strongly related to social phobia. given that in this case the fear would be linked to a great extent to the social judgment derived from the bad smell bodily.

And it is that bad body odor is usually associated with poor hygiene (although there are other factors that can explain it, such as having played sports, wearing excessively warm clothes or suffering from some illnesses), which is usually poorly considered socially and generates rejection.

As a phobia that is, we are facing a reaction of fear or very intense dread towards a certain stimulus, which is generally recognized as irrational and excessive with respect to the actual risk it entails. This fear triggers an anxious response to the exposure to the stimulus, which in turn can cause the appearance of physiological symptoms such as tachycardia, sweating, tremors, hyperventilation, pain or chest pain among others and that can even trigger a crisis of anxiety.

Likewise, the anxiety generated by the exposure or the idea of ​​being close to the stimulus in question causes the person avoids the stimulus or all those contexts or stimuli that can be associated with the one that generates the fear. In this case, the fear would be the bad smell and/or the fact of smelling bad.

Symptoms

The fact that the fact of smelling bad or the idea of ​​being able to emit a bad smell generates so much panic and anxiety can may seem innocuous, but the truth is that it can be very limiting at all levels for the person with this phobia.

And it is that whoever suffers from autodisomophobia can suffer to a great extent. It should be borne in mind that the person may be hyper-alert regarding the slightest body odor that he may consider aversive, and may even develop some behaviors. obsessive checking or even showing a tendency to consider that he smells bad when he does not, or to consider that any comment referring to smells is directed at him or she.

In addition, paradoxically, the anxiety felt itself favors exposure to the reason for their discomfort: increased activation could make us sweat, something that could make us smell bad, which in turn would generate more anxiety.

This phobia affects all levels, and whether it is to prevent others from smelling our bad smell or to avoid smelling the bad smell of others. It is common to avoid large crowds and stays in groups. It is also common to avoid public transport or small venues, such as discos and bars. Personally this phobia It can cause difficulties in interacting with other people and even as a couple, and complications can also appear at the work level if the work requires contact with others.

Massive and excessive applications of perfumes or deodorants can be used, something that in turn paradoxically can generate a excessively strong and unpleasant odor and even cause irritation to the skin, and you can even avoid going outside street.

Those things and actions that can make you smell bad are also usually avoided. In this sense, you can stop doing physical activity and exercise, avoid having sexual relations and depending on the case, even avoiding cooking or eating foods that can cause flatulence and gases.

Possible causes

The causes of this phobia are not completely known, but there are some hypotheses about it. In addition, it must be taken into account that there is not a single cause, but that it is considered to be the product of the interaction of multiple factors that predispose us to suffer it.

One of the main hypotheses that could serve as an explanation is the existence of some traumatic or painful experience of rejection of the bad smell, either to the subject himself or to another loved one, who has been judged, criticized or rejected for this reason. Likewise, it is possible that a traumatic experience has been lived in which a bad smell and suffering have been associated, such as the vision or experience of a murder, a rape or mistreatment by a subject with bad body odor (in this way, the own bad odor or that of others would be a highly aversive element when associated with the trauma).

Another possible reason could be modeling and learning from parental models or from an environment in which the bad smell is always judged. It could also be that a person with a previous social phobia ends up linking a possible social rejection with body odor. This would create a cognitive schema in which the bad smell would equate to something painful or extremely embarrassing that over time some stressor or triggering event could reactivate.

There would also be predisposing factors on a personal level, and it is common for these people to have low self-esteem as a base. low and insecure, often desiring social approval and reinforcement, and highly sensitive to both rejection and disgust.

Treatment

As with other phobias, autodisomophobia can be successfully treated in psychotherapy. And among the most successful techniques stands out the exposure technique, which is mainly based on making the subject face situations that generate anxiety and fear of a gradual way in such a way that said anxiety ends up diminishing by itself and ends up becoming controllable. In this sense, it is necessary to develop an exposure hierarchy that allows grading the level of anxiety that each situation generates, so that the subject begins facing medium-level situations to gradually go increasing.

Exposures can be to odors or to activities that can generate them, or to situations in which there may be this type of stimuli. Once more advanced in therapy, the subject could be made to do an activity that would smell bad and expose yourself in public, although it would also be advisable to work on elements cognitive.

And it is that it will be necessary to work in depth at the cognitive level, assessing what the bad smell implies for the subject, when the problem started and what it is associated with, to what extent the phobia generates disability or harms their day to day and the beliefs, emotions and thoughts that may be supporting the problem. It would also be useful to help relativize the importance of smell through techniques of cognitive restructuring, contributing to modify the beliefs and thoughts of the subject in order to make them more functional.

Taking into account that it is a phobia closely linked to the social and that behind this type of phobias there may be a deficit of social skills, it could be advisable to carry out training in this type of skills, as well as management of the stress. Relaxation techniques can be beneficial to combat anticipation and leave with a lower level of anxiety, but never should be used as a method of active avoidance of anxiety (since this could negatively reinforce other behaviors of anxiety). avoidance). In extreme cases, anxiolytic drugs could be used to reduce the level of anxiety and be able to work correctly.

Bibliographic references

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Fifth edition. DSM-V. Massón, Barcelona.