Automisophobia (fear of getting dirty): symptoms and treatment

Dirt, grime, scabs, impurities, etc. There are countless words to describe the lack of hygiene and cleanliness and they all have something in common: they generate a whole series of feelings of aversion and disgust in people.

Although these feelings are normal and justified, when they turn into disproportionate fear or fear It is very possible that we are facing a case of automisophobia, a type of specific phobia that we will describe throughout this article.

• Related article: "Types of Phobias: Exploring Fear Disorders"

What is automisophobia?

Automisophobia is classified within specific anxiety disorders or specific phobias. These psychological alterations are characterized by causing in the person an exacerbated and irrational fear towards a specific stimulus or object and in the case of automisophobia It is about the fear of being dirty, getting stained or dirty.

If we take into account the etymological roots of the term, we can separate the phrase into three different words of Greek origin. The first of them "autos" can be translated almost literally as same or own, "mysos" refers to dirt and finally we find "phobos" which means fear or fear. Based on this, we can define automisophobia as experiencing an exaggerated fear of one's own dirt or of the possibility that oneself is dirty or could get dirty.

As with the rest of phobic disorders, when people with automisophobia find themselves or think they are going to find Faced with the feared stimulus, in this case going dirty, they will experience a series of emotions and physical manifestations belonging to very high anxiety states.

Although it is logical to think that the fact of being dirty or stained can generate feelings of repulsion and disgust, in the case of automisophobia, disgust turns into terror. This feeling of fear can lead the person to perform all kinds of behaviors such as washing compulsively.

If the phobia is present at a very high degree, it is possible that these behaviors around cleanliness are become compulsions, generating reactions and skin alterations due to excessive behaviors of washed.

• You may be interested in: "The 7 types of anxiety (causes and symptoms)"

When to consider it a phobia?

With the objective of differences between an aversive feeling or habitual disgust and a pathological fear or specific phobia, we must determine the specific characteristics of this type of fear, as well as the consequences or direct effects that this has on the development of the person's daily life.

It is necessary to take into account a whole series of requirements and characteristic qualities of fear disorders, which define a phobia and make its diagnosis possible. These requirements are the following:

1. It is a disproportionate fear

The main difference between a normal aversive reaction or sensation and a phobic fear is that in automisophobia the person experiences a fear completely exaggerated and disproportionate compared to the real threat that the phobic stimulus, in this case the dirt itself, represents.

2. it's irrational

In a phobia, the fear experienced does not have a logical basis, but is fed by irrational ideas and beliefs. Lhe people with automisophobia themselves are unable to find a reasonable explanation the fear they are experiencing.

3. The person can't control it

In addition, the fear that a person with automisophobia suffers from is completely uncontrollable. This means that, although the person accepts that the phobic stimulus may be harmless, this is unable to prevent the onset of anxiety and fear symptoms.

4. Lasts over time

Finally, for a fear to be considered phobic or pathological, the fear reactions and responses must have been presented on more than one occasion and in a constant and consistent manner throughout the situations that imply the appearance of the stimulus feared.

What are the symptoms?

Given that automisophobia is classified within the category of specific phobias, the clinical picture it presents is similar to that of other anxiety disorders of this type. These symptoms of an anxious nature appear every time the person feels or perceives that they are dirty or that they may become dirty.

This will generate a heightened anxiety response in which physical symptoms, cognitive symptoms and behavioral symptoms appear.

1. physical symptoms

Before the appearance of the phobic stimulus, or only when thinking about it, a hyperactivity of the nervous system is produced that gives rise to all kinds of organic changes and alterations. The main physical symptoms of automisophobia include:

• Increased heart rate.
• Increased respiratory rate.
• Sensation of suffocation or shortness of breath.
• Increased muscle tension.
• Headache.
• Gastric disorders such as stomach pain or diarrhea.
• Increased sweating.
• Vertigo and dizziness.
• Nausea and/or vomiting

2. cognitive symptoms

In addition to physical or organic symptoms, people with automisophobia are characterized by having a series of distorted ideas, beliefs and speculations in relation to the fear of one's own dirt.

These cognitive symptoms favor the development of automisophobia and may also include images catastrophic mental content about the possible dangers or effects of dirt on the person.

3. behavioral symptoms

The third and last group of symptoms of automisophobia is one that includes behavioral symptoms. These symptoms refer to a whole range of conducts and behaviors that the person carries out to avoid or escape the phobic stimulus.

Those behaviors that the person executes with the intention of avoiding encountering the phobic stimulus are known as avoidance behaviors. These may include obsessive washing or cleaning routines, which are performed to avoid experimenting with feelings of distress, anxiety and fear.

As for the behaviors that allow the person to escape from the feared situation, they are called escape behaviors. These appear when the subject has not been able to avoid encountering the phobic stimulus, so executing it all kinds of conducts and behaviors necessary to escape the situation in which they have been wrapped.

What causes does it have?

Both in automisophobia and in the rest of specific phobias, it is hypothesized that it is an unconscious or involuntary reaction of the person caused by the experimentation or experience of a highly traumatic situation, or with a high degree of emotional content, in which the phobic stimulus played an important role and which also appears as a protective response to it.

However, trying to determine the specific origin of a phobia is a complicated task, since in most On occasions, not even the person himself is able to identify when it appears or what situation has caused it. caused.

Is there a treatment?

In all those cases in which automisophobia involves a highly disabling fear or causes great interference in the person's daily life, as well as in their health, psychological therapy stands as one of the best treatment alternatives for this disorder.

Psychological intervention or treatment involves a series of techniques or tools that allow the remission of symptoms, and even their complete disappearance. Through cognitive restructuring techniques, it is possible to modify all those distorted thoughts that the person has regarding their own body dirt.

usually this is accompanied by in vivo exposure techniques or systematic desensitization, through which the person is gradually exposed to the feared stimulus. Either directly or through exercises with mental images.

Finally, this is accompanied by training in relaxation skills, which makes it possible to reduce levels of arousal of the nervous system and help the person to face their fears in the best way possible.