Each of us is aware that the world in which we live is filled with various microbes. There are many microorganisms in the air, on the surface of the body, furniture or food products: bacteria, viruses, fungi. Even the human body (skin, gastrointestinal tract, oral cavity, nasopharynx) is home to a large number of bacteria, which are not only not harmful, but are also necessary for normal functioning.
The vast majority of people, of course, strive to avoid contact with potentially infectious objects, adhering to generally accepted hygiene standards: washing their hands before eating and after visiting the toilet, using wet or disinfectant wipes if there is no access to water and soap, monitoring expiration dates and storage conditions of food products, handle them carefully, avoid contact with people sick with infectious diseases, etc. But these actions are reasonable and justified.
People suffering from mysophobia significantly exaggerate the threat from contact with germs; their fear of infection many times exceeds natural anxiety and grows to the level of phobia.
Of course, this obsessive fear should not be confused with a person’s natural fear of becoming infected, for example, with leptospirosis in questionable bodies of water, infectious diseases in Africa and South America, not to mention the current coronavirus epidemic.
Mysophobia can be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or one of the manifestations of hypochondriacal disorder (pathological worry about the risk of getting sick). However, mysophobia can also be an independent disorder related to isolated (rare) phobias. In this article, mysophobia is considered specifically as a separate disorder.
In psychiatry, a phobia is considered a significantly expressed fear, which is caused not only by direct contact with any object or phenomenon, but also by the thought of the possibility of such contact. At the same time, the fear felt by a person cannot be explained logically and is therefore irrational. A phobic disorder can lead to a decrease in quality of life, social maladjustment, and even disability due to the patient’s attempts to avoid frightening situations.
Psychologists' opinions
The world that surrounds us is teeming with various microbes and bacteria. This does not mean that all of them are a potential threat to human life and health. Human immunity is adapted to fight pathogens, so you should not be afraid of instant infection when coming into contact with contaminants of various origins.
Psychologists say:
- Children acquire immunity to various types of microorganisms by playing in the dirt from an early age. Such children get sick less often than those whose parents forbid them to touch anything on the street. Therefore, there is nothing fatal about your child playing around in dirt, sand and dust.
- There are people living today outside the civilized world. They don’t wash their hands before eating, eat berries from the bush, and still don’t get sick with colds or flu. These are completely healthy people with a strong, developed immune system.
- During seasonal illnesses, we cannot effectively protect ourselves, so sufficient precautions would be: washing your hands after being in public places, lubricating your nose before going outside, and trying not to be exposed to hypothermia.
- If you become infected and recover from the disease, your immunity will become stronger, which will allow you to resist this type of viral infection the next time. This is how the human body works. This was due to millions of years of adaptation to the conditions of the surrounding world.
- Microbes exist everywhere, which is a natural state of affairs and not dangerous to humans. Dirt is not a threat, and if you get dirty, just take a refreshing shower.
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Treatment of mysophobia
The general principles of therapy for phobic disorders also apply to the treatment of mysophobia. If the severity of the disease reaches such a level that the quality of life decreases, it is rational to use an integrated approach to the treatment of mysophobia - a combination of medications and psychotherapy.
Drug treatment of mysophobia
To reduce anxiety, sedatives, including anxiolytics, and antidepressants are used as a medicinal treatment for mysophobia. These medications are prescribed by a psychiatrist if a diagnosis of mysophobia is made individually, depending on the course of the disorder and the severity of symptoms. In parallel with taking medications, the patient undergoes a course of psychotherapy.
Psychotherapy for mysophobia
Psychotherapy for mysophobia is an important aspect in overcoming this disorder. Cognitive behavioral therapy is recognized as the most effective treatment for phobias. First of all, psychotherapy for mysophobia is aimed at making the patient aware, comprehend and rationalize his actions. In addition, techniques such as implosion therapy and systematic desensitization are used.
Implosion therapy for mysophobia
One of the psychotherapeutic treatment methods is implosion therapy for mysophobia. The essence of this technique is to deliberately immerse the patient in a traumatic situation; in the case of mysophobia, it is the possibility of coming into contact with objects contaminated with microbes. At first, a person with mysophobia imagines such circumstances, then they are simulated, later they become reality, and the duration of contact increases. The patient, under the supervision of a specialist, experiences the emotions caused by fear and, as it were, gets used to them. With sufficient persistence, the severity of negative reactions decreases over time.
Systematic desensitization
The first stage of psychotherapy for mysophobia in this case is teaching the patient methods of deep relaxation. Then, as with implosion therapy, the person is placed in conditions that cause a fear response in him. Gradually, the anxiety reaction is replaced by reactions developed that are antagonistic to fear. Systematic desensitization (reduced sensitivity) is a fairly effective technique for overcoming mysophobia.
The combination of drug treatment prescribed by a psychiatrist and psychotherapy reduces the severity of mysophobia until complete recovery and returns the patient to normal functioning without debilitating fears.
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How to become a mysophobe?
In modern times, with a large flow of information from the media, it is not easy to maintain peace of mind. It is very easy to become a mysophobe: people become anxious when watching a certain type of news, television programs that report new strains of influenza and high mortality rates from it or other infections. Mysophobia can come from childhood, when worried parents, with every slight contamination of the child, “drag” him to wash and constantly talk about dangerous microbes swarming around.
Reasons for the development of mysophobia
As in the case of other mental disorders, some authors associate the causes of the development of mysophobia with the interaction of several factors, including: hereditary predisposition, disorders of prenatal development, certain conditions of upbringing (overprotection or excessive control), traumatic situations. The impetus for the formation of mysophobia can be a negative life experience associated with an infectious disease, which happened both to the person himself and to someone he knows. If there is a genetic predisposition to the formation of a phobic disorder, mysophobia may arise after reading a negative story from a literary work or film.
An increase in general literacy, including in matters of medicine, plays a negative role in the spread of mysophobia, no matter how paradoxical it may sound. In the 21st century, information about the infectious nature of a large number of diseases has become publicly available and generally known; people are more aware of the need to practice good hygiene. There is an opinion that the spread of a disease such as acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, which occurred in the 20th century, played a significant factor in the increase in the number of patients with mysophobia. Currently, due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2021, the risk of developing mysophobia is predicted to increase in a large number of people who have a genetic predisposition to developing phobias.
Aggressive advertising of products used for disinfection - antibacterial soap, special belts that make it possible not to touch handrails in public transport and similar publications can fuel mysophobia in people with a hereditary tendency to develop phobic disorders.
