Nosophobia or fear of getting sick, as well as fear of death and madness, are ancestral and atavic fears Who is not afraid of suffering from a serious illness?Aren’t we afraid to go crazy, aren’t we afraid of death?
In this article we will talk about nosophobia, which implies an excessive and irrational fear of the disease, however, the person does not think they are currently sick. This is a crucial difference between nosophobia and hypochondria.
- Patients with hypochondria are not afraid to develop a disease in the future.
- Such as nosophobes.
- Hypochondriac currently fear the disease and are not adequately diagnosed.
Phobias are defined as an intense and irrational fear of a person, object or situation that presents little or no danger. The word comes from the Greek word phobos, which means “panic”. In Greek mythology, Phobos was also the son of Ares, god of war, and Aphrodite, goddess of love and fear personified. Alexander the Great prayed to Phobos before each battle to protect himself from fear.
According to DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), specific phobias, such as nosophobia, have the following characteristics:
It is common for people to have several specific phobias, in fact, about 75% of people with a specific phobia fear more than one situation or object, saying that people with phobic lives have a characteristic shadow: the feeling of anguish.
As we have said before, nosophobia can be defined as the irrational fear of suffering from a certain disease or any other condition in general, people with nosophobia develop an exaggerated fear of the disease and are often impressed by a particular case or condition.
The symptoms of nosophobia are diverse, but quite similar in those with this phobia, these symptoms are:
Health concern can be a dominant problem with cognitive manifestations (common health rumors). There are also frequent emotional (anxiety crisis or dysphoric mood in relation to fear) and behavioral (medical visits not justified by the target health status).
Nosophobia is often classified as a somatic symptomatic disorder, however, in a minority of cases, it is more appropriate to use the diagnosis of anxiety disorder caused by fear of getting sick.
Concern about being sick is accompanied by considerable anxiety about health and disease; people who fear getting sick are easily alarmed by the disease, this occurs when they learn that someone has fallen ill or when they read information about health-related stories.
As we have already said, nosophobia or fear of getting sick is a disorder close to hypochondria, in the nosophobic patient there is an irrational, intense and uncontrollable fear of suffering a serious illness in the indefinite future, suffering in advance out of fear. to get sick.
In nosophobia, the appearance of a physical symptom causes an indefinite postponement of the doctor’s visit and tests; the nosophobe has such an intense fear of having a problem that he avoids any circumstance that confirms it; the nosophobe prefers to close his eyes and live without knowing it.
As we have seen, nosophobia and hypochondria are not exactly the same, but they are related concepts. So if you feel an intense fear of the disease, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to go to a psychologist, no matter what we call problems, the important thing is to overcome them.