Nosophobia Or The Fear Of Getting Sick
The fear of falling ill or nosophobia, just like the fear of death and madness, are ancestral fears, atavistic fears. Who among us is not afraid of suffering from a serious illness? Are we not afraid of going crazy? Do we not fear death?
In this article we will talk about nosophobia. This phobia involves an excessive and irrational fear of the disease. However, in this case, the person has no assurance of being ill in the present. This is the crucial difference between nosophobia and hypochondria.
Hypochondriac patients are not afraid of contracting a disease in the future as people with nosophobia do. Hypochondriacs fear that they will be sick in the present and go undiagnosed.
What do we mean by phobia?
Phobias are defined as intense and irrational dread of a person, object or situation that is associated with very little or no danger. The word comes from the Greek “ Phobos ” which means “panic”. In Greek mythology, Phobos was the son of Ares (god of war) and Aphrodite (goddess of love). He personified fear. Before each battle, Alexander the Great pleaded with Phobos to ward off fear.
According to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), specific phobias such as nosophobia fulfill the following characteristics :
- Fear or intense anxiety about a specific object or situation (for example: flying, height, animals, injections, seeing blood, etc.)
- The phobic object or situation almost always causes immediate fear and anguish.
- The phobic situation is avoided or actively resisted through fear or intense anxiety
- Fear or anxiety is disproportionate if we analyze the real danger caused by the specific object or situation in the socio-cultural context.
- The fear, anxiety, or flight is persistent and lasts 6 months or more.
- Anxiety, fear or flight cause clinically significant discomfort or deterioration of the social, professional or other important dimensions of functioning.
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. It is said that people with a phobic life have a characteristic shadow: the feeling of anguish.
Nosophobia or the irrational fear of being sick
As we said earlier, nosophobia can be defined as the irrational fear of suffering from a specific disease or ailment in general. People with nosophobia develop an exaggerated fear of the disease and are usually in awe of a particular case or type of disease.
Symptoms of nosophobia are generally diverse but similar from one individual to another. The most common symptoms are:
- Exaggerated anxiety about a minor infection
- Extreme measures to avoid contact with germs
- Frequent and repeated visits to different doctors and at the same time avoiding having to resort to their diagnosis
- Intense fear of the doctor’s confirmation of the disease self-diagnosed by the person with nosophobia
The concern for health can be a recurring theme with manifestations at the cognitive level (frequent reflections on the state of health). Symptoms of the emotional type (experience of anxiety or dysphoric mood associated with terror) and behavioral (medical consultations unjustified by the objective state of health) are frequent.
Fear of getting sick
Very frequently, nosophobia is considered to be a disorder with somatic symptoms. However, in a minority of cases it is more appropriate to use the diagnosis of fear of getting sick disorder.
With the preoccupation associated with the thought of being sick comes considerable anxiety about health and illness. People suffering from the anxiety of getting sick easily worry about illnesses. This is triggered by learning, for example, that someone has fallen ill or by reading health-related stories.
As we said, nosophobia is a disorder close to hypochondria. In the patient with nosophobia, an irrational fear of contracting a serious illness in the indefinite future arises. This fear is intense and uncontrollable. It is also said that “whoever is afraid of suffering already suffers from fear”.
In the context of nosophobia, the urgency of a physical symptom causes an indefinite postponement of the medical consultation and the performance of analyzes. The person suffering from this disorder has to live with such an intense fear of having something that they avoid all circumstances that may confirm their fear. She prefers to close her eyes and live without knowing.
As we have seen, nosophobia and hypochondria are not exactly the same thing. However, these are related concepts. Either way, if you are experiencing an intense fear associated with the illness, it wouldn’t be a bad thing to make an appointment with a psychologist. It doesn’t matter what name we give it. The important thing is to overcome it.
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