What is mysophobia and what causes a fear of germs? Symptoms, treatment and celebrity sufferers
PATIENTS with mysophobia have an irrational fear of contamination and germs.
Unlike those who simply like tidiness and cleanliness, they have an extreme fear of contamination or infection, but what causes the compulsion and is there any way to stop it? Here's what we know...
What is a phobia?
A phobia is described by the as an overwhelming and debilitating fear of an object, place, situation, feeling or animal.
They are more pronounced than fears and tend to develop when a person has an exaggerated or unrealistic sense of danger regarding a situation or object.
If a phobia sufferer doesn't come into contact with the source of their problem very often it may not affect their life - although in some cases even thinking about the thing they fear can give a person "anticipatory anxiety".
If a phobia becomes very severe, the person suffering may organise their life around avoiding the aspect that’s causing distress.
What are the symptoms of phobias?
Typical symptoms associated with phobias can include:
- Dizziness, trembling and increased heart rate
- Breathlessness
- Nausea
- A sense of unreality
- Fear of dying
- Preoccupation with the fear object
What is mysophobia?
Pathological fear mysophobia is known by a number of different names – including verminophobia, germophobia, germaphobia, bacillophobia and bacteriophobia.
Dr William Alexander Hammond coined the term in 1879 to describe one of his patients, who would constantly wash his hands.
Sufferers may irrationally fear becoming contaminated by disease, infection or an unpleasant substance.
What are the symptoms?
Although symptoms vary on a case to case basis, mysophobia is usually diagnosed by:
- excessive washing
- avoiding tasks that they deem unclean
- refusing to use public bathrooms or have physical contact with others
- not wanting to share personal items, such as drinking from the same cup
- being reluctant to go to social situations that involve close contact
What causes mysophobia?
Researchers believe that nurture or distressing life events are the main causes of mysophobia.
The extreme compulsion to clean is often learned behaviour from parents or close relatives.
Mysophobia can also be triggered by trauma, such as a difficult health scare.
In some cases, the condition can be sparked by obsessive compulsive disorder.
Is there a cure for mysophobia?
Just like treating other phobias, curing fear often isn’t easy.
Cognitive behaviour therapy can be used to help sufferers change their unproductive thought patterns.
This allows them to distinguish that their intense fear is in their imagination.
Other treatment that is taken on by mysophobic patients includes behaviour therapy, counselling and hypnosis.
In some cases, anti-anxiety medication can be prescribed to help relieve the stressful symptoms.
Which celebrities suffer from mysophobia?
Actress Charlize Theron has revealed that her fear of germs keeps her up at night.
She told : "I have to be incredibly tidy and organised or it messes with my mind and switches off on me.
"I have a problem with cabinets being messy and people just shoving things in and closing the door.
“I will lie in bed and not be able to sleep because I'll say to myself: 'I think I saw something in that cabinet that just shouldn't be there.’”
Other celebrities that have confessed to being obsessive about cleaning include David Beckham, Madonna and Cameron Diaz.
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They’re not the only celebrities to be affected by common phobias.
Megan Fox has aviophobia - a fear of flying - which undoubtedly affects her jetsetting lifestyle.
Victoria's Secret model Kendall Jenner has also publicly spoken about her trypophobia, where sufferers find it difficult to look at clusters of holes.