Bacteriophobia

Bacteriophobum is a fear, dread, or aversion to bacteria or microorganisms. It can be caused by various reasons, including fear of contracting infectious diseases, unpleasant memories from the past associated with illnesses, lack of knowledge of microbiology and biology.

A person with germ phobia may experience anxiety, restlessness and panic attacks when around bacteria.

Bacterophobia is a type of phobia associated with the fear of bacteria. Bacteriophobia is a separate class of phobic disorders. The disease is characterized by an obsessive fear of germs. Considering the infectious problem as a threat, the patient is ready to exercise increased caution in communicating with people and regards any contact as a potential cause of infection. People who are prone to fear of pathogens of infectious diseases are afraid of a wide variety of household items and their use. Because they can always be “live”, and not just in a dried, heat-treated form. The basis of the behavioral pattern of victims of bacterial phobia is a reluctance to take things by touching their hands or other parts of the body. They strive to exclude all contact with any kind of bacterially infected flora of the surrounding area.

Each person has an individual phobic disease, which is characterized by strictly defined characteristics. According to specialists at medical centers, bacteriophobic phobia is not a global diagnosis. People with this pathology are sometimes classified as psychological diseases or neuroses. But this is far from true. Patients with this type of phobia need qualified professional help and treatment. And if the patient is examined in time by a medical specialist, he will be able to see that only a timely consultation with a psychiatrist will help him get rid of the disease forever. Scientists identify several stages of this type of fear of germs:

At the initial stage - protoparanoia. In a healthy person, syncretism of thoughts predominates. It is difficult for him to separate fantasies from reality, that is, the patient believes in the possibility of becoming infected from a non-existent source of infection. The patient thinks that microbes provoke various disorders of his body. Therefore, he monitors his actions, listening to all changes in the state of the body. At the slightest ailment, he decides to undergo additional tests to clarify the cause of the unpleasant symptoms. A person prone to bacteriophy picks up all the slightest signs of any ailment and becomes fixated on it. The patient becomes very suspicious of everything around him: food, liquids, personal hygiene. This behavior gradually begins to lead to the patient’s fear growing, changing in its manifestation and intensity. He tries to fight imaginary infections with the help of constant grueling actions. Sometimes such harmless actions resemble attempts to treat imaginary diseases, and in practice, the patient only disrupts the functioning of internal organs using such painful methods. Inappropriate behavior prevents the patient from actively functioning in society, communication with which causes him significant pain and discomfort in a normal communication situation. In the initial stages of the disease, anxious thoughts and desires to avoid any microbes are constantly around. Moreover, the person is focused not only on the imaginary, but also on the real danger of infection. The next stage of bacteriophobia is larvalized paranoid, characterized by a gradual awareness of the groundlessness of fear. As a result of lengthy conversations with a psychiatrist, an awareness of the groundlessness of the disease appears. There is an understanding that not every danger is dangerous and that the cause of fear in the past turned out to be nothing. And the desire to live fully does not disappear, but develops into a goal. A person is able to find ways out of a difficult and dangerous situation and move in the right direction. What allow