Nosophobia: the irrational fear of getting sick

Do you irrationally fear getting sick? Do you not go to the doctor for fear of what he might diagnose you? If so, you could be suffering from nosophobia.

The fear of getting sick or nosophobia, like the fear of death and madness, are ancestral, atavistic fears. Who among us is not afraid of suffering from a serious illness? Aren’t we afraid of going crazy? Are we not afraid of death?

In this entry we will talk about nosophobia. Nosophobia involves suffering from an excessive and irrational fear of the disease.. However, the person does not think that he or she is currently sick. This is a crucial difference between nosophobia and hypochondria.

Patients with hypochondria are not afraid of contracting a disease in the future, like nosophobes. Hypochondriacs are afraid of having it in the present and not being diagnosed.

What do we understand by phobia?

Phobias are defined as a fear intense and irrational toward a person, object, or situation that involves little or no danger. The word comes from the Greek term phobos which means ‘panic’. In Greek mythology, Phobos was also the son of Ares, god of war, and Aphrodite, goddess of love. He personified fear. Alexander the Great prayed to Phobos before each battle to ward off fear.

According to DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), specific phobias, such as nosophobia, meet the following characteristics:

Fear or intense anxiety about a specific object or situation (e.g., flying, heights, animals, giving an injection, seeing blood…)The phobic object or situation almost always provokes immediate fear or anxiety.The phobic situation is actively avoided or resisted with fear or intense anxiety.Fear or anxiety is disproportionate if we analyze the real danger posed by the specific object or situation and the sociocultural context. The fear, anxiety or avoidance is persistent and typically lasts six or more months.Anxiety, fear, or avoidance cause clinically significant distress or impairment in the social, work dimension or other important areas of functioning.

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It is common for people to have multiple specific phobias; in fact, Approximately 75% of people with 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 illness

As we said before, Nosophobia can be defined as the irrational fear of suffering from a specific disease or any condition in general.. People with nosophobia develop an exaggerated fear of the disease and are usually impressed by a particular case or illness.

The symptoms of nosophobia are usually diverse, but quite similar among those who suffer from this phobia. These symptoms are the following:

Exaggerated nervousness against any minor infection.Extreme measures to avoid contact with germs.Frequent and repeated visits to different doctors, although they also avoid going to them.intense fear for the doctor to confirm the illness that the nosophobic has self-diagnosed.

Concern about health can be a dominant theme with manifestations to cognitive level (frequent ruminations about the state of health). Symptoms of type are also common. emotional (experience of anxiety or dysphoric mood in relation to fear) and behavioral (medical consultations not justified by the objective state of health).

Anxiety about getting sick

Nosophobia is most often classified as a somatic symptom disorder. However, In a minority of cases it is more appropriate to use the diagnosis of illness anxiety disorder instead.

Preoccupation with the idea that one is sick is accompanied by a considerable anxiety about health and illness. People with illness anxiety are easily alarmed by illnesses. This happens when you hear that someone has become sick or when you read news about health-related stories.

As we said, Nosophobia is a disorder close to hypochondria. In the nosophobic patient, an irrational, intense and uncontrollable fear of suffering from a serious illness in an indeterminate future appears. And the fact is that “he who fears suffering already suffers from fear.”