Blenophobia (viscosity phobia): symptoms, causes and treatment
Blenophobia is the persistent and intense fear of slimy textures . Such textures include, for example, some foods, body fluids and the skin of different animals. It is a little documented experience and often confused with an aversion.
In this article we will see what is blenophobia, what are the conditions that must be met to be considered a specific phobia, and in which cases it can be considered as an aversion. Finally we will see some treatments for each case.
- Related article: "Types of phobias: exploring the disorders of fear"
Blenophobia: fear of viscosity
The term "bleno" is composed of the Greek "blennos", which means "mucus", and "fobos" which means "phobia". In this sense, blenophobia can be defined as a persistent and intense fear to mucous or viscous consistencies . To be considered a phobia, this fear must provoke an immediate and disproportionate response of anxiety; and it should not be justified by the cultural codes of the person (it is considered that way, an irrational fear).
In addition, to consider it as a phobia this fear must significantly interfere with the person's daily activities. That is, the fear of exposing oneself to slimy textures would generate both symptoms of anxiety and constant avoidance of such exposure .
Some examples of textures referred to by blennophobia are the skin of a snail or a fish, the consistency of an egg and raw meat, or the body fluids themselves and others. All of them represent stimuli capable of developing a phobic fear.
However, the fear of viscosity has not been described by the scientific literature as a specific phobia . This is already the case, although it is quite common that the viscous textures generate rejection, it is not so common that they generate a phobic fear.
Often this rejection produces a significant aversion, but does not necessarily interfere with the person's daily activities or trigger disproportionate anxiety responses. In this sense it is important to remember that not all aversions are phobias, but some phobias can be accompanied by different aversions.
Phobia or aversion? Main symptoms
As we saw before, the main characteristic of specific phobias is the irrational, persistent and intense fear that generates disproportionate anxiety responses. These responses are produced by the activation of the autonomic nervous system, which is responsible for regulating involuntary motor responses in our body. Among these is visceral activity, breathing, palpitations, among others.
Thus, the response triggered by exposure to the stimulus that causes the phobia generates sweating, hyperventilation or else, sensation of breathlessness, increased heart rate , decreased gastrointestinal activity. And sometimes it causes nausea, dizziness and panic attacks (the latter are more frequent in specific phobias related to diseases).
In addition, this anxiety response significantly interferes with the person's life, since to avoid it, the person experiencing it generates avoidant and defensive behaviors. For example, avoid places or circumstances where the stimulus is present.
On the other hand, specific phobias are considered as such in case of fear and anxiety can not be explained by other clinical pictures (such as an obsessive-compulsive disorder, a post-traumatic stress disorder or a social phobia).
In the case of blenophobia, it would try to avoid contact with any viscous texture, since otherwise an important anxiety experience is triggered. The latter should not be explained by other means, for example, it should not be one of the manifestations of other diagnoses where frequently there is an important sensitivity to textures .
On the other hand, an aversion can be defined as the strong repulsion to touch, try or listen to things, to which most people are indifferent or even find pleasant (Bados, 2005). They resemble phobias in that they produce discomfort and are generated by specific stimuli.
However, they differ in that the discomfort does not interfere in the life of the person, and they are also different in the general symptoms. The aversions cause chills, pallor, cold, deep breathing and sometimes nausea. Some of the most typical are precisely the aversions to textures.
Main causes
The causes of specific phobias are mainly the following:
- Have had direct or indirect negative experiences with stimuli that have a high probability of becoming phobic.
- Have less positive experiences with encouragement , compared to negative experiences.
- The severity and high frequency of negative experiences to which the person has been exposed, either directly or indirectly.
- The biological preparation (the phobias are triggered more easily before stimuli that put in risk the biological integrity).
- The expectation of danger it corresponds to the negative experience experienced.
- Ways in which threatening information about the stimulus has been transmitted
- Having gone through a process of mistaken association or superstitious conditioning triggered by false alarms.
On the other hand, the aversions are generated by the reinforcement of the unpleasant sensations associated with the stimulus , accompanied by a constant reinforcement of avoidant behaviors related to it. Although they do not usually significantly affect the person's life, they can generate constant avoidance behaviors, which in extreme cases could lead, for example, to avoiding the same foods under any circumstance.
Treatment
The most commonly used psychological treatments for specific phobias are live exposure, participant model, cognitive restructuring, introspective exploration, imagination exposure, relaxation techniques, systematic desensitization and modeling. The latter is especially useful in children and when there is a need to teach different skills.
On the other hand, aversions usually decrease without the need for treatment, but in extreme cases, a graded exposure can be used that allows a non-aversive approach with the stimulus.
Bibliographic references:
- Bados, A. (2005). Specific phobias Faculty of Psychology Departament de Personalitat, Avaluació i Tractament Psicològics. University of Barcelona. Retrieved September 26, 2018. Available at //diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/360/1/113.pdf.
- Blenophobia (2018). Fobias.net Retrieved September 25, 2018. Available at //www.fobias.net/Blenofobia.html.
- Etymology of BLENO (2018). Etimologias.dechile.net. Retrieved September 25, 2018. Available in //etimologias.dechile.net/?bleno.
