Phobia is the fear of getting cancer. Fear of getting sick with an incurable disease. Strong health anxiety. What to do? About oncology and other incurable diseases

Many are familiar with the situation when their friends or relatives worry about their health with pathological zeal. They have a fear of getting sick, they often go through a complete medical examination, without a doctor's prescription various analyzes. From such people one can hear statements: “I am afraid that I have this disease”, “I struggled with one disease, and now it seems there are others”, “I was afraid to get this disease, and now I feel its symptoms”, or “are you not afraid that I will get sick and die?”

In addition, such people constantly wash their hands, disinfect the room without special need, communicate only with healthy (in their opinion) people, and experience panic fear get sick with something.

By medical concepts, the above condition, are signs of a disease called "hypochondria". Also, this mental disorder is also called "pathophobia".

Causes of a phobia

According to statistics, hypochondriacal symptoms are observed in 4-6% of the population. Based on this, it can be said with confidence that about 10% of primary visits to the doctor are associated with the fear of illness.

The occurrence of this mental disorder can be provoked various factors, such as:

genetic features;
loss due to serious illness loved one;
the presence of chronic diseases;
lack of attention;
physical violence;
the presence of a relative who is ill with a serious illness. In this case, the behavior model can be copied;
prolonged stressful state;
shortcomings in education.

Personality type also influences the development of disease-related phobias. Often, people who are suspicious by nature cannot cope with pathophobia, which cause anxiety not only to themselves, but also to those close to them.

The fear of getting sick, among suspicious people, is reinforced by the media, with their intrusive advertising medical preparations and programs that detail the symptoms of various diseases. A person, due to suspiciousness, unwittingly, begins to look for signs of an incurable disease in himself. Gradually, this "hobby" develops into an obsessive state.

Note - signs of hypochondria may appear in healthy people. For a long time known fact that students of medical schools, undergoing training and practice, begin to be afraid, and look for symptoms of diseases that are being studied. And, oddly enough, they find it. Students' tendency to pathophobia, usually manifests itself before graduation educational institution, although they, as future doctors, should be aware of how to deal with hypochondria.

Symptoms and treatment

When diagnosing hypochondria, it is important to distinguish overt simulation from a mental disorder. The simulator differs from a person with a phobia in that, having benefited from the simulation of the disease, he does not continue to “storm” medical institutions.

The hypochondriac himself believes and obsessively tries to convince others and doctors that he has a serious illness. Often, this behavior can be explained by the fact that a person is subconsciously trying to get away from the decision. various problems. In this case, he cannot independently realize the cause of the disorder, and even more so, understand how to get rid of hypochondria.

Experts identify some patterns in the behavior of a person who has a fear of getting sick:

irritability and the presence of nervousness;
vulnerability;
unstable emotional state;
monotonous speech;
depressed state;
apathy;
the theme of diseases prevails over everyday issues;
aggressiveness is manifested towards those who do not believe that he has a disease;
pathological tendency to restore order and cleanliness;
loss of appetite;
many hours of searching for information on the Internet or in reference books about a disease;
the presence of phobias for specific diseases;
a person is afraid that he will get infected in public place or in transport. Such people, before leaving the house, put on a protective (medical) mask, and open the doors with a napkin.

Treatment of the disorder

The fear of getting sick is quite difficult to treat, since the patient is completely confident in the self-set terrible diagnoses, and disagrees with the fact that it's all about a mental disorder. All suggestions of the attending physician, how to get rid of fear, are perceived by the patient with hostility. He explains his behavior by the fact that, allegedly fighting fear, precious time will be lost, and an imaginary disease will reach the stage when it turns out to be incurable.

The difficult task of the doctor is to change the way the patient thinks, as well as his behavior. Namely, when stereotypes change, the patient will be able to return to normal life even if some manifestations of the disorder remain.

But the most difficult period in the treatment of hypochondria is considered to be the initial one, since it will not be easy for the doctor to win the patient's trust. The patient is usually confident in the incompetence of a specialist, and does not leave attempts to find another who will confirm the invented diagnosis.

How to help a person in this condition?

Since the fear of getting sick is an intractable condition, first of all, relatives of the sick person should come to the rescue. Their role is to persuade the hypochondriac to visit a psychotherapist (psychiatrist).

For a conversation about visiting a specialist, you need to choose the right moment, for example, during a confidential conversation. In order for the conversation to develop, it is recommended to adhere to the following rules:

You can not refute the beliefs of the sick. Find arguments that are meaningful to the person, such as the fact that nervous tension perniciously affects health and can lead to the emergence of new diseases.
It is not recommended to resort to deception, for example, to persuade a person to visit a therapist, but to bring him to a psychiatrist. When the deception is revealed, the patient will withdraw into himself, and contact with the doctor will be completely lost.
In some cases, if relatives are unable to cope and persuade the pathophobic themselves, they will have to personally visit a doctor in order to receive recommendations on how to convince a hypochondriac to come to his appointment of their own free will.

What can a doctor suggest?

To defeat hypochondria, you will need an integrated approach to the problem, including:

drug treatment;
psychotherapeutic methods;
home treatment.

Medical treatment

Only a doctor can treat hypochondria with medications. You can not self-medicate, and use medicines without a prescription.

Only a specialist is able to determine how to treat a phobia with drugs. He can prescribe sedatives to relieve excessive anxiety (persen, novo-passit and others), and when depression appears, prescribe the use of tranquilizers and antidepressants. But it should be remembered that in the fight against this disorder, medications alone are not enough for a complete recovery.

Psychotherapeutic methods

Fear of disease is successfully treated with psychotherapy. During the course of psychotherapy, the doctor, during a conversation with the patient, will identify disturbing factors. After listening to all kinds of complaints of the sick person, the specialist, in addition to conducting special sessions, will offer the person self-hypnosis exercises, the purpose of which is to teach the patient: how to stop being afraid of becoming sick, how to overcome obsessive fears.

Note - psychotherapy copes with its task only with the sincere desire of the sick to achieve complete cure from a phobia. If a person does not fight for his recovery, and this situation when everyone takes pity on him, suits the patient, then it is difficult to achieve results with this method, although it is possible if he is susceptible to hypnosis.

home treatment

In addition to attending psychotherapy sessions, the phobia should be treated at home. First of all, it is necessary to create an atmosphere of understanding and support in the house. It is recommended to do the following:

Make sure that the patient fulfills the doctor's prescriptions: takes medications, exercises special exercises(meditation, self-hypnosis).
Invite the hypochondriac to engage in some interesting business or hobby for him.
Stop ignoring his complaints, and even more so, mock the behavior of the sick person.
Because the fear of sickness shouldn't be reinforced new information, a pathophob should not watch medical programs. Also, it is recommended to remove all literature on this topic so that the hypochondriac cannot draw topics for his destructive fantasies.
Ask the sick person to do housework or housework more often to distract him from obsessive thoughts.

Thus, for a complete cure for hypochondria, without integrated approach treatment is indispensable. You will need the mandatory help of a psychiatrist, and in mild cases of the disorder, a psychologist. Also, for more effective disposal a person from pathophobia, the participation of loved ones will be required, from whom patience and support will be required.

Even if you know all the diseases of our time, we regret to add one more to them - this fear of getting sick. Disease is a paradox. A disease that cannot be treated with medicines. A disease that progresses with the number of flipped pages of a thick medical guide or megabytes of viewed medical sites. Hypochondria or the state of "I'm afraid to get sick" today the site is being treated.

However, we're still a bit skeptical. This is not a disease. The medical society has not officially included it in its terrible list. Now it's just a mental disorder nosophobia, which is idolized by all the owners of pharmaceutical companies. After all, as much money for medicine as hypochondriacs spend is not spent, even by those who are really sick.

Who are they?

These are people with fat medical records, nightmare doctors. They grab at the heart, while their cardiogram can be used as a pass to fly into space. They are so afraid of getting sick that treat a non-existent ulcer, carefully protect themselves from all insects, considering the bite of an ordinary summer mosquito to be fatal.

They are exaggerate any ailment, nausea is a detached ulcer, and headache It's definitely meningitis.

And also "they have tonsillitis, scarlet fever, cholerin, diphtheria, appendicitis, malaria and bronchitis." But the question is, will it help? kind doctor Aibolit, if the problem is "in the head"?

Sometimes hypochondria manifested by pain, ulcers, rash, indigestion, dizziness, abnormal heartbeat. At the same time, fear makes these symptoms stronger, exacerbates and adds new ones. But analyzes are usually “like those of astronauts”. Rarely appear hysterical paralysis, dumbness.

Good news

This is fine. Especially for those who delved deeply into the medical field, not having a long-term relationship with medicine. Even teachers in medical schools joke about the "third-year diagnosis" - having studied all the diseases, students find signs of all at once: from malaria to puerperal fever.

Simulate, sir? Not at all. The hypochondriac really feels everything he says only slightly exaggerated.

Fear of getting sick is real suffering. But since hypochondria has been recognized as a psychosomatic disease, something real must be seen behind every "false" symptom. For example:

"My heart hurts" - "I'm so lonely. I need a lot of your attention."

And also remember that the already almost "literal" statement that "all diseases are from the nerves" has solid grounds. For example, severe stress causes bile from the gallbladder to enter the intestines and this has backfire for the gastrointestinal tract. (By the way, the site site has already written about)

Constant worries lead to disruption hormonal system, and this is a violation of both the cycle and reproductive function, worsening skin condition and mood. We are not talking about the fact that stress provokes miscarriage in pregnant women. And all this, mind you physiologically based processes.

If you carefully examine this topic, it becomes obvious that the fear of getting sick is not a phobia. This is a neurosis. But everything is treated.

« I'm always afraid of getting sick... or I am afraid that one of my relatives will get sick ... I can’t do anything because of this fear, all the time I have anxiety, anxiety, the state of “important exam tomorrow”, only worse and always ... What should I do? Advise what to drink, maybe? I say right away that I will not go to a psychologist and a psychiatrist, I will not do anything that is not related to medicine. Don't fool me." This is not the only cure.

Research shows that most of people who suffer from depression (and this, by the way, important reason hypochondria), does not have strong employment. Even if they go to work, their head is free for destructive thoughts. Look at a child playing or a creative artist - they do not see anything around.

Therefore, fill your time with those things in the process of which you will not be able to think - active training in the gym, running in the morning, sex at any time of the day, hobbies that you like.

Besides, all this strengthens the immune system and improves the state of the hormonal system. And it's also fun and interesting. To get a taste of life is what you need to get rid of the fear of getting sick with something.

While you are thinking about how terrible it will be to get sick or die, life passes by itself. Which is worse is the big question!

Tip #2: Throw away all medical reference books

By an effort of will not to leave a single one "just in case". On the Internet, all "favorite" sites can be blocked. It's like throwing all the cookies and candy out of the house when you lose weight. Or remove a man from the phone after breaking up.

Out of sight, out of mind. Over time, breaking will be less and when you have nothing to do, you will find something more worthy, than looking for diseases is feeding the fear of getting sick.

Don't stop looking after your health!

Study foods that are rich in vitamins, learn how to cook candied oranges, lingonberry juice, cauliflower casseroles. It is important to make it tasty for relatives so as not to crush them with your healthy lifestyle. Learn herbs and essential oils that boost immunity. In time, you will become a disease prevention guru, and people will turn to you for advice!

Let's think about how to be healthy, don't be afraid to get sick!

Tip number 3. Ask loved ones for what you want

Often lies behind hypochondria thirst for attention, recognition.

A mother who worries about the health of her children (aged 0 to 50) is afraid to let her child go “free”, to let him make his mistakes and live his life - even if it’s going out in the cold without a hat and catching a cold or jumping with a parachute and break a leg. Or a woman who is afraid of getting sick herself, wants attention and care.

If you want to be spent time with you, let them invite you to rides or to the cinema, to a restaurant or sauna, and not go to the hospital with you. Ask the children to come visit. Ask - it is not always clear.

Having dissolved in attention and love, we forget about all diseases, even those that really exist. And they go by themselves.

note on the happy people Most of them are beautiful and healthy!

The essence of the game offered by Zhanna Rusetskaya, a psychologist, to get rid of the fear of getting sick: waking up in the morning, you choose the role of any object or person - a lamppost, high mountain in the north, a brick in the wall of an old building, Mother Teresa or a famous boxer. You must stay in this role until you go to bed.

Meaning not to copy outward behavior, a imbued with qualities of this item: snow mountain stamina, unconditional love Mother Teresa, the strength of the brick and the awareness of one's connection with others. This is not theater, this is therapy be different internally.

To pull yourself together and stop worrying about your health and the health of loved ones, you lack the willpower, the courage to let go of the situation, let go of life from under your firm hand, eternal control. For example, a lamppost turns on only when necessary, it shines, it is firm and calm.

Think over the images or ask someone to help you, and you will not only be distracted, but also develop useful qualities character!

If your feelings are too strong, your fear of getting sick manifests itself in serious symptoms- ulcers, rashes, dumbness, dizziness, fainting, it is better to pull yourself together once and take him to a psychologist or better a psychotherapist.

You can also use alternative methods combat this condition, for example, systemic constellations according to the method of Bert Hellinger. If you are really ready for a cure, then listen to lectures and read books on self-development. By gaining knowledge of “why this is happening”, the answer to the question “how to stop it” is at the same moment. Then it's up to the little things. Do.

The most difficult - awareness of the problem. And if you found this article, then we are sure that only the simplest remains ahead!

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Anxious personalities literally poison their lives constant fear catch an infection, detect a tumor, become disabled

Even in ancient times, people were afraid to get sick - after all, then it meant turning into a beggarly outcast. And until now we say: "they shy away, as if from a plague patient", "they keep aloof, as if I were a leper." But where is the boundary between a normal episode of temporary fear and a pathology that needs to be treated?

Nosophobia: symptoms and causes

The fear of getting sick with something, scientifically nosophobia, is one of the types obsessive fear. There are varieties of nosophobia - cardiophobia (fear of heart disease), cancerophobia (fear of getting cancer), lyssophobia (fear of going crazy). There are more famous name such a state - hypochondria. Hypochondriacs arrive in constant confidence that they are in danger of some kind of disease. They visit doctors regularly. And not just like that, but in order to detect the disease. They refuse to believe even if they are told that they are completely healthy. The symptoms they describe can range from general complaints of fatigue to complaints of pain during internal organs. Moreover, such people sincerely believe in their disease!

As a rule, phobias, including nosophobia, are predominantly affected by individuals with a developed intellect, who are able to immerse themselves in themselves, who have a very colorful imagination. They are able to mentally clearly represent certain ailments, the reaction of fear is turned on as a result of the self-defense reflex. And that's it, the process has begun ... Often a person himself does not realize how his phobia begins. The mechanism of its launch works so quickly that he does not have time to notice what became the main stimulus for the emergence.

Sometimes the causes of nosophobia are associated with various personality disorders. It can be depression, high suspiciousness, anxiety for any reason. Objective factors can also cause nosophobia. For example, serious disease, transferred earlier, and the fear that it will return. Or the launch of a phobia provokes an ailment of a loved one - it seems to a hypochondriac that he will certainly suffer the same fate.

In addition to these obvious reasons, there may be hidden factors: low self-esteem or chronic depression. Also, one of the causes of hypochondria can be a special social form behavior - a person, without realizing it, with the help of the disease, tries to attract the attention of others.

How to treat it

Unfortunately, a person suffering from nosophobia is rarely able to control his condition. Meanwhile, the symptoms of the disease can have a significant impact on the standard of living of the patient. Often, worrying about non-existent illnesses greatly interferes with work, family, and social life.

It can be difficult to establish that a person is afraid of getting sick. After all, he himself is sure that all his symptoms are associated with a real therapeutic disease. Therefore, the doctor, after diagnosing and finding nothing, can send the patient to a meeting with a psychotherapist. Psychotherapists use a variety of methods to deal with phobias.

First, you will need regular contact with your doctor, whom the nosophobe trusts. Its task is to reduce unnecessary anxiety of the patient.
Secondly, psychotherapy is used, which helps to direct the hypochondriac's thoughts in the right direction, adapt him to stress, and establish relationships with the outside world. The third method is antidepressants, which are used if, in addition to nosophobia, excessively increased anxiety is also observed.

Nosophobia is chronic condition haunting people for years. In many cases, when the patient has already seemed to be cured, unreasonable fear may return. That is why treatment consists in learning to cope with the symptoms of the disease, control them and reduce the problems associated with it.

The great ones also trembled

Fear of illness haunted many famous people. As a child, Mayakovsky lost his father, who died from blood poisoning due to a stupid accident: he filed documents, pricked his finger with a rusty needle and got a fatal infection. This death made such a strong impression on the poet that he carried soap in a box with him all his life and washed his hands after each handshake. Mayakovsky also constantly measured the temperature, plagued loved ones with complaints about bad feeling, always suspected that he had a terrible disease. But he was strong man athletic build, and so nothing serious and did not get sick - as you know, the poet committed suicide with a pistol shot at the age of 37.

Another poet suffering from increased anxiety about his health is Sergei Yesenin. He suspected he had throat consumption, was even afraid of an accidental pimple, taking it for symptoms of syphilis, went to consult professors, shared his anxieties with friends - and at the same time drank to death, engaging in self-destruction.

Gogol was shaking all his life for his health, considered himself terminally ill, in letters to friends he described how he went to the toilet, listing in detail all his pains and sufferings.

Writer-humorist Mikhail Zoshchenko wrote letters to his wife in besieged Leningrad from the evacuation, in which he constantly complained of illness. The fear of getting sick was so strong that the writer literally obsessed over his condition.

The popular actor Savely Kramarov was very afraid for his health - he led exclusively healthy lifestyle life, eating healthy food, did not drink or smoke - and yet died in the prime of life from bowel cancer.

And on the contrary, those people who were not afraid to get sick managed to survive even during plague epidemics - like, for example, Nostradamus, who did not use any disinfectants and directly communicated with the sick. Or Napoleon, who in 1811 himself visited the plague barracks to raise the spirits of sick soldiers, and said at the same time: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself."

We conquer fear

It takes a long time to get rid of a phobia. Of course, there are cases when it is possible to immediately detect the cause that caused it, and eliminate obsessive fears in just a few minutes. For example, one day there comes a moment when a person asks himself the question: “What am I actually afraid of? Maybe just stop it? And that's it, fear disappears by itself. Alas, such cases are quite rare, and it is better to contact a specialist psychologist. But a phobic person can help himself. To do this, do the following:

* Learn to control your body. Obsessive fear causes physiological reactions: they become cotton feet, hands do not obey, and sometimes the whole body. Therefore, a person begins to feel even more strongly that he is sick. The most simple and affordable way combating this condition deep breathing which helps to relax. To train him every day, you can do a series deep breaths and exhalations. After taking a deep breath, you need to hold your breath for 1-2 seconds, and then exhale - so that it seems as if the air itself comes out of the lungs.

* Eliminate panic attacks. Short ones go away on their own, but what about those who are constantly in a state of anxiety and cannot relax in any way? You should tighten all the muscles, hold your breath while inhaling and remain in this state for about a minute. Then sharply relax the muscles and take a deep breath. The exercise can be repeated until the tension in the body disappears.

* Control your imagination. You can imagine your fear in the form of an image or object, and then ... destroy it! There will be a so-called visualization of the phobia. Each person is able to find a specific image that is most suitable for him.

*Have a positive internal dialogue. Usually acute attack fear lasts about 5 minutes, but worrying about it takes much longer. But if a person thinks about the fact that he has already experienced this fear before, but nothing terrible has happened, he will, at least a little, but be freed from the phobia. Next, the patient should be presented, as if from the outside, how he looks, how he breathes. And to think: what would he say to his former self, to the one who is still afraid of something, how he would react to fears from his new position of a free person.

These are just a few simple techniques for overcoming obsessive fear. There are many others that require thorough preparation, and sometimes the mandatory presence of a psychologist. A long-standing phobia becomes part of the personality, so getting rid of it in one fell swoop will not work, and it is not safe. In this case, it would be better to seek help from specialists.

Wise people say that fear is considered a fundamental feeling that helps to survive. In many ways, this statement is true, so you do not need to try to completely eradicate the ability to fear in yourself. Many are haunted by the fear of getting sick, the intensity of this fear can vary from reasonable to hypertrophied, seriously impairing the quality of life and interfering with normal socialization. How to get rid of this phobia in order to regain a normal perception of life and the world around us?

Why are people so afraid of getting sick?

This fear can be considered one of the most ancient. If we consider the historical context, then in ancient world, and in the early Middle Ages, disease was the most in a simple way become a social outcast. And the number of various ailments simply could not be calculated. What is now treated with antibiotics or disappeared altogether thanks to vaccinations, successfully mowed down entire cities. Not surprisingly, the fear of getting sick took on global proportions.

For example, any skin disease that was not identifiable fell into the category of leprosy. In the vast majority of cases, the diagnosis was made by a healer, and even a local priest. A person suffering from psoriasis ended up in a leper colony - it's the same as in the kingdom of the dead, only with ongoing torment and a furious rejection of society.

Now when great amount diseases are still treatable, people can be afraid intuitively, out of habit, or solely out of their own impressionability. Of course, there is nothing pleasant in violations of the body, but sometimes the forms of fear take on truly bizarre forms.

Hypochondria: simulation or illness?

If a person is suspicious to such an extent that he considers any bodily manifestation as possible symptom terrible disease, he is commonly referred to as a hypochondriac. This word has received a dismissive and mocking emotional connotation, because the fear of getting sick has been known for many centuries, and even millennia. If a person is healthy by all indications, but sincerely considers himself ill or at risk, then sooner or later the annoyance and irritability of those around him accumulate in critical volumes.

If you are called a hypochondriac, and you really feel somehow unhealthy, then guilt may also be added. How to fight against this phenomenon? Doctors recommend, first of all, not to try to overcome your obsessive-painful condition. It is possible that there is a diagnostic error, and there is some kind of disorder internal systems. Sometimes it helps to analyze the level of hormones. There is a known case when young man the feeling of soreness reached critical against the background of relatively stable health. An analysis of the level of hormones showed that he had a serious hormonal imbalance, and the right therapy in just a month turned the nervous and weak man into an absolutely happy and healthy man. But what if fear reaches its limit?

Nosophobia as a serious psychiatric diagnosis

Sometimes people are interested: "Fear of getting sick - what kind of phobia is this?" How to understand that it is time to go and surrender to a psychiatrist? In most cases, such questions do not arise from the victims themselves, but from their loved ones. If one of the relatives behaves inappropriately, suspects insidious microbes everywhere, then sooner or later the thought of a diagnosis will appear.

In As Good As It Gets, Jack Nicholson played a man who suffers from mysophobia, a panicky fear of germs. This phenomenon can be considered integral part nosophobia. His character washes his hands only with a new bar of soap, which he then throws away, because germs can settle on a once used bar. Perhaps this is the most striking example of pathological fear.

Nosophobia can lead to seizures panic attack, provokes obsessive states. It is she who makes you continuously boil and iron the linen on both sides, wash every centimeter of the floor with bleach, and so on. Do not get annoyed if one of the relatives shows such excessive cleanliness, it is better to contact a specialist for help. Remember, you can't just pull yourself together and stop, it's beyond reason.

Preliminary self-diagnosis

What to do if you suspect yourself of having a phobia? Might be worth putting yourself provisional diagnosis, take care of yourself and, without waiting for the deterioration of the condition, go to a psychiatrist. Not to a psychologist, but to a psychiatrist, if there are no problems in his profile, the doctor will recommend you another specialist and prescribe everything necessary tests and inspections. You already know what the fear of getting sick is called - this is a nosophobia, which can be fundamental or consist of a complex set of other minor phobias on a common basis.

An illogical search for the source of fear, even where it is absent, can be considered a sign of a phobia. For example, you may find yourself trying to diagnose each of the people around you to make sure there are no potential danger for myself. If your pulse is frightenedly quickened due to the fact that someone nearby sneezed, and at the entrance to the clinic you only think that you will certainly get infected with something terrible from other patients, you should be wary.

How the fear of getting sick affects the quality of life

A person suffering from nosophobia may be in captivity of self-deception. Indeed, taking care of your own health cannot be dangerous, people around are amazingly irresponsible about themselves, do not follow the rules of hygiene, eat the wrong food, have a lot of bad habits, neglect the regime of the day. You just need to fix it all, and then everything will be fine, not a single insidious virus will get close! A person may think that by his relentless battle with windmills he improves his quality of life, but in practice everything slides into the grotesque.

Panic fear of getting sick incurable disease can lead to psychosomatic manifestations when the symptoms really indicate a disease that does not really exist. A frantic attempt to bring the amount of vitamins in the diet to the ideal will never achieve a result, since this is impossible - doctors openly say that it is worth adhering to the concept of a norm, which is very blurred between excess and deficiency. As a result, life turns into a painful confrontation between an illusion seasoned with fear and a reality that stubbornly refuses to obey the framework of your personal fears.

Justified and unjustified phobias: logical reflection as a way to fight

Any person can, to some extent, pull himself together and weigh everything possible options to separate the real risk from the far-fetched one. For example, it is well known that tuberculosis can be contracted if you communicate with a person who has an open and active form this disease. But to suspect every person who accidentally coughed in this diagnosis is already speculation. In fact, the fear of getting sick is a natural phobia, not as bizarre as anatidaephobia (when a person is afraid that a duck is following him).

If we logically comprehend and accept that fear in this case is not childish or funny, it gets a little easier. It remains only to learn to separate the present from the far-fetched and ephemeral.

Awareness of cancerophobia and how to deal with it

Separately, you can consider the fear of getting cancer as enough strong phobia having a hint of doom. Even despite the rapid development of medicine, which quite successfully copes with different types oncological diseases, this diagnosis continues to frighten.

We have to admit that relatives of those who died of cancer are most affected by cancerophobia. Doctors recognize that a predisposition to cancer can be inherited, but this is so individual that each individual case must be considered separately.

So that cancerophobia does not deprive oneself of self-control to such an extent that it becomes difficult to exist in society, it is best to follow the recommendations of doctors. Namely, if possible, eliminate carcinogenic factors from your life, quit smoking, and undergo regular medical examinations. The main thing is to remember that early diagnosis allows you to count on the most positive prognosis even if a tumor is detected.

Awareness: a way to ease nosophobia

As mentioned above, correct information allows you to deal with unfounded fears. At the same time, it is advisable to carefully choose sources of information - dubious Internet sites with unprofessional articles can only stir up fears.

Try to protect yourself from frightening information, this allows you to maintain self-control. During epidemics, the media starts to whip up hysteria, and it's good to know that this is done for the sole purpose of provoking a flurry of drugs with untested efficacy that fills the pockets of pharmaceutical corporations. This does not mean that you need to hide in an apartment and not trust anyone - doctors, as a rule, prescribe effective drugs. But it’s not worth diagnosing yourself and “treating yourself on the Internet”.

Professional medical care

Why is it recommended to consult a psychiatrist? There are two main mistakes that people who suspect themselves of having a phobia make: self-medication and non-core help. It would seem that if the fear of getting cancer is tormenting, how to deal with it, is it just fear? So, you need to pull yourself together and stop - this is how people think and fall into a trap, because without professional treatment the condition may worsen. Psychology is also of little help, because a phobia, especially a neglected one, is serious problem that needs to be treated comprehensively. Ordinary soul-saving conversations are not enough here. The doctor will help reduce general anxiety, and only if it is really necessary, will refer to a psychotherapist.

It's okay to be afraid of getting sick

Not every fear is actually a phobia. In fact, fears are absolutely normal, and if the fear of getting rabies is only a refusal to pet an unfamiliar stray dog or a cute fox that seems completely harmless, this is not yet a phobia. This is just a reasonable concern that helps to maintain health.

Illness is always an unpleasant, debilitating, and sometimes fraught condition. sad consequences. Any sane person cares about maintaining their own health, seeks to prolong youth and push back old age. It is normal for every person to be anxious, to worry and to take certain measures so as not to get sick. Lead a healthy lifestyle preventive actions, do not visit places where there is high risk infection, avoiding contact with virus carriers are natural and correct solutions.

Often an ordinary experience for one's own health develops into panic, irrational fear when an individual is absorbed exclusively in thinking about illnesses, and all his activities are aimed at not getting sick. Nosophobia- obsessive, long-term, uncontrollable and understandable anxiety, in which a person has a fear of a particular disease (in rare cases there are several objects of fear). Nosophobes "choose" for themselves especially life-threatening diseases: intractable, leading to disability or to lethal outcome. Usually, this disorder associated to some extent with the fear of death -.

According to the research data of Russian psychiatrists, this disease in varying degrees severity occurs in 10% of the population. In wide circles, nosophobia is better known under a different name - hypochondria, although in modern psychiatry, hypochondriacal disorder (ICD-10) is mental disorder somatoform type (F45). Quite often, fear in nosophobia is clinical symptom sluggish schizophrenia (F21 "schizotypal disorder" in the adapted Russian version of the ICD-10).

This disorder is quite difficult to diagnose, as when referring to doctors, patients describe symptoms somatic diseases. To refute suspicions of non-existent diseases, the nosophobe has to undergo numerous examinations by various doctors. It takes quite a long time before it is established true reason illness, and in the meantime, nosophobia progresses, presenting the patient with more intense manifestations of panic. An unambiguous cause of the disorder has not been established, but the factors that act as a favorable background for the appearance of pathological anxiety are clearly defined. Among the most significant:

a serious illness suffered by the nosophobe himself or his close relative;
personal characteristics of the individual: suspiciousness, impressionability, pessimism, fixation on negative events, hypochondriacal manifestations.

Although the disorder is accompanied by changes in work physiological mechanisms, nosophobia is a reversible psychosomatic illness and timely handling per medical care responds well to treatment.

Like other "global" fears, nosophobia has its subspecies.

Among the fears of disease, a significant number of cases have been recorded - fear of a heart attack. As with other phobic anxiety disorders, main feature The disease lies in the fact that, without having problems with the heart, the classic cardiophobe expects these problems, purposefully looking for symptoms and suffering from vegetative manifestations of fear. Eventually - vicious circle: the patient is in constant stress, which is harmful to the whole body and affects primarily the state of the cardiovascular system.

Among the clinically recorded cases of fears from this group, there are often:

fear of infection - molismophobia;
fear of pollution -;
fear of being bitten by dogs, fear of rabies -;
fear of injections.

There are also "exotic" objects of alarm:

fear of constipation - coprastasophobia;
fear of hemorrhoids - proctophobia;
fear of shock - hormephobia;
fear of a runny nose - epistaxiophobia;

In persons who have suffered a serious mental shock or are experiencing strong emotional stress, often develops a fear of insanity - dementophobia. The fear of going crazy can also arise against the background of improper upbringing, excessive demands, excessive criticism in childhood by the parents. Just like the fear of the mentally ill - psychophobia, this disorder is a kind of cliché based on fear, intolerance and other negative feelings towards the mentally ill.

One of the most unpleasant and dangerous among pathological disorders – cancerophobia(fear of cancer). With this phobia, the patient has intense anxiety about the presence of cancerous tumor. Although carcinophobia does not cause the occurrence malignant formations, but health problems against the background of constant stress are guaranteed to such patients. The complexity of the treatment of the disease lies in the fact that the carcinophobe does not believe the diagnosis made by specialists and assumes that he is not knowingly informed about the real state of affairs.

Other phobias associated with the fear of getting sick:

cardiophobia (fear of cardiovascular disease);
anginophobia (fear of an attack of angina pectoris);
infarctionophobia (fear of myocardial infarction);
lyssophobia (fear of going crazy);
diabetic phobia (fear of getting diabetes);
scotomaphobia (fear of blindness);
syphilophobia (fear of contracting syphilis);
AIDS phobia (fear of getting AIDS);
carcinophobia (fear of getting cancer);
acarophobia (fear of getting scabies).

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