Meningitophobia: characteristics, symptoms, causes and treatment.

A summary of this phobia linked to the fear of brain diseases and meningitis.

We are all, to some extent, afraid of the possibility of suffering from some disease in the future. But when this fear is disproportionate and maladaptive, the person ends up developing a phobia. And when, in addition, the disease in question is meningitis, we are talking about meningithophobia.

There are more phobias to certain diseases, although this one focuses on brain diseases. In this article we will know what it consists of, what characterizes it, how it differs from other disorders such as hypochondria, its symptoms, causes and possible treatments.

Meningitophobia: what is it?

The phobias are intense and disproportionate fears before a stimulus or concrete situation. This fear can even disable the person to function normally. Thus, phobias differ from fears in that the intensity of the former is much higher, as well as the interference it causes in the daily life of the affected person.

In the DSM-5 (Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders) phobias are classified as "specific phobias" and constitute a type of anxiety disorder. Specifically, meningitophobia is the phobia of having a brain disease (especially meningitis). (especially meningitis).

Brain diseases can be of different types; they may be related to genetic alterations, metabolic disorders, cerebrovascular accidents (CVA's), infections, tumors, trauma, substance abuse, epilepsy, epilepsy, and other disorders.substance abuse, epilepsy...

Meningitis, the disease typically feared in meningitophobia, consists of an infection of the meninges (membranes covering the central nervous system), generally caused by a virus (in 80% of cases). Meningitis, however, can also be caused by bacteria (between 15 and 20% of cases) or by other factors: intoxications, drugs, fungi and other diseases.

Characteristics

Meningitophobia is a specific phobia classified as "other types of phobia" in the DSM-5.. Recall that this manual groups specific phobias in 5 groups, according to the feared stimulus: phobia of animals, blood/injection/fluid, natural situations, situational phobia and other types of phobias.

Along with it, we find more phobias classified as "other": phobia of choking, phobia of vomiting, phobia of contracting some type of disease (as in the case of meningito-phobia), etc. In children, common phobias considered as "other phobias" include phobia of people in costumes, clowns and loud sounds, among others.

Sickness phobia

Like meningithophobia, there are more phobias related to the fear of contracting a certain disease. Some of them are: caridiophobia (pathological fear of Heart attacks), carcinophobia (pathological fear of cancer) or luiphobia (pathological fear of contracting syphilis).

These types of phobias can make the sufferer believe that he/she has actually contracted the disease he/she fears so much, even feeling the symptoms of the disease.They even feel the symptoms of the disease (which in reality "do not exist").

This causes the person to misinterpret each symptom as belonging to the disease, although he/she does not have sufficient evidence to do so. As a result of this, the patient may develop checking behaviors, security behaviors, etc. (typical of other disorders, such as hypochondriasis, for example). The same would occur in meningitophobia.

Symptoms

The main symptom of meningitophobia is Intense, irrational, and disproportionate fear of meningitis or brain disease in general.. This fear appears even in the absence of evidence of having it or of being at risk (that is why it is considered a disproportionate fear).

Logically, contracting diseases causes certain fear or respect (and more if they are brain diseases), but when this fear becomes pathological (exaggeratedly intense or incapacitating), meningitophobia appears.

This fear can manifest itself through other symptoms, such as: elevated anxiety, irritability, nervousness, sweating, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, etc.etc. When the fear is very intense, panic attacks may even appear.

Causes

Etiologically, the fear of getting sick (in general) can be related to ancestral and evolutionary responses of the human being, who has avoided approaching stimuli or situations that could cause some kind of disease, as an adaptive and survival mechanism. Thus, evolutionarily this type of responses had a certain sense and a certain function.

However, in phobias, this adaptive mechanism is dysfunctional and appears in an exaggerated form.. This is the case of meningitotophobia (and other phobias related to diseases).

Other possible causes are previous traumatic experiences related to a brain disease, vicarious experiences, conditioning, etc., as well as a genetic predisposition to suffer from anxiety disorders.

Differences with hypochondriasis

In order to correctly diagnose meningithophobia, a good differential diagnosis must be made. One of the disorders with which it is advisable to do so is hypochondriasis, due to its similar characteristics:

Hypochondria

Hypochondriasis (called "disease disorder" in the DSM-5) is a disorder classified within the category of "somatic and related disorders". Its main characteristic is that the patient manifests a high level of worry and an intense fear of suffering from a serious illness.

In some cases, this fear is caused by the conviction of already having the disease. But how does the disorder arise? It arises as a result of the patient's misinterpretations of all his symptoms (or signs), associating them directly with the disease in question. (or signs), associating them directly with the disease in question. In reality, however, there is no disease (or if there is, the symptoms are not related to it).

The main difference between hypochondriasis and meningitophobia is that in the former the fear appears in the face of various diseases (or any disease in mind), whereas in meningitophobia the fear appears only in the face of the possibility of suffering from a brain disease (generally, as we have seen, meningitis). In addition, whereas hypochondriasis is a somatic disorder, meningitophobia is an anxiety disorder (as a phobia). (as a phobia).

Finally, another distinguishing feature between the two disorders is that in hypochondriasis, many other associated symptoms appear (checking behaviors, visits to numerous physicians, histrionic symptoms, misinterpretations of symptoms, etc.). In meningitophobia, on the other hand, the fundamental fear is the fear of suffering from meningitis.

Treatment

Specific phobias are treated with exposure and cognitive techniques.. In fact, exposure therapy is the first recommended therapeutic option, as it offers the best results. It involves the patient gradually approaching the feared stimuli (through a hierarchy of phobic items ordered by the degree of discomfort they cause).

Exposure therapy can be accompanied by relaxation and breathing techniques (in this case we speak of systematic desensitization, a type of therapy where a relaxing response incompatible with anxiety is executed during exposure).

In the specific case of meningitophobia, exposure can consist of the patient gradually "approaching" the disease, rather metaphorically; this can be done through access to explanations of the disease, photographs, videos, contact with people who actually have meningitis, etc.

In the case of this particular phobia, moreover, it will be advisable to combine expository therapy with cognitive techniques such as cognitive restructuring.since it is a phobia where the stimulus is difficult to "face" (since the patient does not really suffer from the disease).

In this way, cognitive techniques will help the patient to have a more realistic view of the likelihood of contracting meningitis, and will allow the intense fear of meningitis to be reduced and/or eliminated.

Bibliographic references:

• American Psychiatric Association (APA) (2014). DSM-5. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Madrid. Panamericana.
• Belloch, A., Sandín, B. and Ramos, F. (2010). Manual de Psicopatología. Volume I and II. Madrid: McGraw-Hill.
• Pérez, M., Fernández, J.R., Fernández, C. and Amigo, I. (2010). Guide to effective psychological treatments I: Adults. Madrid: Pirámide