Contents:
- Medical Video: 25 Strange Phobias You May Not Know You Have
- Get to know bromidrophobia, when someone is afraid of excessive body odor
- What causes someone to be afraid of body odor?
- Distinguish the fear of normal and excessive body odor
- So, how to overcome the fear of excessive body odor?
Medical Video: 25 Strange Phobias You May Not Know You Have
Everyone certainly wants to look attractive and fragrant anywhere. Sometimes, you might spray perfume excessively to make sure your body remains fragrant before you move. Because I was afraid of having unpleasant body odor, someone could change to be diligent in bathing and cleaning to tend to overdo it. In the world of psychology, this is referred to as bromidrophobia, aka fear of body odor. Is there a way to deal with body odor phobia? Here's the explanation.
Get to know bromidrophobia, when someone is afraid of excessive body odor
It's natural if you want to have a clean and fragrant body all day long. Especially after exercising or doing activities that emit a lot of sweat, it feels like to take a shower soon, right?
People who experience bromidrophobia will usually go crazy cleaning and hobbies bathing to prevent body odor. The reason is, people affected by this phobia become very afraid of body odor until they are anxious to be ostracized by those around them.
Without realizing it, this type of phobia is quite common in the community. Dr. Katharine Phillips from Rhode Island Hospital in Providence, revealed to WebMD that as many as 85 percent of people feel that they give off a bad smell that is bothering other people, even though it isn't.
In quite severe cases, bromidrophobia sufferers may injure their own body because of excessive rubbing while bathing and cleaning.
In addition to fear of body odor yourself, people with bromidrophobia are also afraid of the smell of other people's bodies. In essence, people with this phobia believe that the unpleasant scent is very annoying and dirty.
What causes someone to be afraid of body odor?
Every person is obliged to maintain the cleanliness of his body to reduce the risk of transmission of diseases and infections. Not only for the body, diligently cleaning the house and washing kitchen utensils can also help you prevent transmission of diseases that can come at any time.
However, like mycopophobia or fear of germs, people with bromidrophobia tend to undergo excessive clean habits. Experts suspect people who are afraid of body odor experience obsessive-compulsive disorder or OCD.
If it is associated with OCD, a person can experience reflexes and be forced to clean excessively to fulfill his wishes. In the case of bromidrophobia, a person will move quickly to immediately clean as soon as he realizes his body is causing an unpleasant odor.
Distinguish the fear of normal and excessive body odor
Most people have a routine of cleaning the body before traveling. Examples of bathing, shampooing, brushing teeth, and using deodorants or perfumes. However, in people who have bromidrophobia, all these routines are not enough.
People affected by body odor phobia will perform excessive cleaning rituals before leaving home. For example, bathing routines become more frequent (can be more than three times a day) for fear of not being clean enough. In fact, they tend to doscrubbing which is excessive to shed germs on the skin.
Like other types of phobia, the symptoms of bromidrophobia can develop even worse if not treated immediately. Because they want to keep clean and fragrant, people with bromidrophobia tend to:
- Do not want to exercise or do strenuous activities that can trigger sweat
- Refuse to go anywhere if there are no clean and fragrant toilet facilities
- Affected by social phobia or even agoraphobia, which is a feeling of fear of being trapped in a public place until excessive panic
So, how to overcome the fear of excessive body odor?
People who fear excessive body odor tend to not be able to control their own fears. Therefore, he must immediately ask for help from a doctor or psychologist to get the right treatment.
Usually, your doctor will recommend you undergo cognitive and behavioral therapy (CBT) so that you can return to normal habits. In this therapy, you will learn about:
- How to understand the condition of your own body as well as the body's natural scent through a series of relaxation techniques. The aim is to control anxiety and fear of excessive body odor.
- Receiving the body's natural scent with a series of exercises known as systematic desensitization. Here you will understand that the true body has a natural aroma that can appear at any time. So, the body's natural scents need not be overly worried.
