Blenophobia (viscosity phobia): symptoms, causes and treatment.

A form of anxiety disorder in which the phobic stimulus is viscous substances.

Blenophobia is the persistent and intense fear of viscous textures.. Such textures include, for example, some foods, bodily fluids and the skin of various animals. It is a poorly documented experience and often mistaken for an aversion.

In this article we will see what is blenophobia, what are the conditions that it must fulfill 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.

Blenophobia: fear of viscosity.

The term "bleno" is composed of the Greek "blennos", which means "mucus", and "phobos" which means "phobia". In this sense, blenophobia can be defined as a persistent and intense fear of mucous or slimy consistencies. of mucous or viscous consistencies.. To be considered a phobia, this fear must provoke an immediate and disproportionate anxiety response; and it must not be justified by the person's cultural codes (it is thus considered an irrational fear).

Furthermore, to be considered a phobia, this fear must significantly interfere with the person's daily activities. In other words, fear of exposure to viscous textures would generate both anxiety symptoms and avoidance. both anxiety symptoms and constant avoidance of such exposure..

Some examples of textures to which blenophobia refers are the skin of a snail or fish, the consistency of an egg and raw meat, or one's own and other people's body fluids. All of them represent stimuli capable of developing a phobic fear.

However, the fear of viscosity has not been described in the scientific literature as a specific phobia.. Thus, although it is quite common that 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 irrational, persistent and intense fear, which 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. These include visceral activity, respiration, palpitations, among others.

Thus, the response triggered by the exposure to the stimulus that causes the phobia generates sweating, hyperventilation or else, sensation of suffocation, increased heart rate, decreased Gastrointestinal activity, and decreased gastrointestinal activity.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, in order to avoid it, the person experiencing it generates avoidance and defensive behaviors. For example, avoiding places or circumstances where the stimulus is present.

On the other hand, specific phobias are considered as such when the fear and anxiety cannot be explained by other conditions. cannot be explained by other clinical pictures (such as obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder or social phobia).

In the case of blenophobia, it would be a matter of avoiding contact with any viscous texture, as otherwise a significant anxiety experience is triggered. The latter should not be explainable by other means, e.g., it should not be one of the manifestations of other diagnoses where there is frequently there is often a significant sensitivity to textures..

On the other hand, an aversion can be defined as the strong repulsion to touch, taste or hear things, to which most people are indifferent or even find pleasant (Bados, 2005). They are similar to phobias in that they produce discomfort and are generated by specific stimuli.

However, they differ in that the discomfort does not interfere in the person's life, and they are also different in the general symptoms. Aversions cause shivering, 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:

• Having had direct or indirect negative experiences with stimuli that have a high probability of becoming phobic.
• Having fewer positive experiences with the stimulusThe severity and high frequency of specific phobias are mainly the following.
• The severity and high frequency of negative experiences to which the person has been exposed, either directly or indirectly.
• Biological readiness (phobias are more easily triggered by stimuli that put biological integrity at risk).
• The expectation of danger corresponds to the negative experience lived.
• Ways in which the threatening information about the stimulus has been transmitted.
• Having gone through a process of erroneous association or superstitious conditioning triggered by false alarms.

On the other hand, aversions are generated by the reinforcement of unpleasant sensations associated with the stimulus, aversions are generated by the reinforcement of unpleasant sensations associated with the stimulus, accompanied by a constant reinforcement of related avoidance behaviors.accompanied by constant reinforcement of the related avoidance behaviors. 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 avoid the same food under any circumstances.

Treatment

The most commonly used psychological treatments for specific phobias are live exposure, participant modeling, cognitive restructuring, introspective exploration, imaginal exposure, relaxation techniques, systematic desensitization and modeling. The latter is especially useful in children and when there is a need to teach different skills.

For their part, aversions usually diminish without treatment, but in extreme cases, graded exposure can be used. in extreme cases, a graded exposure can be used to achieve a non-aversive approach to the stimulus. that allows a non-aversive approach to the stimulus.

Bibliographical references:

• Bados, A. (2005). Specific phobias. Faculty of Psychology. Departament de Personalitat, Avaluació i Tractament Psicològics. Universitat de Barcelona. Retrieved September 26, 2018. Available at http://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/360/1/113.pdf.
• Blenophobia (2018). Fobias.net. Retrieved September 25, 2018. Available at http://www.fobias.net/Blenofobia.html.
• BLENO Etymology (2018). Etymologias.dechile.net. Retrieved September 25, 2018. Available at http://etimologias.dechile.net/?bleno.