Fear of bathing or washing (ablutophobia): causes, symptoms and treatment

This phobia can cause major hygiene and, later, health problems.

There are different types of phobias, one of the most documented, although not very frequent, is ablutophobia..

Ablutophobia is the irrational fear that a person feels of bathing or washing. Therefore, it can have serious unhygienic consequences for the person suffering from this pathology. In this article we will go deeper into this mental disorder and we will learn about its causes, symptoms and consequences.

What is ablutophobia

Ablutophobia is a phobic disorder commonly known as fear of bathing or washing.. Phobias are anxiety disorders that cause great discomfort to the person who suffers from them. In an attempt to reduce its negative symptoms, it makes an effort to avoid the stimulus that causes it and, therefore, something as commonplace as showering or washing can trigger a severe and persistent fear in these individuals.

The negative consequences of this fear go beyond this, and can affect people's lives, as it can lead to bad odor, dirtiness and poor personal hygiene of the affected person. This undoubtedly has an effect on their social life, not only in terms of their friendships or family, but also with respect to their employment and work life.

Research suggests that it is more common in women and children, although at an early age many children have a certain fear of bathing. Now, this fear is more likely to be due to an extreme aversion to the toilet and, in fact, this problem is generally not considered a phobia unless it lasts longer than six months or continues into adolescence and adulthood.

Like any phobia, if left untreated, it can worsen and cause other physical ailments due to poor hygiene.. Rejection by others may also occur.

Causes of this disorder

Irrational fears are usually learned and occur after a traumatic event.. For example, although many children have a fear of water, which usually disappears when they realize that nothing terrible happens in the bathtub, others may develop this phobia if parents force them to take a bath, because they may associate the bathtub with unhappiness and aggressiveness of the parents.

The mechanism by which this fear develops is what is known as classical conditioning, which is a type of associative learning in which the person associates a stimulus that was originally neutral with another stimulus that elicits a fear response. This association causes the fear response to occur simply by the presence of the previously neutral stimulus.

The following video illustrates how we learn to have irrational fears.

Phobias, therefore, usually develop in childhood; however, they can appear at any time in a person's life.

Other possible causes

But traumatic events experienced by the person are not the only way to develop phobic disorders. It can happen that people learn a phobia by observation, or rather by vicarious conditioning.. For example, when they are children, by observing an adult panicking at bath time.

Experts also affirm that people are predisposed to suffer from this type of fear, since this emotion is adaptive and has been very useful for human survival. Therefore, phobias have to do with the primitive part of the brain, known as the emotional brain, and that is why they do not usually respond well to logical arguments. In other words, phobias develop through associations that are not cognitive, but primitive.

Symptoms of fear of bathing

People with ablutophobia may experience a variety of symptoms when they are in situations where the phobic stimulus is presented. They may feel some physical and physiological symptoms such as nausea, sweating, fear, trembling, headache, or dizziness. or dizziness. Some experience panic attacks, which may include shortness of breath, high blood pressure and a rapid heart rate.

Psychological symptoms include anxiety and anguish, irrational fear, thoughts of death, lack of concentration. Likewise, people with bathing phobia try to avoid this situation at all costs, in order to reduce the discomfort they feel.

Feelings of shame are frequentThe lack of cleanliness in many cultures creates rejection or mockery.

Treatment

Although some people suffer from this phobia, it is not a cause for embarrassment. In most cases it has to do with a past event and a psychologist can help the patient deal with the problem.

Thus, people with ablutophobia can get help from a psychological professional, and studies show that psychological therapy is very effective. Cognitive behavioral therapy, which uses different techniques, is generally employed.. The most frequent and useful in these cases are relaxation techniques and exposure techniques.

In fact, the most commonly used technique includes the two previous ones and is called systematic desensitization, which consists of gradually exposing the patient to the phobic stimulus, but first he/she must learn a series of resources that will allow him/her to face the feared situations.

In severe cases, some patients benefit from anxiolytic and Antidepressant drugs, but they should always be used in combination with psychotherapy.

Other possible treatments

Nowadays, other therapeutic methods that have proven to be effective are also often used, such as hypnosis, Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy, which you can learn more about in our articles.

You can learn more about them in our articles:

• Hypnotherapy: what is it and what are its benefits?
• Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy: what is it?
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): principles and features