Autodisomophobia (fear Of Smelling Bad): Symptoms, Causes And Treatment
It is likely that on some occasion, while traveling by public transport, some of the people reading these lines have experienced how one of the passengers gave off an aroma considered unpleasant, such as the smell of sweat, humidity or some foods or drinks.
And the truth is that the idea that oneself could generate this type of smell is aversive, since practically no one likes to smell bad (something that can be attested to by the fact that there is an entire industry that manufactures perfumes, fragrances and deodorants ).
But although the idea of smelling bad can be unpleasant, most people limit themselves to taking care of their hygiene and trying not to have a bad smell, without worrying too much about it even if on occasion they are the ones who give off a bad smell. However, some people can develop a real fear of smelling bad, to the point of developing a phobia of it that can become so severe that it greatly invalidates their daily activities. It’s about autodisomophobia Let’s see what it is.
It is called autodisomophobia. the phobia or fear of stinking or smelling bad, although sometimes it also includes the fear of bad smell in general even if it comes from others. It is a specific situational phobia, although strongly related to social phobia since in this case the fear would be largely linked to the social judgment derived from bad body odor.
Bad body odor is generally associated with poor hygiene (although there are other factors that can explain it, such as having played sports, wearing excessively warm clothing or suffering from some diseases), which is socially considered poorly and generates rejection. .
As a phobia, we are faced with a reaction of very intense fear or dread towards a certain stimulus, which is generally recognized as irrational and excessive with respect to the real risk it entails. This fear triggers an anxious response upon exposure to the stimulus, which in turn can cause the appearance of physiological symptoms such as tachycardia, sweating, tremors, hyperventilation, pain or chest pain, among others, and which can even trigger an anxiety crisis. .
Likewise, the anxiety generated by exposure or the idea of being close to the stimulus in question causes the person to avoid the stimulus or all those contexts or stimuli that can be associated with the one that generates fear. In this case, the fear would be the bad smell and/or the fact of smelling bad.
Symptoms
The fact that the fact of smelling bad or the idea of being able to emit a bad smell generates so much panic and anxiety may seem harmless, but the truth is that it can be very limiting at all levels for the person with this phobia.
And those who suffer from autodisomophobia can suffer greatly. It should be taken into account that the person may be hyperalert regarding the slightest body odor that they may consider aversive, and may even develop some obsessive checking behaviors or even show a tendency to consider that they smell bad when they do not, or to consider that any comment referring to smells is directed at him or her.
Furthermore, paradoxically, the anxiety one feels favors exposure to the reason for one’s discomfort: increased activation could cause us to sweat something that could make us smell bad, which in turn would generate more anxiety.
This phobia affects all levels, and whether it is to prevent others from smelling our bad odor or to avoid smelling the bad odor of others. It is common to avoid large crowds and gatherings in groups. It is also common to avoid public transport or small venues, such as nightclubs and bars. Personally, this phobia It can cause difficulties in interacting with other people and even as a couple and complications may also appear at the work level if the job requires contact with others.
Massive and excessive applications of perfumes or deodorants can be used, something that in turn can paradoxically generate an excessively strong and unpleasant odor and even generate skin irritations, and even going outside can be avoided.
Those things and actions that can make people smell bad are also usually avoided. In this sense, you can stop doing physical activity and exercise, avoid having sexual relations and, depending on the case, even avoiding cooking or eating foods that can generate flatulence and gas.
The causes of this phobia are not completely known, but there are some hypotheses about it. Furthermore, it must be taken into account that there is no single cause, but rather it is considered to be a product of the interaction of multiple factors that predispose us to suffer it
One of the main hypotheses that could serve as an explanation is the existence of some traumatic or painful experience of rejection in the face of bad smell, either to the subject themselves or to another loved one, who has been judged, criticized or rejected for this reason. Likewise, it is possible that a traumatic experience has been experienced in which bad odor and suffering have been associated, such as the vision or experience of a murder, rape or abuse by a subject with bad body odor (in this way , one’s own or another’s bad smell would be a highly aversive element when associated with trauma).
Another possible reason could be in modeling and learning from parental models or an environment in which bad smell is always judged. It could also happen that a person with a previous social phobia ends up linking possible social rejection with body odor. This would create a cognitive schema in which bad smell would be equivalent to something painful or extremely embarrassing that over time some stressor or triggering event could reactivate.
There would also be predisposing factors on a personal level, with these people often having low self-esteem as a base and being insecure, often desirous of approval and social reinforcement and highly sensitive to both rejection and disgust.
Treatment
As with the rest of the phobias, autodisomophobia can be treated successfully in psychotherapy And among the most successful techniques, the exposure technique stands out, which is mainly based on making the subject face the situations that generate anxiety and fear in a gradual way in such a way that said anxiety ends up decreasing by itself and ends up become controllable. In this sense, it is necessary to develop an exposure hierarchy that allows grading the level of anxiety that each situation generates, so that the subject begins facing medium-level situations and gradually increases.
Exposures can be to odors or activities that can generate them, or to situations in which there may be this type of stimulus. Once the therapy is advanced, the subject could have to do an activity that makes them smell bad and expose themselves in public, although it would also be advisable to work on cognitive elements first.
And it is that it will be necessary to work in depth at a cognitive level, assessing what the bad smell implies for the subject, when the problem began and what it is associated with, to what extent the phobia causes disability or harms their daily life and the beliefs, emotions and thoughts that may be sustaining the problem. It would also be useful to help relativize the importance of smell through cognitive restructuring techniques, helping to modify the subject’s beliefs and thoughts in a way that makes them more functional.
Taking into account that this is a phobia closely linked to social issues and that behind this type of phobia there may be a deficit in social skills, it might be advisable to carry out training in this type of skills, as well as stress management. Relaxation techniques can be beneficial to combat anticipation and start with a lower level of anxiety, but they should never be used as a method of active avoidance of anxiety (as this could negatively reinforce other avoidance behaviors). In extreme cases, anxiolytic drugs could be used to reduce the level of anxiety and be able to work correctly.
