The Coprophobia , Or estopophobia, is a type of phobia Which is characterized by experiencing an irrational and excessive fear of the feces.
People with this disorder experience high sensations of anxiety Provided they are exposed to feces. They also try to avoid contact with these elements whenever they can.
Despite being a type of phobia that is not very prevalent, subjects with coprophobia may experience high feelings of discomfort in their daily lives and require psychological treatment.
This article reviews the main characteristics of this alteration, discusses its symptoms and their causes and reviews the interventions to be performed for its treatment.
Characteristics of coprophobia
Coprophobia is an anxiety disorder. Specifically, it is a specific and rare type of specific phobia.
In this case, the phobic element is the feces, so that subjects with coprophobia experience high feelings of discomfort and anxiety whenever they are exposed to excrement.
Another important feature of the disorder is the behavior that derives from the fear experienced. In this sense, subjects with coprophobia try to avoid contact with the faeces permanently and stay as far away as possible from the excrement.
The main feature of the disorder is the appearance of an excruciating and excessive fear of the feces. This fear is based on irrational thoughts and causes a high discomfort in the person.
Thus, not all types of fear or dislike of feces can be included within the diagnosis of coprophobia. To be able to do it, it is necessary that a series of characteristics are present. These are:
1. Excessive fear
The fear of the feces experienced in coprophobia is excessive in its intensity. In fact, people with this disorder fear excrement very intensely, so when exposed to them they manifest a maximum anxiety response.
Faeces are not a real threat to humans, but copro- phobia subjects interpret excrement as extremely threatening.
2- Irrational fear
The fear of coprophobia is so intense and excessive because it is based on irrational thoughts.
In this way, the fear of the disorder is characterized by not being subject to cognitive processes Rational and presents a high number of distorted and extreme ideas about the damage that can be received when in contact with feces.
3- Uncontrollable fear
Another important feature of phobic fear of feces is that it is uncontrollable. That is, the subject has no mechanism to control the occurrence of feelings of fear, as well as anxiety responses.
When a person with coprophobia is exposed to the feces he immediately experiences a series of highly distressing sensations.
4- Persistent fear
Fear of coprophobia is characterized by being persistent. It does not appear in a specific way nor is it subject to certain vital stages or moments.
Likewise, phobic fear of feces is permanent and does not disappear unless the pertinent interventions are performed.
5- It leads to avoidance
Finally, phobic fear of feces is characterized by motivating a major behavior of the disorder, avoidance. People with this disorder will try to avoid contact with excrement through all their means. Also, when they can not avoid such contact, they will escape from the feces as quickly as they can.
symptom
Coprophobia constitutes an anxiety disorder and its symptoms are mainly anxious.
Specifically, manifestations of coprophobia can be classified into three broad categories: physical symptoms, cognitive symptoms and behavioral symptoms.
1- Physical symptoms
The feelings of fear experienced in coprophobia involve the appearance of a series of modifications in the functioning of the organism whenever the subject is exposed to its phobic element.
This is due to an increase in autonomic nervous system . This increase translates into a series of physical symptoms of anxiety. The main ones are:
- Increased heart rate.
- Increased respiratory rate.
- Palpitations or tachycardia.
- Feeling of choking.
- Muscle tension.
- Increased sweating.
- Pupil dilation.
- Feeling of unreality.
- Dizziness, nausea and vomiting.
2- Cognitive symptoms
Beyond the physical symptoms, coprophobia is also characterized by generating a series of cognitive manifestations. These are based on a series of irrational thoughts about the damage and discomfort caused by faeces.
These thoughts appear with greater intensity when the subject is exposed to its phobic element and are fed with the physical manifestations to increase the state of anxiety.
The irrational cognitions of the disorder can take multiple forms and contents, but they are always characterized by negatively attributing the phobic element.
3- Behavioral symptoms
Finally, coprophobia is characterized by a series of behavioral alterations. These symptoms appear in response to the physical and cognitive manifestations, as well as the high state of anxiety and discomfort that the person experiences.
In this sense, the two main behaviors of the alteration are avoidance and escape. The avoidance refers to a followed of behaviors that the subject develops with the aim of avoiding contact with the feces at all times.
Escape, on the other hand, is the behavior that develops when the subject can not avoid contact with his phobic stimulus and separates as rapidly as possible from the excrement.
Causes
Coprophobia is a disorder that does not present a single cause and multiple factors are associated in its etiology.
The main ones are the vicarious conditioning, the verbal conditioning, the Personality traits , Genetic factors and thought patterns.
Treatment
The first choice treatment for coprophobia is the psychotherapy . Specifically, cognitive behavioral treatment has very high efficacy rates in its intervention.
This treatment is mainly based on exposure. Through a gradual approach to the phobic stimulus, the subject with coprophobia becomes habit-forming in the feces and learns to control their anxiety responses.
References
- Caballo V.E., Salazar, IC., Carrobles J.A. (2011). Manual of psychopathology and psychological disorders. Madrid: Piramide.
- American Psychiatric Association. DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2002). [Links]
- Spitzer, R.L., Gibbon, M., Skodol, A.E., Williams, J.B.W., First, M.B. (nineteen ninety six). DSM-IV Casebook. [Links]
- Obiols, J. (Ed.) (2008). Manual of general psychopathology. Madrid: New library.