The coprophobia or skatophobia is a type of specific phobia characterized by experiencing an irrational and excessive fear of feces. People with this disorder experience high feelings of anxiety whenever they are exposed to stool. Likewise, they try to avoid contact with these elements whenever they can.
Despite being a rare type of phobia, subjects with coprophobia may experience high feelings of discomfort in their day-to-day life and require psychological treatment.
In this article, the main characteristics of this disorder are reviewed, its symptoms and causes are discussed, and the interventions to be carried out for its treatment are reviewed..
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Coprophobia is an anxiety disorder. Specifically, it constitutes a certain and rare type of specific phobia.
In this case, the phobic element is feces, so that subjects with coprophobia experience high sensations of discomfort and anxiety whenever they are exposed to excrement.
Another important characteristic of the disorder is the behavior that stems from the fear experienced. In this sense, subjects with coprophobia try to avoid contact with feces permanently and stay as far away as possible from excrement.
The main characteristic of the disorder is the appearance of an excruciating and excessive fear of feces. This fear is based on irrational thoughts and causes a high level of discomfort in the person.
Thus, not all types of fear or dislike of stool can be included in the diagnosis of coprophobia. To be able to do this, a series of characteristics must be present. These are:
The fear of stool experienced in coprophobia is excessive in its intensity. In fact, people with this disorder have a very intense fear of excrement, so when exposed to them they manifest a maximum anxiety response.
Feces are not a real threat to people, but people with coprophobia interpret feces as extremely threatening.
The fear regarding 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 rational cognitive processes and presents a high number of distorted and extreme ideas about the damage that can be received when in contact with feces.
Another important feature of the phobic fear of stool is that it is uncontrollable. That is, the subject does not have any type of mechanism to control the appearance of fear sensations, as well as anxiety responses..
When a person with coprophobia is exposed to feces, they immediately experience a series of highly distressing sensations.
The fear of coprophobia is characterized by being persistent. This does not appear in a timely manner nor is it subject to certain stages or vital moments.
Likewise, the phobic fear of feces is permanent and does not disappear unless the pertinent interventions are carried out..
Finally, the phobic fear of stool is characterized by motivating a main behavior of the disorder, avoidance. People with this alteration will try to avoid contact with excrement through all their means. Likewise, when they cannot avoid such contact, they will escape the stool as quickly as possible..
Coprophobia is an anxiety disorder so its symptoms are mainly anxious. Specifically, the manifestations of coprophobia can be classified into three broad categories: physical symptoms, cognitive symptoms and behavioral symptoms..
The feelings of fear that are experienced in coprophobia imply the appearance of a series of modifications in the functioning of the organism each time the subject is exposed to its phobic element.
This fact is due to an increase in the activity of the autonomic nervous system. This increase translates into a series of physical symptoms of anxiety. The main ones are:
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 stool.
These thoughts appear with greater intensity when the subject is exposed to their phobic element and they are fed back with physical manifestations to increase the state of anxiety.
Irrational cognitions of the disorder can take multiple forms and contents, but are always characterized by negatively attributing the phobic element.
Finally, coprophobia is characterized by generating a series of behavioral alterations. These symptoms appear in response to physical and cognitive manifestations, as well as the high state of anxiety and discomfort experienced by the person.
In this sense, the two main behaviors of alteration are avoidance and escape. Avoidance refers to a series of behaviors that the subject develops with the aim of avoiding contact with feces at all times.
On the other hand, escape is the behavior that develops when the subject cannot avoid contact with his phobic stimulus and separates himself from the excrement as quickly as possible..
Coprophobia is a disorder that does not have a single cause and multiple factors are associated with its etiology.
The main ones are vicarious conditioning, verbal conditioning, personality traits, genetic factors, and thought patterns..
The first-line treatment for coprophobia is 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 accustomed to stool and learns to control his anxiety responses.
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