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Body Phobias

Bromidrophobia – The Fear of Body Odor

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Decoding Bromidrophobia: The Fear of Body Odor

Do you find yourself always trying to smell your breath and underarms? Have you ever been caught in this embarrassing act?

Do you worry about your supply of breath spray or layer on the underarm deodorant? Would you prefer that cologne came in quart-sized jars?

Is bromidrophobia a phobia of fear or disgust?

If you have these tendencies, then you may suffer from bromidrophobia, or the fear of body odor. Living in constant fear of smelling bad or trying to get rid of body odor isn’t easy. But like any other phobia, bromidrophobia can be managed. Let’s explore this fear in detail and learn what you can do to tackle it.

Some Basic Facts about Bromidrophobia

Is there a fear of body odor? The answer is yes! Bromidrophobia is the phobia of body odor, and it’s quite common.

While personal hygiene is essential, the human body emits natural scents. In most cases, these bodily smells act as chemical messengers. However, if you suffer from a fear of perceived odors, you may constantly imagine that you smell bad. It’s a serious condition that is sometimes linked with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).

Here’s the thing: Body odor is natural and inevitable. When you suffer from the fear of smelling unpleasant, it starts to affect your day-to-day activities. First off, it destroys your sense of confidence. It can also make you highly self-conscious. Even if you can sometimes convince yourself that you smell okay, you might find yourself avoiding certain activities that can cause you to smell or expose you to smells of others. You may even end up avoiding social situations.

If you regularly have apprehensions about body odor, then you might wonder where to draw the line between being hygienic and going overboard. When the thought of your perceived body odor—or even another’s—starts to cause anxiety, that’s when you’ve crossed the line.

 

What Causes Bromidrophobia?

There are many causes of bromidrophobia. Fear of body odor can often be diagnosed as olfactory reference syndrome (ORS). ORS is a mental condition that causes a person to believe they have a foul body odor. It’s often linked with OCD and body dysmorphic disorder (BDD). Those with this disorder may show signs of obsession and fear of body odor. But ORS and bromidrophobia are different conditions. Bromidrophobia is concerned with getting rid of smell while ORS is a condition that involves the obsessive behaviors this fear might induce. ORS is more severe as it may induce compulsive and destructive thoughts in those who struggle with it.

Just like most phobias, the most common bromidrophobia cause is experience. In today’s society, everyone is expected to adhere to a high standard of hygiene. Bad body odor is frowned upon even among children. It may drive them to bully and call out their friends in unpleasant situations. Children who were repeatedly called out and ridiculed for their body odor or foul breath may grow up to be excessively self-conscious and susceptible to the reactions of others.

We know that bromidrophobia is also the fear of someone else’s body odor. Therefore, the fear of body odor might also be linked to traumatizing experiences that may remind people of an aggressor or abuser’s body odor. In this case, perceiving foul odor from someone else may trigger their own trauma and anxiety.

Stress is also known to be a cause of bromidrophobia.

Symptoms of Bromidrophobia

Bromidrophobia symptoms are easy to detect. If you have a fear of body odor, you may often experience symptoms, because odor can be perceived anywhere. Someone suffering from the phobia might not show all the symptoms but just a few of them excessively. Here is the list of the more common bromidrophobia symptoms to watch for.

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Increased obsession with colognes and deodorants
  • Excessive use of fragrances
  • Engagement in extreme cleansing rituals
  • Avoidance of public places
  • Reluctance to visit locations with inadequate restroom facilities
  • Avoidance of physical activities leading to sweating
  • Feelings of anxiety and shame
  • Restlessness
  • Aversion to intimacy

Physical Symptoms

  • Sniffing at yourself excessively
  • Taking long and excessive showers
  • Reluctance to eat smelly foods, such as foods with onions and garlic
  • Over-scrubbing one’s skin during showers
  • Brushing teeth more than three or more times a day
  • Changing and washing clothes excessively
  • Too much gum and mint intake
  • High irritability and mood swings

How Do You Deal with Bromidrophobia?

No matter how inexplicable or irrational your fear of perceived odors is, it is treatable. Seeking professional help aside, you can try self-care efforts to tackle your bromidrophobia.

What Can You Do to Help Yourself?

Self-care for any phobia teaches you how to cope with it on your own terms. You can begin by coming to terms with your fear. Each time intrusive thoughts cloud your mind, write them down. Go into as much detail as you feel like; it will take your mind off your obsession.

Try relaxing your mind and body. Consider yoga and meditation. Yoga can assist in easing the effects of stress and anxiety. It improves concentration and memory. Yoga has a great impact on mental health and can help you in connecting with your inner self. Anxiety and fear can be reduced by watching yoga videos and practicing different poses daily.

If you regularly subject yourself to severe cleansing, try to gradually cut down on the time you spend on these rituals. If you take hour-long baths, decrease the duration by 15 minutes each day. Practice and practice some more until your body settles into the new routine. Also, try and think of things that make you happy when thoughts about body odor come to mind.

Professional Help for the Fear of Body Odor: The Options Available

Those with bromidrophobia can benefit from a range of treatments. The research on ORS has been very helpful in determining which treatments work well. For example, exposure therapy is a common bromidrophobia treatment that safely exposes you to your fear. During this exposure, you’ll learn ways of dealing with your reactions. The main aim of the therapy is to assure you that body odor won’t hurt you.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is another common therapy practice. In CBT, you’ll work with your therapist to change the negative thought patterns associated with a fear of body odor. This form of therapy seeks to trace the root cause of your phobia. It tries to break it down to find a solution that helps combat irrational fear.

Talk therapy is another type of counseling that can help you express your feelings and concerns. It focuses on helping you learn more about yourself, and encourages you to let go of your unfounded worries.

Learning to Cope with Bromidrophobia

If you live with bromidrophobia, treatment can help you deal with your fear. However, nothing can completely take your phobia away. It’s important to come terms with your fear, and learn how to manage your phobia.

Wrapping It Up

Bromidrophobia is a phobia that tends to preoccupy your mind morning, noon, and night. The most healthy way to combat this fear is by using relaxation techniques to manage your anxiety. Also, try to confront the notion that body odor can only be detected in extreme cases. Besides, studies have shown that a natural body odor may attract the opposite sex. So next time you panic about smelling bad, give your thoughts a rest.

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Your Fear Goes Up and Down

Are you someone who would rather climb the stairs than take the elevator? You call it squeezing in a workout after being sedentary the whole morning. Or perhaps you claim it's a faster route. These are both typical, normal, and acceptable reasons. But what if you need to be in the conference room on the eleventh floor in five minutes, and you're wearing your business suit and wingtips? Would you still prefer to take the stairs? If your answer is yes, then maybe it's time to take a closer look at your reasons for avoiding elevators. Elevators stir all sorts of emotions in passengers. From the discomfort of closeness to strangers to the sensations in our gut, elevators can be a source of the heebie-jeebies for many, but for some, they can also be a source of terror. Let's dig a little deeper into the latter, and see what this terror is all about and what can be done to manage it. To begin with, does being inside an elevator give you chills or the sweats? Or does it trigger an unpleasant memory? Perhaps you remember movies you've watched where something terrible happens inside an elevator. From Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, Final Destination 2, or the king of all elevator horror films, 2010’s Devil, the elevator becomes witness to something sinister and horrible. And you want nothing to do with any of it. You know that you're not claustrophobic. You can deal with heights just fine, too. And you know that you're not going to be trapped inside. All of these contribute to a fear of elevators—but they don't apply to you. Yet being inside one does something to you. It's hard to explain.

What is the Fear of Elevators Called?

What you have is a fear of elevators, which is called elevatophobia. It is most commonly triggered by an experience of getting stuck inside either due to a power outage or technical maintenance. Hearing about other people's experiences or watching a movie about similar circumstances can prompt a fear of elevators getting stuck with you inside. Usually, claustrophobics and agoraphobics may also develop elevatophobia because the triggers and objects of these fears are related. Claustrophobia is the fear of closed and cramped spaces, while agoraphobia is the fear of being trapped without any means of escape. Put the two together, and the elevator becomes the perfect combination of both phobias. The space is limited and closed, with only one means of entry and exit. You can add another point of access if you consider climbing the cables like they do in the movies, but that certainly isn't ideal.

Symptoms of Elevatophobia

If for some reason an elevator stops due to an outage or some technical difficulty, passengers with elevatophobia may go into full panic mode. Even if the maintenance team advises that it will just be a matter of minutes, by then, the person's mind has become irrational with the fear of the elevator falling, being stuck for hours, or other unpleasant thoughts. You would expect a person to exhibit the following physical symptoms: Additionally, you would be filled with that overwhelming anxiety where you feel that you have zero control over the situation. You start fearing the unknown and are filled with negative thoughts about death and imminent doom. You become irrational and unresponsive.

Possible Complications of Elevatophobia

When the panic sets in, the possibility of emergencies related to pre-existing conditions may make themselves known. This might include serious health crises like heart attacks or asthma attacks. When this happens, fear becomes a medical emergency. Elevator rides do not last long; it's just a matter of minutes or even less. But the fact that a person can escalate from panic to a near fatal medical situation classifies the fear of elevators as a 'hard phobia.'

Trying Some Self-Help Methods

Your fear of elevators can likely interfere with your social and work life and relationships. Not everyone understands that elevatophobia, like most phobias, can be crippling. But don't be disheartened. Depending on the level of your fear and level of control, you can gradually face and manage your phobia. Here are some recommendations you can try:
  1. Make a List of Everything that Entails Riding in an Elevator This is a systematic approach to getting over your anxiety. By following a step-by-step process, you can identify where the fear kicks in at its strongest. You can write a list of steps like pressing the topmost button and waiting to arrive on that floor, watching as the door closes and opens, being alone inside the elevator, or having delays with the doors opening. Now try doing the opposite. For example, face away from the door or occupy yourself with your phone so that you are distracted.
  2. Create Your Fear Ladder Although the name says fear of elevators, it is not the whole process that scares you. There are just phases and parts of the elevator riding experience that cause you to panic. So go back to the list you initially created and label the fear level you feel. You can do it numerically, too, like ten being 'really scary,' six, 'manageable scary,' and one, 'not scary at all.' You can put the corresponding fear levels so you can focus more time and effort into activities that are more scary to you.
  3. Face Your Fear By now, you have identified what scares you the most. You can try repetitive action to minimize your fear and increase your sense of ‘normalcy’. Remember that the longer you expose yourself to your fear, the better you get at handling your emotions. If you are feeling overwhelmed, stop. Pushing yourself too fast and too soon can backfire. Modify your pace and go slower instead.
  4. Talk About Your Fear People by nature, unfortunately, are not quick to offer understanding and support. You need to tell them what's wrong before they can empathize. Talk to someone who you trust and ask for their support, especially in the initial phase of overcoming your fear. If you are too afraid to ride the elevator alone, you can ask them to go with you, and before you realize it, you are on your floor, and there was no indication of panic.
  5. Learn To Be Patient Be patient with yourself and your predicament. This is, after all, your fight against fear. It might take hundreds of elevator ride practices before the fear gets under control. Even then, there might be some hesitations and episodes of nervousness. These are acceptable and expected, so cut yourself some slack and congratulate yourself for every progress.

Seeking Professional Help

Along with self-help, you can always enlist a medical professional's aid to support you with your elevatophobia. Talking to someone who has experience with similar cases can be comforting, because you know that you are not alone, and this situation can get better. Talk to your doctor about the severity of your fears and the symptoms that you experience. Explain how you deal with it in an attempt to control it. An exam and a health history are made to ensure that there are no unrelated or underlying problems that your symptoms might mask. Usually, phobias like this are approached with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Your doctor will talk about these options with you, and it's entirely up to you, with your doctor's recommendation, what you want to pursue. For psychotherapy, the most common type is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which aims to help you find different ways of behaving, thinking, and reacting when about to step inside an elevator or when already inside it. With medications, there are beta blockers and benzodiazepines, but note that these can have side effects. Whatever these side effects are, you should promptly share it with your doctor.

Simple Tips to Overcome Elevatophobia

Elevators are not perfect, but their likelihood to malfunction, fall, or get stuck is very low. If you are not fully confident with this information, you can help overcome your elevatophobia by learning common elevator safety tips and basic elevator operations. These should help curb your mild fear until you become more self-assured. In addition to that, here are some of the things that you can do to gradually overcome your fear of elevators—both in getting on and riding one.

Conclusion

Yes, elevatophobia can be a challenge in today's world, but don't allow the elevator to win. Don't let it stop you from taking a job on the top floor or attending a social gathering on the rooftop. Sure, you can take the stairs if you insist and arrive winded and sweaty, with the party about to wrap up. But is this the quality of life you seek? Elevators are designed to make life easier. There are guaranteed ways to help you overcome elevatophobia. Take the first step and seek help. Soon, you’ll see yourself breezing through the floors with those arduous stair climbs little more than a memory.
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