There are some phobias that can go almost unnoticed because you almost never have to face the stimulus that causes fear. Others, on the other hand, are very limiting if the focus of your panic is something habitual and you can find it anywhere. This is the case of amatophobia or fear of dust, a disorder that we talk about in our dictionary of phobias.
What is amatophobia?
Amatophobia is the fear of dust. If many people who are allergic to dust see how their lives get complicated to unexpected extremes, the same thing happens with phobias. Because dust is not something that can always be avoided. It may be that in your house you do daily cleaning so that there is not a speck of dust, but outside your home, things change.
Dust phobia should not be confused with mysophobia, which is the fear of dirt in general, although they are also sometimes related. In both cases, the obsession with cleanliness is the sign that determines the problem, but people with amatophobia only suffer from anxiety in the face of dust and not in front of other types of dirt.
Symptoms of fear of dust
Imagine walking into a friend’s house. The house is clean, but it hasn’t been dusted for a few days and you notice it as soon as you walk in. Because even if it’s not an allergy, you seem to detect dust specks before anyone else. You start to get nervous and your fears start to cause reactions in your body that you can’t control.
Maybe shortness of breath, maybe dizziness, maybe a feeling of unreality, maybe a palpitations and maybe a panic attack. They are the same symptoms that appear with any type of phobia. The most common thing is that you try to escape from that situation before the symptoms appear, with which the risk of limiting your social life increases.
Causes of a phobia
But where does this irrational fear of dust come from? Because it’s not a hobby with cleaning, it’s a real panic motivated by an irrational thought that leads you to believe that fear is dangerous. Irrational thoughts, fear, danger… are the characteristics of an anxiety disorder, which is what can triggerman
In the case of amatophobia it can also be a learned origin. If in your house you lived a certain obsession with cleanliness, you may have developed this phobia conditioned by that particularity from your childhood. And neither can the experience of a traumatic experience related to dust be ruled out, as is the case with other phobias.
How to overcome amatophobia?
It is advisable to seek psychological help to treat any phobia at the same time it is detected. Many phobias are limiting and, even if you don’t have to face your fear every day, they are a clear sign of an emotional disorder. Cognitive is the most effective for the treatment of phobias, but there is more.
Many times professionals recommend mindfulness as a therapy to overcome phobia and relaxation techniques are always useful due to the anxiety component they generate. The latest psychological therapies, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, seem to be giving very good results as well.