Phobias are irrational and disproportionate fears of stimuli or situations that are generally not harmful, or if they are, are not harmful enough to generate these high doses of fear. There are thousands of different phobias. In this article we will know one of them, katsaridaphobia, which consists of an intense fear of cockroaches .

We will know exactly what this phobia consists of, what its typical symptoms are, its most frequent causes and the treatments that are usually used to treat it. In addition, we will review the types of phobias proposed by the DSM-5 (Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders).

Phobias: what are they?

Typical symptoms of a phobia (called simple phobia or specific phobia) include this intense fear coupled with great anxiety when the stimulus is presented (or even imagined), avoidance of the stimulus in question (or coping/resistance with high levels of anxiety), and an impairment of the overall functioning of the individual suffering from the phobia.

The diagnostic criteria for considering a specific phobia according to the DSM-5 (Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders), also include that anxiety, fear or avoidance exist for at least 6 months or more.

Types

Phobias exist for practically all possible stimuli, objects or situations. Specifically, the DSM-5 classifies specific phobias into 5 groups , depending on the type of stimulus feared:

  • Animal phobia
  • Natural environment phobia
  • Blood-injection-phobia
  • Situational phobia
  • Other types of phobia

Katsaridaphobia would be classified as an animal phobia, since the stimulus feared in this case is cockroaches (a type of insect).

Katsaridaphobia: what is it?

Thus, katsaridaphobia is a specific type of phobia for which cockroaches are feared. Cockroaches are also called “blatodeos”, and are a type of flat-bodied insects, usually measuring between 3 and 7.5 cm in length. The group of “blatodeos” or cockroaches also includes termites, for example.

The irrational fear of cockroaches is related to our ancestors’ attempts to survive when they were exposed to animals that could pose a threat; in this case, however, katsaridaphobia is more related to the fear of stimuli that generate disgust, like many other related phobias (fear of small insects, ants, rotten food, mice, decomposing bodies, etc.).

In this way, even though we “know” that cockroaches cannot cause us any serious harm (as they are usually very small and harmless), people who suffer from katsaridaphobia feel such an excessive sense of disgust for them that they even feel panic when they see them, have them near them or touch them (especially if they appear in their homes, rooms, etc.).

This “fear or rejection of disgust” is also related to the fear of contamination or of contracting some kind of disease, and that is why the origin of katsaridaphobia, as we will see later on, can also be related to ancestral survival mechanisms.

Symptoms

The symptoms of katsaridaphobia , as a specific phobia that it is, are the following:

1. Fear or intense anxiety

The main symptom of katsaridaphobia is an intense fear or anxiety about cockroaches. Like all specific phobias, the fear is limited to a specific and well-specified stimulus, object or situation (although this limitation may vary from one phobia to another); in this case, the specific phobic stimulus is the cockroaches .

One can fear the simple fact of witnessing a cockroach; we usually find this type of insect in the countryside, in the home itself (under the bed, between closets or furniture, etc.) or in other contexts.

2. Avoidance or resistance

The second symptom of katsaridaphobia is an avoidance of situations that may involve seeing or being approached by a cockroach. Avoidance is also extrapolated to the very situation of seeing them, that is, we see them and have to run away because we cannot “stand” that fear or anxiety .

If there is no avoidance, there is active resistance to the stimulus, with exaggerated and immediate fear or anxiety; in other words, the presence of the cockroaches is faced or resisted but with a great feeling of discomfort.

3. Disproportionate fear or anxiety

Very similar to the first symptom, in katsaridaphobia the individual manifests a disproportionate fear or anxiety; this means that they are produced before an unreal danger or a danger that is not serious enough to explain these symptoms.

Furthermore, they are also symptoms that are disproportionate to the socio-cultural context in which the person with katsaridaphobia finds him/herself.

4. Persistent fear or anxiety

In addition, this fear or anxiety about cockroaches persists over time, for at least 6 months. This period of time is indispensable to pass with symptoms in order to be diagnosed with katsaridaphobia, according to the DSM-5.

5. Significant discomfort

The above symptoms end up causing a remarkable discomfort in the person, which affects the functioning of their daily life, interfering with it. In this way, either significant discomfort exists, or a deterioration occurs in one or more areas of the patient’s life (work, social, personal…)

Causes

The causes of katsaridaphobia, as we have mentioned, are believed to be related to an ancestral survival mechanism in the face of disgusting stimuli (since this mechanism helped prevent the contraction of diseases, for example). This ancestral mechanism is extrapolated to other stimuli (other types of insects, bad food with unpleasant smells, etc.).

On the other hand, it is known that cockroaches usually live in dark and warm areas. A person who develops katsaridaphobia may have found himself in low light situations and had a cockroach brush against his skin, causing him to feel uncomfortable or disgusted. This can lead to such a high sense of disgust that katsaridaphobia can result.

In both cases, katsaridaphobia originates as an adaptive and therefore evolutionary response of the organism . Thus, we know that our ancestors presented evolutionary mechanisms that allowed them to be alert to animals or even to cockroaches, when they slept in caves or in dark places.

Finally, katsaridaphobia can also originate from vicarious experiences (observing another person with a phobia of cockroaches suffering), traumatic experiences with the insect or even from having a genetic predisposition to suffer from this type of phobia.

Treatment

Treatments for katsaridaphobia include psychological therapy ; as in most specific phobias, techniques of exposure to phobic stimuli and systematic desensitization (SD) are usually employed, along with cognitive restructuring techniques.

Thus, katsaridaphobia can be overcome. For example, if we use systematic desensitization or exposure techniques, we can gradually introduce the patient to images or pictures of cockroaches. Progressively, the phobic stimulus will be more and more so for the patient (the therapist will work out a hierarchy of items with the patient beforehand); the next step may be that the patient must approach a dead cockroach and even touch it.

Afterwards, you can do the same with a live cockroach. Ideally, the final items of the DS or exposure techniques will include situations where the patient must remain in a room or ward with the cockroaches without running away and without experiencing anxiety (or having tolerable levels of it).

The final objective is that the patient with katsaridaphobia stops experiencing the symptoms of fear and anxiety when he sees cockroaches, and that his organism does not react by over-activating itself to such situations or stimuli , thus making the phobic stimulus different from the physiological symptoms.

Bibliographic references:

  • American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Fifth edition. Washington DC: Author.
  • Pérez, M.; Fernández, J.R.; Fernández, C. and Amigo, I. (2010). Guide to effective psychological treatments I: Adults. Madrid: Pirámide.
  • Tortella-Feliu, M. (2014). Anxiety Disorders in DSM-5. Psychosomatic medicine and psychiatry notebooks. Revista iberoamericana de psicosomática, 110: 62-69.