Carcinophobia , is the fear of contracting cancer . It is one of the most common phobias from the moment that most adults feel apprehensive about the possibility of manifesting this disease. However, in the case of phobics, it is a very unnatural fear, since they will demonstrate fear of any negative physical symptoms, associating them all with symptoms of the disease.
Summary
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- 1 Carcinophobia
- 2 Symptoms
- 3 Treatment
- 4 Sources
Carcinophobia
It is defined as a persistent, abnormal and unjustified fear of cancer, of contracting this disease. It is also known as Cancerphobia .
Although anyone can have a greater or lesser degree of fear or suspicion of the deadly disease that is cancer, in the case of those who suffer from this phobia it is a very unnatural fear, since they will demonstrate fear of any negative physical symptoms. A simple dizziness and people will already obsess over that they have cancer.
Although the disease is not contagious, carcinophobes feel that if they are in contact with these people they will share their condition. When they are with a sick person, they experience a lack of appetite and frequent needs to wash, since they believe that cancer can spread through the body as if it were pollen .
Headache is the main symptom associated with this phobia. Phobics even associate this symptom of their fear with cancer itself. It is ironic that an acute fear of losing their health causes these patients to suffer even more. Therapies to cure this phobia can be very long.
This phobia is associated with the fear of death, although in the case of carcinophobes it is especially death as a result of cancer. They tend to develop behaviors such as avoiding cigarettes and exposure to the sun , because medical encyclopedias warn that they can be carcinogenic factors and that, indeed, prevention is the best medicine. They may even go to frequent medical consultations to make sure they don’t have the disease.
Symptoms
The headache is one of the most common symptoms of Carcinofobia and even some may consider this type of headache is related to a tumor brain.
Very surprisingly, this particular form of irrational health fear makes people suffer even more.
Treatment
The most disturbing part of the story is that some forms of therapeutic treatments take months and even years to show some relief.
One possible help for these patients is Neuro-Linguistic Programming as a form of self-help.
