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Mini: Microphobia · Why We Do What We Do

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Why We Do what We Do Mini. I'm
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  Speaker 1: your host Abraham and I'm Shane. We are a psychology
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  Speaker 1: podcast that we release all these psychology episodes on various topics.
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  Speaker 1: We just talk about all the things that people and
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  Speaker 1: animals do, and in the month of October we spend
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  Speaker 1: some time on the spookier side of things. But these
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  Speaker 1: minis they're a quick deep dive. Not a deep dive,
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  Speaker 1: they're kind of a shallow dive, but they're a quick
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  Speaker 1: dive into some topic where we try and cover it
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  Speaker 1: in like fifteen minutes or less. So I will first say,
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  Speaker 1: know do those things. But let's go ahead and dive
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  Speaker 1: into our topic today.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, so today we are talking about microphobia. And if
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  Speaker 2: you are somebody who likes words, then you have an
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  Speaker 2: idea of what this probably is already. So microphobia is
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  Speaker 2: a specific phobia, and it is the fear of very
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  Speaker 2: small things such as bacteria and bugs, but even mundane
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  Speaker 2: things such as rice or sand. Me as a giant,
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  Speaker 2: should be afraid of very very many things because everything
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  Speaker 2: is tiny to me.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, this is as I was saying, this is our
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  Speaker 1: our we're doing this Halloween theme thing, this is our
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  Speaker 1: last and our least because it's about tiny things.
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  Speaker 2: Yep.
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  Speaker 1: And this will be a very small episode. So if
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  Speaker 1: you are suffering from microphobia, you may need to set
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  Speaker 1: this one out because it's going to be so small,
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  Speaker 1: it's so scary.
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  Speaker 2: So, just like other phobias, this is not officially listed
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  Speaker 2: as a specific You can't go into DSM and find
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  Speaker 2: microphobia as a specific diagnosis, but fear based diagnoses, phobia
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  Speaker 2: stuff like that does exist in the DSM. There's language
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  Speaker 2: around that. So you're gonna see kind of a similar
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  Speaker 2: pattern with like as it gets more specific, like people,
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  Speaker 2: you can't get diagnosed with being afraid of clowns or
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  Speaker 2: being afraid of rice.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, yeah, exactly. All right, So let's talk about microphobia,
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  Speaker 1: as we said, as the fear of small things, as
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  Speaker 1: the name sort of implies. So we's just start by
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  Speaker 1: talking about where this comes from. When you look at these,
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  Speaker 1: they'll say things like causes, and they'll always say genetic
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  Speaker 1: and environmental, and as we have pointed out, there is
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  Speaker 1: just no way to separate those things and it seems
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  Speaker 1: kind of pointless to note that the cause of something
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  Speaker 1: we fear has to do with our biology, as there
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  Speaker 1: is nothing that we experience that doesn't have to do
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  Speaker 1: with our biology. Something to do with our biology, or
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  Speaker 1: else we wouldn't be experiencing it. So, yes, I guess
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  Speaker 1: our genetics are involved in some way or another, but
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  Speaker 1: that is not going to predict whether or not you
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  Speaker 1: will develop microphobia, right.
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  Speaker 2: So, for people with anxiety or who are already prone
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  Speaker 2: to heightened fear, microphobia may develop through a learning history
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  Speaker 2: that either includes small things, generalizes to small things, or
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  Speaker 2: is related arbitrarily to small things through language. For instance,
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  Speaker 2: if someone has anxiety around being sick, they might start
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  Speaker 2: to connect illness with bacteria and bacteria with things that
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  Speaker 2: are small in general, and then it kind of blossom
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  Speaker 2: from there. Or someone may hear a horror story involving
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  Speaker 2: something small and take on a general fear of small
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  Speaker 2: things as a result of that. Or they may encounter
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  Speaker 2: a painful or otherwise aversive experience with something small like bees, insects,
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  Speaker 2: stuff like that, and have that generalize across other small objects.
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  Speaker 2: And there are a lot of ways that we get there.
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  Speaker 2: But most of the time language is kind of like
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  Speaker 2: the thing that gets us there. Like we language around
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  Speaker 2: this thing. We tie things together that are unrelated, and
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  Speaker 2: here we are, boom, We've got a fear of something
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  Speaker 2: that is completely unrelated to the experience that.
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  Speaker 1: We had, Yes, exactly. Now, Like most phobias when we
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  Speaker 1: talk about phobias, the fear here is of the danger
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  Speaker 1: of small things is out of proportion with the severity
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  Speaker 1: of the actual danger from small things. That is, you're
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  Speaker 1: much more afraid of the thing than the danger that
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  Speaker 1: thing could possibly actually pose to you. Right Often, what
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  Speaker 1: that means is that the response to the fear stemuli
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  Speaker 1: could include panic attacks, anxiety, high blood pressure, rapid heart rate,
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  Speaker 1: shortness of breath, trembling, and sweating. But this can be
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  Speaker 1: not even just in response to actual small things. Even
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  Speaker 1: the thought or like the mention of small things or
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  Speaker 1: pictures of small things could be enough to start to
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  Speaker 1: bring on some of these sort of phobia sort of
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  Speaker 1: fear type reactions.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, as you kind of think about this, like, I'm
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  Speaker 2: not I'm not particularly fearful of small things. I'm usually
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  Speaker 2: like if something were like if we were talking about
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  Speaker 2: giant bugs, Yeah, that would probably freak me out a
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  Speaker 2: little bit more, or like giant rice or giant bacteria
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  Speaker 2: that would definitely be something that would get under my skin,
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  Speaker 2: or like, I don't know, giant ads.
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  Speaker 1: We are back talking about this microphobia. As far as
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  Speaker 1: diagnosis goes, there's gonna be sort of there's not a
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  Speaker 1: lot of objective observe one's going to make about this.
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  Speaker 1: It's going to be sort of report if there's family
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  Speaker 1: history that might inform the likelihood of this as a diagnosis,
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  Speaker 1: but also just basic interview with a patient during which
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  Speaker 1: the diagnosing therapist might ask a variety of questions like
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  Speaker 1: how do small things make you feel? To what extent
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  Speaker 1: have you changed your daily routine around the fear of
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  Speaker 1: small things? Which things do you find the most bothersome
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  Speaker 1: that are small? How often do you think of bothersome
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  Speaker 1: small things? So how pervasive is that thought to sort
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  Speaker 1: of show up for you in your day today? And
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  Speaker 1: it's really more or less trying to get at how
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  Speaker 1: pathological of a problem are we dealing with here, how
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  Speaker 1: much distress is it? And importantly you're trying to treat
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  Speaker 1: this like under what conditions and what context does this occur?
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  Speaker 1: Because that's where we're going to target our interventions.
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  Speaker 2: Right, or like, are you afraid of all the small things?
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  Speaker 1: For those of you who don't get that, that was
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  Speaker 1: a reference to a really lovely blank song from the
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  Speaker 1: late nineteen nineties.
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  Speaker 2: Uh huh, yep, that song is twenty five years old now,
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  Speaker 2: so that's fun. Yeah to see. That's the fear I have.
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  Speaker 2: It's like every time somebody tells me something I love
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  Speaker 2: is like decades old. Now, I'm like, oh, that's cool,
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  Speaker 2: that feels good.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, we remember being young and enjoying that song, and
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  Speaker 1: now we are old and still enjoying that solid decades later.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Now.
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  Speaker 2: People who suffer from microphobia may significantly alter their routine
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  Speaker 2: to avoid coming into contact with small things as much
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  Speaker 2: as possible, and to a degree that makes their lives
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  Speaker 2: significantly more complicated and difficult. So, like, if they're afraid
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  Speaker 2: of bacteria, they're probably over washing their hands and that
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  Speaker 2: might turn into a problem, or they might carry lots
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  Speaker 2: and lots of hand sanitizer on them to be read
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  Speaker 2: of these bacteria that they're so afraid of the way
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  Speaker 2: this manifests as like these small kind of environmental arrangements
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  Speaker 2: for these folks, These routine changes can be pretty drastic
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  Speaker 2: when you kind of accumulate them all, when they kind
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  Speaker 2: of like pile onto one another, it becomes really problematic.
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  Speaker 1: Absolutely. I don't know why I didn't think of this sooner,
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  Speaker 1: but whatever. There's something you said that made me think
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  Speaker 1: about a really good joke about how microphobia is not
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  Speaker 1: like a really small phobia that's not that impactful. That
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  Speaker 1: would have been That would have been good, but I
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  Speaker 1: did it. As far as treatment goes, we've sort of
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  Speaker 1: talked about this a little bit so far, but I
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  Speaker 1: mean it's it's like a lot of things that you'd
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  Speaker 1: find where you have a pervasive language based issue. Like
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  Speaker 1: most phobias, treatment will consist of things like cognitive behavioral
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  Speaker 1: therapy or CBT, acceptance in commitment training or Acceptance in
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  Speaker 1: Commitment therapy, or ACT Dialectical behavior therapy or DBT, or
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  Speaker 1: functional analytics psychotherapy or FAP, or exposure and response prevention,
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  Speaker 1: which might be a strategy employed in one of those
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  Speaker 1: other methods. There was so many like jargony terms, I
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  Speaker 1: just threw it at you all. I'm sorry, but I
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  Speaker 1: figured we needed to list them. CBT act, DBT and FAP.
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  Speaker 1: We're I switched between initials and acronyms there, and then
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  Speaker 1: a sort of direct strategy is the exposure and response prevention. Obviously,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes anti anxiety medication might make sense and be prescribed
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  Speaker 1: for patients who are suffering from this, but that might
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  Speaker 1: not be the go to move, and there are obviously
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  Speaker 1: reasons to not necessarily have pills be your main source
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  Speaker 1: of therapy if you can do something that does not
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  Speaker 1: require medication right.
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Similarly, though, sometimes there are other psychological processes at
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  Speaker 2: work that are manifested as fear of a specific thing
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  Speaker 2: when there is a more systemic mental health issue going on.
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  Speaker 2: So if there's something that's untreated or being mistreated even
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  Speaker 2: or like even undiagnosed, like there might be some other
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  Speaker 2: things happening that are kind of applying a magnifying glass
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  Speaker 2: to this type of thing. So like this may actually
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  Speaker 2: be a symptom of something greater or something large, or
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  Speaker 2: something more concerning that's being missed in lieu of these
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  Speaker 2: tiny things that freak everybody out.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, I could imagine someone who, for example, as a
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  Speaker 1: schizophrenia diagnosis, and the way that that shows up for
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  Speaker 1: them includes being afraid of small things, but it's actually
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  Speaker 1: because of their schizophrenia diagnosis, not because they have some
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  Speaker 1: childhood trauma around small things or you know, some of
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  Speaker 1: their pathology related to that. So just to say, like,
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  Speaker 1: sometimes we need to unpack the variety of mental health
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  Speaker 1: conditions that might have a symptom of those look like
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  Speaker 1: a specific phobia when they're actually more related to the
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  Speaker 1: sort of core issue that someone's dealing with, right exactly,
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  Speaker 1: there is a non zero number of people who will
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  Speaker 1: want to have a diagnosis such as microphobia just because
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  Speaker 1: they find value in having a diagnosis as part of
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  Speaker 1: their identity, and one that is kind of rare and
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  Speaker 1: stands out might be appealing because it again makes their
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  Speaker 1: identity more salient against a background of commonplace identities. And
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  Speaker 1: we're not saying that this is most or even many
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  Speaker 1: people with microphobia who want this as part of their identity,
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  Speaker 1: but it will be some where like, and this is
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  Speaker 1: going to be true really of any specific phobia. There's
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  Speaker 1: going to be a handful of people out there who
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  Speaker 1: are like, I don't know who I am. There's a
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  Speaker 1: phobia that seems really weird. I'm going to make that
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  Speaker 1: who I am and it's never so clear like they
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  Speaker 1: wouldn't articulate it that way, but that's kind of how
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  Speaker 1: they found their way to it, in sort of an unintentional,
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  Speaker 1: unconscious direction, if you will, right, And so that does happen,
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  Speaker 1: like that's a piece of the why here. But again
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  Speaker 1: I don't think this is most people, but there will
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  Speaker 1: be for some people. That is an issue that can
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  Speaker 1: give rise to latching on to a pathology just to
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  Speaker 1: have something for an identity.
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  Speaker 2: I guess, yeah, absolutely, some people love labels.
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  Speaker 1: They really, really really really do. Okay, Anyway, I think
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  Speaker 1: that's all we have to say about microphobia. Is there
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  Speaker 1: anything that you would like to add or that I
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  Speaker 1: forgot before we wrap this up?
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  Speaker 2: No, I think that covers it.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you all for listening to this today. Thank you
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  Speaker 1: for recording with me today, Shane. As I mentioned before,
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  Speaker 1: This is Abraham and this is a Shane Why We
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  Speaker 1: Do what We Do mini is out. You've been listening
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