A sight of dread. Noémie (all names have been changed), 21, suddenly turns on her bedside lamp in the middle of the night to see ” what [la] scratching for several days ». In this summer of 2012, she is living in Nantes, in a shared house, and is returning from a trip to China. On his body, bedbugs engorged with blood, bothered by light and movement, quickly fleeing. “At first I screamed and thought it was a nightmare. I turned off then on the light : they had returned. I ended up capturing one to find out what it was. Luckily, I managed to get rid of it pretty quickly. But I had to see a doctor to discuss it, because I really felt like I was decompensating. »
The young woman, now in her thirties, has become a psychologist. She claims to have had a traumatic experience at the time: “It was eleven years ago and yet I have a clear memory of it. I didn’t think such a small beast could cause such anxiety disordersshe says. Now, when I travel, I pay close attention. »
Wouldn’t summer vacations be a period of respite for body and mind? Every summer, bedbugs, parasites of man, invite themselves into the luggage of tourists. Hotels, seasonal rentals, transport, cinemas… So many places where the mixing of the population favors the dispersal of these hematophagous insects, which are increasingly present in France. Their activity, which consists of biting during the night to ensure their reproduction, would not be without effect on mental health. In France, according to Insermsome 72,000 people visited a GP with a bedbug-related reason, between April 2019 and March 2020. And, according to a study published in 2020 by The American Journal of Medicinethese infestations can generate “emotional and psychological reactions, some of which may meet the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder”.
“Extreme Phobia”
An observation shared by Doctor Pascal Delaunay, parasitologist at the University Hospital of Nice, trained in hypnosis to treat these mental disorders: “My patients isolate themselves because they are convinced that they will contaminate everyone, have nightmares, repeat cleaning protocols every night. Their life is to fight bed bugs, when they no longer have any. They remain in hypervigilance. The only difference with the definition of post-traumatic stress is that they did not see immediate death. » Chronic stress, therefore, at the origin of an endless nightmare.
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