Bed Bug Attraction

As odd as it can be for many to conceive a few people do seem to have a attraction to the belief that they have bed bugs, often grasping at increasingly and increasingly less plausible explanation as to why they have bed bugs and how they are managing to elude detection.  They are even blinded by the principles of Occam’s bed bug and can even become highly agitated and aggressive when the lack of evidence is challenged, even in situation where we acknowledge there is an issue the refusal to confirm it is bed bugs can make people hostile.

It can be very difficult for pest controllers to acknowledge this issue as there is a tendency to “treat to placate” which only reinforces the undiagnosed issue.

In others cases its as if the old saying “misery loves company” has manifested and people and trying to will them selves into having an issue, in some extreme cases so that they have something to focus on and have issue over.

It is also prevalent with some pre-existing psychological issues to become attracted towards the idea that you have bed bugs, often to explain away an itching sensation, what starts as a passing “it might be bedbugs” quickly reaches a crescendo of “they must be hiding elsewhere and only coming into the room at night”, this idea while plausible to the person saying it is extremely far from the reality of the cryptic nature of bed bugs.

At this stage we can not say with any certainty why some people are overly attracted to the idea that they must have bed bugs but we can acknowledge that is an issue with some people and that in some situations it can impede advances in other areas.

Over the years we have realised that the only help we can provide is a the assurance that the inspection or monitoring is thorough and that a lack of confirming signs of bed bugs after a 14 days of monitoring means it is statistically improbably that the issue is bed bugs.

We would encourage any therapeutic professionals encountering such issues to contact us for a more detailed briefing of the various influences that bed bugs can have on peoples mental health and above all to not try and force the issue but to build constructive routines that can be used to show control through process and planning.