Neophobia (fear of the new): symptoms, causes and treatment

Facing the new, everything that is unknown to us always generates a certain feeling of tension and even some nervousness. This response can be completely natural as long as it is within certain limits, due to not knowing what we are going to find or if we are going to like it or not.

However, when this response becomes disproportionate and excessive, to the point of interfering with the person's daily life, we may be facing a case of neophobia. In this article we will talk about the characteristics that define it as well as the existing relationship with food neophobia.

• Related article: "Types of Phobias: Exploring Fear Disorders"

What is neophobia?

Within the long list of anxiety disorders or specific phobias, we find some conditions as curious as neophobia. This disorder is characterized by experiencing a disproportionate, persistent, irrational, and uncontrollable fear of all those situations that are perceived as novel.

For these people, events such as facing the first day of work or school, as well as having to go to an unknown place or have an experience that they had never faced before is practically impossible since the anguish and torment suffered make it impossible to face such situations.

There are a large number of situations that can generate fear and anxiety in neophobic people, including any type of change in their life or usual routine.

Patients with neophobia are characterized by being very routine people, with very established life patterns and preferences towards everything that is familiar to them. Therefore, this anxiety disorder becomes a protection shield for all those people who they are afraid of breaking their routines.

On the other hand, nosophobia can manifest itself as a means to have control of what surrounds them, since a new situation necessarily implies a certain margin of uncertainty, which generates a fear of not being able to control the situation.

• You may be interested in: "Types of Anxiety Disorders and their characteristics"

And the food neophobia?

Within the category of neophobia we find a special situation that, due to its high incidence, has its own name. This is food nosophobia. This type of alteration consists of constant, insistent, and accentuated resistance to trying new foods.

That is to say, those people with food neophobia, avoid in all possible ways trying or eating foods that they have not tasted before. Although it does not always have to because, in the most serious cases, food neophobia can become a disorder food, specifically it is presented as a symptom of the avoidance/restriction disorder of the ingestion of food.

This disorder occurs mostly in young children., which manifest a strong resistance to eat some fruits or vegetables. In this specific case of childhood food neophobia, it is associated with certain risk factors. personality such as irritability, sadness or discomfort and tends to be accentuated between the ages of two and six old.

After this stage, the symptoms of neophobia decrease, although they may persist until death. adulthood, being most times accompanied by other emotional symptoms such as anguish and anxiety.

What are the symptoms?

The main symptoms of neophobia are those of any specific anxiety disorder, which include experiencing high levels of anxiety when facing the feared situation or even just imagining it.

However, there are a large number of symptoms related to neophobia. These can be classified into physical symptoms, cognitive symptoms, and behavioral symptoms. Although they do not have to arise in the same way and with the same intensity in all people, it will be necessary for you to experience signs of all three categories.

1. physical symptoms

The experimentation of high levels of distress and anxiety caused by a phobic fear They usually lead to a series of changes and alterations in the body. This is due to hyperactivity of the nervous system, which can cause the following symptoms:

• Increased heart rate.
• Increased respiratory rate.
• Sensation of suffocation or lack of air.
• increased sweating.
• Increased muscle tension.
• headaches.
• gastric alterations.
• Dizziness and feeling of dizziness.
• Nausea and/or vomiting.
• Fainting.

2. cognitive symptoms

Along with the physical symptoms, neophobia is characterized by presenting a series of distorted beliefs and irrational thoughts about the feared situation. In this case, to everything that is perceived as new.

This cognitive symptomatology appears as follows:

• Intrusive and uncontrollable ideas about the supposed danger or risks of the phobic stimulus.
• obsessive speculations.
• Catastrophic imagination.
• fear of losing control and not being able to manage the situation effectively.

3. behavioral symptoms

Finally, behavioral symptoms include all that repertoire of behaviors that the person carries out with the intention of avoiding or escaping from the feared situation. These behaviors are known as avoidance behaviors or escape behaviors.

The first type, avoidance behaviors, include all those acts that aim to avoid encountering a new situation. Following the daily routine inflexibly or avoiding contact with anything that is unfamiliar makes It is possible for the person to temporarily avoid experiencing feelings of anguish and anxiety characteristic of a phobia.

In contrast, escape behaviors appear when the person with neophobia has not been able to avoid the feared situation, so he will do everything possible to escape the situation in the fastest way.

What causes does it have?

The work of concisely determining the origin of a phobia can be highly complicated, since there is not always an event that triggers it. In any case, the existence of a genetic predisposition, together with experiencing highly traumatic experiences and events, can favor the appearance of a specific phobia such as neophobia.

Likewise, there are many other factors that can predispose a person to develop a specific phobia. Among them are some types of personality, cognitive styles or the influence of vicarious learning.

Is there a treatment?

In cases where neophobia significantly interferes with the person's daily life, Consultation with a mental health professional is recommended.. Currently, different psychological interventions can be found that can favor the remission of symptoms until they disappear.

Psychological treatments of a cognitive-behavioral nature They use cognitive restructuring techniques that can help eliminate irrational ideas and beliefs, which often form the basis of this disorder.

This cognitive intervention is more effective if it is accompanied by treatments such as systematic desensitization wave live exposure which expose the patient, gradually and accompanied by training in relaxation techniques, to the thoughts or situations that cause this fear.