Fear of eating (cibophobia): causes, symptoms and treatment

There are many types of phobias; these disorders are characterized by an irrational fear and persistent in front of situations, objects, activities or people.

The main symptom of this disorder is the desire to avoid the feared stimulus, and the development of phobias usually occurs due to environmental factors. However, some experts affirm that our body is programmed to feel fear, because it is an adaptive emotion, which has been useful to the human species for centuries, so it would be relatively easy to suffer from this condition.

Irrational fears can be very disabling, as in the case of cibophobia or fear of eating, which can cause serious problems for the person's health. In this article we will talk about this strange phobia and we will delve into its causes, symptoms and treatment.

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

What is cibophobia?

Cibophobia is an anxiety disorder that causes great fear and discomfort to the person who suffers from it, since he or she experiences a great irrational fear of eating or of food itself.

This disorder must be differentiated from other pathological conditions such as anorexia or bulimia, which have their origin in the ideas that the person has about the aesthetic consequences of eating food, although sometimes it can be linked to these. However, the irrational fear of having a negative body image when eating, such as thinking that food may contain toxins or germs, can contribute to the development of cibophobia.

Some characteristics of this disorder are:

• people with cibophobia show an irrational obsession with food, which can lead them to become obsessed with the nutrients they contain and where they come from.
• They may avoid eating food despite being necessary for good health.
• They avoid dishes cooked by other individuals, as they need to know exactly what they are eating or how the dish was cooked.
• They avoid eating foods prepared in previous days by the fear of poisoning.

Symptoms of this phobic disorder

As you can see, the person who suffers from this pathology tends to avoid food due to their irrational ideas. about them, and despite the fact that in many cases they show knowledge about their problem, they cannot control that situation.

The symptoms of cibophobia do not differ from other phobic disorders, since the symptoms are characterized by consequences at a cognitive, behavioral, physical and physiological level.

At a cognitive level, the person has irrational ideas of fear, suffers from angusta, loss of concentration, disorientation and extreme worry. Their behavior also changes, mainly by avoiding the phobic stimulus.

Physical and physiological symptoms are characterized by tachycardia, chest tightness, excessive sweating, dizziness, tremors, chills.

• In severe cases, the person may experience panic attacks. You can read more about this condition in this article: “Panic attacks: causes, symptoms and treatment”.

Causes of phobias

phobias are often caused by environmental factors. In fact, phobic disorders are learned and develop by a type of associative learning called classical conditioning. This type of learning was initially studied by Ivan Pavlov, although it was popularized by an American psychologist who is known as one of the forerunners of behaviorism, john watson.

Watson was the first researcher to study this phenomenon and got a little boy to learn an irrational fear of a white rat that he previously adored. At the beginning of the experiment, the boy, named Albert, played quietly and enjoyed the company of the white rat.

However, in Watson's experiment, every time the white rat appeared, a loud noise also appeared that scared the little one. After a few sessions, little Albert associated the loud noise with the presence of the white rat, and therefore, each time that the white rat appeared alone Albert felt a strong irrational fear that had nothing to do with the harmless creature.

• If you want to delve into learning through classical conditioning. you can read this article:Classical conditioning and its most important experiments”.

Other causes of this disorder

However, classical conditioning is not the only way a phobia can develop, and cibophobia can appear from learning by observation. In fact, some authors speak of vicarious conditioning as one of the possible ways of acquiring irrational fears. If you want to know more about this concept, you can read this article: “Vicarious conditioning: how does this type of learning work?”

On the other hand, other authors think that people are biologically predisposed to suffer fear, Well, it is an emotion that is produced thanks to the primitive brain, since it has been very useful for our survival. learning fear It is produced by primary and non-cognitive associations, so phobias do not respond to logical arguments.

Treatment of cibophobia

Scientific studies show that psychotherapy is really effective in treating phobias, and one of the types of psychological therapy that has given the best results in research is cognitive behavioral therapy.

This form of therapy combines techniques of cognitive therapy and behavior therapy, and one of the most used for the treatment of phobias are the techniques of relaxation and exposure techniques. In fact, the technique par excellence in the treatment of phobias is cognitive desensitization, which combines both.

Systematic desensitization consists of teaching the patient different coping skills (for example, relaxation techniques) for when you are in the feared situation, and you are exposed to this to the phobic stimulus gradually so that he himself experiences the irrationality of his fear.

On the other hand, pharmacological treatment is indicated in severe cases, but always in combination with psychological therapy.

Other types of therapy that are used to treat this pathology are: Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, or hypnotherapy.

Related Posts:

• Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy: what is it?
• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): principles and characteristics
• Hypnotherapy: what is it and what are its benefits