Mageirocophobia (fear Of Cooking): Symptoms, Causes And Treatment
Mageirocophobia is the excessive fear of cooking. Far from being about a lack of preference or taste for this activity, mageirocophobia is characterized by triggering experiences of significant anxiety. Although it does not represent a specific clinical category, mageirocophobia is a term recently popularized in popular magazines or blogs, so it is worth checking where it comes from.
We will see below what mageirocophobia is what are some of its manifestations and what strategies may be appropriate to modify it.
The term mageirocophobia comes from the Greek “mageiros” which means “cook” or “butcher”, and “phobos” which means “panic”. The word “magiric” is also derived from the same word, which means “related to cooking.” The latter, along with the word “magirista” (cooking expert), was present since the end of the 19th century to refer to the art of cooking and its history.
Thus, mageirocophobia is the fear of cooking As with all phobias, it is not just about the everyday rejection of cooking for food. In other words, it is not a preference for not cooking since it is easier or more convenient to eat away from home or eat food made by someone else. A phobia is considered only that activity that triggers an irrational panic experience (not explainable by the person’s cultural codes) and therefore generates significant anxiety.
Mageirocophobia, however, is not considered a specific clinical category nor has it been studied or characterized by psychopathology. For this reason, it is not considered so severe as to merit treatment in itself, beyond psychological intervention aimed at several of its consequences.
The fear of cooking can be part of a broader spectrum of fears related, for example, to the small spaces that some kitchens have, to social approval or disapproval, to the rigidity of instructions for some recipes, or to some Previous experience related to culinary utensils. For the same reason, mageirocophobia It can manifest itself from a fear of being asked to cook, to preparing complex dishes in the oven
Likewise, this fear may be related to how the person has been socialized in relation to the activity of cooking, that is, according to the norms and roles of their immediate environments. The latter includes expectations or demands that have been socially presented to you, and that may have led you to associate the activity of cooking as something unpleasant.
That is, the above may have generated specific perceptions about the activity of cooking finally. trigger discomfort or rejection Thus, some of the main causes of mageirocophobia may be the following:
Symptoms
As we saw before, the demonstrations They may vary according to the person and their immediate context In general, the manifestations of mageirocophobia include a refusal to cook accompanied by excessive avoidance of approaching the kitchen or any place where said activity is occurring.
This means that panic could be triggered even when finding yourself in situations where another person is cooking. Likewise, they accompany him characteristic symptoms of anxiety present in all phobias by definition: sensations of suffocation, dizziness, sweating, agitation, chest pain, etc.
Treatment
The most used treatment for phobias is the cognitive-behavioral perspective, which consists of modifying the thoughts that are generated when the stimuli that are feared are rejected; In this case it would be the action of cooking. Likewise, it focuses on making a series of successive approaches to the stimulus, which can start by presenting simple images until getting closer and closer to a kitchen.
Likewise, this is combined with important emotional support that reduces the person’s anxiety levels when faced with the stimulus; and may include a deeper exploration of the meanings associated with cooking, which allows them to be modified or faced gradually.
Since mageirocophobia is most likely related to broader and more complex anxiety experiences, it is important to treat them as a whole. Mageirocophobia may be just one manifestation of a broader spectrum of anxieties, so It is necessary to know other dimensions of the person to be able to treat them Otherwise, one may make the mistake of modifying behaviors only temporarily or superficially and motivated solely by social approval, beyond eradicating the conflicts that are in the background or around mageirocophobia.
Some strategies to reduce anxiety in the kitchen
To achieve the above, gradual and deeper support is necessary. However, some simple strategies that can reduce the experience of anxiety specifically related to cooking are the following:
