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 limits, due to not knowing what we are going to encounter 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 find ourselves facing a case of neophobia In this article we will talk about the characteristics that define it as well as the relationship with food neophobia.
Within the long list of anxiety disorders or specific phobias, we find some conditions as curious as neophobia. This disorder is characterized by the experience of 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 carry out an experience that they had never faced before, is practically impossible since the anguish and torment suffered make it impossible to face these things. 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 shield of protection for all those people who They are afraid to break 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.
And 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 the constant, insistent and accentuated resistance to trying new foods
That is, those people with food neophobia avoid in every possible way trying or eating foods that they have not tasted before. Although it does not always have to, in the most serious cases, food neophobia can become an eating disorder, specifically it presents itself as a symptom of food avoidance/restriction disorder.
This disorder occurs mainly in young children, which show a strong resistance to eating some fruits or vegetables. In this specific case of childhood food neophobia, it is associated with certain personality factors such as irritability, sadness or discomfort and tends to be accentuated between two and 6 years of age.
After this stage, the symptoms of neophobia decrease although they can persist until adulthood, most of the time being accompanied by other emotional symptoms such as anguish and anxiety.
The main symptoms of neophobia are typical 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 anguish and anxiety caused by a phobic fear They usually entail a series of changes and alterations in the body. This is because hyperactivity of the nervous system occurs, which can cause the following symptoms:
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, everything that is perceived as new.
This cognitive symptomatology appears as follows:
3. Behavioral symptoms
Finally, behavioral symptoms include the entire repertoire of behaviors that the person carries out with the intention of avoiding or escaping 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 novel situation. Following the daily routine inflexibly or avoiding contact with anything that is unfamiliar makes it possible for the person to temporarily avoid experiencing feelings of anguish and anxiety typical of a phobia.
In contrast, escape behaviors appear when the person with neophobia has not been able to avoid the feared situation, so they will do everything possible to escape from the situation as quickly as possible.
What causes does it have?
The job 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 personality types, cognitive styles or the influence of vicarious learning.
Is there a treatment?
In cases where neophobia noticeably interferes with the person’s daily life, It is advisable to go to a mental health professional Currently you can find different psychological interventions that can promote 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 or live exposure, which expose the patient, gradually and accompanied by training in relaxation techniques, to the thoughts or situations that cause this fear.
