Can’t eat peanut butter? You may not like its taste or its texture and that is why you can’t stand it in your meals. But you may also suffer from arachibutyrophobia, a phobic disorder related to eating that can cause you more than one problem. If you want to know more about arachibutyrophobia or fear of peanut butter, we will tell you everything in our phobia.
What is arachibutyrophobia?
Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter and, by extension, can also affect the peanut itself. It is a food phobia like others that we have already seen in the style of lacanophobia or fear of vegetables. Although in this case it is not a basic food in our daily diet, it can cause more than one problem.
This strange word comes from the Greek. We know the word “phobia” well and it refers to an irrational and excessive fear. It is also formed by “apraxia”, which refers to the peanut and by “butyric”, which is nothing other than butter. With this we can understand that it is a fear that the texture of this food can choke us.
Symptoms of arachibutyrophobia
What does a person with arachibutyrophobia feel? You don’t even have to be in front of a slice of bread and peanut butter to experience all the symptoms of anxiety. Just by imagining that you have to eat it for some reason, all the alarms in your body go off.
It all starts with a concern, the typical one you have when imminent danger is assumed. And the anxiety mechanism is triggered, so functional in some cases and so excessive in the case of phobias. Agitation, shortness of breath, dizziness, tachycardia, parenthesis, and panic attacks are some of the most common reactions when it comes to phobias.
Causes of arachibutyrophobia
But what can develop this fear of peanut butter? As always when we encounter a phobic disorder there are two main causes. On the one hand, there is the traumatic experience, an episode with a great negative emotional charge in which this food was the protagonist.
On the other hand, the cause of arachibutyrophobia can be found in a previous anxiety disorder. When anxiety overwhelms us, it and one of them is the phobia. Fear, alertness and a sense of danger in the face of the most unexpected stimulus and, in this case, in the face of peanut butter.
The best treatment for arachibutyrophobia
It’s tempting to think that peanut butter isn’t something we usually come across at meals and that avoidance is easy. It is not a phobia that causes obvious limitations on a day-to-day basis and that is why some people decide not to treat their fear. After all, how many times do you put yourself in a situation where peanut butter is present?
But although araquibutyrophobia is not a limiting problem, it must be taken into account that many food phobias come hand in hand with other eating disorders such as anorexia or bulimia. And that if that peanut butter phobia spreads to other foods, it can end up causing significant nutritional deficiencies.
Thus, the moment a phobia is detected, psychological help must be Sought. Cognitive is the most effective in the case of phobic disorders and is usually accompanied by gradual exposure therapy to gradually lose fear of peanut butter.
Did you find the characteristics of arachibutyrophobia interesting? Do not forget to go through our category of phobias to discover all the causes, symptoms and treatment of fears.