Do you like wine? It is one of the most appreciated drinks and they say that it has many health benefits, as long as you do not drink it in excess. But there are people who fear wine. Yes, as you read, the fear of wine exists and it is called oenophobia. Do you want to know what this disorder consists of? We tell you about it in ours.
What is oenophobia?
Oenophobia is the fear of wine. It is not so strange to us after learning about that other phobic disorder called methiphobia, which is the fear of alcohol. But it is true that it provokes some surprise and even skepticism. Because we understand that it is an irrational fear of a supposed danger. And what danger can wine have?
Of course, drinking a lot of wine is a real health hazard. That excessive alcohol is dangerous, but from there to panic when you see a bottle of wine goes to the world. It’s not like we have to look for a logical explanation for phobias either, right? Since precisely they are characterized by their irrationality and their excessive degree of fear.
Symptoms of oenophobia
Oenophobia or oenophobia causes typical anxiety reactions when the person who suffers from it is faced with the stimulus. It is no longer that that person is terrified of having glass, but that the mere presence of wine around them produces immense fear.
And it is difficult to avoid wine in your day to day. You can go to a cafeteria to have a drink and you will surely see more than one glass of wine in that place. That’s when anxiety shoots up, when you have trouble breathing, when you start to get dizzy, your legs and arms fall asleep and if you don’t run out of there, you may experience the dreaded panic attack.
All for a glass of wine? No, all because of a phobic disorder called oenophobia. It is not difficult to imagine the limitations that this phobia imposes. It is very easy to avoid drinking wine throughout life; it is not a problem. What is more complicated is avoiding encountering wine in many of the situations that you experience on a daily basis.
Causes of oenophobia
No. Wine is definitely not something you can avoid. You will see it at a family reunion, when you meet your friends and maybe at work too. You will see it when you are doing time in a cafeteria or when you go out to eat. You don’t have to drink it, true, but the fear is there, next to that glass of wine that you don’t have to touch.
The question we all ask ourselves is, how does the fear of wine develop? We are talking about a totally irrational fear, even though we know that alcohol can cause infinite problems. And precisely the excessive use of alcohol by one of the parents, for example, can be the cause of this oenophobia.
As a traumatic experience, when a person experiences complicated and painful situations due to wine, it can be understood that they develop this phobic disorder. Sometimes it is unavoidable to associate the stimulus with the danger, even if it is an increased and distorted danger.
Oenophobia treatment
You may think that not drinking wine is not a problem in life at all. And that is true. But don’t you drink wine because you don’t like it or because it scares you? At the moment when fear conditions your life, whether in basic aspects or not, you have to seek treatment because that phobia can lead you to suffer others.
The treatment of phobias involves seeking psychological help; it is not something we can do on our own. The psychologist will examine the causes of this fear and give you useful strategies to face the most feared situations. And any therapy to overcome a phobia includes the regular practice of relaxation techniques, with which you will soon see how the anxiety you suffer from is considerably reduced.