Food neophobia - prevention and elimination methods

Food neophobia is the fear of something new and incomprehensible, in this case, food. If a baby is offered to try a new dish, and he declares that he will not eat it, this does not mean at all that his parents spoiled him too much or raised him poorly. And the more you persuade the child to eat a small piece of the offered treat, the more he will strengthen his position and move the plate away.

Feeding a baby (like all other skills at his age) is a constant process of learning something new that he has not encountered before. First, he gets used to breast milk, which changes its taste depending on the mother’s diet, and then he begins to get acquainted with complementary foods. It is much more difficult for babies who were bottle-fed, because unlike mother’s milk, the formula does not change its composition and taste. Therefore, the first attempts to get acquainted with adult food are not very easy for them. The peak of food neophobia in a child usually occurs between the ages of 4 and 7 years.

Instead of scolding or punishing a child because of his capricious behavior at the table, it will be much more effective to find out the reason that makes him refuse to eat. Understanding what's going on, you can easily solve the problem of food selectivity.

Should you beware of changes in life?

Neophobia is the fear of new things, a pathological fear of changes in life, of something new, unusual that may happen in life. At such moments, a person is driven by the fear of the new. As with other phobias, fear of change is based on a sense of self-preservation. A person protects himself from the threat of emotional stress based on unpleasant sensations, experiences and a feeling of unpreparedness to adapt to new conditions.

But it is difficult to clearly call such fear negative or positive. The fact is that irrationality of thinking contributes to the emergence of fears due to a certain assessment of current events. The assessment can be either adequate or inadequate. Thus, the usual fear of novelty in life can save a person from rash decisions and actions, become the reason for a correct assessment of the situation and lead to a person’s critical attitude towards his capabilities.

The negative side of the fear of the new lies in a person’s unwillingness to act decisively, look for new prospects for himself and build his own future.

Neophobes may be dissatisfied with their social conditions, work, financial situation, etc., but they are unable to take any measures.

Neophobes are afraid of changes in life

Psychologists are sure that everyone who has difficulty accepting something new needs to start fighting their own fears. Failures should be perceived as learning mistakes, and obstacles as personal tasks that are important and need to be overcome independently, without the help of others. This is the only way to feel success and become happy. After all, even in personal life, fear of the new can cause difficulties in starting a family and expecting a child.

You can register your child for culinary courses at our early development club by calling 63 03 14

Best regards, Irina Brant

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Causes of neophobia

The scientific and psychological name “neophobia” consists of two words “neo” and “phobos”, which translated from Greek means fear of the new, fear of change, fear of movement, etc. All people with adaptation problems are susceptible to such a phobia. The reasons for it lie in the human subconscious. Most often, fear originates in childhood due to the shocks experienced associated with negative experiences as a result of life changes. Fear may arise due to moving to worse living conditions, parental divorce, death of loved ones, or when a child moves to another school, etc. The discrepancy between reality and the expected result leads to stress, which can play a significant role in a person’s life.

Certain character traits of a person also play an important role.

The most common people who experience neophobia are:

• suspicious and distrustful;
• with chronic anxiety;
• with a low level of aspirations (lack of personal interest in achievements in various spheres of human life);
• having low self-esteem;
• overly responsible and executive.

You can become a neophobe not only in childhood, but also in adulthood. Innovations constantly put pressure on the psyche; society and new demands can cause panic. Often, fear of the new: fear of starting a new business, conceiving a child or getting married manifests itself due to traumatic events. Sometimes people face difficulties in life for which a person’s psycho-emotional state is not ready. Such reasons may be undeserved dismissal from a position, deterioration of health (one’s own or that of family members), raising a child in a dysfunctional family, etc.

Causes of neophobia

Signs of neophobia

Neophobes are afraid of the uncertainty that awaits them after some important event in life or some difficult situation. Signs of neophobia appear before a certain event, in restless anticipation of changes in life. In addition to the feeling of fear itself, which a person can define himself, signs of such a condition can also be somatic in nature. The most common symptoms of neophobia are:

• increased blood pressure;
• the appearance of shortness of breath;
• muscle weakness;
• absent-mindedness;
• loss of concentration;
• increased sweating.

In addition, often as a result of neophobia, a person’s fingertips go numb, the body temperature rises, he feels dizzy and has a headache, and has digestive problems. To determine the main reasons for the appearance of such signs, you will have to overcome many doubts about whether all these symptoms are signs of other diseases of a viral or infectious nature.

Manifestations of neophobia

A good example of neophobia is anticipating the birth of a child. From the time a girl finds out that she is pregnant, she immediately begins to “try on” new roles, personal and social. But most often, if the pregnancy was unplanned, the woman experiences fear that her life will no longer be the same. Fear of uncertainty, a new and unfamiliar future, leads to stress, which manifests itself as follows: mood swings, aggression, desire to abandon the child, etc. This condition can even cause a nervous breakdown.

Methods for eliminating food phobias

Given the increasing attention to the impact of dietary patterns on health, healthfulness beliefs are likely to be essential in identifying foods that are essential for maintaining health.

The emotional basis of food attitudes is also reflected in preferences or inclinations for certain foods.

For example, consider the effect of mere presence in the visual field, in which repeated exposure to any object leads to a greater preference for that object. Therefore, food preference is probably based, at least in part, on the effect of mere exposure: we begin to like what we are accustomed to. Evidence for this statement comes from the work of scientists who conducted research on food neophobia.

How to overcome your own fear

It is very difficult to overcome your own fears of something new, a turning point in life. It requires painstaking work on yourself, your shortcomings and personal problems. There is no point in fighting neophobia with medication.

Sedatives can reduce the manifestation of fear, but they will not cure the disease itself. Therefore, the main work with a phobia should be psychological in nature. The most common psychological techniques for treating neophobia allow you to “soberly” assess upcoming events and prepare for them. In addition, imagining one’s own behavior in an expected situation, as well as analyzing the possible causes of one’s pathological condition, will help the individual overcome fear.

Getting rid of neophobia changes your life

The most common methods of dealing with phobias:

• Analysis of advantages and disadvantages. In any situation, it is important to analyze all the risks and determine the pros and cons of the current situation. Upon careful consideration of the problems, a person often realizes that he is able to extricate himself from his phobias.
• What will the changes bring? If an upcoming event can benefit a person, one should mentally prepare to overcome difficulties. The fact is that the opportunity to change your life is rarely given. It is important not to miss the chance.
• Awareness of reality. The main thing is to understand that a person can cope with any problems. You should overcome the feeling of fear by concentrating on finding solutions, forgetting about your past mental problems.
• Imagining yourself from the outside or in the place of another person. Modeling a future situation, the development of events, one’s own behavior, and speech will help a person prepare, reduce fear, or get rid of it altogether. You can also imagine what another person would do in his place.

A person is stronger than his fears.

It is important to understand this by tuning yourself only to rational thinking, without noticing your own phobias and problems. Gradually, with each such case, you will be able to change your life.

All of these fighting methods require certain training. You may not be able to overcome your own fears the first time. The desired overcoming of difficulties comes with experience, the person’s attempts to change, his desires and strength. People worry a lot and often, for good reasons and without them, but you shouldn’t be afraid of your own life. The main thing is to believe in yourself, try to raise your self-esteem and start working on yourself.

Symptoms of phobias in children and adolescents

Obsessive fears are unusual for young children, since there is no critical thinking that allows them to assess their own condition, identify the presence of phobias, and begin confrontation. In preschoolers, fears dominate and determine the direction of emotions, behavior, and the development of mental functions. Schoolchildren are able to understand the inadequacy and absurdity of existing fears and make attempts to fight. From the age of 5-8 years we talk about true phobias. Symptoms develop in situations with a certain degree of likelihood of exposure to a frightening stimulus. The more severe the disorder, the lower the risk required to develop symptoms.

The phobia manifests itself at the level of emotions, autonomic reactions, and behavior. The emotional sphere is characterized by tension, anxiety, and fear. Younger children cry, scream, run away, and seek help from adults. Schoolchildren and teenagers, trying to resist fear, find a logical justification for avoiding the situation, restraining the manifestations of fear and anxiety. Vegetative changes differ in combination and degree of severity. Characterized by dizziness, nausea, increased heart rate, increased sweating, weakness, numbness or motor disinhibition, and a feeling of lack of oxygen. The experience of fear occurs in a dream and is accompanied by insomnia.

The earliest phobias of preschoolers are fears of animals (dogs, horses, wolves), non-existent characters (Koshchei, zombies, moving skeletons). Often they expand and become a fear of darkness, silence, and loneliness. Younger schoolchildren begin to experience thanatophobia; often a vague fear of death takes on the concrete form of fear of war, serious illness, natural disaster, or criminal attack. Social phobias associated with loss of position in a significant group predominate among adolescents. By the end of adolescence, obsessive fears of intimate relationships are added.

Help from a psychologist

Some people turn to psychologists for help in dealing with their fears. How to get rid of the fear of change is the task of a specialist. An experienced psychologist will teach the patient to act constructively and respond correctly to certain circumstances. In addition, it is important to learn to control your own psycho-emotional state in order to be able to survive the fight against a phobia in an emergency situation.

Psychological counseling and psychocorrection

Before getting rid of neophobia, you need to undergo psychological preparation.

The work of a specialist is often based on artificial modeling of changes in the patient’s life. The doctor monitors the patient’s condition and finds out the main factors that cause fear. After long-term intensive training, a person gets used to new roles and becomes less susceptible to psycho-emotional stress.

The problem of neophobia is based on difficulties with adaptation, so a specialist can recommend the opposite method to his patient. There are many examples of the implementation of this method in life. If a man:

• If you are used to brushing your teeth holding a brush in your right hand, you should try brushing your teeth with your left hand;
• prefers to get to work by transport, then he should choose to walk;
• likes to watch comedy films in the evenings, it is necessary to give preference to the least favorite genre;
• prefers to wear one style of clothing, he should dress in something that has been gathering dust in the closet for a long time (an old suit, shirt, sweater, etc.).

All these actions force a person to adapt to new conditions that he sets for himself. There is self-knowledge and training of one’s own psyche to act within a certain framework of dissatisfaction, in the absence of a comfort zone.

Psychologists also advise their patients to engage in autogenic training. Always and everywhere be able to relax, concentrate on your own state and “disconnect” from the outside world. At home, all these problems can be solved with a relaxing warm bath, a mug of your favorite tea or reading a book. But, if a person is outside his comfort zone, he cannot do without autogenic training.

Sitting on a park bench or at your workplace, you should relax your body muscles as much as possible without thinking about problems. Such actions will not only reduce the likelihood of fear, but will also contribute to the disappearance of its signs - lowering blood pressure, normalizing sweating and breathing. A person begins to think soberly and assess the current situation, which will allow him to overcome all difficulties with dignity.