Some of the most surprising phobias, those that you could not imagine existed, make life quite complicated for some people. This is the case of lakanophobia or fear of vegetables, a disorder that goes beyond food preferences and that joins with anxiety to become a very limiting problem. We talk about lacanophobia in our dictionary of phobias .
What is Lacanophobia
Lacanophobia is the fear of vegetables , vegetables , or even fruits. Not necessarily all, but yes to some of them. It should be noted that this is not a problem of taste in eating. It is very common that, for example, children do not like vegetables, but that does not imply a phobia.
Luckily, when a person suffers from lakanophobia they do not experience that irrational fear of all kinds of vegetables. It can be a single type of vegetable or several, but the rest can be eaten without problems and without consequences. Still, this phobic disorder is dangerous because it can lead to nutritional deficits in the diet.
Symptoms of Lacanophobia
The evidence that you suffer from lakanophobia is found in your behavior in the face of the stimulus or the vegetable that causes fear. It is, as with all phobias, avoidance behavior . Just imagining that vegetable or that vegetable gives you chills, so imagine what could happen if you find it on the plate.
It’s not that you don’t like beans, for example, it’s that they scare you. Finding beans on the plate or around you triggers a series of symptoms that are the same as those of anxiety . Sweating, feeling unreality, dizziness, palpitations, shortness of breath, or even a panic attack. To all this are added the distorted thoughts that turn that stimulus like some beans into something dangerous.
Causes of Lacanophobia
But how can you panic about some vegetables ? It is clear that a vegetable is not something dangerous, it will not attack you, as is the case with phobias of some animals and nothing bad can happen to you unless it is an allergy issue. How do you develop a fear of vegetables?
We almost always turn to the traumatic experience as the origin of a phobia and the case of lacanophobia is no different. Obviously you were not attacked by a mutant vegetable in your childhood, but it is enough to have lived a moment of great emotional charge while eating a plate of beans to associate that food with an unpleasant experience .
Lacanophobia treatment
That aversion to vegetables may seem normal to you and you do not think it necessary to overcome your phobia because you have organized your life to avoid the situation of finding yourself in front of that vegetable that you fear so much. But a phobia can also serve as a sign that something is wrong .
That is why it is necessary to go to a psychology professional and try to understand the origin of this irrational fear. With cognitive behavioral therapy you will be able to transform that series of irrational thoughts towards vegetables and also the behavior that you are following up to now. Because the objective is not always that you eat that vegetable again, but that it does not generate fear and anxiety.
