Cibophobia

Do you have a fear of eating or of specific foods? If so, then you are suffering from cibophobia. Don’t feel bad! Many people are cibophobic to some degree. However, if you have serious food phobias, you might be in for some significant physical, psychological and social consequences…

I suffered from a fear of eating (and of foods themselves) for as long as I can remember. I was a picky eater as an infant and by the age of 2 already had a well-established list of foods that were off limits. When I turned 4, things worsened, as I became a vegetarian and also began to fear not only eating certain foods, but also being anywhere near them. So began a 35+ year struggle with food fear that is the inspiration for starting this web community.

If you are food phobic, please feel welcome here. You will not be judged, not matter how strange your eating habits might be. I am here to provide support and education about ARFID, also known as avoidant restrictive food intake disorder, formerly known as selective eating disorder or SED. More importantly, I will share my own struggle with finicky eating and provide humorous anecdotes on my journey to become a “semi-normal eater”.

What Exactly is Cibophobia?

Literally, cibophobia means a fear of food and/or eating. Currently, Wikipedia mistakenly lists it as being synonymous with anorexia nervosa, which is a complete fallacy. While anorexics might be scared of gaining weight, many are not truly food phobic. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of people who are food phobia are NOT anorexic and are actually a very healthy weight.

Some people are simply afraid of eating due to aversion of food items themselves. Others have highly specific types of food phobias that prevent them from eating certain varieties of food.

Other people are more extreme, and are actually completely disgusted by certain foods. They do not want to be exposed to such food items in any way and will definitely never consider eating them. Most will demonstrate smell, touch and sight aversion to such foods.

The most extreme examples of cibophobics are disgusted by food in general, often with few exceptions. These are people who might only tolerate any exposure to a very narrow band of food items. Some people with this phobia do suffer from other eating disorders and some people endure negative consequences, such as low weight and inability to gain weight, nutritional deficiencies and possible related health issues.

Specific Types of Cibophobia

As far as specific types of food fears, there literally are endless possibilities. People might be scared of eating or being exposed to any type of food item, with some phobias being truly strange. Below, I detail some of the food fears I see most often:

Fear of eating expired foods is a general phobia that tends to restrict people from eating any food item that may be considered spoiled and prone to inducing sickness.

Fear of eating meat is called carnophobia. I was and still am greatly carnophobic. Additionally, I refuse to eat meat on moral grounds. I do not like to be exposed to meats in any way and find the entire idea of meat eating to be incredibly disturbing to this day.

Fear of eating seafood is called ichthyophobia. I am also ichthyophobic and also disagree with the very concept of eating seafood on moral grounds. As with meat, I do not like to even be exposed to seafood, as the sight, smell and very idea of it conjure negative reactions from me.

Fear of eating vegetables is lachanophobia. Fear of vegetables might involve specific types of veggies, or whole categories based on color, appearance or other characteristic. Some people just refuse to eat vegetables of any type at all and do not even want to see them prepared as food. This is a phobia that used to be a major part of my general food fear when I was younger. I have completely overcome it and actually love to eat vegetables at this stage of life.

Fear of eating at restaurants is extremely commonplace and usually involves some specific food phobias that might be difficult to avoid when eating out. I definitely hated being invited out to eat for much of my life and tried to avoid it as much as possible. At many restaurants, there was simply nothing I could eat. It was almost always a horrible experience! Now, I love the chance to explore new cuisines and restaurant dining is one of my great loves.

Understanding Cibophobia

Most people who are food phobic have no idea where their fears originated. I certainly have no idea about my own, since they were already in place by the tender age of 2. In some cases, the origin of fear is well known to the person who suffers from them, but this is not the typical case of cibophobia.

Mental health professionals usually do not feel that knowing the cause of food phobias is largely important to their treatment. I mirror this sentiment, simply because many people who can get to the origin of their fear through therapy or hypnosis will still have the fear and negative reaction to food even after they understand where the fear came from. Meanwhile, others can overcome their fears even without having any notion of their origin. In essence, understanding the source is not usually crucial to overcoming the fear. This is a good thing for most people who want to change their eating habits, since most will never know why they have food fears to begin with…

If you are here just to learn more about cibophobia, that’s cool. Please enjoy your stay! However, if you want specific help to open yourself to eating better and more variety, then this website can do that for you also! Be sure to check out all of the resources that are free for you here.

If you are interested in a first hand account of a really severe case of cibophobia with lots of humor thrown in to soften the seriousness of the topic, then you will also love my book My Food Fear. In the book, I also go into great detail about how I eventually overcame my food fears and how life has become so much better since then. It only took my 35+ years, but eventually I was free of most of my fears!