Consecotaleophobia is the irrational fear of chopsticks. Someone experiencing this disorder my find themselves extremely anxious when around chopsticks or when merely thinking of them. Chopsticks were invented in neolithic China before the Shang dynasty, which was during 1766–1122 BCE. Nevertheless, regardless of the origin of the chopstick, they can be seen in virtually every country around the world, from local Asian restaurants to home use.

Someone suffering from consecotaleophobia will likely feel extremely heightened amounts of anxiety that is not in touch with reality. For one, chopsticks are inanimate objects which aren’t capable of being threatening in of itself. For example, selachophobia (fear of sharks) is somewhat grounded in reality due to the fact that sharks are a known threat to human beings. This can obviously not be said for someone with consecotaleophobia.

Someone suffering from this phobia is likely to be a very rare occurrence and is much less common than achluphobia (fear of darkness), pediophobia (fear of dolls), and pharmacophobia (fear of drugs), among many other phobias. Someone who is irrationally fearful of chopsticks may experience anxiety that is so intrusive and extreme that they may even endure full blown panic attacks as a result of their consecotaleophobia.

Someone with this phobia may find themselves avoiding chopsticks or anything that may remind them of chopsticks. This may mean avoiding restaurants where chopsticks are commonplace, ensuring that chopsticks are not in their home, etc. However, those with consecotaleophobia shouldn’t have a very difficult time with avoiding this fear due to the fact that chop sticks are not very common, unless you live in certain areas of Asia that is.

Symptoms of Consecotaleophobia

Someone suffering from consecotaleophobia may find themselves experiencing painstaking anxiety at the mere thought of chopsticks. Depending on which country they live in, they may go to painstaking lengths to avoid being around or seeing chopsticks on a day to day basis. Even though doing this will help to momentarily subside some of their anxiety, avoiding their fear of chopsticks may only worsen their consecotaleophobia over time.

It may also not be uncommon for someone with consecotaleophobia to have their self-esteem plummet, as well as see their confidence decrease. If such things were to occur, then this may open up the door for them to develop additional mental disorders, including other phobias.

For example, someone suffering from consecotaleophobia may find themselves spending a great part of their day obsessing about their irrational fear of chopsticks. This may eventually lead them to develop obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) insofar as they have the genetic makeup to do so.

Below, you will see some more common symptoms of this phobia:

• Anxiety at the mere thought of chopsticks
• Anxiety when holding or seeing chopsticks
• Avoiding chopsticks or areas containing them
• Unable to cope with very strong emotions
• May experience full blown panic attacks
• Muscle tension, shakiness, and sweating

Causes of Consecotaleophobia

There is no known cause of consecotaleophobia. However, genetics and one’s environment may both play very significant roles in the development of any given mental disorder. For example, someone who has a family history of mental illness may have a higher chance of developing this phobia. This may have to do with them also having a genetic predisposition to develop mental illness.

Someone who has such a genetic predisposition may eventually develop consecotaleophobia insofar as they experience some sort of traumatic event that was related to chopsticks in some capacity. Traumatic experiences are very subjective and they will differ from person to person. This is especially true with people suffering from consecotaleophobia as this is a very rare phobia.

There is not much information on consecotaleophobia. There are little to no studies that have been done on this specific phobia. Though we do not know the exact causes of any given mental disorder, there is an overwhelming consensus among most mental health professionals that both genetics and environment play crucial roles in the development of mental disorders.

Consecotaleophobia Treatments

There is no treatment specifically designed for consecotaleophobia. With that being said, exposure therapy is one of the most popular and most effective forms of treatment for those suffering from virtually any phobias. Exposure therapy works by having the therapist slowly expose the patient to their fear over time. Regardless of the fact that by doing so, the patient will likely experience a great deal of anxiety. The goal with exposure therapy is to desensitize the patient from their fear over time.

It is very important for the therapist to be highly skilled and experienced with treating phobias due to the fact that if the patient is exposed to too much too soon then their consecotaleophobia may worsen as opposed to it improving. It is important to realize that exposure therapy takes time and you will not likely see success overnight.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is also a very effective form of treatment for people suffering from anxiety disorders. With CBT therapy, you will learn how to improve your cognition by learning new coping skills, as well as how to improve specific faults in your thinking. If you are unsure as to what the best form of therapy is for you, then you should talk to your doctor first before deciding on a specific type.

Besides exposure therapy and CBT, anti-anxiety medication may also be able to help improve someone’s symptoms of consecotaleophobia. However, it is important to note that anti-anxiety medication alone may not be enough to truly improve the symptoms of this phobia when taken without therapy. However, this is something that you will need to talk to your doctor about to ensure what the best decision is for your mental health.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for Consecotaleophobia

DBT is a very effective form of treatment for people struggling with emotion regulation. It is often used to treat people suffering from borderline personality disorder. Nevertheless, it can also be very advantageous for someone suffering from anxiety disorders like consecotaleophobia too. This is due to the numerous amount of coping skills you can expect to learn in a DBT group. These groups typically last about 6 months long and can have anywhere from two people to several people depending on how many join the group.

One very effective DBT skill for helping someone with consecotaleophobia is half-smiling. This technique works by having you think about that which you fear or upsets you all while slightly raising the corners of your mouth by lightly smiling, thus the term “half-smiling.” Although, it isn’t enough to just think about your fear while half-smiling, you also have to try and refrain from entertaining those painful emotions that your specific fear may evoke.

Mindfulness meditation is also heavily used in DBT and can greatly benefit someone with consecotaleophobia as it is done in a group setting, which helps to put the patient out of their comfort zone. These group mindfulness practices may include drinking warm tea to hone in on the sense of taste and tactile senses or simply focusing on the breath.

Coping ahead is another very useful DBT skill that can help someone with consecotaleophobia. With coping ahead, you will want to find a place where you can sit down quietly without distraction. Close your eyes and then think about the many different possible scenarios where you would face your specific fear and overcome it or cope with it. Doing so will help you to be much better adept at coping with your consecotaleophobia when you are actually exposed to the specific fear associated with it in real life.

Yoga for Consecotaleophobia

There are numerous different yoga poses that can substantially benefit someone who is suffering from consecotaleophobia. In part, this is due to the meditative state of mind that yoga tends to emit in those who practice it on a consistent basis. Yoga can be thought of as meditation in motion. It can help to relieve some of the anxiety associated with consecotaleophobia due to the mere fact that by engaging in yoga, your attention will be redirected to something more productive.

There are many different types of yoga that someone with consecotaleophobia can benefit from, such as hatha yoga or hot yoga, among many others. Nevertheless, regardless of the many different forms of yoga that exist, virtually all of them can help to relieve some of the stress and anxiety that is associated with consecotaleophobia.

If you have never practiced yoga before, then it may be in your best interest to take a class or watch some guided videos that can help you through each pose. Just like with meditation, the more you practice yoga, the more adept you will become at it. Besides helping you to reduce your symptoms of consecotaleophobia, you can also expect to acquire increased strength and flexibility, among other benefits.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for Consecotaleophobia

CBT is a psycho-social intervention that aims to improve one’s mental health. It is a modality that is often used to treat people suffering from anxiety disorders such as generalized anxiety disorder and OCD. Someone with consecotaleophobia may also be able to benefit from CBT as well seeing as how it would allow them to have a much better understanding as to why they think and behave the way they do in relation to their irrational fears.

CBT can be immensely helpful for someone with consecotaleophobia given the sheer automaticity of their symptoms. For example, when someone with consecotaleophobia is exposed to their fear, they will almost always have an instantaneous subconscious reaction to their fear. Such a lack of introspection is likely a large part of why someone with this condition will suffer to the extent that they will. CBT can help you to take a step back and analyze your fears more deeply than you typically would.

Besides learning to be more fastidious with regards to understanding one’s specific fears, someone with consecotaleophobia engaging in CBT can also expect to learn various other skills aimed at helping to relieve the anxiety caused by their condition.

Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) for Consecotaleophobia

MBSR is an 8-week evidence-based program that offers secular, intensive mindfulness training to help people who are suffering from anxiety, stress, depression, and other sorts of mental anguish. MBSR may be able to significantly help someone who is suffering from consecotaleophobia as mindfulness meditation has been shown to be very beneficial for anxious people. In such a structured program, someone with consecotaleophobia can expect to learn a plethora of different skills that can help them to relieve the intense anxiety that’s associated with their specific phobia.

Talk to your doctor or therapist to see if MBSR can help you to reduce the intensity of your symptoms of consecotaleophobia, as well as where to find MBSR programs in your area.

Exposure Therapy for Consecotaleophobia

As previously mentioned, exposure therapy is one of the most common ways to treat anxiety disorders such as consecotaleophobia. It can be an efficient way to help desensitize the patient to their specific fears. Be that as it may, it is imperative that the therapist implementing it on their patient is very adept at doing so. For example, if the therapist were to slightly expose someone with consecotaleophobia to their fear, then it may not be very effective as they may need a higher amount of exposure to truly trigger any sort of worthwhile change in the patient.

The same can be said for the antithesis of this scenario. If the therapist were to excessively expose someone with consecotaleophobia to their fear, then doing so could be highly counterproductive to the point to where their consecotaleophobia may become immensely worse due to the therapy alone. So, it is paramount that the therapist implementing exposure therapy for someone with consecotaleophobia has a very strong sense of just how severe their symptoms are so that they can know the level of exposure that the patient will likely be able to handle.

Reducing Caffeine for Consecotaleophobia

It is no secret that consuming large amounts of caffeine throughout the day can aid in making you more anxious. This makes sense when we look closely at how caffeine affects our body’s physiology. When we consume a high dose of caffeine, our heart will start to beat faster and we become more tense. Essentially, our body will begin to go into a “fight or flight” state of mind. Such a frame of mind is often a precursor for someone with consecotaleophobia to experience panic attacks.

So, consuming little to no caffeine throughout the day may be able to significantly help reduce your day to day anxiety. Although doing so will likely not make all of your anxiety go away, it will indeed help you to reduce any unnecessary suffering that you would have otherwise experienced if you were to consume a large amount of caffeine.

Beverages like coffee and tea are often high in caffeine, as well as some energy drinks. In fact, even some foods have caffeine in them as well, such as dark chocolate. Being more conscious of your daily caffeine consumption may help you to reduce some of the symptoms associated with consecotaleophobia.

Psychiatric Drugs for Consecotaleophobia

Antidepressant Drugs

These types of medications aren’t only for people who suffer from depression as they can also help people suffering from anxiety disorders as well, such as consecotaleophobia. Some common antidepressants are Paxil, Zoloft, and Lexapro, among several others. These drugs may be able to help reduce some of the symptoms of consecotaleophobia.

These types of drugs are typically taken on a daily basis. They can indeed help prevent panic attacks from occurring, but they are more so used to help reduce people’s daily anxiety. Talk to your doctor to see if taking antidepressants can help to reduce your symptoms of consecotaleophobia, as well as whether or not it is safe to do so.

Anti-anxiety Drugs

These types of medications are very useful to help prevent panic attacks. Such drugs can be extremely useful for people suffering from severe consecotaleophobia due to the fact that people with phobias often experience panic attacks as well. Some common anti-anxiety medications include Xanax, Valium, and Klonopin, among many others.

These types of drugs are not typically taken on a daily basis, but they may be insofar as their consecotaleophobia is severe enough. However, this is something that you should first discuss with your doctor before you decide to do so to ensure that it is safe and effective.

Exercise for Consecotaleophobia

Exercise has been shown to be extremely beneficial for people suffering from anxiety disorders, including consecotaleophobia. Specifically, cardiovascular exercise can significantly help to relieve one’s stress. This is not to say that weight-resistance training would not benefit someone with anxiety, but rather that aerobic exercise is has been shown to be more effective at releasing those feel good chemicals in the brain, such as endorphins.

According to the American Psychology Association, exercise can help to condition the mind to better cope with stressful situations. This makes sense when we take into consideration the high amount of stress that the body is put under during strenuous exercise. So, if you yourself are sedentary, then engaging in some form of aerobic exercise may be able to significantly help reduce your symptoms of consecotaleophobia by making it much easier for you to cope with the anxiety and stress that’s associated with this condition.

There are many different aerobic modalities that you can partake in to help reduce your symptoms of consecotaleophobia, such as swimming, biking, skiing, walking, and jogging. You can also acquire the many benefits of exercise by playing sports such as tennis, soccer, basketball, and racquetball, among many other sports. Engaging in some form of exercise consistently may be able to help relieve some of the pain associated with consecotaleophobia over time.

Meditation for Consecotaleophobia

There are many different forms of meditation that exists which can be very advantageous for someone suffering from consecotaleophobia. Specifically, mindfulness meditation has been shown to be quite beneficial for helping people to enter into a more equanimous state. There are many different ways with which you can implement mindfulness meditation and there are also many different meditation apps which are designed to make things as easy as possible for you.

Mindfulness has the potential to significantly help those suffering from consecotaleophobia due to how it will help one to distract themselves from their fear by refocusing their attention onto something else that does not have any sort of emotional baggage attached to it, such as by focusing on the breath for example. This is one of the most basic ways that one can meditate and be present.

For someone with consecotaleophobia in the midst of a panic attack, redirecting one’s attention to the various sensations felt when breathing can actually help to reduce the amount of mental anguish experienced during such an influx of anxiety.

To implement mindfulness meditation to help relieve one’s symptoms of consecotaleophobia, you can do so by paying close attention to the way the muscles in your abdomen and chest contract and relax with every inhale and exhale. You can spend time dwelling on how it feels as your chest expands during each inhale and how it sinks in with every exhale.

Besides focusing on your breathing, you can also focus on the sounds around you, the way your skin feels as you touch certain objects, the way foods taste, as well as the way certain aromas smell. Essentially, honing into your 5 senses can significantly help you to reduce some of the anxiety that is associated with consecotaleophobia. Also, remember that it will take a lot of practice to become an adept meditator. So, practice is key.

If you think you may be suffering from some of the symptoms of this condition, then you may benefit from therapy. Feel free to reach out to your doctor or local mental health clinic to see what your available options are and to see if there is any sort of discount or promo code available to help you with the costs of treatment, as well as if your health insurance will cover treatment costs.