Why don't people who have arachibutyrophobia simply not eat peanut butter?

Answer 1

Ahhh.....the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. It is more complicated than simply not eating it.

The first thing to understand is that fear is a natural and normal human 'negative' emotion. The purpose of negative emotions is to tell us that something isn't quite right; an indication that we need to take some kind of action.

In the case of fear, the message is 'danger'. While we are born with fear of loud noises and fear of heights 'pre-wired' in our nervous systems, and all other fears are learned from 'experience'.

The catch is, our mind is so powerful, that the 'experience' doesn't have to have been real, it could just have been vividly imagined. (That's why you can get feelings about peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth just by thinking; you don't have to actually be there).

Learned fear is an important survival mechanism, but just occasionally the wires get crossed and we learn a fear response for something where it doesn't belong – where there isn't a significant danger – and Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of The Mouth Phobia can develop.

The root cause of Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of The Mouth Phobia varies from individual to individual, and whilst no two individuals are the same, most fall into one or more of the following categories:

A Single Traumatic Incident. A highly stressful or frightening real event at which, instantaneously Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of The Mouth Phobia is created. Similar to, say, a child being bitten by a dog and developing an immediate phobia, a single traumatic incident is a one-time experience at which there is such extreme fear - even if only for a moment - that the nervous system 'learns' to associate fear to help the individual avoid such situations in futre.

The initial fear, by the way, may be nothing to do with peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth. We often hear from clients that the problem started at a time when they were under extreme stress for something completely unrelated, but the mind somehow associated the negative feelings to peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth anyway.

An Associated Traumatic Experience. This is where the individual does not directly experience the fear, but 'associates' to someone who does, either in a real situation, or, more rarely, when watching someone in a movie - or even a dream - experience a traumatic event.

A Slow Build. A slow build occurs when a mild case of Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of The Mouth Phobia escalates over time to become a severe one. What is happening here is that the individual is 'accumulating' fearful associations to peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth, so that the evidence used by the mind and nervous system is becoming increasingly irrefutable that fear is the appropirate emotion. That means that anxiety isso it is created automatically in anticipation each time... creating a self-fullfilling prophesy.

Sometimes Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of The Mouth Phobia can simply be developed from seemingly harmless experiences, or seem like 'its always been like this'. The truth is it hasn't always been that way (there's no such thing as a new born baby with irrational fears and phobias) but it may have started way back in an early childhood, possibly school, experience.

A 'Learned' Respose, like Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of The Mouth Phobia can Always be UN-learned...

In all the years we've been helping people overcome the most extreme fears and phobias, we have never found a case that could not be overcome, provided the individual was determined to do so.

The human system is capable of learning new responses incredibly quickly (how else could a single incident lasting only a few seconds or minutes create a problem in the first place?) and with the correct techniques a fearless, comfortable response can always be restored.

So, rather than stop eating it as you suggested, it is better to face the fear and overcome it.

Answer 2

Arachibutyrophobia

Answer 3

Peanut butter has a shelf life of like 5 years lol but yeah Ive had expired peanut butter before. It tastes the same.