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Dipsophobia – The Fear of Drinking Alcohol
Food Phobias

Dipsophobia – Fear of Drinking Alcohol

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Fear of Drinking Is Beyond a Social Phobia

Do you avoid social events and parties where alcohol is served? Do thoughts or talk of alcohol make you sick?

Your friends and family may have dismissed it as abstinence, but you know you don’t have a choice—you are deathly afraid of drinking alcohol. If you’re afraid of having a drink, then you’re probably tired of explaining yourself at parties and celebrations.

What you want is to get better, to no longer have to explain why you hate the idea of alcohol. You want to turn an irrational fear into a choice. To do this, you need to go deeper and look at the reason for your fear.

A closely related phobia is Potophobia – Which is a fear that you’ll lose control while drinking and not know what you may have done.

What Causes the Fear of Drinking Alcohol?

A simple Google search for ‘why do I have a fear of alcohol?’ will show a dozen dipsophobia articles and dipsophobia images. You’ll see images of men and women clutching their heads in frustration as alcohol bottles and glasses innocently surround them. Dipsophobia covers both the fear of alcohol and drugs.

Dipsophobia – The Fear of Drinking Alcohol

Know that alcohol is not to be blamed for your fear. So, what then could be the cause of your fear of alcohol?

Dipsophobia, like any phobia, is an irrational fear caused by a genetic disorder, trauma, biological, or environmental factors. Let’s look at possible dipsophobia causes.

  • If you are genetically predisposed to mental/emotional disorders, then you are prone to having an anxiety disorder or phobia. If a person with a genetic disorder experiences a stressful event in life, their fear may revolve around details from that event.
  • A severe biological reaction to alcohol at a young age can instill long-term fear in a person. Traumatic experiences in life can also trigger a strong aversion to alcohol. The death of a loved one from alcohol abuse, an alcoholic parent, or an abusive alcoholic parent, etc. can all cause a fear of alcohol.
  • Religious beliefs can also cause someone to develop a fear of alcohol. While it may not be rational, beliefs can make a person perceive alcohol or the act of drinking a sin. They expect to be punished for drinking, tasting, or even thinking about alcohol. Over time, these thoughts lead to heightened fear responses that make life difficult for the person.
  • These thoughts could also develop if a child receives harsh punishment from parents for having tasted alcohol.
  • It is also possible that a person had a close encounter with death due to their drinking habits. This experience changed their attitude towards drinking. But instead of learning to drink in moderation, the person developed an irrational and debilitating fear of alcohol. Fear can be a person’s way of dealing with their past drinking behavior and can be a way to punish themselves.

 

Everything You Need to Know about Dipsophobia

Dipsophobia etymology shows the term is a combination of the word dipso meaning “thirsty” and phobos meaning “fear.” It is also known as potophobia or methyphobia. Interestingly, the chances of developing dipsophobia are the same whether you consume alcohol or not.

Dipsophobia is called the fear of drinking alcohol, but the actual fear experienced can have many aspects. A person may be afraid of the drink, its effect on the body, or the consequences of drinking. All these might be different phobias, but since they are all centered around alcohol and its consumption, we categorize them as dipsophobia.

Symptoms of Dipsophobia

Dipsophobia symptoms are easy to spot as alcohol is widely and commonly consumed. It is easy to notice someone who has an irrational fear of drinking alcohol.

Physical Symptoms

  • Sweating
  • Muscle tension
  • Nausea
  • Dizziness or trembling
  • Stomachache
  • Headache
  • Panic attacks (or symptoms of an attack)
  • A reaction similar to allergy after drinking alcohol

Mental/Emotional Symptoms

  • Avoiding alcohol
  • Anxious thoughts about accidentally consuming alcohol
  • Nervous around alcohol
  • Isolation from alcoholics and the drinking population
  • Anxious when thinking about alcohol
  • Fear of the consequences of alcohol consumption

 

How to Deal with Dipsophobia

Most dipsophobes are confused as teetotalers. Many times, panic attacks are dismissed as an overreaction or attention-seeking behavior. If you received these reactions, it can make you feel cut-off and depressed. All your conversations about your fear of alcohol become strained and stressful.

Luckily, the phobia is easy to diagnose once you know the symptoms, and a variety of dipsophobia treatments are available.

What You Can Do to Help Yourself

If you often ask yourself How do I get over my fear of drinking?, then getting a professional diagnosis should be your priority. As you start counseling sessions, you can also try the following self-help tips to support your mental health:

  • Write down your thoughts in a journal. You don’t have to revisit these notes, but a good practice while journaling is to notice when you’re having unhelpful thoughts, so you can work on changing them.
  • Go for a run or a brisk walk once a day for 30 minutes. Walking helps get rid of toxins and supports the biochemistry needed to keep you calm during your therapy exercises. You can also try to squeeze in mindfulness meditation at the end of the day to help you wind down and get better sleep.
  • Dietary changes can also help. If you’ve been chugging coffee multiple times a day, then you could be setting yourself up for failure. Caffeine is a stimulant and can worsen anxiety.

Professional Help for the Fear of Drinking Alcohol

Cognitive therapy is the first step in treating dipsophobia. A trained counselor will discuss your fear with you. To find the root cause, your counselor needs to understand the history of your phobia. This helps identify root causes and helps with rationalizing the problem.

  • Talk therapy is useful in helping patients face down their fears in a controlled environment. Once an appropriate level of desensitization towards alcohol has been reached, patients can start taking small steps in real-life situations.
  • You can also turn to support groups for therapy. Groups work by bringing together those who suffer with similar problems. This helps build a sense of affinity between individuals who want to overcome their fears. Group participants share their stories and can help motivate each other. It also brings more ideas and suggestions to the table such as to which therapy and activities are helpful.
  • Medication should complement other forms of therapy. Therapists prescribe antidepressants, anti-anxiety pills, and beta-blockers to help patients stay calm. However, medication only provides temporary support. As soon as an individual has learned to cope with the fear, they should be weaned from their  medication.

 

Learning to Cope with Dipsophobia

Most times dipsophobes will have an unrealistic view of the world, since their ideas and perceptions are built around their fear. However, it is possible to become aware of the irrationality of one’s thoughts and behavior as it is happening and learn to deal with them.

If you’re tired of being irrationally afraid of alcohol, seek help. Look forward to the day when you can take part in a simple celebration without dreading the toast. You can learn to trust yourself to drink responsibly and with moderation given enough time and therapy.

FearAZ.com is looking for personal stories of any 'fear of' or phobia. If you have an interesting story you'd like to share, we welcome your submission. If the story fits with our content and guidelines, we'll add it to our site.
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Your Fear Goes Up and Down

Are you someone who would rather climb the stairs than take the elevator? You call it squeezing in a workout after being sedentary the whole morning. Or perhaps you claim it's a faster route. These are both typical, normal, and acceptable reasons. But what if you need to be in the conference room on the eleventh floor in five minutes, and you're wearing your business suit and wingtips? Would you still prefer to take the stairs? If your answer is yes, then maybe it's time to take a closer look at your reasons for avoiding elevators. Elevators stir all sorts of emotions in passengers. From the discomfort of closeness to strangers to the sensations in our gut, elevators can be a source of the heebie-jeebies for many, but for some, they can also be a source of terror. Let's dig a little deeper into the latter, and see what this terror is all about and what can be done to manage it. To begin with, does being inside an elevator give you chills or the sweats? Or does it trigger an unpleasant memory? Perhaps you remember movies you've watched where something terrible happens inside an elevator. From Silence of the Lambs, The Shining, Final Destination 2, or the king of all elevator horror films, 2010’s Devil, the elevator becomes witness to something sinister and horrible. And you want nothing to do with any of it. You know that you're not claustrophobic. You can deal with heights just fine, too. And you know that you're not going to be trapped inside. All of these contribute to a fear of elevators—but they don't apply to you. Yet being inside one does something to you. It's hard to explain.

What is the Fear of Elevators Called?

What you have is a fear of elevators, which is called elevatophobia. It is most commonly triggered by an experience of getting stuck inside either due to a power outage or technical maintenance. Hearing about other people's experiences or watching a movie about similar circumstances can prompt a fear of elevators getting stuck with you inside. Usually, claustrophobics and agoraphobics may also develop elevatophobia because the triggers and objects of these fears are related. Claustrophobia is the fear of closed and cramped spaces, while agoraphobia is the fear of being trapped without any means of escape. Put the two together, and the elevator becomes the perfect combination of both phobias. The space is limited and closed, with only one means of entry and exit. You can add another point of access if you consider climbing the cables like they do in the movies, but that certainly isn't ideal.

Symptoms of Elevatophobia

If for some reason an elevator stops due to an outage or some technical difficulty, passengers with elevatophobia may go into full panic mode. Even if the maintenance team advises that it will just be a matter of minutes, by then, the person's mind has become irrational with the fear of the elevator falling, being stuck for hours, or other unpleasant thoughts. You would expect a person to exhibit the following physical symptoms: Additionally, you would be filled with that overwhelming anxiety where you feel that you have zero control over the situation. You start fearing the unknown and are filled with negative thoughts about death and imminent doom. You become irrational and unresponsive.

Possible Complications of Elevatophobia

When the panic sets in, the possibility of emergencies related to pre-existing conditions may make themselves known. This might include serious health crises like heart attacks or asthma attacks. When this happens, fear becomes a medical emergency. Elevator rides do not last long; it's just a matter of minutes or even less. But the fact that a person can escalate from panic to a near fatal medical situation classifies the fear of elevators as a 'hard phobia.'

Trying Some Self-Help Methods

Your fear of elevators can likely interfere with your social and work life and relationships. Not everyone understands that elevatophobia, like most phobias, can be crippling. But don't be disheartened. Depending on the level of your fear and level of control, you can gradually face and manage your phobia. Here are some recommendations you can try:
  1. Make a List of Everything that Entails Riding in an Elevator This is a systematic approach to getting over your anxiety. By following a step-by-step process, you can identify where the fear kicks in at its strongest. You can write a list of steps like pressing the topmost button and waiting to arrive on that floor, watching as the door closes and opens, being alone inside the elevator, or having delays with the doors opening. Now try doing the opposite. For example, face away from the door or occupy yourself with your phone so that you are distracted.
  2. Create Your Fear Ladder Although the name says fear of elevators, it is not the whole process that scares you. There are just phases and parts of the elevator riding experience that cause you to panic. So go back to the list you initially created and label the fear level you feel. You can do it numerically, too, like ten being 'really scary,' six, 'manageable scary,' and one, 'not scary at all.' You can put the corresponding fear levels so you can focus more time and effort into activities that are more scary to you.
  3. Face Your Fear By now, you have identified what scares you the most. You can try repetitive action to minimize your fear and increase your sense of ‘normalcy’. Remember that the longer you expose yourself to your fear, the better you get at handling your emotions. If you are feeling overwhelmed, stop. Pushing yourself too fast and too soon can backfire. Modify your pace and go slower instead.
  4. Talk About Your Fear People by nature, unfortunately, are not quick to offer understanding and support. You need to tell them what's wrong before they can empathize. Talk to someone who you trust and ask for their support, especially in the initial phase of overcoming your fear. If you are too afraid to ride the elevator alone, you can ask them to go with you, and before you realize it, you are on your floor, and there was no indication of panic.
  5. Learn To Be Patient Be patient with yourself and your predicament. This is, after all, your fight against fear. It might take hundreds of elevator ride practices before the fear gets under control. Even then, there might be some hesitations and episodes of nervousness. These are acceptable and expected, so cut yourself some slack and congratulate yourself for every progress.

Seeking Professional Help

Along with self-help, you can always enlist a medical professional's aid to support you with your elevatophobia. Talking to someone who has experience with similar cases can be comforting, because you know that you are not alone, and this situation can get better. Talk to your doctor about the severity of your fears and the symptoms that you experience. Explain how you deal with it in an attempt to control it. An exam and a health history are made to ensure that there are no unrelated or underlying problems that your symptoms might mask. Usually, phobias like this are approached with a combination of psychotherapy and medication. Your doctor will talk about these options with you, and it's entirely up to you, with your doctor's recommendation, what you want to pursue. For psychotherapy, the most common type is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which aims to help you find different ways of behaving, thinking, and reacting when about to step inside an elevator or when already inside it. With medications, there are beta blockers and benzodiazepines, but note that these can have side effects. Whatever these side effects are, you should promptly share it with your doctor.

Simple Tips to Overcome Elevatophobia

Elevators are not perfect, but their likelihood to malfunction, fall, or get stuck is very low. If you are not fully confident with this information, you can help overcome your elevatophobia by learning common elevator safety tips and basic elevator operations. These should help curb your mild fear until you become more self-assured. In addition to that, here are some of the things that you can do to gradually overcome your fear of elevators—both in getting on and riding one.

Conclusion

Yes, elevatophobia can be a challenge in today's world, but don't allow the elevator to win. Don't let it stop you from taking a job on the top floor or attending a social gathering on the rooftop. Sure, you can take the stairs if you insist and arrive winded and sweaty, with the party about to wrap up. But is this the quality of life you seek? Elevators are designed to make life easier. There are guaranteed ways to help you overcome elevatophobia. Take the first step and seek help. Soon, you’ll see yourself breezing through the floors with those arduous stair climbs little more than a memory.
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