Deipnophobia: Definition, Symptoms, & How to Treat It

What Is Deipnophobia?

Deipnophobia is an extreme fear of engaging in dinner conversation or dining out in public. The fear can cause someone to avoid social dining altogether, leading to a disruption in their relationships and isolation. Deipnophobia is a type of specific phobia in which the severe fear of dining out is not proportionate to the actual danger of the situation.¹

Symptoms of Deipnophobia

Deipnophobia symptoms will be similar to symptoms of anxiety, including physical symptoms like nausea, trouble breathing, or even a panic attack.  These symptoms will show up when being exposed to dining out, purposefully avoiding situations where you’d be going out to dinner with people, and even just the thought of dinner conversation will cause overwhelming fear.

Common symptoms of deipnophobia include:

• Muscle tension
• Avoidance behaviors
• Panic attacks 
• Shakiness
• Sweatiness
• Nausea
• Dizziness
• Chest pain
• Increased heart rate

Causes of Deipnophobia

The exact cause of deipnophobia is unknown, but like all phobias, it is likely caused by various factors, including environmental, genetic, and cultural influences, as well as past experiences. Usually, a traumatic experience involving dining out is the biggest indicator leading to deipnophobia. Women tend to experience specific phobias more often than men.²

Possible causes of deipnophobia include:

• Genetic factors: Those with a family history of phobias or mental illness may be at a higher risk of developing a specific phobia.
• Environmental factors: Bullying while eating out or even the parenting style a person experienced when they were younger could encourage this phobia.
• Experiencing trauma: A traumatic experience while in a restaurant, such as choking, could lead to deipnophobia.
• Social anxiety: Social anxiety and phobias are closely related, and someone may be worried about people are thinking of them while they are dining out or interacting at a restaurant.
• Witnessing trauma: Witnessing a trauma while dining out that caused fear could lead to deipnophobia.

Treatment for Deipnophobia

There is no specific treatment for deipnophobia, but there are a variety of phobia treatments available to make symptoms more manageable. The anxiety symptoms that accompany deipnophobia can also be managed with medications. However, medication works best when used with therapy to learn long-term skills to manage deipnophobia.

Therapy

Therapy is usually the most accessible treatment option for deipnophobia and also the most successful. The benefits of therapy for deipnophobia include learning how to manage and respond to triggers, becoming desensitized to stimuli, and lower anxiety levels.

Therapy options for deipnophobia include:

• Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT): CBT reframes unhelpful thoughts and can be used with deipnophobia to change how one thinks and feels regarding dinner conversation and dining out.
• Exposure therapy (ERP):  ERP is the gold standard for treating phobias. It is a form of CBT and shows clients that being exposed to their phobia will help them decrease their anxiety symptoms. ERP will slowly expose you to images or interaction with dinner conversation to help you gain better-coping mechanisms, including relaxation techniques to manage uncomfortable symptoms.
• Dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT): DBT teaches distress tolerance tools to use at the moment to manage anxiety.
• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR): MBSR is a structured group program that teaches participants how to handle challenges and obstacles more thoughtfully using mindfulness techniques.
• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR): EMDR will work with clients on increasing their mindfulness skills before reprocessing traumatic events or beliefs that led to deipnophobia.

You find the right therapist by searching for someone who specializes in phobias or anxieties and whose website or profile speaks to you. In your first therapy session, you can expect to go over your biopsychosocial history with your therapist. You may also need to fill out some forms, and they may have you complete some assessments to evaluate symptoms or rule out other diagnoses.

Medications

Medication can help alleviate some of the symptoms of deipnophobia but cannot “cure” phobias. Benzodiazepines produce a calming effect in the brain and are most often used to quickly treat intense anxiety or panic attacks.³ Benzodiazepines are not useful for long-term anxiety management and are more for managing flare-ups of panic or anxiety symptoms. SSRIs increase the effect of serotonin in the brain and are used for long-term anxiety management.⁴ It can take a few weeks to feel the benefits of taking an SSRI.

7 Tips for Coping With Deipnophobia

The anxiety symptoms that go along with deipnophobia typically increase and decrease at times, and the best way to manage those symptoms is to have a toolbox of coping mechanisms that you can use both long-term and in moments of stress. The more you use these mechanisms, the easier they become.

Here are seven tips for coping with deipnophobia:

1. Try Meditation

Using meditation for anxiety is one way to practice mindfulness but also begin to notice your thoughts and come back to the present moment. Using guided imagery will also allow your brain and body to relax by feeling like it’s in a peaceful place. Meditation can feel overwhelming for many people at first, so start small and remember there is no right or wrong way to meditate. Using a  meditation app or listening to a meditation podcast is a great way to ease your way in and learn more about meditation.

2. Practice Mindfulness

Practicing mindfulness allows you to be present in the moment without judgment. When we struggle with anxiety, it’s easy to worry and spiral into “what if” statements. Instead, try noticing these thoughts and not assigning them an emotion, or move mindfully to return to what’s happening here and now. If you’re a beginner to mindfulness, start small and add it to your everyday routine until you become more comfortable. Even just taking one mindful breath is a good starting place.

3. Yoga

Yoga can help reduce anxiety symptoms and is an effective way to manage triggers. Yoga is an option for people who find it easier to practice mindfulness when moving. Yoga can help relieve tension in the body, increase your mood, and increase the mind/body connection for better attunement to how thoughts and emotions impact our well-being.

4. Exercise

Mental health benefits of exercise include releasing endorphins which can help reduce anxiety systems. Exercise is linked to reducing anxiety symptoms, including those associated with specific phobias, like deipnophobia.⁵ Exercise is a healthy outlet to manage stress and can also be a way to connect with others through group fitness classes.

5. Journaling

Journaling for mental health is an activity anyone can do to manage their anxiety. Journaling can be a benefical way to express your feelings and note any patterns or triggers that come up for you with deipnophobia. These can be helpful to work through in therapy or notice as they come up in day-to-day life so they can be better managed.

6. Reducing Caffeine

Caffeine has been shown to increase anxiety symptoms, and sometimes people with these symptoms use more caffeine, worsening the symptoms.⁶ Reducing caffeine may be one way to manage symptoms of deipnophobia, especially if you face your triggers – for example, don’t have an energy drink right before going out to eat at a restaurant.

7. Breathwork

The breath is available to all of us at any time. Breathwork can be a powerful tool, and even taking one deep breath while we are anxious lets our body feel we are safe and reduces our stress response. An easy way to learn different types of breathwork is to practice daily through YouTube or yoga classes for stress and anxiety reduction.

In My Experience

Phobias can be debilitating. It might be difficult to explain to people in your life, or even understand yourself, that deipnophobia is a serious condition that can feel uncontrollable. Phobias impact all areas of life and can make going out into public, working, and having relationships feel impossible. However, phobias are treatable, and finding a therapist can help you work through the underlying causes so you can engage with life again.