Cacomorphobia is an uncommon term used online for fear or aversion towards people in larger bodies. It is not a standard diagnosis. Body size does not tell you a person’s character, behaviour, hygiene or risk to others. Experiencing a fear does not justify discrimination.
Distress may involve learned stereotypes, concerns about one’s own body, a past experience with an individual or another anxiety pattern. These possibilities need careful assessment rather than assumptions about an entire group. Fear, disgust and prejudice are not interchangeable, and feeling anxious does not make a negative belief about someone’s weight true.
Causes of Cacomorphobia
A frightening encounter with a particular person may influence later expectations, but the person’s body size does not show why the event happened. Stereotypes that larger people are rude, lonely, violent, slow-moving or likely to binge eat are not a fair or reliable description of a person. Those are stereotypes, not clinical explanations of someone else’s anxiety. A qualified professional can explore the actual experience without generalising blame.
Weight discrimination can affect healthcare, education, employment and everyday life. A 2020 international consensus statement reviewed harms of weight stigma and challenged the idea that body weight is simply a matter of willpower. Describing prejudice as a rare phobia does not remove its effect on the person targeted. Care should address distress while maintaining respectful behaviour towards others.
Media and social messages can reinforce narrow ideas about acceptable bodies. If seeing a body type triggers distress, consider what meaning has been learned: a prediction about your own future, a judgement about someone else or a reminder of an event. No body type needs to be used as an object of disgust to explain that process.
Symptoms of fear of fat people phobia
Someone reporting this concern may experience anxiety symptoms such as the following. These symptoms do not prove the label or validate a belief about other people:
- Accelerated heartbeat, rapid and deep breathing
- Experiencing chills, shivering/trembling
- Experiencing a full blown panic attack-wanting to flee or hide
- Avoiding ordinary public activities because of distress about encountering a particular body size
- Persistent worry or low mood alongside avoidance; these need assessment rather than an automatic diagnosis of agoraphobia
Repeated upsetting images or predictions may hold attention and make it hard to focus. A clinician can ask about the content, level of conviction and behaviours involved. Intrusive thoughts, prejudice and an actual risk from a particular person need to be distinguished.
A person may avoid a shop, restaurant or public setting because of anticipated distress. The goal of support is to reduce unwanted restrictions and change harmful assumptions, without asking other people to change or hide their bodies.
Overcoming Cacomorphobia
Medication is not the only route to help and should not be prescribed simply because of this informal label. A qualified professional can assess anxiety, body-image or eating-related concerns, trauma and other relevant difficulties. Any medicine requires an individual discussion with a prescriber about benefits, risks and review.
Hypnosis cannot reliably replace attitudes or guarantee that the problem will disappear permanently. Look for a practitioner who explains the evidence and works on the actual symptoms and beliefs without reinforcing stigma.
CBT may help examine predictions, change avoidance and develop more accurate, respectful responses. Any practice should be agreed and ethical. Strangers must not be photographed, stared at or approached as treatment props, and no one is obliged to provide reassurance about their body.
A practical starting point
Write a recent example in terms of your own response: the situation, the thought that appeared, the sensation and what you did next. Keep it specific rather than describing a whole group as threatening. This gives a professional something to assess without turning an assumption into a fact.
In everyday contact, use the same courtesy and personal-space boundaries you would use with anyone. Avoid unsolicited remarks about weight, eating or health. If the distress concerns your own eating, weight or body image, explain that directly so support can focus on it rather than on avoidance of other people.
For someone targeted by weight-based ridicule or exclusion, the responsibility lies with the harmful behaviour, not with their body. They deserve respectful care and participation. Addressing anxiety and challenging discrimination can be part of the same constructive response.
Oh my god. I have been wondering for years why I am scared of fat people, and why I have had nightmares about them since I was like 8. Now I know why! Thanks heaps for this!
Fat people are scary..
Same.
I definitely do not like the disposition of the average overweight individual. You have heard a semi can’t stop on a dime. Once overweight people start in motion it’s like it’s out of control, like they are operating the Death Star for the first time.
OMG I have this phobia! Fat people make me sick.
You guys are crazy you think you are better but you are worse.
chill
How sad it is to read this well written very informed article . Sad because in my experience people with phobias tend to think they are fine and the rest of the world is wrong. They all generally refuse to accept that they have a problem and totally refuse treatment or dont stick with it. Everyone suffers because of it.
Oh no, Mary. Those of us that have panic attacks in the presence of obesity do not feel we are fine. I am broken by this phobia. However, no one can argue that being obese is a healthy, attractive choice. I have a problem. I am more than aware.
Surely it should be cacomorphophobia? It doesn’t make sense otherwise lexically.
I have been doing research on “Fear of Fat (Lipohobia)”.
And I end up here and came to know about “Cacomorphobia”. It increased my knowledge.
Thanks for the info.
You are all being insensitive. Fat people do live happy lives too, I know many who do and a fear of them is irrational. We should all learn to accept one another.
It’s called a specific phobia and it’s a mental illness. Don’t shame people. It’s not about not wanting to accept people.
This is a medical condition. It’s unintentional.
Hey May, heh, I like your name. I do agree that we should all accept each other. But despite what you might think, most of us aren’t trying to be hateful. Personally, I am afraid of morbidly obese people for two reasons. 1, my morbidly obese grandmother died when I was young due to diabetes and other health conditions related to obesity. Number 2, my morbidly obese mother was and is very abusive. I guess it’s just my brain making random connections to cope with the stress.
I have nothing against them, many of them probably are wonderful people, and I feel awful that I experience so much anxiety and feeling of disgust whenever I see one. I just wish it could go away. I do my best to cover up my feelings each time I have to interact with someone like this. I absolutely do not want to hurt them in any way. I just want them to be happy, of course. But I almost get panic attacks whenever I see one.
May, I wish it were as simple as being insensitive. I literally have panic attacks around obese people. I tremble, my heart pounds, and I feel as if I cannot breathe. I am well aware of the source, but I do not want to share something so violent and disturbing. I just saw a picture of a family group of horribly obese people with whom I should attend a function. I began violently shaking. It is debilitating. I have been this way my entire life. Please have some compassion for people like me. Can you imagine living in a world that is getting fatter and fatter by the hour?
It’s not our fault some of us have trauma because we saw or interacted with someone who is obese and unpleasant.
I have this phobia and I feel bad I do relate in the sense that I know I shouldn’t feel this way towards people, but just something is making it really hard to stop this feeling.
I think I have it too, but I’m not so much afraid of overweight people, it’s more like I just get extremely uncomfortable and anxious around them. It probably stems from the fact that I was once obese, but now that I am not anymore, I get very nervous and upset when I am around someone who is very overweight. It makes me even more sad that I feel this way because it is irrational, and it makes me feel like I’m a bad person, because I can personally relate to how bad it feels for someone to get uncomfortable around you because of your weight, but I can’t control it. Which puts me in a vicious cycle of anxiety and depression.
That’s Fatphobia not cacomorphobia. You’re uncomfortable not phobic there’s a difference. Some of us have an incredible fear that impacts our life in a big way. Not judging you at all a lot of people who were overweight struggle with Fatphobia just like gay people can struggle with internalized homophobia.
As long as I can remember. Total panic.
I was looking for a reason why i seem to have the need to create a long string of compliments and excessive flattery to large/obese women. I think it’s because I either feel vulnerable and scared next to the person because of their sheer size coupled with a more authoritative or dominant personality or because i know it isn’t socially acceptable to shame them.
See I don’t “fear” obese people, but I experience a revulsion to seeing obese people. Particularly morbidly obese people. Which is why I was trying to find an answer for that. And I feel absolutely dreadful for this and typically I keep it a dark secret because I honestly don’t want to hurt someone’s feelings what so ever. But I have such a physical response of disgust towards morbidly obese people that I can’t ignore it and I wish I didn’t have this thing. I cringe if someone touches me by accident who is obese. I feel like a monster. I wish I could just get over this.
I feel the same way. Although I don’t cringe away from people, I’ve had to disguise my emotions for so long that I can hold myself in place.
Me too, but if possible, I will try to avoid them.
My repulsion is actually gluttony. To become or stay fat, one must consume lots and lots of calories. These people are eating, not to live, but just because they like to ingest lots of high-calorie foods and drinks. You cannot get or stay fat unless you’re eating more calories than you need.
That is not true. I ate 1200 calories for a diet and gained weight. The value of the food is what actually counts. Do your research before commenting.
I was obese until I was 63 years old. In the last 19 months, I have lost 20 pounds doing nothing more than walking an hour daily on average in the summer and winter. No diet at all. In fact, I ate more because exercise made me feel more hungry. I still eat as much candy as I want. Exercise is the key (at least it was for me).
Sorry, but when I see a fat person, especially someone under 30, I regrettably think of a lazy glutton suffering from self-inflicted wounds.
You should also do your research, as consuming 1200 calories a day shows differently on others due to metabolism and the way your specific body digests the food you eat. I agree with the idea of gluttony, as these people can make a change in their diet to lose weight, but they don’t because they’re lazy.
No, that’s definitely NOT true at all! There are medical conditions as well as some medications that cause weight gain. Hypothyroidism, for example. I went from a size 5 to a 14 while going to my aerobics class as usual, didn’t change my eating habits. So I went to the doctor. This changed my attitude of saying, “They should just push away from the table.” Be careful what you think and how you feel about others. Life has a way of teaching us lessons we really don’t want to learn!
I was molested multiple times by my cousin, who was overweight when we were kids. Only recently have I made the connection between being repulsed by “fat fingers” with my childhood experience. I should probably talk to a therapist about this, but this article was validating. I don’t want to be repulsed by people who have nothing to do with what happened and apart face a lot of judgment.
When I was younger, I was SA by an overweight friend, and since then, I have been absolutely terrified. I mean, shaking, hyperventilating, wanting to throw up, and hiding from fat people. It’s not a personal thing, and I can’t stop or get over it, no matter what.
I grew up in the 60s in the south, and seeing an obese person was simply very, very rare. My Mom used to tell us that they are heavy because of “glandular problems” and it’s not their fault. Be nice. But as I grew up, I noticed what they picked up at the grocery store and even their body language when eating in a restaurant. I just avoid them as they represent a lack of self-control that probably spills over into other areas of behavior. A sad way to go through life, and most of the time, they have the ability to change this, but won’t exert the effort.