A phobia is an anxiety disorder, defined by a persistent and excessive fear of an object or situation.
Phobias may develop for a variety of reasons: childhood experiences, past traumatic experiences, brain chemistry, genetics or learned behaviour.
Here is a selection of some of the more unusual phobias:
- Alektorophobia: fear of chickens
- Apeirophobia: fear of infinity, eternity, and the uncountable
- Arachibutyrophobia: fear of having peanut butter stick to the roof of your mouth [Ed: Hmm … quite specific]
- Arithmophobia: fear of numbers
- Atelophobia: fear of imperfection
- Atychiphobia: fear of failure
- Aurophobia: fear of gold [Ed: Really?]
- Autophobia: fear of being alone
- Belonephobia: fear of pins and needles
- Carcinophobia: fear of cancer
- Cherophobia: fear of happiness [Ed: Get over it]
- Chorophobia: fear of dancing
- Coimetrophobia: fear of cemeteries
- Consecotaleophobia: fear of chopsticks
- Coprophobia: fear of faeces or defecation
- Coulrophobia: fear of clowns
- Dentophobia: fear of dentists
- Emetophobia: fear of vomiting
- Frigophobia: fear of becoming too cold
- Genuphobia: fear of knees or the act of kneeling
- Gephyrophobia: fear of crossing bridges [Ed: One of Remo’s if driving car]
- Globophobia: fear of balloons
- Halitophobia: fear of bad breath
- Keraunothnetophobia: fear of falling satellites
- Koumpounophobia: fear of buttons on clothing
- Leukophobia: fear of the colour white
- Nomophobia: fear of being out of mobile phone contact
- Octophobia: fear of the number 8
- Omphalophobia: fear of belly buttons
- Ophthalmophobia: fear of being stared at
- Optophobia: fear of opening one’s eyes [Ed. This wins the prize for most inconvenient]
- Panphobia: fear of everything or constant fear of an unknown cause [Ed: A really bad one to have]
- Papaphobia: fear of the pope
- Papyrophobia: fear of paper
- Paruresis: fear of urinating in public places or in the presence of others
- Pentheraphobia: fear of mother-in-laws
- Phagophobia: fear of swallowing
- Phobophobia: fear of phobias [Ed: Our favourite]
- Pogonophobia: fear of beards
- Pterpnophobia: fear of being tickled with feathers
- Samhainophobia: fear of Halloween
- Teratophobia: fear of giving birth to a monster or a disfigured foetus
- Trypophobia: fear of clustered patterns of holes
- Turophobia: fear of cheese
- Venustraphobia: fear of beautiful women
- Zoophobia: fear of animals
… and Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia: fear of the number 666!
Story Idea: Remo Giuffré
Personal Postscript
When I was living in New York in the 1980s I had a girlfriend who had a phobia about encountering dead birds … not such a common occurrence you would have thought, and therefore not super inconvenient. However, from a distance there are many things that, although likely not, MIGHT turn out to be a dead bird. Therefore, we did much crossing of roads together.
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References
wikipedia.org/wiki/Phobia
wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_phobias
Schott's Original Miscellany
Images
1. Woman diagnosed with panphobia, from Alexander Morison's 1843 book The Physiognomy of Mental Diseases
2. Nomophobia on the Rise graphic. Credit: wilsonelectronics.com.
3. Paruresis = Shy bladder syndrome
4. Pogonophobia beer? Credit: magicrockbrewing.com/products/pogonophobia
5 & 6. Credit: kickstarter.com/projects/amandus/phobophobia-fear-of-all-fears
7. Video: How to Pronounce Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (Fear of Number 666)
