Phobia is mostly described as an irrational fear of an object or a situation. It is estimated that about 10% of people suffer from some form of phobia or the other. There are common ones like acrophobia (fear of heights), claustrophobia (fear of being closed in small spaces) or arachnophobia (fear of spiders) and there are other strange phobias. Let’s see some of them now.
1. Imagine living your life with vestiphobia (fear of wearing clothes). It wouldn´t affect your life much; except when you would like to go to the store or have some friends over. Well, you probably wouldn´t have any friends, so there is no need to concern about that.
2. Are you afraid of closing your eyes or turning the lights off? There is a phobia called acluophobia and it means: fear of dark. It is impossible to avoid the fear of dark because you need to close your eyes in order to fall asleep. The people that suffer from it are always afraid before falling asleep. I can only imagine what kind of dreams they usually have.
3. Do you know any really long word? If you do and you are afraid of it, then you are suffering from Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words). Yes, the irony is painfully obvious. Just imagine how a person suffering from it felt when someone told him the name of the phobia.
4. Do you like peanut butter? Are you afraid it will stick to the roof of your mouth? Congratulations, you are an arachibutyrophob. I don´t know why people panic only while eating peanut butter and not while eating some other sticky food. No matter the reason, the cure is quite simple – don’t eat peanut butter.
5. Are you uncomfortable while being happy? You are probable suffering from hedonophobia (fear of pleasure). The specific phobia is preventing people from sensing positive feelings without being afraid of them.
6. Are you always in a bad mood and feel an anxiety while laughing? There is a phobia called geliophobia (fear of laughter) that you are probable suffering from. It is one of the phobias you are not born with, but start to suffer after some bad social experiences.When it comes to the extreme, there are three phobias that are just that.
7. Are you afraid of being afraid? Are you phobic about phobias? If you are, you are definitely suffering from phobophobia (fear of phobias). It is hard to imagine when a person that has phobophobia is actually not being afraid.
8. Are you afraid of everything? Then you already know that you are suffering from phanophobia. It is most probably the worst of all phobias. People who are suffering from it are not actually afraid of every single thing there is, but rather have a strange feeling all the time. The phobia is mostly described as a vague sensation of some unknown evil that is constantly lurking.
9. And now, the most bizarre phobia in existence is: the fear that somewhere in the world, there is a duck watching you. The phobia is called anatidaephobia and the reasons for it are unknown. Doctors believe it is caused by some sort of a childhood trauma but can´t figure out why is the duck the main source of fear.
After reading about all that weird phobias, I have only one question for you: What are you afraid of?
