It being Halloween and all, my mind wandered to contemplate things that are scary, which led me to ponder irrational things that scare people, a.k.a. phobias. I began to wonder how many phobias there are, and with help of a handy little tool called Google (perhaps some of you have heard of it) I quickly learned that there are over 120 named and clinically accepted phobias. So, apparently FDR was right when he said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself," because there are a LOT of things that scare folks.
Here are some of my favorites:
spectrophobia - fear of mirrors or of one's own reflection
chorophobia - fear of dancing
nomophobia - fear of being out of mobile phone contact
somniphobia - fear of sleep
tetraphobia - fear of the number 4
workplace phobia - fear of the work place (likely story)
One of my fears was not on the list, so I'm taking it upon myself to name it.
tootallmanophobia - fear of men on stilts
Tootallmanophobia is awesome.
ReplyDeleteI have a fear of other people's grime. I love antiques, but I hate old houses. The summer before I was married I visited a college roommate in upstate NY and she lived in a very old house. My skin crawled the whole time I was there. When she showed me her basement room with rock walls I about crawled out of my skin--we never went there again.
Awesome. I like the classic Arachniphobia (fear of spiders.) I don't suffer many phobias but I have a few classics like fear of serial killers (makes sense right?) and fear of the dark. Yep that's me with the light on at 2 AM because I'm not tired enough to fall asleep in the dark.
ReplyDeleteBest case of unreasonable phobias I ever encountered was my 6th grade math teacher who had Triskaidekaphobia or fear of the number 13. I kid you not!
I was sent to the office twice that year for giving a correct answer of 13 to a math problem and forgetting to say "one three." The principle rolled her eyes and sent me back to class. The second time I think I got a candy bar and then had to go back to class.
Lol! I have some classic fears like...heights and people in skeletal masks. I've never met anyone with an actual diagnosed phobia, though. That would be very interesting (and sad).
ReplyDeleteI am loving the teacher. Triskaidekaphobia is one of my personal favorites . . .I just didn't mention it earlier because I couldn't spell it and didn't want to attempt it.
ReplyDeleteSerial Killers and Dark are good fears of mine, as well as heights.
I have a fear of developing multiple personalities.
ReplyDeleteNo I don't.
Yes I do.
Just tell all the people you're afraid of spiders.
Yes. I do have arachniphobia.