You have what-o-phobia?

We are all familiar with the common phobias such as claustrophobia (fear of closed spaces), arachnophobia (fear of spiders), acrophobia (fear of heights), gynophobia (fear of dogs), mysophobia (pathological fear of germs and contamination), ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), coulrophobia (fear of clowns) and so on. I suffered from acute claustrophobia up until my mid-40s and it has tapered off since then. I still panic when I am in crowds, which is why I never attend street festivals or concerts, but at least getting into elevators is no longer an issue for me, and I am now able to enter caves for limited periods. My mother had acute acrophobia and couldn’t even cross the pedestrian overpasses in Manila. Thankfully I didn’t inherit this otherwise it would have been a great disadvantage as a photographer.

In researching for this blog entry, I came across some rather unusual phobias that I simply had to share with you. Drop me a line if you suffer from any of them!

• Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: fear of long words (try saying this three times in a row!). It is also known as Sesquipedalophobia.
• Genophobia: fear of sexual intercourse; also known as coitophobia.
• Agoraphobia: this one is tricky. Some explain it as fear of people whilst the American Psychiatric Association defines it as the fear of open spaces or crowds.
• Scopophobia: Fear of being stared at. You definitely can’t be a public figure or model if you have this!
• Apeirophobia: fear of infinity or eternity.
• Arachibutyrophobia: officially defined as the fear of peanut butter, others prefer to describe it as the intense fear of peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of your mouth. Either way, it does not bode well for PBJ sales and snacks.
• Logophobia: fear of words. This is common among children who suffer an irrational fear of verbal, auditory or written words, however they are able to accept and embrace visual messages by way of graphic novels, comics, and the like.
• Turophobia: disgust and inability to touch cheese.
• Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia: Fear of the biblical number 666 that is said to be the number of Satan. However, in China, 666 is an auspicious number commonly displayed in window shops meaning “everything will go smoothly.”
• Trypophobia: Fear or extreme repulsion of repeating patterns.
• Globophobia: fear of seeing or touching balloons.
• Omphalophobia: Fear of belly buttons. People with this condition are unable to look at or touch their own navel areas or those of others.
• Hylophobia: Fear of trees. This includes a fear of trees, forests and to some extent, wood itself.
• Nomophobia: Fear of being without a mobile phone. I honestly thought this was a joke, but it was officially declared a valid condition in 2009.

There is a name for just about every food phobia possible, such as

• Alektorophobia: Fear of chicken; live and cooked versions alike, including imitation flavours or scents related to chicken.
• Carnophobia: Fear of meat; sight, texture, and smell of it.
• Ichthyophobia: Fear of fish: sight, texture, and smell of it, live or cooked.
• Ostraconophobia: Fear of shellfish.
• Lachanophobia: Fear of vegetables.
• Allumphobia: Fear of garlic.
• Mycophobia: Fear of mushrooms.
• Consecotaleophobia: Fear of chopsticks.
• Mageirocophobia: Fear of cooking. A godsend for take-out and food delivery services!

The list is endless and I found it very entertaining to delve into all of this. What is important to keep in mind with any phobia is that it is always related to, or a manifestation of a past trauma. Psychotherapy or Cognitive Behavioural Therapy is highly recommended for most cases.