27 Phobias


A phobia is an anxiety disorder involving excessive and persistent fear of a situation or object.  Exposure to the source of the fear triggers an immediate anxiety response.


Phobias
are one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States. According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIH), approximately 12.5% of adults in the United States will deal with a specific phobia in their lifetime.


Women are more likely to experience phobias than men. Why? It could be because of differences in
brain chemistry and hormone fluctuations. Reproductive events across a woman’s life are associated with hormonal changes, which have been linked to anxiety. Here’s a link that explains more about this.


Typical symptoms of phobias can include nausea, trembling, rapid heartbeat, feelings of unreality, and being preoccupied with the fear object.


Here are 27 of some common phobias:


  1. Aphenphosmphobia - fear of being touched
  2. Arithmophobia - fear of numbers (bad idea to become a math teacher)
  3. Bibliophobia - fear of books
  4. Cacophobia - fear of ugliness (a phobia that’s only skin deep!)
  5. Coulrophobia - fear of clowns (can you say Poltergeist?)
  6. Daemonophobia - fear of demons
  7. Dentophobia - fear of dentists (some people may call them demons too)
  8. Emetophobia - fear of vomiting 
  9. Erotophobia - fear of sex
  10. Gamophobia - fear of marriage
  11. Gephyrophobia - fear of driving over a bridge
  12. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia - fear of long words; here’s how to pronounce it
  13. Koumpounophobia - fear of buttons (Steve Jobs apparently had it)
  14. Mageirocophobia - fear of cooking
  15. Necrophobia - fear of death or dead things
  16. Nomophobia - fear of being without your mobile phone
  17. Octophobia - fear of the figure 8 (don't look at our infinity sign on the home page)
  18. Ophidiophobia - fear of snakes
  19. Philophobia - fear of love
  20. Podophobia - fear of feet (our web designer's dad ditched a girlfriend over her feet)
  21. Samhainophobia - fear of Halloween (that's just scary in itself)
  22. Somniphobia - fear of sleep (author George R.R. Martin calls it a "little death")
  23. Thalassophobia - fear of the ocean
  24. Triskaidekaphobia - fear of the number 13
  25. Wiccaphobia - fear of witches and witchcraft
  26. Xenophobia - fear of strangers or foreigners
  27. Zuigerphobia - fear of vacuum cleaners


Can one overcome their phobia? There are many suggestions in the links, above, and just like anything phobias can be conquered. Here’s one more
link that gives some directives.

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