Phobias are indeed disturbing cognitive – emotional behavioral disorders that should be appropriately treated. Fear of airplane flying, fear of narrow spaces, fear of the dark, these are the usual phobias people complain of and seek specialized help for. But there are other types of fears, very secluded to the general public, as they occur rarely or don’t manifest so evidently. Still, there are real, people experience them in the same intense manner as the others who face more common fears, and sometimes have almost impossible to pronounce names, while representing almost incredible fears. So let’s see ten (and they are hundreds!) of these odd phobias we should learn to recognize.
1. Anthropophobia
Should not be confused with agoraphobia, which is the fear of open spaces and or large crowds. Anthropophobia is a social phobia and depicts the fear of other humans and by nature and behavioral manifestation is quite disturbing for the one that suffers from it.
2. Equnophobia
Fear of spiders is one thing, fear of horses is another. Not completely unheard of though, this type of zoo phobia is somehow self-sustaining, since horsed don’t normally roam free on the streets to just trigger this fearful response. The fear may manifest also when seeing horses on TV or watch a race from a safe distance.
3. Anthophobia
Many people love flowers. Other just don’t have the soft spot for them, while others downright hate them. Few people fear them, though, and this natural environment type of phobia is not something you see every day. Still, some people are afraid of flowers and we should respect and counsel them properly.
4. Coulrophobia
This means the fear of clowns and Stephen King must have something to do with it. Because of IT. Get it? Children experience this more often, as clowns do have something sad and scary in them, but there are also adults that state seeing clowns or hearing their laughter make their skin crawl.
5. Nomophobia
It’s unclear if it is a social phobia or a personal one, but this one is taken directly from our modern, faster-than-lighting living times. All in all, it is about the fear of loosing your cell phone or your cell phone contacts. Ask a psychoanalyst, he’ll tell you it’s about fear of being alone or not having control anymore. Teenagers seem to go catatonic in the lack of cell phones and soon we will witness the rise of Facebook phobia (not being able to check your news feed) or something like that, but adults experience this fear quite violently too.
6. Tachophobia
The fear of speed actually prevents some people from riding cars or trains or any fast moving vehicle for that matter. It is a very incapacitating phobia, since it narrows down the possibilities of moving around and traveling.
7. Sitophobia
Eat, drink, have fun! But what is like to have an irrational, debilitating fear of food? This particular disorder is very dangerous as it determines long term negative effects on one’s health, metabolism and quality of life.
8. Ephebiphobia
The fear of teenagers. Well… seems legit?! Just kidding. The cognitive and emotional processes that can build up and lead to this type of phobia certainly have some prior negative, intense experience with the feared object. But if in the case of dog phobia, where things look quite clear at a first sight, the fear of teenagers may have a more profound background only a specialist can determine.
9. Injury phobia
Nobody likes to get injured, to have their bodies aching or their bones breaking, but this phobia can develop into something more complex and more hard to resolve, such as an obsessive compulsive disorder which asks for immediate professional measured to be taken.
10. Paraskavedekatriophobia
The fear of Friday the 13th. Saw the movie? Scared the living soul out of you? Well, apparently this superstition, this mother of all unlucky days on Earth, this famous cultural reference, turned itself into a phobia. We’re not sure if this is just a a fear of misfortune or the fear of the calendar date per se, but there are people who experience it. Luckily, how many times a year can you get a Friday 13th?
