Phobias of all shapes and sizes

Someone with a phobia usually knows that his fears are not based on anything. What he fears is in reality usually not dangerous (perhaps with the exception of the fear of sharks or selachophobia). The annoying thing is that in anxious situations the phobia takes over and clear thinking fades into the background. The result: a person starts to avoid or flee from situations and will do so more if he becomes more and more indulging in his phobia. Until the phobia becomes an obstacle in daily life.

Typing

Phobias come in all shapes and sizes: from fear of the dark to fear of failure, from fear of heights to… fear of contamination. You probably don’t know them all. In any case, they can be divided into two types:

• Simple/Specific Phobias (phobias focused on one special situation, animal, person, object, or activity)
• Complex Phobias
  o Social phobia (extreme fear of certain public situations such as public speaking)
  o Agoraphobia (fear of open or closed spaces and public spaces)

Ablutophobia

Within these types there are a lot of phobias that you would not expect so quickly. For example, ablutophobia: the fear of bathing and washing, which mainly stems from the fear of drowning. People with kopophobia are afraid of getting tired, whereas someone with kyphophobia is afraid of bending over. Many children seem to suffer from lachanophobia, but whether they are all really afraid of vegetables, seems unlikely.

To give birth

Fear of giving birth (tocophobia) seems strange at first, but that changes when you realize that it occurs in women whose previous labor has failed. Also logophobia (the fear of words) sounds more reasonable if you think about it longer. It mainly arises in people who cannot deal with official letters from companies and authorities.

Stepmother

Paraskevidekatriaphobia is related to superstition: fear of unlucky Friday the thirteenth. Syngenesophobia seems like a rewarding subject for mother-in-law jokes: the fear of relatives. In reality, of course, it is a social phobia. By the way, the fear of mothers-in-law is novercaphobia. The fear of strangers (xenophobia) may seem like a consciously chosen philosophy of life, but it can really be caused by an unhealthy fear of everything that seems strange, unusual or rare.

Hollywood

The fear of blind (scotomaphobia) is pretty self-explanatory and thanks to Hollywood, not many people will feel completely comfortable in a cemetery (coimetrophobia: fear of cemeteries). Sesquipedalophobia, on the other hand, requires a little more imagination. It is the fear of reading or pronouncing long words. Remarkably, this is also referred to as hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

Originate

The onset of a phobia can have various reasons. It makes sense that a near-drowning as a child leads to an unhealthy fear of water. Phobias can also be copied from others (parents!) or arise because something goes wrong somewhere in a place. For example, a stuck elevator can cause claustrophobia (fear of small spaces).

Solution

The effort it takes to get rid of a phobia mainly depends on how severe someone is suffering from it. Keeping yourself in order until a fear is gone can work well. Talk to someone about it too. Phobias often arise because someone is not feeling well. Changing that can lead to the phobia disappearing again. Taking medication is less advisable because it mainly suppresses the effects of phobia. If it is really necessary to get rid of a phobia, therapy is a good solution. Often confrontation is sought and you come face-to-face with that which instilled fear in you.