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Dyk #5: Phobias

February 23, 2011

Did You Know, Psychology

Did you know…

There are 85 different kinds of psychological phobias?

Some examples:

Gephyrophobia – the fear of bridges

Nosocomephobia – the fear of hospitals

Oikophobia – the fear of house surroundings and household appliances

Tetraphobia - the fear of the number 4

Chorophobia - the fear of dancing

Ergophobia - the fear of work

There are 13 animal-related phobias (such as fear of cats, spiders, dogs, worms, etc.) and 13 anti-demographic related phobias (such as Christianophobia, the fear of Christians, or pedophobia, the fear of children).

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About Manon Eileen

Dutch 23-year-old SF/F YA writer, BSc in Psychology and soon MA in Global Criminology. She is creative, easily bored, and craves tea all the time. Also: "science isn't about why, it's about why not" - Cave Johnson.

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  • http://piperbayard.wordpress.com Piper Bayard

    Well, children can certainly be pretty scarey. There is a certain phobia I have (not children) which intensity varies over my life. It’s an animal. I don’t want to say which one. It’s always creepy to be near one, and I almost always hyperventilate, but at times the animal sends me into a mindless panic, and at other times it just has me giving it a very wide berth. Once one hung out in my window well, and I tried pulling up a chair and making friends with it. A week of that was all I could stand before I asked my husband to relocate it to a nearby field. I’d be interested in knowing what kind of therapies deal with phobias, and how successful they are.

    • Manon Eileen

      Hey Piper, thanks for stopping by :) .

      Sorry to hear you have a phobia for this certain animal :( .

      I know there are cognitive behavior therapies to treat phobias and I’m also quite sure they’re effective, but I don’t have an exact number. I could probably find out though, if you want me to?

      • http://piperbayard.wordpress.com Piper Bayard

        That’s very sweet of you, but I’m lucky. This animal doesn’t live where I live now. I used to have them all over my back yard at my last house. I didn’t step off the porch from April to October. I’ll let you know if it becomes a nuisance, though.:)

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  • http://cmstewartwrite.wordpress.com/ CMStewart

    Clowns and houseflies make me panic. With clowns, it’s not much of a problem, because there aren’t that many clowns walking around in public. ;) Although once I saw one at an outdoor festival and had to walk several blocks out of my way to “escape.”

    Occasionally a fly will get into my apartment and I won’t be able to do anything until it is gone. Full panic. If a fly is buzzing around my table at a restaurant, I can’t eat until it is gone or everybody gets up and moves to a fly-free table. Once in college I spent an hour trying to get a fly out of my dorm room. The only “weapons” I had were room freshener and baby powder, so I ended up making a big, flower-scented, powdery mess. But I knew I had to get rid of the fly before my roommate returned, or else I would be stuck with it for the night, and I knew if that happened it would land on me. And that is the worst. I have to immediately scrub the “contaminated” area with hot water and soap. I’m only fully “decontaminated” after I take a shower. Oddly enough, houseflies outdoors don’t trigger the same level of panic in me, but they’re still pretty bad.

    Condolences to Piper. I can’t imagine a phobia so great I couldn’t even type the name of the offender.

    • Manon Eileen

      Wow man! Thanks for sharing, C.M!

      I’m personally scared of clowns too, but I’m lucky because it never came to a full-blown phobia. I guess that’s because they’re not all that common… Not like a housefly! :(

      I’m sorry to hear the phobia’s gotten so bad for you… Although it did make me giggle a bit, especially the room freshener and baby powder bit, sorry >_< Lol. It makes for an interesting image.

      I hope the phobia will get less bad for you at one point, though!

  • Davo

    I have a bizarre phobia that I did not realize was considered a “phobia” called Apeirophobia.
    It’s the fear of infinity.It usually effects me when I first wake up from sleep and induces a panic attack.
    I found out it was a real thing when I was telling my therapist about my sleeping difficulties.
    It’s very difficult feeling to put into words.It’s like the universe is so big and I’m so small.It’s terrifying.

    He says its rare but its not uncommon for the people who have it to experience the symptoms upon waking.

    • Manon Eileen

      Wow that sounds awful, my sympathies :( I hope your therapist will be able to help you with it! Thanks for sharing!