While I feel horrible for anyone confronting a phobia, some of the less common phobias are, um, borderline hilarious. Fear of snakes and spiders? I understand. Fear of air? Not so much.
(And yes, fear of air actually exists — it’s called anemophobia, if you’re curious. I didn’t know what it was a called, which is how I ended up on this site, doing a reverse look-up of phobias after WebMD indicated that fear of air is a symptom of rabies.)
For today’s post-lunch distraction, here’s a list of my newly-discovered favorite phobias:
- Caligynephobia: fear of beautiful women. I think the Beach Boys named this one.
- Deipnophobia: fear of dinner conversation. Pretty sure I’ve dated this guy.
- Consecotaleophobia: fear of chopsticks. I’m going to guess the diagnosis of this runs pretty low in rural America.
- Euphobia: fear of hearing good news. I want to meet this person. Sounds like a real Debby Downer: “Do you want me to start with the bad news or the –” “NO!”
- Basophobia: fear of the inability to stand. How does this seed even get planted in one’s mind? And does it seize them only when they’re seated?
- Arachibutyrophobia: fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.
- Papaphobia: fear of the Pope. Nice to know he ranks up there with clowns for some people.
Interestingly, there is a whole list of phobias that I would argue aren’t phobias, but are, rather, NORMAL fears… like thanataphobia (fear of death) or taeniophobia (fear of tapeworms).
And of course, the men out there who are rolling their eyes, saying phobias are for sissies… I have one word for you: Medmalacuphobia.
Look it up.
pithypants 