OPINION
Whether it’s being freaked out by a spider, watching a horror movie, or even talking to some hot girl who sits next to you in class, we are all afraid of something.
But some people are unfortunate enough to suffer from phobias that can cause distress to their daily lives. Some of them are quite common — like being afraid of heights — while others are just bizarre and unusual.
The sad truth about these weird phobias is that there were enough people suffering from them to have names given to them.Some of them are so out there that we’ve compiled a list of what we think are the weirdest of them all. If you happen to suffer from one of these phobias, we are in no way making fun of your condition. (OK, maybe a little.)
10. Didaskaleinophobia
Fear of going to school
Next time you don’t feel like going to class or you forgot to do your homework, instead of pretending you’re sick, just tell the professor you suffer from didaskaleinophobia. We can’t say that it will work, nor do we know of anyone who actually suffers from this phobia, but give it a shot. Just don’t try to pull it on your psychology professor.
9. Pteronophobia
Fear of being tickled by feathers
For some people, being tickled by feathers is funny, and for others it’s a sensual act, but for a remote group of people, it’s terrifying. Maybe it’s the tickling feeling in general that’s scary, or maybe they had a bad experience with a Vegas showgirl. Whatever the reason, it’s just a little too odd to seem like a real phobia.
8. Porphyrophobia
Fear of the color purple
If you really analyze this phobia, throughout history, the color purple is often associated with royalty, power and sometimes divinity. So perhaps people who suffer from porphyrophobia aren’t really afraid of the color purple, but more afraid of what it represents … or maybe they are seriously just afraid of things like purple grapes. What’s really scary about purple is the fact that nothing rhymes with it. And as you rattle your brain thinking about that one, “nerpal” doesn’t count as a real word.
7. Ereuthophobia
Fear of red lights
If you think about it, red lights are a big part of people’s daily lives. You see at least one every day whether it be on the road, in your car, or even in your house. Now imagine being pulled over by the cops while being afraid of red lights. Yikes. If anything, people with ereuthophobia should not be driving any sort of vehicle on the road. They would be too afraid to stop.
6. Cardiophobia
Fear of the heart
Fear of the heart may sound poetic, but cardiophobia is literally the fear of the heart organ. The very organ that is vital to life strikes fear in the hearts of some people. (Pun intended.) It’s one thing to be grossed out by a heart, but being afraid of your own organ is a little bit of a mind bender. Many things can cause your heart to pound heavily —fear being one of them. So if your heart is pounding from being afraid of it … whoa.
5. Anablephobia
Fear of looking up
It’s one thing to have vertigo, but constantly being afraid of looking up has to be rough. Try not looking up for an entire day. As soon as you think about not looking up, what do you want to do most? Look up. But in the anablephobiac’s defense, there are some legitimate reasons for not wanting to look up. Random bird droppings are a prime example.
4. Barophobia
Fear of gravity
There are people who are afraid of heights, free-falling, or having things fall on them. Then there are people who are just afraid of gravity itself. While there are plenty of things that gravity makes deadly, life would be impossible without it. Astronauts who have been in space for a long period of time often experience reduced muscle mass and loss of bone density. Without gravity, our bodies would be reduced to frail skeletons. Now that’s scarier than gravity.
3. Arachibutyrophobia
Fear of having peanut butter stuck to the roof of your mouth
Having peanut butter stick to the roof of your mouth is in no way life-threatening, dangerous or harmful to the human body. It’s more annoying than anything. In fact, when was the last time that has even happened to you? If this is happening on a regular basis, you’re putting way too much peanut butter on your sandwich. The good news is that arachibutyrophobia is 100-percent curable. All you have to do is never eat peanut butter. Problem solved.
2. Sesquipedalophobia
Fear of long words
It’s a little odd that the fear of long words is in fact a long word itself. If you suffer from this phobia, how many letters constitute a long word? Technically any phobia is a long word. You would think that whoever had the decency to name this one would actually shorten it up a bit. Another word for this fear is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Now that’s just cruel.
1. Phobophobia
Fear of having a phobia
President Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Well, there’s a phobia for that. The ultimate phobia has to be phobophobia. And if you suffer from it, it’s only logical that you suffer from every other phobia known to man. Or at least you think you do. And that possibility scares you more than anything. You essentially fear fear, which in itself is frightening. And after thinking about all that, if anyone with phobophobia can function in daily life, it’s nothing short of a miracle.
