Phobias are more common than you may think. One simple fear of something or someone else may lead to a real science on dealing with it. Understanding phobias and their Weird Phobias is key to managing them.
What is a Phobia
The first thing that anyone needs to understand about a phobia is to think about what it is. The clinical definition of a phobia is any fear, rational or not, that causes panic, discomfort, or anxiety even when the object of fear is not physically present.
There are tons of phobias out there that most people have no idea even exist, and knowing a few of them can be far more than great party trivia.
When a phobia is truly strange, you may not even know you have it. There are a list of weird phobias, facts about weird phobia names and other items, and then there are phobias that just about everyone has, but they may not be able to pinpoint.
There are plenty of weird phobias out there, and the first step to dealing with them is to have a list of a few.
Weird Phobias List
- Deipnophobia is the fear of dinner parties; Who can also mistake this for social anxiety, which is a completely different thing altogether.
- Arithmophobia- this is the fear of numbers, not to be mistaken with hatred for math.
- Selenophobia- this is the fear of the moon.
- Ephebiphobia- the fear of youths or young people.
- Allodoxaphobia- the fear of opinions.
- Genuphobia- the fear of knees.
- Octophobia- fear of figure 8.
- Scriptophobia- the fear of writing in public.
- Anuptaphobia- the fear of being single.
- Dutchphobia- the fear of Dutch people and their culture.
- Francophobia- the fear of French people and their culture.
- Sesquipedalophobia- the fear of long words.
- Alliumphobia- the fear of garlic, wonder if that’s what Dracula had?
- Colourophobia- the fear of clowns.
- Acrophobia- the fear of sourness.
- Venustraphobia- the fear of beautiful women.
- Sinistrophobia- the fear of your left side.
- Aulophobia- the fear of the flute.
- Bibliophobia- the fear of books.
- Samhainophobia- the fear of pumpkins.
If you have any of the fears listed, you may have trouble avoiding the things that make you nervous, but you can do a few things to help calm your nerves and make a living your life normally possible.
How to Deal with Weird Fears and Phobias
The first thing that any doctor will tell you is that if something scares you, avoid it. However, if you are afraid of the number eight or afraid of your knees, you have a problem.
In most cases where people are afraid of things that they cannot avoid, it is helpful to take an aversion therapy course. This type, of course, helps those that are suffering come up with ways to deal with what is bothering them.
Aversion therapy often consists of those who are scared working through their fears by being exposed to them, finding ways to think of other things when they see their fear, and finding ways to associate their fear differently so that they are not so scared all the time.
If you are diagnosed with a very strange phobia, you have a few different treatment options. First, you can go to therapy, as mentioned before.
With both aversion and exposure therapy, your therapist will get to the root of what scares or bothers you and will then work through the issue to help you figure out how to deal with it.
In the case of exposure therapy, your therapist will try to desensitize you to what is scaring you.
Another option is, of course, medication. This is only helpful in very serious cases as doctors will work to first and foremost help you through your issues without medication. If you do have to take medication, however, your doctor will likely also prescribe therapy so that you can truly get to the root of what is bothering you.
The last way that you can work through issues is, of course, to find out ways to avoid the things that bother you or find ways to dissociate what it is that scares you.
Just for Fun:
Here are a few more strange phobias just for a bit of trivia and a look at some of the things that get people going.
- Ligyrophobia: fear of balloons.
- Lockiophobia: fear of being a parent.
- Phobophobia: fear of developing a phobia.
- Didaskaleinophobia: fear of going to school.
- Trypophobia: Fear of lotus pods.
- Nomophobia: the fear of not having your cell phone.
- Anatidaephobia: the fear that a duck is somewhere watching you.
- Anthropophobia: the fear of having company.
- Aphenophobia: the fear of being touched.
- Soteriophobia: the fear of being dependent on someone else.
- Syngenesophobia: the fear of all relatives.
- Ornithophobia: fear of birds.
- Lutraphobia: fear of otters.
- Heliophobia: fear of sunlight.
- Chionophobia: fear of snow.
- Spectrophobia: Fear of your reflection.
- Gelotophobia: fear of laughter or being laughed at.
- Athazagoraphobia: fear of being forgotten.
There are tons of strange phobias out there and plenty of people that suffer from them. If you have a phobia that has become debilitating and hard to live with, you need to take the time to see what can be done for you.
Phobias will happen; the key is to recognize that it is a phobia soon enough and get the help you need to live your life with it. Though a true phobia is something you cannot avoid or get over without help, there are more things to be afraid of than you might imagine.
There are thousands of phobias and more being named every day. There are plenty of strange phobias out there, and it can be very interesting to learn about them even if you do not suffer from them.
- Autophobia or Fear of Being Alone
- Tokophobia or Fear of Getting Pregnant
- All About Athazagoraphobia
- What is Ablutophobia?
- Who Is the Germaphobe?
- Hemophobia or Fear of Blood