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The other night I was browsing through the web for reading material when a post on CBSNews caught my attention ‘16 Weirdest Phobias’ …
I got reading through them and around that time, NB called me and I started telling her about ‘Genuphobia’ which is a fear of knees. Some say that medically this is not really a phobia however there was an article in the Mirror.co.uk that highlighted the case of a woman who is so scared of knees that she considered hypnotherapy to get over her fear.
Whilst NB is not afraid of knees she doesn’t like her knees being touched. This resulted in her asking me to find out various other phobias and we must have spent a good half hour trying to find out the ‘actual name’ of random fears that people might have. Some of the ‘names’ of the phobias that we found ranged from pretty obvious to ‘omghowareyousupposedtopronouncethat’ !!!
Anyway – here are some of the phobias that got me thinking ….
Do you sometimes get worked up at the thought of having to meet someone’s parents or the in-laws ? Doesn’t matter if you are single or in a relationship; whether it’s just meeting the folks of your best 
Pentheraphobia or Novercaphobia is a fear I reckon most brides-to-be and married women have experienced at some point or another in their lives. Yes – that’s right – it’s the fear of the mother-in-law !!!
Although Soceraphobia is the fear of your parents-in-laws which both men and women can suffer from.
It took me a while to find this – but Paterphobia is the fear of the father ! I suppose any boy picking up his date at home is a bit of a paterphobe even if he doesn’t want to admit it. If you know what the word is for fear of mothers then leave a comment !
Do you sometimes feel dumb-struck or unable to form a sentence around a member of the opposite sex ? Does the thought of beautiful women (or handsome man) make you nauseous? Does it trigger a dry mouth and clammy hands? Does your heart feel like it’s going to pound right out of your chest? Do your legs turn to rubber or jelly?
Guys – don’t worry if you couldn’t muster up the nerve to speak to the hottie at the bar - you might just have Venustraphobia or Caligynephobia which is the fear of beautiful women. Although you if you find yourself unable to be around any women it could be a case of Gynophobia.
If you ever watched The Big Bang Theory – one of the guys – Koothrappali – has this condition and the only way he can speak to a woman is if he’s drunk !
Ladies – ever wonder why you are so tongue-tied when you catch eyes with a gorgeous stranger ? It’s ‘cos you are just tongue-tied !! Unfortunately there was no fear for good looking men but if you find yourself unable to be around the presence of any man then it’s Androphobia !
The general debate that I found online was that looks in men are not as valued as looks in women; and that men look at career and achievements to measure their worth. i.e. Men are not threatened by ‘pretty-boys’ as much as women are by their female counterparts. Although Mike Alvear wrote about the ‘Hot Guy Phobia’ (a well coined term I might add) although psychologists call "Approach Anxiety" - the fear of initiating contact with a good looking stranger.
On a side note – imagine if one has finally gotten over the fear of the opposite sex and find themselves in an intimate situation (that’s a good thing right ?) but … yes there’s always a but … there’s Ithyphallophobia – fear of seeing, thinking about or having an erect penis !
The word alone makes me think ‘itty’ – horrible I know – but it sounds like someone is trying to say ‘itty phallus’ !! Wouldn’t it be a downer (literally) for a man and a total kill joy for a woman if his/her partner had such a fear ?
Although I wonder – would someone disclose this to someone they were interested in ? Or would they stay away altogether in the first place ?
Have you ever wondered how some of the phobias got their names ? After going the list with NB – we just had to laugh off some of the names as ‘almost made up’; and some of the names were just so hard to pronounce !
Take these two words as an example - Sesquipedalophobia and Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia …
Ironically both words mean having the fear of long words !!! With names like that – anyone would be scared of long words !! (I swear – I’m not making this up!).
The word for the fear of number 666 is so long and almost a bit of a tongue twister – Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia – just thinking of that word makes me glad that its quicker and clearer to state ‘hey I’m scared of the number 666’.
Then there is Arachibutyrophobia which is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth ! Really – people are scared of that ?? I love peanut butter – never had it stuck to the roof of my mouth but I’m sure it can’t be so bad. Oh and the other phobia that caught my attention was Consecotaleophobia – which is the fear of chopsticks ! I didn’t even know that was possible – but apparently it is !!
I suppose I have a mild case of Herpetophobia which is the fear of reptiles or creepy crawly things. However since I’ve managed to sit on a crocodile and hold a baby crocodile and saw it smile – it’s not so much of a fear of reptiles as it is a fear of any creepy crawlies !! I found a spider in my car whilst driving and NC had to come to my rescue and flick it out of the window because I was trying to get away from it !!! Give me a snake over a cockroach any day !!
What about you ? What’s your phobia ? Do you know of anyone with any phobias ? Anything unusual off the list or just the common fears that most of us have ? I’d love to know if you knew the actual names of the phobias mentioned in this post; and if you can share any other ones too.
Oh and if anyone knows what the name is for ‘fear of goats’ please leave it in the comments as NB & I were trying to figure that one out !
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2 comments:
I have a proper phobia of American house cockroaches. I am fine with the massive bugs you see in the wild but those little ones about half an inch long? They really freak me out!
I'm also not too keen on Parktown Prawns (from South Africa) and Preying Mantises.
Other than that, not really scared of anything!
@ Emm ... just the thought of cockroaches makes me cringe !! they are just so creepy looking !
Never seen a Parktown Prawn before; will have to look it up. A Preying Mantis - just the name is enough to keep me away from them - closest is on tv !
Thanks for sharing :)
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