The World of Fear - Strange & Rare Phobias

"No passion so effectually robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reasoning as fear". Edmund Burke, "On the Sublime and Beautiful."

Phobias are a common phenomena. Most of us can cope well with our odd fears and they don't usually have any major impact on our daily lives. Other people are not quite so lucky and may indeed have other anxiety issues to cope with other than a phobia. Thankfully most phobias are well known to the medical profession and treatment can be given.

But what happens when your phobia is rare. When no one, perhaps even your own doctor, has never heard of it? People will often feel isolated and alone. Often their phobia seems so ridiculous that they avoid seeking any form of help. There are literally hundreds of rare and very odd phobias that people suffer from. These phobias tell us just as much about the mysterious workings of the human mind as they do about the fears themselves.

A couple of basic definitions will give a little more understanding about the nature of phobias and fear.

Phobias:

Anxiety disorders in which the essential feature is a persistent and irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that the individual feels compelled to avoid. The individual recognises the fear as excessive or unreasonable. (Medical Dictionary Online)

Fear:

The unpleasant emotional state consisting of psychological and psychophysiological responses to a real external threat or danger, including agitation, alertness, tension, and mobilisation of the alarm reaction. (Medical Dictionary Online)

Phobias can be divided into two main types - simple and complex. A simple phobia could be something such as having a fear of the dentist. Simple phobias tend to come from childhood experiences and can fade. Complex phobias tend to develop later on in life - late teens/early twenties. These tend to be much more difficult to treat and frequently develop with other psychological issues. An example of a complex phobia would be Agoraphobia.

Phobias take many forms and the triggers are not always clear cut - especially with the less common forms that are described in this hub.

There are many phobias associated with both our physical bodies and our thought processes. Here are just a few examples:

• Urophobia - the fear of urine. This phobia is thought to be a disruption in thought based patterns where anxiety and stress levels increase at the thought of touching or being near urine. Often people will clean their bathrooms excessively. Any accidents where urine is spilt will result in the person insisting it be removed but cannot do the cleaning themselves. This fear very often goes hand in hand with a fear of germs. There are similar phobias and anxiety conditions such as Paruresis which is actually the fear of urinating next to or near other people - to the point that they will take drastic action to avoid having to urinate in public. Again the origins or triggers for these fears may be found in childhood, but often it can take years to get to the root cause.

• Ablutophobia - Is a fear of cleaning or washing yourself. This phobia is usually found in both women and children who have unstable emotional conditions. Similar to other phobias, this psychological state may have arisen because of an incident in childhood. Children can also develop phobias by observing an adult who has a specific fear. Research also showed, that a number of people developed a fear of showering after watching Alfred Hitchcock's film 'Psycho'.

• Scopophobia - the fear of being looked at and often leading to social isolation. This type of phobia is frequently experienced by people suffering from mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. It often presents itself by the sufferer covering their face with their hands in order to hide from the gaze of other people.

• Euphobia - the fear of receiving good news in the context that the person always feels that good news will be followed by bad news. Therefore on receipt of good news the person will often go into a severe anxiety state, waiting for bad news to follow.

• Phobophobia - the fear of developing a phobia. This is classed more of a psychological disorder as there is no specific 'phobia' that the person has a problem with.
• Estiophobia - This is the fear of clothes. It does not tend to mean all clothes, but usually involves a certain material or perhaps a garment. Interestingly this phobia is usually only found among middle aged people who are obese and probably involves self image issues.

As with all phobias in the 'specific phobia' category, the following fears usually surface from the sub-conscious due to a incident in childhood. The incident has to be powerful enough to make an impact and create the seed of fear that is then buried deep within the sub-conscious. This mechanism is actually a safety valve. The subconscious is creating a 'fear' to alert the individual the next time that a similar danger is encountered. Often as adults we have forgotten what the initial trigger was and so our phobias often don't make sense. In addition the fear seed may be created by unreal experiences. Research has shown that movies, nightmares and stories can also create a seed that is then planted into the sub-conscious. As adults we may not think that a particular movie or book is scary, but to a young, impressionable mind, it can be terrifying. The phobias develop when, in some way, the sub-conscious links fear with a particular image, object, scenario etc.

• Pediophobia - the fear of dolls - can also include dummies, mannequins or even children. Many of us might well identify with a fear of dolls or dummies. There are a large number of people who find these objects unsettling and creepy. However, most of us can cope with these feelings and rationalise them. When people develop a phobia, even although they are perfectly aware of how irrational it is, the mind will set off physical and mental stress, fear and anxiety reactions.

• Eisoptrophobia* - the fear of mirrors. The fear of mirrors can take a number of forms. This can range from a fear of looking at your reflection, to a feeling that the mirror itself is in someway a threat to you. People also develop severe anxieties about breaking a mirror and although just a superstition, they feel compelled to avoid such an incident at all costs. Again a fear of mirrors is perhaps something many of us can identify with. There is a long tradition of mirrors being associated with death, superstition and the supernatural and so these objects tend to have deeper significance for people than as mere reflective surfaces.
• Sciophobia/Sciaphobia - is the fear of shadows. The name for this phobia is taken from the Greek - Scio - meaning fear. People suffering from this phobia can feel anything from dread to absolute terror. Again if we think about how shadows make us feel at times - in horror movies for example. Then the associations are not always nice. Shadows can be an indicator of the unknown or danger and to a child's mind a terrifying image.
• Coulropobia - the fear of clowns. This phobia is probably one that again many of us can identify with. But bear in mind that we're not talking about something that creeps us out for a few minutes then we get on with life. Having a phobia such as this can lead to severe anxiety and panic attacks. People who suffer from this phobia have deep rooted fears of not just clowns themselves, but may include any associations with clowns - such as a red nose, clothing etc. Even a painting or a photograph can be too overwhelming for a person with this fear. In addition research recently carried out shows that a significant proportion of both children and adults have actually admitted to having a dislike for clowns.

*Footnote - I've used the term 'Eisoptrophobia for the fear of mirrors. However, I do realise that there is some debate on whether the term 'spectrophobia' should be used instead. Most of the medical definitions I have looked at state the term Eisoptrophobia for a phobia about mirrors but many do not have the term 'spectrophobia' anywhere. Spectrophobia is more commonly used to mean a fear of ghosts. But it is also used to refer to a fear of looking at your own reflection - which may have a trigger in a self-esteem/body image anxiety.

Otherworldly phobias probably stem from the same childhood experiences as other phobias do. However, there can be a problem when people go for therapy to their doctors/psychologists. The reason is that many of these professionals will regard such phobias as 'magical thinking'. This term is used by psychology to define a mode of irrational fear of performing certain acts or saying certain things in the belief that bad things will happen. Problems arise when people have a genuine belief that may be associated with a phobia, especially a religious belief, that a professional may inadvertently view as just 'magical thinking'. This can cause severe anxiety and confusion in a patient's mind.

• Theophobia/Zeusophobia - the extreme fear of god or gods. This phobia is often connected to others such as - Uranophobia/Ouranophobia - the fear of heaven. These phobias often include anxiety and fear of other things such as bibles, churches and so on. Staurophobia is the fear of crosses and crucifixes and possibly other holy icons.
• Phasmophobia/Spectrophobia - is the fear of ghosts and spirits. It may be related to a general fear of death or dying and can be related to another phobia - Thanatophobia which is the fear of dying and death. But phasmophobia may primarily just be a fear of the unknown. These phobias are very hard to pin down to a specifc trigger or cause. Because of this, some experts believe it is a symptom of a much more serious disorder of anxiety and thought processes. Many experts will therefore, treat this phobia as 'magical thinking' rather than viewing this fear in the same category as other phobias. Basically because it is thought that the belief in ghosts is not based on any evidence of actual existence. Spectrophobia is often referred to as a fear of mirrors and of your own reflection, as well as a fear of ghosts and spirits.
• Paraskavedekatriaphobia/Friggatriskaidekaphobia - relate to the fear of Friday the 13th/Black Friday. This is one of those superstitions and fears that can be found in almost every corner of the world. It is also interesting to note that although phobias and superstitions are generally regarded as irrational the following evidence has been gathered by researchers for Friday 13th. The stock market tends to do less brisk business; airlines typically report a drop in the number of passengers; in India's movie industry release dates for new films are normally never on this date for fear it will do badly at the box office and so on. It is also reported that the number of accidents does tend to increase on this date - but this is probably due to increased anxiety and expectancy than anything else. Triskaidekaphobia is a fear of the number 13 in general and again this belief and fear is found world wide - so much so that many hotels, hospitals, office blocks etc., will not have a thirteenth floor numbered within the building.
• Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia - is also a number phobia and this time the fear is based on the number '666'. As with fears of the number 13 the 666 phobia probably has its origins in both superstition and religious beliefs. The triggers could be the frightening Biblical book of Revelations. But also in modern times both pop culture and movies have focused on this number as a symbol for the manifestation of evil. Hardly surprising then that some people have developed a great fear for this number. Interestingly, some scholars argue that the numer 666 is a mistranslation from the original scripts and the 'number of the beast' should actually be 616. But it's doubtful whether or not this would now catch on if proved to be true. The biggest concern I have with this one is trying to pronunce the 29 letter word!
• Related to the fear of the number - 666 - is Demonophobia - the fear of demons. Again this could be religious based. But modern culture has an enormous amount of images, emotions and information on demons ranging from books, movies, websites and TV programmes. Again it is not surprising that some people will develop a deep rooted fear of these supernatural entities.

It has to be remembered that although many of us can claim to have a fear of some of the above, with a phobia it goes beyond a general fear. A true phobia is so poweful that it can literally affect every aspect of a person's life to the degree that they cannot live a normal life.

Phobias have no respect for who or what a person is. Even within the worlds of academia and technology people have developed phobias.

Not only is the first on the list one of the weirdest phobias, but it is also one of the longest in descriptive terms - 30 letters! The following is a fear of long words:

• Hippopotomonstrosesquippedalio phobia - also known as Sesquipedalo phobia.

The following phobias are also related to education and technology:

• Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school
• Epistemophobia- Fear of knowledge.
• Logizomechanophobia- Fear of computers
• Xenoglossophobia- Fear of foreign languages.

Phobias will continue to rear their ugly heads in the future as they have done in the past. As new technologies, inventions and fashions come into vogue, who can tell what weird fears the human mind will conjure up? In addition there is no shame if you have a phobia. This is the mind's way of trying to protect you from a perceived threat. Whether the fear is rational or not, makes no difference to the sub-conscious. As far as it's concerned it's just doing what it was designed by nature to do!