According to the dictionary phobia is an irrational and excessive fear of object or situation. Phobia symptoms can occur while being exposed to that particular object or situation or sometimes even thinking of the feared object can lead to response. The most common symptoms of phobia are:
- Dizziness
- Breathlessness
- Nausea
- A sense of unreality
- Fear of dying
Phobias are actually quite common and according to the latest research it affects round 10% of population in USA. In most cases people are able to recognize that their fear is irrational and overcome it before it becomes phobia. According to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, only 10% of reported cases become life long illnesses.
There are different ways on treating phobias and the treatment mainly depends on how strong the phobia is and the way it occurs to the person. One of the treatments is exposure to the fear. A person is forced o face his/her fear without having a chance to escape. This aims to prove the person that his/her fear is harmless and irrational and helps to overcome it. If the person is unable to handle exposure treatment than the other way of treating phobia which is often used is counter-conditioning. In this treatment the person learns how to react to phobia: various stress revealing and relaxation techniques to replace anxiety and fear. This new behavior is incompatible with the previous panicked response, so the phobic response gradually fades. Here are some of the strangest and most uncommon phobias:
Caligynephobia- abnormal fear of beautiful women.
Bibliophobia – is a common phobia that most people don’t even know that they have. Bibliophobia is commonly known as the fear of books (but that’s not the whole story!). Some of us think we have it when we try to do our homework. The symptoms of this phobia include breathlessness, dizziness, dry mouth, excessive sweating, nausea, feeling sick, heart palpitations, inability to speak of think clearly, a fear of dying, becoming mad or losing control, a sensation of detachment from reality of a full blown anxiety attack.
Avi0phobia – 9% of Americans has this phobia which is an extreme fear of flying in an airplane.
Agateophobia – fair of insanity. Agateophobia is created by the unconscious mind as a protective mechanism. Agateophobia develops at some point in your past, where there was likely an event linking insanity or becoming insane and emotional trauma.
Enetophobia- fear of pins or needles.
Chrometophobia – fear of money.
Alliumphobia – fear of garlic.
Ephebiphobia- fear of teenagers. The fear of youth affects the entire Western world. Sociologist Ray Oldenburg has attributed the generation gap and the “increasing segregation of youth from adults in American society” to “adult estrangement and fear of youth.
Androphobia – is an abnormal fear of men. Androphobia is often related to traumatic events in the sufferer’s past.
HIV phobia – hundreds of people in China believe they might have a new disease with HIV-like symptoms and fear they are being lied to when their diagnostic tests come back negative.
Hierophobia- Fear of priests or sacred things.
Hypnophobia- Fear of sleep or of being hypnotized.
Cibophobia – fear of food, is a relatively complicated phobia that can rapidly spiral into an obsession. People with this phobia are sometimes mistakenly thought to suffer from anorexia, a dangerous eating disorder. The main difference is that those with anorexia fear the effects of food on body image, while those with cibophobia are actually afraid of the food itself.
Macrophobia – overwhelming, persistent fear of long waits. The macrophobic person may experience intense fear and discomfort when confronted with any situation that involves having to wait.
Leukophobia- Fear of the color white, it could be white anything from shoes, white house, white car, white hat, and even white people.
Kosmikophobia- Fear of cosmic phenomenon.
Heliophobia – fear of sun. It is a problem that afflicts hundreds of people, but one that suffers from a lack of true research. The Pacific Health Center suggested that many people have been staying away from the sun because of growing fears about skin cancer. This is not technically heliophobia, simply an unfounded and illogical solution. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (if it includes an intense fear of getting skin cancer) can also cause Heliophobia.
Geumaphobia – fear of taste.
Xenoglossophobia- Fear of foreign languages.
Uranophobia or Ouranophobia- Fear of heaven.
Peladophobia- Fear of bald people.
Euphobia - fear of hearing good news.
Mnemophobia – fear of memories. People with this fear tend to worry about having memories (especially bad ones) or losing memories. This phobia is becoming more popular with the increase of Alzheimers in the elder.
Dextrophobia – an abnormal fear of objects on the right side of the body.
Onomatophobia/nomatophobia – an irrational fear of a certain name or hearing a certain word or words because they may have special significance.
Optophobia- Fear of opening one’s eyes.
Dutchphobia- fear of the Dutch people and culture. Mostly people afraid of Dutch fair Dutch customs and traditional clothing.
Octophobia – Fear of the figure 8. Like all fears and phobias, octophobia is created by the unconscious mind as a protective mechanism. At some point in your past, there was likely an event linking the figure 8 and emotional trauma. Whilst the original catalyst may have been a real-life scare of some kind, the condition can also be triggered by myriad, benign events like movies, TV, or perhaps seeing someone else experience trauma.
Acousticophobia – intense fear of sound or noise, sometimes even your own voice.
Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation.
Dentophobia- Fear of dentists.
Omphalophobia- Fear of belly buttons.
April 26, 2010 at 5:12 pm |
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