Fear Itself - Common (and Uncommon) Phobias

Have you ever heard of ailurophobia?

How about lilapsophobia? Or coulrophobia?

If you’re like most of us, you answered no. That’s because the intense fears of cats, tornadoes and clowns (respectively) don’t rank too high in the public consciousness...unlike some of the more well-known phobias like arachnophobia (spiders) and claustrophobia (confined spaces).

But the truth is, there are hundreds of medically documented phobias out there, ranging from the understandable (fear of snakes or fire) to the downright bizarre (aulophobia: fear of flutes; geniophobia: fear of chins). Unfortunately, one out of every 10 Americans has to live with the debilitating effects of some kind of phobia, according to the US Department of Health and Human Services. Here are a few basic phobia facts:

· Women are twice as likely to suffer from this illness

· Phobias tend to start in teenage and adult years

· The onset of a specific phobia is generally sudden

· No one knows for sure what causes phobia

“We all have some inborn fears,” says Tulsa-based psychologist Dr. Fred Bramble. “But they don’t become phobias until they get exaggerated and interfere with a person’s daily functioning.”

According to Bramble, the most common phobias he encounters in his practice are social phobias such as stage fright and general social anxiety. He says specific phobias, such as fear of heights, flying, elevators, snakes, and open spaces (agoraphobia) are fairly common as well.

Treatments for phobias generally require a gradual desensitization of patients to what frightens them. “First, we teach the people how to access a deeply relaxed state,” says Bramble, “then we expose them to some of their feared situations in graduated increments and work with them to get relaxed at that point.”

To give you a better appreciation of this disorder, here’s a partial list of some of the more interesting phobias that actually exist...

Ablutophobia- Fear of washing or bathing

Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions

Anablephobia- Fear of looking up

Autodysomophobia- Fear of one that has a vile odor

Barophobia- Fear of gravity

Blennophobia- Fear of slime

Caligynephobia- Fear of beautiful women

Chaetophobia- Fear of hair

Coitophobia- Fear of coitus

Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation

Coprophobia- Fear of feces

Deipnophobia- Fear of dining or dinner conversations

Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body

Dikephobia- Fear of justice

Ephebiphobia- Fear of teenagers

Euphobia- Fear of hearing good news

Frigophobia- Fear of cold or cold things

Graphophobia- Fear of writing or handwriting

Hellenologophobia- Fear of Greek terms or complex scientific terminology

Helminthophobia- Fear of being infested with worms

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words

Isopterophobia- Fear of termites

Judeophobia- Fear of Jews

Kyphophobia- Fear of stooping

Lutraphobia- Fear of otters

Macrophobia- Fear of long waits

Novercaphobia- Fear of your step-mother

Octophobia - Fear of the figure 8

Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope

Papyrophobia- Fear of paper

Paraskavedekatriaphobia- Fear of Friday the 13^th

Parthenophobia- Fear of virgins or young girls

Phobophobia- Fear of phobias

Rupophobia- Fear of dirt

Samhainophobia: Fear of Halloween

Scriptophobia- Fear of writing in public

Taphophobia- Fear of being buried alive or of cemeteries

Urophobia- Fear of urine or urinating

Vestiphobia- Fear of clothing

Wiccaphobia: Fear of witches and witchcraft

Xanthophobia- Fear of the color yellow or the word yellow

Xylophobia- 1) Fear of wooden objects. 2) Forests

Zelophobia- Fear of jealousy

Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat