The world is a strange place: we often accept someone’s fear of heights or fear of spiders as ‘something normal’. However, when it comes to the fear of balloons phobia, people usually laugh about it. As far as the “silliest or most irrational” fears go; Globophobia is high up in the list. Even Oprah Winfrey shocked her audience by admitting to having experienced the fear … [Read more...]

The fear of change or changing things is called Metathesiophobia. It is often linked with Tropophobia which is the fear of moving. The origin of the word Metathesiophobia comes from Greek ‘meta’ meaning change and phobos meaning fear. This specific phobia can reduce one’s will to live; Metathesiophobes often feel that they have no control over their lives owing to … [Read more...]

If you have the extreme or irrational fear of cats, then you are not alone. In the United States alone, nearly 22.2% of individuals are known to fear animals of different kinds. The fear of cats is known by many several names. A common one is Ailurophobia , which has its origins in Greek ( ailouros (cats) and phobos (dread or fear)). Another name for this phobia is … [Read more...]

The Bible says that man should have a healthy fear of The Lord for betterment of life. However, an unhealthy, persistent or irrational fear of God is a specific phobia that can cause a great deal of distress to the sufferer and his loved ones. Fear of The Lord phobia is known by several names: fear of God, Fear of religion, Theophobia etc are a few of these. The word … [Read more...]

Fear is a powerful emotion and if you are experiencing the extreme fear of success, then there is probably nothing holding you back more in life. While the fear of success phobia (Achievemephobia) may seem weird to many; it is actually a very real social phobia. It can make things difficult for the phobic: from getting hired, messing up one’s relationships to making … [Read more...]

The fear of falling or Basiphobia is known by different names like Basophobia, falling phobia, walking phobia, standing phobia etc. It is closely related to other phobias such as Ambulophobia or Stasibasiphobia or Stasiphobia which is the fear of walking or standing, Bathmophobia which is the fear of stairs or steep slopes and Barophobia which is the fear of loss … [Read more...]

Vehophobia or the fear of driving can impact one’s daily life especially since most of us are dependent on this activity to get by. It can affect one to an extent that s/he refuses to go shopping, visit a doctor or even drive to work. Individuals with the extreme fear of driving prefer public transport or request friends or family members to drive them each time. This is … [Read more...]

Xenophobia is derived from the Greek word ‘Xenos’ meaning “foreigner or stranger” and Phobos which means ‘morbid fear’. Xenophobia is the irrational sensation of fear experienced about a person or a group of persons as well as situations that are perceived as strange or foreign. It is the fear of anything that is beyond one’s comfort zone. The fear of unknown comes … [Read more...]

Fears and phobias are very real and the human mind is capable of developing them towards virtually anything or any situation. The fear of long words phobia or Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is often considered a jocular or fictional phobia; however, that is not the case and long words phobia is actually very real and does exist. People suffering from … [Read more...]

Gamophobia is the fear of commitment, though it can also be the excessive, persistent, uncontrollable and irrational fear of marriage. It is derived from the Greek word Gamos which means marriage and phobos meaning fear. However, many experts agree that there is a subtle difference between the fear of marriage and the fear of commitment phobia. A person might be afraid of … [Read more...]

Simply explained, Hemophobia or the extreme fear of blood, elicits a phobic reaction from the suffering individual at the sight of blood, which may or may not be his own. Often, there is confusion between Hemophobia and the fear of needles. A person may be afraid of having his blood drawn which can be mistaken for Trypanophobia (or the extreme fear of needles). In fact; … [Read more...]

Many individuals are known to seek therapy for the fear of abandonment and issues related to it. The fear of abandonment phobia is characterized by extreme dependency on others. It is commonly seen in adults and children who are also diagnosed with Borderline Personality disorders. Such people live in the constant fear that their ‘world will collapse’ if their protectors … [Read more...]

Before we study Aquaphobia in depth, it is essential to clear the misconception between the terms Hydrophobia and Aquaphobia. Both these conditions are not the same: Hydrophobia is the term used to represent the fear of water developed in later stage of Rabies. Aquaphobia, on the other hand, is a social phobia that is defined as the persistent, unwarranted and irrational … [Read more...]

Anthropophobia is the ‘extreme, irrational and unwarranted’ fear of people or society. It is a disorder which is often misunderstood with other social phobias. The main difference between them is that: in Anthropophobia, the individual fears people in most or all situations, rather than, for example, only fearing people during public speaking or when eating before others, … [Read more...]

Trypanophobia is a very real phobia affecting nearly 3.5 to 10% of the world’s population. It consists of an irrational or excessive fear of needles, pins or injections. While most people, children especially, fear getting their vaccination shots or blood samples taken, in case of people with extreme fear of needles, the idea of getting one triggers an immediate anxiety … [Read more...]