There are things, which are ordinary for some people, but completely strange for others. Discover the unusual phobias some people experience.
Lachanophobia
People who suffer from this phobia are afraid of the vegetables. They do not want to be anywhere around them, the look and the smell can make them want to vomit, they feel dizzy and weak. Some of them will not even eat something that was anywhere near a vegetable. The reason for such phobia may be that a person was forced to eat vegetables when he or she was a child and it caused a serious psychological trauma.
Omphalophobia
People who suffer from this phobia are afraid of belly buttons. They are scared to touch their own one, to see it on the photos, to touch or being touched at this place of their body. Sometimes they are even scared to think about belly buttons.
Ombrophobia
The ones who suffer from this phobia are afraid of the rain. They do not want to go outside when it is raining, to see or hear it. It may be connected to a childhood psychological trauma, if somebody scared the child by telling it that if it goes out in a rain it may get sick and die.
Xanthophobia
People who have this phobia are scared of the yellow color. They are afraid of the sun, of yellow flowers, cars and yellow scarves. Sometimes they are even scared of the word “yellow” itself.
Hylophobia
Those who suffer from this phobia are afraid of the trees, woods and parks. The reason for that fear may be a scary story the child heard about something bad happening in the forest. People with this phobia get nervous every time they walk by or see the trees, some of them do not even want to hear this word.
Nephophobia
This phobia means the fear of clouds. It may also be transformed into fear of fog. The person with this phobia avoids looking at the sky or the pictures of the clouds.
Philophobia
People who suffer from this phobia are afraid of falling in love. The reason for this phobia is usually a deep fear of being rejected. Unfortunately, the ones who have this phobia often spend their life alone.
Cherophobia
It is the fear of laughing at the most inappropriate time. We never know how we will react in a situation of shock, sometimes person starts laughing at an appropriate moment (for example, at a funeral) – your body tries to protect you this way and you cannot control it.
Nowadays there have appeared some new phobias, connected with new technologies. Here are some of them.
Punctuation phobia
People with this fear are scared of receiving a message with a full stop in the end. Absence of the smiley face in the end of message might mean for the person with this phobia that conversation became too serious or that the one who sent the message is too rude.
Selfiephobia
It is a fear of making a bad selfie. People who suffer from this phobia hysterically make more and more photos of themselves trying to get a perfect result.
Nomophobia
It is a fear of losing a cell-phone connection. People who suffer from this phobia are constantly afraid of getting into an area with no signal, they are scared that their battery is low, sometimes they start to panic when their phone is out of their sight.
Origin of Phobias
So, if you are sitting in front of an electronic device wondering how such phobias can really exist or laughing why people suffer from it we would like to tell you the nature of evoking of a fear. Every person has a fear of something, no matter how light or severe it is. But when a fear that still can be endured turns to a panic phobia and constant anxiety they may live with it forever disrupt their lives without being able to relieve themselves.
A bit of history. Also, an official term “phobia” has been created only by a Roman doctor, Celsus, 500 years before the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates described such diseases in his works.
Phobos was originally a name of Aries’s son who was quite a dreadful warrior so that other soldiers would paint his image on their shields to scare their enemies and that is how this term got its meaning.
A person with a constant and irresistible fear of something tends to catastrophizing the surrounding world in worst-case scenario. Usually they have quite a good imagination to depict themselves in different situation their object of fear can cause.
There are a few reasons of the fear evoking and staying in the head of its victim:
- Being scared of something new or unknown. It is a common and most widespread fear that affects most of people. Since the rise of humanity, we have been experiencing dangerous situations and the best and safe way of staying alive was to place themselves in the familiar surroundings. Therefore, just like our ancestors, we tend to stay safe by knowing everything around us and the process of getting used to it is always quite painful.
Just remember the reaction of people when the first freight train started running along a rail track with passengers or cargo inside. Some of them were persuaded that it is impossible for a human to reach that speed and they will simply die in that train. Weird, right? But it was not for them; - A member of a family has one. If anybody of your relatives has any fear it is very likely that you can inherit it too. Not a good present, right? It is an uncontrolled and subconscious process that may infect even the whole family if not being treated in time;
- Traumatic event in the past. It can be an occasion that was connected with some subject that cause a phobia and future avoiding of this thing or place. A subject of fear can be anything: a person, an animal, a place, even an odor! Psychologists are only trying to get closer to the solution of the anxiety problem people encounter every day.
However, every fear (almost to be fully honest) can be overcome when well cured. Therefore, there are lots of procedures from facing it to convincing yourself it does not exist. No matter what method you choose as long as it helps personally you to ease your anxiety, sweating, increased heart rate and a death fear of being killed by the subject of your phobia.
