Everyone has some strength or some weakness. Everyone is scared of some or the other thing. Sometimes, the fear is so intense that people start getting anxious just by the mention of it. Such fears are actually collectively called phobias.
What is a Phobia?
The excessive and irrational reaction to a source of fear is called a phobia. The fear can be of any place, person, object or situation. When a person who is having a certain phobia, encounters the source, he/she experiences anxiety and panic. This anxiety is different from the general one as it is related to something very specific.
What Can be the Causes?
The causes behind a certain phobia can be genetic or environmental. Sometimes, a specific medical condition can also be the reason for a particular phobia. Sometimes, due to trauma or depression also, the person develops phobia.
Well, a phobia can be anything. Few people are afraid of dogs, heights, water, insects etc. These are some very common types of phobias which are observed in people. But you know what, there are people who are afraid of some very strange things like mirrors.
So, this article is particularly about such phobias which are quite weird or strange.
1. Nomophobia
Well, the name can be new for you, but almost all of you would be able to relate to this when you’ll read its definition.
People with nomophobia experience extreme anxiety about not having their phone with them or when the battery is low or when their phone is out of service. Nomophobic people also keep on checking their phones every now and then throughout the day.
They are quite obsessed with their cell phones and often stay worried about not missing any call or message or any update. This is very common among today’s youth. You can hardly observe anyone not using their phone in any public place nowadays. Especially, the students can’t imagine a single minute of their lives without their phones.
Cell phone addiction differs from nomophobia just by a single difference that a nomophobic person starts feeling anxious when they don’t have their phones with them. But, yeah, a phone addiction can eventually turn into nomophobia.
2. Plutophobia
Most of us dream of having more and more money. Almost, everyone works day and night to earn money. You must be believing that who can have a problem with having money?
But, let me tell you that yes, there are people who have a fear of money. People who have plutophobia fear wealthy people as well as being wealthy themselves. Such people also have fear of being robbed or having any kind of responsibility. It is a rare kind of phobia, seen in a very less number of people.
3. Optophobia
There are some people who tend to stay indoors or in dim light because they have fear of opening their eyes. Yes, they try to keep their eyes closed as much as they can and that’s the reason they don't step anywhere outside of their home.
Imagine, doing your daily activities while keeping your eyes closed, sounds hectic, no? Well, these optophobic people prefer doing most of their chores without opening their eyes.
4. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia
If you tried to pronounce it, then congrats, you don’t have this phobia because people who have this phobia have fear of long words. This fear is very common among patients with dyslexia. Other than that, as a child, when a person starts feeling embarrassed about pronouncing words incorrectly, this embarrassment later develops to be this phobia.
5. Chaetophobia
Chaetophobia is the fear of hair. Such people have fear of their own hair, other people’s hair and even animal hair. They don’t usually like getting haircuts and try to avoid situations where others can touch their hair.
Trauma can be a very common reason for such a phobia. For example, a bad haircut or hair loss due to reasons like medicine or disease.
6. Decidophobia
This is the kind of phobia almost everyone goes through, some or the other time. People with decidophobia are usually afraid of making decisions. Hence, they get quite anxious when asked to take a quick decision.
They often rely on someone else for making their decisions. They even go for other sources like the internet to help themselves in making an important decisions. Decidophobia can even be a symptom of some mental health disorders as well.
These were a few of the rarest heard phobias around the world. If you start exploring, you may even find dozens of phobias which would be strange.
Written By: Nidhi Jha
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