Top Ten Weirdest Phobias

“The only thing we have to fear is fear it’self – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” —- FDR – First Inaugural Address, March 4, 1933

Jazmine Cook, Journalist

   Everyone has a phobia or a fear of something, whether it’s arachnophobia, the fear or spiders, or aquaphobia, the fear of water. Some phobias are crazier than others. Here are the top ten strangest phobias.

    Number ten on the strangest phobia list is hylophobia. This is the fear of wood, forests, or trees. This could be caused by a traumatic event such as being beaten with a piece of wood or being attacked in the woods.

    Number nine, decidophobia, is the fear of making decisions. It was founded by Walter Kaufmann. Walter Kaufmann, a German-American philosopher, came up with the term in 1973 in his book Without Guilt or Justice.

    Number eight is the fear of walking down stairs or inclines, called descendophobia. People who who have descendophobia often experience dizziness and the opposite is ascendophobia. Ascendophobia is the fear of fear of going up stairs or inclines.

    Number seven on our list is trypophobia, the fear of clustered holes usually found on biological organisms. Not many people are diagnosed with this phobia, but those who are diagnosed often associate the shapes of the holes with danger and disease.

    Number six is luposlipaphobia, which started as a joke from Far Side comic strip. It is the fear of being pursued by timber wolves around a kitchen table while wearing socks on a newly waxed floor. Although this would be a crazy phobia to have, it is part of a fictional story and is not real.

   Chronophobia is number five on our list. Chronophobia is the irrational fear of time passing. Chronophobia ties in with chronomentrophobia which is the fear of clocks and watches.

     Number four is phagophobia, fear of swallowing. People diagnosed with phagophobia express complaints about swallowing without any physical reason detected by inspection or lab tests. This can lead people to stop eating, causing malnutrition, and weight loss. Many people diagnosed with phagophobia eat soft or liquid foods.

     The third phobia on our list is omphalophobia, originating from the Greek word “omphalo” meaning navel and phobia meaning fear. Omphalophobia is the fear of belly buttons. People do not like to look at or touch belly buttons and some people don’t like seeing others touch their own belly buttons.

  Number two is ablutophobia, the fear of bathing, washing, and cleaning. This is most common in younger children, but some adults experience ablutophobia.

   Number one on our crazy list is phobophobia,  the phobia of phobias. People diagnosed with this often have anxiety about phobias. Phobophobia is associated with anxiety disorders.

    These ten phobias are just some of the craziest phobias out there. There are tons more crazy phobias of things that you never thought someone would fear. Some of the most common phobias are claustrophobia, the fear of confined spaces, and acrophobia, the fear of heights. To find more information on phobias visit https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/explore/phobias-list/.