20 Sept 2020

I once got a rather panicked phone call from a younger friend who really needed me to come over to her house to deal with an intruder.

I did know what sort of intruder I was going to deal with, but even then the screaming I heard when I arrived at her house had me a little perturbed. Her dog was waiting for me by the front door, also a little terrified, but whether he was terrified by the intruder or from his mum screaming, I’m not entirely sure.

Actually, I am sure. It was the screaming.

I got into her kitchen to find her perched on her kitchen bench, terrified and pointing at her pantry.

The poor mouse was more terrified than both her and her dog put together. Certainly the way it leapt out at me as if I was it’s saviour, kind of told the story.

Short story – the mouse escaped outside, my friend returned to a relatively normal person the minute the mouse was outside the back door, and the dog is still undergoing counselling.

This same person also has an intense fear of birds, so walking with her at the dog park can sometimes be entertaining. We can be walking along with our dogs playing happily together when a sudden screech will fill the air as a Willy wagtail flies within five metres.

While I find all this extremely funny, I would imagine that people suffering from a genuine phobia might not appreciate my laughter.

Do you have a genuine phobia? Or an intense dislike of something?

My research tells me a phobia is an irrational fear of something. With a mouse, I suspect that’s irrational. But scelerophobia – the fear of burglars, bad men or crime in general – I would label as being a justified fear. Likewise Lilapsophobia – a fear of Tornadoes!

Do you have a phobia and if so, is it an irrational fear or a totally justified rational fear?

Some interesting phobias:

Pteromerhanophobia (fear of flying) – did these people whip up the coronavirus in a lab somewhere to shut down a lot of potential air travel?

Astraphobia: fear of storms

Trypanophobia: fear of needles

Autophobia, or monophobia, is the fear of being alone or lonely.

Cynophobia: fear of dogs

Ophidiophobia: fear of snakes

Then we start getting a little closer to the irrational side of things, with the following list:)

Nomophobia: Fear of being without your mobile phone

Arachibutyrophobia: Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth

Xanthophobia: Fear of the color yellow

Ablutophobia: Fear of bathing

Globophobia: Fear of balloons

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: Fear of long words

Omphalophobia: Fear of belly buttons

Pogonophobia: Fear of beards

Turophobia: Fear of Cheese

Lutraphobia: Fear of Otters

Pupaphobia: Fear of Puppets

Gunuphobia: Fear of knees

Vestiphobia: Fear of clothing

Having given you all this fascinating information, I do apologise if any of you suffer from phobophobia – fear of phobias.