Hello lovelies, I have a question for you.        

Is there something out there in the big scary world that holds your deepest, darkest, waking fear?                                                                                                                  Yes?   Then be warned while reading this post because you might come across some of it.                                                                                                                                          No?   Then read this post and see the nightmares that I have uncovered. 

When I was younger my teachers used to ask, “Do you have a phobia?”   I used to always say “Yes of course!  I’m scared of spiders,” but never thought about if that was actually a phobia. 
I mean, I am scared of spiders and snakes a little bit, but not so much because I can kill them.  Then I start thinking to myself, is that really a phobia?   Well, what is a phobia exactly? 

The dictionary says: Phobia –

pho·bi·a

[ˈfōbēə]

NOUN

• an extreme or irrational fear of or aversion to something:
  “He had a phobia about being under water” · “a phobia of germs” · “a snake phobia.”

If you go by the definition a phobia isn’t something you’re scared of, it’s something you’re terrified of.  It’s a fear that doesn’t even allow you to think straight.   With that, I’m going to discuss a couple of Phobias that interest me, and I decided to research them because I wanted to learn some of the reasons why people fear certain things.  

1) Agoraphobia: Fear of Open Space or Crowds 

                           

Agoraphobia, I can see why this is a thing.  Sometimes places that are filled with tons of people can be pretty overwhelming.   I mean think of the types of scenarios.  There could be killer clowns hidden amongst all of those faces, but you wouldn’t know because there are too many people.  Also, I know someone who hates places where there are a lot of entries for bad people to get through and it’s easy for them to get mixed in the crowd.  Babies can have a minor fear of a lot of people because they can get easily lost among the crowd and don’t know how to go through all of the bodies of people. So, for this to be an extreme fear is understandable.  When researching why this is a common fear in society the causes of it come from anxiety of public places and environmental experiences of panic attacks.   Symptoms can be identified as shallow breathing, sweaty palms, and panic attacks.  This fear is real and affects a great amount of civilization, this interested me because a lot of people have it. 

2) Genuphobia: Fear of Knees

                               

Genuphobia, all I have to say is, who is out here scared of knees?  I’m not making fun of it; this is most likely genuine which is why I’m interested in the reasons for it.                                                                                                                               When thinking about it, someone has to be going through it by looking at their knees and being frightened by them.   For people who have knees (because some people are unfortunate to not have any legs) use them every day to walk, play soccer, do squats, jump rope, etc. and will most likely struggle without knees.  This is why I researched and read some articles for the background of this fear.   An article I found by Lisa Fritscher states “Some people are afraid only of seeing uncovered knees in person, while others are afraid of bare knees even on film. People with this phobia may be afraid of all knees or only their own. Some people are actually scared of kneeling.”  Which to me is strange but it is rare; so, someone out there must have their reason. The same article says a main cause is personal trauma, someone could have been hurt in an accident where they almost lost their knees or saw someone else, they were close to lose their knees.   Another cause could be traced from highly religious or cultural upbringings.  There’s nothing wrong with that, once you tell me it’s because of your beliefs I fully understand, you do you.                                                                                                  The people with this phobia cope by averting their eyes away from people or their knees.  People who have it more severe are recommended to a therapist to get better treatment to cope.                                                                                                          I can’t see myself having this phobia, but I will show respect towards those who do.  Also, here’s the link to explore the religion part of the phobia. 

Genuphobia, the Fear of Knees (verywellmind.com)

3)Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: Fear of Long Words 

                                         

I’m not even going to repeat this one, it’s way too long to type out.                            The fear of words with too many unnecessary letters is a rare fear in society.  There could be many reasons for why someone would adapt this fear that might sound like a good reason to some but if it doesn’t, as long as it doesn’t bother you, we shouldn’t make fun of the people who are frightened of words like  supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.                                                                                          There are many sides to having this fear.  People just don’t have to be scared of the word itself, they can be scared of how many syllables the word has, some might be scared of the word because they never saw it or discovered it.   In other actions a person may be scared of words that are longer in length and look squished together. 

In my view, these words are intimidating and too clunky.  The letters just kind of blend together and look like you fell asleep on your keyboard.  It seems like someone just typed gibberish.   
I mean if someone asks me to read this word aloud for them, I’m going to run away screaming.  Especially if I’m put on spot.                                                                       Some things you might do with having this fear is avoid reading books, lack on English bases Academics and avoid talking with new words you don’t understand or want to understand. 

Symptoms of it may include: 

Abdominal pain

Chest Pain 

Nausea 

Dizziness 

Lightheadedness

Which will likely occur in front of these words.  

Treatment for it could be going to therapy.   Taking anxiety medication, SSRIs for example and getting Psychotherapy treatment.                                                   While researching this I found that there were other factors that caused the development of this fear.  One of those causes being behavioral inhibition, some might have that being anger issues. 

You can read more about right here: Fear of Long Words: Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (verywellmind.com)

It was interesting reading about different fears and anxieties in society.   I’m more informed about how people cope with things that may be strange or weird to me or you, daily.    

It’s best to remember to respect people who have certain fears different from ours and to have their backs about it.  Also, if you don’t mind, comment on any of your fears. 

Good day 🙂