A phobia is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses little or no actual danger and leads to symptoms such as panic, fear, dizziness, nausea, and breathlessness. Here are a few phobias – some are common, others unusual and some might elicit a few laughs!
- Amaxophobia is the fear of riding in a vehicle. Understandably, many people in Sri Lanka have this fear, with all the cars, buses, tuk tuks, bikes, pedestrians and cows on the roads.
- Bibliophobia is the fear of books. Not much of a problem here, as we have one of the highest literacy rates in the world.
- Consecotaleophobia is the fear of chopsticks.
- Dromophobia is the fear of crossing streets. Refer to phobia 1.
- Ergophobia is the fear of working. We all have this one!
- Frigophobia is the fear of cold or cold things.
- Gamophobia is the fear of marriage (there is no specific fear for arranged marriages, I checked!).
- Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words. As Sri Lankans have such long names, this should not be an issue for us.
- Ideophobia is the fear of new or different ideas.
- Judeophobia is the fear of Jews.
- Kakorrhaphiophobia is the fear of failure or defeat. With all our neighbours and relatives breathing down our necks, this is a common fear here.
- Lachanophobia is the fear of vegetables, something most of us experienced when we were kids.
- Methyphobia is the fear of alcohol.
- Nomatophobia is the fear of names. The rest of the world probably feels this way about our names. Refer to phobia 8.
- Ophidiophobia is the fear of snakes.
- Pentheraphobia is the fear of mother-in-laws. Common worldwide.
- No phobias beginning with Q!
- Rhytiphobia is the fear of wrinkles, every female’s nightmare.
- Syngenesophobia is the fear of relatives. Refer to phobia 11 and 16.
- Trypanophobia is the fear of injections.
- Uranophobia is the fear of heaven.
- Venustraphobia is the fear of beautiful women.
- Wiccaphobia is the fear of Wikipedia. Just kidding, it is the fear of witches and witchcraft.
- Xyrophobia is the fear of razors.
- No phobias beginning with Y!
- Zoophobia is the fear of animals.
