Can You Identify These Rare Phobias Without Screaming?

The world is a scary, scary place. Monsters in the closet, true crime documentaries, OUR GOVERNMENT. Frightening, right? But you’re probably not world-phobic. Probably because that’s not a thing. But, there are some phobias out there you may identify with (claustrophobia, anyone?) and some that are just full on strange. Phobias are described as an extreme and sometimes irrational fear or aversion to something. We get into the territory of “strange” and rare when this fear is regarding something… harmless?

Look, no judgment about what people are afraid of so much it inspires a fight-or-flight response, but they exist and they have real words used to describe it. You know the obvious ones like triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number thirteen), so we’re going to throw you some curve balls and some that you probably know but just don’t know the matching phobia-word. Think you can handle it? It won’t be too scary for you? We’ll leave the night light on so you’ll feel brave.