Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Weird phobias

I myself am afflicted with a touch of arachnophobia, or the irrational fear of spiders. The idea of having a spider touching me -- why, the very idea is making the hair on my neck stand up right now. I have, however, progressed toward reasonability in this matter. I've studied them, tried to understand them, etc. If one of the little hairy black jumping spiders got near me, I doubt I'd flinch now because I'm fairly certain they don't even recognize me as something to bite. Other spiders, though, still hold a pretty strong sway over me.

But if you think about it, there's something of a thread of logic in a fear of spiders, as there is in a fear of snakes. Some of those creatures can actually cause harm (although not many). But a fear of pickles????

Here's a fun page about phobias.

And here's an excellent web compendium on phobias. According to this site, the ten most common phobias are:
Agoraphobia (fear of open spaces or of crowded public places)
Claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces)
Acrophobia (fear of heights)
Mysophobia (fear of being contaminated with dirt or germs)
Xenophobia (fear of strangers or foreigners)
Necrophobia (fear of death or dead things)
Brontophobia (fear of thunder)
Carcinophobia (fear of getting cancer)
Aerophobia (fear of drafts or of breathing in noxious substances)
Arachnophobia (fear of spiders)

Hmmm. I would've expected fear of snakes and fear of flying on an airplane to have made the list above fear of drafts... anyway, do you have any phobias, or just fears that may not be to the "phobia" level?

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