From the fear of heights to the fear of blood, there are many common fears that people share in society. But, what about the people that have a fear of lesser common things? To our surprise, these fears may be more prevalent than we think…
Phobias are often defined as an unrealistic and persistent fear of an object, person, place or situation. However, that doesn’t make the stress that people experience any less real.
Men’s Health Magazine reached out to their readers to find out what are some of the most irrational fears that they experience… Here are some of the responses they received:
- Blennophobia: fear of slime or mucus.
- Sarmassophobia: fear of foreplay.
- Pognophobia: fear of beards.
- Euphobia: fear of hearing good news.
- Cibophobia & Chlorophobia: fear of green food.
- Globophobia: fear of balloons.
- Anuptaphobia: fear of being single.
- Coulrophobia: fear of clowns.
The important thing to remember is that most fears are treatable. According to Elizabeth Lombardo, a psychologist and author, the key to getting rid of a phobia is to face it head on:
“[...] If you expose yourself to fear, that stress does go up. It feels like it’s going to go up forever until you practically explode, but you get to a point where it plateaus and you will extinguish the phobia.”
What is an irrational fear that you’re afraid of?
