10 Most Weird Phobias You Will Ever See

Are you a fan of knowing weird stuff? Check out these weird phobias people go through which will surely make you feel weird as well as surprized.

People fear a number of things, from a mere cockroach to weird objects. Anything that induces extreme and possibly irrational fear in a person is a phobia, although many weird phobias arise from a traumatic experience in one’s life. There are many problems created like a traumatic event1 that may disturb your mental health.

Generally, phobias stem from a traumatic incident or say of accidents people witness or got through in their life span. Now, this is not necessary but it is seen in most of the cases.

Each one of us has common phobias2 as well as specific phobias, no matter how trivial or minute it may be, and this is regardless of any age group. There are some weird phobias that you might not have even heard of.

Weird phobias
Phobia

The Top Weird Phobias You Need to Know About

So here’s a list of some of the weirdest phobias you would be keen to know about!

1. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – fear of long words

So why should the fear of long words have a short name? Uncommon and rarely found, such a phobia is going to give a tough time to students. It would also affect a person’s daily functioning.

2. Somniphobia – fear of falling asleep

As much as you love sleeping, there are people out there who associate going to bed with dying. Somniphobes are scared of losing time while sleeping. In most cases, this is one of those weird phobias that is a consequence of repetitive nightmares3.

3. Hylophobia – fear of trees

Sadly, not everyone can be nature lovers. Not just a walk near the trees, but the very thought of ‘woods’ can induce excessive fear. It arises from the idea of scary woods and forests in fairy tales that are seen during childhood and are carried henceforth.

4. Nomophobia – fear of being without mobile phone coverage

The phobia was discovered five years ago and researchers have found that more than fifty percent of the population in the UK are suffering from it. Losing both network coverage and the mobile phone causes fear.

5. Turophobia – fear of cheese

Whether it’s mozzarella or cheddar, the sight of even a slice of cheese scares the sufferer. While some may suffer from one kind, most are afraid of all types of cheese, even if they had to go past a plate consisting of it.

6. Pogonophobia – fear of beards

The term has been in use since the 1950s. Apparently, the presenter, Jeremy Paxman accused the BBC of suffering from Pogonophobia after the latter criticized him for presenting Newsnight with a beard.

7. Cynophobia – fear of dogs

It is indeed hard to believe that people are afraid of such adorable creatures. Street dogs induce most fear, if not for pets.

8. Plutophobia – fear of wealth

This was seriously unexpected. Who in this world would not want wealth? But there are always certain people who suffer from fear of receiving wealth that would lead to problems. At the same time, there are also a few religions that do not promote the accumulation of wealth.

9. Deipnophobia – fear of dining

There are a number of people who avoid going out for dinner parties or interacting with anybody at such places. They cannot be called introverts as Deipnophobia4 is on a whole different level.

10. Arachibutyrophobia – fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth

Sounds crazy right? Yes, people do fear the peanut butter getting stuck at the roof of their mouth although they love the butter’s mouth-watering taste.

Apart from these people have fears like social phobia, cell phone detachment phobia called nomophobia, fear of string called  Linonophobia, fear of dinner conversations known as Deipnophobia. Apart from this people also have fear of water, fear of mirrors fear, of dancing, etc. Thus, there is no end to the list of fears people carry in their minds and hearts which terrify them, and also some have panic attacks due to it which is dangerous.

Read more with us, click here.

  1. Yehuda, Rachel, AlexanderC McFarlane, and AriehY Shalev. “Predicting the development of posttraumatic stress disorder from the acute response to a traumatic event.” Biological psychiatry 44.12 (1998): 1305-1313. ↩︎
  2. Agras, Stewart, David Sylvester, and Donald Oliveau. “The epidemiology of common fears and phobia.” Comprehensive psychiatry 10.2 (1969): 151-156. ↩︎
  3. Nielsen, Tore, and Ross Levin. “Nightmares: a new neurocognitive model.” Sleep medicine reviews 11.4 (2007): 295-310. ↩︎
  4. Das, Aparna, et al. “Deipnophobia: A Case of Social Anxiety Masquerading as Eating Issues.” The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders 24.2 (2022): 40469. ↩︎
Published by
Joanna A Saramarla