A Few Funny Phobias – Unless You Happen To Have Them
It can be quite entertaining to read down a list of funny phobias. Maybe part way down the list you’ll come across a phobia you have. While anyone else might thing your particular phobia is funny, or at least somewhat strange, you may not think so yourself.
The Greeks Had A Word For It
The Greeks had a word for phobia, phobos. Phobos means “morbid fear”, and when we have a phobia about something, we sometimes feel genuine fear when we’re confronted by it, whether that something is a physical object, or a situation. Sometimes we can overcome our phobia to the extent we don’t let it keep us from doing what we were in the process of doing, but at other times the phobia is so great that we’ll move heaven and earth to avoid that thing we’re fearful of.
Still, there are those phobias that most people will find to be quite amusing, and that feeling of amusement can sometimes even be shared by those who have the phobia. Some of these phobias are outlandish, while others are relativity common. You may even have had one or two of them at one time or another, and have simply outgrown them.
Like Clowns?
Take coulrophobia for example. Coulrophobia is the fear of clowns. It seems like a ridiculous phobia, especially since clowns are supposed to make people laugh, yet coulrophobia is more common than you might think. I have a daughter who has a fear of clowns, or at least feels uncomfortable when one is nearby. A friend of hers has a somewhat greater fear of mimes. One theory about this particular phobia is that while a clown can make a child laugh, a toddler who suddenly comes face to face with one for the first time might feel terrified.
Vampires And Werewolves
A fear of mirrors, eisoptrophobia, and fear of the moon, selenophobia, are two rather funny phobias, but are phobias some of us have experienced at one time or another. A full length mirror in a dark room, where you only see your shadow can be unsettling, and a full moon can sometimes make one feel small, insignificant, and somewhat exposed. Perhaps these phobias arise from stories about vampires and werewolves. Maybe you’re afraid of looking into a mirror and seeing nothing, or gazing at the moon and suddenly feeling fur growing on the backs of your hands.
Ducks Spying
Just about the funniest phobia I’ve come about is anatidaephobia, the fear a duck is watching you, from somewhere. There may be some who are afraid of ducks, but to be afraid of being watched by a duck, from somewhere, is admittedly a little off the beaten path.
Order vs. Chaos
Some people like things are a bit disordered, while others are more comfortable with things that are just as they should be, in the right order and nicely balanced. If you are very uncomfortable with, or try to avoid things, that are very symmetrical, you have symmetrophobia, a fear of symmetry. On the other hand, the person next to your may have asymmetriphobia, the fear of asymmetrical things. You will try very hard to avoid objects which are nicely balanced, while the other person has exactly the opposite feelings. The two of you should probably not try to live together.
When Good News Isn’t
How about euphobia, the fear of good news? It would not seem to be much fun to have such a phobia, but it may not be as uncommon as you might think. There are those who honestly feel that certain things have to balance out, and if you receive too much in the way of good news, you’ll at some point get a bunch of bad news dumped on you to balance things out. It’s a real phobia. People may not actually try to avoid getting good news, but may become quite uncomfortable whenever they do get some.
Funny Phobias
If we have a phobia that others might think of as being very strange, or funny, it could well be based upon something that frightened us when we were a child, something we’ve long forgotten, or it could be based upon something more recent, and we may understand our fear. We usually understand if our fears are excessive or unreasonable, but a child does not have this understanding, which may be one reason a phobia can be carried on into adulthood. Still, if you have leukophobia, the fear of the color white, papyrophobia, the fear of paper, aulophobia, a fear of flutes, or zemmiphobia, a fear of the great mole rat, your fears could definitely be classified as funny phobias. Not so funny would be anthropophobia, a fear of people (not of certain people, but a fear of all people).
A final note. If your phobia is based upon an object, the phobia is often easy to overcome if you work at it, although if it is an object you seldom encounter, such as a clown, you can probably avoid it. If you have a social phobia, such as a fear of speaking in public, or a fear of talking on the telephone, therapy may be needed to help you to overcome it. Social phobias are not usually funny; the fear of certain objects can sometimes seem to be.
