People are strange
I have one phobia: emetophobia. This is the fear of vomiting, being around others vomiting, or vomit itself. Coincidentally, this is also the order of my affliction from absolute worst to worst, and all my senses are repelled by it. Even seeing the written word or hearing the word begins a panic attack. Plus, there are so many synonyms: vomit, upchuck, throw up, barf, hurl, blowing chunks, puke, etc. that I have to contend with. Reading the Wikipedia article about emetophobia was like reading my life story. I would say it is the root to a lot of my issues in general. At least I know my root.
Anyway, other than my One Big phobia, that is it. But this phobia does transfer into other aspects in my life that could seem like more phobias, but really it is once again, the root. For example, I hate being on the metro or on a plane because of the vomit notion. Because if I feel sick or if someone else is sick, there is no where to run to. And I like to run far from vomit. Very far.
Over the weekend, I was with a group of acquaintances in which we started talking about phobias. It was very interesting to hear what other people are genuinely, illogically, and irrevocably afraid of. One person was deathly afraid of honeycombs and could barely describe it. I had never heard of that one and the closest I could find in my research was:
Trypophobia is the phobia of holes; specifically, naturally occurring holes whether in clusters or not.
Surprisingly, she was not alone and there were many people talking about honeycomb fears in random support groups on the Internet. Another woman had a phobia of Oriental rug stores. I could not find anyone else with this tribulation nor any Greek compound words to label it.
Interestingly, none of the men in the group disclosed a phobia. Machismo culture might have played a role or perhaps biological gender differences. Nevertheless, the topic of phobias has always piqued my interest and I am fascinated to hear different people’s worst fear(s). Not that I would use this knowledge in sadistic torture experiments, but more like a compilation of sorts. There is comfort in knowing you are not alone, and it also raises the bar in the complexity of humans and our psyche.
So…what’s your phobia?
Anyway, other than my One Big phobia, that is it. But this phobia does transfer into other aspects in my life that could seem like more phobias, but really it is once again, the root. For example, I hate being on the metro or on a plane because of the vomit notion. Because if I feel sick or if someone else is sick, there is no where to run to. And I like to run far from vomit. Very far.
Over the weekend, I was with a group of acquaintances in which we started talking about phobias. It was very interesting to hear what other people are genuinely, illogically, and irrevocably afraid of. One person was deathly afraid of honeycombs and could barely describe it. I had never heard of that one and the closest I could find in my research was:
Trypophobia is the phobia of holes; specifically, naturally occurring holes whether in clusters or not.
Surprisingly, she was not alone and there were many people talking about honeycomb fears in random support groups on the Internet. Another woman had a phobia of Oriental rug stores. I could not find anyone else with this tribulation nor any Greek compound words to label it.
Interestingly, none of the men in the group disclosed a phobia. Machismo culture might have played a role or perhaps biological gender differences. Nevertheless, the topic of phobias has always piqued my interest and I am fascinated to hear different people’s worst fear(s). Not that I would use this knowledge in sadistic torture experiments, but more like a compilation of sorts. There is comfort in knowing you are not alone, and it also raises the bar in the complexity of humans and our psyche.
So…what’s your phobia?
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