The Ultimate List of Phobias
psychcentral.com
Here's everything you were curious about (and some you weren't) regarding specific phobias.

What is a phobia?

Phobias are persistent and intense fears of a particular:

object

person (like a doctor or clown)

situation

activity

If you have a phobia, you may experience severe anxiety and panic attacks when you’re:

exposed to the object or situation you’re fearful of

thinking about the thing you’re afraid of

anticipating an encounter with the item you’re scared of

  • AcidOctopus@lemmy.ml
    271·
    1 year ago

    I wouldn’t say I have an actual phobia, but I completely understand people with trypophobia. It makes me very uncomfortable and I find it pretty revolting.

  • OurTragicUniverse@kbin.social
    17·
    1 year ago

    Scopophobia (the fear of beeing watched/seen) which has basically induced agoraphobia (fear of outside).

    I’m an autistic woman though, so people watching me and assuming shitty things, puts me in a very real danger as I can’t information process in real time, or efficiently talk out loud.

    • eezeebee@lemmy.caEnglish
      8·
      1 year ago

      TIL the name for this. I don’t like being in public and the opportunity for anyone to observe me in any way. Love being outside, hate that there are other people out there.

    • iamtrashman1312@lemmy.world
      3·
      1 year ago

      I was wondering if I’d see another agoraphobe in here

      I don’t really have anything else to add, been diagnosed for years and still workingonit

  • Jyrdano@lemmy.world
    17·
    1 year ago

    I have pretty strong fear of people in full body mascot costumes. This includes furry suits too. Not a crippling phobia, but enough to keep me on edge.

    That being said, I don’t hate furries. It’s just all suits where I can’t see person’s face freak me out.

    • Mothra@mander.xyz
      11·
      1 year ago

      Is that also the case for full body armor and other fictional or real types of costumes where you can’t see the face? Or does it have to have a ‘fake’ face like mascot costumes? Just curious

    • LetKCater2U@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I have this too! For me it’s something about not being able to read someone’s facial expression and not having the ability to gauge what someone is thinking or feeling, thus feeling like anything can happen.

  • LDPanda@lemmy.ml
    16·
    1 year ago

    thalassophobia even in video games. I almost drowned as a toddler so maybe that’s why idk.

    Heights and tight spaces make me tense and sweat

    Agoraphobia but mainly it’s limited to too many ppl in touching distance.

    Don’t know if it related to that but I have to always have an exit plan. I always take my car so I know I can leave at any time I sit on the end of aisles if I can help it and 9 times outta 10 if I’m indoors I know exactly the exit I can head for if I have too

    Edit I also will go out of my way to avoid calling anyone by their name. IDK if that’s a phobia but it just feels to personal or invasive to do.

    • Possibly-Food@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      Are… are you me? Because from first paragraph to last, this is 100% me.

      (Although to be fair, I grew out of the name-thing some time ago, thank fuck.)

    • emptyother@programming.dev
      3·
      1 year ago

      The exit plan is absolutely agoraphobia. I got that too. Gotta sit at the end of rows. Gotta plan my exit so that I either get out before the crowd, or after. Prefer car-vacations over planes or ships. My impresssion from the psychiatrist is that any fear that makes us feel irrasionally trapped, thats agoraphobia.

      avoid calling anyone by their name.

      I do that too. But because I’m really crappy at remembering peoples names. And those few times I do remember I’m just not used to it. I really should work on this because repeating peoples names does make it easier to remember them.

    • filcuk@lemmy.zip
      2·
      1 year ago

      Submechanophobia. No matter how much I try to rationalise, water grates in pools raise my heart rate.
      Deathly scared of buoys.

      Anyone read how a few divers went to explore weird pillars in a lake, only for one of them to get sucked into a nuclear plant water intake? Jesus wept. (He lived, somehow.)*

  • Chetzemoka@startrek.website
    10·
    1 year ago

    My car is currently parked on the street instead of in my driveway because it’s officially “spiders fall on your car with the leaves” season up here in New England. So yeah, arachnophobia.

    I’ve done a lot of self-directed deconditioning work over the years though, and it’s much better now than when I was a kid. I don’t jump and run away anymore. Still don’t want them in spaces I occupy though lol

  • Mothra@mander.xyz
    10·
    1 year ago

    Cockroaches, especially big ones that can fly. I’ve gotten better with age though. I still find them disgusting though.

    Similarly syringes, so vaccines and blood tests are a bit rough. Same, getting better with age but I still get my heart racing whenever I have to get a shot.

  • DigitalPaperTrail@kbin.social
    10·
    1 year ago

    game developer hastily taking notes

    semi-unrelated, the internet has ruined my mind, it definitely interpreted that thumbnail a lot differently at a glance

  • Uwu_im_toxic@lemmy.world
    9·
    1 year ago

    Emetophobia. Fear of vomiting. I’m super nauseated just thinking about it to type it out. It led to a semi eating disorder when I was young because I didn’t trust any food to be properly kept or cooked. Took a food safety class for work and learned proper food handling and preparation, so I eat a lot better now. But I definitely come off as rude if I don’t trust the person that’s cooking food for me, like my partner’s family, or friends that don’t understand.

    I can’t help friends or loved ones when they’re sick if that’s one of their symptoms, which sucks. If someone has a nasty cough that gags them I go into a panic. If I hear someone get sick I instantly start crying, sweating, shaking, and my mind gets fuzzy with panic.

    I really hate it. I always thought I had arachnophobia, but I just really really don’t like spiders. I don’t get the mind numbing panic that, to me, would classify it as a phobia.

    And yeah, because of the phobia, I haven’t gotten sick like that since I was 8, and I was born in the 80s. Plenty of fearful times, but cold water and pepto helped me through.

    I gotta go dissociate on some meme posts for a bit now.

  • Wild Bill@midwest.social
    8·
    1 year ago

    I have a “phobia” (or at least a very strong fear) of insects. This includes regular flies, worms, mosquitos, bees, butterflies to some extent. Whenever I hear that buzz of a fly, my fight-or-flight response activates and I instantly become more aware of my surroundings. Whenever I hear a fly inside my apartment I tell my parents to please kill it or let it out, sometimes I hide in my room. Coincidentally enough, a few days ago I found a decently small worm in my bedroom and it kept wiggling, and my anxiety was intense. I kept yelling for my mom to go get it, my heartbeat was so intense.

    People like to laugh whenever I flinch or act nervous around a small fly, and I get why that’s funny, but I really hate it. It distracts me and makes me feel on edge. People keep telling me, “it’s just a small insect, it can’t hurt you”; I know it can’t, but the buzzing and the way it flies makes me really uncomfortable. It’s why I don’t like summer. It’s weird, because I didn’t always feel this way; I only started having this phobia at around 10 years old maybe. Anyway, I don’t know why I have it. But it’s really debilitating.

    • GARlactic@lemm.ee
      7·
      1 year ago

      You really should seek therapy. There are specialists that help people manage their phobias.

      • Wild Bill@midwest.social
        2·
        1 year ago

        I know, people have suggested CBT to me. I haven’t gotten around to take the initiative to actually get help, but hopefully I will soon.