E-mail
PrintDo you always check behind the closet door at night?
Afraid that a letter mailed anywhere but the post office won’t get sent?
Sharing fears some may consider irrational can be embarrassing, but it turns out you are not alone.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 19.2 million Americans have a specific phobia or a persistent fear of some object or situation.
Almost every fear has a name: Pogonophobia, for example, is the fear of beards.
Here are three anxieties shared by Columbians:
“If my kids are sick, I think I’m going to get sick. It usually turns out that I don’t get sick, I think because I take care of them.”
— Aric Bremer, 26
“The thing under the bed. I take a little leap over the gap to get into bed so it doesn’t reach out and grab me.”
— Michele Cordray, 41
“Every time I’m in a plane, I think it’s going to crash because I’m not behind the wheel.”
— Sydney Lynch, 55
TOP FIVE PHOBIAS
Agoraphobia — fear of open spaces
Claustrophobia — fear of confined spaces
Acrophobia — fear of heights
Mysophobia — fear of germs or dirt
Xenophobia — fear of strangers or the unknown
Source: thesite.org
OFFBEAT PHOBIAS
Anuptaphobia — fear of staying single
Geniophobia — fear of chins
Lachanophobia — fear of vegetables
Phagophobia — fear of being eaten
Paraskavedekatriaphobia — fear of Friday the 13th
Pentheraphobia — fear of a mother-in-law
Source: phobialist.com
Comments