Phobias Probably You Weren't Aware About

The word phobia comes from the word –“Phobus” a minor Roman God who accompanied his war God father into the battle to spread fear among the enemy. Warriors carried shield bearing Phobus to reinforce the power of his fear god.

Anorexia

Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply asanorexia, is aneating disorder, characterized bylow weight,food restriction, fear of gaining weight, and a strong desire to be thin.

Symptoms:

· Inability to maintain a normal weight

· Skin that is yellow or blotchy and covered with soft, fine hairs

· Hair thinning or falling out

· More than three cycles without a period

· Excessive exercise

· Pushing food around the plate instead of eating it, or cutting food into small pieces

· Depressed mood

· Hunger denial

· Use ofdiuretics, laxatives, or diet pills

Androphobia

Androphobia is defined as a fear of men. The term originated inside feminist and lesbian-feminist movements to balance the opposite term “gynophobia,” which means a fear of women.

Misandry, another term that arose from the feminist and lesbian-feminist movements, is defined as a hatred of men. The opposite of misandry is misogyny, which means a hatred of women. Both men and women can be affected by Androphobia.

Symptoms:

· An instant, intense fear, anxiousness or panic when you see or think about men

·An awareness that your fear of men is irrational or inflated but you feel like you cannot control it

· Anxiety that worsens as a man gets physically closer to you

· Active avoidance of men or situations where you might encounter men; or feeling intense worry or fear in situations where you encounter men

· Nausea, dizziness, or fainting when in close proximity to men or thinking about men

Cacophobia

Cacophobia is the fear of ugliness and things that are ugly.

Symptoms:

· Include extreme anxietyand anything associated with panic such as

· Shortness of breath

· Rapid breathing,

· Irregular heartbeat,

· Excessive sweating,

· Nausea,

· Inability to articulate words or sentences

· Dry mouth and shaking.

Chronophobia

Chronophobia is the fear of time.

· It can be identified in senior citizens and people facingterminal illness, worrying about the time they have left to live.

· In prison, chronophobia sometimes sets in when inmates contemplate the length of their incarceration. This is commonly referred to as prison neurosis or as stir crazy.

· It can be experienced in situations, such as a natural disaster, when people are in a prolonged period of anxiety with no familiar means of tracking time.

Gamophboia

Marriage is a scared bond that binds two individuals together. While many people wait their whole life to be together forever with the person they love, the story may be different for some others. For some people however, the boundationsof marriage are scary as hell. Any such irrational fear of getting married or committed is known as gamophobia.

Symptoms:

· Irrational and extreme fear of marriage and commitment ( Even a thought of marriage or seeing someone else marry can trigger the fear)

· Complete avoidance of marriage or related events and discussions

· Aggression, panic attacksand ill-temper upon the thought or discussion of one’s marriage

· Realization that the fear is irrational but unable to control

· Low-self esteem

·Panicking follows physical signs such as trembling, crying, racing heart beat, trouble in breathing, nausea or vomiting, dizziness or fainting, sweating and abdominal discomfort

Gnosiophobia

Gnosiophobia is the fear of knowledge.

Symptoms:

· Include extreme anxietyand anything associated with panic such as

· Shortness of breath

· Rapid breathing,

· Irregular heartbeat,

·Excessive sweating,

· Nausea,

· Inability to articulate words or sentences

· Dry mouth and shaking.

Maieusiphobia

Maieusiophobia is the fear of childbirth. People with this phobia tend to fear how a pregnancy may change their life and body, if the child will be born normal and healthy or if they will die giving birth to the child.

Symptons:

· Intense anxiety at the mere thought of childbirth

· Intense anxiety when seeing a child being born

· Anxiety when seeing a pregnant woman

· Stress, muscle tension, shakiness

Metrophobia

Metrophobia is the fear of poetry. People with this fear tend to dislike seeing, hearing or writing poems.

Symptoms:

· You may refuse to participate in reading out loud or even start to skip classes.

· You may become uncomfortable when friends forward emails that contain poems.

·You may be reluctant to read unfamiliarbooksfor fear of coming across an illustrative poem.

Xenophobia

While fear of the unknown is a common and understandable part of life, xenophobia is defined as an intense fear of strangers or foreigners.

Symptoms:

· The avoidance of people seen as foreign

· An unwillingness to keep an open mind about people they do not understand

· Often generalized or ill-educated opinions and stereotypes about a culture or group of people

Triskaidekaphobia

It is the fear or avoidance of the number13.

Symptoms:

· Tendency to avoid anything and everything that is associated to number 13 in any way.

·Feeling of anxiety or fear when exposed to a sight or even thought of number 13.

· Abnormal behavior surrounded by fear all the time without any reason.

·pain in chest, increased heart rate, trembling, shaking, nervousness etc.