A person may feel extreme fear caused by various triggers. When a person has adverse reactions to a fear trigger, this may be the person’s phobia or extreme and irrational fear. Here are 5 of the strangest phobias:
Phobophobia
A phobia is an extreme fear of something. Then there’s phobophobia which the fear of having a phobia or something to fear.
Compared to the other kinds of phobia which are caused by stimuli, there are no fear triggers in the observable environment which may trigger this, but a person has this psychological state where he or she fears having a fear so much that this phobia has developed.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is the fear of the number 666.
There’s Friday the 13th for which another phobia called araskavedekatriaphobia, but fearing the number 666 is more terrifying to some not just because of “bad luck” but because of the devilish roots of this number.
In the Bible, the book of Revelation associates this number with the devil.
Struggling to pronounce these words? Don’t worry, if your struggle ever turns into a phobia, there’s a word to describe a fear of long words, and – you may find it difficult to believe – the word is hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia!
Pteronophobia
It’s hard to believe someone could be terrified of being tickled with feathers, but that’s what pteronophobia is.
Feathers are usually very soft and are generally harmless. But being extensively tickled using feathers especially during childhood or infancy may lead to negative associations with the experience such as feeling trapped or having difficulty breathing. This then triggers the phobic reaction to feathers and being tickled by them.
Hylophobia
Hylophobia is the fear of forests, woodlands, and trees, and even certain wooden materials.
The fear is most probably caused by a negative experience in the woods which has ingrained itself to the memory of the person, causing this phobia. Also, simply being hit with a piece of wood, or being attacked or lost in the forest can lead to a person’s having hylophobia.
Taphophobia
Taphophobia is a fear anyone can have and is a somewhat rational fear – the fear of being buried alive. This happened back in the days when people were incorrectly pronounced as dead and they were mistakenly buried! Throughout the course of history, a lot of people were accidentally buried while they were still alive, and this phobia was born.
Phobias are usually caused by an extreme negative experience with a stimuli, or are simply irrational yet extreme fears of something which the sufferer cannot explain. There are a lot of other strange fears out there, but imagine being scared of being scared or being scared!