Botanophobia - Fear of plants.
Chromophobia - Fear of colors.
Heliophobia - Fear of the sun.
Mysophobia - Fear of dirt and germs.
Pteridophobia - Fear of ferns.(the best one)
Chronophobia- Fear of time.
Genuphobia- Fear of knees.
Gymnophobia- Fear of nudity.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words. :lol:
Hylophobia- Fear of forests.
Lachanophobia- Fear of vegetables.
Oneirogmophobia- Fear of wet dreams.
Politicophobia- Fear or abnormal dislike of politicians.
Psychophobia- Fear of mind.
Sciophobia Sciaphobia- Fear of shadows.


:laugh: How you can even "get" these things... even if their just made up words to descripe one's strong feelings who can come up fear of thinking... Good luck to you who have some of these!

Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words

That's just hilaric. I can just imagine:

"You got that one disease, right? That looong word. What's it called? Oh right.. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia!"
"NOOOOOOOOO Don't say that!"

Or: "What you got?"
"Yeah that long word that describes me having a fear of long words.."

Some of the phobias you've quoted are not that rare actually, the phobia of forests for example, many people have a visceral fear of what lurks in the woods and it can reach phobic levels in some people; the fear of germs is also quite common, it often goes with the fear of diseases.
But even if there are only a couple of documented cases of a particular phobia in the whole world, doctors are going to publish papers about it in science journals and name it, hence the very long lists of phobias, lol.

But like QueenBee mentioned earlier, there is indeed a big difference between a simple fear and a full blown phobic fear. Most women have a fear of being raped for example, but that doesn't prevent them from having a normal social life and interacting with males, on the other hand women who have a phobia of rape are obsessed and terrified by the thought 24/7 and are unable to have a social life.

As to how people get phobias, it's highly debated and there's no definite answer. Many people develop phobias in their childhood for no obvious reasons, there doesn't seem to be a clear cause. Other people develop phobias after a trauma, sometimes the link is clear, like someone who develops a phobia of water after nearly drowning, but other times it's less obvious, like a woman who developped an intense phobia of birds after being raped in a room in which there was a bird cage, and sometimes the phobia is unrelated to the trauma and the trauma seems to have simply triggered a phobia that was already there in a latent state.

Nah, I wasn't serious, just kidding. I understand these things, and I have some mild versions of some fobias..

It's just so wierd that someone would be scared to death of some of these things. For example the germs and microbes- you are practicly an ecosystem :spy: as there are billoins of bacteria and microbes living in you! The fear of nudity: you're naked under your clothes! The fear of knees: omg everyone has knees! Fobias can be a very serious thing, even if they don't have much logig in them... which is the wierd and kind of funny part.

I have necrophobia as well Yosimar. A dead body is something I will not tolorate. Even in movies. A dead body is much more scary to me than something that was MADE to look scary.

Fear is the enemy! Hold on tight, hold onto me! Cause toniiiight!

It's so funny all those terms come from the Greek. Just tell me your phobia and I'll tell you how it's called :p

Fear of Russian Lesbians

Russophobia- Fear of Russians :rolleyes:

Super Lame!!

I have a fear of having moss touch my feet...It happened to me once and I started hyperventilating. Scary stuff. Other than that, I don't have any irrational phobias.

That's definitely exotic. Nothing more pleasant than feeling a thick moss cushion on my naked feet - except when walking through a swamp, stepping on some sphagnum, sinking a meter into the mud and having someone to pull you out of that mess.

*Shudder*

Wow. I can't imagine wht some of these must be like. I'm glad I don't have philophobia. Some of these are things I'm scared of, but I can cope with them sometimes, so they don't affect my life too much, and some, like being scared in crowds, are quite rational in my case, (In crowds, there is generally a big risk of loud noise or someone touching your shoulder. Both of these are things I find it hard to cope with because of a developemental disorder.) and if I remember correctly, phobias are irrational fears.

Not necessarily:
"It is generally accepted that phobias arise from a combination of external events and internal predispositions. In a famous experiment, Martin Seligman used classical conditioning to establish phobias of snakes and flowers. The results of the experiment showed that it took far fewer shocks to create an adverse response to a picture of a snake than to a picture of a flower, leading to the conclusion that certain objects may have a genetic predisposition to being associated with fear. Many specific phobias can be traced back to a specific triggering event, usually a traumatic experience at an early age. Social phobias and agoraphobia have more complex causes that are not entirely known at this time. It is believed that heredity, genetics, and brain chemistry combine with life-experiences to play a major role in the development of anxiety disorders, phobias and panic attacks." (from Wikipedia)

While a phobia is defined as an irrational fear, events can incur someone into fearing a certain object which, in my opinion, is perfectly rational. Someone I know from middle school, for example, became trapped in an elevator for 3 hours when he was 9 years old and has feared elevators ever since. That, while rational, is still a phobia because it interferes with his daly life. My phobia of moss on my feet, for example, is completely irrational. I have not had any averse situations with moss that have caused me to dislike it, yet I go into a state of shock when I feel moss on my feet. So that is also a phobia, only it is irrational.

I'm very fascinated with phobias and other anxiety disorders. In fact, I am (or should be rather) working on a project for my Anatomy & Physiology class. The topic was 'Brain Disorders,' so I am doing phobias. Also, last year, for my concentration in my AP Art class, I did phobias. It was quite exciting.

Oh, sorry. I guess I was mistaken. I have searched for "phobia" in an online dictionary now, because I was sure it said they were irrational. It does use the word "irrational" a lot, but there are some alternative definitions that don't, and one that uses this but also includes other adjectives, seperating them with the word "or". I suppose my fear of crowds could be classed as a phobia, then. Good luck with your project, and thanks for letting me know where I went wrong.

A funny pic related to the topic: http://www.snorgtees.com/images/Fear..._Fullpic_1.gif :laugh:

Endri, HAHA :D Thanks for that! So true, so true...

Anything alive scares me. :p

Also, I don't know if such a phobia exists (I haven't looked at this entire thread yet) but sometimes I can't stand looking at fish. Or even birds. When it comes to fish, I always think they're going to explode or something with their big eyes and scaley-ness... And birds? I always think of their tiny little eyes chipping off and their necks spontaneously snapping off is ejeklhkjjk. It's a shame because they're so pretty. But in Biology a few months ago we saw a bird video and there were these creepiest red birds who made the scariest sound ever. Oh gee.

...
I also get creeped out about outer space. I'm perfectly capable of listening to Cosmos by t.A.T.u., I just don't like the thought of a big, black, massive open space above of me. Heh.