What is a Phobia?

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder that causes a long-term extreme or obsessive fear of something. A phobia is most commonly caused by a traumatic or stressful event during a person’s childhood. However, sometimes the cause of phobias is unknown. Most phobias are cured by gradual exposure to the cause of fear or medication. The most fascinating fact about phobias is that they could be anything, no matter how strange it may be. Here are some of the weirdest phobias out there:

Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. It is often caused by almost choking on something with a sticky consistency, like peanut butter, which is quite common in fact peanut butter is one of the most common choking hazards according to an article by the Huffington Post.

Trypophobia is the fear of closely-packed holes. It can be triggered by things such as  honeycombs, pomegranates, or lotus seed pods. Trypophobia is most likely caused by a human instinct that associates things with small holes as dangerous or harmful.

Koumpounophobia is the fear of buttons. It is triggered by a traumatic experience of choking on a button during their childhood or abuse by someone who wore clothing with buttons on them. Koumpounophobia is quite common, Steve Jobs even admitted he had a fear of buttons.

Allodoxaphobia is the fear of other’s opinions. Criticisms during a person’s childhood is the most common cause for this fear. Hearing any kind of feedback can trigger this anxiety. Opinions displayed on social media or TV can also cause this phobia to worsen.

Lachanophobia is the fear of vegetables. Although the dislike of vegetables is quite common, people who suffer from Lachanophobia have a full blown panic attack at the sight of certain veggies. This fear has been known to originate during childhood, perhaps an experience where parents forced their children to consume vegetables. Vegetables are necessary in order to get good nutrients. Therefore, vegetables are not easily avoidable if you have lachanophobia.

Spectrophobia is the fear of mirrors. If someone has had an experience where they have seen or heard a ghost it may cause they to have spectrophobia because looking in a mirror may create another potential encounter with a ghost. This phobia makes it difficult for people to go to public places and bathrooms.

Ranidaphobia is the fear of frogs. Frogs are often portrayed as ugly and dirty in many common fairy tales and folklore stories. These stories make people associate frogs with superstition, which may cause this phobia. Frogs are also commonly dissected in science classes, seeing and cutting open a dead frog can be traumatic and causes some students to dread the sight of frogs, which triggers this fear.