What’s your phobia?
Even if you are like FDR and have nothing to fear but fear itself, you are still in the Phobia Club. You have a phobia called “phobophobia” (the fear of phobias).
If you have a phobia, relax if you can—you’re not alone. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 1 in 10, or 6.3 million, Americans have a diagnosed phobia.
So, as we took down our Halloween decorations, we started wondering which phobias are the most popular. (This is how blog ideas are born at ProEdit.) Is yours on the list of the top 10 most common phobias? Let’s see.
10 Most Common Phobias
- Glossophobia: The fear of public speaking
- Necrophobia: The fear of death
- Arachnophobia: The fear of spiders
- Achluophobia: The fear of darkness
- Acrophobia: The fear of heights
- Sociophobia: The fear of people or social situations
- Aerophobia: The fear of flying
- Claustrophobia: The fear of confined spaces
- Agoraphobia: The fear of open spaces, or not being able to escape
- Astraphobia: The fear of thunder and lightning
Didn’t find yours on the list? Maybe you’ve got an especially weird one.
10 Least Common Phobias
Let’s shoot over to the other end of the spectrum and look at the top 10 least common phobias.
- Alektorophobia: The fear of chickens
- Metrophobia: The fear of poetry or rhyming verse
- Ephebiphobia: The fear of youths
- Ergasiophobia: The fear of work
- Optophobia: The fear of opening one’s eyes
- Neophobia: The fear of newness
- Anthophobia: The fear of flowers
- Pteronophobia: The fear of being tickled by feathers
- Vestiphobia: The fear of clothing
- Phronemophobia: The fear of thinking
Stay brave!
More Top 10s
- 10 Top Pet Names
- 10 Misheard Lyrics
- 10 Things to Give Up
- 10 Evolving Words
- 10 Key Scrabble Words
- 10 Surprising Words
Sources: psychology.about.com, voices.yahoo.com