Jenny works as a Travel nurse. She travels a lot because of the shortage of nurses in both regional and national locations. She enjoys the flexible work assignments in her regional area. However, she goes to great lengths to avoid the work assignments in other national locations where she needs to fly down to the area and work. What do you think is the reason behind Jenny’s irrational behavior? Does she love her place too much or it just the fear of flying to other place?

Now, the word is called Aviophobia. Almost everyone has an irrational fear or two. But, when fears become so severe that they interfere with your normal life they are called phobias. If you have a phobia, you probably realize that your fear is unreasonable, yet you still can’t control your feelings. Just thinking about the feared object or situation may make you anxious. And when you’re actually exposed to the thing you fear, the terror is automatic and overwhelming.

Basically, Phobia comes from Greek word “phobos” meaning fear, horror. And all the words formed using this root would reflect this same very fear.

Let’s learn about some very strange and funny phobias people have.

1. Anthropophobia: Fear of people or the company of people, a form of social phobia. We all have one of those friends, who likes to keep distance from people, finds opportunities to run away from them. Don’t we? Anthropos is a root word for mankind or humankind.

2. Emetophobia: Fear or anxiety pertaining to vomiting. This specific phobia can also include subcategories of what causes the anxiety, including a fear of vomiting in public, a fear of seeing vomit, a fear of watching the action of vomiting or fear of being nauseated.

3. Claustrophobia: Fear of closed spaces. Root word here is Latin claustrum which means ‘a shut in place’. Jack hates being in a crowded elevator, a room without windows, or sitting in an airplane and even while wearing tight-necked clothing. He is definitely claustrophobic.

4. Ergophobia: Fear of work. It comes from Greek word ergos means work. Working nine-to-five Monday through Friday can be a real drag. Having a job can cause stress and anxiety in almost everyone’s life, but what if that stress and anxiety were so bad that you could barely even go to work? People who suffer from Ergophobia have a persistent fear of work, finding work or functioning and experience undue anxiety about the workplace environment, even though they realize their fear is irrational.

5. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia: Fear of long words.
Hippopotamus+ Monster + sesquipedalian (means one and a have foot long).This word is intended to exaggerate the length of the word itself and the idea of the size of the words being feared.

6. Autophobia: Fear of being alone or isolated. Giacomo Casanova must be Auto phobic, how else do you describe a womanizer?

7. Ophthalmophobia: Fear of being stared at. It is usually seen in people who are low in confidence or are very conscious of how they look.

8. Paedophobia: Fear of children; fear of dolls or fear of infants, childhood. It is more of allergy than fear. If you see someone saying “Get that little pink thing away from me”, you know what phobia they have.

9. Anthophobia: Fear of flowers. Now, who does not like flowers for Christ’s sake? Strange. Really strange that such a fear exists.

10. Herpetophobia: Fear of reptiles. If you have herpetophobia, you might become afraid whenever you are in proximity to a reptile or even amphibian.

Post Contributed by Rabia Sehgal

The complete series:

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Post 2
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Post 5