Article: Sumedha Banerjee, Rupal Sorkhel, Paromita Ray | Edited: Atri Das
A-List Phobias
Ablutophobia: Ablutophobia relates to the fear of washing and bathing. An ablutophobic person may contemplate washing hands or may get scared when sees someone washing hands.
Acarophobia: Acarophobia is the fear of small, crawling insects, especially parasites. Intense fear or paranoia at the thought of having lice or intestinal parasites or bugs crawling are the significant symptoms of this phobia.
Acerophobia: Derived from Latin word ‘accer’ which means ‘sharp, sour’, acerophobia is the fear of sour taste. Usually, acerophobic people get extremely anxious and stressed when contemplating about tasting something sour. They are scared to taste any acerbic or sour food.
Achluophobia: Achluophobia is the fear of darkness. The causes being loneliness and separation, people with this phobia are generally scared of dark rooms, get anxious at night and cannot stay without light.
Acousticophobia: Also known as phonophobia, acousticophobia is simply the fear of a well-defined stimuli, basically noise. The fear is of any kind of noise, including one’s own voice.
Acrophobia, Cremnophobia, Altophobia: Acrophobia is the fear of heights. Acrophobic people are usually scared to stand on top of a building, or a mountain. They have tendencies to fantasize about experience of falling off the edge of cliffs. They feel that they loose balance even when they are firm on the ground and experiences urges to jump of the edges when they are on an elevated surface.
Aelurophobia, Ailurophobia, Elurophobia, Felinophobia: Aelurophobia is the intense, irrational fear for cats. The fear for cats can be caused by unpleasant encounters with cats in childhood, maybe the person was scratched by a cat. But there are other genetic causes.
Aeroacrophobia: Aeroacrophobia refers to the fear of open and high spaces, like in an airplane. People who suffer from this sort of phobia tend to avoid plane journeys and get panic attacks at the mere thought of flying in a vehicle far off the grounds.
Aeronausiphobia: Aeronausiphobia is the fear of getting airsick. People suffering from this phobia gets panic attack at the mere thought of vomiting while sitting in an airplane. They tend to avoid plane journeys, no matter how convenient it is for them.
Aerophobia: Also known as air phobia, it is a persistent irrational fear of flying or even just fresh air. Aerophobic people generally do not like to fly. Sometimes, this phobia is also associated with fear of airplanes.
Agoraphobia: Agoraphobia is one of the most common types of phobia, relating to extreme fear of leaving the house or a confining space. Unpleasant encounters or incidents experience outdoors or even fear of social embarrassment or social phobia can trigger agoraphobia.
Agoraphobia: Agoraphobia is the fear of sexual abuse. People with this phobia tend to avoid sexual contact as they fear that they would be abused. Traumatic experiences in past can develop into this phobia.
Agrizoophobia: Agrizoophobia is the fear of wild animals. Some people fear that wild animals are extremely dangerous and can kill them. This exaggerated fear sometimes gives them persistent high levels of stress.
Agyiophobia, Dromophobia: Dromophobia is the fear of crossing streets or wandering about. The concerned person fears accidents on streets, among other reasons, thus avoids the streets. The fear is also triggered by being on street.
Aibohphobia: Aibophobia is the fear of palindromes, or words that are symmetric, they read the same from both the sides.
Aichmophobia, Aichurophobia: Aichmophobia is the fear of sharp, pointed objects like knives or forks. There are people who feel threatened when they see sharp object around them.
Albuminurophobia: People suffering from albuminurophobia constantly fear having kidney disease.
Alektraphobia: Alektraphobia is a specific phobia relating to the irrational fear of chickens. Sufferers avoid consuming chicken or any chicken products.
Algophobia: Algophobia is the persistent fear of pain. An algophobic person is generally very sensitive to pain and contemplates about pain most of their time and so, sometimes even experiences pains like headache or abdominal pain even though there is no such pain.
Alliumphobia: Fear of garlic. People with this phobia avoid not only garlic, but also other food items which have a strong odor, like onion.
Allodoxaphobia: Allodoxaphobia is the fear of hearing other people’s opinions. Sufferers may feel that others’ suggestion might make them feel small and ridiculous or they may not like their opinion at all.
Amathophobia: Known as the fear of dust, the phobia is derived from the Greek word,
amathos which means sand. The sufferer may be allergic to dust, thus, the fear.
Amaxophobia: Amaxophobia is the fear of riding a vehicle due to the fear of accidents, injury or death.
Ambulophobia, Basiophobia, Basophobia,: Ambulophobia is the fear of walking. This fear is triggered by the fear of falling. People with Ambulophobia tend to avoid place of height and walking.
Amunasiophobia: Amunasiophobia is the fear of having amnesia. People with amunasiophobia often panic when they do not remember even trivial matters as they are contemplating about having amnesia.
Anablephobia: Anablephobia is known as the fear of looking up. The sufferer may feel nausea or increased heart rate when they look up at tall building or even the sky.
Amychophobia: Amychophobia is the fear of being scratched or lacerated. People suffering from this phobia avoid having long nails and are scared of dogs and cats and wild animals.
Anemophobia: Anemophobia, or ancraophobia, relates to the fear of strong winds, storm winds to be precise. People who manifest this phobia are often survivors of hurricane, tornado or other storms. They fear the wind will blow away objects of sentimental value, connected to their personal identity.
Androphobia, Arrhenophobia: The opposite of gynophobia, androphobia refers to fear or strong hatred towards men. This kind of fear is more imbibed in certain specific cultures.
Anginophobia: Anginophobia is the fear of choking and narrowness of the throat.
Anglophobia: Anglophobia is the fear or dislike of the country England, their language, culture, etc.
Ankylephobia: Ankylophobia is the fear of immobility in the joints. The person might feel pain and might feel unable to move with with no physiological symptoms.
Anthophobia: Anthophobia is a specific phobia which relates to the fear of flowers.
Antlophobia: Antlophobia is the fear of floods. People with this phobia might feel that they will lose everything in a flood or even die.
Aphenphobia: Aphephobia, also called haphephobia is the fear of being touched. The concerned person might feel uncomfortable when touched. According to research, the most common cause is sexual assault.
Apiphobia: Apiphobia is the irrational fear of bees. The cause may stem from bee sting experience or witness or more commonly, lack of knowledge.
Arachnophobia: Arachnophobia refers to the irrational fear of spiders. The causes are pretty much similar to those of apiphobia. Symptoms include the usual, increased heart rate, sweating, etc.
Apeirophobia: Apeirophobia is a unique and rare fear of infinity or eternity. People with apeirophobia can experience panic attack when thinking about eternity. They are scared of things which represents infinity like sky, ocean or an unending number sequence.
Aquaphobia: Aquaphobia is the fear of water. Aquaphobes avoid the contact of water as much as they can. They do not bathe, wash hands or even go near any source of water.
Arachibutryophobia: Arachibutryophobia is a peculiar phobia which relates to the fear of peanut butter that would stick to the roof of the mouth.
Arithmophobia: Arithmophobia is the fear of numbers. People suffering from this phobia are scared of numbers and avoid the subject mathematics.
Arsonphobia: Arsonphobia is the fear of fire. Arsophobics fear that they would burn to death and contemplates this thought. They have severe problem in even cooking as one need to light a fire to do so.
Asthenophobia: Asthenophobia is the fear of weakness or fainting. People with asthenophobia are very cautious as they fear that they may become weak and unconscious or just faint.
Astraphobia/ Astrophobia/ Brontophobia/ Ceraunophobia: Astraphobia refers to irrational fear of lightning and thunder. Though it is more common in childhood, the fear may sometimes remain prominent even in adulthood. Symptoms unique to this phobia is taking extra shelter during thunder storms, like hiding under the bed, along with other common symptoms, like crying and felling nauseous.
Ataxiophobia: Ataxiophobia is the fear of ataxia, a neurological disorder.
Ataxophobia: Fear of untidiness. Most people do not like mess, they prefer clean and tidied things. But people suffering from ataxophobia, get a panic attack when they are in a messy place. They are peculiarly scared of the untidiness
Atelophobia: Atelophobia refers to the fear of imperfection. People suffering from this phobia are scared to be imperfect.
Atephobia: Atephobia relates to the fear of ruins. The ruins may remind them of the traumatic events that led to the ruins, and invoke fear.
Atychiphobia: No one really likes to fail. But some people are terrified of failing. They might even avoid those areas where they might fail, as they are scared of social embarrassment and disappointment. This fear of failing is called atychiphobia.
Aulophobia: Aulophobia is the fear of seeing, hearing, or playing a flute. According to psychologists, the fear might be related to sexual abuse.
Autodysomophobia: Autodysomophobia refers to the fear or delusion of some people about their repugnant body odor. Extreme level of this phobia may lead to obsessive- compulsive disorders.
Automysophobia: Automysophobia is a fear of being dirty. The suffering person constantly feels dirty and untidy. This phobia along with Automysophobia may lead to obsessive-compulsive behavior washing or bathing.
Aurophobia: Aurophobia is a specific phobia relating to the irrational fear of gold.
Auroraphobia: Auroraphobia is also known as the fear of auroral lights.
Autophobia: Autophobia is the fear of loneliness or being alone. People with autophobia need constant company as even their own homes, they are scared to be alone. Loneliness may also cover the fact of being ignored or unloved.
Aviatophobia, Aviophobia: Aviatophobia is the fear of flying. People suffering from this phobia tend to avoid being on a plane, or sky diving.
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