Scoleciphobia is the extreme, irrational fear of worms, often involving intense anxiety, nausea, trembling, and a feeling that worms are crawling on you, even when you know they're harmless, sometimes leading to compulsive washing. It's a specific phobia, related to other fears of creepy crawlies like vermiphobia or helminthrophobia, and can be triggered by past experiences or learned behaviors.
People with Scoleciphobia have an extreme fear of worms, which manifests itself with nausea, elevated heart rate, and trembling. Some people feel as if the worms were crawling on them, and, can react with constant washing, much like we would see in people with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.
Scopophobia is an extreme fear of being watched or stared at and can lead to significant impairments in daily, social, or professional functioning.
Yes, you might not think it but Scoleciphobia is a fairly common phobia, particularly among children. That said, many adults experience this fear, which can easily persist into later life, like any other fear.
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is a specific phobia, meaning that someone with this condition would experience intense, irrational anxiety or fear when faced specifically with the number 666.
NBC Universal, Inc. Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. Here's how experts think the number 13 got its bad reputation. Many people have araskavedekatriaphobia (also known as friggatriskaidekaphobia), or fear of Friday the 13th.
There's no single "rarest" phobia, as they're highly individual, but some contenders for extreme rarity and uniqueness include Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (fear of long words), Arachibutyrophobia (fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth), Decidophobia (fear of making decisions), and Optophobia (fear of opening one's eyes), often cited due to their specific and unusual triggers, with some studies pointing to Agoraphobia without panic as least reported in large surveys.
1. Social Phobia: Fear of Social Interactions. Also known as Social Anxiety Disorder, social phobias are by far the most common fear or phobia our Talkspace therapists see in their clients.
Specific phobias like hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia affect between 3% and 15% of the population. 1 Their relative rarity, however, does not change how devastating they can be for those who have them.
Trypophobia isn't a direct type of OCD, but they share anxiety roots, and research shows people with trypophobia often also have OCD, anxiety, or depression, with disgust often playing a bigger role in trypophobia than just fear. While OCD involves obsessions and compulsions, trypophobia is typically characterized by intense disgust and distress from clustered patterns, sometimes meeting criteria for a specific phobia, though not always fitting the formal DSM-5 diagnosis.
Johnny Depp: Coulrophobia
Johnny Depp's fear of clowns is said to stretch back to his boyhood when he had dreams about clowns. According to The Guardian, the actor has expressed his worry by saying that there always was darkness hiding just beyond the surface, a possibility for true evil.
Thanatophobia is an extreme fear of death or the dying process. You might be scared of your own death or the death of a loved one. Psychotherapy can help most people overcome this disorder.
Deipnophobia is an extreme fear of engaging in dinner conversation or dining out in public. The fear can cause someone to avoid social dining altogether, leading to a disruption in their relationships and isolation.
The 12 Most Common Phobias
1. Arachibutyrophobia (Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth) Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. While the phenomenon has happened to everyone at one point or another, people with arachibutyrophobia are extremely afraid of it.
Noun. hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (uncountable) (chiefly Christianity) Fear of the number 666.
Frigophobia is an intense, irrational fear of being cold or of cold temperatures, stemming from the Latin frigus (cold) and Greek phobia (fear). It's a specific phobia that can manifest as extreme anxiety, leading individuals to constantly seek warmth, avoid "cooling" foods or situations, and even believe they are freezing or dying, sometimes causing self-harm to warm up. This condition is considered a culture-bound syndrome, particularly noted in some Asian populations, and involves severe symptoms like panic, sweating, or numbness, despite logical understanding that there's no real danger.
Cherophobia, the fear of happiness, involves a fear of happiness so deep that it affects the activities of your daily life. We still don't understand the exact causes of cherophobia. But research suggests it may be linked to negative childhood experiences.
Top 10 Things People Fear Most
Nyctophobia is an extreme fear of the dark.
Did you know that there are people who actually fear bananas? Eating them, smelling them, seeing them, you name it. There are people who cannot stand the sight of bananas and when they do, it causes them to have a panic attack or suffer from anxiety. Indeed, this extreme fear of bananas is what is called Bananaphobia.
Xanthophobia is the fear of the color yellow. “Xanth” is a prefix derived from the Greek word for yellow, and phobias are persistent, extreme fears. 1 Xanthophobia is a kind of chromophobia, or color phobia.