Scary Facts

Phobias #2

Top 10 Unbearable Phobias

  Everyone has a fear of some sort, but not all of us suffer from the type of pathological fear called a "phobia." Some phobias are well known, such as agoraphobia, which is the fear of being in an open area or in a large crowd, and Thanatophobia, which is the fear of death. (I think we can all relate to the latter.) There are other phobias that are just plain bizarre; for instance, arachibutyrophobia, which is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one's mouth. This list, however, is devoted to those phobias that seem inherently unbearable. In other words, fears that fundamentally affect a sufferer's quality of life to an extreme extent. While perusing the list, let's keep in mind that there are real people suffering from these phobias; understanding the phobias themselves will allow us to understand (and sympathize with) the tribulations of the sufferers.  

1.) Ambulophobia

"The fear of walking or standing."

Imagine the implications of such a fear: the mere thought of standing or walking around fills you with utter terror. How in the world do you live a normal life? You certainly can't travel around in a motorized chair all the time. 

Unfortunately for ambulophobes, human flying has not yet been achieved, either. It would seem that an individual suffering from this devastating phobia would be forced to confront their fear many, many times, every single day of their life. That doesn't sound like fun.

2.) Decidophobia

"The fear of making decisions."

As you can see, some phobias have profound psychological consequences. 

If someone is deathly afraid of making a decision, then how do they go about life? Do they instruct others to make a decision for them? Isn't that a decision in itself? Do they simply follow a real life equivalent of stream-of-consciousness, simply "going with the flow", and not interfering with the normal course of events? But isn't THAT a decision, too? 

Decidophobes must be in a constant state of mental flux; as long as they contemplate a decision, they shouldn't experience fear. It's the act of actually making the decision that terrifies them. This essentially means that any sort of personal interaction with the world requires a decidophobe to overcome traumatizing fear.

3.) Epistemophobia (Gnosiophobia)

"The fear of knowledge."

What? The fear of knowledge? Indeed. No school. No education. No introduction to any new facts of any sort.

 Developing epistemophobia is akin to placing a cognitive cap on your development. You can't learn anymore, unless you're willing to withstand unrelenting terror throughout the entire process, which would obviously impair your ability to even comprehend the new material in the first place.

4.) Cibophobia

"The fear of food."

Let's perform a quick analysis of this situation: food is required to live. Cibophobes are frightened by food. This means such people have two options: 

(1) avoid food altogether, thereby killing themselves through malnutrition and dehydration, which is clearly not a viable (or attractive) prospect, or 

(2) stay alive by eating food and dealing with bone-chilling tremors every time a spoonful of cereal approaches their mouth.

 Imagine being a cibophobe; maybe you really enjoy macaroni-and-cheese, or bacon-and-cheddar cheeseburgers, or some other delectable dish.