The 7 most unusual phobias

Nomophobia: the fear of being separated from your phone

Nomophobia refers to the fear of being separated from your phone.

This phobia is at the origin of a feeling of lack and symptoms of anxiety comparable to those experienced by people addicted to tobacco when they are deprived of their cigarette, for example.

Fear sets in just at the thought of not having your phone at hand or of not being able to use it because of a power cut or a flat battery.

This condition has gradually taken hold in our society with the advent of modern technologies, the increasing use of the Internet, social networks, and the instantaneousness offered by mobile phones.

According to a survey by the

in 2008, 53% of users show symptoms of anxiety when they no longer have access to their phone.

Nevertheless, a study published in

in 2021, noted that the prevalence of nomophobia remains very variable: from 6 to 73% depending on the criteria used.

Sociologists believe that smartphone addiction is linked to the irrepressible fear of missing information, the fear of missing messages, of not being reachable or of feeling excluded, a syndrome better known by the acronym FOMO or "

” (“fear of missing something”).

” READ ALSO –

The French increasingly dependent on their smartphone

Omphalophobia: fear of navels

For some people, touching their navel causes a feeling of disgust.

A simple look at this scar, a vestige of the section of the umbilical cord, is very unpleasant, even unbearable.

Navel phobia is manifested by real symptoms: tremors, dry mouth, nausea, accelerated heartbeat or vomiting.

The causes are relatively unknown due to the lack of studies on this subject.

One hypothesis is that omphalophobia is due to the traumatic experience of the primitive separation from the mother.

However, some specific phobias also have a genetic influence or develop in people with generalized anxiety disorder, as highlighted in a 2017 article published in the scientific journal

.

In other situations, some people with omphalophobia may have experienced pain or a difficult medical experience involving their navel.

Votaphobia: the fear of bills

Electricity, mobile phone, water, taxes… Synonymous with “bad news”, the bills that accumulate at the end of each month can be a source of anxiety.

The votaphobes, who have an excessive fear of bills, are the first concerned.

Result ?

They procrastinate and often end up complying with payment under pressure from the authorities.

Votaphobia can be rooted in a lack of self-discipline and organization in managing accounts or difficulty handling administrative tasks.

This situation can become very disabling on a daily basis, leading to the accumulation of unpaid bills, penalties or service cuts.

” READ ALSO –

“Only the letters from the bailiffs made me react”: administrative phobia, a daily nightmare

Alopophobia: the fear of bald people

The term comes from alopecia which designates the loss of hair or body hair in a localized way.

It is also known as "peladophobia" in reference to alopecia areata, a form of alopecia of autoimmune origin causing hair loss.

In fact, hair loss is often pathological and goes beyond the criteria of the "ideal physique" in a society advocating the cult of the image.

In addition to the aversion caused by the sight of bald people they meet in the street, in their entourage or in the movies, alopophobes experience a very strong anxiety at the idea of ​​having a bald head.

Result ?

Several psychiatric studies have demonstrated the link between hair loss and serious repercussions on the mental health of people who are bald or suffer from alopecia: depression,

.

” READ ALSO –

When anxiety becomes pathological

Trypophobia: fear of holes

If the image of a swarm of bees or a piece of Swiss cheese repels you, you may have trypophobia.

This phobia reflects the fear of geometric shapes or repeated patterns, usually very close together and symmetrical.

The term is not classified in the reference manual of mental disorders and is therefore not recognized in a medical sense.

Nevertheless, some studies, such as the one conducted by a team of researchers from the University of Cape Town, South Africa in 2017, suggest that the symptoms of people with trypophobia could meet the criteria for recognized phobias.

Generally, trypophobia causes anxiety, visual discomfort, itching, goosebumps, rapid heartbeat and even nausea.

The origins of trypophobia are unknown, but many scientists have tried to explain its causes through various theories, including evolutionary ones.

In a 2013 study published in the journal

, English researchers have suggested that this phobia could be linked to the innate reflex to avoid dangerous species, whose envelope is often characterized by particular visual patterns (snakes, certain types of insects, spiders).

In another study published in 2017, Tom Kupfer and his collaborator support another hypothesis.

The repetition of circles in the form of "clusters" could unconsciously suggest the symptoms of infectious and parasitic diseases such as smallpox.

Trypophobia could therefore be an adaptive response that has evolved in favor of a better chance of human survival.

” READ ALSO –

Afraid of cats, fruits, wind?

“Little” phobias are never trivial

Taphophobia: the fear of being buried alive

Fear of all humans, death is a subject that has been worrying since the dawn of time.

The taphophobe, on the other hand, fears not being dead enough on the day of his funeral… To understand where taphophobia comes from, we have to go back a long way in history.

This concern was already present in ancient writings.

But it was especially during the Renaissance that the phobia spread.

In his comedy

Molière expressed the discomfort of being buried alive.

In France, the subject moved the Academy of Medicine in 1854, as explained by Anne Carol, professor of contemporary history at the University of Aix-Marseille, in an article published in the journal

(2021).

These scholars denounced the premature burials of "corpses" supposedly dead as a result of an incurable disease.

This was particularly the case when the country was hit by the first epidemics of cholera.

The same phenomenon will take place in the United States where yellow fever was rampant during the half of the 19th century.

Today, medical advances have largely remedied the problem.

” READ ALSO –

Can the fear of death be tamed?

Anatidaephobia: the fear of ducks

Being afraid that a duck is watching you, spying on you with an unhealthy gaze from afar when you can't see it... If it's hard to conceive that an imaginary duck could be the cause of such a phobia may be because it doesn't exist.

Anatidaephobia is actually an invention of Gary Larson, an American cartoonist.

The term appeared for the first time in the comic strip which the author baptized

San Francisco Chronicle

newspaper .

.

On one of the most famous illustrations, we can see a man “threatened” by the silhouette of a duck posted at the window of a building which is located behind the character.

During the first publication, Gary Larson explains that he chose the word anatidaephobia in reference to the scientific term anatidae which designates the family of geese, swans, and ducks.

In 2008, the idea was taken up by Tammy Duffey, an American author who described in a satirical article the symptoms and treatment of anatidaephobia, inspired by an insurance company whose official mascot was a little duck. white, known to surveil the company's customers.

It remains to be clarified that if anatidaephobia does not exist, some people do have a phobia of feathered animals.