So What's Your Phobia?

Alright. This is going to be another brief one, as brief as possible. I've got a little story to start this off with. So one of my favourite people in the world, Ola, sent me this picture on WhatsApp about a fortnight ago. I had barely opened it before I started having goosebumps all over my arms, serious goosebumps. Care to know what the content of this picture that caused me half an hour of terror was? Think you can guess? Well it was a Trypophobia themed picture. New word? You probably want to click here before you continue reading (no seriously, open that link. Don't cheat). So did that freak you out?

Well I'm terribly sorry if it did. There really was no better way to let you understand. If it didn't have any effect on you I envy you, hehe. So basically Trypophobia's said to be a 'fear' of holes...hmmm. Can I say I'm 'afraid' of holes? Not necessarily, but seeing such small dots so close together, especially on human skin, just irritates me so so bad, walahi! Looking back now I can remember a couple of things that have had this same effect on me at some point, especially when I was younger. The sound of chalk, or worse still fingernails, screeching on a chalkboard is one that easily comes to mind. Does that irritate you as well? It's probably the most annoying sound on earth! I think there was even a time I couldn't touch chalk without feeling uneasy. Watching those horror movies where people were beheaded or had their limbs cut off also did wonders to me, horrible wonders. I would feel this weird sensation in all my joints and my neck, especially my neck, a certain kind of numbness if you like.

The ultimate however would be wool, yes, wet wool. For some weird reason I could not touch wet wool as a kid, I doubt I can even do it now. I can remember very vividly the uncomfortable freaky feeling I had the first time I ever tried manually washing material made of wool. Kai! My nerves were utterly aggravated! It was as if my blood had turned to acid...that's the easiest way I can describe the feeling. Please tell me you can relate to at least one of these...you can can't you?

Now there are quite a number of very common phobias, some which I bet you've never heard their proper names. Don't worry, you can thank me later.

Arachnophobia (fear of spiders, if ever I had this it vanished after I found a small spider in a glass of juice I had almost finished), Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), Acrophobia (fear of heights), Cynophobia (fear of dogs), Astraphobia (fear of thunder and lightning), Trypanophobia (fear of injections), Pteromerhanophobia (fear of flying), Claustrophobia (fear of enclosed spaces), Nyctophobia (fear of the dark) and Nosophobia (fear of having a disease) are just a few I can readily remember now. I bet you'd never have imagined words like Triskaidekaphobia and Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia ever existed, would you? Look 'em up!

So...where am I even going with this? Oh yeah, most of us have phobias we don't know about, some we don't even know exist. What do you think is the best way to handle them when they're discovered? Face them and try to get over them or simply avoid them? That's talk for another day, but for now dearest friend, I'm really curious. What's your phobia?