Do you have any phobias?
Phobias aren’t just fears. They are irrational (unrealistic) and persistent fears of a specific situation, object, or activity.
Most people have some fear of things like snakes or insects or heights. But if your fear of snakes, for example, is so intense that you couldn’t look at pictures of them or enter a room where they were in cages and couldn’t even touch a stuffed one, then you have a phobia.
A simple phobia does not usually interfere with daily functioning, but if a person starts to avoid situations in a less rational way (such as avoiding the beach because of fear of a shark attack or avoiding going outside because of fear of bees) the fear may be diagnosed as a phobia.
Look at all the phobias just in the “C” section of a list:
• Cacophobia- Fear of ugliness.
• Caligynephobia- Fear of beautiful women.
• Carcinophobia- Fear of cancer.
• Cardiophobia- Fear of the heart.
• Carnophobia- Fear of meat.
• Catoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors.
• Chaetophobia- Fear of hair.
• Chemophobia- Fear of chemicals or working with chemicals
• Chionophobia- Fear of snow.
• Chorophobia- Fear of dancing.
• Chrometophobia- Fear of money.
• Chromophobia- Fear of colors.
• Chronophobia- Fear of time.
• Cibophobia – Fear of food.
• Claustrophobia- Fear of confined spaces.
• Cleptophobia- Fear of stealing.
• Cnidophobia- Fear of strings.
• Coimetrophobia- Fear of cemeteries.
• Coitophobia- Fear of coitus.
• Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation.
• Coprophobia- Fear of feces.
• Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns.
• Crystallophobia- Fear of crystals or glass.
• Cypridophobia – Fear of prostitutes or venereal disease.
I definitely don’t have claustrophobia. In fact, I have always loved being in small spaces. As a child, I liked crawling behind the couch, playing in closets, and making little forts from blankets, boxes, and sticks out in the woods. I had a very small bedroom, and I loved it. Of course, there is a name for this too. I am a claustrophile – a person who has the “condition” (that makes it sound bad) of claustrophilia, a love of closed-in spaces. I went spelunking (cave exploring) and crawled on my belly through tight passages in total darkness. I felt good.
For a full phobias list, go to anxietysecrets.com
Weekends in Paradelle 