National Face Your Fears Day!

Today is October 8, 2013 and that means its National Face Your Fears Day!  With Halloween is just a few short weeks away, this is a time of year when most of us WANT to be scared! Horror films, ghost stories, and haunted house attractions are some of the ways we can safely face our fears this time of year and have a lot of fun at the same time…but to some people, its not that easy!  Fear of everyday objects can be debilitating…and unfortunately, kinda hilarious for the rest of us!

So, in order to celebrate this unique and somewhat spooky holiday, I thought it would be fun to make an alphabetical list of some of the more interesting fears and phobias.  I’ve also thrown in a few Halloween-themed phobias just for fun!  These have all come from The Phobia List, which offers an excellent index and information on a variety of phobias.

Automatonophobia- Fear of ventriloquist’s dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues – anything that falsely represents a sentient being.

Barophobia- Fear of gravity.

Chirophobia- Fear of hands.

Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.

Eisoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors or of seeing oneself in a mirror.

Francophobia- Fear of France or French culture.

Genuphobia- Fear of knees.

Homichlophobia- Fear of fog.

Ichthyophobia- Fear of fish.

Japanophobia- Fear of Japanese.

Kathisophobia- Fear of sitting down.

Linonophobia- Fear of string.

Mycophobia- Fear or aversion to mushrooms.

Novercaphobia- Fear of your step-mother.

Omphalophobia- Fear of belly buttons.

Peladophobia- Fear of bald people.

Q-?

Ranidaphobia- Fear of frogs.

Samhainophobia: Fear of Halloween.

Triskaidekaphobia- Fear of the number 13.

Uranophobia or Ouranophobia- Fear of heaven.

Vestiphobia- Fear of clothing.

Wiccaphobia: Fear of witches and witchcraft.

Xanthophobia- Fear of the color yellow or the word yellow.

Y-?

Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat.