I'm going to open my first blog in a long time with a simple question: what are you afraid of? It's always interesting to me to learn about what creeps people out. For instance, I once knew a girl who was afraid of giant flags (which is apparently a form of megalophobia). Seems like a strange thing to be afraid of, right?
As it turns out, giant flags is actually a normal thing to frightened of, compared to some of the other phobias that people exhibit. Phobialist.com has an excellent compilation of different irrational fears, though I still can't truly believe that some of them are real.
For instance, kathisophobia is the fear of sitting down. What happens when a child with kathisophobia goes to his or her first day of school? Is there a panic attack when the nice Kindergarten teacher shows the child to his desk and asks him to sit down?
Some other good phobias:
Hobophobia: the fear of bums or beggars
Ephebiphobia: the fear of teenagers
Anglophobia: the fear of the English (much more common in 1780)
Ideophobia: the fear of ideas
My personal favorite may be Papophobia:
As for me, I don't consider myself to be easily scared. Frightened police officers aren't very useful. But, I do have a form of herpetophobia, which is the fear of reptiles. I don't have problems with iguanas or other lizards.
I really don't like snakes.
But my biggest fear? Crocodiles and alligators. What makes it irrational is that I can't think of a single reason why I should be afraid of them. I've never lived anywhere near where crocs or gators can be found, but for some reason I'm terrified of them. I imagine many of you have seen the show Swamp People, about rednecks in the South that go gator hunting. To me, that show is far scarier than any horror movie ever made. I hate it.
Suffice it to say, I could never be this guy:
So, that's what I was thinking about this morning at work. I'll the question again though, because I'm still curious: what are you afraid of? Sound off in the comments.
