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7 of the Strangest Phobias You’ve Never Heard Of
Do you have a phobia? If you do, you’re not alone. They’re surprisingly common. An estimated 12.5% of adults have one or more phobias over a lifetime.
Phobias are an irrational fear of something. Some phobias are relatively common, such as the fear of spiders or heights, but others are more surprising, like the fear of moths or people wearing hats.
Despite some phobias being harder to relate to than others, the sufferer’s exposure to their object of fear is no laughing matter.
Even a brief exposure can cause a huge swell of fear and panic. The phobic individual will go out of their way to avoid contact with the object or objects they fear. Now, let’s look at some of the strangest phobias known to mankind that you’ve probably haven’t heard of.
Phobia #1: Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
You win extra points if you can say this one. Appropriately enough, this long word describes a fear of, you guessed it, long words. Too many letters or syllables trigger this phobia, for example words with 17 letters or words with too many syllables.
Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia is the perfect example, right?
The main difference between this phobia and other word-related phobias is that…
