The common phobias usually get the most attention, but people can be afflicted with phobias of a more rare and quixotic nature. Below are some of the more unusual phobias people may experience.
Phasmophobia: The fear of ghosts and spirits, real or imagined.
Metrophobia: The fear of poetry or rhyming verse, whether spoken or read silently to oneself.
· Peladophobia: The fear of contact with bald people, as opposed to the fear of becoming bald.
· Optophobia: The fear of opening one’s eyes under any circumstances.
· Cyberphobia: The fear of computer usage or physical proximity to a computer.
· Brontophobia: The fear of thunder or thunderstorms. This is not the fear of being caught outside in a storm, which is common, and not a phobia, but the irrational, emotional reaction to a storm.
· Androphobia: The fear or men or contact with men.
· Gynophobia: The fear of women or contact with women.
· Triskaidekaphobia: The fear of the number thirteen, or of a Friday that falls on the thirteenth day of the month. Uncommon and superstitious as this may sound, most hotels do not have a thirteenth room or floor!
· Alektorophobia: The fear of chickens in any setting.
· Anthrophobia: A fear of flowers.
· Automatonophobia: The fear of a ventriloquist’s dummy.
While some of these more uncommon fears may sound comical or implausible, people who have these phobias feel the effects as powerfully as those who suffer the more common and understandable phobias. A fear of the number thirteen or a chicken may sound laughable to the phobia-free among us, but they can be just as serious as a fear of flying to an aerophobic person.