9 Strange Fears That Actually Exist ...

To start off the list of strange fears that you wouldn’t believe exist, I have chosen one of my favorite; gnomophobia, or the fear of garden gnomes. It would be pretty bad to be overwhelmed with fear every time you saw a small inanimate garden gnome hanging out in someone’s garden.

The name of this phobia is just plan mean. Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the fear of long words. I can’t think of anything more ironic than being afraid of the name of your own phobia. Unfortunately, people with this phobia probably can’t even get through saying their own fear's name without freaking out before finishing it.

If No-Shave November bothers you, then you wouldn’t even last with having the fear of beards, called pogonophobia. I have never been the biggest fan of beards, but being scared by them is a whole new level. It must be hard to walk down the street and be afraid of every man with a beard who walks by.

You might think that most teens are afraid to be without their cell phones, but nomophobia takes it to a whole new level of strange fears to have. Nomophobia is technically the fear of being without cell phone service. As a college student, I am hardly ever without my phone, but to actually fear being away from my phone seems to be a little bit excessive.

Men with venustraphobia must avoid bars at all costs because I am sure there are plenty of beautiful women there. Venustraphobia is the unfortunate fear of beautiful women. While I can understand being nervous of a beautiful women walking your way, the downright fear of them could hinder you ability to flirt.

Ecclesiophobia is probably the worst on Sunday because that is the day most people head to church. While it may be hard to have a fear of churches, it is probably even worse to have it if you are trying to be a devout Christian. Those two just contradict themselves.

Valentines’ day is probably a bad day for Anthophobia, which is a fear of flowers. I personally love getting flowers from my boyfriend. It is romantic and cute. It would be hard to deal with holidays or even walking past a flower shop if you had anthophobia.

This sounds self-absorbed, but I always check my reflection in mirrors, windows, and basically anything I can. But if I had spectrophobia, I would be afraid to even look at my reflection. I cannot even imagine how hard it would be to get dressed, do my make-up, or get ready in the morning if I was even too afraid to look in a mirror. This may be a very strange fear to have but it would definitely interfere with someone’s day to day life.

If I was friends with someone who had asymmetriphobia, they would probably hate me. It is the fear of mismatched socks or anything in general that is asymmetrical. I always wear mismatched socks, and symmetry just isn’t something most people pay attention to in life. I imagine this is similar to OCD where they are constantly trying to make things symmetrical to ease their fear.

Living with a phobia is not easy, but it is probably even harder when you have one of these strange fears. Being afraid of everyday items can be a huge battle to overcome every day. There is not much rationality to strange fears, but the brain is telling us that something is scary. What did you think of these strange fears? Do you know of any other strange fears that some people suffer from? Do you, or someone you know, have any of these strange fears?

Sources: smosh.com