Lets Know About Phobia

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Nomophobia

fear of being out of mobile phone contact

Nomophobia is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact.

The term, an abbreviation for "no-mobile-phone phobia",was coined during a study by the UK Post Office who commissioned YouGov, a UK-based research organisation to look at anxieties suffered by mobile phone users.

The study found that nearly 53% of mobile phone users in Britain tend to be anxious when they "lose their mobile phone, run out of battery or credit, or have no network coverage".

The study found that about 58% of men and 48% of women suffer from the phobia, and an additional 9% feel stressed when their mobile phones are off.

The study sampled 2,163 people. Fifty-five percent of those surveyed cited keeping in touch with friends or family as the main reason that they got anxious when they could not use their mobile phones.

The study compared stress levels induced by the average case of nomophobia to be on-par with those of "wedding day jitters" and trips to the dentists.

Ten percent of those questioned said they needed to be contactable at all times because of work. It is, however, arguable that the word 'phobia' is misused and that in the majority of cases it is only a normal anxiety.

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Nosocomephobia

fear of hospitals

Nosocomephobia is defined as the excessive fear of hospitals.

Marc Siegel a doctor and associate professor at the New York University Medical Center says, "It's perfectly understandable why many people feel the way they do about a hospital stay," and continues, "You have control of your life ... up until you're admitted to a hospital."[4] U.S. President Richard Nixon was known to have a fear of hospitals after refusing to get a treatment for a blood clot in 1974 saying, "if I go into the hospital, I'll never come out alive."

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Obesophobia

fear of gaining wieght

Obesophobia or Pocrescophobia is a persistent, abnormal fear of gaining weight, particularly in cultures that value thinness.

This phobia was listed as a rare disease by the Office of Rare Diseases of the National Institutes of Health.
Individuals with this phobia originally start with a desire to lose weight which turns into a compulsive desire to avoid all things that could result in weight gain.

The more these things are avoided, the more they are feared.

A habit of avoidance can lead to a sense of failure if weight is gained.

Gaining weight is seen as a failure to those with Obesophobia and therefore they experience an abnormal fear toward anything that will cause them to fail.

Obesophobia is also known as weight phobia, a term created by Arthur H. Crisp regarding perceptions that sufferers of anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder characterized by an obsessive fear of gaining weight, may have regarding weight gain.

Some psychologists have stated that a subject having weight phobia is a necessary precursor for a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa.

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Oikophobia

fear of home surroundings and household appliances

Oikophobia, also ecophobia, is a term used in psychiatry to refer to an aversion to home surroundings.

It can also be used more generally to mean an abnormal fear of the home, or of the contents of a house ("fear of household appliances, equipment, bathtubs, household chemicals, and other common objects in the home").

In 1808 the poet and essayist Robert Southey used the word to describe a desire (particularly by the English) to leave home and travel.

Southey's usage as a synonym for wanderlust was picked up by other nineteenth century writers.

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Ombrophobia

fear of rain

Ombrophobe or ombrophobous/ombrophobic plant is a plant that cannot withstand much rain.

The term was introduced by the 19th century botanist Julius Wiesner, who identified the two extreme kinds of plants, ombrophobes and ombrophiles. Xerophytes are usually ombrophobous.

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Omphalophobia

fear of belly buttons

Omphalophobia is the fear of bellybuttons.

Refers to one being afraid of having their bellybutton touched or tugged on by themselves or other people.

It is also the fear of seeing other people touch their own bellybutton.

Most suffers are able to look upon an untouched bellybutton but become extremely uncomfortable, nauseated and anxious when one is being touched, especially their own.

Others may become nauseous from just a picture of a navel.

As for most phobias extensive therapy or medication can be very effective of relieving the anxiety that comes with the phobia.

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Ophthalmophobia

fear of being stared at

Scopophobia or scoptophobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by a morbid fear of being seen or stared at by others.

It is related to Ophthalmophobia.

Scopophobia can also be associated with a pathological fear of drawing attention to oneself.

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Ornithophobia

fear of birds

Ornithophobia is a type of specific phobia, which is an abnormal and irrational fear of birds.

The origin of the word ornitho is Greek (meaning bird) and phobia is Greek (meaning fear).

The fear of birds is not uncommon, and it stems from the menacing, darker image of some birds of prey. Some people may only fear predatory birds, such as vultures, while others will even be afraid of household pets in the likes of budgies.

Sufferers of this phobia might fear that they will be attacked by a bird or may simply be uncomfortable around them.

They would usually fear their fluttering wings, the way they move, the way they fearlessly fly towards people hoping for food, the texture of feathers, the fear of disease or any combination of these. Birds can also be loud, large and menacing, and they can demonstrate little fear of humans.

The phobia itself causes heart palpitations, sweating, nervousness, and avoidance behavior in those who suffer from Ornithophobia.

Without treatment the phobia can become life-limiting.

The fear of birds has been well-documented in films and poetry.

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Osmophobia

fear of bad odours

Osmophobia or olfactophobia refers to a fear, aversion, or psychological hypersensitivity to odors.

The phobia generally occurs in chronic migraine sufferers who may have odor triggered migraines. Such migraines are most frequently triggered by foul odors, but the hypersensitivity may extend to all odors.

One study found as many as 25% of migraine sufferers had some degree of osmophobia.

Some migraineurs treat their migraines with some success using pleasant odors, such as mint or lavender.

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Panphobia

fear of everything or constant fear of an unknown cause

Panphobia also called omniphobia, pantophobia, or panophobia, is a phobia known as a "non-specific fear" or "the fear of everything" and is described as "a vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil".

Panphobia is not registered as a type of phobia in medical references.

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Papaphobia

fear of pope

The pathological fear of the pope or the papacy

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Pediophobia

fear of dolls

Pediophobia, also known as the fear of dolls, is a relatively common kind of phobia.

It is an anxiety disorder that can be associated with a range of dolls from old-fashioned china dolls and porcelain dolls to dolls that talk and move.

Pediophobia is considered a branch of automatonophobia, or a fear of humanoid figures.

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Phagophobia

fear of swallowing

Phagophobia is a psychogenic dysphagia, a fear of swallowing.

It is expressed in various swallowing complaints without any apparent physical reason detectable by physical inspection and laboratory analyses.

An obsolete term for this phobia is choking phobia,but it was suggested that the latter term is confusing and it is necessary to distinguish the fear of swallowing (i.e., of the propulsion of bolus) from fear of choking.

Phagophobia is classified as a specific phobia and according to DSM-IV classification it belongs to the category of "other phobias".

Phagophobia may lead to (and be confused with) fear of eating, and the subsequent malnutrition and weight loss.

In milder cases a phagophobe eats only soft and liquid foods

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Pharmacophobia

fear of medication (tablets,syrups)

Medication phobia (also known as pharmacophobia) is a fear of the use of pharmacological treatments.

In severe, excessive and irrational, cases it may be a type of specific phobia.

While lack of awareness by patient or doctor of adverse drug reactions can have serious consequences, having a phobia of medications can also have serious detrimental effects on patient health, for example refusal of necessary pharmacological interventions.

Medication phobia can also lead to problems with medication compliance.

Medication phobia can also present in parents who are concerned about giving medications to their children,[8] fearing that the medications will do more harm than good.

Medication phobia can be triggered by unpleasant adverse reactions to medications which are sometimes prescribed inappropriately or at excessive doses.

Lack of awareness of the patient's predisposition to adverse effects (e.g. anxious patients and the elderly) and failure to attribute the adverse effects to the drug serves to compound the phobia.

Starting at low doses and slowly increasing the medication dosage can avoid medication phobia secondary to adverse effects from developing.

Fears of medication use is also prevalent in people who have experienced unpleasant withdrawal effects from psychotropic drugs.

Sometimes patients wrongly associate symptoms of an acute disease or illness with medications used to treat the disease or illness.

This form of pharmacophobia can be treated by attempting to convince the patient to take test doses of the drug or another drug in the same drug class to prove to the patient that the symptoms were not due to the drug but due to the illness the drug was taken to treat.

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Philophobia

fear of being in love or falling in love

Philophobia is the fear of being in love and falling in love.

The risk is usually when a person has confronted any emotional turmoil relating to love in the past but also can be chronic phobia.

Philophobia is defined as the abnormal, persistent and unwarranted fear of falling in love.

This affects the quality of life and pushes a person away from commitment.

It also triggers various symptoms that may incorporate sweating, irregular heartbeat, shortness of breath, feelings of dread, nausea and feeling of restlessness.

The worst aspect of fear of being in love and falling in love is that it keeps a person in solitude.