Learning about strange afflictions like barophobia (fear of gravity -- damn you, Sir Isaac Newton!) and arachibutyrophobia (the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth -- damn you, Jiffy-delicious peanut butter) got us thinking about irrational fears. Fear of snakes or the IRS may be our most primal phobias, but surely there are some things we fear that only make sense in this ever-more-daunting information age. Here's what we found ...1. Nomophobia
We've had this. Nomophobia is the fear of being out of mobile phone contact. Imagine the panic that sets in when your phone has no network coverage or your battery runs out. Yikes! If you panic without your trusty cell phone, you are described as being "nomophobi." Another fear associated with this is paranoia that the Verizon wireless dude will show up dating your sister, going "Can you hear me now?"
2. Vidigameaphobia:
Hey "World of Warcraft" fans, this is the fear of video games. This could range from just being plain scared of the games (don't get us started on "Frogger") to fearing that the video game might come to life. (Again, don't get us started on "Frogger.") If you have "Tetris" nightmares where big colorful blocks fall on you from the sky, see your doctor now.
Click for more bizarre fears, after the jump ...
3. Interphobia:Oh yes, fear of the Internet or World Wide Web. One notorious sufferer is Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Sites like Twitter, YouTube and Flickr are how Iranian protesters got the revolution word out to the rest of the world. That dude should get a Facebook page and lighten up.
4. Dextrophobia:
How fun would it be to have a fear of everything to the right of your body? Though you'd probably want to avoid England, where you have to look right to see if cars are coming. Ideally if you had this phobia, you would date someone with Levophobia, which is the fear of everything on the left side of your body.
5. Coulrophobia:Scary clowns! Though it sounds strange, the fear of clowns is one of the top 10 most common phobias. Clowns are just plain creepy and never really funny. As a kid they frightened the hell out of us. Symptoms of coulrophobia can include high anxiety to outright panic attacks when around those floppy-shoed fools.
6. Alektorophobia:
While it's generally known to be an extreme fear of live chickens, we imagine an alektorophobic has an extremely difficult time going to any of our more popular fast food joints. Known side effects include an extreme reaction to people that look like Colonel Sanders.
7. Pupaphobia:The cruel half-cousin to coulrophobia is pupaphobia: the fear of puppets. Maybe it has to do with a bad early childhood "Sesame Street" experience with the Cookie Monster. This should not be confused with popeaphobia, which is the fear of the Pope.
8. Sesquipedalophobia:
This very long word describes one who has a fear of very long words. You'd think they would pick a shorter word to describe fear of long words? Maybe the first step to curing sesquipedalophobia is not to panic when reading about the term that describes your condition.
9. Cathisophobia:
This would suck if you work at a computer all day, or are a bus driver. Cathisophobia is the fear of sitting. If you suffer from this, you're known to crave shows that only get standing ovations.
10. Genuphobia: Imagine having a fear of knees. Think of panicking every time you saw someone's knees. Going to a basketball game would be your hell.
11. Phobophobia:
This is the most ironic of phobias, being it's a fear of fear or phobias. Imagine being diagnosed with the fear of fear. That would set you in a cyclical panic, as your nightmare is the fear of developing a phobia. Help!
From the Web:
The Internet Is Magic! (College Humor)

























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Comments:
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Thursday 06 August
By Stephanie
Does anyone know what the phobia is called when you are scared to eat in front of other people. Becuase I forgot
Reply
Thursday 06 August
By Shimmer
It's in the genre of social phobia but I don't know the direct term for fear of eating in front of others.
Thursday 06 August
By jfmckenna
It's being a self-centered.
Thursday 06 August
By oxoboxolakers
It's called being self centered.
Friday 07 August
By settingirl34
umm bulimia or anorexia haha.. jsut kidding. but i am not entirely sure of the name of it but I have a friend who cannot eat in front of people. weirdd fearrr in my opinion
Thursday 06 August
By nissa
I think I know but I am afraid to say.
Thursday 06 August
By morgan
its called social anxiety disorder
Thursday 06 August
By lily
yup the world has gone insane i mean seriously fear of fear
Reply
Thursday 06 August
By Rikki
ikr seriously i mean wtf a fear of fear? thats insane. i cant believe ppl actually hav these phobias...clowns n puppets i can understand but some of these r crazy
Thursday 06 August
By SamBlob
I guess FDR must have been talking about phobophobia when he said "We have nothing to fear but fear itself!"
Apart from reading "It" by Stephen King, I can see no reason at all for people to fear clowns.
Reply
Thursday 06 August
By monica
Bob, I love clowns,have over 200 in my collection. Really can't enough of them.
Thursday 06 August
By Aly
While IT was terrifying.. I have a fear of all clowns. I am fairly confident it is because their identity is hidden. You dont know who is behind the paint. You could never describe them if somethingh happened. Just a peek into my phobia...
Thursday 06 August
By yupthatsme
The fear of clowns is often developed because we are naturally suspicious of someone who hides their face, and some peoples minds build upon that suspicion and make it into a phobia, and of course because of It. Other than that phobia, what the hell?? Maybe it's just me, but if someone is honestly scared of some of these things, they must have some sort of mental disability.
Thursday 06 August
By blondie5207
clowns r freaky im totally freakd outt by em as r most of the ppl i kno
Thursday 06 August
By chris
The FDR comment is spot on! But I have to admit, it's not reading the book "It" that makes clowns creepy; it's how the damn thing became a visual in the movie. Geez, that really creeped me out! just seeing the photo here in the phobia listing is doing it......UGH!
Thursday 06 August
By Kelly
SamBlob - I am TERRIFIED of clowns and have been since childhood... a long time before ever seeing It. (I was sitting in my dad's lap watching that movie as a little girl... he grabbed my side at one point to freak me out... peed on him! He never did that to me again... never let me sit in his lap during scary movies again either though...) I don't like the "fake" smile on their faces... I was a cashier at Wal-Mart at one point and actually had to convince them to let me take my break early and move me to the middle of the checkouts b/c there were clowns collecting donations at the door near my register. I was actually having trouble breathing b/c of the panic attack! It's pathetic, I know. OH! And the clown from It? The only one I'm NOT bothered by now... but that's because I'm a HUGE Rocky Horror Picture Show fan and how could I be afraid of Tim Curry?!?!
Friday 07 August
By laurn
clowns are scary as hell. puppets not so much but clowns yes
Friday 07 August
By Thyme
>>>>>Apart from reading "It" by Stephen King, I can see no reason at all for people to fear clowns.
It's the fact that they seem to have something to hide. If not, why do they have to put all that make-up on to make themselves unidentifiable? I don't have a clown phobia, but I know people who do, and for some, it's debilitating. That's why it's not just called a fear or discomfort...it's called a phobia because of it's excessiveness.
Friday 07 August
By heather
hey what about "spawn"
Friday 07 August
By reedheather20
all i am saying is ............ "spawn"