5 Phobias You May Have Without Knowing It

Everybody’s afraid of something in this world – so, what’s your phobia? A mild type of anxiety disorder, phobias are usually triggered by a specific item, physical object or situation. You’ve probably heard of arachnophobia (the fear of spiders), agoraphobia (the fear of being trapped in a public environment), or the commonly held acrophobia (the fear of heights), but is the term deipnophobia familiar? Probably not. There are dozens of strange and little understood phobias – some of which sound too bizarre to be real.

There is one fascinating phobia that can prove pretty nightmarish around Halloween: maskaphobia. More common in children, but experienced by people of all ages, the fear of masks varies from one person to the next. Some people are only frightened by a certain type of mask, while others are spooked by any disguise that diverts from the classic human face. Religious masks, costumed characters, clown masks and creepy horror masks almost always provoke severe anxiety in maskaphobics.

Since hair-raising terror is our specialty here at the Horror Dome, we can guarantee that our gruesomely-realistic Halloween masks will elicit heart palpitations and cold sweats in those who suffer from masklophobia.

Does the mere thought of making conservation over a meal make you shudder with dread? Then you may be suffering from deipnophobia – a type of social anxiety that revolves around eating and talking. People who have been diagnosed with deipnophobia tend to avoid dinner parties and eat alone in absolute silence.

An irrational fear of excessive heat or hot temperatures, thermaphobia can be crippling to its sufferers. This disorder is usually accompanied by thoughts of being trapped and unable to escape. Thermaphobics are constantly monitoring the weather for heat waves and tend to stick to environments where the climate is always controlled, i.e. indoors.

The fear of balloons and the loud cracking sound they make when popped is a real thing. Globophobia is sometimes generated by a traumatic event in childhood. Think birthday parties and that time when someone snuck up and popped a balloon right in your ear! Those who have globophobia can experience serious anxiety at the thought of touching, seeing or even smelling the rubbery scent of balloon.

Your mother may have blamed it on your picky eating habits, but those broccoli spears were downright scary and a potential choking hazard! If the thought of eating cauliflower, cabbage or any other vegetable makes you wince, then you may have lachanaphobia. Some experts believe this phobia is tied to a fear of swallowing seeds or insects inside the veggies.

Rounding out our top five list of wacky and weird phobias is the fear of knees (they could be your own or someone else’s). Some people only cringe when seeing uncovered knees in person, while others have panic attacks at the sight of bare knees on TV or film.

Phobias can take over all logical and rational thought, causing uncontrolled crying, anxiety and even physical flight from the situation. Since Horror Dome is filled with a wide selection of terrorizing masks for Halloween, maskaphobics are encouraged to steer clear.

For those of you who embrace underworld demons, ravaged zombies and demented clowns, we invite you to browse our signature Halloween masks freely!