Phobia, Phobia, wherefore art thou Phobia?

Most people have some sort of fear, whether it is the small butterflies they have while speaking in front of an audience or a complete freak-out when looking out over a city from the window of a skyscraper.

Amongst the most common fears is the fear of flying, death, failure and even intimacy.

Then, of course, a few of us have a fear so irrational that when our peers hear what it is, they are struck with furrowed brows and even laugh.

For example, when people learn that one of my very few fears is the killer whale, I’m met with nearly the same reaction: “That’s so stupid!” or “I’ve never heard someone say that!” they’ll say, then ask questions like, “Why are you scared of something like that?”

Trust me, I would love not to flip out at the mention of “Free Willy” or photos from Sea World, but panic shoots through me even as I share this with you.

Admittedly, my phobia of the killer whale is a bit odd, but when met with the question of “Why are you scared of them?” it upsets me to no end.

While I’ve accepted that most people find my fear ridiculous, I couldn’t seem to accept why my fear is illegitimate.

Deciding to do a bit of research for personal reasons, I found myself laughing at a few uncommon phobias, such as aulophobia (fear of the flute), cnidophobia (the fear of string) and, my personal favorite, metrophobia (the fear of poetry).

After reading a long list of these uncommon phobias, I began to understand why people would laugh at my own: A lot of them just sound ludicrous.

Still, there was the question of “Why?”

For those that think they are fearless, you were born with two fears built into your DNA: the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises.

These two fears aid us as survival mechanisms, and while you may find a way to accept them, it is difficult not to jump at the loud slam of a door or to be afraid of falling out of a ten-story window as you look out onto the street.

Because these are the only two inherent fears, we’ve somehow learned all of the other fears through an experience that affected us at some point in our lives.

A fear of dogs may stem from being bitten by the family pug as a child, not the sight of a dog itself.

The subconscious fear of success could come from an adult figure saying you would never be successful as a child.

Learning all of this, I have become more understanding of irrational fears as well as more confused.

The uncommon fear of balloons, for example, has two sides.

Some people may not have the fear of the actual balloon but are afraid of the sound of it popping, which equates to the inherent fear of loud sounds.

But what about those few people who are genuinely afraid of the sight of balloons?

What happened in their lifetime that causes this party favor to freak them out? Somehow, I picture a kid screaming when his third grade teacher suggests rubbing a balloon on his hair to demonstrate how static electricity works.

And how can we explain the fear of something like poetry or figure eights (octophobia)?

I’ve heard some terrible poetry in my life, but it didn’t make me run away screaming from Poe or Angelou’s books afterwards.

My fear of killer whales seems to baffle me even more now. I watched “Free Willy” as a child and loved it, and I can’t seem to recall any situation that would have suddenly made me enter my teenage years with such a ridiculous phobia.

I’ve never even been to the ocean to chance encountering one. Even then, it is merely the sight of a killer whale that gets to me. I can barely get past that to imagine being killed by one.

I would say that this is just one of the many things that god doesn’t want us to understand, but then I read about Zeusophobia and that rationale was shattered.

Zeusophobia is the fear of any god, by the way. And that, my friends, is just another reason why when science can’t seem to clearly rationalize something about my brain, I’m screwed.


E-mail: aysymatz@indiana.edu