Phobias are described as the irrational, often morbid, fear of something that often poses little or no danger at all. While the types of phobia may generally sound too strange or preposterous to even be considered, they are certainly not a laughing matter to the people suffering from them.

The effect that they bring on a person can be utterly detrimental on his emotional and mental well-being. Here is a list of ten weird and funny phobias, aimed to give you a better insight into how and why people suffer from them.

1) Phobophobia

Believe it or not, fear of fear itself is a phobia. Phobophobia is defined as an abnormal fear of phobias or of developing one. The risk of acquiring phobophobia is greater to people already suffering from a certain phobia. If you went through intense phobic reactions towards the object of an established fear, you may eventually dread confronting and experiencing the same morbid response again, thus leading to phobophobia.

It is also possible for people not having any past phobias at all to have a fear of acquiring it. What makes phobophobia one of the strangest phobias is that the sufferer does not seem to respond to any external stimuli but to the internal sentiment he or she has.

2) Caligynephobia

Beauty is something to be admired and yearned for, not something that is supposed to terrorize anyone. Caligynephobia does not seem to agree to that tone. Such phobia refers to an unwarranted fear of beautiful women. It is commonly suffered by adolescents and men, specifically those who do not have straight orientation. It causes panic attacks and damages social interactions.

3) Ablutophobia

Taking a bath is an essential form of personal hygiene. However, for people with Ablutophobia, they do not believe that washing or cleaning is doable because it is something that terrorizes them. This particular phobia should not be confused with fear of cleanliness, as the latter refers to the dread of the cleaning process itself. It is usually found in women and children experiencing emotional instabilities due to past traumas or other distressing reasons.

4) Spectrophobia

One of the weird phobias anyone can ever hear of is Spectrophobia. It refers to the fear of looking at one’s own reflection in the mirror, or the dread of mirrors itself. It is caused by a traumatic event wherein victims believe they have seen ghostly apparitions by looking at themselves in the mirror. Watching horror movies featuring mirrors can also be considered a probable cause.

5) Chorophobia

Dancing is not only a popular form of exercise, but a universal theme embraced by every culture around the world. However, there are people who’d rather stay seated even in social events and moments when they are expected to dance, because they are just too embarrassed or uncomfortable to do so. This irrational fear of dance is referred to as Chorophobia. Such also refers to the fear of any person, place, event, or situation that is related to or that symbolizes dancing in any way.

Individuals experiencing such phobia are often unwilling to experience the excitement and the thrill the activity is associated with. They will do just about anything to avoid an event where dancing might be involved, something that may endanger their social lives.

6) Scopophobia

Joining this list of funny phobias is Scopophobia, which is fear of being seen or being stared at. It may seem implausible but Scopophobics have this extreme dread of drawing attention to themselves. As a result, they become aloof to others and are unapproachable. They become paranoid of being looked at, so they want to stay at home or secluded as much as possible, totally refusing to be drawn out of their own world.

If they do go out, they tend to cover themselves. Scopophobia is indeed highly disruptive to the daily functioning of any person suffering from it. Scopophobics might have caught the phobia due to a terrible experience in the past that had traumatized them for life. They might have faced rejections and ridicules because they differ from others in some way.

7) Chrometophobia

Chrometophobia or excessive fear of money is undoubtedly one of the strange phobias you might not be aware about. It seems ridiculous that anyone will ever develop a fear of money when almost everyone else needs some or even large amounts of it. Some theorize that this phobia comes from an obsessive-compulsive disorder constituting a fear of germs that notes may carry.

It should not be confused with fear of getting rich, though. Sufferers of this phobic inclination are often seen to prefer using credit cards than having money in their hands.

8) Arachibutyrophobia

This phobia pertains to fear of having peanut butter sticking on one’s palate. The trouble-free way to prevent this extreme trepidation is not to eat any peanut butter or any recipe containing a peanut butter ingredient. Don’t buy a peanut butter jar at all if you feel a horrendous sensation by the mere sight of it. There is little known cause for this disorder.

9) Peladophobia

Do you feel extremely bothered and alarmed every time you see a bald person? Then you might be suffering from Peladophobia. What’s in a hairless head that makes you get a full-blown panic attack? Either childhood experience or heredity can be considered a probable cause.

10) Cathisophobia

If you get anxious, have trouble breathing, and/or are usually sweating heavily whenever you sit down, then you are Cathisophobic, so to speak. This fear of sitting may be the result of a traumatic event where you have been inflicted pain and punishment while sitting down.

For instance, hostages who have undergone torture by being made to sit on a chair that has sharp or painful objects, such as nails and burning ambers placed on it might have a fear of ever sitting elsewhere again.

No matter how bizarre and laughable a phobia might be, it is never too trivial to anyone under its agonizing spell. If you can’t handle the fear, seek medical help. Don’t let any type of phobia get in your way of being able to live a normal and sensible life.