Top 11 Bizarre Phobias You Never Thought Existed

5Phagophobia - The fear of swallowing

Phago means to eat in Greek. People who have this phobia often complain of discomfort and irritation when eating. This experience, while eating often causes them to link eating with unpleasant sensations, therefore, many cases develop a phobia of eating, which is quite a serious condition that leads to weight loss, anemia, severe weakness, vitamin deficiency and other consequent conditions due to inadequate food intake. People with phagophobia might find comfort in eating soft food. Upon clinical investigations, the clinicians found no apparent physical reason to associate with this discomfort. It is quite unfortunate and tough to live with this phobia. 

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6Somniphobia - The fear of sleeping

Somniphobia is one of the weird phobias and toughest phobias to live with, considering the catastrophic and fatal effects of sleep deprivation. However, some rationale could be tracked down to why this phenomenon occurs. The most common reasons are nightmares and/or terrifying experiences that happen during sleep. Examples include a neurological disorder where the mind is active and awake while the body is still physically asleep.

The patients start to experience sleep hallucinations as well as sleep paralysis, often associated with terrifying images and perception of evil presence in the room, all of which gives them a generally negative experience associated with sleeping. Many sufferers start to feel dread as the night approaches and the fearful anticipation of late night hours usually worsens their condition. If they do not seek treatment, many of them start to experience terrible symptoms due to sleep deprivation such as fatigue, panic attacks, transient memory loss, poor focus, as well as frequent mood swings and deterioration of social relationships.

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7Barophobia - The fear of gravity

People with barophobia are split into two types. Those who fear the absence of gravity, which might have developed as a result of a wild imagination on the loose after reading a fictional story or perhaps a negative experience in space (If they were astronauts or participated in some sort of anti-gravity experiment). The other type is the fear of being crushed by gravity.

This phenomenon could be due to a traumatic experience where the sufferer has fallen from a great height and got injured due to the gravitational pull. Although the reason for the fall might not be directly linked with gravity, however, their minds make this connection instantly and blame gravity for their pain. Symptoms include the generalized symptoms of fear such as dry mouth, shivering, etc.

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