» Dani’s Diary
Dani on the abundance of phobias and the fear of flying low in the modern age
I have developed a new fear. It only occurs when I am at work. I have no idea why but I am constantly worried that my flies are open. It is a new thing I am worrying about. I have no idea where it came from or why but it is irritating me slightly.
“We all run around, scared of random colours, odd-shaped vegetables and the length of words”
I can’t leave my desk without feeling like I have to check I am all covered. The funny thing is (well it’s not funny at all) is that I bet there is actually a name for that kind of fear. I am sure when my nan was little there were not half as many ‘named’ fears as there are now.
Apparently, as times advance and change there are more things to have irrational fears about – like leaving your mobile phone at home. I did a little research and found a few strange and amusing fears (with their technical names).
Did you know you can suffer from Anablephobia which is a fear of looking up – firstly how do you discover you have this, and secondly have enough people really had it to warrant a whole name for it?
Possibly the most appropriate I found for our time of life is Anuptaphobia which is a fear of staying single. Another fear I never really thought would exist is, Coprastasophobia, a fear of constipation. I chose the next one because I thought it was funny – Geniophobia – a fear of chins. And my favourite of all time, for the pure irony displayed is Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – which is a fear of long words!
Back in the day people didn’t have the time to conjure up these things did they? I am scared of nearly everything and I have no idea why in most cases. I don’t feel like my silly little fears warrant actual names giving it some form of official feeling.
I have always thought that life was simpler 100 years ago and I am starting to believe it’s true. We have so much technology we are driving ourselves mad with it all. And I mean ‘bonkers’ not ‘figure of speech mad’!
Would life be better if we were blissfully unaware of everything that can cause us harm? My nan never checks the sell-by-dates on anything – I am obsessed (along with my granddad).
I can’t imagine phobias were as widely spoken of back then. What is it about our modern age that causes us so many problems?
We currently live in a time where nearly everything can be done for you, at just the click of a button you can contact people all over the globe, many of the diseases that killed us off for years can be cured and even prevented with just one injection, and yet we all run around, scared of random colours, odd-shaped vegetables and the length of words.We are supposed to spend more hours working than living and yet we find time to harbour all these neurosis, how is that possible?
And who is it that finds the time to name all of these fears? I am scared of lots of things and the fear has over taken my entire life at points, but until now I thought it was ridiculous as it is.
