Strange Fears In The New Age

I have always been fascinated with the concept of phobias. It's quite interesting how we acquire this irrational fear of certain things. Whether it is a function of a childhood trauma, an early on experience that predisposes an individual to this type of behaviour, as an outcome of aberrant upbringing, damaging experiences or environment. Simply put, it is just a little something that isn't so right.

I suffer from acrophobia - yes, fear of heights.

Don't let me get started on this one, talking about it makes me totally nauseous. I was told by my therapist, when under hypnosis as he facilitated my regression; that back when I was barely a year old, I hung from the banister with one hand, when I tried crawling down the flight of stairs in the house where we used to live. For a brief moment of my daredevil stunt, I looked down. Perhaps like all babies in the crawling age, there was no fear then, but the visual of the distance between where I was suspended and down the stairs, must have gotten stuck in my neurons somewhere. Yeah, curses! To-date, I still dread having to look down from any elevated place. I imagine myself falling and breaking my frickin' neck. 

I yet have to zip-line, to once and for all, deal and confront this fear. A full bottle of Jack chased down with half a bottle of Tequila, would not be a bad idea to encourage me from pushing myself to be up for the challenge. (Damn it, now my fingers are sweaty with the thought!)

But what I have found most curious above all, is the proliferation of fears that have been uncovered and explored fairly recent in our centuries-old world. I am talking about extremely unique fears and phobias, I find it rather disturbing that my own phobia of heights is considered commonplace, an all-time classic, compared to the the "new age" phobias.

Nipponophobia - fear/dislike of the Japanese or anything Japanese

Sinophobia - fear/dislike of Chinese (I would not be surprised if they come up with a Mongolophobia or fear of anything that descended from the Mongol race)

Xenophobia - fear/dislike of foreigners and extra-terrestrials

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia - yup, fear of long words (such irony!)

Decidophobia - fear of making decisions; (fairly common in corporations and government)

Nihilophobia - fear of nothingness (I don't really have much to say about this)

Hexakosioihexekontahexaohobia - fear of the number 666 (must have been triggered by the movie series, THE OMEN, as the film highlighted the number of the beast, the anti-Christ)

Disposophobia - the fear of losing or getting rid of things; (more popularly known as "compulsive hoarding"; I recklessly declare this is pretty much an acquired fear and more common among adults who have experienced or are experiencing recession)

Workplace phobia - quite self-explanatory; I can attempt to elucidate, but what's the point?; can be referred to as the anti-thesis of workaholics

Technophobia - the fear/dislike of technology, especially computers and other complex devices (remember the Luddites?); you'll be surprised, but this phobia is quite prevalent across the globe. You can spot technophobes easily, chances are, they don't Blog.