Get yourself a Greek word, stick 'phobia' behind it and you have something people are afraid of. Afraid of cats? Chances are you're either suffering from aclurophobia, ailurophobia, elurophobia, felinophobia, galeophobia, or gatophobia. Just pick the one you think sounds best. Afraid of whirlpools? Dinophobia is your thing. When you're afraid of poetry, you're suffering from metrophobia. Maybe the worst of them all is a fear for long words: hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (Hippo-poto-monstrose-squipe-dalio-phobia, good word if you like to play Scrabble).
Fear of beautiful women, dogs, open rooms, worms, touching raw fish..

But all the fun and jokes aside, there are really people who suffer from these fears. Imagine being afraid of yellow. Or wine. I can't imagine living like that. It has to be a total disaster, though it's the truth. There are suffering enough people from hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia to make up the word. It's hard to be afraid of something much less common than a fear of spiders.

I, myself, was always afraid of.. Fish. I was afraid that they'd slidder between my legs and give me an unpleasant feeling. I have also been (and am still) afraid for too much water beneath me. I don't know why, but it's unnatural. When I was little I thought sharks would swim up to get me, but although I don't think of it that way nowadays, it plays a rather important role in my life.

I decided to think about my own (and others' fears) more than I did because of another article. Someone with a fear of wales, I believe. Then I noticed there are actually a lot of people with fears for 'uncommon' things. Caterpillars. Women. Writing in public. Being afraid of words. How can you be afraid of words? How could you be able to live like that? You wouldn't even been able to read.. This. There are people with odd fears. Maybe they don't like it themselves and their family and friends find it hilarious more that interesting or concerning. People out there with an odd phobia, know that you're not alone. Even if no one has ever thought of a name for your fear before. People like you are out there too.