Everyone is afraid of at least one thing in the world, but when that fear becomes “irrational” and begins to affect your life, then it becomes a phobia. Of course there are the “common” ones that everyone has heard of, such as arachnophobia and claustrophobia, but there are numerous others. Literally. So many possible phobias. In fact, there are so many phobias that every letter of the alphabet has a turn at the beginning of the words for them -- even the ones that cause you to get stuck on the Alphabet Game on long car rides. (Excluding the letters, J, W, and Y.)

Disclaimer: This article is not attempting to make light of anyone’s experiences. I’m only intending to inform readers of some lesser-known phobias that are in existence. Phobias are more than finding something uncomfortable to think about – at best, phobias are an intense physical fear reaction in response to a stimulus, and at worst, can be very debilitating. There’s a reason why phobias are listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-V), which is the psychiatrist’s handbook.

1. Arithmophobia (fear of numbers)

I can sympathize with this one, in the sense that math has always caused me a moment of discomfort even when I’m thinking about it in passing. Bonus phobia: Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13.

2. Barophobia (fear of gravity)

What sucks about this one especially is that you can never escape gravity. I’m terrified of spiders, but I can run away from spiders. Gravity is like Santa Clause -- it knows when you’re sleeping, and it knows when you’re awake. It also knows when you fall over, even if there’s no one around you.

3. Chronomentrophobia (fear of clocks)

Which, besides being the title of a song from Coldplay, are a constant reminder of time moving forward. Bonus phobia: The fear of time is chronophobia.

4. Dendrophobia (fear of trees)

Trees are mysterious and can sometimes look a little freaky, plus there’s always the possibility of something hiding behind them. For me, it’s swamp trees that have the possibility to freak me out. Then again, I also have nightmares about swamps in general and tepid bodies of water on an almost frequent basis.

5. Ephebiphobia (fear of teenagers)

Just because I want to be a school counselor at a high school someday doesn’t mean that everyone does. Honestly though, I can see why people could be afraid of teenagers -- they’re semi-autonomous mini-adults with bad attitudes and the tendency to rebel. Of course, those are all the reasons why I prefer teenagers to children.

6. Frigophobia (fear of cold)

Sorry, Elsa, sometimes the cold does bother people. Thankfully, there are some chronically warm places in the world and the invention of central heating for the places that aren’t in that category.

7. Gnosiophobia (fear of knowledge)

I think we all have a few friends on Facebook that possibly have this phobia. All jokes aside, there’s some knowledge out there that’s just “too much information,” even for those of us who don’t have this phobia. (For me it’s the Yellowstone supervolcano. No thanks.)

8. Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia (fear of long words)

I know everyone’s heard of this one by now, but it still cracks me up that the fear of long words’ “scientific” name is an absurdly long word. Similar in length in the same list, as a bonus phobia, is hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, which is the fear of the number 666.

9. Illyngophobia (fear of vertigo or dizziness when looking down)

This phobia is actually probably part of some evolved mechanism that keeps us from falling from heights due to getting vertigo from looking down, or maybe even from winning an actual Darwin Award.

10. Kosmikophobia (fear of cosmic events)

Honestly though, this is justified. Space is terrifying.

11. Levophobia (fear of things to the left side of the body)

Conversely, dextrophobia is the fear of things to the right side of the body. Both sound like something that could be adaptationally advantageous in some respects, though, depending on the context.

12. Macrophobia (fear of long waits)

If we were playing a word association game, the words “Department of Motor Vehicles” would likely be readily available.

13. Nebulaphobia (fear of fog)

There’s just something about not being able to see very well due to fog that wigs me out completely, and I know I’m not the only one out there.

14. Ombrophobia (fear of rain or being rained on)

I really love my home region of the Pacific Northwest, and knowing that there are people out there with ombrophobia makes me kind of sad, honestly.

15. Politicophobia (fear/dislike of politicians)

I have no comment other than “relevant.”

16. Quadraphobia/quintaphobia (fear of the number four/five)

Fun fact: some people with synesthesia report assigning personality characteristics to colors, numbers, and letters.

17. Radiophobia (fear of radiation/x-rays)

Radiation in high doses isn’t good for us, and x-rays let me see a part of myself that, if I’m lucky, I should never have to see with my own eyes. Makes sense.

18. Scriptophobia (fear of writing in public)

I can relate to this. Between nosy eyes trying to read my work and actually getting over my discomfort of allowing myself to just hang out/do homework in a public place that aren’t “designated” for that, I can see why it causes psychological distress.

19. Tocophobia (fear of preganancy/childbirth)

Oh, here’s one that I have. Literally even the thought of being pregnant elicits a strange panic reaction from both my reptilian brain and my “essence,” which I think is located near my stomach. It’s a combination of being weirded out by the idea of a little, alien, parasite-human (THAT ALSO HAS THE TENDENCY TO MOVE AROUND) living in my own body, along with the knowledge that childbirth is a brutal process that I want no part of. Kudos for women who do and already have though -- y’all are metal as hell.

20. Uranophobia (fear of heaven)

This is interesting to me. Most people think of heaven with comfort in mind, but to some it’s actually the opposite.

21. Venustraphobia (fear of beautiful women)

To be honest, beautiful women intimidate the crap out of me too, sometimes.

22. Xerophobia (fear of dryness)

This is in contrast to ombrophobia that I mentioned earlier, which is also sad because my other spiritual homeland is the American Southwest. That’s okay though, the Pacific Northwest west of the Cascades is basically always wet.

23. Zeusophobia (fear of God/gods)

This is another phobia name that makes me laugh because in the title is the name of the Greek god Zeus.