Welcome to the World of Scamming Phobias

As I was adding a separate links for every phobia listed in the post below, I quickly became temperamentally irritable. Not only did blogspot fail on me, but I was attempting an arduously frustrating feat... any guesses? I have learned a great lesson-- to go with intuition. My first reaction to the youtube video was correct. It is mostly nonsense and poking fun at phobias.

This photo thanks to Flikr explains how I felt.
Sure, the video may have some truth to it. I did have a friend in high school who didn't like to be touched and all people can be afraid of the dark at times. You can be afraid of peanut butter sticking to your mouth and dying in the midst of chocking as tears form in your eyes. And why wouldn't you be afraid of a flowers at your doorstep on Valentine's day when you just broke up with your boyfriend and are hoping it is finally over? So there can be a bit of truth to all these fears.

I am not quite to the bottom of the bare-boned facts yet, but I believe that these phobia "treatment" centers have created a lot of the phobias themselves.

Let's go through an example. When I first typed in ophthalmophobia, which is the fear of being stared at, into google, the first hit simply provided a bare-boned definition from answers.com. This shows how little information about specific phobias is available. Wait a minute and fear not because information is in the making on ophthalmophobia by website that guarantees 100% satisfaction in 24 hours for only $147.

This website is also in the process of naming the phobia itself. They want to know which name seems the right one for you. This is purely for advertising purposes. Because when you do choose between Being Stared at Phobia, Being Stared at Fear, Stare Fear, and ten other options, it goes to almost the same exact next page excpet the name you choose is now inserted!

Changethatsrightnow.com is one of the two "curing" websites I quickly noticed that always had information about the phobias I was seeking information about. The other website is phobia-fear-release.com that guarantees to stop your phobia with treatment without having to pay for phobia medication that supposedly, as advertised by this company, costs more than $ 1000 a year. Now with just 10 minutes a day and $67 dollars your phobia can be vanished!

Can you imagine if I was suffering from a serious phobia and believed as advertised that "Acclaimed [insert my phobia's name here] treatment seen on NBC & ABC news"? I might not be aware of the scam and subject myself to buying the cds with true hope. They may or may not work, but what matters is that the primary goals of these companies is not to help people to overcome their phobias, but to make a profit. And I would be skeptical if they are drawing any costumers in. I am an advocate that with a strong willingness and determined mind one can cure their phobia independently. I believe this website can put you towards the right step in having freedom from your phobia. You can even do it without buying the manual they suggest! Good luck!

Crazy Phobias

More people have phobias than you would think--actually about 19 million Americans. If you do the math, this is 6.3% of Americans. And just wait, if you thought telephonophobia was bizarre, wait until you hear of some of these other phobias. I first thought that this youtube video was a joke, but these are legitimate fears that people face. A few examples are hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Having this 14 syllable word entails having a fear of long words. Another phobia that you would think is a complete joke is levophobia or fearing things on the left side of you.

Watch this video to open your eyes to more crazy phobias.

I agree with you. These phobias do seem ridiculous, but there are people who suffer from them and cures are available.

Here are the phobias that were featured in the video. You can get the gist of it with this recap:
• Anthrophobia: fear of flowers
• Arachibutyrophobia: fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
• Aphenphosmphobia: fear of being touched
• Ophthalmophobia: fear of being stared at.
• Hippopatomonstropsesquippedaliophobia: fear of long words.
• Achluophobia: fer of darkness
• Photophobia: fear of light
• Levophobia: fear of things on the left sde of the body.
• Peladophobia: fear of bald people.
• Ligyrophobia: fear of loud noises
• Kinetophobia: fear of movement
• Androphobia: fear of men

These fears are just the phobias from this video. If you are interested at more phobias, a man has come up with The Phobia List. He has been working on it for years and hundreds of fears on on the list.

Using Hypnosis to Overcome Phobias

This video shows contestants from The Maury Show who were able to overcome their phobias through hypnosis. The hypnotist, Boris, who was the key that allowed those with phobias overcome them, stressed that he wasn't necessarily the key. He said, "all it is her deciding from this moment on, I am ready to move on." I am hoping that Alyssa can make this decision for herself.

Persistance is the Path to Success... "My friend" came out!

Here's a little background before I reveal to you the victory that happened yesterday! I am doing this story with a particular phoneaphobic in mind. This friend was unaware that interviewing her for my final project meant telling the world about her phobia on the web. She initially thought that it would be an edited audio recording for my class's enjoyment. She did not know the whole picture.

Since I did not tell her from the bat and conveniently could not get a hold of her because surprisingly enough she wasn't answering her phone, I thought I would keep her as "my friend" the whole time. Now she is willing to go public with her fear. Her name is Alyssa. She is my dear friend who has a fear of using her cell phone to call or answer. However, texting and voicemails pose no problems whatsoever. She can control those messages.

You may be thinking she can control what she says on the phone, but it is not that easy. Fear of judgment may be her real phobia.

Telephonaphobia isn't that uncommon....

I found a hot spot where people go with a goal in mind and find other people who are partaking in the same goal. On online support group! Right now 14 people are seeking to get over their fear of phones. I love that phonophobics are relating to one another.




This website can be historically special to one who fears phones. In 2003, some people with fear of the phones related to one another for the first time. I find it comforting that people who share this unfortunate phobia were finally given the opportunity to relate to someone else. Finding another person to share your fear is ideal. Especially when you are seeking to overcome it ! ! !