Koutoumouphobia. Does anyone else have it?

I have this too. The word makes me shudder. I always imagine the plastic touching my face or mouth and it makes me feel sick. I’m the same about earrings and have never had a piercing. I hate ‘accessory’ b-words eg oversized ones or decorative ones on clothes.

P.S. I have no idea when my dislike started. My grandma had a big tin of buttons she'd collected over the years and she used to give them to me and my brothers to play with. We made pictures and rows and collections etc with them and nobody choked or had a bad experience. However, the thought of putting my fingers in that tin now fills me with disgust.

I’m gagging just thinking of small mushrooms clumped together. Oh dear god, I need to get off this thread.

Me. I have it. Never knew its name. Avoid saying it, looking at or typing the word. Need to wash hands after contact. They’re all as bad as each other. Also loathe the word ‘cardigan’. Assume it’s associated! Urghhhhhhhh

Oh I have found my tribe! I can cope with shirt buttons, but nothing bigger, and certainly no dresses which button down the front. Have been like this since I was at least two. Cardigans are also the work of the devil. I also hate open staircases.

I don't absolutely hate them, but I definitely dislike them. I prefer not to use the word and try not to think about them. I looked at a nice jumper in the shops this morning and immediately rejected it when I saw it had a (pointless) row of them on one shoulder.

I don't know. I've got a totally irrational fear of clowns. No reason. Nothing has caused it. It just is. 🤷‍♀️

Best to just get on with life. 👍

Me too! I thought I was just weird. A boyfriend once put his finger in my belly button and I shot in the air and squealed like it was an electric shock. It makes me feel nauseous just relating that, actually.

Oh wow, never heard of this but holes repulse me, more like clusters of holes. So foam in a smoothie when it gets holey would make me gag. Holes in man made things are ok, its just organic materials.

My daughter has this! Makes school uniforms challenging! People have actually been pretty supportive though.

I don't have a phobia of buttons but I have a phobia of facial hair on men. I'm not scared of it, but it freaks me out. I can't bear for it to touch my skin and neither can I touch it!! It's weird, I've never met anyone with it!! And yes, my husband is clean shaven!!

That must be so restricting with clothes. How do you cope?

DN has trypophobia, which I sort of get. She can't even tolerate the name being said.

Years ago, there's was a magazine ad for Patrick Cox shoes. It was a model with a flower, chrysanthemum I think, superimposed on her leg or arse cheek. When I saw it the first time, it literally turned my stomach. It was an unexpected reaction, but I've never forgotten the skin crawling effect it had. I've looked for the ad over the years, to see if it'd have the same effect, but can't find it.

I have always disliked them intensely. No idea why. The closest I can get is that I remember being 4 and looking at a boy's sweaty, dirty neck in my class - and, of course, there were buttons in that area too.

Me! Also hate typing or saying the word so I'm not going to! Strange how it's always more of a disgusting than a fear. If I have to touch one I have to wash my hands afterwards and I can still sort of "feel" it afterwards. It's more like a form of OCD than an actual phobia.
Also agree with the PP who doesn't like eating whilst being able to see them.
Clear ones are the worst for me, I also hate loose ones.
I am just about OK with metal ones on jeans, and can sometimes cope with fabric covered ones!
I have tried to cure myself and bought a couple of shirt dresses that I like, I can just about manage to wear them but I don't think it's really helped and they mainly stay in the wardrobe!

Buying duvet covers is a nightmare as it rarely says on the packet what sort of fastening they have, and 99% these days it will be those little plastic bastards. I can just about cope by doing them up so they point inwards but I still find myself trying not to get my feet too near the end of the bed!

I've had this as long as I can remember, and pretty sure I have posted about it on here before under another name.

Yes, I can handle them from a functional perspective, but not ‘loose’ (my mother’s button tin ☹️), not decoratively. I remember Madonna had an outfit covered in buttons and it still makes me shudder. But I also have that revulsion of things that look like rashes or a bit fleshy, or round objects, like lots of small mushrooms in a field. Polka dot patterns don’t seem to have the same effect. Fuck knows why.

It's not about giving it a name and it's not about demanding trigger warnings. But you do accept that phobias exist and are actually a perfectly serious and often quite debilitating condition to sufferers? Or do you just like making fun of people without having any real insight into what you're laughing at?

I have no fear of heights, for example, or spiders or flying or any number of things, but I can't imagine being so lacking in empathy that I'd just laugh and use a string of stupid emojis at people who do.

I don't but DS2 does. He's always had it ever since he could express a preference about clothing. I thought it was just the baby neck poppers he didn't like because they felt cold or tight or something (he rejected those since about 1yo) but it turned out it was all buttons and poppers. Then he went though a phase where nobody else was allowed to wear clothing with buttons. He has got past that now and will wear e.g. jeans with a smooth button if he really absolutely has to but still prefers zips or stretchy waistbands.

He seemed repulsed by them. He also hates things with a repeated pattern of holes (trypophobia) which I do too, and it seems for him, these are the same thing. I find this fascinating and I'm sure there is some brain wiring involved. Trypophobia is fairly common and they think it's something about avoiding things which could be decayed or diseased and people who have it are oversensitive to these patterns.

It's the holes in them that gets to me, so I have more of a phobia to holes then actual bxxxxxs.

I started it when I saw underwater flowers with loads of them.

I'm better now but it's taken me 35 odd years to get to the point I can touch without a big reaction.

That being said I'll never be able to sew one back on clothes.

@Htcunya that sounds rather sophisticated, I could go with ties!

Me. 🤢

Well it is a very serious not funny phobia to my young ND child. You do realise we are not all the same?

😂😂😂😂😂 surely nobody takes this kind of thing seriously?

I mean I guess once someone gives it a name people can go “oooh yeah, I have this phobia” and demand trigger warnings and the like.

Oh! I haven’t heard of this one but just googled it. Although I wouldn’t say I had it or felt phobic feelings I must say the pictures that came up made me feel a bit odd!

How about a fear of stickers? That is an issue here.

It's funny that most of us who have it seem to find it a million times worse when they're loose but can just about cope when they're attached. I wonder what that's about.
Although actually, now I think about it, I feel the same about coins lying loose. If they're in a purse or something that's fine, but if I see one lying on a table or window ledge etc I have exactly the same reaction.