Weirdest phobias

[WeeAgnes]

What's the strangest phobia you have ever heard of, or come across?

I remember reading years ago that someone had a phobia of sprouting potatoes.

Mine is cotton wool

Another for cotton wool! and polystyrene

Mine is celery, even a photo of it gives me the heebie jeebies 😵‍💫🤢

My daughter has a phobia of baked beans.

I have a phobia of "fictional" ghosts.
If you tell me the house is haunted etc... I'm fine.
See a ghost in film or television, even a book... I freak out.

(Comedy ones are fine)

I hate the feel of silk and microfibre cleaning cloths. I have to wear gloves to touch them.

Me too on the cloths.. horrible feeling

This is mine. Nasty revolting plastic strandy bastards. I hate all kinds of them.

Me too!

Mine is a phobia of drive-through car washes. I can't even bear to look at them from a distance.

The father of a childhood friend of mine couldn't abide buttons (particularly if they were hanging on by a thread) although I've found out since that it's not especially unusual.

I have trypophobia (described as a fear of holes, but I'd say it's more loathing / disgust than fear): again, not especially unusual, but I also can't abide wooden clothes pegs.

I haven't found a name for that one, so it may be a wee bit more niche.

Cotton wool and polystyrene are sent from the devil and should be destroyed! Makes your teeth feel squeaky. I understand you all with the same horror of it.

They make me cringe too , especially if you have dry / rough fingertips

Buttons. I couldn’t let my children watch the film coraline because I knew my fear of the buttons used as eyes would make them scared, I also loathe holes. In particular a dried lotus flowers holes. I was traumatised after seeing one superimposed onto skin and I honestly had nightmares about it for weeks.

Years back, a friend of my ex-husband had a phobia of camels. I can't remember how this came to light, but I do remember remarking that it was better than my arachnophobia because he was unlikely to find a camel in his bath :)

I knew someone who was scared of prawns. Wouldn't even look at them in the supermarket

Crumpets/pikelets

Different woods in the same room.

Not as extreme as a phobia but I get freaked out by things that are out of proportion…for example those giant cup things outside Costas in places like petrol stations: https://threepd.co.uk/news/the-history-of-the-giant-costa-coffee-cup/

I can’t look at them, they make me feel like I’m hallucinating.

I have a couple of normal phobias - spiders and needles, everyone understands them.

Then I have weird one, my heart is racing at the minute even thinking about typing it - the Moomins. Every time I see the spooky wee bastards on anything, I get really anxious and feel like crying. I can't be near anything M related or I'll have a panic attack. No idea why.

Feathers, and in particular feather dusters. Can’t bear to touch them.

Spiral staircases. Cannot go up or down them. Our local arts centre is in a converted church and has one to access the belltower. I have to book seats where I can't see it. On the plus side they're the cheapest seats!

I once went to the Old Operating Theatre museum in London and it's up a stone spiral staircase that you can't see the end of and you can see the road through it. I cannot come down stairs I can see through.

Oh it'll be fine I thought. There's sure to be another exit.

No. There isn't. It took me nearly half an hour with all the staff, my friends, some complete strangers and a couple of workmen from the road outside to get me down. Never been so embarrassed in my whole life.

I am completely terrified of those fairground pipe organs! I have absolutely no idea why but can’t go near one and even if I see one on TV I can’t look at it and the music makes the hairs on my arms stand on end.

Spiral stairs
Stairs with large gaps in between the steps
Owls. Thats my worst one. They all look like mass murdering creeps.