The Phobia Clinic

The Phobia Clinic:

11/21/03: Bizarre Phobias
Tom wrote to ask about the reality of a site called The Phobia Clinic. At first glance, the site definitely looks like it represents a real business that's selling a program to help people overcome their fears. The strangeness comes when you dig into some of the fears that they claim they can cure, and you have to wonder... do such fears or anxieties really exist? For example, they can cure you of Arachibutyrophobia (that's a fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth), Ballistophobia (a fear of bullets... but why would anyone want to overcome their fear of bullets? Isn't that a good thing to be afraid of?), Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words... the name of the anxiety alone probably sends sufferers into convulsions), and the list goes on and on. Despite all the weird anxieties, I think that the Phobia Clinic is real enough, in the sense that they'll take your money and offer some kind of 'cure.' But I'm skeptical about whether their cure actually works.

Comments: most recent posts first

The phobias listed on the Phobia Clinic site are real phobias. I have been interested in phobias for years, and why there are such phobias. Like the one about peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth - yes, strangely enough, there are people out there who have a real fear about this. And, my favorite is the fear of long words... and the phobia name is a long word. Yes, this is hilarious, but real. All the phobias I have looked at on that site are real phobias. As for the legitimacy of the site's promise to help these problems, I sincerely doubt it.
Matthew D. Ward
Sunday, November 23, 2003 at 09:20:29

"Arachibutyrophobia" (which should be spelled "Arachnibutyrophobia") is, I believe, the fear of rubber (butyro) spiders (arachnids), and nothing to do with peanut butter (although I have seen that mistranslation on the web somewhere before). I think it was coined no later than 1972 as part of a humorous essay on phobias. I regard it as a legitimate word. On the other hand, the "hippo..." term used for "fear of long words" is hokey because it uses word particles thrown together with triple redundancy.
mark brown
Sunday, November 23, 2003 at 06:47:55

They have 'Harry Potter Movie Audition Fear' as well, and also 'Fear of Heaing (sic) a Certain Word'. You've probably already worked this out, but it appears that the pages are autogenerated, using a wordy template into which the name of the fear is dotted at certain points. I'm guessing that they only have one 'therapy' (the 'Home Study Kit' which they sell*), and that the vast number of phobias are there to net people coming from Google. And also to get some free publicity from sites such as your own ;)
* http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/fear_anxiety_program.asp My thoughts on this are that (a) the box looks fake and (b) it's available via PayPal, a fine service but not one you'd associated with a major company and (c) SHIPPED FOR JUST $9.97 plus $97.77 after 30-day trial seems a bit disingenuous.
Friday, November 21, 2003 7:31 PM

On your inquiries when discussing the Phobia Clinic, those are, indeed, some real phobias that people have had. A complete index of phobias can be found a http://www.phobialist.com, including some of the stranger ones you're bound to find. "Aeronausiphobia" is the fear of getting sick in a plane. "Caligynephobia" is the fear of beautiful woman (and actually more common than you'd expect in both sexes). "Defecaloesiophobia" is the fear of painful bowel movements. And obviously the list goes on and on and on. People have some pretty strange fears. I just doubt the method on this site would work toward curing them.
A Girl Named Goo
Friday, November 21, 2003 at 18:47:04

Those phobias do actually exist. I've heard of Arachibutyrophobia and Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia before. Although I've never known anyone who's actually suffred from these anxieties, I don't doubt that they exist. People suffer from some pretty strange phobias now days.
Cathy
Friday, November 21, 2003 at 14:06:34