A Fascinating List of Common and Less Known Phobias

Erin McCarthy, Editor-in-Chief of Mental Floss, shared a list of phobias ranging from the most common such as arachnophobia, the fear of spiders, to those that are lesser known but still very real such as ablutophobia, the fear of bathing, zuigerphobia, the fear of vacuums, and blennophobia, the fear of slime.

Join host Erin McCarthy as she bravely breaks down some odd, uncommon, and downright scary phobias.

While some of these fears can sound ridiculous to many of us, they are real to those who are suffering from them and are not things to be ridiculed.

When you hear that people are afraid of gravity or slime, you might be tempted to chuckle. I mean, the prospect of being mortified of the  bath practically calls out for jokes about  ex-boyfriends with questionable grooming habits. But even the more unusual phobias on this list presumably cause real harm to the people who suffer from them. Many people who have phobias know perfectly well that their fear is irrational,  but that doesn’t mean they can just flip a switch  to put an end to them.