Friday the 13th and Why It's Time to Breathe Easier - East Idaho News
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Friday the 13th and Why It’s Time to Breathe Easier

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getty 031315 Friday13th?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1426248098635Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Just hang on a little longer, you paraskevidekatriaphobics. Surviving your fear of Friday the 13th today would free you until Nov. 13, followed by only one day of dread next year.

This year’s February and March occurrence is simply pure luck of the calendar. Friday the 13th popped up only once last year, for instance, with no sign in sight of three in the same year again anytime soon. So people with this debilitating fear can breathe a little easier for a while, assuming they avoid any calamity by midnight.

And even if it’s little or no consolation, there’s another reason they are luckier than they think. By comparison, triggers for other phobias — real or imagined — are far more abundant.

Here are some of the more unusual ones:

 

  • Liticaphobia: Fear of lawsuits
  • Euphobia: Fear of hearing good news
  • Soceraphobia: Fear of parents-in-law
  • Deipnophobia: Fear of dining or dinner conversations
  • Nostophobia: Fear of returning home
  • Xanthophobia: Fear of the color yellow or the word yellow
  • Clinophobia: Fear of going to bed
  • Omphalophobia: Fear of belly buttons
  • Arachibutyrophobia: Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth, not to be confused with any legitimate phobia
  • Aichmophobia: Fear of sharp objects
  • Sesquipedalophobia: Fear of long words, which has morphed into the contrived hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia
  • And then, of course, there’s the phobia of all phobias: Phobophobia, or the fear of being afraid.

See more at The Phobia List.


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