Fear of Friday, the 13th Among List of Unpronounceable Phobias - East Idaho News

Fear of Friday, the 13th Among List of Unpronounceable Phobias

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GETTY H 011312 Friday13?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1326469643626Stockbyte/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Whatever the origin, religious or secular, Friday, the 13th equals a paralyzing, debilitating fear for millions of Americans.

Paraskevidekatriaphobia, as coined by psychotherapist Donald Dossey of the Stress Management Center-Phobia Institute in Ashville, N.C., bedevils “people with blind, unreasoning fear of this day and date, as opposed to those who have a clear, reasonable fear of not being able to say that word,” according to the institute’s website.

Dossey tells patients, “Paraskevidekatriaphobia — when you learn to pronounce it, you’re cured.”

Good luck with that feat of verbal dexterity, or with several other phobias that are as unpronounceable as the next.  Here are a few:

— Friday, the 13th scares up plenty of fodder by itself.  Besides the aforementioned paraskevidekatriaphobia, there’s also an alternate spelling, paraskavedekatriaphobia.  The same end-of-the-week anxiety is also called friggatriskaidekaphobia.

— The abbreviated triskaidekaphobia might roll off the tongue with less twisting but is no easier to bear for people whose fears include the number 13, every day of the week.

— Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia is fear of  “666.”

— Gephyrophobia is the fear of bridges.

— Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth.

— Psellismophobia is the fear of stuttering.

— Aichmophobia is the morbid fear of sharp objects.

— Spheksophobia is the fear of wasps.

— Sesquipedaliophobia is the fear of long words, which has morphed into the contrived hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia.

Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio

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