at last – that weird secret fear you’ve been harboring since childhood finally has a name. find it at http://www.phobialist.com. my own top two irrational fears made it onto the list:

emetophobia-fear of vomit
autophobia-fear of being alone or of oneself

don’t laugh, you have weird little phobias too, i’ll bet. the list is not quite complete; my brother had a childhood phobia of fingernails that didn’t make it on the list. if anyone has a name for that, do let me know.

some of my favorites from the list are:

blennophobia-fear of slime
automatonophobia-fear of ventriloquist’s dummies, animatronic creatures, wax statues – anything that falsly represents a sentient being
zemmiphobia-fear of the great mole rat
paraskavedekatriaphobia-fear of friday the 13th

the owner of the list swears that he didn’t make up any of these.