5+ Weird Phobias That Actually Exist

Taphophobia is the fear of being buried alive.

1. Taphophobia

Research suggests it originated during (and probably peaked) during the 1700s when plague was rampant, and people feared that doctors or medical professionals would mistakenly declare them dead.

Esoptrophobia is the fear of mirrors, or more specifically, of seeing one's own reflection in the mirror.

2. Eisoptrophobia

According to a 2014 case study detailing a 55-year-old woman's 30-year struggle with this phobia, esoptrophobia can lead to shyness or discomfort, and depression when looking in the mirror.

Ombrophobia is the fear of rain. It falls into a category the researchers term "natural environmental phobias", which also includes storms (lilapsophobia), snow (chionophobia), cold (cryophobia), and wind (ancrophobia).

3. Ombrophobia

According to the authors of a recent study, people with these phobias may be more likely to have some sort of formal meteorological education, which saddles them with a "greater understanding of the potential dangers associated with severe weather."

According to research from Malaysia, phonophobia is an "abnormal" and "inappropriate" fear of sound.

4. Phonophobia

Researchers say these are often normal, everyday sounds that may not possibly damage a person's hearing or cause pain — things like doors closing or loud conversations.

Numerophobia is the fear of numbers, although not in the sense that a person believes that giant 1's or 0's are hidden under the bed.

5. Numerophobia

Although recently scrambling about technology, maybe they should.) Instead, numerophobia usually comes across as a fear of doing math or dealing with numbers.