Article of the Week - Scoleciphobia

Scoleciphobia
A weird kid exhibiting his fear of worms

Scoleciphobia is the fear of worms. The sight of a worm, or anything that looks like a worm, may cause someone with this phobia to have extreme anxiety or even panic attacks.

Individuals with this disorder typically recognize that their fear is excessive and/or unreasonable. However, in spite of this, one may lead a restricted lifestyle and find the fear debilitating. Those with Specific Phobias have been known to go to great lengths to avoid certain activities due to the possibility of coming into contact with the feared stimuli. This fear can range from a mild fear response in the presence of real worms to panic-like symptoms induced by a picture of worms.

It appears that family members of a person diagnosed with Specific Phobia have an increased risk of developing the disorder. Particularly, first-degree biological relatives of person with Specific Phobias, Animal type, are more likely than the general population to have animal phobias.


This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Scoleciphobia"