Phobia

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People all around the world has had their fair share of fear and phobia. Fear is more general, but Phobia defines something more intricate in human nature. As a child, I've had an irrational fear of butterflies and moths that people love to make fun of. People who don't understand would address my fear as of something based on its ability to bite or sting or spread venom inside your bloodstream (which butterflies don't have!) but for 20 years long I've known to be afraid of the wing pattern and the way they fly.

What's your phobia? Did you let your phobia take the best out of you?

Phobia, according to Wikipedia, is a type of anxiety disorder defined by a persistent fear of an object or a situation. Almost everybody in this world has it, I even overheard someone talking about an injection that cures phobias but that would most likely be costly. There are more common phobias like cynophobia (fear of dogs), acrophobia (fear of heights), entomophobia (insects), fear of arachnids (spiders) and the famous trypophobia (fear of holes). Mine is particularly unique and relatively uncommon, I'm a Lepidopterophobic. I get disgusted by butterflies and moths.

Before another question becomes unanswered, no, my fear is not triggered by the mythical 'butterfly venom' that only fools come to believe. I get freaked out by the triangular wings shape, the sudden movements, the wing pattern, and the unpredictability of its movement. While for some people butterflies are cute as can be, just imagining walking into a room full of butterflies itself is a living torture. Not to mention, getting constant 'why' and 'how' questions drives me lunatic.

If I have the ability to opt on whether I would like to have this phobia, I would say no. Having this kind of phobia IS a burden, especially to the people who'd love to take you out on a mountain hiking trip knowing there will be swarms of butterflies. Since I'm also planning on moving out of Indo into a country with lots of nature, that is again, one big consideration as well as a huge leap of faith.

More and more people are considering my phobia and my true terror as a made-up act to gain attention. Phobia is not a joke, it's a life destroyer. For me, Lepidopterophobia chained me up from wanting to be close to the nature. I've been in constant paranoia for years now and it doesn't matter how I try to be exposed to butterflies, the phobia never reduces.

Phobia is no joke, Phobia isn't a curable disease and shouldn't be mocked at all, it is shocking how shallow people's knowledge about phobia is. But if there really is a cure for phobia, I hope one of us will be able to discover it sooner.