Uncommon Phobias: The Fear of Gnomes

The fear of garden gnomes is called gnomophobia. However, the APA does not yet recognize this condition. While the fear of garden gnomes is a very uncommon phobia, it is one I, and many other people, suffer from.

My fear of gnomes began quite a few years ago. I had been watching a television show called Goosebumps-based on children's books written by R.L. Stein-and the episode I was watching was about evil garden gnomes. All it took for me to have this life long phobia of garden gnomes was watching that television show. It scarred me for life.

All these years I thought I was so strange having a fear of something like a gnome, but as I started doing some research on what this phobia might be called, I discovered that I am not alone. There are lots of people who have this very same phobia, which made me feel slightly better about my own fear of gnomes. Especially when I discovered that my case of gnomophobia is much less severe than several other people's cases are. While I just find gnomes creepy and can't stand to be near them without chills creeping down my spine and freaking out, other people have night terrors about them and dream about garden gnomes harming them in their sleep.

I once made the mistake of telling my parents about my fear of garden gnomes and they decided to play on my fear by moving the gnomes they have in their front garden to different areas of the garden so it would seem to me as though the gnomes were moving by themselves. At night, they would also place their garden gnomes in front of the lights in their garden so that the gnomes' creepy little faces would be lit up, freaking me out so much that I was soon forced to use other exits and entrances into and out of their house to avoid walking past their front garden. My parents thought it was funny. I didn't agree.

If you have a phobia of something strange and you think that there can't possibly be anyone else who shares that phobia with you, think again. As I was searching for information on gnomophobia-of which there isn't a whole lot being as it isn't a recognized condition yet-I found quite a few different websites that listed strange, uncommon phobias. So don't think you're alone. You'd be surprised at some of the things people are afraid of.