I have heard of phobias like acrophobia (fear of heights), claustrophobia (fear of crowded places) and more. Believing some of these phobias was a different ball game.
There was a time when I became interested in spicing up my vocabulary. This vocabulary building exercise is a thing during my High School Days in this part of the world where English isn't a native language but it was generally accepted as a lingua Franca.
Guess what?
In my attempt to spice up my vocabulary, I started taking notes of a whole lot of phobias and their meaning. Back then, it was fun and thrilling to cram most of these phobias. A whole lot of them feels like something that can only be suffered in fairy tales.
Anthropophobia (fear of flower) is one of the many phobias I saw as a joke. Do note that I'm not one of the flower lovers. I don't know if I will ever be buying a flower to keep at home or anywhere. It's just not my thing, but being AFRAID of a flower is a no-no for me.
In that same manner, I didn't think that a lot of phobias were real until I met a guy who had one.
And his?
Hmmm... He has a food-related phobia.
There he is - black trousers, black shoes, etc.
His phobia has to do with meat. It doesn't matter if it's chicken, beef, pork, name it! As far as anything is categorised as meat, seeing it makes him sweat extremely.
According to him, perceiving the aroma of any meat gives him anxiety and it can get worse if he remains in that environment.
Now that I'm writing about this (with his permission), it is important to note that he never bought cooked food during lunch breaks throughout the time I worked with him. He often opted for soft drinks with biscuits, buns or bread.
Was that enough to clear my doubt?
Despite all these, I still had my unspoken doubt.
Like, why would someone be afraid of meat? You can dislike meat. That is understandable, but I never imagined that a meat phobia was real until an incident that happened in our workplace.
It happened on the birthday of our Marketing Manager. That faithful day, she brought assorted ram meat Suya into the banking Hall after the day's working hour for us to join in the celebration.
Oh boy! Meat is one of those things we don't toy with in Nigeria. The aroma filled everywhere.
At first, we didn't notice that Martins (the meat phobia guy) was nowhere to be found. He left his desk and everything therein and settled at the parking lot of the bank premises. It took longer than a while for him to catch his breath.
To make the long story short, the presence of meat was too much for him to handle. As for his phobia, it is called CARNOPHOBIA (fear of meat).
A very weird phobia!
Thanks For Not Missing Any Full-stop Or Comma
Image Source for Suya
Additional Image was taken with my phone
I'm most thankful that I don't fear meat. It's more like I fear not having meat in to cook.
Lol... That's also another type of phobia 😂.
An unwritten one.
It's understandable that you denied that someone could have a phobia of meat. It turns out you were wrong. I often think those people who make flat-earth videos know damn well what the shape of the earth really is, but are lying to the public about it for some unknown motives. Perhaps it is a social experiment. But I have come to think some flat-earthers are sincere in 2021.
Hahah... In all honesty, that type of phobia was sounding awkward the first 3 times I heard of it. It's worse than being a vegetarian because many vegetarians choose to be that by choice.
But this?
There is really no room to get picky.
When it comes to the Earth and how people see it, that is a mystery which science has tried to demystify since antiquity. But the thing with since is that even when it seems like we all know the FACT, someone somewhere will still be doing more research to add more FACTs to what we already know.
Oh! I did not know there's a thing called carnophobia... I almost thought this was you making up words. 😏😄 So I had to check the dictionary and it's real!
Oh no, poor guy. So he missed all that suya meat in the office that day.
Hmm, phobias are real and quite upsetting! Mine is insect-o-phobia! 😂
Hahah... The Suya was the least of his problems oooo.
I still don't know how all these phobia stuff works. I know it has alot to do with psychology, but I don't know if it's curable.
Well, make una dey fear fear 😂😂.
My own fear is fear of being in 9ja for longer than supposed.
Just look nau, it's almost a week since I saw light 😂
some phobias are really real. one of my neighbour kids has a phobia of rice. fortunately, it is not very severe like your friend does, but he would not eat if he saw any grain of rice in his meal.
he is giving his parent a headache because rice is our main staple food, and they are worried about his development.
Hmmm... I don't even want to imagine anything that will stop me from eating rice. it is a very popular food in my country and it is also a ceremonial meal.
Since the kid is still young, I think they would be able to do something about his condition. It's really not going to be easy.
hopefully so. But the phobia has been with him for several years already, and he hardly wants to eat rice.
so the rice is also a staple food there in your place?
Exactly... It is cooked in various forms in every occasion starting from naming ceremonies, weddings, burials, birthdays, and every other occasion you can think of.
It's also quite expensive. Hahah.
Here is a fun fact; in most Nigerian homes, let's say 95%, rice is a compulsory meal that needs to be prepared on Sunday. Lol
Woah!
Why has meat phobia?
I would understand if I heard that he is a vegetarian, but phobia.
Prolly it's a past experience or something?
Hahah... Hmmmm... I was doubting this until it happened in my prescence.
It's past experience. He was always this way. From what he said, during his childhood, he didn't have any problem eating meat.
Finding out the cause of all these phobia is important. So far, some of them are due to PTSD.
PTSD, does he have that?
He must be missing the savory taste of meat.
Didn't get that part of the story. Methinks it's a part it's a part he doesn't want to touch at the moment.
One thing is for sure, anything meat related scares him like plague. He doesn't even take a chance.
This is really scary.
Woah!.
Really sad.
Really? This is my first time of hearing of such phobia, so it does have a name- that's weird.
Why would someone ever fear meat, I mean I can't believe my eyes.
This is funny.
Anyway thanks for educating me through your blog @kenechukwu97.
I'm really going to find other different kinds of phobia, now I'm curious.
Lol... You'd be surprised to hear half the name of all phobias in existence. Even 20% of it will throw you off balance - in a good way 😂.
For knowledge sake, do go and read about more phobias in existence. It will make it easier for you to appreciate all the things you can do at this stage
Wow, this sounds fun already, thank you
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