Anablephobia and Other Fears

by Lisa Binion

Even though some phobias may appear unreasonable or silly to those who don’t have any, they are no laughing matter. When someone encounters something he has an excessive fear of, he experiences the following: rapid heartbeat, shortness of breath, trembling, anxiety, panic, terror, and/or dread.

Phobias are a like a mine full of treasure for writers. These fears add both depth and uniqueness to our characters. Use the following phobias and come up with at least a story or story line for each one of them. Once you have a story line, or choose to use the one that I suggest, try writing a story.

Anablephobia is the fear of looking up. It could be a fear of looking up at the sky, or it could be a fear of looking up at the ceiling. It could be a fear of looking upwards at all.

How would one develop such a fear as this? Maybe your character saw a loved one killed by a huge hailstone falling out of the sky. Maybe your character saw a ceiling fan fly to pieces and seriously injure someone close to them. Pick one of the previous situations, or a situation you dream up, and develop a story line for it.

Anemophobia is fear of the wind. Your character could fear just gentle springtime breezes or it could only be a fear of really strong, almost tornado strength winds. Or it could be a fear of any kind of wind movement at all, even if it comes from just a ceiling fan.

Your character has experienced a severe trauma and there was a gentle breeze blowing at the time. That is one thing that seems to stand out in her mind – the breeze. Now, anytime she feels even just a gentle breeze she has a panic attack because all of the memories of her traumatic time revisit her. Develop a story about how this fear developed and how she manages to overcome it before she becomes housebound.

Auroraphobia is the fear of the Northern Lights, either the Aurora Borealis or the Aurora Australialis. The only reason I can think of for having of fear the Northern Lights would be if something extremely traumatic happened while they could be seen.

I think that I would have my character witness a murder taking place in the light of the Aurora Borealis. When the murderer turns and looks at the character, she recognizes the murderer and he recognizes her. She stands there, frozen with fear, when someone yells her name and breaks her trance. She shakes herself out of it, turns and runs away. She doesn’t remember anything she saw, but for some reason now she is scared to death of the Nothern Lights.

Write a story where she confronts her fears to find out the reason why. Along the way, she also puts a murderer, someone she thought to be a close friend, behind bars.

Barophobia is the fear of gravity or the fear that gravity will fail. Maybe your character fell from a trampoline and was seriously injured because of it. Maybe your character has read a very detailed science fiction novel or watched a movie about a planet where the gravity just disappears for no reason. The consequences shown are horrible. Or maybe your character simply does not understand exactly what gravity is.

Your character’s fear of gravity is so strong that it begins to make this character fear for his or her own well-being, so he seeks help. Develop a story or story line that details how he developed this phobia, how he finds help, and whether or not he is cured.

Blennophobia is a fear of slime. Slime is disgusting and there probably aren’t many of us who actually look forward to touching anything, no matter what it is, that is slimy. There are people that slimy objects cause serious problems.

What if you were a lady whose job it was to clean houses? Not just any houses, but houses that were holiday rentals. Not all travelers are slobs, but let’s face it, a good portion of them can be. Her job is to go in and make the houses spotless once again. Half-filled glasses of breakfast orange juice that look like science experiments make it hard for her to breathe. Wet towels that have been left lying in the bathroom floor for weeks and weeks not only smell, they have begun turning color and cause her heart to race. She has to have this job, there are no others available and she has many bills to pay and a young child to support. Does she find relief from this phobia or not? Write a story telling how or how not.