Photo Illustration courtesy of senior Nina Ramezani

  Everyone has a fear or two of something, whether it be of spiders or the dark. Most are pretty generic, like fearing death, but some students at San Luis Obispo High School take phobias a step farther.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), phobias are one of the most common mental disorders in the United States. 

  Expressions interviewed some spooked students on (sometimes weird) phobias and how it affects them. 

Expressions: What is your phobia? Why is it scary for you?

Freshman Leonardo Eulate: Something weird that I am afraid of is something like the echo dot or Alexa, the house robots. I am afraid of this amazing technology because I do not like the thought that they have control over every electronic in the house and they can listen to everything you say.

Junior Lil Daane: Clowns are just menacing and their makeup and clothes are horrifying. Circuses, in general, are horrible and gross, and the whole creepy childish thing is gross in general. It began at birth, my dad and I share this fear. If I saw one I would run away in all seriousness.

Freshman Ava Miller: My weird fear is seagulls, which is weird in the fact that I live at the beach.

Junior Danny Moolor: There’s was a Spongebob episode where they had to take care of a worm and it turned into a butterfly and in that episode, they did closeups of a real one, and for some reason ever since then I’ve been terrified of butterflies. If I see one I will either scream or immediately run away. 

Freshman Mason Huebler: My weird phobia is illnesses and germs, which is why I wash my hands about twenty times a day. I have diagnosed OCD so it’s basically something that comes with my OCD.

Freshman Diana Pruett: My biggest fear is being burned alive. I am scared of being burned alive because it would be very painful and slow. I don’t mind fires as long as I am not being burnt.

Junior Lauren Anderson: I have really bad emetophobia which is the fear of throwing up. It started back in around fourth grade when I had an extremely bad stomach flu and ever since then, anytime I get nervous or any little thing that reminds me of throwing up I get really anxious and have to calm myself down. I thought I was really dumb for having this fear but I’ve learned over the past year that it’s a lot more common than we think!

Freshman Nathaniel Kraker: One weird phobia that I have is phobophobia. Phobophobia is the fear of phobias.

  Phobias can be difficult to deal with, even if they seem silly to others. Don’t intentionally scare someone knowing they have a phobia. That being said, have a spooky holiday break!

Source: National Institute of Mental Health