Student Suffers From Button Phobia - as part of the news series by GeoBeats.
Most of us have a fear of something. Some of the most common fears include spiders, snakes, heights or flying, but in one recent case, buttons were the phobia inducing culprit! Hannah Matthews, a 21 year old Portsmouth college student is going through counseling due to her overwhelming fear of buttons. Called Koumpounophobia, it is a scientific condition causing sufferers to panic while in the presence of the small, harmless clothing mechanisms. Hannah only wears closure garments with zippers and states her fear began at the age of 5 resulting in panic attacks. She states “there's just something about the shape and the texture that freaks me out” and says seeing someone wearing them or just hearing the word ‘button’ makes her severely uncomfortable.
Buttons aren’t the only seemingly odd phobias. There’s Chorophobia, an extreme fear of dancing, Arachibutyrophobia, the fear of peanut butter sticking to the top of one’s mouth, Pteronophobia, the phobia of being tickled by feathers and Ablutophobia, the fear of bathing or washing.
