Featured Phobia: Ichthyophobia (Fear of Fish)

"Ocean is more ancient than the mountains, and freighted with the memories and the dreams of Time."

- H. P. Lovecraft

Have you ever eaten catfish? My mom told me once when I was a kid to be very careful of the bones, because no matter how good anybody was at preparing it, there would always be a few little sharp slivers left over. For some reason, this scared the hell out of me, and ever since I get a little paranoid about eating catfish. I shouldn't, really. The bones are small enough to chew into nothing if you just so happen to find them. There are plenty of people out there, however, who don't just stop at avoiding catfish. In fact, there are those who are entirely terrified of seeing, let alone eating any sort of fish.

Yes, I realize being afraid of sharks is technically Galeophobia, but it seemed more relevant than an illustration from Moby Dick - - which, by the way, still wouldn't be relevant to Ichthyophobia either. The fear of whales is called 'Cetaphobia'. There really is a word for every fear.

There's the common wisdom that fish are apparently packed with mercury that has given some people issues with fish, of course. Then there's the fact that their eyes and scales are just a tiny bit creepy. No man seemed more terrified of the ocean and whatever came out of it than Lovecraft, and he was a brilliant artist on the subject, so maybe Ichthyophobia isn't such a terrible thing. Still, gradual exposure therapy isn't a bad idea anyway. Often psychologists will recommend showing children especially that there isn't anything to fear when dealing with fish. Though I think we all know they're fooling themselves if they think the aquatic old ones aren't going to come after us some day.

The following is an episode of Figaro Phoo about a fish. This show gives me intense anxiety every time I watch it, but who knows? Maybe it'll help those out there suffering with their fear of fish and give them a good laugh.