What is a phobia?
Phobias are persistent and intense fears of a particular:
object
person (like a doctor or clown)
situation
activity
If you have a phobia, you may experience severe anxiety and panic attacks when you’re:
exposed to the object or situation you’re fearful of
thinking about the thing you’re afraid of
anticipating an encounter with the item you’re scared of
Submechanophobia. No matter how much I try to rationalise, water grates in pools raise my heart rate.
Deathly scared of buoys.
Anyone read how a few divers went to explore weird pillars in a lake, only for one of them to get sucked into a nuclear plant water intake? Jesus wept. (He lived, somehow.)*