Remember that game where you’d sit around with grade-school boredom and ask your peers, “Would you rather . . .” and what followed would be two options of unspeakably horrible and sometimes obscurely torturous situations. You had to pick which you’d rather endure, either for life or your untimely demise. You couldn’t refuse either choice and loopholes were not an option.
Now, when it comes to selections like “getting thrown into a volcano” or “eaten alive by cannibals,” maybe even “getting 20 paper cuts in a row” or “listening to ‘Call Me Maybe’ 20 times in a row,” some of these have enough one-in-a-million novelty value that they could be shirked off easily, but what about if you were gambling with someone’s actual worst nightmare?
It might seem strange to imagine all the phobias people seem to be capable of nowadays, such as cowering in the fear of vomit or a thunderstorm, but sometimes you just can’t help what you’re afraid of or what has really scarred you subconsciously.
However, one that surprises me is the count of people who claim to have social phobia, which, in the past, has been ranked statistically only second to a fear of spiders.
The medical definition for social phobia is an anxiety disorder characterized by a persisting irrational fear of situations in which the individual may be scrutinized by peers or unfamiliar individuals. This can be related to any social situation, and not only branches out with fears like stage fright and a fear of public speaking, but can even occur when someone is in a small group setting and may be judged on the slightest personal quirks.