When I was a junior in high school, studying biology was a requirement. The material was interesting but one picture in our text always sent shivers down my spine. The photograph was of a toad hatching little toads from holes on its back. For me, the picture was repulsive. For my pubescent male lab partner it was an opportunity for mischief. Each time we worked together, he’d open the text to the offending page and grin as I let out a groan.
Over the years, I’ve noticed a similar aversion to hole patterns found elsewhere in nature — lotus pods, honey combs and even holes in dish soap bubbles. I assumed my reaction was unique to me but not so. I’m suffering from a phobia called Trypophobia. (“Fear of Holes,” by William Skaggs, Scientific American Mind, March/April 2014, pg. 12.)
Oddly enough, scientists didn’t discover the disorder. That honor belongs to social networkers. So many of them shared their aversion to holes that in 2004 they formed their own webpage. That’s when scientists stepped in and began to study the complaint. Now they have a working hypothesis. People who suffer from Trypophobia are reacting to patterns that appear on the skins of dangerous animals and insects or to lesions identified with certain skin diseases. The phobia, it appears, is an ancient device: the brain’s way of warning us we have something to fear. 18% of those who suffer from this aversion are female. 11% are male.
While a phobia is never pleasant to experience, on the plus side, Trypophobia is one that should cause no one to worry. Sufferers are responding to primal instincts.
(Lotus pod courtesy of www.flickr.com)
