People with Trypophobia claim that holes give them a creepy crawly feeling. They may get sweaty, itchy or nauseous and some even say the sight of holes gives them a panic attack.
Common triggers include lotus seeds, air bubbles, water droplets, honeycomb, fruit, sponges and even swiss cheese could set it off.
The fear isn’t recognized by the American Psychiatric Association and it has no official medical diagnosis. The first description of Trypophobia actually showed up on the internet in 2005. Many people believe that it’s just an invention of internet chatrooms where people would self-diagnose and chat with others claiming to be afflicted by the same symptoms but a lot of people claim to have it.
So what’s so scary about holes anyway? Scientists think the fear is based on a biological revulsion, in other words, our brains associate the shape of holes with danger. Some people with the fear said they felt like “something might be living inside those holes.” Others say these images are just hard to look at and can’t be processed efficiently by the brain. One study proposes that the fear occurs because the images require excessive brain oxygenation but at the end of the day, no one knows for sure.
The good news is, if you made it to the end of this article you probably don’t have it.