Science continues to advance in the study of many phobias and disorders, trying to establish an origin and, if necessary, develop appropriate treatments. A supposed phobia that has gained traction in recent years is trypophobia, which indicates a fear of clusters of holes. From the seed head of a lotus to the skin of strawberries, through beehives and a simple cheese grater, there are many people out there who feel uncomfortable with those patterns...
Overdiagnosis and hypochondria are two very big problems in the world of health. If experts don't act with enough caution, almost anything can be turned into a disease, and be as bad for the patient as a legitimate condition. That creates some resistance to recognizing new diseases and phobias.
Unfortunately, the web doesn't help (a crooked finger? Surely it's cancer), and what comes through social media shouldn't be taken too seriously. However, there is a word that keeps being repeated: Trypophobia
Trypophobia: Is It Really a Phobia?
Fear of holes. Or rather, fear of groups of holes that may or may not be regular. At the same time, they don't need to be round, because there are reported 'cases' of trypophobia in things like beehives or the rectangular patterns of certain wafers. The first thing we should ask ourselves is: are we really dealing with a phobia?
Recent studies suggest not. Because the images share certain details with venomous organisms, the hypothesis pointed to a "learned association", but a team of Chinese scientists representing four universities proved, by teaching modified images to preschool children, that disgust reactions are linked only to the visual characteristics of a trypophobic pattern, and not to their link with venomous animals.
In other words, trypophobia is not a phobia, but an instinctive response that cannot be 'unlearned'. Perhaps the next step for experts is to study the relationship between trypophobia and dermatopathophobia, which is the fear of diseases, injuries, and other skin conditions.
Trypophobia is an instinctive response that cannot be 'unlearned'.
