{"id":5053,"date":"2013-09-07T12:15:00","date_gmt":"2013-09-07T12:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=5053"},"modified":"2026-01-15T18:20:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T18:20:19","slug":"trypophobia-and-the-fear-of-swiss-cheese","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/?p=5053","title":{"rendered":"Trypophobia and the fear of swiss cheese"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most phobias are irrational fears that some people are born with or have developed over time. A classic is Claustrophobia – fear of enclosed spaces. I have a fear of heights which, I presume, a lot of people have because there are 5 names for it – Acrophobia, Altophobia, Batophobia, Hypsiphobia or Hyposophobia. <\/span>Trypophobia is the fear of holes, even in benign items, such as Swiss cheese.<\/p>\n

As an aside, if you think that you are fearless, that is, you have no phobias and are maybe feeling a little left out, the site phobialist.com<\/a> lists 621 types of phobias. I’m sure that you could find one there to call your own.<\/p>\n

Actually, Trypophobia is a fairly recent discovery. Geoff Cole of the university of Essex did some research on people who had, as he did, a fear of holes. Now these aren’t bottomless pit holes; these are common holes, especially when they form a pattern, as in Swiss cheese, seed pods or sieves. Cole through his research was able to connect this fear to a primeval part of the brain, that linked holes with the patterned skin of poisonous animals. In other words Trypophobia is a hang over from our cavemen days, when we had to be super sensitive to everything in the environment that might endanger us.<\/p>\n

Now, I may have a fear of holes, but not where they apply to dangerous animals. I fear, for example:<\/p>\n

1. Holes in my pockets – literally and figuratively. I once had a coat with a hole in each pocket. All my spare change would fall into the hem of the coat. I jingled when I walked and I probably should have developed a fear of large magnets \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

2. Holes in the plumbing – literally these are a drain on the pocketbook. We are actually going to have to have the bathroom replaced because it leaks through holes in not one but three places \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Holes with a purpose<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

\n3. Holes in the masonry, especially at this time of the year. That’s where the mice get in. My parents who lived on a farm actually used to have snakes creep in!! Another fear – not a phobia – this is a rational one!!<\/p>\n

4. Holes in the body – this is not actually a fear, but more of a revulsion. I particularly dislike seeing people with pierced tongues and lips.<\/p>\n

5. Holes in the newspaper where someone has clipped out an article. Now I have to find out what that article was all about \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

6. Holes in woollen garments – moth holes are the bane of people who knit fine lace in cobweb yarns. Now, I never fear the holes in lace.<\/p>\n

7. Holes in the inventory – who’s been helping themselves?<\/p>\n

8. Holes in my shoes. I have been known to wear my shoes out on the top side, where the toes are, rather than on the soles – Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

9. Loopholes in contracts – why can’t more things be done on a handshake?<\/p>\n

10. Holes in the bread – that’s where the jam drips through.<\/p>\n

OK, most of this post has been on the negative aspect of holes. However, I would like to leave you with a positive thought. For this I will have to paraphrase Leonard Cohen.<\/p>\n

There’s a crack (hole) in everything. That’s how the light gets in.<\/p>\n

The picture? From my post on sieves<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Have a wholly wonderful day!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Most phobias are irrational fears that some people are born with or have developed over time. A classic is Claustrophobia – fear of enclosed spaces. I have a fear of heights which, I presume, a lot of people have because there are 5 names for it – Acrophobia, Altophobia, Batophobia, Hypsiphobia or Hyposophobia. Trypophobia is the fear of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4231,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-words"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5053"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5054,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5053\/revisions\/5054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeiswhathappens.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}