he fear of buttons on clothing, known as button phobia or koumpounophobia, is an irrational phobia which is, perhaps surprisingly, a fairly common fear.
Most people who suffer from this phobia are convinced that they are the only ones in the world to suffer from such a strange fear, and they are often teased or taunted by others who do not understand or believe that they are telling the truth.
Irrational fears may be evoked due to traumatic happenings in early childhood, however, most people who do suffer from button phobia seem to admit that they have been afraid of buttons for as long as they can remember. For some people, the fear can also extend to all button-like objects, such as small coins, sequins and other small discs.
Types of buttons
Some people find that plastic buttons are worse than metal ones (like the ones on jeans) or that buttons with four holes are more fear or panic-inducing than those with two.
Degrees of severity
There are several degrees of severity to the phobia, ranging from cringing when others wear buttons and chosing not to wear buttons yourself to not wanting to breathe next to buttons in fear of inhaling one or washing your hands with soap for an extended period of time after any (accidental) contact with buttons. In some people, the sight of buttons may induce vomiting.
Some patients have found that hypnotherapy has been of help to overcome or make their button-suffering less severe.
source: http://dipsolect.com/koumpounophobia-fear-of-buttons/
What does this have to do with me? I have Koumpounophobia since as far as I can remember.
As a young child, I have no choice on what clothes to wear and was forced to wear clothes with all sorts of buttons. But as I grow older, I believe I've gotten even worse due to the lack of wearing buttons. The only types of buttons I wear are those with jeans. They are about the only ones I would be able to stand.
It's a button-filled world out there and I'm only limited to clothes that don't have buttons (which isn't much).
Especially now, that I'm working....... Have you ever tried to look for business casual to formal clothes that doesn't have buttons? Very rare!!!! Almost impossible. There was several instances I bought clothes slacks with buttons and had to ask my sisters to help me cut it off.
How did this irrational fear came to be? I have no idea. Why is there such a fear? We, as human beings are so weird. It isn't like other fears such as fear of heights, or fear of spiders, where there are somewhat of an explanation of why there may be a fear. That's why I've chose to keep this fear to myself. Only my family and close friends knows of this. As kids, there were even instances that my sisters try to touch me with buttons and chase me around the room.
How bad do I hate buttons? If there's a loose buttons somewhere around the house? I would throw it out using a napkin to hold it while throwing it out. If it was near food, I will not have the appetite. If I touched it by accident, I would wipe my hands on something or wash it right after. I want to kill the person who evented buttons!!! Why can't we just use zippers?
In recent years, I've discover that there's a lot of people who also have this same fear. I'm glad I'm not the only one. XD
There's even a facebook group for it:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/kuompounophobiathe-fear-of-buttons/441529010439#!/pages/kuompounophobiathe-fear-of-buttons/441529010439?v=wall
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