26. Neophobia – Fear of anything new.

A phobia (from the Greek: φόβος,phóbos, meaning “fear” or “morbid fear”) is an irrational, intense and persistent fear of certain situations, activities, things, animals, or people. The main symptom of this disorder is the excessive and unreasonable desire to avoid the feared stimulus. When the fear is beyond one’s control, and if the fear is interfering with daily life, then a diagnosis under one of the anxiety disorders can be made.

Most phobias are classified into three categories:

1. Social phobia– fears involving other people or social situations such as performance anxiety or fears of embarrassment by scrutiny of others, such as eating in public.

2. Specific phobias – fear of a single specific panic trigger such as spiders, snakes, dogs, water, heights, flying, catching a specific illness, etc. Many people have these fears but to a lesser degree than those who suffer from specific phobias.

3. Agoraphobia – a generalized fear of leaving home or a small familiar ‘safe’ area, and of possible panic attacks that might follow. May also be caused by various specific phobias such as fear of open spaces, social embarrassment (social agoraphobia), fear of contamination (fear of germs, possibly complicated by obsessive-compulsive disorder) or PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) related to a trauma that occurred out of doors.

If you are interested in this matter, here is a phobia definitions list.