Monday, December 7, 2015

GENUPHOBIA: THE FEAR OF 'KNEES'.

I have this underlying fear for my knees (maybe since i got to know its a male Achilles heel), not anything paranoid but of running my knees into something or of someone fly-tackling my knee so i decided to check the internet if it's a registered phobia and i came up with this discovery.

Genuphobia is an acute fear of knees,  both yours and that of other people.
Take for example,  Stephanie Cockerill,  who's been a patient since she was 15. She said she was lying in bed with her then boyfriend when she started to feel sick and have a panic attack – purely because his knees were brushing against hers.
Stephanie’s phobia is so bad that she can’t as much as look at a knee without having a violent reaction.
"I can't look, touch or feel knees as it starts to make me feel sick, I start shaking and sometimes end up having panic attacks,” she says.
"I hate the way knees feel and my worst nightmare would be if someone else's knee touched mine. I never cross my legs like other women because I can't stand the feeling of the back and front of my knees touching each other.
"I can't help but get really mad and lash out at people who try to touch them, even if they've done it by accident. I have lost friends because they don't understand the extent of my fear.
Her fear has made her cut out swimming because of course there are a lot of knees walking around 'in her face' and violent movies,  just in case a knee is somehow ruptured or broken.
"I had to leave my swimming club because obviously there were knees everywhere. I can't do basic things such as kneeling, shaving, or putting sun cream on, I have to wear clothes which cover my knees and I cannot watch gangster type films just in case there are any scenes where knee caps are being broken,” she says.
“I remember once watching the film Unbreakable and there is a scene where a character breaks his knee caps- it was awful and I was hysterical.”
Also,  she dare not kneel down.
Read on here to learn about possible treatment and predisposing factors.

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