People fear crowds in several different ways. There’s the aspect where people feel they have no means of escape (agoraphobia); there’s the more obvious or relatable fear of an unpredictable mob (enochlophobia); and there’s the terror that strikes many of us when standing up and talking or...
We can all agree that washing your hands is totally rational. But refusing to touch a door handle afterward and freaking out that you’ll die of some terrible disease if you do? Not so much. It’s officially known as contamination OCD, but colloquially, we tend to call...
Obviously, no one really enjoys getting shots. But some people really, really hate needles, to the point where they suffer from trypanophobia, or a legitimate phobia of injections, blood tests and the like. Often, this goes hand-in-hand with hemophobia (a phobia of blood), for pretty obvious reasons....
Ahh, the miracle of flight: Being hurtled over land or sea in a thin aluminum tube, at an altitude so high you can’t breathe the air, as the whole plane periodically shakes so violently without warning that you can’t even stand up (not to mention tiny, smelly...
What the hell is so irrational about being scared of standing on the edge of someplace really high, you ask? It’s a fair question, and it’s true that a lot of phobias are grounded in a very basic, primal danger. But standing on a second-story balcony behind...
Ever been in one of those MRI machines, where you’re held down and slid into a tiny tube, with the strange whirring sound of huge, invisible magnets scanning your prone, helpless body as you’re ordered to be as still as a statue for several minutes? It’s pretty...
Last month, one frantic redditor desperately asked for advice when they received a letter declaring that they were being charged for battery after performing the Heimlich maneuver on a choking man. Despite saving the man’s life, the demand letter alleged that he bruised a rib in doing...
There are three main motivators in life: Fear (“I should work late so my boss knows he shouldn’t fire me!”); anger (“I’ll show her! I’m going to hit the gym and get swole!”); and positive thinking (“I can achieve my goals if I work hard enough!”). But...
I was once in a relationship that ended very badly, which resulted in me acquiring an ex-girlfriend that I’ll attempt to avoid for the rest of my life. I’m happy to say that I was successful in evading said ex-girlfriend for years and years, but nothing lasts...
When you’re a dad, parenting questions often come up that you struggle to find an answer to. Since other parents are the worst and Google will send you down a rabbit hole of paralyzing, paranoid terror, we’re here to help by putting those questions to the experts....
Here you are, 30,000 feet above Oklahoma, when you get a whiff of an all-too-familiar scent: Yes, your bundle of joy has just pooped their diaper while you’re still at least two hours from your destination. So, what do you do now? Where do you change them, and...
Most of us spend our entire lives trying to avoid mucking up. But unless you’ve never had any dreams or goals or really any sort of ambitions at all, chances are you’ve failed at something at least once in your life. And it’s also just as likely...