I really should preface this post by confirming this will have little to do with the 2003 movie Holes starring Stanley Yelnats as himself and features a plethora of holes and hole-related circumstances. I apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Now that the legal implications are out of the way, we can focus on the real reason we’re all here: Trypophobia, otherwise known as Fear of Holes.
Falling Into Your Fear of Holes
Picture this: It’s a beautiful summer day. You feel the warmth on your skin from the sun shining above you, not a cloud in the blue sky, as you are taking a relaxing walk down the sidewalk on your way to the park. The birds are chirping around you and you smile as a feeling of serenity sets in. And then you fall into a bottomless pit. Screaming the entire way down, you desperately try to claw at the sides of the hole, your finger nails breaking off with nothing preventing your descent into the abyss. Above you, the light from the surface is growing dimmer by the second, the sound of the birds faded away long ago and you know your end is quickly approaching. Now imagine if you were already afraid of that hole in the ground to begin with. Pretty scary stuff.
Contrary to popular belief, Fear of Holes isn’t limited to bottomless pits inconveniently placed on sidewalks in the suburbs. Nay nay. This Fear can be in reference to tiny holes like on a Cribbage board, Connect Four or even someone flashing you the “okay” symbol with their hand. The Fear is actually more commonly linked with a feeling of disgust than being scared but that still counts.
Climb Out of Your Fear of Holes
Holes are an important part in society so we cannot simply remove them all for the sake (did anyone else read that as ‘snake’?) of making sure no one is feeling anxious. For example: you use a hole to enter the sewers. Without access to that hole, we wouldn’t know about the existence of the Ninja Turtles and/or have infrastructure for waste removal.
In terms of impact on quality of life, I can’t speak to that at all. I imagine there might be holes pretty much anywhere that someone with this Fear would need to be aware of but doing a Google search for ‘Holes’ doesn’t exactly help with research so this last paragraph is pretty much useless. Ha made you read it!
