Who Makes This Stuff Up?

While checking my Facebook page I was rudely interrupted (by myself) by one of those annoying yet enticing Reels that are so popular these days. This one was a up-close confessional of a young woman describing her "own private Hell," as she called it, although the fact that she was telling the whole world made it hardly private. Anyway, her Hell is the time between deciding to take a shower and getting into the shower.  Once she's in the shower she's fine, but the fear keeps her from showering often, which has become a problem.

I scoffed, until I read the comments her video elicited. There were hundreds -- I limited myself to only about 30 -- all from other people who shared their stories concerning a terrible fear of taking a shower.  They went on and on, each in turn describing the dread that showering instills in them.

I found this interesting and frankly really nutty since showering is on my list of Top 10 Great Things To Do. In summer I've been known to shower up to three times in one day. This got me wondering, so I googled "fear of showering" to see how many people suffer from it and landed on an article detailing hundreds of fears, one of which is the "fear of long words," called hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, so if you have it you can't even read about how to cure it.

You literally cannot make this stuff up, but apparently somebody did.