Alliumphobia

Alliumphobia - fear of garlic
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WORD HISTORY:
The prefix Allium-, is a Latin word, meaning “bulb of garlic.”
Come to think of it, word history isn’t accurate... maybe I will call it “Word Facts” in the future; tell me what you think!
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A person with Alliumphobia will experience the symptoms when they are in the proximity of garlic (when aware of the garlic’s precense), when they smell garlic, or another plant with a similar pungent smell, or in extreme cases, at the mere sight of garlic.
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SYMPTOMS:
• Dread
• Shortness of Breath
• Rapid Breathing
• Heart Palpitations
• Excessive Sweating
• Nausea
• Dry Mouth
• Confusion
• Inability to Articulate Clearly
• Lack of Focus
• Irritability
• Shaking
• Feelings of Powerlessness
• Obsession
• Avoidance Behaviors
• Headaches
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THE SCIENCE:
At first, I wasn’t particularly extatic about the whole science part. This is an isolated phobia, meaning there is no evolutionary advantage to it, and that it is caused by a combination of trauma and genetics. Or so thats what I thought... I went into my research, certain that nothing new would be found, but I was wrong! :D There were a couple things that became apparent quickly from my 3 main sources:
I. This wasn’t a standard isolated phobia.
II. This fear was unlike any of the fears I’ve researched so far.
One of the things that stood out was that all of my sources classified it as a Social Anxiety Disorder (S.A.D.), and not as a phobia. From here I was not just note taking, but I was thinking as well. For the most part the only unusual thing was that this was a S.A.D. and that emphasis was put on the concept that people suffering from Alliumphobia also feared what people thought of them. That piece tied in the S.A.D. aspect, but it didn’t sound right. Why would this fear in particular, be a S.A.D.? I thought to myself, and then it hit me. This fear is a self defense mechanism! The brain in a desperate attempt to function in society, will pin all of the anxiety and fears on a scapegoat; garlic! This is why in Alliumphobia, the sufferer will worry about what others think, there will still be traces of the Social Anxiety. This realization of mine made me pretty satisfied, but little did I know that there was more to come...
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THE CARD:
I made Alliumphobia a black and white card because those are the two colors that I associate the most with vampires. I made this card rather week because there really wasn’t much that it would translate to aside from weakening a creature. I added the vampire effect because of the whole vampire and garlic schtik. Its just a cute(idk?) concept and some funny art that translates the concept. I digress, I had made this card, well before I researched it, and in a sense, I am glad I did. If I were to try to completely accurately recreate the subtleties of Alliumphobia, this card would be a convoluted mess. So I am pretty happy with how it turned out.
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CULTURE:
This is a section that normally, I do not have. But remember about a paragraph ago when I had that elipsis? Well, thats bout to be continued.
I was talking to my friend, Rhys, about my findings in regards to the S.A.D. reality of Alliumphobia, he then said that it is almost as though it creates real vampires, without the bloodsucking and such. It hit me.
What if the inspiration for the stories of vampires was a sufferer of Alliumphobia?
Everything seemed to click:
The bloodsucking would be because of local vampire bats that sucked the blood from cattle and other livestock. The nocturnal nature would be due to the lingering anxiety around people; at night there are far less people around. The garlic weakness would be because of the manifestation of Alliumphobia, and the deadly effects were likely a combination of the symptoms of the fear. Lastly, who wouldn’t die if they were stabbed with a stake through the heart?
I hope that you think that this is as good of an explanation as I think it is. I am really satisfied with my deductive reasoning.
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Thank you for reading my blog, I really appreciate it! This post was extra special to me because of my extrapolated theory. Please check out my other posts and don’t forget to live a comment and follow my blog and follow me on google+!

Valete Omnes!

Location: Radnor Township, PA, USA

Comments

  1. AnonymousDecember 22, 2017 at 11:12 AM

    Did you make sure to credit the creator of the vampire/garlic image? I suppose it is a fitting image, but crediting the creators of content for projects like this is important. You may not be artistically inclined, but maybe you could find someone to help draw original images for the cards?

    ReplyDelete

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