What is the term which can be used to describe a person who is suffering from many phobias? I searched about this on Google but found nothing useful.
7 Answers
The condition is called polyphobia:
An abnormal fear of many things; a condition marked by the presence of many phobias.
(The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary)
The person suffering from polyphobia is polyphobic:
Many phobic individuals have more than one phobia and hence are polyphobic.
(The Encyclopedia of Phobias, Fears, and Anxieties, Third Edition, page 390)
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1It's a good word and certainly a good definition, but I think Ricky is more on the mark. "A fear of many things" is not precisely a suffering of many phobias in my opinion. But +1 anyway :) Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 10:52
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1@DogLover I agree with you. I have accepted Ricky's answer, but this answer is also useful. +1 :) Thanks!– ArjunCommented Nov 24, 2015 at 10:56
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3Well, personally, @Arjun, I prefer A.P.'s answer now that I've seen it. It sounds more elegant, to my ear at least. I'm only saying this because I have to be scrupulously objective at all times to compensate for my arrogance, which, of course, stems from my megalomania. But you already knew that.– RickyCommented Nov 24, 2015 at 11:05
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7I personally prefer "polyphobia" or "polyphobic", because it combines two Greek roots: πολύς "many, much" and φόβος "fear", whereas "multiphobia" combines a Latin root multum "many" with a Greek one. This offends my delicate etymological sensibilities ;-) Commented Nov 24, 2015 at 15:47
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@200_success: I agree. The other one's better. I have already said so. What do you want me to do, puke?– RickyCommented Nov 25, 2015 at 4:47
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1Oh, I see your comment there now. You may re-swallow your puke. =) Commented Nov 25, 2015 at 4:49
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1@200_success: I agree with your overall sentiment, but of course there are still a fair amount of hybrid words that have become firmly established in the English lexicon, even some phobia terms like claustrophobia. Puking whenever you encounter any of these these seems like it would be quite inconvenient! So we may have to learn to live with them.– herissonCommented Nov 25, 2015 at 10:23
While the other phrases are more clinically correct, if I were to discuss such a person in daily conversation, I might say that they are Neurotic, as in
The man was neurotic; Everything alarmed him to some degree. He spent most of his life trying to escape his fears.
'Fraidy-cat is more colloquial. It refers to a very fearful person, afraid of everything, easily startled.
http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/fraidy+cat - also as suggested here, you might use coward.
Phobophobia can also be defined as the fear of phobias or fear of developing a phobia. Phobophobia is related to anxiety disorders and panic attacks directly linked to other types of phobias, such as agoraphobia.
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That's interesting but I don't see how it answers the question. Commented Nov 25, 2015 at 8:27
Polyphobic
This is the name for a person who suffers from many phobias, formed from the prefix for many (poly) + phobic =polyphobic
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Hey stan! Welcome to EL&U stack exchange. You can improve the credibility of this answer by adding a dictionary definition from a reputable source. Commented Oct 1, 2017 at 23:02
Agoraphobia covers a lot of different phobic problems.
Strictly it is 'fear of open spaces', but tends to be used to describe anxiety states where the sufferer perceives the environment around them to be threatening.
a term which can be used to describe a person who is suffering from many phobias?"Normal" was the first word that I thought of. :p