Britons' Weirdest Phobias Exposed!

While spiders and heights are common sources of anxiety, a fear of frozen peas and a dread of kneecaps have emerged as some of Britain's most bizarre phobias.

David Allison, a therapist based at Addenbrooke's hospital, in Cambridge, was filmed treating some of the worst sufferers in an ITV1 documentary.

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A phobia is an irrational and exaggerated fear of an object or a situation that in reality, poses little or no actual danger.

The film will be shown next week, reports the Telegraph.

One patient in the UK is so terrified of frogs that she sprints from her car to her front door in case one is lurking in the garden.

The 'victims' of weird phobias include Sue Williams, 37, from Dudley in the West Midlands, who is so terrified of knees that she has not touched her own for 16 years and cannot say "kneecap" without bursting into tears.

"I don't like my own. I can't touch them. I certainly can't touch anyone else's," she said.

"I know it's strange. People tease me about it and they have got every right to. But I think I'm the normal one and everyone else is weird," she added.

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Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder characterised by the patient avoiding spaces, crowds, or situations

Until her therapy sessions, Williams was unable to wash her knees in the bath and could not look at her husband's knees.

Louise Arnold, from Gloucester, has a pea phobia which means she cannot walk down the frozen food aisle of a supermarket.

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Explaining her dislike of peas, she said: "They tend to just look at me - ganging up on me. All the hairs on the back of my neck go up. I have to know where they are in the supermarket before I go in. It's just controlling my life now. I would like to be a dinner lady at my daughter's school, but I'm not even able to be in the same room as someone eating them."

Other sufferers in the programme included Kim Crosby, from Cambridge, who is terrified of barns.

Tea bags, tree roots and midgets are other terrors discussed in Britain's Weirdest Phobias, broadcast on Tuesday.

Source-ANI
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