There are plenty of phobias in the world, ranging from the common like a fear of spiders (arachnophobia) and being cramped in confined spaces (agoraphobia), through to more unusual ones like a fear of the color yellow (xanthophobia) and a fear of long words (ironically named hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia).
More modern ones even include a fear of being without your phone, which is a genuine phobia referred to as nomophobia.
Chances are that you might not even know you have a fear of something until you see it, like you might've seen the many posts on people having their thalassophobia (fear of oceans, lakes, and large bodies of water) triggered.
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One post on X is leading some people to realize they've got megalophobia. As the name suggests, it’s a fear of massive objects.
Megalophobia is an anxiety disorder where someone might experience intense feelings of fear and anxiety around large buildings, vehicles, animals, and more.
They'll tend to avoid situations that might include large objects, but chances are, you might not even realize you have megalophobia.
Posting on X, @zackfursa gave some examples of megalophobia, with the first being a giant jet suddenly emerging from the clouds.
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Other highlights include the Faroe Island's Sørvágsvatn lake that hangs in the abyss, Japan's Sendai Tendou Byakue Daikannon statue, and a window cleaner on the side of the Twin Towers in 1979. Perhaps the most harrowing is a giant statue of baby Jesus found in a church in Mexico. We also wouldn't fancy exploring the abandoned Goldin Finance 117 building in China, and standing at 597 meters, it's the tallest abandoned building in the world.
While some of these might look like they're created with artificial intelligence, they're all the real deal and show just how small the human race really is.
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In the replies, someone else wrote: "I was today years old when I learned I have Megalophobia. My heart rate increased as my stomach ‘dropped’ with each image/video."
Another added, "Oh boy…I’m going to look at these with my only one eye open 😬," and a third said, "Having a fear of 747's roaring over your head when you are driving past a runway is perfectly legitimate."
It's unclear what causes megalophobia, but like with most phobias, it's thought to be caused by a mix of learning experiences and genetic vulnerability. Imagine you're happily snoozing in your crib as a baby and then one of your parents looms over you with a giant stuffed rabbit. This can then be fuelled by further avoidance, so if you tend to avoid large things because you think you're suffering from megalophobia, you could be making it worse. If you do have megalophobia or are worried that you might be experiencing it, we'd probably steer away from the r/megalophobia subreddit that's dedicated to the stuff.