Advice | Koumpounophobia

Shirt - Charity Shop | Turtle Neck Jumper - Primark | Skirt  -Miss Selfridge | Boots - New Look | Necklace - Primark | Rings - New Look

Koumpounophobia? What's that you may be thinking...Well, considering how I can't stand any item of clothing that has a button on it or stand the word button or even the sight of buttons. It's something I've had for as long as I can remember. I've only recently found out what my button phobia was called - Koumpounophobia. Koumpounophobia is a relatively rare phobia, but on that does exist. It is, simply explained, an irrational and persistent fear of buttons (standalone ones or those on clothing)

People who, like myself, suffering from Koumpounophobia tend to avoid clothes with buttons. Just the thought, discussion or sight of buttons can trigger a full blown anxiety attack. Nearly 1 in 75,000 people are known to experience this phobia - explains why I've never met anyone else yet that suffers from the same phobia. The word Koumpounophobia is derived from Latin Koumpouno meaning buttons and Greek phobos meaning fear. It is closely related to the fear of round or circular objects or the fear of holes - which is called trypophobia.

The are quite a few factors that can trigger the fear of buttons phobia:

• Neil Gaiman'a horror novel 'Coraline' - which you may of heard of or watched as a film, which I was actually terrified watching it as the characters eyes were huge buttons.
• A bad childhood experience involving buttons - strangely enough I never encountered one.

Some symptoms of Koumpounophobia that actually relate to me are unable to stand the sight, sound or even the texture of buttons. The buttons I actually hate the most are the seashell looking material ones, I think they are the pearl ones...ugh! Even the thought of them makes me feel sick...

I found a symptom that states that some individuals wash their hands repeatedly upon touching buttons unknowingly - I do this a lot at work as I wear a polo shirt with buttons on which I absolutely hate. Even during school years I hated wearing the shirts and polo tops because of the horrible buttons sewn upon them!

This one shirt I'm wearing has to be the only thing I own that has the closet thing to buttons - except it has poppers on which doesn't count as a button so I'm cool with this shirt. This is the reason for me not wearing button up tops or flannel shirts. Every item I own doesn't have one button on it because of this one problem of mine. Even the latest trend from the seventies with the button skirts, I just feel they look hideous if they have buttons sewn all the way up them! Don't take this the wrong way it's just me seriously detesting buttons.

Hope that I haven't bored you all with this...thought it would explain a bit about me and why I don't wear ANYTHING that has buttons on it. Also to those of you who are like me and absolutely detest buttons. If you found it hard (like me) to pronounce this word, try and say it like this - 'Compounophobia' - that's literally how it is said - through google translate that is anyway! Thanks for reading fashionista's! Feel free to follow me on the following social media sites - it'll be extremely appreciated!