SHOW ME YOUR SCAREDY SIDE. As Halloween comes closer, Bob asks some employees what they're afraid of.

Halloween is less than a week away, and I'm fascinated to see how people embrace their fearful (and fun) side of this holiday. Many homes are decorated in orange lights, with ghosts and goblins taking up residence in the front yard. Today Halloween is like a warm-up to the big holiday season. And I love it!

We generally try to have some fun for Halloween at Shamrock. This year, we asked employees about their own quirky fears and phobias. I wasn't surprised to find a lot of people suffer from arachnophobia (fear of spiders). Arachnophobia is the number one fear people have. Heck, they even made a movie about fear of spiders in 1990 and titled it Arachnophobia. I bet it was a blockbuster.

Other phobias some people at Shamrock share include glossophobia (fear of public speaking); scoleciphobia (fear of worms); claustrophobia (fear of tight spaces); gephyrophobia (fear of high bridges over water), and fear of missing deadlines (we have no actual phobic name for this, but we all face it from time to time).

In honor of Halloween, we've put together a list of the Ten Most Common Phobias:

1. Arachnophobia (the most common) -- fear of spiders.
2. Ophidiophobia -- fear of snakes.
3. Acrophobia -- fear of heights.
4. Agoraphobia -- fear of situations in which escape is difficult.
5. Cynophobia -- fear of dogs.
6. Astraphobia -- fear of thunder and lightning.
7. Trypanophobia -- fear of injections.
8. Social Phobias -- fear of social situations (events, places, people)
9. Pteromerhanophobia -- fear of flying.
10. Mysophobia -- fear of germs or dirt.

The Internet actually lists hundreds of phobias that range from the obscure to the ridiculous to the potentially threatening to a person's lifestyle.

ONE LAST THING...  

One of the newest phobias on a large list of obscure ones is nomophobia, the fear of being out of mobile phone contact -- kind of a ridiculous phobia. But, why is it we like being scared? One reason I found is that the same place of the brain that experiences fear also is associated with pleasure. It is also a method of testing and overcoming our limits as well as realizing we are not always in danger and can enjoy the adrenalin rush. Enjoy your Halloween!