The fear of popsicle sticks is not defined as a phobia. There is no technical name or a term that is accepted in psychiatry or psychology that defines the fear of popsicle sticks. Whether the fear is real or not cannot be debated because those who don’t have this fear will not relate to the reality that is experienced or dealt with by those who have the fear.
The Facts About Fearing Popsicle Sticks
The fear of popsicle sticks make people irritated or terrified at the very thought of touching or having to lick the sticks. Many people with the fear may be comfortable holding the sticks but they would feel horrible to touch the sticks with their lips or when they have to lick the surface of the sticks, most commonly when one is eating an ice cream or a candy that uses such sticks. Having the skin crawl, experiencing a shudder down or up the spine, feeling very uncomfortable with the taste in the mouth and goose bumps are very common realizations or reactions of people who have the fear of popsicle sticks.
This fear is quite common actually. People may not acknowledge it always or talk about it publicly but there are many people who don’t like to touch, feel or lick such sticks. The popsicle sticks do have a weird texture. They are essentially made of wood and like all wood they have a texture. But unlike some wood, especially those that are treated or engineered in special ways to have no texture at all, the commonly found popsicle sticks tend to have an odor of its own, a different kind of feel and also a taste. It is these attributes or characteristics that many people don’t like.
It is hard to say if the fear of popsicle sticks is actually a fear of the odor, taste, texture or the fact that one is tasting wood. But what can be said for certain is that it is not essentially a fear or phobia but disgust or dislike. People are actually averse to the sticks. Those who have this fear are actually apathetic to the sticks and dislike them strongly. It would be a little farfetched or overstretched to call this dislike or disgust a fear or phobia. However, there are extreme cases of some people with this fear being completely terrified, even to an extent that they don’t eat ice creams unless they are in scoop forms, having nothing to do with wooden sticks or even cones.