TEH FEAR OF FEAR ITSELF No TGIF for those afraid of the 13th triskaidekaphobia - extreme fear of the number 13 paraskevidekatriaphobia - fear of Friday the 13th
Omaha World-HeraldOct 13, 2017
A Friday the 13th landing in the middle of the month of
But here were are, the first Friday the 13th of October since 2006 and the last until 2023.
"There are people who specifically avoid the number 13, regardless of whether it's Friday the 13th," said
Fears come in all shapes, sizes and severities, but whether a fear is rational or irrational - whether it's sharks or black cats - the truism holds, well, true: You need to face your fears to overcome them.
"The fuel to all fears is avoidance," Weeks said. If a person grows up with a fear of 13, they tend to avoid it, and the avoidance becomes a self-reinforcing behavior.
"Depending on how often the source of the anxiety comes up, it can actually make a person feel like they have to continue to rely on the avoidance," Weeks said. "It can lock a person into a cycle."
This, he said, is why exposure therapy is typically the first means of fighting fears for people with anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders.
This can be a problem for people with a fear of something like Friday the 13th, which typically only happens one or two times a year. (Twice this year. Three times in 2026. And 26 is of course evenly divisible by 13 ... )
Those who have a debilitating or even moderate fear of the day or number don't have too much trouble avoiding triggers. Don't go to the 13th floor. Don't sit in the 13th row of an airplane. Don't travel on Friday the 13th.
That last one might be having something of an economic impact.
In a
And it doesn't take a crushing fear of 13 to want to avoid flying today. About one in four Americans consider themselves to be "somewhat" or "very" superstitious, according to a Gallup poll.
"Negative superstitions like the number 13 come from an attempt to order the world and have a greater control over events," said
The fear of 13, like any positive or negative superstition, is something that gets reinforced by pop culture. The never-ending "Friday the 13th" series has helped spread anxiety of the day.
"But there are people who do a double-whammy on 13," Vyse said. "There are people out there who turn it around and think of it as a lucky number."
Vyse himself considers 13 somewhat of a lucky number. There was that one time that he got a little freaked out during a turbulent flight after he realized he was sitting in the 13th row. But he has good reason to like the number.
Google various combos of "fear," "13" and "psychology," and Vyse's name invariably pops up near the top article results. He and the number are forever linked.
"The number 13 has been very good to me," he said. "I feel I owe a debt to all the superstitious people in the world."
micah.mertes@owh.com, 402-444-3182