Mental health is of course no joke, and I didn’t intend on coming across such a term yesterday. I was actually searching for the meaning of something else and Anatidaephobia came up as the word of the day in the Urban Dictionary. However, I had a strange feeling some readers may be suffering from such an unnerving affliction and worthy of a mention. As a public service announcement, there are certain sections of this website you may want to avoid.

Anatidaephobia is defined as “the fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.” This certainly takes Ornithophobia (fear of birds) to a new level as it is simply inescapable! While Eminem and Scarlett Johansson can simply escape into their birdless celebrity retreats, the unfortunate sufferers of this particular affliction are left with them following you everywhere. It must be a horrible existence, looking around every corner, in the bathtub, behind the TV, under your bed. One is likely watching you read about the illness you suspected you had all along right now.

Of course, just learning this term isn’t enough. More questions popped into my head. Can you treat anatidaephobia with horse dewormer? What portion of anatidaephobics are duck hunters? And, is there such a thing as voyeuristic anatidaephobes? No doubt thesis-worthy pursuits for any aspirational psychology student!

Ultimately this little rabbit hole led me not to articles in Psychology Today or clinical trials in the American Journal of Psychology, but to someone much more skilled at navigating the wonders of the human/animal psyche. It’s a sin he didn’t get the appropriate credit in the Urban Dictionary for his coining of this term but at least he did in the Wiki. So, Dr. Larson, I wish you all the success and due credit in your research and treatment of the ailment. If you need any visual stimuli for therapy plans, please let me know.