Woman shares terror of vegetables

Krissie Palmer-Howarth suffered in silence for 40 years

A Sussex woman with a phobia that leaves her unable to say the names of any vegetables has not been to a greengrocer for 40 years.

Krissie Palmer-Howarth knew she had lachanophobia - a fear of vegetables - at the age of 17 and blamed it on a dislike of her uncle's shop.

She still remembers it as being "dark, dingy and dirty" with a horrible smell.

She suffered in silence until she called a BBC radio programme on unusual fears. She is now having hypnotherapy.

The Newhaven woman said: "One uncle had a shop that sold everything I didn't like.

"I remember I used to have to go in there a lot, and it was dark and every so dingy, and dirty.

"And it had that horrible, horrible smell that you get around these kind of things."

Vegetables. I don't like talking about them, or touching, or smelling them Krissie Palmer-Howarth

She said: "Vegetables. I don't like talking about them, or touching, or smelling them.

"I don't like it. I really don't like it. I'm being honest. I really don't like it."

Hypnotherapist Christina Mills said: "As soon as I've got her into a nice relaxed trance state, I'm going to formulate some positive suggestions that I'm going to make for her subconscious mind."

Dr Cosmo Hallstrom, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: "It could well be there's been an incident that has been linked to a vegetable.

"The incident was unpleasant, not the vegetable, and so the fear is switched over on to the vegetable, rather than the incident itself."

Other rare phobias include anuptaphobia, the fear of staying single, or pentheraphobia, the fear of mother-in-laws.