In such circumstances, a word ending in phobia is bound to be appropriate, because this is now the standard term for any extreme aversion, irrational fear or dread. After searching my sources for examples of the appropriate word, curiosity led me to look into similar terms. It is so strongly associated with modern psychiatry and pop-psychology that it is a little surprising to discover that as a word in its own right phobia dates back as far as 1786.
Most people only know a very few of the more common words formed using the suffix -phobia .
Claustrophobia is a fear of enclosed spaces, from the Latin claustrum , originally 'bar, bolt, lock' but later 'a confined or shut-up space', from which we also derive cloister , and close in the sense of an enclosure, court or quadrangle. Agoraphobia comes from the Greek word agora which originally meant an assembly but came to refer to the place of assembly and so any open space, especially a marketplace, thus leading to its sense of a fear of open spaces. One word physically close to that origin is acropolis , literally 'upper city', but more normally translated 'citadel', as being a structure one usually wishes to place on a commanding height. The same prefix turns up in acronym , a word formed from the tips, or beginnings, of other words, and in acromegaly , literally 'large extremities', in reference to deformations of the hands, feet or face. Also well known is hydrophobia , literally 'fear of water', as a name for rabies, which sometimes appears to cause such a sensation in sufferers because it makes the throat swell and so it becomes difficult for the victim to swallow.