Sentence:  She confessed to having a strange fear of balloons. Big mistake. That was all I needed to hear. ... I didn't think the fear of balloons was a real affliction until I wandered across <WSD>globophobia</WSD> in my research. Some people just experience a vague uneasieness around them, others actually fear deflated ones. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Extreme fear of balloons.