Indian media recently reported the bizarre case of a young couple who has shifted 18 houses in just 3 years, due to the wife’s extreme cockroach phobia.

Let’s be honest, few people genuinely like cockroaches, especially the ones they find crawling through their kitchen, but how many people do you know who have moved out of their home repeatedly because of cockroaches? Well, that’s exactly what this couple in Bhopal, India’s Madhya Pradesh state have been doing for the past 3 years, hoping to finally find a cockroach-free house. However, after no less than 18 moves in 3 years, the wife’s extreme fear of cockroaches has taken a toll on their marriage, and the exasperated husband is now preparing to file for divorce.

The husband, who works as a software engineer, became aware of his wife’s phobia – which actually has a name, katsaridaphobia – soon after their wedding in 2017. She screamed from the top of her lungs one day and ran out of the kitchen, scaring everyone in the house. She claimed that she had seen a cockroach and refused to go back into the kitchen ever again, insisting that they look for a new home.

The couple first changed houses in 2018, but it wasn’t long before the wife’s cockroach phobia flared up again, so they relocated once again. They’ve reportedly moved 18 times in total, and the husband has become fed up with his spouse’s phobia. He took her to several psychiatrists, including one at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), but the woman allegedly refuses to take the prescribed treatments.

The woman’s extreme fear of cockroaches has taken a heavy toll on the couple’s relationship, and their marriage is on the brink of collapse. On one hand, the wife claims that her spouse doesn’t understand her problem and is trying to have her declared mentally ill, and on the other the husband has simply had enough of the constant moving, and is preparing to file for divorce.

According to FearOf.net, like many other phobias, katsaridaphobia can manifest itself in various ways, from people freezing up at the simple mention of the word ‘cockroach’, to people feeling uncomfortable in the presence of the insects.

Oddity Central