Match the Manias Trivia Quiz

Answer: aerochoreomania

I wonder how aerochoreomania would manifest itself - you are at work or school and jump up and start doing aerobic exercise? Do you think Jennie Craig or Lucille Roberts might be afflicted? Seriously though, a mania is really nothing to laugh at; it is an illness involving an abnormally elevated mood state and can also include increased irritability, inappropriate elation, severe insomnia and poor judgment. 'Mania' comes from the Greek word for 'madness'.

The incorrect choices are: apimania, an obsession with bees; ablutomania, a compulsion to wash or clean oneself; ailuromania, an intense love of cats.

Answer: ergomania

'Ergo' is from the Greek word for 'work'; ergomania is an abnormal passion for work, and could also be called 'workaholism'. The boss might initially be pleased with such workers, but in the long run they are suffering from an illness which causes a compulsion to work all the time.

This mania could result in a lack of sleep which could lead to errors on the job and alienation of family; remember, a mania is a sickness and, depending upon the severity, could lead to hospitalization. Egomania, just like it sounds, relates to self-worship; erythromania is a compulsion to blush over minor incidents or an obsession with the color red; entomomania is an excessive love of insects.

Answer: compulsion to give gifts

I find it hard to picture Oprah as a choreomaniac (with a compulsion to dance), and she is neither a dipsomaniac (craving alcohol) nor a demonomaniac (possessed by evil spirits). She certainly does have a penchant for giving gifts away - whether it borders on the manic, however, is doubtful since she is a billionaire and could afford pretty much anything she wants.

She has given her whole studio audience brand new cars, and for her 25th anniversary show, she arranged to take all three hundred members of her audience on a trip across the world to Australia. If it's not doromania, it sure is philanthropy!

Answer: automania

If you look in the Merriam-Webster dictionary, automania is defined as having an obsession with cars - first known use in 1903, and I believe it to be a 'y' chromosome thing. According to the alphadictionary.com, however, automania is the compulsive need for solitude (e.g., a hermit), with the latter usage being the more common. An achluomaniac is a creature of the night, one who thrives on darkness (Dracula?); graphomania or scribomania refers to an obsessive need to write (Stephen King, perhaps?); aulomania is an obsession with flutes.

Answer: agromania

Agromania or less commonly called agoramania is the intense need to be out in open spaces; it is the opposite of agoraphobia where the sufferer is unable to leave the house. Someone who is claustrophobic and afraid of being in enclosed or narrow spaces would prefer being outside to being closed in, but that doesn't mean they would necessarily have agromania.

As for the definitions of the incorrect choices: bruxomania is a compulsion to grind one's teeth; aboulomania consists of a pathological indecisiveness - two aboulomanics probably don't get out much ('What do you want to do?'); catapedamania is obsession with jumping from high places (parkour, anyone?).

Answer: anglomania

Anglomania is an obsession with England and all things English or excessive admiration for English customs; in other words, when an Anglophile starts decorating his home with the Union Jack, pauses for tea time precisely at 4 pm London time, and can quote "The Canterbury Tales" word for word in Middle English, he may have gone 'round' the bend and into Anglomania.

It would seem that our culture has spawned many words for sexual aberrations: andromania, cytheromania and nymphomania are all synonymous and are defined as excessive sexual desire in a female, while gynaecomania is an abnormal sexual obsession with women...the list goes on and is far too long to quantify here!

Answer: obsession with flowers

From the ancient Greek, 'anthos' for flower, anthomania or florimania is an extravagant fondness for flowers or an obsession with flowers. This may not seem like a problem because, after all, everyone likes flowers (except perhaps an anthophobic) but, like all manias, any obsession makes leading a normal life difficult.

The sufferers might go into debt in order to surround themselves with the beauty and fragrance of flowers or it might be difficult for them to concentrate in the presence of flowers.

The incorrect choices can also cause manic behavior: i.e., obsession with books - bibliomania; obsession with suicide - autophonomania; obsession with owning furs - doramania.

Answer: theomania

Theomania ('theo' from theology) is a mania whose victims suffer from a Messiah complex with delusions of grandeur and could also include megalomania i.e., a person obsessed with his own power; while Manson, Koresh and Jim Jones all fit the pattern, having an adverse effect on the lives of many people, we might also include Joan of Arc, "The Maid of Orleans" who heard voices which caused her to lead the French to victory at Orleans and to becoming a Roman Catholic saint. With respect to the others: nosomania is an obsession with imagined disease (hypochondriasis); sideromania is an obsession with railroad travel (Sheldon Cooper?), and tomomania is an obsession with surgery.

Answer: phonomania

In the medilexicon.com, phonomania is listed as a rarely used term for a homicidal mania, i.e., a pathological desire to murder, but it is also defined on the internet in yourdictionary.com and in the alphadictionary.com as an abnormal love of noise, sound, voices or telephones. I hope, if you ever have to use the term, it involves noise and not murder, although the noise could lead to the murder? The other three choices, phagomania, cibomania and sitiomania, are synonymous and all represent a compulsive desire to eat; they may also fall into another category, i.e., the seven deadly sins (as gluttony).

Answer: excessive desire to sleep

I put this question at the end in case you exhibit signs of hypnomania and have an excessive desire to sleep (zzzz...) or an intense need to be hypnotized; in either case, I'm glad you made through to the end of the quiz! Just in case you're still with me: the water compulsion is hydrodipsomania; the sun compulsion is heliomania, and the compulsion to talk is logomania. Before I go I wanted to introduce you to one more mania, i.e., pentheromania, which is the obsessive love for your mother-in-law but, strangely, this one almost never occurs.