For someone with ochlophobia, or a fear of crowds, a jam-packed concert or shopping mall is more than a simple inconvenience; it's a source of overwhelming panic.
Ochlophobia can manifest in several ways: a fear of being trampled; anxiety over the transmission of germs; or the dread of losing one's bearings in a mass of people. For some, it's simply a generalized sense of panic triggered by the thought of entering a congested space. The word is derived from the Greek ochlos, meaning "crowd," paired with the suffix -phobia, meaning "fear."