Phobia: Who Has One?

[MarekM]

I've always been intrigued by the concept, but I don't have one, so I've never really understood everything that they entail.

So who here has a phobia? What is it? Why do you suppose you have it? If it's an irrational fear, why can't you break it?

[fls]

I have claustrophobia. I cannot trace it to any particular event, so clearly it is present because the re-incarnated soul inhabiting my body died in a mining accident cave-in or was buried alive for some other reason.

Linda

[I Ratant]

One soul per person.
Fear of enclosures isn't something that rare.

[Soapy Sam]

Falling. Even minor turbulence on aircraft sends me into a paroxysm of funk- bending the seat arms, sweating, gut knotted, scared spitless.
Yet far worse bouncing around in a truck has no effect on me at all. If anything I quite enjoy it.
Why can't I control it? I can , to some extent. Every month I get on at least one long haul flights and a couple of shorter ones. I haven't refused to go yet, but it has got no easier though I've been flying regularly for over 30 years.
Lack of control has something to do with it, but it's funny how fast you create superstitious associations- it seemed every time I got a cup of coffee we would hit turbulence. I actually found myself avoiding coffee on aircraft. How's that for an example of superstition?
I have others. Spiders give me the willies. I've learned to tolerate them if I see them and have time to establish my comfort zone. I'll even pick one up if I must, but I still get spooked if one lands on me when I don't expect it.
Surprise and lack of control are implicated for sure.

[Professor Yaffle]

I have a mild phobia of being underground, or underwater - eg caving, or going down in a submarine. I feel all this weight above me and it makes me feel very claustrophobic. Now I've never actually been in a submarine, but when I watched the film Sphere I felt as bad as I do when I have tried caving.

I also have a vicarious fear of heights. I am fine with being in high places myself, but I can't watch other people walking near cliff edges etc.

I've never really tried to tackle them because they are pretty mild in comparison to some other people's phobias and they don't really have that much of an impact on my life.

[readme.txt]

forumphobia here

[Mirrorglass]

Spiders. I'm not sure when it happened, but at some point as a kid I started fearing them, completely irrationally. The spiders in my country are tiny, harmless creatures with fangs that can't pierce human skin and weak venom. Yet whenever I see one my hairs stand on end and I can't stop looking around. Just seeing a picture of a spider will ruin my mood. Heck, writing about this makes me feel unpleasant.

Luckily, my fear isn't completely uncontrollable, and I retain my ability to function in the presence of spiders. But it really makes me feel miserable. When I think of spiders, I look around, everywhere, to see one isn't lurking anywhere. I do this only half-voluntarily - I can't really stop myself if I try.

I'm fairly certain the reason my fear is so strong and irrational is because fear of spiders is a natural human tendency. Our apey ancestors had to deal with spiders of a much bigger variety, and I assume quite a few got killed by the venom. So it's not strange that evolution would favor individuals who are good at avoiding the things. I believe my reaction to spiders is built in to my brain, and with good reason, since the looking around and being wary would be a good survival strategy in the jungle.

[JoeB]

Probably not on the phobia level, but needles. I get physically ill seeing or even thinking about shots/IVs. Doesn't stop me from getting my vaxs (though they aren't a fun experience) but despite being very interested in medical science I pretty much ruled health care out of my potential fields of work because of it.

A family friend works at one of the blood donation centers in town and would be at some of the blood drives my high school had. I would take a much longer way around that part of the building or almost run past it during blood drives because I didn't want to get pulled in to talk to him around all the needles.

[Pup]

Heights. I can actually remember when I got it.

There was a metal observation tower in a nature park near where I grew up, the kind with open stairs, a couple stories high. When I first moved to the area at age four, I can vaguely remember enjoying going up it to see the view.

Then sometime within a year or so afterwards, I hated it and would refuse to go up it.

Nothing happened that I recall, and my parents never said that anything happened. I just somehow grew into a fear of heights around age five or six.

[tongue-in-cheek]I think that fls (Linda) would agree that it must be because I was a roofer in a former life who enjoyed heights, but about the age when my past-life memories faded, the phobia that I was destined for in this life began.[/tongue-in-cheek]

I don't mind being up high if I'm behind a barrier, like in an airplane, looking out a building window, etc. If I'm on a platform or similar situation, like those open stairs, it's a physical sensation more than a mental one, sort of a trembling kind of weakness. I can ignore it with great mental effort if necessary--actually installed the roof on our barn myself--but it's no fun and takes a lot of effort.

[GlennB]

Probably not on the phobia level, but needles. I get physically ill seeing or even thinking about shots/IVs. Doesn't stop me from getting my vaxs (though they aren't a fun experience) but despite being very interested in medical science I pretty much ruled health care out of my potential fields of work because of it.


Hmmm ... while I don't fear the blood test or dental anaesthetic in the slightest, the ol' body just reacts badly to needles and I'll probably get woozy. So embarrassing :blush:

But maybe the nearest I have to a phobia is parasites. I hate the idea of animals snacking off me or - heaven forbid - actually living inside me. Bleeeuuurghhh.

[casebro]

Is "phobia" the right word here? I thought the definition is "unreasonable fear"?

A fear of falling while on the ladder is not unreasonable is it? While fear of falling off of a curb is unreasonable. Fear of getting your throat slashed by a stranger is also unreasonable.

Or at least that is what I feel in my soul, maybe because of past life experiences as a psychoanalyst or bartender perhaps? ;)

[jhunter1163]

I have significant fears of both heights and spiders, although I don't know if they rise to the level of a phobia. I've turned rooms upside down to kill a spider, and I don't even like being as tall as I am (5 feet 10), much less climbing on roofs.

[Mirrorglass]

Is "phobia" the right word here? I thought the definition is "unreasonable fear"?

A fear of falling while on the ladder is not unreasonable is it? While fear of falling off of a curb is unreasonable. Fear of getting your throat slashed by a stranger is also unreasonable.

Or at least that is what I feel in my soul, maybe because of past life experiences as a psychoanalyst or bartender perhaps? ;)

The point is the magnitude of the fear. If you can't climb a ladder from the fear, it's unreasonable. On the other hand, fearing a throat-slashing danger is quite reasonable if it keeps you from entering dark New York alleys at night but doesn't bother you during the day.

[MrQhuest]

I have an irrational fear of bees and hornets. Yes, i was stung as a child, and the fear just stuck. It really is interesting, if a see a bee at a distance, I can approach it and deal with it rationally. However if one surprises me when I am not expecting it, I cannot control the impulse to run. The very worst thing for me is when I hear the "buzz" and can't identify where it is coming from. A sense of panic sets in and i really cannot do anything else until it is gone.
MrQ

[Elaedith]

Anything to do with medical treatment or pain of any kind, including injections, routine examinations, dental work etc. I've never had anything major like an operation. I have no idea how I would get through it if I had to.

[wolfgirl]

Heights. I force myself (or more often have my husband force me) to tackle heights despite my fear, so I've been to the top of the Sears Tower, the St. Louis Arch, the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, etc., but I get the heart-pounding, palm-sweating, gut-twisting, almost-incontrollable urge to flee as soon as I'm up there.

I learned that if I can't stop the ascent, like in an elevator, then I (obviously) make it to the top, and I'm always glad I did, which is why I make my husband force me (though it causes him to appear to be a monster, like when I was actually crying and saying "no, please, don't make me" as he forced me onto the Eiffel Tower elevator). But if I have a choice, like on the spiral staircase at the William Wallace Tower in Scotland, I can't complete the task. Halfway up, my knees were actually buckling, and I couldn't breathe, and I had to turn around and go back down. The instant my feet hit the ground, I couldn't understand why I had come down; it all just seemed silly, and I was so mad at myself. I had to sit there and look up at my sister-in-law leaning over the top and waving down at us (yes, my husband came down with me, so I ruined it for him, too).

To my knowledge, nothing ever happened to give me this fear.

[kittynh]

high bridges

[23_Tauri]

The way I see it, it's not so much an object or scenario that makes us feel scared, but fear of the fear. We fear in the present moment the fear that we anticipate that we will experience when confronted with a particular scenario. Feeling scared is another way that we allow ourselves to be bullied by our thoughts. That is all they are: thoughts.

I'm not trying to belittle anybody's phobias here, there's plenty of things that make me feel scared too, but just trying to come to the concept from a different perspective.

[I Ratant]

I have an irrational fear of bees and hornets. Yes, i was stung as a child, and the fear just stuck. It really is interesting, if a see a bee at a distance, I can approach it and deal with it rationally. However if one surprises me when I am not expecting it, I cannot control the impulse to run. The very worst thing for me is when I hear the "buzz" and can't identify where it is coming from. A sense of panic sets in and i really cannot do anything else until it is gone.
MrQ
.
I've been stung, and had one inside my helmet while on a motocycle..
But when they land on me, I just admire their "beeness" and let them fly away.
(Knowing the result should I try to remove it forcefully. :) )

[Lisa Simpson]

Emetophobia.

[nimzov]

Guns, power tools and heights.

[fls]

Is "phobia" the right word here? I thought the definition is "unreasonable fear"?

The intensity of the fear is unreasonable.

Linda

[HawaiiBigSis]

High, open places. I can look out -- or down -- from an enclosed place, but looking out without a window causes the sensation that gravity will somehow pull me over the wall. At the Grand Canyon, even the guardrail was not far enough back from the edge to keep me feeling safe.

And like kittynh, high bridges do it to me. I've been on a couple that have made me extremely nervous, even in a car.

And crowds. My only full-blown panic attack was in Las Vegas in front of the pirate show at the Treasure Island. I was fine as long as everybody was standing still watching the show. The minute the show broke up, and everybody started milling around, I couldn't breathe and I started crying. I looped my arm around the fence and clung to it until everybody left, and have avoided being in the middle of a crowd ever since.

[Almo]

Claustro here. It's really fear of being unable to move. I had a napkin ring once, and it just fit the phalanx proximalis with my finger bent. It got stuck and I panicked because I couldn't move the finger.

The time it went off the worst was on a ride at Alton Towers that was one of those wide pendula where they sit about 2-3 rows of 20 people side by side and spin them around. We were so stuffed in that I couldn't move and I felt the panic coming. If I hadn't really carefully calmed myself down I think I would have started screaming.

It's possible it's related to something that happened when I was a kid. I got into a very small chicken coop (empty of chickens) with 2 friends, and the door locked and we couldn't get out. We were stuck in there all afternoon until someone found us and let us out.

Odd note on subject: heights relax me. Those parachute rides at amusement parks where they bring you way up the drop you in free fall really calm me. I've jumped out of an airplane in a tandem jump and had the same reaction.

[Matthew Cline]

I have two. One is of crane flies (aka mosquito hawks), which look like several inch long nose-less mosquitos. Totally harmless, but if one is in the room I have to keep my eye on it until I get rid of it. I really don't know the root cause of that.

The second is tornadoes, whirl-pools and black-holes. In other-words, funnel shaped things which suck in other things (black holes looking like funnels in their "curved space-time is like a deformed sheet of rubber" representation). I'm pretty sure that one came from when I was a kid and in an encyclopedia I saw a black-and-white photo of a tornado, which looked like a gargantuan evil finger reaching down out of the sky to touch the ground; really freaked me out.

[desertgal]

Claustrophobia...more specifically, like Professor Yaffle, being underwater or underground. Probably because, when I was a kid, my grandfather used to tell us kids a graphic story about a woman who was buried alive, and it stuck with me.

[Tsukasa Buddha]

I have Social Phobia (aka Social Anxiety Disorder). Mostly I am afraid of people thinking poorly of me, or of me making stupid mistakes (which anxiety usually makes me do), or of not knowing what to say. Some people only get it for public speeches, or other specific scenarios. I get it all the time.

I manage by people pleasing and staying home. I couldn't deal with school and had medical withdrawals for when I broke down. While being stuck at home sucks a lot, you can't imagine the relief from being out of the school social environment. But while at school, it kinda helped motivate me because I would always be afraid of letting the teacher down :p .

Though I do get some triggers on the forum, it isn't nearly as bad as talking with people in real life.

[Evilgiraffe]

I normally describe myself as an arachnophobe, but I don't think it's a true phobia. I just find the nasty, little scuttly things deeply disturbing.

I have another psychological problem that's definitely not a phobia, it's just weird. I can't stand on a high balcony without getting a morbid fascination about what might happen were I to leap over the railings and plummet to the ground.

[Pup]

The way I see it, it's not so much an object or scenario that makes us feel scared, but fear of the fear. We fear in the present moment the fear that we anticipate that we will experience when confronted with a particular scenario. Feeling scared is another way that we allow ourselves to be bullied by our thoughts. That is all they are: thoughts.

I'm not trying to belittle anybody's phobias here, there's plenty of things that make me feel scared too, but just trying to come to the concept from a different perspective.

Not sure I get the significance.

With a phobia, the fear is a basic stimulus-response reaction, like being pricked with a pin and feeling pain. Since the response is negative, people tend to avoid the stimulus, unless there's a stronger motivation to endure it anyway.

So to say that people are bullied by their own thoughts if they want to avoid a phobia trigger, is like saying that people are bullied by their own thoughts if they want to avoid pricking themselves with a pin, since a pinprick causes no long-term harm, only some brief negative mental activity, the same as the emotions caused by a phobia.

The sensations of a phobia are just as real as any other negative mental experience, from pain to humiliation to grief, all of which we try to avoid if possible, and all of which require some other compensation for us to deliberately choose to experience them.

I guess I don't see the point of phrasing it that way. What meaning is one supposed to take away: that a person with a phobia is a coward because they want to avoid touching snakes or climbing heights or whatever? If so, that seems more an example of bullying itself, than anything else.

[Trent Wray]

forumphobia here LOL!

-----------------

Until I was about 25 I had a phobia of flying insects. All of them. June bugs, flies, gnats, wasps, lady bugs, etc. Some of them were understandable, but most of them were irrational. I would literally panic and cringe my shoulders up around my neck without thinking and sometimes would actually run. It took me several moments to calm down and talk myself through the bug getting close to me. This always brought laughs from my friends because I was a 6'0" 235# muscled tough guy LOL, and still am more or less.

I think I could trace mine back though, to when my father burned a cigarette into my shoulder at my first baseball game (5 yo). It was an accident, but instead of telling me it was just the cigarette, he also told me it could have been a bug (I think he felt guilty). I specifically remember watching the bugs all night fly around the stadium lights as well, being terrified they would land on me and burn my neck/shoulder area.

I finally got over it when I worked on a commercial fishing boat, and the bait we used constantly attracted bees in large numbers. I just forced myself through it, and eventually lost the irrational fear.

I also get anxiety talking on the phone almost immediatley, but it's not a phobia. I am a very outspoken and outgoing person in general, and not afraid of public speaking and/or being the center of attention either individually or in a group. But for some reason, I hate the phone because it causes anxiety in me and almost a fear. I don't know why :(

[readme.txt]

I used to have a spider phobia, but now it's gone.

Now I suffer Sylviabrownophobia.

[Disclord]

Trentwray wrote:
I also get anxiety talking on the phone almost immediatley, but it's not a phobia. I am a very outspoken and outgoing person in general, and not afraid of public speaking and/or being the center of attention either individually or in a group. But for some reason, I hate the phone because it causes anxiety in me and almost a fear. I don't know why

I have that too and I've never understood why. Even something simple like ordering a pizza on the phone makes me uncomfortable and nervous. It drives my partner crazy because I always make him make the call. When I do talk on the phone to family and friends, I pace back and forth the whole time - I can't sit still, even for a moment. The invention of email has been so wonderful for me because, in the vast majority of cases, I can just email someone and don't have to worry about calling them.

[lionking]

High, open places. I can look out -- or down -- from an enclosed place, but looking out without a window causes the sensation that gravity will somehow pull me over the wall. At the Grand Canyon, even the guardrail was not far enough back from the edge to keep me feeling safe.



That's me as well. No problem in a plane, but on a balcony, I feel quite ill.

[Trent Wray]

I have that too and I've never understood why. Even something simple like ordering a pizza on the phone makes me uncomfortable and nervous. It drives my partner crazy because I always make him make the call. When I do talk on the phone to family and friends, I pace back and forth the whole time - I can't sit still, even for a moment. The invention of email has been so wonderful for me because, in the vast majority of cases, I can just email someone and don't have to worry about calling them. I know right! It also drives my friends and family crazy on my end. I won't answer the phone, and I also ask them to make simple phone calls also :)

It drives me nuts, because I am a self-confident person in-person. And generally in all other circumstances. But with the phone, I just feel so totally incompetent and anxious and afraid. The only thing I can think, is that in person I'm very expressive and talk a lot with my hands and body language. Online, I am long-winded and can type fast and don't mind thinking outloud and I know that reading is very different in comprehending another person than listening to them. But over the phone, no one can see what I'm doing and I think that might bother me. I have to rely on my voice, and I can't see the other person either. I think it boils down to trust and personal representation or something.

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

I have two. I have a phobia of heights and a phobia of medicine. Especially of surgery and anesthesia. As a consequence, I haven't been to a doctor in years, have never had eye surgery even though I have really bad vision and have never had my wisdom teeth pulled. I'm also planning to probably adopt my children if I get married and decide to start a family. I can donate blood with no problem, though.

I've had both since I was a child. Ever since I can remember. I was always sick and tired of everyone constantly telling me it was "irrational" over and over since it was very rational to me. Now I recognize it's irrational and both have gotten a lot weaker as I've grown older (mainly through me pushing myself to go to places like the Empire State Building, Top of the Rock, church towers in Europe or the Eiffel Tower whenever I traveled and did touristy things). I can do a lot of things I couldn't do before but I still have both.

As to why I have my phobia of heights, I don't know. I once saw a playmate fall down a hole and nearly break his neck when I was a little girl. Could that be it? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe I just fell off the jungle gym one too many times as a child.

What it entails- my palms sweat when I'm in a high places, I feel lightheaded, my sense of standing on solid ground is gone, I'm certain the whole place will fall down at any second and I get the bizarre nagging urge to jump off the building/tower/bridge/balcony/boat/whatever it is. This has nothing to do with being suicidal...the best explanation of it is an urge to breach the beckoning gap between you and the ground.

As to the phobia of medicine, I have no idea why I have it or why I'm so afraid and uncomfortable at even the thought of being examined by a doctor.

My best guess is that my mother took me to doctors too frequently and at too young an age when I was little. She used to call an ambulance over things like my sister or me getting a swollen eye and took us to checkups more than regularly so she might have inadvertently given me a phobia. My mother also watched shows like ER when I was little and maybe I was damaged by seeing bloody surgeries on TV. Maybe a doctor treated me roughly when I was a girl. Or maybe getting shots as a child traumatized me for life.

[temporalillusion]

My wife has a phobia about snakes.. I'm pretty sure that if I put a rubber snake in the bed or threw one at her she would die of a heart attack, it's that bad.

I myself have a slight phobia about some kinds of bugs, the bigger the worse it is.. my kid LOVES to have me play videos of massive centipedes and beetles and stuff off youtube, and I usually have to look out the side of my eye or squint if at all, dealing with them in real life would be even harder.. though we've gone to places where they're in terrariums and I haven't had much of a problem so not sure.

But a real one for me is caves. Not really bad, I can go into bigger open caves or ones that are for the public.. but if I had to put on my own headlamp and crawl inside that would be my line. And a cave under water, that would make me freak out.

That and any kind of mind-altering drugs. I can be reading an article in Time magazine about something and if it goes into any detail about taking drugs (heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, whatever), I actually get a nervous sweat and I can feel my heart race.

As to why for any of those, I don't really know.

[Staropeace]

Insects,heights and I fear choking.

[Ysidro]

Does Social Anxiety Disorder count?

Also, I have mild acrophobia and maybe aracnophobia. The latter seems to have almost vanished on it's own while the former is limited to things like ladders or heights without barriers (like rooftops or cliffs.)

[fls]

The way I see it, it's not so much an object or scenario that makes us feel scared, but fear of the fear. We fear in the present moment the fear that we anticipate that we will experience when confronted with a particular scenario. Feeling scared is another way that we allow ourselves to be bullied by our thoughts. That is all they are: thoughts.

I'm not trying to belittle anybody's phobias here, there's plenty of things that make me feel scared too, but just trying to come to the concept from a different perspective.

To be honest, I don't experience the fear beforehand. I only get myself into situations where I experience claustrophobia because I forget that the experience will terrify me. For example, the last time this happened I was at a hotel with waterslides. I had already gone on several slides when I went into one which turned out to be enclosed. The terror I felt was unbearable, but it couldn't be attributed to my thoughts bullying me or getting worked up about it beforehand. It seems to be the other way around - you suddenly discover that you are terrified and you have to figure out why (well, you're not really 'figuring out' anything when you're in that state, but you know what I mean).

Linda

[Ivor the Engineer]

I feel the anxiety response when approaching certain words in sentences which I think I'll stutter when I say them.

I'm not sure I interpret the sensation as 'fear' though.

[Ivor the Engineer]

The way I see it, it's not so much an object or scenario that makes us feel scared, but fear of the fear. We fear in the present moment the fear that we anticipate that we will experience when confronted with a particular scenario. Feeling scared is another way that we allow ourselves to be bullied by our thoughts. That is all they are: thoughts.

I'm not trying to belittle anybody's phobias here, there's plenty of things that make me feel scared too, but just trying to come to the concept from a different perspective.

I'm not sure how valid the 'fear of fear' hypothesis is. I think it has more to do with a (typically but not always) faulty assessment of the likely outcome of an experience leading to a conditioned anxiety response when in similar situations in the future.

[dasmiller]

I suppose there's fuzziness in what counts as "unreasonable," too.

I had a bad airline flight many years ago, and for years after that it was very difficult for me to fly. I knew the odds were (literally) millions-to-one against getting killed on a particular flight, but still I couldn't contol my imagination, and it was not imagining millions of ways that the flight would arrive safely.

So - given that previous experience, was the fear 'unreasonable?' I really don't know.

BTW - It eventually passed, and I don't have any problem flying now. Boredom sometimes defeats fear.

[bookitty]

I have Social Phobia (aka Social Anxiety Disorder). Mostly I am afraid of people thinking poorly of me, or of me making stupid mistakes (which anxiety usually makes me do), or of not knowing what to say. Some people only get it for public speeches, or other specific scenarios. I get it all the time.

I manage by people pleasing and staying home. I couldn't deal with school and had medical withdrawals for when I broke down. While being stuck at home sucks a lot, you can't imagine the relief from being out of the school social environment. But while at school, it kinda helped motivate me because I would always be afraid of letting the teacher down :p .

Though I do get some triggers on the forum, it isn't nearly as bad as talking with people in real life.

Yep. It's one of the reasons I work from home. In social situations I tend to overcompensate (speak too quickly, loudly, etc) until I catch myself doing it, break into a sweat and sit quiet. Relax, start over, rinse & repeat. At some point I'll end up in the bathroom talking myself down from a panic attack. I've found that truly ridiculous positive reinforcement (Yes, you did sound silly but your hair would make Botticelli weep!) escalating to trivia (and those shoes! Magnifique!) works to make me laugh at myself. If I can do that, I can go back out. Although sometimes it's easiest to just slip away without telling anyone and make it up later.

[GenghisKhan]

Butterflies. They send me into paroxysms of fear. Anything fluttering by, be it a leaf or debris or actually a butterfly, makes me spasm in a kind of fight-or-flight reaction.

On a more reasonable note: falling. I like to climb at the rock walls and if I think of the idea that my harness could break, I freeze until I convince myself that nothing is going to spontaneously snap.

I'm also terrified of spiders, but that seems to be so run-of-the-mill.

[Mirrorglass]

Butterflies. They send me into paroxysms of fear. Anything fluttering by, be it a leaf or debris or actually a butterfly, makes me spasm in a kind of fight-or-flight reaction.

I find this very interesting. Do you mind if I ask you to describe this fear in a bit more detail? For example, are you afraid of the butterfly touching you, biting you, or something else? Or can you not accurately describe what you are afraid of? Also, does the fear stick? Once you've made sure it was a leaf, does it recede, or do you remain flustered?

If you don't want to answer, don't force yourself. I know how unpleasant it can be to even think of this stuff. I'm just curious about different bug phobias, as I think they might be the key to understanding my own.

[Vic Vega]

I don't, but one of my sons is afraid of heights. When he was a baby, I would do the typical things you do with a kid. Hold them upside down, hold him up so his feet would touch the ceiling, carry him on my shoulders, swing him around, etc.

When he was almost two, he climbed out of his crib, landed on his head on the hardwood floor, and knocked himself out cold. Since that day, he's been afraid of heights. The first time I tried to turn him upside down after that, he screamed bloody murder.

[ponderingturtle]

Is "phobia" the right word here? I thought the definition is "unreasonable fear"?


So say you had a glass floor with a 1000' drop below it. It is perfectly safe, but many people will not walk on it and if put on it would be very afraid. Is that reasonable?

A phobia is fear out of proportion to the risk. So you can be perfectly safe and terrified.

Myself I have minor phobias with heights and snakes.

[Dancing David]

I've always been intrigued by the concept, but I don't have one, so I've never really understood everything that they entail.

So who here has a phobia? What is it? Why do you suppose you have it? If it's an irrational fear, why can't you break it?

I have had many in the past, thank you Zoloft.

[luchog]

So say you had a glass floor with a 1000' drop below it. It is perfectly safe, but many people will not walk on it and if put on it would be very afraid. Is that reasonable?
Reasonable is a judgement, and one which I would not make. I prefer to make the distinction between rational and irrational. It's definitely an irrational fear; but one which is effectively hard-wired.

My personal phobias are for SPIDERS!!!! All terrestrial arthropods in general, to varying degrees. Some, like bees, ants, butterflies, or millipededs, I have no noticible fear of at all. Others, such as centipedes, wasps, or scorpions, only what could be seen as a purely rational fear (which applies to any venomous little buggers, especially the aggressive ones). Yet others, such as spiders, and to a lesser extent roaches, cause an intense, purely irrational fear. Oddly, I can overcome it in some cases, if the critter is sufficiently attractive in appearance (such as a particular Japanese orb web spider whose name escapes me, which is very brightly coloured). I really have no idea why, since I don't recall having this sort of phobia as a child. I played with all sorts of critters, including ones that would now send me running screaming like a little girl. And I don't recall any particularly bad experiences with any, aside from a couple of bee stings, and a fire-ant bite (my brother was the one who had all the bad experiences with the little buggers, including getting tagged by a bombadier beetle and nearly stepping on a scorpion barefoot).

Telephones. I have a strange phobia of telephones. I think it's mostly due to the whole "disembodied voice" thing, combined with my Asperger's. It makes a huge difference iwho I'm talking to -- I do far better f I'm talking to friends or close aquaintances, as opposed to complete strangers. Telephone-based customer service/tech support is one of the most stressful types of jobs I've ever worked, for this reason.

I can't think of any others off the top of my head. The usual range of creepy-crawlies that scare people are things that I possess a notable affection for -- snakes, rats, bats,

[Wrathernaut]

I don't know if it's really a phobia, but the thought of eating green peas or lima beans make me want to puke.

I figure such unexplained fears of food are a normal part of evolution - if the mere sight of something makes you want to not eat it, if it turns out to be poisonous, you're safe.

I would assume that most animals get the same disgust when looking at brightly colored toads and such.

[ponderingturtle]

Reasonable is a judgement, and one which I would not make. I prefer to make the distinction between rational and irrational. It's definitely an irrational fear; but one which is effectively hard-wired.

Yet it is one that many people don't seem to have. My brother was never bothered by heights, yet I could be inside a building and have the wrong windows and it would bother me. I had issues with really long escalators in the DC subway system too.

[Fishstick]

High, open places. I can look out -- or down -- from an enclosed place, but looking out without a window causes the sensation that gravity will somehow pull me over the wall. At the Grand Canyon, even the guardrail was not far enough back from the edge to keep me feeling safe.
.

I have this exact same thing. I always feel like i will be pulled toward the edge, or I'll have the unresistable urge to jump off.

[Mark6]

When I was a kid I was afraid of spiders. I got rid of that fear by forcing myself to pick up spiders and hold them -- or to let them run over my hand while holding as still as I could. Eventually the fear went away, and I have absolutely no problem with spiders, snakes, or any other "creepy-crawlies".

I am the very opposite of claustrophobic, and always was. Small enclosed spaces are comforting to me; I've heard about people going into panic inside MRI -- to me an MRI tube is about as inviting, comfortable place to sleep as can be. (If not for that stupid metallic bang every few minutes!)

As an avid scuba diver, I obviously have no fear of depths or of crushing weight of water -- at least no irrational fear. It is entirely rational to be scared a little when you know there are 200 feet of water between you and the surface, and that rapid ascent can kill you -- and in fact fear is a good thing, as long as it focuses your mind on the task and does not cause panic.

I am afraid of heights. Did not used to when I was young, it gradually increased with age -- I have no idea why. Now I am distinctly uncomfortable standing on a high ledge, or next to a parapet. In fact, waist-high parapets such as found in shopping malls evoke a distinctly irrational fear of being pushed. I can't shake the feeling that someone will walk up behind me and throw me over. I think that's the only true phobia I have. And it only surfaced within last 5-10 years.

[Agatha]

I am not good with heights, for reasons others have described above.

I have a madly irrational fear of light bulbs, I've had it as long as I can recall. I hate even looking at a picture of one. Fortunately it doesn't seem to extend to the new energy saving ones, I don't like them but I can look at pictures and even handle them. Since it's now illegal to sell the old style ones here, I rarely come into contact with them (though that seems to increase my fear, not lessen it). As far as I know, I haven't had any bad experiences with them so I can't explain it.

[Professor Yaffle]

I'm not sure if this counts as a phobia - it is more of a physical reaction, like you might get to the sound of nails down a blackboard, or the squeak of a marker pen. For me, it is cotton wool touching teeth. It physically hurts me to even think of it for the briefest amount of time, so I'm going to stop typing this now and try to think of something else.

[Pup]

I am the very opposite of claustrophobic, and always was. Small enclosed spaces are comforting to me;

Never thought about it, but I'm the same way.

[wolfgirl]

As an avid scuba diver, I obviously have no fear of depths or of crushing weight of water -- at least no irrational fear. It is entirely rational to be scared a little when you know there are 200 feet of water between you and the surface, and that rapid ascent can kill you -- and in fact fear is a good thing, as long as it focuses your mind on the task and does not cause panic.I'm a scuba diver, too, and I've often wondered why my fear of heights doesn't translate underwater, because often you are looking down, down, down into the depths with nothing beneath you for as far as you can see, and you're just hanging there, suspended. It seems as though this should bother me, but it doesn't at all. I also have very mild claustrophobia, but again, it doesn't seem to affect me at all underwater. I think I just love the water so much that nothing can phase me when I'm underwater!

I am afraid of heights. Did not used to when I was young, it gradually increased with age -- I have no idea why. Now I am distinctly uncomfortable standing on a high ledge, or next to a parapet. In fact, waist-high parapets such as found in shopping malls evoke a distinctly irrational fear of being pushed. I can't shake the feeling that someone will walk up behind me and throw me over.That's exactly the way I feel in high places, so much so that I can almost feel the hands on my back pushing me over!

[Mark6]

I'm a scuba diver, too, and I've often wondered why my fear of heights doesn't translate underwater, because often you are looking down, down, down into the depths with nothing beneath you for as far as you can see, and you're just hanging there, suspended. It seems as though this should bother me, but it doesn't at all.
Probably because you ARE suspended, and can feel it. I wonder how I -- or you, for that matter, -- would react if badly overweighted, and unable to arrest a descent. Not well, I am afraid. Which is why I probably will never dive in open ocean (the only reason to do it is meet large pelagic species), or on oil rigs where the bottom is 700-1000' below. I like to know that if things go wrong there is a physical limit to how deep I can end up.

[ddt]

I too have a (mild) phobia of heights, akin to HawaiiBigSis and Mark6. I get the fear whenever I perceive the possibility of falling down. So, the second - open - balcony of the Eiffel Tower at 110 meter is a problem for me, but taking the elevator to the third balcony at 300 meter - which has a thick glass wall all around that's quite visible from scratches and dirt - is not.

It definitely helps me if I've been at the place before. I lived for a couple of years in Ulm, which has the highest church tower in the world. The first time, I wouldn't go beyond the first balcony, and only the third time I climbed the third flight of stairs in the spire (link (http://forums.randi.org/showpost.php?p=5637846&postcount=530)). After 1.5 years, two friends came over for a week and we ended up climbing the tower each day just for the hell of it - in the end, as fast as we could, in 15 minutes up and down.

OTOH, I've also been surprised when walking in the mountains by a sudden steep view down the mountain and needing a few minutes to continue the path.

[Trent Wray]

I am afraid of skeptics that go woo in the night.

[Tamarillicent]

I have Social Phobia (aka Social Anxiety Disorder). Mostly I am afraid of people thinking poorly of me, or of me making stupid mistakes (which anxiety usually makes me do), or of not knowing what to say. Some people only get it for public speeches, or other specific scenarios. I get it all the time.

This is me, too! It sucks. A lot. I would love to be able to attend something like TAM and meet lots of awesome people like the ones on the board here, but actually meeting people face to face creates a nearly paralyzing fear. Most folks don't understand it and really, few people will make to effort to talk to someone who seems odd, and stand-offish. Can't blame them!

I also used to have an unreasonable fear of tornadoes. This was really silly as I grew up in southeastern Massachusetts. Tornadoes just don't happen there. I'd hear the thunder and then try and hide someplace in the house until it stopped. Eventually I managed to talk myself out of it and now tornadoes and thunderstorms are no problem. I figured one nasty phobia was enough. I got rid of the easy one.

[Mirrorglass]

I am afraid of skeptics that go woo in the night.

We are called woompires and when the moon is full we fly around with our psi-powers, drinking the blood of the clueless.

[PixyMisa]

All living things. Well, that's not so much a phobia as a conditioned response to living in Australia. I live in northern Sydney, so all I have to worry about is the world's deadliest spider, three of world's ten deadliest snakes, seventy varieties of plant of varying lethality, and possums (http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Australia/).

[Fishstick]

We are called woompires and when the moon is full we fly around with our psi-powers, drinking the blood of the clueless.

I thought those were werewoo's.

[Lukraak_Sisser]

As some other members posted, heights, but only when close to an open area.
I have no problem with flying or being on the top floor of a tall building, but if I can theoretically fall down I cannot go near the edge in any way without cramping up.

Glass floors have the same effect, but a chasm when I'm diving does not. Odd and irrational, but thats just the way it is.

[Belz...]

Wasps. I hate wasps. I run from wasps.

[Belz...]

Butterflies. They send me into paroxysms of fear. Anything fluttering by, be it a leaf or debris or actually a butterfly, makes me spasm in a kind of fight-or-flight reaction.

Huh. People are usually phobic about perceived danger, like mine, although the danger is exaggerated. But butterflies ? Those cute things ? Aw. I can't even bring myself to kill moths.

[Dancing David]

We are called woompires and when the moon is full we fly around with our psi-powers, drinking the blood of the clueless.

And going to the club with Bigfoot!

[Dancing David]

Here is the good news about phobias, they can be decreased in intensity. The best treatments involve CBT (Cognitive behavioral therapy) and if the symptoms are beyond mild to moderate then CBT and medication.

[JFrankA]

I have a weird phobia. Reflections, or more specifically, looking at my own reflection. especially in a mirror. (Yes, go ahead with the jokes....I'll wait....)

Seriously, there are some times when I can't pass by a mirror without breaking into a sweat and the urge to get away from it as fast as possible.

[GlennB]

Related to the heights vs. diving thing ...

While I can happily look down from atop a tall building, I get the total creeps looking down into deep clear water, whether I'm on dry land or snorkelling.

On the other hand, looking up from the base of a very tall building also gives me the creeps big-time.

[Mirrorglass]

I have a weird phobia. Reflections, or more specifically, looking at my own reflection. especially in a mirror. (Yes, go ahead with the jokes....I'll wait....)

Seriously, there are some times when I can't pass by a mirror without breaking into a sweat and the urge to get away from it as fast as possible.

Boo!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

[dasmiller]

Wasps. I hate wasps. I run from wasps.

Last year I'd taken a picture of a wasp nest with a couple of wasps on it, and I was using it as the background for my computer at work. Two of my co-workers were very uncomfortable about having that larger-than-life picture of a couple wasps nearby.

So it's not just you.

[Wudang]

We moved to a new town when I was quite small and the first month I had toothache one Sunday. So my dad walked me to a dentists house (who practiced from his house) and asked him to treat me. If he's asked a local first he'd have known a) he didn't like kids, b) he liked his Sunday peace. I recall him jabbing me with the local so hard the needle bent and starting before it took effect.
After that any thought of teeth and more so dentists panicked me and I'd try to avoid the thought. So of course my teeth were neglected.
Scroll forward to my final year at uni when a molar cracked and I kept avoiding the issue ("tomorrow! Change subject") until I got an abcess. Forced myself down to the dental hospital where final year students would work on you on a walk-in basis. 12 locals later and no numbing effect so I told the guy to go ahead anyway and he dug out the abcess and bits of root and cleaned and stitched and the worst thing that could ever happen had happened and my fear went and I walked home shaking and crawled into bed and slept for around 15 hours from the shock.

[Wowbagger]

I fear NOTHING!!!

(Well, except maybe parallel parking.)

[ponderingturtle]

I'm a scuba diver, too, and I've often wondered why my fear of heights doesn't translate underwater, because often you are looking down, down, down into the depths with nothing beneath you for as far as you can see, and you're just hanging there, suspended. It seems as though this should bother me, but it doesn't at all. I also have very mild claustrophobia, but again, it doesn't seem to affect me at all underwater. I think I just love the water so much that nothing can phase me when I'm underwater!


It can trigger my fear of heights.

[Belz...]

Last year I'd taken a picture of a wasp nest with a couple of wasps on it, and I was using it as the background for my computer at work. Two of my co-workers were very uncomfortable about having that larger-than-life picture of a couple wasps nearby.

So it's not just you.

Well, I don't mind pictures of wasps. I think they're frightning, but very interesting little critters. I just don't want the real thing close to me.

Like a few months ago when this silly wasp seemed to think I was a flower or something. Didn't. Like. That. One. Bit.

[Belz...]

I fear NOTHING!!!

(Well, except maybe parallel parking.)

Nah, that's easy.

[JFrankA]

Boo!

(sorry, couldn't resist)

....I....can't be on this...thread......anymore......





:D

[RockNroll]

As far as I can remember, I’ve always been terrified of having my ears manipulated. I have no idea how I managed to develop such a silly phobia.

When I get my hair cut, I always wince in the chair when the person doing the cutting gets around to the hair near my ears and has to pull the upper part of the ear down. Sometimes I even instruct them to “take it easy on the ear”.

I once told a girl to “cut that out” when she started fiddling with my ear during a makeout session.

In my jiu-jitsu class, I ALWAYS wear ear guards during randori, even though they look ridiculous and I get gently teased for it (well at least they also prevent cauliflower ears).

I remember an episode of The Simpsons where Marge dragged Homer to Flander’s doorstep by the ear, twisting it mercilessly along the way. Now, I’m a guy who watches extreme horror and gore flicks for fun and is not the least bit affected by them, but that Simpsons scene gave me cold sweats and made my toes curl into a ball :)

[wilks]

Buttons.
Now that's an irrational fear.
And I have no idea why.

[nimzov]

I use to have some kind of phobia with "symetricity".

If I rubbed my nose with my right hand fingers then I had an urge to rub my nose with my left hand fingers.

If I went down a stair rotating clockwise, I had to rotate anticlockwise when I reached the floor. Etc.

But that was some 10 years ago. Not any more.

[Mirrorglass]

I use to have some kind of phobia with "symetricity".

If I rubbed my nose with my right hand fingers then I had an urge to rub my nose with my left hand fingers.

If I went down a stair rotating clockwise, I had to rotate anticlockwise when I reached the floor. Etc.

But that was some 10 years ago. Not any more.

That's not really a phobia, but a mild form of OCD. It's pretty common, I had it as a kid too.

[Lensman]

Ladders, not heights just ladders.

I used to have a job installing 2-way radio systems in tower cranes, once I got to the top I'm fine, I can go out onto the boom, lean over & spit on those below - no problem.
Actually climbing the ladder was a bloody nightmare :eek:. They don't stop the cranes working as you're climbing, the thing is swaying, twisting, creaking & groaning, there I was forcing myself to go up one step at a time - with a face as white as a sheet & my heart beating like a trip-hammer.

[Lensman]

All living things. Well, that's not so much a phobia as a conditioned response to living in Australia. I live in northern Sydney, so all I have to worry about is the world's deadliest spider, three of world's ten deadliest snakes, seventy varieties of plant of varying lethality, and possums (http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Australia/).

Not drop-bears? ;)

[Empress]

Coulrophobia (Fear of clowns)

Their red hair, white faces, painted evil smiles. I can feel my heart beginning to race as I type this. *shudder*

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

As far as I can remember, I’ve always been terrified of having my ears manipulated. I have no idea how I managed to develop such a silly phobia.

When I get my hair cut, I always wince in the chair when the person doing the cutting gets around to the hair near my ears and has to pull the upper part of the ear down. Sometimes I even instruct them to “take it easy on the ear”.

I once told a girl to “cut that out” when she started fiddling with my ear during a makeout session.

In my jiu-jitsu class, I ALWAYS wear ear guards during randori, even though they look ridiculous and I get gently teased for it (well at least they also prevent cauliflower ears).

I remember an episode of The Simpsons where Marge dragged Homer to Flander’s doorstep by the ear, twisting it mercilessly along the way. Now, I’m a guy who watches extreme horror and gore flicks for fun and is not the least bit affected by them, but that Simpsons scene gave me cold sweats and made my toes curl into a ball :)

Did your parents twist your ears to punish you when you were little? My mother did that once in a blue moon to me. Is it possible anyone else, like a teacher, grandparent, school bully, older sibling or priest, did that to you? That would be an obvious explanation...maybe too obvious...

My other guess would be that you didn't like the sensation of your ears being pulled down while getting a haircut.

Or that someone, somehow, for whatever reason, manipulated your ears in early life and you've dreaded it and feared it ever since, even if you never remembered what the original thing was...

I too have a (mild) phobia of heights, akin to HawaiiBigSis and Mark6. I get the fear whenever I perceive the possibility of falling down. So, the second - open - balcony of the Eiffel Tower at 110 meter is a problem for me, but taking the elevator to the third balcony at 300 meter - which has a thick glass wall all around that's quite visible from scratches and dirt - is not.



Oh man, that glass elevator at the Eiffel Tower. I still remember it! I trembled at being in it!

Your heights phobia is much different from mine. The glass made it much worse for me! It gave me the sensation of being in air and being unsupported on that enormous, big, tall tower. You could see everything down below!

And the elevator had/has this very cool structure where it goes sideways and up. Very cool- but that made it even more scary for me.

The way it suddenly jolted and started floating up...flying up...

You are right, though, that being in a place many times makes you much more used to it. It's a problem the first time but the other times, not so much.

[Elaedith]

Buttons.
Now that's an irrational fear.
And I have no idea why.

I used to have a phobia about buttons as a child. I refused to wear or touch anything with buttons, and even had fears and nightmares about finding buttons hidden in things like jars of food.

[GraculusTheGreenBird]

Seems to me that most but admittedly not all phobias might have a evolutionary cause.

Heights and enclosed spaces are obviously dangerous due to the possibility of falling or getting trapped.

Spiders, Snakes and Wasps can cause injury and in some cases severe injuries or death. Other animals that are commonly feared are rodents such as mice and rats, which are disease carriers (but not sure how long they have been considered such? Before we started living in cities?).

So even though not all snakes are dangerous, I can understand how there might be an inbuilt immediate reaction to snakes in general.

In my own case, I am perfectly aware that the spiders I occasionally come into contact with are harmless, but if I do see one my entire body freezes, blood literally runs cold, and I have to remove it. Interestingly, I get the same reaction to something which momentarily looks like a spider, such as the top of a tomato which has come off in the sink!
An involuntarily "Jeebus!" until I realise what it is.

But something which is similarly shaped, such as beetles, ants, craneflies or even other large and icky insects are absolutely fine, as long as they dont have 8 legs. It seems I have an automatic counting mechanism which kicks in and warns me if it is too spider like.

Now what I find interesting is why it is just spiders for me, and where it came from.

I have no problem at all with snakes, rats, wasps or bees. And I have been stung by bees and wasps before, which should give me more cause to be afraid of them than the harmless spiders I have encountered, yet I am absolutely fine to let a wasp or bee buzz around me until it gets bored and flies off.

So it is not a learned response, unless something happened when I was very young which I can no longer remember, yet is brought to the fore whenever I see the spider shape. But that would indicate that everyone else with a similar phobia has a previous encounter which is now forgotten?

Alternatively, it is some sort of instinct, but I am not clear how it would get passed down evolutionarily, or why some people would get the fear of spiders only, and others of snakes only, and some of say snakes and heights but not spiders etc. Have there been any studies into this? Genome correlation, perhaps trying to trace back to an ancestor in geographical area known more for dangerous snakes or spiders?

[EeneyMinnieMoe]

I used to have a phobia about buttons as a child. I refused to wear or touch anything with buttons, and even had fears and nightmares about finding buttons hidden in things like jars of food.

I highly recommend that you two see the movie Coraline. :D You'd love it! :D

[Fishstick]

Buttons.
Now that's an irrational fear.
And I have no idea why.

Are we talking pushable buttons, or clothes buttons.

[Blue Bubble]

Buttons.
Now that's an irrational fear.
And I have no idea why.

:jaw-dropp

I thought I was the only person on the planet with a fear of buttons. I've had the fear for more than 52 years (that I can remember).

I cannot/will not wear anything with buttons (so that excludes shirts (and ties), and suits etc.).

Thank you, wilks, for saying this. I wasn't daring to admit this irrational fear here before you did.

[wilks]

I highly recommend that you two see the movie Coraline. :D You'd love it! :D

Seen it. Still shuddering :eek:

[wilks]

:jaw-dropp

I thought I was the only person on the planet with a fear of buttons. I've had the fear for more than 52 years (that I can remember).

I cannot/will not wear anything with buttons (so that excludes shirts (and ties), and suits etc.).

Thank you, wilks, for saying this. I wasn't daring to admit this irrational fear here before you did.

I gather it is fairly common. I've had it for a similar time period and seem to have passed it on to my daughter too.
Elaedith - You say you had this phobia as a child. I would be interested to know how/why you grew out of it. Did it just disappear or did you make a positive effort to get rid of it?

[Information Analyst]

Earwigs totally freak me out, but I pretty much know that stems from when, as a child, one fell off a curtain and landed on my head when I was in bed. Similarly woodlice. One day I was eating a bowl of cornflakes, and one one floating in the milk in my spoon. Sadly, now lawyers benefited from this, as it turned out there was an infestation in our pandry and they had burrowed their way into the box.

I do occasionally get very mild claustrophobia when walking through certain deep passageways on the London Underground, if I think too much about a) how much earth there is around/above me, and b) the contruction of the tunnels. The latter, though, stems from a hobby interest in the system, so I only have myself to blame!

[Disclord]

Coulrophobia (Fear of clowns)

Their red hair, white faces, painted evil smiles. I can feel my heart beginning to race as I type this. *shudder*

So I take it you couldn't watch the film "Killer Klowns From Outer Space"? The clowns in that film are truly grotesque and frightening.

[Vanda]

I used CBT and Xanax to deal with my irrational fear of flying, which did not develop until my twenties, after years of flying which included several trips across the Atlantic.

I was late and ran through the airport, so for the entire duration of the flight my heart was pounding. It was a short flight, so the ascent was steep and the sensation of that together with the adrenalin heightened everything.

There was one seat left, and I had my 2 year old son so he had to sit on my lap. There was a large, very friendly man next to us who offered some nuts to my son. We were very squeezed in, and I suddenly became terrified that my son might choke on the nuts while we were "trapped" in the plane.

When we arrived in Atlanta to change plans, I literally could not get on the plane. I called my (ex) husband sobbing with fear to drive from Phoenix to get me. He was calm and patient and he talked me through it for an hour. I was able to realize that there was no other reasonable way for me to get home.

The next plane was huge and almost completely empy. My son and I had an entire row to ourselves, and I felt completely fine. Years later, I had to fly for my job and the terror just hit me the moment "flying" was mentioned. I was completely surprised at my fear. The entire time leading up to the day of the flight, I would become nauseaus and dizzy. The day of the flight, I couldn't stop crying. Throughout the flight I was rigid with fear and my mind was on a constant loop trying to calm myself down. It became unbearable.

Things are so much better now and I am positive that if I flew more often, I would be completely fine, but I always take Xanax - just in case.

I'm not worried about crashing - it has do with enclosure, lack of control, and the "weirdness" of the sensation of sitting still with almost no motion or sound, but knowing that the plane is hurtling through the air. If it felt bumpy and noisy like a bus ride, I would be less freaked out.

[Vanda]

A friend of mine at work has a really interesting phobia of large bodies of water.

If she is inside the ocean or a lake or standing on the shore, she's fine. But if she sees the body of water from above, like from a helicopter shot in a movie she says she feels really "freaked out and scared."

I had a calendar with a picture of the ocean that was taken from above and she could not bear to look at it.

[nimzov]

Coulrophobia (Fear of clowns)
That must be the reason you don't post in CT forum. :)

[elbe]

Until I was about 25 I had a phobia of flying insects. All of them. June bugs, flies, gnats, wasps, lady bugs, etc. Some of them were understandable, but most of them were irrational. I would literally panic and cringe my shoulders up around my neck without thinking and sometimes would actually run. It took me several moments to calm down and talk myself through the bug getting close to me. This always brought laughs from my friends because I was a 6'0" 235# muscled tough guy LOL, and still am more or less.


That's pretty much what I have (had). It was mostly moths, which is how I found out about mottephobia, but anything that could fly into my comfort zone (generally around my face) made me panic. I've mellowed a lot since then, but I'm still uncomfortable around moths - I think because of their size.

[I Ratant]

Ladders, not heights just ladders.

I used to have a job installing 2-way radio systems in tower cranes, once I got to the top I'm fine, I can go out onto the boom, lean over & spit on those below - no problem.
Actually climbing the ladder was a bloody nightmare :eek:. They don't stop the cranes working as you're climbing, the thing is swaying, twisting, creaking & groaning, there I was forcing myself to go up one step at a time - with a face as white as a sheet & my heart beating like a trip-hammer.
.
I was working for the Department of Engineers as a construction inspector on a DEW site at Mananas VA during my junior summer at college.
The building was a massive concrete structure.
One day I decided to edge across the uppermost point of construction, which entailed side-stepping on the 2x4 bracing on the inside of the plywood sheets that would form the inner side of the outer wall, holding onto the rebar grid that was to be between the inside and outside of the wall. There was no outer plywood facing yet for the concrete pour to come.
About 1/2 way across, holding on to the rebar grid, which stopped about waist level so I was bent over facing the ground, the whole grid shook.
I froze solid!
Couldn't move at all!
But... I fingered out the only person to get me out of that situation was me, so I relaxed and continued on to the other side.

[I Ratant]

I used to have a phobia about buttons as a child. I refused to wear or touch anything with buttons, and even had fears and nightmares about finding buttons hidden in things like jars of food.
.
Corn -off- the cob, and cheese.
Refused to eat either.
Doesn't bother me at all now, I enjoy succotash and pizza, cheeseburgers..
The agonies I inflicted on my parents... it is to be ashamed of. :)

[Lensman]

.
I was working for the Department of Engineers as a construction inspector on a DEW site at Mananas VA during my junior summer at college.
The building was a massive concrete structure.
One day I decided to edge across the uppermost point of construction, which entailed side-stepping on the 2x4 bracing on the inside of the plywood sheets that would form the inner side of the outer wall, holding onto the rebar grid that was to be between the inside and outside of the wall. There was no outer plywood facing yet for the concrete pour to come.
About 1/2 way across, holding on to the rebar grid, which stopped about waist level so I was bent over facing the ground, the whole grid shook.
I froze solid!
Couldn't move at all!
But... I fingered out the only person to get me out of that situation was me, so I relaxed and continued on to the other side.

I think I'd've needed a change of underwear after something like that! :blush:

[Elaedith]

I gather it is fairly common. I've had it for a similar time period and seem to have passed it on to my daughter too.
Elaedith - You say you had this phobia as a child. I would be interested to know how/why you grew out of it. Did it just disappear or did you make a positive effort to get rid of it?

As far as I recall, it just gradually went away, but only after my mother gave up trying to make me wear them.
Actually I still don't really like clothes with buttons but I don't feel phobic about them.

[HawaiiBigSis]

I have to admit that I've never heard of somebody being afraid of buttons. What about them is scary?

I knew of somebody who was so deathly afraid of sharks, she would not set foot in any body of water -- not even her own bathtub. Somebody I actually know won't set foot in the ocean because she's afraid of fish.

And I'm on the "fear of flying things" bandwagon as well. Admittedly a lot has to do with the surprise element, but I dislike birds being anywhere within my personal space, for VERY large definitions of personal space.

[383LQ4SS]

I have an irrational fear of public speaking. It can be quite paralyzing. It seems the larger the crowd...the worse the fear. I can give the afternoon briefing to my 4-8 employees ok. But any more that that it gets very tough. I was able to give the best-man speech at a wedding reception once...but I kept it very short and to the point.


I also have a great fear of the very large alligators down here in Florida....I mean the 10-14 footers. No so much when I am far away...but just when I am sitting right next to them:p

[rickps]

Snakes!!! I have an irrational fear of snakes. And living in Australia means I fear some of the deadliest snakes in the world. Oh joy.

[dasmiller]

I have an irrational fear of public speaking. It can be quite paralyzing. It seems the larger the crowd...the worse the fear. I can give the afternoon briefing to my 4-8 employees ok. But any more that that it gets very tough. I was able to give the best-man speech at a wedding reception once...but I kept it very short and to the point.

A lot of people are mortified about public speaking. I have a friend who actually drowned and was revived, and she's terribly afraid of public speaking. I'd think that drowning would be far scarier, but . . . evidently not.

My job has involved a making fair number of formal presentations and helping a fair number of others to survive making formal presentations. A lot of people really struggle with it.

I also have a great fear of the very large alligators down here in Florida....I mean the 10-14 footers. No so much when I am far away...but just when I am sitting right next to them:p

Nothing irrational about that one!

[luchog]

Yet it is one that many people don't seem to have. My brother was never bothered by heights, yet I could be inside a building and have the wrong windows and it would bother me. I had issues with really long escalators in the DC subway system too.

There's still a sense of security in a building.

I can't recall where it is, probaby the Grand Canyon, but somewhere in the US there's a large glass walkway that extends out from a very tall cliff, giving a clear and unimpeded view of the long drop below (they make people wear special padded shoes so they don't scratch the glass). People who otherwise have no demonstrated acrophobia find themselves literally unable to traverse the walkway. Many others find it unsettling. Obviously not everyone is wired the same way; but as a rule, there are situations that we're hard-wired to react to in certain ways.

[luchog]

A friend of mine at work has a really interesting phobia of large bodies of water.
I'm almost the opposite. I cannot imagine myself living very far from a large body of water; specifically, a large body of salt water. Probably comes from having been raised in the Pacific Northwest, a 20 minute walk from the beach.

[luchog]

All living things. Well, that's not so much a phobia as a conditioned response to living in Australia. I live in northern Sydney, so all I have to worry about is the world's deadliest spider, three of world's ten deadliest snakes, seventy varieties of plant of varying lethality, and possums (http://www.weebls-stuff.com/songs/Australia/).
There's a great essay by Douglas Adams on Australia (http://www.smedg.org.au/DougAdamsOnOz.html). One of my favorite quotes on the continent:

It is true that of the 10 most poisonous arachnids on the planet, Australia has 9 of them. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that of the 9 most poisonous arachnids, Australia has all of them. However, there are curiously few snakes, possibly because the spiders have killed them all. But even the spiders won't go near the sea.

[Miss_Kitt]

Hmm. I am mostly recovered from arachnaphobia--fear of spiders--and I have some input to the discussion of the hows and whys of phobias.

My mother was very frightened of spiders, which undoubtedly contributed; however, I was not very disturbed by them until a day when I was, oh, 4 or 5 years old. I remember this so clearly: I got out of bed, grabbed my underwear out of the dresser drawer, and flung them onto the bedspread. As I looked down to pick out my panties, I saw crawling out from under the sheets --right out from where I had been sleeping--one of those big, hairy, nasty, running hunting aggressive 'wolf spiders' that we get up here. This sucker was, seriously, possessed of a dime-sized body and had a legspan that would exceed a poker chip. Ugh.

I screamed, shook out my undershirt to be sure nothing was in it, flung that on the floor, and stood, screaming, on my safe little island of white cotton while my Mom came in, heard my plight, and called Dad who eventually found and destroyed the vermin. (His comment to my mom: "You're right, Barbara, that was a big one.") After that, even a plastic fake-o Halloween spider ring in electric orange would spook me, especially if I suddenly caught a glimpse. A photo in a book would freak me out.

I tried educating myself on them, which was awful because I had to cover up the pictures to read the books I got at the library. No dice, it just gave me more detail about what I was physically nauseated to see. I could no more have touched a spider voluntarily than put my hand on a chainsaw blade.

When I was in my 20s and had begun doing some counseling, however, I had a watershed experience. I was moving belongings into a new apartment, and carrying a box that contained some of my (recently deceased) Mom's china. I felt my hair tickling on my neck, and tossed my head to try to get it behind my shoulder. As I thought, "that's odd, I thought I had my hair in a ponytail" I looked down to see another big wolfie (wolf spiders! why did it have to be wolf spiders?) on my chest, just below my chin. The thing had literally walked across my throat and was headed for my cleavage. It occurred to me that if I dropped what I was holding, I might break Mom's dishes, and they were far too precious to me to risk that. So I hustled across the kitchen and set the box gently on the counter, then jumped back and brushed frantically at the spider. I managed to knock it onto the floor, then--trembling and gasping--stomped on it. (It actually took me three tries to make myself step on it.) I had a few tears, but actually then was all done.

Here's the thing: A year or two before, a much smaller spider that was not even touching me had caused me to panic so badly I had to jump out of a (slowly) moving car and vomit. Yet now, having a nightmare-script experience was much less traumatic. I discussed the issue with my psychiatrist, and she gave me some insight as to how the profession sees it.

Not going into too much detail here, but, but my issues involved having been raised in a dysfunction, tyrannical German Lutheran family where emotional outbursts were forbidden and major family issues (like alcohol abuse) were never ever mentioned. Working with my pshrink helped me get out a lot of bottled-up negative emotions that had been suppressed for literally decades. Some of those emotions had found an 'acceptable' outlet in being targetted at a thing I had some small fear for, due to the spider in the bed event. Having released a lot of the fear, horror, sadness and need to scream in therapy, I no longer needed the phobic release valve. My reaction was much more within my control.

Now I have a child of my own, and I catch spiders and put them outside, using a piece of paper or a paper cup or a business card to carry them. I tell her not to be afraid of them, that with the exception of a few imported black widows, there are no poisonous spiders here; I tell her that they play an important role in the ecosystem; I model treating them as a minor nuisance. We are never going to have a pet spider, but I no longer have nearly as violent a reaction as I used to.

FWIW, the 'safety valve' model of phobias seems to have been applicable in my case. When the pressure to be relieved was lessened, the power of the phobia lessened as well. I'd be interested to hear if anyone else who has a former/ much reduced phobia can also see a connection to lowered stress or resolved emotional issues.

Just my thoughts, MK


One more side note: I did not have the usual "ick! spider!" reaction to the little black-and-white striped jumping spiders. I actually have played with those, poking them with a fingernail or a blade of grass to make them jump, or watching them climb on playground equipment. (Jumping spiders are charmingly inept, it is not uncommon for them to miscalculate and fall off of whatever they are climbing, or to pounce at something and overshoot it, or ricochet off their target.) Their movement is not at all the usual leg pattern of normal spiders, which may be why they didn't trigger my arachnaphobia. I have recently read in Nature magazine that they are taxonomically not even true spiders, something that my untrained eye apparently was able to recognize.

[GlennB]

Coulrophobia (Fear of clowns)

Their red hair, white faces, painted evil smiles. I can feel my heart beginning to race as I type this. *shudder*

Lon Chaney once said ""There is nothing on earth more frightening than a clown after midnight."

I hope that thought didn't freak you out ;)

(I think someone here uses that quote as a sig)

[cGambill]

I am afraid of heights when I am unrestrained. I can't ever remember not being afraid of them. From grade school through high school, when I would come home from school, there was a wall I would hop over to get home. It was about a 6 foot drop to the other side. Sometimes I would sit on the top of the wall for a good 5 minutes trying to muster up the courage to leap down. More recently, I was a fire explorer. Sometimes our activities at the fire house would involve throwing ladders and climbing up to the roof. I was absolutely terrified every time. Thankfully, there were other ways off the roof besides getting back on the ladder, because half the time I was too frightened to get back on it (especially when I was in full turn outs with an SCBA on).

As I said before though, the fear is only there if I am unrestrained. I'm fine with roller coaster rides, in fact, I absolutely love roller coaster rides. I love rides that take you high up with one exception - the Ferris Wheel. Oh god, I hate the Ferris wheel. I remember when I was 8 or 9 years old, I even went on the Sky Screamer at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas (with my Dad's girlfriend, I was too small to go alone). I was a little scared after being released, but the whole ride up I was quite comfortable.

If I had to guess, I would say my reason for it is that I don't trust myself to not fall or not hurt myself. Being on top of a roof is a big example of that. Tripping over myself or losing my balance in general is very rare, but when I am on top of a roof, especially near the edge, I am absolutely horrified that I will trip or lean too far over and lose my balance. I wish I knew how to get over that feeling. :p

[Helen]

Claustrophobia. I have no idea why, if there is indeed a "why". It's not too bad, I can use lifts and the underground, so I have never tried to do anything about it. I forget about it, and am only reminded in certain situations (caves are not a good idea), when I suddenly realise that I'm panicking:p

[wilks]

I have to admit that I've never heard of somebody being afraid of buttons. What about them is scary?


Nothing. That's why it is an irrational fear :)
Despite the fact that they are not scary, I don't like them one bit. I don't want to wear them, I don't want to look at them or sit next to someone wearing them, I don't even like typing the word buttons <eeeuw>

I am not bothered by heights, closed spaces, spiders, snakes, moths, needles, flying, thunderstorms, germs....or anything else really. Just this one thing. I can't explain it - wish I could.

[dafydd]

I've always been intrigued by the concept, but I don't have one, so I've never really understood everything that they entail.

So who here has a phobia? What is it? Why do you suppose you have it? If it's an irrational fear, why can't you break it?

Fear of flying.I haven't been on a plane since 1978.

[HawaiiBigSis]

I can't recall where it is, probaby the Grand Canyon, but somewhere in the US there's a large glass walkway that extends out from a very tall cliff, giving a clear and unimpeded view of the long drop below (they make people wear special padded shoes so they don't scratch the glass).
It is. (http://archrecord.construction.com/news/daily/archives/070412skywalk.asp) I'll never go on it either. There's a similar attraction in Chicago, I've been told. If it's enclosed on the sides and top, I might be able to bring myself to look. Open sides and top, no-how, no-way.

[quarky]

I have a fear of succumbing to an irrational fear.


And dentistry, of course.
My palms actually sweat in the dentist's chair.
Could be because its always been painful and expensive, though.

It would be sort of cool to be very scared of marshmallow peeps.
And absolutely nothing else.

[Miss_Kitt]

quarky, you have reminded me of the song "Dental Care" by Owl City:

"I've been to the dentist a thousand times, so I know the drill
I smooth my hair, sit back in the chair, but somehow, I still get the chills..."

I had no issues with dentists until I had my anesthesia fail once. The next time I went in was Not Fun At All. Gradually it has gotten better as no more bad things have happened there.

[GenghisKhan]

I find this very interesting. Do you mind if I ask you to describe this fear in a bit more detail? For example, are you afraid of the butterfly touching you, biting you, or something else? Or can you not accurately describe what you are afraid of? Also, does the fear stick? Once you've made sure it was a leaf, does it recede, or do you remain flustered?

If you don't want to answer, don't force yourself. I know how unpleasant it can be to even think of this stuff. I'm just curious about different bug phobias, as I think they might be the key to understanding my own.

Sorry to take so long, I've been busy lately. :-/

I think the fear stems from their fluttering wings. I don't want those fragile things touching me or getting into my mouth or hair or even worse I don't want to accidentally crush them. I also hate how erratic they are... I can't predict where they are going to go next.

With the leaf thing, I usually calm down once I realize that it is not a moth/butterfly. It is just one of those knee-jerk reactions to seeing something that might be a butterfly.

I'm not entirely sure what specifically I am afraid of. I know I am afraid of crushing it, because crushing any live creature just squicks me, even bugs, and especially things with fragile, delicate appendages. Like, it would be easier for me to squash a little spider than a praying mantis. Maybe it is the bigger the bug, the harder to squash... the "crunch" noise makes me want to throw up.

But then, I am also afraid of the unpredictability and the wings even touching me. And I am DEFINITELY afraid of it getting in my hair. Blech.

I hope this helps, though I don't even know what is going on in my head.

[Wowbagger]

Is there a name for fear of parallel parking? Paraftokinitophobia?

[ponderingturtle]

There's still a sense of security in a building.

I can't recall where it is, probaby the Grand Canyon, but somewhere in the US there's a large glass walkway that extends out from a very tall cliff, giving a clear and unimpeded view of the long drop below (they make people wear special padded shoes so they don't scratch the glass). People who otherwise have no demonstrated acrophobia find themselves literally unable to traverse the walkway. Many others find it unsettling. Obviously not everyone is wired the same way; but as a rule, there are situations that we're hard-wired to react to in certain ways.

I went to a fun house and the room that creeped many people out was the one with mirrors on the floor. Seeing a 8' drop under your feet was disconcerting to people.

[sgtbaker]

Spiders - It's irrational and paralyzing. I've jumped out of moving cars, stepped on children, and fallen out of trees to get away from them. Something primal takes over and it's been that way all my life.

Recently, I've wondered if I've developed some kind of fear of crowds; I get anxious, uncomfortabe, hyper-selfconscious, and want nothing more than to remove myself.
Also, a while back when Palm Bay was on fire, my ex husband was up hosing down the roof, he told me I should get up there and see what it looked like. I thought nothing of it so I climbed the ladder and got on the roof. At the highest point it was quite a sight; black smoke belching out of trees in every direction. I went to step down towards the ladder and was suddenly gripped with fear. I couldn't move. He had to get in front of me while we both inched back down the slope on our butts. It's funny now but never before in my life, did being that high off the ground scare me like that.

[aggle-rithm]

It's common for animals to have phobias...although in animals it doesn't really fit to call it an "irrational" fear. Perhaps "maladaptive" fear?

My dog Shiner is terrified of rain gutters. When I'm running him on a bike and we pass one, he suddenly digs in his feet and tries to bring us both to a screeching halt. No amount of treat-training can overcome his anxiety of them.

A fellow classmate in one of my training classes was asking how to get his dog to overcome his fear of lawnmowers. I didn't say anything, but it seems to me that fear of lawnmowers, or anything else that can easily kill you if you get too close, is a GOOD thing.

[ponderingturtle]

It's common for animals to have phobias...although in animals it doesn't really fit to call it an "irrational" fear. Perhaps "maladaptive" fear?

My dog Shiner is terrified of rain gutters. When I'm running him on a bike and we pass one, he suddenly digs in his feet and tries to bring us both to a screeching halt. No amount of treat-training can overcome his anxiety of them.

A fellow classmate in one of my training classes was asking how to get his dog to overcome his fear of lawnmowers. I didn't say anything, but it seems to me that fear of lawnmowers, or anything else that can easily kill you if you get too close, is a GOOD thing.

I think lawnmowers fit with vacuum cleaners, in that they make a lot of noise. The solution to that is of course a deaf dog. My brothers never was bothered by any of that, but wind would freak her out and she was afraid of other dogs for the longest time.

It is strange to see a dalmatian run and hide from a toy poodle puppy.

[iknownothing]

Water. I could always play in the water, as long as I was on a floaty thing or wearing a life jacket. But with nothing to help me float, in water too deep to stand in, I went into total panic. First time I tried swimming lessons at 5, I was such a screaming, thrashing mess that the teacher asked my parents if I'd had any near-drowning experiences (the answer is no). I tried again at 8, and again at 12; I kept thinking I could rise above it, but each and every class was just more fear/panic. I would even feel a little sick to my stomach driving past the pool.

Then I tried again at 14, and the panic was simply gone. I'm still not a very good swimmer, but I can get by.

It can come back a little sometimes. I swam for exercise during pregnancy, and once in awhile I would suddenly have a sense of how much water was beneath me, and this fear like a lead weight in my stomach, and I would start to flounder a little. But unlike childhood, I could overcome it when it happened.

[Mirrorglass]

Sorry to take so long, I've been busy lately. :-/

I think the fear stems from their fluttering wings. I don't want those fragile things touching me or getting into my mouth or hair or even worse I don't want to accidentally crush them. I also hate how erratic they are... I can't predict where they are going to go next.

With the leaf thing, I usually calm down once I realize that it is not a moth/butterfly. It is just one of those knee-jerk reactions to seeing something that might be a butterfly.

I'm not entirely sure what specifically I am afraid of. I know I am afraid of crushing it, because crushing any live creature just squicks me, even bugs, and especially things with fragile, delicate appendages. Like, it would be easier for me to squash a little spider than a praying mantis. Maybe it is the bigger the bug, the harder to squash... the "crunch" noise makes me want to throw up.

But then, I am also afraid of the unpredictability and the wings even touching me. And I am DEFINITELY afraid of it getting in my hair. Blech.

I hope this helps, though I don't even know what is going on in my head.

Thanks for replying, that was most enlightening. I originally thought it might just be a variation of arachnophobia, but now it sounds like something different. The crushing part is especially interesting. I don't think anyone has mentioned it here, but things crushing, bursting and crunching kind of grosses me out as well, and I think that's the same for a lot of people.

I suppose not all fears are rational or have an evolutionary basis. A butterfly scaring you as a child is equally possible.

Best of luck to you! :)

[Ixion]

I guess I am a walking case of mild neuroses.

My mild phobias:
Arachnophobia (has tapered a bit as an adult). When I was a child of about 6 or 7, I thought a spider had jumped on my neck. It was a cricket my father was trying to show me. I am not afraid of crickets at all. But, since I thought it was a spider, I clawed my neck to shreds trying to get it off. Literally a dozen claw marks on my neck from my own fingers furiously trying to get the "spider" off.

Acrophobia. If I am enclosed, such as on an observation deck or in a plane, it is not so bad. However, high up on a ladder or such is disturbing.

Claustrophobia. Mostly, underwater. I overcame most of this when I learned to SCUBA dive. However, I don't like being underwater much. Even getting tangled in a blanket when I am sleeping can be disturbing.

Social Anxiety Disorder - applies in person and on the phone or on video feeds. I got picked on a lot as a child, both for looks, size, and the sound of my voice (years of speech therapy, and I still sound a little off and hate my voice). So it is the first thing I think of when I am meeting new people. Mostly, it makes me feel lonely, and when society reinforces the feelings about me, it makes it worse.

My major phobia:
Thanatophobia. Fear of death. I guess, specifically, mostly my own death and of those I love. Dead bodies don't bother me unless I begin to think of the process of dying itself. If I see the body as just a body, I am fine. However, if I become attached to someone else (like a character in a story or movie) and they die, it can set it off (Try watching Schindler's List :( ). Oftentimes, it will get set off at night, as I am falling asleep. The thought "What if I don't wake up? What if my wife doesn't wake up?" will pop into my head and it is instant panic attack. Sweats, hyperventilation, mild hysteria, nausea, maybe crying. I get up immediately and check her breathing, and then I end up missing several hours of sleep as I calm down. Talking about it now is somewhat difficult. It can be very embarrassing, such as trying to watch a film, and not end up crying. I know it is irrational and death is unavoidable, but this bothers me more than anything I can think of. If I can remove myself from the empathy, then I am ok (such as killing aliens or monsters in video games, etc) and won't even think twice about it. As stupid as it can be, even playing games can sometimes set it off. I had to catch myself as I am in the middle of Forum mafia Battlestar Galactica. As we were discussing who was going to be "lynched" that night and removed from the game, I noticed it was bothering me a bit, and had to not post for a little bit until I could calm down.