Phobias anyone?

[YourMotherShouldKnow]

I'm reading a books on phobias and it's unbelievable what some people go through with these. This one dude in the book had a problem going to a public toilet. He would wait all day until he could get to his home toilet. Dude couldn't keep a full-time job. A girl has a sleeping phobia which I'd never heard of. She has panic attacks about having nightmares and does everything she can to avoid sleeping. You can't do that for long without goin' nuts.

 

I have a fear of huge bridges and skyscrapers. Sometimes it's pretty bad, other times it's nothing. It definitely messes with me though.

 

Anyone here have a phobia or know someone who does?

[Mats Olsson.]

I have 1 phobia, a silly one that isn't causing much problems, but still is a very real phobia:

 

Mushrooms, I can't eat them.

I'd rather starve to death than eat a fragment of a mushroom.

 

Then I have a few semi-phobias/obsessions:

 

I don't trust single engine aero planes. (the engine is dead or will die - this is 100% true, you just don't know when).

 

I would not bungy-jump unless there's plenty of water below. (inevitably, something unexpected will happen - this is also 100% true, you just don't know when).

[Slowly]

I have this phobia that this site will disappear. Seriously, I have none that I know about. Kcbass

[Rog]

Spiders.

 

Fucking hate the crawly scary spooky eight-eyed freaky unpredictable jumping fanged web-spinning bastards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention I hate spiders?

[Phait]

Yeah I'm not a fan of bugs, and my room is in an old basement, they can be abundant. Earwigs, spiders, unknown things. Eugh. I wish I could accept them and not freak, but to do that I'd have to face them, and that's not to happen.

 

Another fear, death, so I just write it off as a myth. Same with getting old and dependent.

 

Lethal illnesses - cancer, etc. I'd prob. just kill myself. Going blind or deaf. I'd maybe holdout on the blindness, seems things are advancing there... losing a digit, hand, foot, limb, etc. Disfigurement. I have the solution to all these things.

 

I'm not sure if I fear being unsuccessful, I think I could cope with being a 9 - 5 rat and coming home to my music, games, bed and a dog (whenever I get one).

[Rod S]

Heights - I can't stand them. I can't go into a balcony of a building higher than 3 stories.

 

I start getting dizzy and it's like there's a magnetic 'wall' preventing from getting closer. Weird.

 

I can ride planes no problem, though. I friend of mine in California had a pilot license, I use to go on trips with him on single engine planes, no sweat.

 

I have a cousin who has phobia of tunnels. It sucks, since we have quite a few in Rio, and he has to go the most ass roundabout ways to get to where he's going.

[deanmass]

Zombies...especially midget or child-like zombies missing an eye or limb....

 

Oompa Loompas...These are the weirdest, freaky acid induced humanoid things I can think of, other than the midget, high density ghouls from Phantasm.

 

Snakes

 

Corporate Weasels....

[philbo_Tangent]

When I was a teen, I traded one serious phobia for another.

 

I used to have a fear of dying. Then I fell 65 feet and spent a long period of time in a 'near death experience' as it is called in the press.

 

I came out quite well, physically: I turned 4 vertebrae into gravel-like particles, broke my wrist, and mushed up the back of my skull a bit.

Ok, it may not sound that great, but, y'know, there are people fall off their toilet & die, for example.

 

Since then I no longer fear death at all. But I was terrified of heights for about 4 years after... Time, and a trip to the Sears Tower, eventually cured me of the fear of heights thing.

[kylen]

Oh - this is fun...Rod S you reminded me of mine.

I don't mind aeroplanes - oops I guess they call 'em jets now....anyway when I'm up high in a tall building or on a ledge I get this strange attraction, hehe. I am drawn over the edge, I really want to fall or jump, in fact I have to hold on pretty tight not to. Cool eh ? Sometimes it's pretty hard to hold on with sweaty palms.

 

After about 30 minutes (hehe if I stick around) I become acclimated and am just simply excited and engaged in being that high up and being able to see all the neat things.

 

Till then it's rubber knee'd, sweaty palms, head twisting HEIGHT PHOBIA - aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!

[FoxTick]

Rodents.

 

I cannot stand rodents. I'm talking about RATS and MICE.....eeeehhhhhggghh

[Phait]

I forgot, I do have a fear of heights. I enjoy flying but it can be a bit uneasy just cause last time I flew (and I've flown several times throughout my life), it felt like the aircraft was rolling around slowly, yet it was just climbing to cruising altitude. Eventually the nausea settled. But it's gotten me hesitant to fly again, because I can't do anything about it once the plane has taken off. Dramamine didn't work far as I could tell, or if it did - it kept me from being ultra-nauseous, but I don't remember having that problem. Just butterflies in stomach as a kid when the plane would bank a certain way.

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

Originally posted by deanmass:

Corporate Weasels....

Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! When you least expect me... EXPECT ME! Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!

 

- Jeff

[Kooky Mogessi]

I dont like bridges and when my family goes to Canada (which is fairly regularly) we have to go over the Macanaw Bridge. I HATE that.

 

then theres heights if its between 3 stories or something and really high up. Airplanes I'm fine in but put me on top of a 10 story building and if i go towards the edge i feel like i want to fall over.

 

The worst one though is drowning. I'm so afraid of either going on a cruise or flying over the ocean. I've thought about it WAY too much. I'll be flying over the ocean, the plane will go down with me sitting at the back, I'll get covered in jet fuel, set on fire, skin would boil and start to fall off as i hit the water, the salt would sting it, sharks would come and bite my arms and legs off and while i float on my back, getting sunburnt like no other, birds and fish will start to nibble on me until i die of dehydration.

 

So yea, i dont want to drown.

[Philip OKeefe]

Originally posted by Rog:

Spiders.

 

Fucking hate the crawly scary spooky eight-eyed freaky unpredictable jumping fanged web-spinning bastards.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention I hate spiders?

Don't go to Iraq.. trust me on this one.. I'll spare you the image.

[John Sayers]

Heights - can't sleep in a hotel room that's above a few floors. Definitely can't go out on a high balcony.

 

Same with flying - I have to be flying to fly usually fixed with a couple of double rum and cokes and as soon as the plane takes off I need drink service

 

Snakes, spiders etc - no problem - had a 14ft python curled up on my verandah just last week.

 

cheers

john

[Tedster]

Being locked in a public bathroom with Ethel Merman singing.

[Rog]

Originally posted by Philip O'Keefe:

Don't go to Iraq.. trust me on this one.. I'll spare you the image.

Shit, I have to cancel my holiday now

[videoeditor1]

Being buried under 100,000 tons of dirt.

 

Being so deep underwater, that it would take too long to come up for air.

 

Being pulled over by the NYPD for any reason. It actually happened Friday in Manhattan. I saw cop in my rearview coming fast my way, (& me with no KY)so I pulled to the side (near an intersection to let them by)...the cop pulls up beside be, blocking me in....

 

"Are you ok?" He asks.

 

Me: "Yeah".

 

"What are you doing here??"

 

Me: "I saw you guys coming and pulled over as a courtesy"

 

"Are you sure??"

 

Me: Ummm, yeah."

 

Where are you coming from, where ya going?"

 

Me: "Yonkers, going to #83 Riverside...less than four car spaces away..."

 

One cop emerges to walk around my ride, I hear more sirens in the background - getting louder. I wind [all] my windows down (they're tinted legal), it's raing like crazy. The cop car pulls infront of me.

 

A fire truck stops abruptly beside me, the cop is still looking in the vehicle from outside...

 

The fireman asks me pretty much the same questions...the FIRE CHIEF car pulls up. Another cop car or two. I'm REALLY missing my KYJelly now.

 

The cop comes back over, asks me if I just came down a one way street illegally.

 

Me: Nope, I just came off the West Side and up and around the block because you can't make a legal left anymore...

 

So he says they got some kind of distress call - a carjacking of a black SUV or somebody pretty important (apparently, cuz they call was triggered from in the car, not by phone).

 

The firemen got a call for an extrication with the jaws of life - a black SUV with two occupants.

 

My plates are run, license checked, they give the vehicle another once over...keep me there for another 5-10 minutes....I'm getting wet, another fire truck pulls up, the road is completely closed off

 

FINALLY, the fireman comes over and ask (again) where wuz I going. I show him the location 60 ft away. I'm asked again why I was where I was...

 

Nobody's satisfied, no carjacker, no smashed up vehicle. I ask if I can leave, he can't say, he has to find the cops. The fire truck is literally 3 inches from my door, so I can't open it...

 

The cop comes over and tell me to take off. Fortunately, I find a spot four cars down, and go take care of my business.

 

I suspect that if I'd had a (female?) passenger, I would have spent a brief amount of time in the cop car while they questioned my passenger.

 

NYC Drew

[Bbach1]

Originally posted by Rog:

Spiders.

 

Fucking hate the crawly scary spooky eight-eyed freaky unpredictable jumping fanged web-spinning bastards.

 

 

Did I mention I hate spiders?

Spiders are bad news. That might be the one advantage to living in ND. The winters are too cold for the poisenous kind of eight legged freak. They still give me the creaps though. Silent stawkers. I also hate heights more the older I get. I'm ok in an airplane, or skyscraper, but not looking over the edge. Can't do it.

[theblue1]

Originally posted by LanceMo:

This one dude in the book had a problem going to a public toilet.

That's not a phobia -- that's just common sense.

 

[Blue Strat]

I have a fear of other people.

[Bill Heins]

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself"

 

Darkon the Incandescent

[whitefang]

Originally posted by Tedster:

Being locked in a public bathroom with Ethel Merman singing.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!

 

Spiders bother me, too, But only if they get near me. Seeing them in a web or on the wall doesn't phase me.

 

My fear of heights is different than most peoples. I can enjoy the view from up high somewhere, like out of those glass elevators at Detroit's RenCen, and even look out from a high balcony or over a high roof. Knowing the structure I'm viewing from is sound helps.

 

But climbing up a ladder to the roof of my one story house is another thing. Putting up Christmas lights is a source of anxiety. I've calculated that from the height required for this, my feet are 10 feet from the ground at highest. Six feet on average. Not a long or dangerous fall, but that fact doesn't seem to help.

 

My wife's phobia is bridges. We cross the Ambassador quite often, and she survives by staring straight ahead. She WILL not drive across it, no matter what!

 

And I forgot who it was in an earlier post, but it's the MACKINAC bridge( pronounced "Mackinaw").

 

Whitefang

[Kooky Mogessi]

Originally posted by whitefang:

 

And I forgot who it was in an earlier post, but it's the MACKINAC bridge( pronounced "Mackinaw").

 

Whitefang

That was me but I'm usually to busy trying to ignore the fact that i'm about to go over a big bridge to read the signs

[pseudonym]

Like I was telling LanceMo in person tonight, mostly not knowing what time it is, it's a phobia that I'm getting over-with now. I seem to need to have clocks around, for some reason if I don't know what time it is, I feel insecure, pretty strange, huh?

[RABid]

Spiders. If a spider jumps on me I totally loose it.

 

Speaking in front of groups. Hate it hate it hate it.

 

Stage fright. I don't mind playing drums in front of people, but keyboards and public do not mix. Maybe it has something to do with childhood and recitals.

 

Robert

[blackfish]

I am afraid of the United States of America.

I had a hope that this human civilization would last, learn and grown till infinity. But now that the good ol' USofA is here, we're fucked.

Oh, and I am also deathly afraid of police and clowns.

[phaeton]

As I described in a different thread, my phobia is accidentally getting `dosed' with any drug in a sufficient quantity in that it may cause disorientation or hallucination.

 

Mainly this centers around pot smoke, or going to a party or other situation where someone might have an opportunity to dribble some liquid LSD into your drink.

 

I know it is rather irrational and the possibilities of it are pretty slim, even if i were to subject myself to such "dangerous" situations. But nonetheless i do develop patterns of behaviour that ensure that i avoid such things- i.e. i don't go to concerts or parties.

 

Small, laid back get-togethers with people i know and/or trust is ok, but the days of 190 people in a house just acting crazy are quite over.

 

I'm also mildly hypochondriatic, too. I worry about all the aches and pains and odd sensations that my body presents me.

[YourMotherShouldKnow]

There's a lot of spider phobias out there. Are any of your phobias bad enough to change the way you do things?

 

Kooky and whitefang,

 

The bridge thing is pretty common I think. By common, like maybe 10%-20% of people have a problem with it. I'm reading up about treating phobias and there is a lot of good work being done apparently. I really want to put mine behind me. It definitely changes things for me.

 

Kooky, if you can, keep driving across bridges. The more you avoid it the worse it gets. If you need treatment seek it out. The even prescribe Prozac and stuff but that's extreme.

 

Good luck!

[RABid]

Does anyone know what a fear of phobias is called?

 

Robert