What Are Your Phobias?

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Can't recall this being done before...

Inspired by an offhand comment about minicabs and taxis on the 10 1/2 question.

What are you most irrationally afraid of? What are your phobias?

Spiders? Heights? The dark? Anything else really strange?

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Horrible fear of heights. And lifts/elevators, they freak me out. And taxis, can't stand the idea of getting in a car by myself with a strange man.

Also a little bit of agoraphobia, but not quite so bad as it could be. I don't like wide open, exposed spaces, but that's not really much of a problem in the city.

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm getting sick of this. I have no allergies. I've never really suffered from depression. I don't know any murderers. And no, I don't have any bloody phobias. You're all fucking freaks and I demand a freak/non-freak board split.

― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Clowns freak me out big time. They're evil and should be culled. Prferably by someone with a bucket which they say is full of bits of paper but which actually is full of tarantulas or something.

― Jonnie, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dogs. Any dogs, unless I've already met them and they haven't done scary dog like things. I just get a bet twitchy and nervous around them nowadays, but when I was a kid I wouldn't go within six feet of a strange dog in the street, and would never willingly enter a room with unrestrained dog in it.

― Richard Tunnicliffe, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Heights - even aerial shots on tv turn my stomach.

Most creepy-crawlies don't bother me but I'm terrified of cockroaches.

Also I'm a bit claustrophobic and hate being in the back of a car if it's only got front doors.

― scott, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Eeeuuuwwwww!!!

Clowns, I forgot clowns. Yes, clowns are evil and scary and they freak me out and I hate them.

Nick, go somewhere normal and well adjusted if you don't want people revelling in our freakdom. This board is *for* the freaks.

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dentists, to the point that I shake uncontrollably around them. Don't like heights, spiders or clowns, but it's not sufficiently a phobia.

― Paul Strange, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, and I also hate both doctors and dentists, but I don't classify that as a phobia, as it seems pretty sensible, given my experiences.

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Daddy Long Legses. I don't like the way their flight paths are so unpredictable. I'm not too keen on phones either but if I let that one get out of hand I would have no life.

― Madchen, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

some of you know thesae and called me a freak before but.....

clowns

masks (especially those pierrot ones)

empty rocking chairs

anything to do with teeth

― cabbage, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

scorpions, yet strangely no fear of spiders, luckily very few scorpions in ealing.

also, spent school holiday alone in a house with a wasps nest many years ago, ever since then have spent the summer months getting twitchy if insects fly anywhere near me.

the missus is much afeared of snakes - is anyone else that phobic of something that even its appearance on a television screen will invoke a scream and a scramble for the remote? steve irwin is considered to be the antichrist in our house.

― kevan, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Being afraid of phones is not a phobia. It is a SENSIBLE AND RATIONAL LIFESTYLE CHOICE, THANK YOU!!!

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I seem to be getting more afraid of things as I get older which really pisses me off. I used to be OK with heights and am getting increasingly less OK with them, and even worse I seem to be developing a fear of flying. You hear of people overcoming fear of flying all the time but you don't hear of people bloody catching it, but every time I get on a plane I'm that bit more nervous.

(This is a very foolish confession to make actually since if plans hold I'm going on a plane next weekend with that master of sensitivity Pete)

― Tom, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

my ex could not look at a shark, on tv, in a book anywhere. I had so much fun when they were advertising shark week on discovery on the tube ;-)

― cabbage, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I used to ABHOR phones, but one day that just went away. I think the rush of power from hanging up on my father three times in a row in the midst of an argument until he stopped yelling at me helped.

I also used to hate dogs due to suffering a moderate bite on the leg when I was four (had the scar up until around age 19). Being around nice dogs has helped that one go away.

I don't really have a fear of heights; it's more a fear of forgetting that leaping off of a building leads to death and having a go just to see what it's like to free-fall. Despite this, I have neever bungie- jumped and probably never will.

I'm not very fond of the dark, because it hides EVERYTHING and it's really easy to convince yourself that thre's someone with night vision goggles and a serrated knife RIGHT BEHIND YOU!

― Dan Perry, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Actually, Tom, a lot of people *do* suffer from worsening of phobias if "untreated" and also spontaneously develop fear of flying. I think Bill Wyman was a famous example. Or maybe he just really didn't *want* to go on tour any more...

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

But Kate, how bad does a fear have to get before it's classified pychologically as a phobia? surely simple fears don't get worse when untreated?

i get freaked out not in crowds, but rather in large crowded spaces where people move around with no order( e.g. waterloo station ), but i don't get that freaked out. i usually have to just take a couple deep breaths.

i also have the teeth falling out dream often, but i don't know if that means i have a fear of rotting teeth, or if it's something deeper.

i have an rational fear and hatred of house centipedes, as they are the spawn of satan. the look sort of like a silverfish with 80 striped legs, and they're very fast.

― marianna maclean, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ooh, that teeth falling out dream, I have that at least once a week, coupled with my fear of teeth related ephemera that rapidly turns into a nightmare.

― cabbage, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Could the teeth problem have anything to do with eating habits? I hope this doesn't come across as cheeky, I'm just interested to see if people who have these dreams are sweet munchers.

― Jonnie, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Re: Teeth

I like sweets, but I like lots of things that aren't sweets to. I think I have low tooth self esteem. I had a tooth accident when I was 9 years old, and ever since then I have hated my teeth.

Sometimes the teeth falling out dream consists of solid teeth falling out whole, sometimes they turn to dust when bitten down on, and then fall out like shards of glass, one time i dreamt my jaw separated down the middle, and then my molars rotated to the front, and front teeth to the back, then they turned to powder and fell out of my mouth as i ran to the destist.

― marianna, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― Jonnie, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mine are never that freaky, I have pretty healthy teeth and always have, my dreams just involve me walking along and they suddenly start falling out, and I have to hold them in my hand. Nasty.

― cabbage, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That teeth going rotten/falling out dream is one of those classic text book dreams, on a par with the Queen coming round for tea and having no PG tips in. I can't remember what it's supposed to mean, though. Something about concern with physical and social appearances, and effectiveness in an increasingly hypermediated and hypersexualised environment which shows every sign of worsening.

― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Clowns, monkeys, and knives/being stabbed.

― Nicole, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Okay, I know this is really odd, but I have a fear of music boxes, and have had it ever since I was a little girl. Not the kind that only play when you lift the lid (and thus can shut off by closing the lid), but the kind that you wind up and have to let wind down. I was always afraid they wouldn't stop playing, and I'd have to bury it in the backyard, or something...

― Danielle, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

being stabbed

OK, I take it all back about not having a phobia. I don't much like the idea of being stabbed either.

― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As a veteran of the teeth falling out dream I know all about the various explanations, ranging from insecurity about looks, money, life in general to 'it means you'll die next Tuesday'. My favourite interpretation is that it means you have something unsaid and in the dream, spitting out the teeth (which is what I do) represents spitting out the words you are afraid to say.

I hate this dream, I've not had it for ages but when I do I spend the whole next day with my finger in my mouth checking my teeth are OK, it is very vivid. The daft thing is I have never had a problem with my teeth and have good teeth really (and yet I am English! how can it be!).

― Emma, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Moths scare me. Horrible fluttering wings creeping round yr lamp at night - aaaarrrrgggh! 'Blood Beast Terror' (w/feeble giant moth monster) = scariest film ever made. Am also a bit afraid of bees/wasps as I have never been stung and therefore don't know how painful it is.

― Andrew L, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

have you seen any of the old godzilla films with mothra in?

i'm sure that the thought of being stung can be far worse than actually being stung (bee sting allergies excepted).

― kevan, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

One of my exes had a moth phobia, not sure if it was the fat hairy bodies (no, not mine) or the fluttery wings but if a moth came into the room at night he would stop whatever he was doing and start squeaking. And he was a 6ft rugby player for God's sake. Another one had a phobia about things round his neck, not just the obvious stuff like nooses but too-tight tshirts and necklaces. So of course every time I bought him something I would be worrying about whether he'd put it on and start tugging in a pained manner at the neckline. Wusses.

― Emma, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Clowns I can live with, but they should stay far away from me anyway. The fact that the cover of the new Chameleons album shows a freaked-out clown is perversely hilarious, but the first Mr. Bungle album did it better. ;-)

Dan mentioned dogs -- a dog-bite incident or two in my use left me fairly jumpy for a long while, though we always had a family dog and I never minded them (likely because said dogs weren't mean ;-)). And while I don't fear the dark itself, the creaks old houses can make aren't good if you're in a paranoid mood. Ack, the murderers!

All these weird teeth dreams and fears, though, no. Creepy.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

vacuums. I will not use them .
Showers - i have to bath

― anthony, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Farm animals.

― Ally, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

bees i'm alergic too, therefore hate anything that flies through my windows, including wind. I'm also sacred that one day i might wake up and discover i have to wake up...

― Geoff, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not scared of spiders, bugs, creepy-crawlies etc. Am family's official Bug Killer. But am scared of heights if it means shinnying up a ladder without any security...

― suzy, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't tell you, it would be a security risk, as well as being very silly and troublesome. But I will tell you I CAN NOT touch spiders, though looking at them is not a problem.

― DG, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh god, I remember another of my phobias. Cooling towers. Absolutely terrified of them.

― Jonnie, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

cooling towers!!! Jonnie, congratulations you are officially weirder even than Disco Dave with his fear of pistachio nuts.

― cabbage, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I really really dislike cockroaches, plus bees and wasps (and anything that looks like them), but I'd still be able to approach them if necessary. More irrational is my fear of falling on my mouth and having my teeth break, especially when I'm going up stairs fast.

― Patrick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cooling towers ARE weird! Can you imagine falling into one? (shudder) My heart is bumpity bumping as I type this. Thank god I rarely encounter the structures of Satan.

― Jonnie, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think teeth falling out dreams are about fear of or anxiety about change. Spiders are supposed to bring good luck, I'm not scared of them, I think they're elegant. I used to have a big fear of quicksand and mushrooms when I was little, I read mushrooms were somehow poisonous and whenever I saw one I'd kick it over and run away.

― Lesley Higgins, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, I've just thought of another phobia - this one does affect the way I do things. I got mugged two and a half years ago, 20 yards from my front door and now I really, really hate walking home after dark. I have to look over my shoulder several times in the 100 yards or so from the bus stop to my front door and often start running, even if there's nobody around. Probably more so if there's nobody around.

― Madchen, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Best cooling tower scene ever -- the torture chamber in _Brazil_, namely showing such a tower from the inside. ACK!

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I need to be walked since the mook incident. I have been mugged and it did not affect me as much as that.

― anthony, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Recently I fear dogs. I fear the after life and death for that matter. I fear violent people. I fear rapists. I fear diseases. I fear natural disasters will strike. I fear nuclear war.

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I wonder if the not walking in the dark thing is more "post traumatic" stress or whatever they call it, rather than an actual phobia... for weeks after a really bad motor crash I was in, I could not drive a car. Even riding in a car was extremely uncomfortable, every time a car came from the opposite direction, I would wince, clench up and close my eyes, expecting impact. Eventually, it did go away, tho.

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

WORMS!!! and COCKROACHES!!!

I also have definite agoraphobic tendencies.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Heights, but only if I feel like there's not enough ground/floor/whatever holding me up. So planes are OK, but like climbing up a watertower latter would probably not be. Sometimes on steep staircases, up a few floors, I get a kind of vertigo feeling - it's a lot worse if I can see down the stairs very well (like more than a floor or two down).

Maybe dogs when I was a kid.

― Josh, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Have you ever been on a cliff or ledge where there is clearly not enough room for a sane person to stand and yet people are right near the edge idiotically prancing? It makes me hot with desire for no more of it.

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

spiral staircases. worst of all are spiral staircases in castle towers where the stone steps have worn away over the centuries. even worse if they are crowded and you have to walk up the middle where the step is narrowest. i'm not sure if this is an irrational phobia type fear or common sense type fear.

― kevan, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I get REALLY nervous whenever I'm waiting for the subway, and people are letting their little kids WAY TOO CLOSE to the edge of the platform. I just have to look away. If I ever bring children in a subway I'll have them stick their back to the wall at all times, by force if I have to... no one's going anywhere near the edge until the train gets there.

― Patrick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does anyone else ever get an nearly uncontrollable urge to shove people when they're on the edge of things? I mean, I'm not going to do it but it comes into my head. What stops people from doing it?

― Ally, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Morality? I too have this urge sometimes, but I very much doubt I'm going to ever follow through with it.

― Nick, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Does anyone ever have the urge to shove All y into a pile of circus poo?

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Is that really it? Morals? Wow.

― Ally, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Like Andrew, I hate moths. Wee ones are fine, but those big buggers...aargh!

Oh and I'm terrible with heights. Part of it is to do with what Ally talks about - when I'm standing near the edge of something, even if I know I won't fall myself, I have this irrational fear that someone else will just come up behind me and push me over.

― Ally C, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't like flying in aeroplanes.

― james e l, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Morality, or maybe just the fear of prison/death/etc. If you couldn't be caught, well then. ;-)

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm one of those assholes who walks way too close to the edge of subway platforms, even when they're crowded. I'd have a phobia about touching the third rail, but I'm short. I figure I haven't been pushed because (1) fear of prosecution; (2) pure luck.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I fear fear

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

well duh, we have nothing to fear but that.

― ethan, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ethan , I fear I am boring you!

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Swimming in dark water and being unable to see the bottom.

― Toby, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Hmmmm...I'm really quite claustrophobic. The first time I had an MRI I nearly flipped out.

I'm also afraid of getting stabbed in the neck. The thought makes my neck feel all weird and vulnerable, and at night I usually have to put a small pillow beneath my neck so that I can rest easier...
Then of course, irrational fear of people that I knew in high school. I've been known to walk out of restaurants and theatres upon seeing anyone I went to high school with.

― Melissa W, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have a horrible fear of slugs and snails - horrible lumpen slimy things, which is worse combined with the shiny brittle crunchy shell. I also get very scared when dogs run towards me and jump at me. I think "He's only trying to be friendly" deserves to be in the Massive Lies thread. I probably think they're going to eat me. I have a similar thing about heights to Josh. I'm fine most of the time, but when I'm on a rickety structure I suddenly freeze up, though my definition of rickety seems quite random. And like other people have mentioned, I get fantastically scared on the behalf of people who stand near the edge of cliffs or do other daft things.

― Graham, Friday, 20 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Everyone using the TTC right now is totally paranoid because we have a particularly dangerous loonie on the loose - they gave him a day pass from his institution and his escort somehow 'lost him', which is so great. Seems that this guy does NOT have whatever it is that holds people back in regards to that urge Ally mentioned, because he did push a girl in front of a subway (who died) and apparently would easily do so again.

― Kim, Saturday, 21 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Cops.

― Sterling Clover, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

dogs. not all dogs, just ones that look like they might bite you

― gareth, Sunday, 22 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six months pass...

moths, i hate them i dont even like to see/say the word let alone the real thing. butterflies too i hate them as well. id lov e to know if this phobia has a name and if so what!?

― lynn smith, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

stairs.

― nancy b., Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i am afraid of babies. where i come from, babies are an infectious disease.

― di, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have a hard time with feeling closed in with no way out. Sharks bees/wasps snakes, being followed.YIKES!!!

Farm animals are beautiful, and that also depends on if you are cruel to them or not. I have raised many and they were all great to have around! They give your life meaning.

― Gale, Wednesday, 13 February 2002 01:00 (twenty-four years ago)

three months pass...

I am, like Graham, absurdly afraid of slugs. I love gardening but have discovered slugs in the garden of my new house, which is making me hysterical. I got one on my pants the other day and I really nearly passed out, went wild, flailing and shedding clothes all the way into the house. Everyone else thinks it's funny, but I hate it!

― Jenga Blox, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I have the world's most Freudian phobias.

1. Snakes. I love looking at them on TV and behind glass in zoos, but they are very scary.

2. Trying to make my way through very narrow tunnels and getting jammed. There's a passage in either The Weirdstone Of Brisinghamen or The Moon of Gomrath by the wonderful Alan Garner where the heroes have to wriggle through a rock tunnel. I could barely bear to read on. It's always the chest getting stuck that scares me, so I think it's to do with my very serious asthma.

I am not scared of any sexual organs, honest. Unless they belong to a snake, of course.

― Martin Skidmore, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

I suffer from panic disorder so I have lots of phobias. Bridges, elevators, heights in general.

― Chris, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Bees and wasps; have never been stung by one (not allergic).

― Joe, Thursday, 6 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

Escalators. I will will walk blocks out of my way and wait ten minutes in the rain for a piss-stinking heavily vandalized slow- moving elevator with a junkie passed out in the corner before I'll ride an escalator that's more than 20 meters long. Sometimes (to my shame) I'll even fake a limp so that my avoidance of the rolling stairs of horror will appear socially acceptable. I don't know where the fear came from, but a few years ago I attempted to combat it through SCIENCE AND REASON: I researched escalator accident statistics and safety design issues fairly intensely for about a week. Guess what: escalators are fucking DEATH TRAPS.

― Colin Meeder, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

No, it is ELEVATORS (or lifts as I like to call them) that are the evil death traps. Not only are you confined in a space more suited to housing a toilet than a dozen sweaty, grumpy bodies, but you also have to lurch up and down in a completely unnatural vertical motion. And have you SEEN Speed? They make me ill and I would climb 800 flights of stairs to avoid them.

― Archel, Friday, 7 June 2002 00:00 (twenty-three years ago)

five months pass...

All of my friends laugh at me for this but i have an uncontrolable fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of my mouth! in a super market i can't even go down the asile with peanut butter. my fear is called araciabutyaphobia. peanut butter is evil!!! (it wants to kill us all!)

― Jade Christian, Monday, 18 November 2002 21:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Strangely enough, I'm exactly the same (despite my moniker). Never been bitten by one, but I've always seen dogs as slobbering, ugly, terrifyingly random balls of bristling fur, teeth and claws. They smell bad, they act surprised by the slightest event, they jump on you and they try and lick your face and your balls. They bark at you when you ring your friends doorbell. They bark when you walk past their house. They chase after you if you're jogging or cycling. They are not "cute" and they are not "just being friendly" and nine times out of ten, they are not "just a puppy". Cats are fine. Cats don't need to be taken for walks. Cats don't stink of damp and off-ham. Cats don't go round barking for bugger all reason. Cats are also a lot more intelligent than dogs too. People only rate dogs as intelligent because they can be helpful to humans and do what they're told. Isn't this just a display of dumbness?? Cats are clever cos if you tell a cat to sit or beg, it'll probably go away and do something it would rather do instead.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 18 November 2002 21:56 (twenty-three years ago)

You should probably stop wearing briefs made out of bacon.

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Monday, 18 November 2002 22:12 (twenty-three years ago)

But they feel so good.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 18 November 2002 22:15 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah, maybe I should.

Ooh! That's another one I'm scared of - just as you described it.

― dog latin (dog latin), Monday, 18 November 2002 22:39 (twenty-three years ago)

i'm not afraid of heights in the traditional sense, but i can't stand being near the edge of a cliff or the roof of a building without a guard-rail that is at least chest high.

i'm also very phobic about being made to look like a chump by a girlfriend/partner (intentionally or unintentionally).

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Monday, 18 November 2002 22:56 (twenty-three years ago)

Slugs and snails are oh so yuck. So slimy, even just dried snail shells. Gawd. Once a snail climbed up a glass window so I could see its underbelly and it was the worst thing ever.

― Leee (Leee), Monday, 18 November 2002 23:54 (twenty-three years ago)

I am afraid of success. Thus my lack of it can be attributed to the fear, rather than any tangible failings on my own part.

― Mary (Mary), Tuesday, 19 November 2002 05:47 (twenty-three years ago)

three years pass...

Am I the only person who has a phobia of spinning things? Since I was a child I've frequently gotten panicked at the sight of a tilt-a-whirl, and sometimes even ceiling fans make me incredibly queasy and nervous.

― Abbadavid Berman (Hurting), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 02:41 (nineteen years ago)

I feel this way about the propellers on small planes (the only sort that flies out of our wee airport, generally). Lots of deep breaths and focused not-thinking about them breaking loose and crashing spinning into the cabin right about where my seat is. I am unhappy about ceiling fans directly over the bed too.

I'm worse about caves though, which is awful because I have to deal with them for work sometimes. The last time I had to deal with one (not only a deep, steep cave, but under a river and on a fault line - where a hydro power plant lives), I had to keep mentally focused on the phrase "it's just like disneyland". God knows why that worked, I hate theme park rides just about as much.

― Jaq (Jaq), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 02:53 (nineteen years ago)

Gingerbread men.
http://www.housing.und.edu/dining/Winter%20Wonderland/slides/Gingerbread%20Men.JPG
What’re they smiling about, what do they know?

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 05:42 (nineteen years ago)

I don't like caves, heights, or mannequins. If I go into a museum and it has mannequins dressed in period costume, I have to leave in case they come alive.

I also fear zombies. Although, as I have pointed out to Mister Monkey on many occasions, fearing zombies is perfectly rational. They are not our friends.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 08:21 (nineteen years ago)

ive got the amaxophobia. im pretty much this chick:

"A woman came to me for help with a fear of riding as a passenger in a car. She explained that she did not really have a problem with driving, only riding. As we talked, she recounted a recent experience of riding with her husband on an interstate hwy. A large truck passed them and she got so anxious, she ripped the upper grab handle off her new Cadillac. No, the handle was not defective and this woman is about 5'-4". This was the level of her anxiety when riding. I asked her to rate her SUDS [intensity] level on the scale of 1-10, she laughed and wanted to know if the scale only went to 10."

the shitty part is that when people work this out they drive all crazy just to freak me out. probably karma for all those times ive grabbed the railing and gasped 'omg what was that?!?' in elevators with claustrophobics. MUST EXPLOIT PEOPLES FEAR

― sunny successor (katharine), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 12:23 (nineteen years ago)

That is shitty :-(

For me it's body piercings of any kind, especially earrings -- if someone tugs on their earrings I have to make them stop because I'm convinced they're going to rip right out. Aargh, heebie-jeebies now thinking about it. (And no, I don't have my own ears pierced.)

― Surfer_Stone_Rosalita (Surfer_Stone_Rosalita), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 12:31 (nineteen years ago)

My ex wouldn’t walk up or down escalators that had stopped.

― not-goodwin (not-goodwin), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 12:41 (nineteen years ago)

Best to avoid the DC metro system, then.

― quincie (quincie), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 13:14 (nineteen years ago)

my new girly has a dog and it's adorable. i even managed to sleep a whole night with it sleeping at the foot of the bed. i wouldn't normally have let a dog in the same room as me while i slept.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 14:00 (nineteen years ago)

maybe its biding its time before it murders you in your sleep.

oh wait, thats cats.

― sunny successor (katharine), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 14:11 (nineteen years ago)

I've met two people this year with a phobia of buttons. One has it so bad that he has never taken an office job in his life, because he can only wear T-shirts and not buttoned shirts.

― mike t-diva (mike t-diva), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 14:29 (nineteen years ago)

I have a phobia of not having sex with legions of hot, nasty women. Unfortunately, it's crippling.

― Fluffy Bear (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 14:34 (nineteen years ago)

I'm a bit phobic about throwing up, because it always comes out my nose as well as my mouth, and that is pretty fucking gross. I haven't enjoyed a good old rip-roaring drunk in years because I hate the thought of getting drunk enough to puke.

― Offisa Pump (Rock Hardy), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 14:36 (nineteen years ago)

since befriending a dog my trust of cats seems to have sunk from positive to all time low.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 14:36 (nineteen years ago)

having to get on a plane sends me into a panic, and i've developed vertigo as i've gotten older which means that i now have a terrible fear of heights in general.

but otherwise, i worry about everything. you name it, i can work up a neurotic anxiety attack within a few seconds if i try.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 14:42 (nineteen years ago)

knee injuries, claustro, Janice Dickinson, indie rock, getting murdered in my sleep

― Haikunym (Haikunym), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 14:45 (nineteen years ago)

being deep underground / being underground far enough that I can't see the exit.

― Damn, Atreyu! (x Jeremy), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 15:26 (nineteen years ago)

I feel strangely safe underground but getting there usually freaks me out. So (for instance), there's a big cave in Lanzarote and it's about 1 km walk to it from the surface and all the time during the walk I'm checking for exit routes and thinking what if the lights fail and would I be able to get out before the other people but then when we get to the cave which is obviously the furthest point away from the outside world and where I shoud be most freaked a lovely calm comes over me and I feel very relaxed. It's odd but nice.

― Ned T.Rifle (nedtrifle), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 15:41 (nineteen years ago)

Like Lauren, I can pretty much get myself worked up about anything at all if I try hard enough, Chicken Little-stylee.

When we were in New Zealand we took a bus trip that included Manapouri power station, which is UNDERGROUND. The young lad who was giving the spiel on the tour asked if anyone had a problem with being underground and Mister Monkey indicated my unhappy state. The tour guide told me later that it was pretty common, but a shame as he had some great material that he couldn't use on people like me. I also remember how jumpy I was in the Channel Tunnel.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 15:42 (nineteen years ago)

my phobias are at their worst when there's some other scary thing i'm dealing with in my life. and once that dies down i'll be fine... until the next scary thing.

― lavendra diamondheart (Jody Beth Rosen), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 15:50 (nineteen years ago)

as a child: spiders, dogs
as an adult: spiders, huge blue skies which represent THE VASTNESS OH GOD THE VASTNESS.

― michael wells (michael w.), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 23:09 (nineteen years ago)

Alarm-a-phobia. The fear that I'm going to set off an alarm when I go through a door.

― Pete Scholtes (Pete Scholtes), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 23:32 (nineteen years ago)

spiders ewwwwww. and of course crabs and lobsters seem to fit into the spider looking category so I can't stand to see them either.

clowns. They are frightening and evil. plain and simple.

― Wiggy (Wiggy), Wednesday, 21 June 2006 23:47 (nineteen years ago)

Spiders, centipedes, heights (a bit) - those are the most rational. Dinosaurs and zombies (really the idea of something eating me alive) maybe not so rational, but still present.

― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 22 June 2006 00:03 (nineteen years ago)

the fear of something eating you alive is in the TOP 5 RATIONAL FEARS with a bullet, sara.

― michael wells (michael w.), Thursday, 22 June 2006 00:08 (nineteen years ago)

Thank you for saying that; my evil book club has mocked me about the dinosaurs thing forever. (Okay, just because I thought Jurassic Park was terrifying does not mean I'm completely irrational!)

When I was pregnant I also had a fear of labor pain, also pretty rational (but that's what epidurals are for).

― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 22 June 2006 03:16 (nineteen years ago)

most insects, especially airborne ones, ESPECIALLY airborne ones that making buzzing noises (as demonstrated just now when one did exactly that and i leapt up in fright and hysterically whacked it to death with a dvd case).

― joseph (joseph), Thursday, 22 June 2006 05:08 (nineteen years ago)

OMG sunny, I have that fear of being a passenger in a car thing too - hardcore! I mean I dont drive either, so I'm feared of being in cars in general I guess, but it is particularly bad when I am a front-seat passenger. I feel terrifed that every person on the side of the road is going to run out and we'll hit them; ditto all cyclists; that we're too close to all the other cars, that something terrible is always about to happen. I sit in rigid terror in cars, esp taxis, a lot.

Why I don't know, it isn't like Ive been in a bad accident or anything?

I also relate to Jer's being underground/in caves with no exit thing. Ugh caves/mines. No thanks. Claustrophobia city.

I also hate things being in my ears. It makes me literally scream and panic if I get water in my ears or they get blocked up, so I cant wear in-ear headphone buds, or earplugs for noise, and I cant wash my ears out with drops or water. Had operations and infections in ears as a kid, I guess that did it.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 22 June 2006 06:18 (nineteen years ago)

Oh and lately I've started to get fear of death - not of dying, but rather of NOT EXISTING ANYMORE. I got stoned one night and had such a dreadful panic attack about whats going to happen to me when/as I die, that I thought I would have a heart attack and, haha, die. haha. Oh dear.

― Trayce (trayce), Thursday, 22 June 2006 06:20 (nineteen years ago)

i've always been extremely uneasy on elevated trains, esp. on tracks with unwieldy s-curves and virtually nothing on either side of the right-of-way to cushion the blow if the train derails.

― aimee semple mcmansion (Jody Beth Rosen), Thursday, 22 June 2006 06:25 (nineteen years ago)

Amaxophobia. Now I have a word for it. With me, It's not consistent. I'm pretty comfortable with some people. It's like a wild beast that can sense fear. If I can sense something off about the driver, I freak out. I don't say anything and I don't move, so as not to provoke catastrophe. I don't think this I have true amaxophobia; I think it comes from growing up with crazy people.

― Fluffy Bear (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Thursday, 22 June 2006 16:23 (nineteen years ago)

aww...im not alone! fluffy, i only have it with certain people too and there seems to be no logical reason for who it is. my brother darts in and out of traffic like a maniac but i feel completely calm when hes driving. my mom hasnt gotten so much as a ticket in 40+ years of driving but im absolutely terrified to be in the car with her. the ironic thing is that i drive with style when im alone in the car but when i have passengers i get all absentminded and do stupid things like drive through stop signs etc. projecting much?

Trayce, i never thought about things jumping out! my fear, mostly, is that a car or truck will just start sliding across lanes while everyone is doing 80 miles/hr.

ps i was in a 13 car crash once. made the news. it really wasnt that bad but we were all doing maybe 60km max.

― sunny successor (katharine), Thursday, 22 June 2006 17:54 (nineteen years ago)

I feel terrifed that every person on the side of the road is going to run out and we'll hit them; ditto all cyclists; that we're too close to all the other cars, that something terrible is always about to happen.

I think it's because you're on the wrong side of the road! Hahahahaha, oh man, Australia joke. Sorry.

I was terrified of that when I first started driving until I realized: what would be the motivation of a Mack truck to suddenly plow into the wrong lane and destroy me? They wouldn't do that. Fortunately I had not seen Spielburg's first film at the time.

I was terrified of about 80 quintillion things as a child, most notably demonic posession. The only thing that held on is my fear of dentists, which has grown to compensate for the other fears shrinking. I hate even watching other people brush their teeth. It's a very private thing to me. Whenever they show someone with toothbrush and foam dripping out of their mouth on TV, it revolts me. Irrational, but that's the hallmark of this stuff, right?

― Abbott (Abbott), Thursday, 22 June 2006 17:56 (nineteen years ago)

FB, considering some of the people who've given us rides I'm surprised I don't have amaxophobia, too. (YES I AM TALKING ABOUT YOU JOHN JUSTEN.)

― Jesus Dan (Dan Perry), Thursday, 22 June 2006 18:00 (nineteen years ago)

A, my dentist is a sedation dentist. you should try one! he hasnt put me under yet, but he plans too. apparently youre not completely out, you can answer questions, but youre in like a semi-dream state. sure, youll probably get felt up but your teeth will look great.

Fortunately I had not seen Spielburg's first film at the time.

i watched duel just last week!

― sunny successor (katharine), Thursday, 22 June 2006 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

OMG dentists. How could I forget that? They have drills!!! And the smell in their offices just makes me cringe.

― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Thursday, 22 June 2006 18:03 (nineteen years ago)

I'm not very fond of the dark, because it hides EVERYTHING and it's really easy to convince yourself that thre's someone with night vision goggles and a serrated knife RIGHT BEHIND YOU!

- Dan Perry

Dude, this is totally a video game.

― mummy wrapped in bacon (nickalicious), Thursday, 22 June 2006 18:12 (nineteen years ago)

I kind of have a phobia of can lids, like, of slicing my hand open on one.

― mummy wrapped in bacon (nickalicious), Thursday, 22 June 2006 18:19 (nineteen years ago)

i have those teeth-related dreams, which are awful. used to be scared that i would trip and fall on the street and break my teeth (how that would happen, i have no idea). however, never had so much as a cavity in my life

oh and the ocean terrifies me. all that water, the astounding depth, waves, sharks/whales, drowning, being in the middle of nowhere... *shudder*
gives me the willies

― archipelago (archipelago), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:09 (nineteen years ago)

"Sex and death - two things that come once in a lifetime... but at least after death, you're not nauseous."

― Fluffy Bear (Fluffy Bear Hearts Rainbows), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:16 (nineteen years ago)

teeth falling out dreams means youve been lying. youre a filthy filthy liar!

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:18 (nineteen years ago)

No, teeth are all about your self-image, actually. A lot of the time I dream about my teeth falling out.

― Nathalie (stevie nixed), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:22 (nineteen years ago)

whatever, liar!

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

j/k obv.

― sunny successor (katharine), Friday, 23 June 2006 13:28 (nineteen years ago)

Seeing pictures / movie shots of planets or the universe. I close my eyes, even if it's just a picture of the moon in a National Geographic. It makes me feel sick, gives me vertigo, etc.

Oh yeah, and the spitting out teeth thing too.

― paulhw (paulhw), Friday, 23 June 2006 21:43 (nineteen years ago)

heights is bad. dogs when I was younger but not so much anymore. hate people watching me eat too, that's somewhere between phobia and something else I guess.

― Ronan (Ronan), Friday, 23 June 2006 22:33 (nineteen years ago)

I know someone with a tooth loss phobia. This is a problem when you have kids losing their deciduous teeth.

Someone else mentioned sharks... I've never felt totally comfortable in the ocean or even in lakes or rivers ever since seeing Piranha at an early age. (Back to being eaten alive, I guess.)

― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Saturday, 24 June 2006 02:05 (nineteen years ago)

piranha fucked up an entire generation

― sunny successor (katharine), Saturday, 24 June 2006 02:31 (nineteen years ago)

LOL... of course you have to love the ending of Piranha. "Let's pollute them to death!" Wow I'd love to see that again. (Maybe not before a swim, though.)

― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Saturday, 24 June 2006 02:36 (nineteen years ago)

did you ever see piranha II 'flying fish' or 'flying killers' or something (in any case, the idea was FLYING PIRANHA)? me either.

― sunny successor (katharine), Saturday, 24 June 2006 11:46 (nineteen years ago)

ROFL - I saw part of it. Drums beating... fish coming flying out of the water to EAT people. Strangely hilarious. (Also, James Cameron's first directing credit!) I'm too much of a control freak to have ever even smoked pot, but I told my husband last night (because I had Piranha on my mind) that I suspected that sequel was a perfect film for such activity. Sooooooo bad.

― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Saturday, 24 June 2006 11:51 (nineteen years ago)

oh noes!http://www.tele-movie-shop.de/images/lowspeed/big/CD---Piranha-II.jpg

― sunny successor (katharine), Saturday, 24 June 2006 12:25 (nineteen years ago)

OMG that image. That is one pissed off fish.

With wings!

― Sara R-C (Sara R-C), Saturday, 24 June 2006 12:47 (nineteen years ago)

Pickles are destroying my life

This is actually pretty sad, but at least Maury doesn't exploit/torture her or anything.

― A Giant Mechanical Ant (The Giant Mechanical Ant), Monday, 26 June 2006 03:44 (nineteen years ago)

ihttp://photos1.blogger.com/img/8/1316/1024/pickle3.jpg

― A Giant Mechanical Ant (The Giant Mechanical Ant), Monday, 26 June 2006 15:10 (nineteen years ago)

music composed and conducted by STELVIO CIPRIANI

― you can email me if you wish to challenge the truth (nickalicious), Monday, 26 June 2006 15:19 (nineteen years ago)

I mean, THAT is a bad. ass. name.

― you can email me if you wish to challenge the truth (nickalicious), Monday, 26 June 2006 15:20 (nineteen years ago)

six years pass...

butterflies

― crüt, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 19:13 (thirteen years ago)

Also I'm a bit claustrophobic and hate being in the back of a car if it's only got front doors.

Oh thanks a lot, I never thought to worry about this before but now I will forever.

― lets just remember to blame the patriarchy for (in orbit), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 19:17 (thirteen years ago)

I am not too wild about elevators. I mean I take them all the time but I'll get real nervous if they jerk or get stuck for a few seconds.

Not too crazy about flying birds either but this is directly related to the one time a pigeon flew into my head.

Now that I'm about to be living on my own for the first time in 9 years I seem to have developed an irrational fear that someone is going to climb through the bedroom window of my ground floor apt and either kill or kidnap me but I guess that's not really a phobia.

So just elevators, birds and flying then.

― go to party leather (ENBB), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 19:30 (thirteen years ago)

birds - not so much in general, like I'm cool with them flying overhead and what not, but like, the turkeys and geese that wander around our parking lot at work, or my inlaw's pet parrot that wants to sit on your shoulder, birds being up in my grill is what I mean

I hate the way they smell and their beady eyes and I'm terrified they're going to fly into a rage and peck my eyes out

gale force winds - I had horrible nightmares about cyclones and hurricanes when I was a kid, so anytime there's crazy strong winds I go into a bit of a weird state of mind. we had the power go out once during a windstorm a year or two ago and I had a full on panic attack, curled in a ball on the couch crying my eyes out because I thought we were going to die. I'm not proud :)

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 19:45 (thirteen years ago)

oh and noisy confined crowded spaces with low ceilings and no visible exit is my worst nightmare

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 29 January 2013 19:46 (thirteen years ago)

fear of turkeys is completely rational - the males are aggressive, bullying, vicious fuckers!!

― just1n3, Tuesday, 29 January 2013 19:47 (thirteen years ago)

two months pass...

I have two very bad and seemingly related phobias that evoke a very visceral reaction for me, the first one being certain kinds of spinning things (ceiling fans, those spinning swing rides at carnivals) and the second one being tumultuous water motion. The second one is so bad that I sometimes get a mild panic sensation while giving my baby a bath, and the former is bad enough that just thinking about carnival rides gives me the heebie jeebies (oddly, I can RIDE the rides without as much trouble, it's WATCHING them that I can't take).

― i've a cozy little flat in what is known as old man hat (Hurting 2), Monday, 1 April 2013 22:32 (twelve years ago)

irl I can't claim to have uncovered any phobias. in my dreams the most recurrent symbols that inspire fear would be: tornados, rattlesnakes.

― Aimless, Monday, 1 April 2013 23:26 (twelve years ago)

note that both are kind of spiraly

― i've a cozy little flat in what is known as old man hat (Hurting 2), Tuesday, 2 April 2013 00:44 (twelve years ago)

nine months pass...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loGM3VvpsOE

― 龜, Thursday, 23 January 2014 09:47 (twelve years ago)

three months pass...

my phobia: escalators and cockroaches, scary as fuck!!!!

― ledos, Saturday, 26 April 2014 22:26 (eleven years ago)

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