wait, waht

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TRAVEL/09/22/bridge.fear.ap/index.html

Phobias are fascinating, largely because of their inexorable arbitrariness.

tyra banks is deathly afraid of dolphins

man everytime i see a story like this, chesapeake bay bridges get mentioned.
favorite maritime phobia: that chick from one of the Real Worlds who was phobic of huge boats. just like, looking at one from afar.

Yeah, that was RW San Diego, where their job was working on a sailboat. (!)

tyra cried at the sight of an empty swimming pool which sometimes contained dolphins

whoa + lol

my brother-in-law is afraid of bridges. he can deal with them, but they make him extremely uncomfortable. on his first trip to New Orleans (inexplicably at age 32), he called my sister from the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway completely flipping out. if i'm not mistaken, it's the longest bridge in the world. you're on that bitch for practically a half hour.

ts: People who are afraid of bridges vs people who have sex with bridges

pickle story is so fake.

At university I lived with this utter cockfarmer who had a ridiculous phobia of eggs. He could not stand to be in the same room as one. I once left one on the kitchen counter and then rolled it around a bit and he was like *camp screech* "GET IT OUT OF HERE!"

this doesn't seem like a particularly weird phobia to me. i mean as phobias go. it's not like being afraid of peanut butter or something.

No worries, s1ocki, here's someone who can help you:

http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/problem_detail.asp?SDID=5170:1381

Though a variety of potent drugs are often prescribed for fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth phobia, side effects and/or withdrawal symptoms can be severe. Moreover, drugs do not "cure" fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth phobia or any other phobia. At best they temporarily suppress the symptoms through chemical interaction.

The good news is that the modern, fast, drug-free processes of The CTRN Phobia Clinic will train your mind to feel completely different about peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth, eliminating the fear so it never haunts you again.

I strongly suggest reading the whole page.

Bridges -- I have trouble finding this one "arbitrary!" There are some long, narrow, incredibly high bridges in the world, and they remind you that you're traveling at dangerously high speed up in the air suspended on a geologically flimsy item, and rational reassurances of your relative safety are not necessarily going to quiet the animal portion of your brain that's like "I'm driving really fast through midair on a tiny suspended strip of nothing."

This is especially true if you have ever heard those legends about lightweight subcompact cars getting picked up by high winds and blown off the Mackinac Bridge.

uh I think we have moved on from bridgephobia to picklephobia

I went out with two people who were deathly afraid of bridges. Like, either close eyes and crouch under the dashboard or have a mental breakdown if we crossed one.

I'll give credit to one of them: she was only scared of bridges with cantilevers and railings, not the flat ones. Still, she had nightmares of somehow driving up on the railings and being up on top of the regular bridge traffic.

Meanwhile, my wife's favorite politician is Ted Kennedy.

Also the weird part of the original article is bolded:

And here's mushrooming for you: Two clients of Ross' had their wives lock them in the trunks of their vehicles and then drive them across the Bay Bridge. Ken Medell, whose transportation company holds a state contract to drive people over the bridge, says he's had customers lie down in the back seat. Others cry, shake with fear or hide their faces behind newspapers.

For a couple months I lived with a girl who was afraid of cats. There was one that was always hanging around outside our door and trying to get into the kitchen (sometimes I let it in to pet it), and we'd always have to chase it away before she'd go near the door or in the room. She said it was an "irrational fear," and I had to stop myself from trying to convince her there was nothing to fear from it because she knew it perfectly well.

My wife has mild bridgephobia. She covered her eyes and held on to me for dear life last month on the bus rides between the SF Ferry Building and the Emeryville Amtrak station.

this sort of list amused/fascinated me when I first came across it in a textbook: http://www.fun-with-words.com/phobias_a-b.html#A

(favorite from the a's: aibohphobia: Fear of palindromes)

virgivitiphobia Fear of rape.
virgivitphobia Fear of virgins.

talk bout yr "world of difference"

Fear of virgins.

I can't imagine how this could possibly function or emerge in real life. Unless it just means being afraid of teenage boys, and there is already a word for that, and that word is "normal."

"Hi, I'm here for the virgivitiphobia meeting"
"oh the virgivitiphobia meeting...that's in Conference Room B"
...
"Hi, I'm here for the virgivitphobia meeting"
"Room B"

"Bob, just wanted to let you know that there's both a virgivitphobia meeting and a virgivitiphobia meeting going on here tonight, Rooms B and C, respectively".
"what's the difference?... oh. haha awesome."

HI DERE, dude, my lack of driving is partially seated in fear of bridges! Granted, that's not all of the story, since I don't have problems walking on bridges, but still.

If you want to generate a fear of bridges or walkways for yourself, just search "el camino del rey" on Youtube

I mostly started this thread because I was taken aback that there are people out there who would rather regularly be locked in a trunk than see themselves be driven over a bridge.

I was ok about enclosed spaces and bridges until I walked across the Pont du Gare which combins the 2 in a quite horrible way.

If you want to generate a fear of bridges or walkways for yourself, just search "el camino del rey" on Youtube

^^^ AWESOME

Consider the true cost of living with Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of The Mouth Phobia.

If you are living with fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth phobia, what is the real cost to your health, your career or school, and to your family life? Avoiding the issue indefinitely would mean resigning yourself to living in fear, missing out on priceless life experiences big and small, living a life that is just a shadow of what it will be when the problem is gone.

For anyone earning a living, the financial toll of this phobia is incalculable. Living with fear means you can never concentrate fully and give your best. Lost opportunities. Poor performance or grades. Promotions that pass you by. fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth phobia will likely cost you tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your lifetime, let alone the cost to your health and quality of life. Now Fear Of Peanut Butter Sticking To The Roof Of The Mouth Phobia can be gone for less than the price of a round-trip airline ticket.

Who are these people?

Comedy writers?

There's another thread here where Alba mentions the fear of buttons. Last year someone with this phobia did a whole episode of "The Panic Room". After getting rained on by buttons (they gave her an umbrella) and having to stand near them, I think she had to pick one up. She did it and the crowd went wild.

I'm afraid of ceiling fans.

My father has the button phobia. The bigger the little thread-holes, the more sinister he finds them.

The woman on this show said her greatest fear was "wild" buttons. Wild buttons for her were loose buttons, or buttons that looked like they might fly off, or become disattached from what they were sewed to. She could - with extreme concentration and fortitude - put on a jacket that had buttons on it as long as she could convince herself they were sewed on there tight enough.

i'm afraid of socks

I'm afraid of balloons. Well, afraid they'll pop near me.