What bizarre phobias have you heard of?

[teela brown]

I have to preface this thread by saying that I am not immune to phobias -- for forty years I was too terrified of airplanes to fly. Three years ago, I talked myself out of it because I love to travel and I didn't want to limit myself to the west coast of the U.S. for the rest of my life. I'm still shaky when I fly, though . . .

I once knew a woman who was absolutely PETRIFIED of the munchkins and flying monkeys in The Wizard of Oz. She couldn't even think about them without getting into a cold sweat. Since I didn't like her very much, I used to get a perverse pleasure about bringing up munchkins if she was in the room. Sing a few bars of "Lullaby League," and she was history.

This was the weirdest one I've heard about. How about you?

[Sassy]

I had a friend who was petrified of soap bubbles - the kind you make with a wand. I never found out why, but that's the oddest I've come across.

Me? Moths - Can't handle 'em

[Saint Zero]

My Son (2) goes postal when you give him a helium ballon. No Clue why.

[mega the roo]

Besides being a Xenophobe, I am absolutely terrified of the White Queen (played by Carol Channing) from the '85 version of Alice in Wonderland.

[yESTERDAY mAN]

I have a friend who is afraid of the night sky. She also freaks out if you try talking to her about outer space. Things like the Theory of Relativity scare her pretty badly too.

[pepperlandgirl]

I have two run of the mill phobias: snakes and heights.
Now my two bizarre phobias: chickens and fish.
I am terrified of chickens, roosters in particular. I think it's because when I lived in Utah we had chickens and the roosters attacked me regularly. And I'm not scared of water, but I am scared of what lurks beneath the waves.

[lee]

blue volvos. They terrify me.

[Apollyon]

...my two bizarre phobias: ... I'm not scared of water, but I am scared of what lurks beneath the waves.

I know just what you mean.

The odd thing is that I scuba dive, and I have no problems under the water, but bobbing around on the surface with my feet dangling down into unseen depths... *shudder*

[DRY]

I've heard tell of a phobia caused by an irrational fear of the number 13. It's got a name like "triskadelaphobia" or something like that.

My mother used to tease me about being scared shitless (no, she doesn't use those words) of one of the regulars on the Electic Company or Sesame Street. Apparently I cried every time he came onscreen. I have no recollection of this whatsoever.

[pepperlandgirl]

I know just what you mean.

The odd thing is that I scuba dive, and I have no problems under the water, but bobbing around on the
surface with my feet dangling down into unseen depths... *shudder*

I'm glad to see I'm not the only one. People think I'm crazy...well I am, but they think I'm crazy for the wrong reasons.

[murano13]

Actually, it's triskadekaphobia.

[ricepad]

Water striders used to scare the shit out of me. When I was about 6, my brother told me they were poisonous. They are, but only if you're a quarter of an inch long and look like food to them. It too me 25 years before I could stand to see them.

I also had a secretary who had this thing for rubber bands. I guess it's not really a phobia, but whenever she'd see a rubber band, she'd get physically ill. She actually threw up once when some practical joker (not me!) left a pile of rubber bands on her chair. Yeah, she was an odd one.

[DRY]

Actually, it's triskadekaphobia.

Thanks. I wrote a brief article on phobias in that rag that was also known as our junior high school newsletter--this was back in the late 70s/early 80s. I was going by memory and am surprised I was actually *that* close to the correct name..

[Edwardina]

Besides being a Xenophobe, I am absolutely terrified of the White Queen (played by Carol Channing) from the '85 version of Alice in Wonderland.

Don't blame you on this one; Carol Channing is freaky-scary enough as it is without adding the weird costume and bizarre dialogue.

I also have the water thing (I have had to get out of a swimming pool in the middle of a swim class because I so vividly imagined a shark coming up underneath me in the deep end, and, yes, I know this is a completely irrational fear, there are no sharks in swimming pools), and though I am no longer scared of them, I too have been attacked by a rooster. My fear was somewhat allieviated when the same rooster tried to attack me again and I watched my mom punt it 25 feet across the yard.

[evilbeth]

My mother used to tease me about being scared shitless (no, she doesn't use those words) of one of the regulars on the Electic Company or Sesame Street. Apparently I cried every time he came onscreen. I have no recollection of this whatsoever.

I can relate. When I was little I was petrified of the big blue eagle, Sam, from the Muppets.

I am also afraid of cows and horses. Not when I see them from a distance, like driving down the road, but when I see them up close. They are huge!!!

Also, my feet cannot be touching the floor when the room gets dark. I will freak out if someone turns off the lights while I am standing on the floor. It really sucks to be walking around during a storm because at any time the power could go off and my feet would be touching the floor!

[Edwardina]

How about phobophobia (I kid you not): the fear of being afraid!

[SqrlCub]

I used to be afraid of the spinning Earth thing that came on at the end of certain television shows. I also had a fear of some muppetesque grape-cluster shaped velvet head/thing that would spin in my mind before I would go to bed. It would usually laugh.

Clowns. Those things are scary still. I should have never been able to watch Poltergeist when I was that young, especially since my younger sister looked exactly like the little "they're here" girl. She used to say that because she knew it would get a rise out of my older sisters and I.

I am really not scared of anything anymore. Up until about a year and a half ago I was thalasaphobic. It was pretty severe. I had trouble going over any bridges if they had water under them. The water actually had to be fairly large though. Usually my desire to swim over came my fear of the water; however, if anything would touch me in the water, real or imagined, I would turn into Jesus and run atop it until I reached the shore. To make things worse, I used to get the same irrational fear from simply watching nature shows. A good aquatic documentary was scarier than any horror film I have ever seen. I still get a little uneasy watching those, but they are so interesting. Overall now, I am able to swim without being frightened, bridges don't bother me, and I can pretty much look at marine life in the water without freaking out. I still get slightly frightened/excited by watching the documentary things though but overall it is more entertaining.

HUGS!
Sqrl

[Odieman]

My nephew had a fear of Santa Claus when he was three. If he even caught a glimpse of one at the other end of a mall he'd freak out. Now he's five he's outgrown that.
Keith

[teela brown]

Odieman, I'm with your nephew. Santa Claus still makes me nervous. Especially bad are the guys in the big cartoon character costumes at Disneyland. I'd run screaming!

You'd think I'd have sympathy for other people's phobias. Nuh-uh! At an office where I used to work, there was an annoying woman with a gibbering, screaming fear of crickets and grasshoppers. So what did I do when I saw at the toy store a realistic one-foot rubber grasshopper? Yup. Put it under her desk where she'd feel it with her feet before she saw it. Her reaction is still talked about at that office to this day. I'm so mean!

[UncleBeer]

Here's a pretty scary list of phobias.

[manhattan]

How about phobophobia (I kid you not): the fear of being afraid!

Hmmmph. So there really are people with nothing to fear but fear itself. Go figure.

[DAVEW0071]

My brother-in-law was really scared of the character "Grandfather Clock" from the original Captain Kangaroo show from the '60s. I was a little freaked out by the old guy, too.

My wife is really scared of snakes (a common phobia), and my son doesn't like spiders at all. When he was littler, he used to yell, "Go away!" at them.

But for bizarre phobias, I'd never heard of this one until I read it in the Book of Lists: Seems that comedian Sid Ceasar has a fear of haircuts.

My wife just mentioned that she saw a book in a store: A ten most common phobias pop-up book! Is that cruel, or what?

[WebMasterUSA]

I'm afraid of looking down from heights in movies.

I'm not afraid of the real thing, but Tom Cruise's rock climbing in Mission Impossible 2 gave me real panic.

I hid under my jacket for a while, but it took FOREVER to get through the credits, and nearly made me throw up.

[Koffing]

I've known two people who were scared of nutcrackers. Not the metal vice ones, but the ones that look like soldiers. That cracked me up. These two people didn't know each other, BTW.

[Danielinthewolvesden]

My freind has Mymirphobia, or fear of ants.

[KJ]

mega the roo: I used to be afraid of the white queen too. Of course, that was when I was little, and I grew out of it. If you still freak out now, I feel sorry for you.
That is a good movie, BTW.

[evilbeth]

Clowns. Those things are scary still.

I had trouble going over any bridges if they had water under them. The water actually had to be fairly large though.

Sqrl, were we separated at birth? I have these same fears! (I didn't really consider them bizarre--I think they are pretty understandable!)

BTW, Koffing, those nutcrackers give me the creeps. I wouldn't really call it a fear but it is weird.

[bunnymom]

Alrighty, let's see...

Fear of heights on television/movies - yup
Fear of what's lurking beneath the water - yup
Fear of that damned blue eagle from the muppets - yup

Here's a strange one.I seem to be afraid of driftwood.Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?Especially since I live five minutes from the beach and have always enjoyed it.Well, this is what happened:

My husband and I went down to the mouth of the river (where it empties into the ocean) one day and took a walk on the beach.It was a cloudy day and the water and sky were nearly the same shade of grey.When we reached the actual river and began going around the curve of beach towards the river proper, there were all these trees in the water, right by the edge.At first you couldn't see them very well as there was a lot of driftwood piled up right against the shore.But as we got closer, I noticed that some of the trees were moving (shudder).Four or five of these 20-25 foot trunks were slowly rocking around in the waves.I was siezed with the need to get away from them as fast as I could, and nothing my husband could say helped.We actually had to leave the beach,I was so upset.

I still haven't any idea why that was so distressing for me.Now when I think of it, I just feel silly.

[pepperlandgirl]

Oh Gawd, I'm SO scared of clowns. I'm terrified of them. I went to the circus a few years ago, and I literally freaked out...like tears, shaking, everything. It was horrible and embarrassing. I mean I was like 15, too old to act like that.

[JimmyNipples]

A buddy of mine turned into a pile of jiggling goo every time it was stormy. Thunder and lightening sent this guy over the edge.


My wife is terrified of dentists. Luckily, her dental health is very good.


I used to have a large fear of public speaking. If I wanted to continue my career as a broadcaster, I had to get over that in a hurry. I did....but it was tough.

Regards, Graeme

[KJ]

graeme, your post reminds me of a Seinfeld stand-up thing (that he said before the beginning of the show.)
IIRC, it went like this:

Well, recently I looked at a list of the most common fears of people. Know what the #1 fear people have is? Public speaking. Death was #2! That means, if you're at a funeral, you'd rather be in the casket than standing up giving the speech!

[vanilla]

Roller coasters.
The very first time I ever went on one, I was 30 years old.
I was sure I was going to be thrown to my death.
Then, after I got off, wobbily, we went into the sensurround movie, where the movie was: you guessed it: shot from the vantage point of a camera on a roller coaster!

[Johnny Pebs]

When I was a Kid I used to be terrified of the Oompa-Loompas from Willy Wonka. Hated them... couldn't stand them... all freaky looking with that scary ass oompa-loompa song. I think the worst part was when they were rolling away the little fat girl (Violet?) who blew up and tuned blue. Another scary part of the movie for me -although not really a phobia- was when they took that weird boat through the psychadelic tunnel. Now that I'm almost 30 I think it's a pretty cool movie... as a matter of fact 10 years ago I would've really appreciated that psychadelic tunnel.

Pebs

[skimitar]

From the link posted by UncleBeer, my favourite would have to be autophobia - fear of oneself. You could never get away from that one!

Myself, I used to have an irrational fear of the letter 'R' on Sesame Street. Not any 'R' but this one used to come from a distance getting closer and closer making horrible 'R' noises. Yes, I too am a "Sesame Street Victim".

I remember learning about some psychologist who (back in the days before ethics were invented, obviously) instilled the fear response in a kid by frightening the crap out of the little tyke with a really loud buzzer every time he showed him a white fluffy toy rabbit. It got to the stage where the kid would get hysterical just at the sight of a rabbit. Easter must have been a bitch...

[rowrrbazzle]

from murano13:

Actually, it's triskadekaphobia.

Actually, it's triskaidekaphobia.

From the Greek words for three (tris) and (kai) ten (deka).

[vanilla]

Okay, I've never told anyone this before, but; I have for some time, had an irrational fear of opening my front door; seeing an old man dressed as a policeman, stripping his clothes off and playing with my gerbil.
I know its unusual, but who says phobias are rational?
I doubt it'll ever happen.....

[nashiitashii]

One of my friends has an irrational fear of furbys. I mean, those things are creepy, but nothing to be all that afraid of. I think my biggest fear is failure.

[Spiny Norman]

Then there's Aibohphobia - you know, irrational fear of palindromes ?

[brachyrhynchos]

Worms. I fear worms. Larval forms of lepidopterans. Particularly those of the cutworm nature. I'm creeping out just typing this.

I date this fear from having a nightmare about being covered by cutworms that used to surface in our dichondra lawn after a good soaking. I woke up screaming, Mom came in to comfort me, I fell asleep and promptly had the dream again. So, now I break out in a sweat, get nauseous, get the major heebie-jeebies at the sight of, well, you know.

And where do I work? The Department of Entomology. My office mate learned the hard way to send his packages of worms to his lab instead of parking them in our office.

One of my friends suggested that I look at them as "little bags of leaves." That helped a bit, if they are far enough away.

[Diver]

pepperlandgirl said:
"And I'm not scared of water, but I am scared of what lurks beneath the waves."

Why are you afraid of me? All I do down there is take pictures.

[Linney]

I'm going to tell on another SD semi-regualr poster... As told to me by my mother, my older cousin (STRAINGER) used to be mortified of the Pillsbury Dough Boy. Evidently, he would run screaming out of the room every time a commercial with him in it came on the TV! How funny is that?

[jayron 32]

I have a phobic-type fear of the police. Squad cars, unifors, anything police related, I get cold sweats and palpitations whenever I see them (interestingly, I do like cop shows on TV however). FTR, I have never broken any law more serious than speeding, and yet I still have this visceral fear reaction to anything police related.

I don't know if its a phobia, but there are certain sounds that drive me insane, that it bothers me to the point of freaking out: Vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, alarm clocks, and especially phones all cause me huge amounts of stress to hear in any situation, but I don't know if it's a phobia or some other stress disorder.

[right said fred]

I’m not hysterical about it or anything. In fact my reaction is very calm. I just walk away.

But I hate electricity. I don’t have a problem with plugging-in appliances. I just won’t work on electrical wires. I won’t begin to touch a fuse box. There’s no way in Hell I’ll ever jump-start a car (but I have the cables in my trunk).

I don’t understand electricity at all. I’ve taken intro physics courses twice that each spent some time on the subject. My lab partner did all the physical work. But I can’t even understand the theory and math behind the stuff. I’d just throw up my hands, memorize a few models that made no sense to me, and barely pass the unit.

I can change batteries in my Walkman, smoke detector and flashlights (torches). It’s the powerful stuff that freaks my psyche. Maybe it’s the volts, maybe it’s the amps, I don’t really care to find out. I’ll just stand waaaaay over here while you start my car.

[vanilla]

Ah you reminded me; static electricity! I hate it. I wont wear clothes that make those horrid sounds and cling to me. ak!