I'm Deathly Afraid of Aquariums...and Other Odd Phobias

[DoperChic]

Kinda long, I appologize...

Yes. I must admit, I'm afraid of aquariums (and generally any sort of water that I can't see through). It's not just your run of the mill "ooh it freaks me out" kinda fear, either. I am totally completely scared @#$%less of aquariums.

I can handle shallow pools or aquariums where I can see through the water, but as soon as I can't see the other side of the tank or the water gets the least bit murky, I freak out. The same also happens when there are tanks on either side of me, regardless of what's in them. I can't even handle walking down the fish aisles in my local pet store. I aso can't handle going into the ocean unless I can see clearly where every part of my body is. I also refuse to open my eyes while under water in a swimming pool. My heart races, my hands get clammy, and I have this insanely strong instinctive "need" to run away.

Everyone I've talked to about this thinks I'm either lying or just plain weird.

I am not a scaredy cat by nature. I like to face my fears head on and conquer them. So I asked my friend Annette to go to the Camden Aquarium (in New Jersey) with me last summer. I walked in the aquarium and what's the first thing I see?? A giant floor-to-ceiling tank with a ton of fish and a great white shark staring right at me.

I ran into the bathroom, shaking.

After a few minutes, Annette finally got me to calm down and go through the aquarium. I made it through the whole thing. Yay! Granted, I held her hand for much of it, but I made it through nontheless. I even managed to look at the big tank that had scared me so much earlier.

The theory I have on why I'm so afraid is kinda out there. I don't know if I myself competely buy the theory, but it's the only thing I can think of. So just hang in there with me, ok?

I have been reading some books by Sylvia Brown. She is a psychic who believes in reincarnation.

(We'll leave the debates on the legitimacy of psychic powers and reincarnation for another thread...)

Anyways...

According to Sylvia, when a soul enters into a new body, they are supposed to temporarily "forget" any experiences they had during previous lives. However, if death in one of those lives was traumatic enough, the soul wll experience cell memory, that is, they remember the strong emotions associated with that death, but not any details. In many cases, these feelings will suddenly emerge in the new life around the same age that the soul experienced the death in the previous life.

This would explain the sudden appearance and strangeness of my fear. I distinctly remember going to pet stores with my dad at a young age and picking out fish for our fish tanks. I loved going and had no problems whatsoever. Then, all of a sudden, the fear developed.

I think that in a past life I may have drowned in the ocean.

So, wise dopers of the world... What's your take on the topic?

Does anyone out there have a similarly weird story to share?

Star Light

[DarkWriter]

Originally posted by Star Light Star Bright
I think that in a past life I may have drowned in the ocean.

So, wise dopers of the world... What's your take on the topic?

Does anyone out there have a similarly weird story to share?

Star Light

Perhaps you were one of the passengers on the Titanic? I have a friend who cannot stand to be wet and cold, and she wears she was a Titanic passenger in a past life.

As for me, I'm terrified of wind. Ever since watching The Wizard of Oz at the age of 2, any strong wind will make me shake and get me sick to my stomach. I don't know what I'd do if I lived in "Tornado Alley."

Sheri

[tiny ham]

I get absolutely FREAKED out and have a near panic attack every time I:

1. Hear the song "Just The Two Of Us"

or

2. See the movie "Somewhere In Time"

I'm not even kidding. My heart pounds, I start sweating, and I know that by now in my life it's just conditioning, but I've never, since I was like nine or ten been able to handle either of those things.

It really makes me wonder what happened to me at what time when those things were around, that my body and my mind just go crazy.


But lord I love aquariums!

jarbaby

[Joyfulgirl]

I have an irrational and very real fear of heights. Can't even stand on a chair without getting all queasy. What's that you say? That's a fairly common phobia? True, but mine has taken on a weird twist. I'm terrified of stairs. And not only the narrow and steep kind with no railing, either. No, I'm also afraid of the concrete kind on porches with 2 steps.

I can usually walk up them with no problems, but when I start walking down them... I'll be standing on somebody's porch, and I go to walk down the stairs. Right when I begin to walk, I can feel myself losing my sense of balance and falling.

It's not very fun when I have to walk down 3 or 4 flights of the things... <shudder>

[GilaB]

I'm afraid of being upside down. I discovered this when taking jujitsu, and found that I just couldn't do rolls. I figured out that I just can't take being upside down - if I try to do a simple, five-year-old's somersault, I end up flat on my back, gasping when I come out of it. When trying to figure out what exactly made me freak out, I had friends hold me upside down, increasing my angle to the floor until I freaked. When totally perpendicular, I was fine, but when I got about a degree past that, I was suddenly dizzy and gasping, with an intense need to be right side up again.
I can't think of what traumatic experiences I had as a child while upside down.

[Venoma]

Star Light Star Bright, to come to this board and bring up Ms. Brown.. I would suggest you go to http://www.randi.org and read through the commentary archives to gather an independant point of view on her credibility, if you like. I will not, however, tell you that reincarnation does not exist, because I believe it to be a perfectly valid viewpoint. Perhaps such trauma from a past life could be the reason. Maybe, to you, the why shouldn't matter as much as getting past it? I think having a friend along with you is a very good idea.

I've got a pretty strange fear of things that cut. I can't handle a knife without having fear of cutting someone else (I don't drop it and scream or anything, but only because I don't let myself dwell on it.) Thinking about amputations can make me cry. It's not the object itself that bothers me, but its capacity to hurt people. Sound of chainsaws and axes cutting wood has my blood pressure up to the ceiling. I fully expect to hear a bloodcurdling scream any second.

I also have a fear of bugs in the wrong places (like my bed, my hair, my clothing, etc.) Spent one whole night sleeping sitting up in a chair because I was too scared to go back to sleep in my room due to a June bug that had appeared while I was asleep, then I couldn't find (found the bugger dead in my candy dish a week later! HAH!) Dont mind them one bit when they're outside where they belong.

Ok, so neither of these is weird. Despite the fact that they seemed to come out of nowhere... never had these problems when I was younger. *shrug*

[Nefarious Chipmunk]

I am terrified of making phone calls. Seriously, even if I know the person and number really well. The thought that I might have a wrong number, or that I might be inconvienancing someone on the other end, terrifies me. I guess this is why I would make a pretty sad telemarketer.

I figure it stems back from when I was ten years old and I got a wrong number and the man on the other end started screaming at me about how stupid I was and how he was in the middle of something, etc. Yeah, now I know that he was just a jerk, but I wonder how he would feel if he knew that he had scared me for life. Actually... he probably wouldn't care.

[Agrippina]

I have an unreasonable fear of fire. I'm 19 and I don't know how to use a match or a lighter, as I am too afraid of burning myself or dropping them and having a fire start. I was worse when I was younger. I would run out of the room and hide while my parents lit the fireplace, and I was 13 before I learned how to use a burner on the stove by myself. When I first got a car, I had my parents get me gas because of the possibility (no matter how remote) of getting shocked and bursting into flames. My mom thinks I may have died by fire in a past life.

Like heraldgwena, I hate making phone calls. Not with my friends or people I know, but with strangers. I hate ordering pizzas or calling for some information of some sorts. I'm not sure if it's a fear, just a high level of nervousness and shyness. But when I was a toddler I was afraid of the phone, even if it was to talk to my grandfather on his birthday.

[Hello Again]

I used to get freaked out by the aquarium/fish aisle at the pet store too. I also was very, very scared of the upper balcony at the Hall of Fishes (now the Hall of Marine Life) at the American Museum of Natural History (NYC). You know, the room with the giant Blue whale suspended from the ceiling? I loved the lower hall which has diorama of dolphins, seals, walruses, penguins, fish and other animals that live in and around the water. However in order to get to the lower hall, you enter by the balcony (which has a large display on the evolution of fish). I would RUN into the hall, eyes barely open and race down the steps to safety.

I can't recall WHY I was scared of the fish evolution display and neither can my parents. ("You were a strange kid" was their only comment when questioned.)

A few years ago I worked up the courage to actually look at the upper balcony display. Although I found it interesting, I could not dispell a sense of uneasiness.

I also have a phobia of dying in a submarine accident. I have been on a museum sub once (U.S.S. Cod) and it was docked in very shallow water. No one in my family has ever been harmed by or in a submarine. I really can't explain it, but movies such as Crimson Tide, The Hunt For Red october, The Abyss, and others featuring sub sccidents REALLY freak me out.

[JavaMaven1]

Ice Skates.

Don't look at me like that.

I can watch ice skating--that isn't the problem. I can't stand having skates on my feet or being on ice. The one time I tried, I ended up in the biggest panic attack of my life. I must have been in some kind of ice skating accident in a past life.

[lieu]

Originally posted by DarkWriter
As for me, I'm terrified of wind. [/b]

Must... resist...


I'm scared witless of being upside down in a tight hole that filling up with water. Maybe I had a bad birth or something butt it scares the bejesus outta me.

[elfkin477]

Originally posted by DarkWriter
As for me, I'm terrified of wind. Ever since watching The Wizard of Oz at the age of 2, any strong wind will make me shake and get me sick to my stomach. I don't know what I'd do if I lived in "Tornado Alley." [/b]

I too and frighten of the wind, but only with an additional element to it- Wind + Trees= terrifed, sick to stomach, Elfie.

However, my fear has an easy to trace origin. When I was 18 years old, on a windy day I got home from a Lit. magazine meeting and decided to work on whatever I was writing then. I heard a huge crash in the front room. My immidiate though was "What the F#$%? How did the cats knock the cabinet over?" When I walked into the room, before I could even see anything, the smell of pine asaulted me. Where two windows had been, half of a tree was impaled in the roof. For some reason, I've been really scared when ever I see trees swaying in the wind. I swear I'm serious, if I ever build a house all the trees that could potenitally fall on the house would be cut down, but people think I'm joking when I say it.

[Kbean]

This is extremly embarrasing but I am deathly afraid of dogs. Anything bigger than a dauchsand scares the hell out of me. I'm very, very scared of being bitten by them and I get severe panic attacks when encountering dogs I don't know.

[Limerick]

Clowns and mimes. Seriously, who came up with the idea that it would be fun to take a man, paint his face dead white, give him huge red lips, and set him loose among small children? And mimes, well, that's self-explanatory.

I'm also terrified of dark rooms. I can't walk into a room that's dark. Literally can't make myself step over the threshold.

[Patty O'Furniture]

Joyfulgirl, your fear of stairs has a name: Climacophobia. Here is a list I've had for a while. Many of them I've heard of, but I don't know if I can believe some of them. I mean, fear of having an erection? Imagine the man who has that phobia. At least other phobias can be avoided.

Acarophobia Fear of itching or any insect causing itching.
Acerophobia- Fear of sourness.
Achluophobia- Fear of darkness.
Acousticophobia- Fear of noise.
Acrophobia- Fear of heights.
Aerophobia Fear of drafts, or swallowing, airbourne noxious substances.
Aeroacrophobia- Fear of open high places.
Aeronausiphobia- Fear of vomiting secondary to airsickness.
Agoraphobia Fear of open spaces or of being in crowded public places like markets.
Agraphobia- Fear of sexual abuse.
Agrizoophobia- Fear of wild animals.
Agyrophobia- Fear of streets or crossing the street.
Aichmophobia- Fear of needles or pointed objects.
Ailurophobia- Fear of cats.
Albuminurophobia- Fear of kidney disease.
Alektorophobia- Fear of chickens.
Algophobia- Fear of pain.
Alliumphobia- Fear of garlic.
Allodoxaphobia- Fear of opinions.
Altophobia- Fear of heights.
Amathophobia- Fear of dust.
Amaxophobia- Fear of riding in a car.
Ambulophobia- Fear of walking.
Amnesiphobia- Fear of amnesia.
Amychophobia- Fear of scratches or being scratched.
Anablepobia- Fear of looking up.
Ancraophobia or Anemophobia- Fear of wind.
Androphobia- Fear of men.
Anemophobia- Fear of air drafts or wind.
Anginophobia- Fear of angina, choking or narrowness.
Anglophobia- Fear of England, English culture, etc.
Ankylophobia- Fear of immobility of a joint.
Anthrophobia- Fear of flowers.
Anthropophobia- Fear of people or society.
Antlophobia- Fear of floods.
Anuptaphobia- Fear of staying single.
Apeirophobia- Fear of infinity.
Aphenphosmphobia- Fear of being touched. (Haphephobia)
Apiphobia- Fear of bees.
Arachibutyrophobia Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of the mouth.
Arachnephobia- Fear of spiders.
Arithmphobia- Fear of numbers.
Arrhenphobia- Fear of men. (Androphobia)
Arsonphobia- Fear of fire.
Asthenophobia- Fear of fainting or weakness.
Astraphobia - Fear of lightning.
Atelophobia- Fear of imperfection.
Atephobia- Fear of ruins.
Atychiphobia- Fear of failure.
Aulophobia- Fear of flutes.
Aurophobia- Fear of gold.
Auroraphobia- Fear of Northern lights.
Autodysomophobia- Fear of one that has a vile odor.
Automysophobia- Fear of being dirty.
Autophobia- Fear of being alone or of oneself.
Aviophobia or Aviatophobia- Fear of flying.
Bacillophobia- Fear of microbes.
Bacteriophobia- Fear of bacteria.
Bogyphobia- Fear of bogies or the bogeyman.
Ballistophobia- Fear of missles or bullets.
Bolshephobia- Fear of Bolsheviks.
Barophobia- Fear of gravity.
Basophobia, Basiphobia Inability to stand; Fear of walking or falling.
Bathophobia- Fear of depth.
Batonophobia- Fear of plants.
Batophobia- Fear of heights or being close to high buildings.
Batrachophobia- Fear of frogs.
Belonephobia- Fear of pins and needles. (Aichmophobia)
Bibliophobia- Fear of books.
Blennophobia- Fear of slime.
Bromidrosiphobia or Bromidrophobia- Fear of body smells.
Brontophobia- Fear of thunder storms.
Cainophobia or Cainotophobia- Fear of newness, novelty.
Caligynephobia- Fear of beautiful women.
Cardiophobia- Fear of the heart.
Carnophobia- Fear of meat.
Catagelophobia- Fear of being ridiculed.
Catapedaphobia- Fear of jumping from high and low places.
Cathisophobia- Fear of sitting.
Catoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors.
Cenophobia or Centophobia- Fear of empty rooms, empty spaces.
Ceraunophobia- Fear of thunder.
Chaetophobia- Fear of hair.
Cheimaphobia or Cheimatophobia- Fear of cold.
Chemophobia- Fear of chemicals or of working with chemicals.
Cherophobia- Fear of gaiety.
Chionophobia- Fear of snow.
Chorophobia- Fear of dancing.
Chrometophobia or Chrematophobia- Fear of money.
Chromophobia or Chromatophobia- Fear of colors.
Chronophobia- Fear of time.
Cibophobia or Sitophobia or Sitiophobia- Fear of food.
Claustrophobia- Fear of confined spaces.
Cleithrophobia or Cleisiophobia Fear of being locked in an enclosed place.
Cleptophobia- Fear of stealing.
Climacophobia- Fear of stairs, climbing or of falling downstairs.
Clinophobia- Fear of going to bed.
Clithrophobia or Cleithrophobia- Fear of being enclosed.
Cnidophobia- Fear of strings.
Cometophobia- Fear of comets.
Coimetrophobia- Fear of cemeteries.
Coitophobia- Fear of coitus.
Contreltophobia- Fear of sexual abuse.
Coprastasophobia- Fear of constipation.
Coprophobia- Fear of feces.
Counterphobia- The preference by a phobic for fearful situations.
Cremnophobia- Fear of precipices.
Cryophobia- Fear of extreme cold, ice or frost.
Crystallophobia- Fear of crystals or glass.
Cyberphobia- Fear of computers or working on a computer.
Cyclophobia- Fear of bicyles.
Cymophobia- Fear of waves or wave like motions.
Cynophobia- Fear of dogs.
Cypridophobia Fear of prostitutes or venereaì disease.
Decidophobia- Fear of making decisions.
Defecaloesiophobia- Fear of painful bowels movements.
Deipnophobia- Fear of dining and dinner conversations.
Dementophobia- Fear of insanity.
Demonophobia or Daemonophobia- Fear of demons.
Demophobia- Fear of crowds.
Dendrophobia- Fear of trees.
Dentophobia- Fear of dentists.
Dermatophobia- Fear of skin lesions.
Dermatosiophobia or Dermatophobia- Fear of skin disease.
Dextrophobia- Fear of objects at the right side of the body.
Diabetophobia- Fear of diabetes.
Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school.
Dikephobia- Fear of justice.
Dinophobia- Fear of dizzyness or whirlpools.
Diplophobia- Fear of double vision.
Dipsophobia- Fear of drinking.
Dishabiliophobia- Fear of undressing in front of someone.
Domatophobia or Oikophobia- Fear of houses or being in a house.
Doraphobia- Fear of fur or skins of animals.
Dromophobia- Fear of crossing streets.
Dysmorphophobia- Fear of deformity.
Dystychiphobia- Fear of accidents.
Ecclesiophobia- Fear of church.
Ecophobia- Fear of home.
Eicophobia or Oikophobia- Fear of home surroundings.
Eisoptrophobia- Fear of mirrors or of seeing oneself in a mirror.
Electrophobia- Fear of electricity.
Eleutherophobia- Fear of freedom.
Elurophobia- Fear of cats. (Ailurophobia)
Emetophobia- Fear of vomiting.
Enetophobia- Fear of pins.
Enochlophobia- Fear of crowds.
Enosiophobia Fear of having committed an unpardonable sin.
Entomophobia- Fear of insects.
Eosophobia- Fear of dawn or daylight.
Epistaxiophobia- Fear of nosebleeds.
Equinophobia- Fear of horses.
Eremophobia- Fear of being oneself or of lonliness.
Ereuthrophobia- Fear of blushing.
Ergasiophobia Surgeon's fear of operating.
Ergophobia- Fear of work.
Erotophobia- Fear of sexual love.
Euphobia- Fear of hearing good news.
Eurotophobia- Fear of female genitalia.
Erythrophobia Fear of redlights, Blushing.

Fibriophobia- Fear of fever.
Francophobia Fear of France, Frencè culture (Gallophobia)
Frigophobia- Fear of cold, cold things.

Gamophobia- Fear of marriage.
Geliophobia- Fear of laughter.
Geniophobia- Fear of chins.
Genophobia- Fear of sex.
Genuphobia- Fear of knees.
Gephyrophobia- Fear of crossing bridges.
Germanophobia- Fear of Germany, German culture, etc.
Gerascophobia- Fear of growing old.
Gerontophobia- Fear of old people or of growing old.
Geumaphobia or Geumophobia- Fear of taste.
Glossophobia- Fear of speaking in public or of trying to speak.
Graphophobia- Fear of writing or handwriting.
Gymnophobia- Fear of nudity.
Gynephobia or Gynophobia- Fear of women.

Hadephobia- Fear of hell.
Hagiophobia- Fear of saints or holy things.
Hamartophobia- Fear of sinning.
Haptephobia- Fear of being touched.
Harpaxophobia- Fear of being robbed.
Hedonophobia- Fear of feeling pleasure.
Heliophobia- Fear of the sun.
Hellenologophobia Fear of Greek terms or scientific terminology.
Helminthphobia- Fear of being infested with worms.
Hemophobia or Hemaphobia or Hematophobia- Fear of blood.
Heresyphobia Fear of challenges to official doctrine or radicaì deviation.
Herpetophobia- Fear of reptiles.
Heterophobia- Fear of the opposite sex. (Sexophobia)
Hierophobia- Fear of priests or sacred things.
Hippophobia- Fear of horses.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words.
Hodophobia- Fear of road travel.
Hormephobia- Fear of shock.
Homichlophobia- Fear of fog.
Homilophobia- Fear of sermons.
Homophobia Fear of sameness, monotony or homosexuality.
Hydrargyophobia- Fear of mercurial medicines.
Hydrophobia- Fear of water.
Hydrophobophobia- Fear of rabies.
Hyelophobia or Hyalophobia- Fear of glass.
Hygrophobia- Fear of liquids, dampness, or moisture.
Hylephobia- Fear of materialism OR the fear of epilepsy.
Hylophobia- Fear of forests.
Hypengyophobia or Hypegiaphobia- Fear of responsibility.
Hypnophobia- Fear of sleep or of being hypnotized.
Hypsiphobia- Fear of height.

Iatrophobia- Fear of going to the doctor.
Ichthyophobia- Fear of fish.
Ideophobia- Fear of ideas.
Illyngophobia- Fear of veritgo or feeling dizzy when looking down.
Iophobia- Fear of poison.
Isolophobia- Fear of solitude, being alone.
Isopterophobia- Fear of termites, insects that ear wood.
Ithyphallophobia Fear of seeing, thinking about or having an erect penis.

Japanophobia- Fear of Japanese.
Judeophobia- Fear of Jews.
Kainolophobia- Fear of novelty.
Kainophobia- Fear of anything new, novelty.
Kakorrhaphiophobia- Fear of failure or defeat.
Katagelophobia- Fear of ridicule.
Kathisophobia- Fear of sitting down.
Kenophobia- Fear of voids or empty spaces.
Keraunophobia- Fear of thunder and lightning.
Kinetophobia or Kinesophobia- Fear of movement or motion.
Kleptophobia- Fear of stealing.
Koinoniphobia- Fear of rooms.
Kolpophobia- Fear of genitals, particularly female.
Kopophobia- Fear of fatigue.
Koniophobia- Fear of dust. (Amathophobia)
Kymophobia- Fear of waves.
Kynophobia- Fear of rabies.
Kyphophobia- Fear of stooping.

Lachanophobia- Fear of vegetables.
Leprophobia or Lepraphobia- Fear of leprosy.
Laliophobia or Lalophobia- Fear of speaking.
Leukophobia- Fear of the color white.
Levophobia- Fear of things to the left side of the body.
Ligyrophobia- Fear of loud noises.
Lilapsophobia- Fear of tornadoes and hurricanes.
Limnophobia- Fear of lakes.
Linonophobia- Fear of string.
Liticaphobia- Fear of lawsuits.
Logophobia- Fear of words.
Luiphobia- Fear of lues, syphillis.
Lygophobia- Fear of darkness.
Lyssophobia- Fear of becoming mad.
Macrophobia- Fear of long waits.
Maieusiophobia- Fear of childbirth.
Malaxophobia- Fear of love play. (Sarmassophobia)
Maniaphobia- Fear of insanity.
Mastigophobia- Fear of punishment.
Mechanophobia- Fear of machines.
Medomalacuphobia- Fear of losing an erection.
Medorthophobia- Fear of an erect penis.
Megalophobia- Fear of large things.
Melissophobia- Fear of bees.
Melophobia- Fear or hatred of music.
Meningitophobia- Fear of brain disease.
Menophobia- Fear of menstruation.
Merinthophobia- Fear of being bound or tied up.
Metallophobia- Fear of metal.
Meteorophobia- Fear of meteors.
Methyphobia- Fear of alcohol.
Metrophobia- Fear or hatred of poetry.
Microbiophobia- Fear of microbes. (Bacillophobia)
Microphobia- Fear of small things.
Memophobia- Fear of memories.
Monophobia- Fear of being alone. (Autophobia)
Monopathophobia- Fear of definite disease.
Motorphobia- Fear of automobiles.
Musophobia or Murophobia- Fear of mice.
Mycrophobia- Fear of small things.
Myctophobia- Fear of darkness. (Achluophobia)
Myrmecophobia- Fear of ants.
Mysophobia- Fear of germs or contamination.
Mythophobia- Fear of myths or stories or false statements.
Myxophobia- Fear of slime. (Blennophobia)
Nebulaphobia- Fear of fog. (Homichlophobia)
Necrophobia- Fear of dead things.
Negrophobia- Fear of Negros.
Nelophobia- Fear of glass.
Neopharmaphobia- Fear of new drugs.
Neophobia- Fear of anything new.
Nephophobia- Fear of clouds.
Noctiphobia- Fear of the night. (Nyctophobia)
Nomatophobia- Fear of names.
Nosocomephobia- Fear of hospitals.
Nosophobia or Nosemaphobia- Fear of becoming ill.
Nostophobia- Fear of returning home.
Novercaphobia- Fear of your mother-in-law.
Nucleomituphobia- Fear of nuclear weapons.
Nudophobia- Fear of nudity. (Gymnophobia)
Numerophobia- Fear of numbers. (Arithmphobia)
Obesophobia- Fear of gaining weight.(Pocrescophobia)
Ochlophobia- Fear of crowds or mobs. (Demophobia)
Ochophobia- Fear of vehicles.
Odontophobia- Fear of teeth.
Odynophobia - Fear of pain. (Algophobia)
Oenophobia- Fear of wines.
Oikophobia- Fear of home surroundings, house.
Olfactophobia- Fear of smells.
Ombrophobia- Fear of rain or of being rained on.
Ommetaphobia or Ommatophobia- Fear of eyes.
Oneirophobia- Fear of dreams.
Oneirogmophobia- Fear of wet dreams.
Onomatophobia- Fear of hearing a certain word or of names.
Ophidiophobia- Fear of snakes. (Snakephobia)
Ophthalmophobia- Fear of being stared at.
Optophobia- Fear of opening one's eyes.
Ornithophobia- Fear of birds.
Orthophobia- Fear of property.
Osmophobia or Osphresiophobia- Fear of smells or odors.
Ostraconophobia- Fear of shellfish.
Pagophobia- Fear of ice or frost.
Panthophobia- Fear of suffering and disease.
Panophobia or Pantophobia- Fear of everything.
Papaphobia- Fear of the Pope.
Papyrophobia- Fear of paper.
Paralipophobia- Fear of neglecting duty or responsibility.
Paraphobia- Fear of sexual perversion.
Parasitophobia- Fear of parasites.
Parthenophobia- Fear of virgins or young girls.
Pathophobia- Fear of disease.
Patroiophobia- Fear of heredity.
Peccatophobia- Fear of sinning. (imaginary crime)
Pediculophobia- Fear of lice.
Pediophobia- Fear of dolls.
Pedophobia- Fear of children.
Peladophobia- Fear of bald people.
Pellagrophobia- Fear of pellagra.
Peniaphobia- Fear of poverty.
Pentheraphobia- Fear of mother-in-law. (Novercaphobia)
Phagophobia- Fear of swallowing or of eating.
Phalacrophobia- Fear of becoming bald.
Phallophobia- Fear of a penis, esp erect.
Pharmacophobia- Fear of taking medicine.
Phasmophobia- Fear of ghosts.
Phengophobia- Fear of daylight or sunshine.
Philemaphobia or Philematophobia- Fear of kissing.
Philophobia- Fear of falling in love or being in love.
Philosophobia- Fear of philosophy.
Phobophobia- Fear of phobias.
Photoaugliaphobia- Fear of glaring lights.
Photophobia- Fear of light.
Phonophobia Fear of own voice.
Phronemophobia- Fear of thinking.
Phthiriophobia- Fear of lice. (Pediculophobia)
Phthisiophobia- Fear of tuberculosis.
Placophobia- Fear of tombstones.
Pluviophobia- Fear of rain or of being rained on.
Pneumatiphobia- Fear of spirits.
Pnigophobia or Pnigerophobia- Fear of choking of being smothered.
Pocrescophobia- Fear of gaining weight. (Obesophobia)
Pogonophobia- Fear of beards.
Politicophobia- Fear or abnormal dislike of politicians.
Polyphobia- Fear of many things.
Poinephobia- Fear of punishment.
Ponophobia- Fear of overworking.
Potamphobia- Fear of rivers.
Potophobia- Fear of alcohol.
Pharmacophobia- Fear of drugs.
Proctophobia- Fear of rectum.
Prosophobia- Fear of progress.
Psellismophobia- Fear of stuttering.
Psychophobia- Fear of mind.
Pteronophobia- Fear of being tickled by feathers.
Pyrexiophobia- Fear of Fever.
Pyrophobia- Fear of fire.

Radiophobia- Fear of radiation, x-rays.
Rectophobia- Fear of rectum or rectal diseases.
Rhabdophobia Fear of being beaten or punished by a rod or of being severely criticized
Rhypophobia- Fear of defecation.
Rhytiphobia- Fear of getting wrinkles.
Rupophobia- Fear of dirt.
Russophobia- Fear of Russians.

Sarmassophobia- Fear of love play. (Malaxophobia)
Satanophobia- Fear of Satan.
Scatophobia- Fear of fecal matter. (Coprophobia)
Scelerophibia- Fear of bad men, burglars.
Sciophobia Sciaphobia- Fear of shadows.
Scoleciphobia- Fear of worms.
Scolionophobia- Fear of school.
Scopophobia or Scoptophobia- Fear of being seen or stared at.
Scotomaphobia- Fear of blindness in visual field.
Scotophobia- Fear of darkness. (Achluophobia)
Scriptophobia- Fear of writing in public.
Selaphobia- Fear of light flashes.
Selenophobia- Fear of the moon.
Seplophobia- Fear of decaying matter.
Sexophobia- Fear of the opposite sex. (Heterophobia)
Siderodromophobia- Fear of trains, railroads or train travel.
Siderophobia- Fear of stars.
Sinistrophobia- Fear of things to the left, left-handed.
Sinophobia- Fear of Chinese, Chinese culture.
Sitophobia or Sitiophobia- Fear of food or eating. (Cibophobia)
Soceraphobia- Fear of parents-in-law.
Sociophobia- Fear of society or people in general.
Sophophobia- Fear of learning.
Spacephobia- Fear of outer space.
Spectrophobia- Fear of specters or ghosts. (Phasmophobia)
Spermatophobia or Spermophobia- Fear of germs.
Spheksophobia- Fear of wasps.
Stasibasiphobia or Stasiphobia Fear of standing or walking (Ambulophobia)
Staurophobia- Fear of crosses or the crucifix.
Stenophobia- Fear of narrow things or places.
Stygiophobia or Stigiophobia- Fear of hell.
Suriphobia- Fear of mice. (Musophobia)
Symbolophobia- Fear of symbolism.
Symmetrophobia- Fear of symmetry.
Syngenesophobia- Fear of relatives.
Syphilophobia- Fear of syphilis.

Tachophobia- Fear of speed.
Taeniophobia- Fear of tapeworms.
Taphephobia, Taphophobia Fear of being buried alive.
Tapinophobia- Fear of being contagious.
Taurophobia- Fear of bulls.
Technophobia- Fear of technology.
Teleophobia- 1) Fear of definate plans. 2) Religious ceremony.
Telephonophobia- Fear of telephones.
Teratophobia Fear of bearing a deformed child or fear of monsters or deformed people.
Testophobia- Fear of taking tests.
Tetanophobia- Fear of lockjaw, tetanus.
Teutophobia- Fear of German or German things.
Textophobia- Fear of certain fabrics.
Thaasophobia- Fear of sitting.
Thalassophobia- Fear of the sea.
Thanatophobia- Fear of death or dying.
Theatrophobia- Fear of theatres.
Theologicophobia- Fear of theology.
Theophobia- Fear of gods or religion.
Thermophobia- Fear of heat.
Tocophobia- Fear of pregnancy or childbirth.
Tomophobia- Fear of surgical operations.
Tonitrophobia- Fear of thunder. (Ceraunophobia)
Topophobia- Fear of certain places.
Toxiphobia or Toxophobia or Toxicophobia- Fear of poison.
Traumatophobia- Fear of injury.
Tremophobia- Fear of trembling.
Trichinophobia- Fear of trichinosis.
Trichopathophobia or Trichophobia- Fear of hair. (Chaetophobia)
Triskaidekaphobia- Fear of the number 13.
Tropophobia- Fear of moving or making changes.
Trypanophobia- Fear of injections.
Tuberculophobia- Fear of tuberculosis.
Tyrannophobia- Fear of tyrants.

Uranophobia- Fear of heaven.
Urophobia- Fear of urine or urinating.
Vaccinophobia- Fear of vaccination.
Venustraphobia- Fear of beautiful women.
Verbophobia- Fear of words.
Verminophobia- Fear of germs.
Vestiphobia- Fear of clothing.
Virgiuitiphobia- Fear of rape.
Vitricophobia- Fear of step-father.

Xanthophobia- Fear of the color yellow or the word yellow.
Xenophobia- Fear of strangers or foreigners.
Xerophobia- Fear of dryness.
Xylophobia- 1) Fear of wooden objects. 2) Forests.

Zelophobia- Fear of jealousy.
Zemmiphobia- Fear of the great mole rat.
Zoophobia- Fear of animals.

[rocking chair]

mirrors in the dark. i just won't look. a light must be on in the bathroom all night long. i don't get panic attacks or racing heart, just that cold fist in the stomach.

[Eliahna]

I'm afraid of aircraft flying overhead. I dare say that Lockerbie traumatised me when I was a small child. I'm always fearful that planes will fall out of the sky onto me. This has been compounded by the Concorde accident in France, and most recently the WTC.

I'm afraid of things touch my neck, and of being beheaded. I sometimes feel like my neck isn't strong enough to support my head.

I'm afraid of legs. Like on spiders. I'm terrified of spiders, but I've managed to define my fear as that of their legs. If a spider is still, I'm afraid, but if it starts to move, I'm in hysterics, I need to vomit, my knees go shakey, and I want to cry. My mother has pet hermit crabs, and while I want to like the little guys, I look at their legs and shudder. Didn't help that when she brought them home, she didn't tell me what was in the little box. I saw the accessories and thought she'd got some new pet mice. I did NOT expect to see hermit crabs, and I don't know how I didn't throw the box over my shoulder when I peeped in and saw them!

[bobkitty]

I had a friend in undergrad who was terrified of having anything around his neck. He couldn't wear regular tshirts, and never let anyone touch him on the neck. The mere thought of a turtleneck sent him into apoplectic fits. I ran him through a regression, and he recalled being lynched in a past life. I took him through the experience as an outsider, not a participant, and after a couple of sessions he had almost completely overcome the fear.

Me, I have several irrational fears. Frogs, clowns, a good number of bugs all get to me. I'm afraid of water, but I attribute that to my sister almost drowning me as a child. But I also have a paralytic fear of being buried alive. Caves both attract and repel me on a totally visceral level. But, since no one has been able to successfully run me through a regression, I guess I'll never know what happened to cause the fear.

-BK

[DarkWriter]

Originally posted by rocking chair
mirrors in the dark. i just won't look. a light must be on in the bathroom all night long. i don't get panic attacks or racing heart, just that cold fist in the stomach.

Oh, HELL YEAH. When I was a kid, the Bloody Mary legend was huge. To this day I can't be in a dark room with a mirror. It's truly terrifying for me.

Sheri

[DarkWriter]

Originally posted by Limerick
Clowns and mimes. Seriously, who came up with the idea that it would be fun to take a man, paint his face dead white, give him huge red lips, and set him loose among small children?

Yup, clowns are another. Hideous, foul, evil creatures that must be destroyed.

Sheri

[Arden Ranger]

Originally posted by rocking chair
mirrors in the dark. i just won't look. a light must be on in the bathroom all night long. i don't get panic attacks or racing heart, just that cold fist in the stomach.

That creeps me out as well. I have a friend that hates mirrors. When he moved into his own place, the only one he would have was the one in the bathroom and that's just because it came with the place. He kept it covered up when not in use.

I have the same fear of deep water that I cannot see through as the OP. I went scuba diving once and held onto my partner for dear life.

I also hate toads. *shudder*

And grasshoppers. Especially those huge Texas size grasshoppers.

Fog that I can see moving in. Spooky.

According to the reincarnation theory, I must have been on Atlantis when it sank and then in Egypt during the plauges of Moses.

[king of spain]

Star Light, I'm in exactly the same place. Any time the aquarium's big enough to give the illusion that the water is higher than my head I freak. I even do the same thing in pet stores if there are tanks on either side of me and the light is dim. No past life business here, though; I'm pretty sure it has to do with the fact that I almost drowned on two separate occasions as a small child. I can't consciously remember either incident, but it seems like that's the obvious source. Weirdly, I was a good swimmer when I was about three years old, but as I got older my fear of water grew worse and worse. I won't get near the deep end of a pool now.

Now, here's the really weird one: planetariums. Okay, I have this very mild agoraphobia - it comes on very, very rarely, maybe once a year or so, but I'll be walking through an open field or something and suddenly feel a very strong urge to seek shelter. Like I said, it's rare - but the one thing that invariably triggers it is planetariums. Being under that big open sky, even knowing it's just projected on the ceiling...*shudder* I don't particularly believe in reincarnation, but that one does make me wonder if I maybe died in the London Blitz or something, because the more I think about that particular fear, the more it seems to be connected with the idea that Something Dangerous Will Fall Out Of The Sky.

Weird. Eerie.

[Sylkyn]

Well, let me say an "Amen" for the fear of mirrors in the dark. Doesn't have anything to do with Bloody Mary, either. I can't remember a time I wasn't deathly a-feared of it.

But my main weird phobia (as opposed to my non-weird ones) is going around curves in a car. This is more or less a recent development, beginning about seven years ago. I have a horrible sweat-inducing terror of flipping over. No matter what kind of vehicle I happen to be in. I despise getting on the freeway and having to go around even the easiest of curves, because it takes every ounce of willpower I have to keep from jamming on the brakes and going about three miles per hour around the bend.

If someone else is driving, I have to grab the dash, close my eyes, clench my teeth to keep from screaming, and pray to every god from Zeus on up that we won't flip over.

The odd part is, I was driving home in the rain Friday a week ago, and hit a wet spot going around a curve. I hit the concrete barrier in the median and totalled my car. I wasn't hurt, but in the milisecond before I plowed nose-first into the wall, I was thinking, Oh my God...I am going to flip over.

I didn't. But I think it was odd that the first wreck I've had since 1982 was in a curve.

Of course, since then, I go very, very slowly around the curves on the freeway and if I get honked at and cussed, well, that's too bad. I have learned that lesson. And no, I am NOT saying I'm psychic! I am just listening to my gut saying, Slow the hell down.

[charmaine]

I don't know if this is quite a FEAR, per se, but I can't, no matter how hard i try, set an alarm to a round number. need to be up at 6:00? It's either 5:58 or 6:03.

on-the-hour-phobic,
charmaine

[DoperChic]

Wow. I honestly didn't expect this many replies this quickly.

Now I don't feel so weird.

Thanks guys

Star Light

[Limerick]

Originally posted by SilkyThreat

But my main weird phobia (as opposed to my non-weird ones) is going around curves in a car. This is more or less a recent development, beginning about seven years ago. I have a horrible sweat-inducing terror of flipping over. No matter what kind of vehicle I happen to be in. I despise getting on the freeway and having to go around even the easiest of curves, because it takes every ounce of willpower I have to keep from jamming on the brakes and going about three miles per hour around the bend.

I don't think that's so wierd. I think it really is your gut trying to keep you safe. I'm kind of an insane driver, and I'm not used to driving in icy conditions. Last February I drove into a curve and my car spun out--I slammed into an electrical pole and ended up flipped over in a huge ditch. In the seconds before I lost control of the car I remember thinking, "oh, shit--I took this one too fast." I knew in my gut before it happened. Weird thing was, the roads were mostly fine that day. There was no reason to think I'd have a problem.

And Bobkitty, I still maintain that fear of clowns is not irrational.

[SweetLilKitty]

Star Light I have this terrible fear of snakes. There is something about them that just petrifies me. ::shivers:: I'm just glad that my fear hasn't generalized to all creatures of that nature, it's just snakes.

[bouv]

originally posted by Attrayant
Hellenologophobia Fear of Greek terms or scientific terminology

Hmmm...kind of ironic, isn't it?

Anyways, I'm suprised no one's mentioned this one yet:
spiders.

Oh my fuckin' God am I scared of them. Any other bug I can deal with, and daddy-long-legs only freak me out a little. But real spiders scare me so much I freeze up if I see one indoors. I stare at it, hoping it will go away, or something. If they're outside, I'll avoid them. God forbid if one is in my room. If it is small enough, I might muster enough courage to grab a BIG wad of toilet paper to grap it, throw it in a toilet, and flush. But if it is too big, I will have to find someone to help, or sleep somewhere's else. They're the evil spawn of the Devil, they are. I wish they had never evolved.

[Badtz Maru]

I used to be terrified of fetuses. A realistic depiction of a fetus, not necessarily human, would scare the crap out of me. I remember the trailer for 'Prophecy' on HBO making me run out of the room when I was a kid when they show the fetus of the mutated bear. These days I can bear looking at one, but it still gives me the willies.

I also have a bit of a phobia about falling on sharp things. I don't like to be in a room where there is something sharp pointing up that I might fall on. It used to bug the hell out of me when I worked at an office where one of my coworkers had one of those things you stick papers and notes on. I just KNEW I was going to trip over something and fall onto it so that it went through my eye and into my brain.

[Broken Doll]

I have the usual phobias, but the weird ones I have [which I mentioned before on another fears thread] are these:

- Having things around my neck. Just reading over other people talking about being scared of having things on their neck is making me gag.
- Waking up in the middle of the night and seeing a message on my digital clock, like "6:66" or "DIE!"..
- Being alone in a room and the radio suddenly turning itself on. This happened to me one night when I was at a party and asleep on the loungeroom floor. The radio turned itself on VERY loudly and I screamed and cried and shivered for a good hour.
- Walking down dark hallways at night.
- oh, and finally, I am also phone-phobic.

[Venoma]

Originally posted by Broken Doll

- Waking up in the middle of the night and seeing a message on my digital clock, like "6:66" or "DIE!"..
- Being alone in a room and the radio suddenly turning itself on. This happened to me one night when I was at a party and asleep on the loungeroom floor. The radio turned itself on VERY loudly and I screamed and cried and shivered for a good hour.

The first one has HAPPENED TO YOU? Heck, I'd be scared if my clock was saying things its not supposed to as well.
2. Reminds me of some movies about poltergeists I've seen.

I wonder if physiological problems can explain some people's phobias here? In that it causes them just enough discomfort that they start building up what is, in truth, a rational fear, only they don't know what's causing it (inner ear problems could explain the new fear of inertia while driving around curves, as well as the fear of losing one's balance on stairs)

Badtz Maru: I think you've just given me something new to be afraid of. I'd never thought about that before... *looks around the office*

[Hello Again]

Oh, I thought of another one. I cannot stand to be picked up. You know how in the movies, the man and woman are reunited at the airport and he gives her a big hug and picks her up and swings her around? Aww, cute. Sends me into a panic attack, practically (not seeing it, just having it done to me). As I am a small person, I had a friend who would try to do that and I had to tell them to stop. When they didn't stop, I stopped being their friend.

[Bartman]

What a great list Attrayant. That one now has a permanent home on my hard drive.

As my own fears, I am deathly afraid of heights. Yet for some reason I love tall places. I love the feel of my heart racing and the adrenaline pumping. That feeling of impending doom. When I was younger I used to love Lake Powell, where you can find good points to jump from 30+ feet up into the lake. That moment hanging in there air where it is long enough for the body to decide that you are going to die, is breathtakingly exhilarating. I also used to have a pilot's learners permit. But I found as exciting as it was, I just got irrational after a few minutes, and thus never completed my hours.

I personally don't buy the past life theory. But who knows, perhaps I was defenestrated in the French Revolution or something.

[Nocturne]

I'm scared of going through drive-thrus. I HATE doing it. If I want fast food to go, I'm likely to go into the store to order it to go rather than use the drive-thru. My friends and family think that's absolutely hilarious; I think it's a remnant from a social phobia I've had since I was young.

I also hate looking at eyes...not just looking INTO someone's eyes, I don't mind meeting people's gaze. I'm just absolutely terrified and grossed-out by eye disorders like infections, pinkeye, etc. all the way up to people NOT HAVING an eye or getting stabbed in the eye. Just typing it makes me queasy.

[Winnie]

I was deathly afraid of burritos as a child. Have no idea why, but I'd scream and thrash around if someone near me had one on a plate.

I am now afraid of looking up at very, very high places. Like being on the ground in a cathedral and looking up into the huge, high domed ceilings, things like that. Guess my overactive imagination starts thinking "oh gosh what if I was hanging from that ceiling and fell". Like I would be hanging from a ceiling for any logical reason, but like I said I have an active imagination.

Also don't like deep water. I start to worry what's under that water, what if something swoops me out to sea, what if I or someone I love falls off the boat and sinks into those unknown depths.

I have a friend who is very, VERY afraid of bees. No bad experiences, is just afraid of them and is behaves very spastically and ANNOYINGLY when a bee flies by. Picture a tiny little yellow jacket or honeybee innocently buzzing by, and a 29-year old woman starts running around screaming throwing her arms around in tears. And she's never been stung, either. I know bees are a legit fear, but she just annoys me.

[Badtz Maru]

Originally posted by Broken Doll

- Waking up in the middle of the night and seeing a message on my digital clock, like "6:66" or "DIE!"..
- Being alone in a room and the radio suddenly turning itself on. This happened to me one night when I was at a party and asleep on the loungeroom floor. The radio turned itself on VERY loudly and I screamed and cried and shivered for a good hour.

I had a friend as a teenager who liked to tinker with all kinds of stuff, and he had a digital clock that always read 6:66. He made it so all the LEDs lit up (8:88) and disabled one of the LEDs on each of the digits to make them read 6. I bet he would have made it say DIE if he thought of it, though...

I had a detachable face radio in my car that stopped working properly when a Dr. Pepper exploded in my car when I accidentally left it in the sun. You had to wiggle the face around and stick wedges of paper in it to get it to work. After a while it stopped working altogether, but occasionally the radio would turn itself on and start turning itself up, and you had to beat on the face of the radio to get it to stop. Quite disconcerting when you are driving home in the middle of the night on a dark country road. It seemed to do it almost every time I drove across a certain bridge in my area, as well.

[suziek]

I have a few weird idiosyncracies, but nothing that seriously interferes with my daily life:

1. Barnacles, and some living things in clusters (bees don't bother me for some reason). But, mainly barnacles freek me out.

2. Drowning in a well by getting sucked into pipes at the bottom (from a story when I was 6 years old about a girl who fell in a well and got stuck in some pipes at the bottom. They had drawings in the newspaper.) This also carries over to those huge pipes they have in dams, like the Hoover Dam.

3. The civil war. For years I couldn't even discuss the war and Never could look at pictures. Finally, I took a trip to Shiloh and forced myself to stand there and think about it. All those scared young boys waiting in the hot sun to go out on the battlefield to die or be horribly wounded. So, now what I feel is anxiety and terrible sadness; but, I don't go out of my way to avoid anything related to it at all costs like I did before.

4. Worms or maggots. Once, when I was home alone after school, at about age 15, I thought I saw a maggot on a potato (it was actually a tuber) and I ran outside and wouldn't go back in the house until my mother got home and checked it out. Another time my dad was digging in the garden and turned over a worm. I ran through the gate and was shaking and crying. Needless to say, I don't garden.

[HelloKitty]

Originally posted by Winnie
I was deathly afraid of burritos as a child. Have no idea why, but I'd scream and thrash around if someone near me had one on a plate.

I did not see "Fear of Burritos" on the phobia list posted earlier. I think you may have developed a new category there!!

I have an abnormal fear of the "Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By" message that will come on the TV when the signal gets lost, etc. I get the cold chills and am afraid that either Godzilla has attacked the tower or that a hurricane or tornado is headed my way.

I also have a fear of my car breaking down on the highway, getting a flat tire or running out of gas. When I get to the 1/4 tank mark, I must find the next gas station to avoid my stomach cramping up. If I go over a bumpy section of highway, I am always afraid my tires will go flat...the horror of it!!!!

[Candlemas]

I read in a recent article that Billy Bob Thornton has an awful fear of antique furniture. Very weird. He says it stems from all the old furniture in his house growing up and that he nearly passed out from fear while touring the home of Johnny Cash which is filled with antiques.

HelloKitty, I can't believe I have read what you have written. That emergency thing on TV has always made me terribly uneasy! The combination of the colors on the screen with that high pitched whine and the monotone voice, "Had this been a real emergency..." Wow. I thought that was only me.

[Venoma]

Candlemas, Hello Kitty, me too on the 'emergency warning' thing. Around here ( I don't have cable or sat ) Our stations do actually go off-air each night. Turning the TV on and seeing the off-air broadcast signal + the weird noise that accompanies it freaks me out. They were the source of the first nightmares I had as a young child (recurred weekly until puberty)

[Chanteuse]

Anybody out there remember the TV show "My Three Sons?" When I was a child, I was terrified of the opening theme (where the legs, feet, and hands were drawn in and the hands would open and close to reveal the credits). Even now, just hearing the theme song can make me feel a little queasy. I seem to remember thinking that there were monster's faces above the legs...dunno why, but it scared me all the same.

Spiders--even the daddy-long-legs--frighten the life out of me. I am afraid to even try to kill them for fear that I'll miss and they'll come right for me. This stems from the time I ran straight through a spider's web stretched between two trees and the spider landed on my head, then fell to the ground in front of me--I was about 10 at the time.

Claustrophobia--but not just being in a small space. If I can move freely about (like in an elevator), I'm OK. But restrict my movement (especially my arms) and/or get right up into my face where I can't back away, and I freak out. I can't stand to even think about being in an MRI machine. Once when my hubby and I were having a friendly wrestling match, he pinned my arms to my sides with a quilt and got directly up into my face--I totally panicked. I can't even stand the oxygen masks they use in a hospital--I request the nasal canulas. This, too, I believe is because of a childhood experience. I had minor surgery when I was 7, and I didn't know anything about the process of anesthesia. Well, they put that mask over my face and it stank, so I pushed it away. They had to pin my arms down and hold the mask to my face so they could proceed. I can still remember how scared I was--even though I don't blame them for doing what they had to do. I guess I still react to that now the way I did then.

[bouv]

I remembered another fear of mine that has been mentioned, phones.

I will not answer a phone unless I have to (i.e., I'm the only one there to do so.) And if I have to make a phonecall, I try as best I can to get someone else to do it. I'm better now, I willingly call my friends and relatives if I need to talk to them. But try to get me to call someone I've never met? Fat chance. Ugh. Lousy phone. The only thing I like about them is that they are (well, were, anyways) necessary for the internet. But now, with high-speed service allowing quick and easy communication via IM, email, and whatnot, we can finally do away with those evil devices! Who's with me!

(And oddly enough, I enjoy IM. Even to complete strangers. I guess I just don't like people hearing my voice, and having to come up with replies on the spot, not getting to think about it.)

[pepperlandgirl]

Man I hate phones. I won't answer them. I won't call people...not even my closest friends. It takes me ages to work up the nerve to call anybody. Even my husband. I have never called him at work, and I never will...even though it's his job to answer the phone!

I also hate mirrors in the dark. The Bloody Mary thing didn't help, but I've always been uneasy around them. I've never, ever been scared of the dark, except in the bathroom. It's the weirdest damn thing.

Chickens, well fowl, terrify me. When I lived in Utah I was attacked my a giant rooster, and another time two turkies went after me.

I have a paralyzing phobia of snakes, heights, and clowns. I lose my breath, my legs shake, I turn alternately cold and hot, I even get dizzy if I stand on a chair. All I have to do is see a snake or a clown on TV and I almost lose it. Most times I'll either go running and screaming out of a room, or I'll just turn off the TV. Of course then everybody is pissed, "Hey! We were watching that!" Yeah well, fuck you.

[saepiroth]

i am terrified s***less at escalators.

no "got my shoelace cought in it", i just, at some point around four, became unable to ride escalators.


in the last 12 years, i've managed to mostly reduce that error to the point where i can take some short down escalators and most up escalators.

still, washington subway system = NO FARKING WAY.

[saepiroth]

"error" is an error. i meant "problem"

[racinchikki]

Originally posted by suziek
3. The civil war. For years I couldn't even discuss the war and Never could look at pictures. Finally, I took a trip to Shiloh and forced myself to stand there and think about it. All those scared young boys waiting in the hot sun to go out on the battlefield to die or be horribly wounded. So, now what I feel is anxiety and terrible sadness; but, I don't go out of my way to avoid anything related to it at all costs like I did before.
[/b]

Me too. I'm not scared of it, I mean, but I try to avoid the battlegrounds and such - which is hard sometimes, because I have family near Appomattox and Gettysburg, and friends from Vicksburg and places like that. I'm a little afraid of the battlegrounds. (This might be because of a horror story I read once about a boy scout around 1911 and a bunch of Civil War veterans at a reunion at Gettysburg and somebody who'd caused his men to get killed and holes in the ground that grew teeth from the men who were buried there or something and ate the bad guy.) When I visit places like that, the history of it just smacks me, and it makes me so sad. Actually, lots of old places do that to me. I used to get creeped out and sad in the pre-Revolutionary and Dutch-era buildings back home in New York, thinking of all the people who'd lived and died there.

[goonhead]

When I was a little kid, I had this fear of walking through dark rooms at night, and also a fear of hearing the National Anthem played on television (it used to be played before stations signed off for the evening, now stations hardly ever sign off.) I think this had to do with a fear that I was up later than I ought to be, if I could hear the Star Spangled Banner blaring from my parents' TV.

Fortunately I overcame this fear by the time I had to start playing the National Anthem in marching band

[Dale The Bold]

Nocturne, I agree with you. I hate drive throughs (aka drive "thru"). I don't know if I'm scared of hitting stuff, getting ripped off, or not being able to understand the machine-like voices.

Clowns. (but this is not an irrational fear).

Looking ugly people in the eye. (Attractive people are no problem).

Black toilets seats. (Overcame this fear when the college dorms gave us no choice. Necessity trumps fear.)

[okielady]

One word: WINDOWS

Okay, so it's a little more complicated than that. Windows at night, where someone might be able to peer in and see me but I can't see them. Even worse than that, the fear of looking at a window at night and actually SEEING someone peering in at me. *shudder*

Long hallways (comes from the movie The Shining. *another shudder*)

Swallowing pills - I can't swallow a pill to save my life. Okay, so maybe to save my life. Oddly enough, there are times when I don't have a problem with it, but more often than not I can't do it. I'll get the pill in my mouth, take a drink of water, and the water goes down but the pill stays. Then there are times when I actually get the pill down but I can FEEL it going down...I hate that!

Fear of vomiting - I would almost rather die than throw up. 'Nuff said!

Fear of anything creepy crawly. This includes bugs of most types, spiders, snakes, crabs, lobsters, etc. The first time I ate crab legs, I had to have someone else crack them open for me because I couldn't bring myself to touch them.

I could go on, but I'll stop here.

[Jen Jen]

1. People on stilts, especially men
2. The bottom of lakes
3. When I was little I was deathly afraid of little puppies.
4. Any person dressed up like an animal- Chewy, characters at Chucky Cheese, etc.