If you have a phobia, like many people do - be it heights, spiders, deep water, etc. - could you convincingly make people believe you didn’t have it?
Cook up your own scenario, if you will - maybe you’re on a reality TV show and don’t want millions of viewers to realize that you’re scared of spiders or dogs, etc. - but would your poker face be good enough to hide it?
Maybe you’d have to hold giant spiders in your hands, or act completely fearless in the presence of your other phobias (but the caveat is that you are technically 100% safe no matter what. There is no danger.)
My biggest phobias are heights, fire, and deep water. I’m not sure I could do it.
I am afraid of snakes and once I took my niece to a petting zoo which had a little shack and we went to explore it and, yep, full of snakes. I tried not to show fear, because I didn’t want to pass my phobia down to her, and she wanted to know where the snakes’ heads were, so I had to get closer to point out the heads. Ay yi yi.
I hope I pulled it off. My niece was only 4 or 5, so asking her would be fruitless.
Snakes. There is no way I could convince anyone that I’m anything other than terrified. I can’t even look at a picture of a snake without extreme discomfort.
I’m afraid of deep water and extra afraid of ice on deep water. I saw this one challenge on Fear Factor where they simulated being trapped under ice - it was a pool with plexiglass levels and each level had a hole in it, you had to swim through the holes and pick up rings. I’d be exactly like the one contestant who got into the pool … then climbed right back out, said “Nope. I’m out” and walked right off the show.
When I’m on enough drugs (legal ones! recommended by my doctor!) I can sometimes be calm enough on a plane to convince those around me that I’m not scared of flying.
I suspect that everyone is at least somewhat apprehensive during the takeoff and landing. The odds are in one’s favor, but it’s still a crapshoot.
My fear of heights affects me mainly when I’m driving a car along a canyon. The other drivers probably get irritated when I move over to the passing lane to create more of a roadside. I used to be fearless about this too.
I have a fear of balloons (latex, not mylar - I am afraid they will pop) and I really pissed myself off at my niece’s birthday party because they had blown up balloons for the kids to play with. And while they had asked the kids to keep the balloons in the playroom my 3-year-old niece kept running around with hers and it was making me sick, and I flat out told her what the problem was and she called me out on it. She was like “It’ll be ok, grammy [my mom] is right here.”
You’d think I could keep my shit together to let some kids enjoy their damn party but no, apparently I can’t keep it in check
I’m terrified of spiders, but a teeny-bit less terrified of tarantulas. It’s because they don’t look like other spiders. I can almost persuade myself that they’re some kind of furry little animal.
So if there was a good enough reason, like a life or death situation, or a massive amount of money, I might be able to hold one in my hand. As long as it didn’t make any sudden moves. If it makes any sudden moves, it dies, I die, everybody dies!
I can either fake my way through most situations or fall back on the good old klonopin when I have to. I’m lucky that my phobias are partly “conditional”. Heights, some heights, totally freak me out. Being in an airplane once it lifts off - no problem. Take-off or landing - total terror. Those times I just lean back, close my eyes, and keep a slight smile glued on my lips.
I can watch a movie where someone gets a needlestick and pretend it’s not freaking me out. I can hold my toddler while she gets blood drawn, and as long as I don’t look at her and am actively talking about something else, I can hide my incipient meltdown. But I leave the room when she gets an actual injection, because I don’t trust myself not to pass out and thereby traumatize her needlessly; and there’s simply no way I can get an injection (well, no way short of massive medication) without having a physical reaction including writhing, vomiting, passing out, moaning, or some combination of the above. I hate it.
I am pretty claustrophobic. I am very uncomfortable in tight spaces or crowds. I can live with it, and no one will know just how uncomfortable I am, but inside, I am screaming with my need to get free…
Yeah I am the same way. Large tarantulas freak me out much less than smaller spiders. Maybe it’s because the bigger ones seem slower and less likely to suddenly run up your arm and get under your clothes…
I could hold a large tarantula (or I imagine I could. I’ve never actually been in that situation…), but once it gets down to a leg span of around 3" and less, holy fuck no no NO can’t do it get it away!
I’m not speaking for EmilyG, but my phobia related to flying is quite the opposite. Takeoff and landing are the easiest parts of the flight for me. I’m most nervous during the leveled-off part of the flight because of my absurd apprehension of unexpected turbulence. And if the flight is anything but the world’s smoothest flight, I’m not going to be able to hide it.
Interesting. My fear of spiders is based entirely on size. I’m from Australia, so we have a wide variety. The redback is our version of the black widow - it can kill you if it bites you (and you don’t get treatment) - I’m not scared of them. They are small. I’ve even flicked one off a picnic rug with my finger.
Big Huntsman spiders, who are our friends that only eat mossies and other unpleasant bugs - I turn into a whimpering, babbling wreck.
If I had to estimate, I would say, body size about the same as a thumbnail, or legs more than an inch across are my limits.
Back to the OP - you know that scene in Indiana Jones where the girl has to push a lever to save Indy, but the lever is covered in creepy-crawlies? If that was me, and the lever was covered in big spiders (no matter how harmless) - sorry Indy, you’re dead.
