Do you have any interesting phobias?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
41

I already posted in this thread, but I thought of a couple more phobias that I have.

I’m scared of bees, wasps, hornets, yellow jackets, etc. I accidentally stepped into a hornet’s nest when I was about eight or nine and got stung a bunch of times. Ever since, I see one and I usually freak out.

Now this one is a little weird. I can ride on roller coasters, drive over tall bridges, fly in airplanes, stand on skyscraper observation decks, and have even been in a hot air balloon once with absolutely no problems. But for some bizarre reason, I’m incapable of riding on a ferris wheel or a ski lift. I’m convinced I’m going to fall and die. I also feel the same way about some of those skyscraper elevators, the ones that are attached to the outside of the building and are made of glass, so you can see the outside while you’re going up. Like I said before, I have no problem once I’m at the top on the observation deck, but I cannot watch out of the elevator windows as I’m going up. I’m convinced that the whole elevator is going to fall off the tracks and me and the rest of the passengers are going to tumble to our deaths.

Shadowfox

42

Wow! I had no idea there were so many people with a fear of so many things. I guess I should add deep water to my list, or at least conditionally-----it doesn’t bother me in the slightest unless I happen to be in it, with no means of support or flotation. Never been there, y’understand, but the thought…brrrrr!

Some of you guys have a problem with blood and so on; I wonder how widespread this is, and how the makers of horror movies ever get so much money, if people are really afraid to look at this stuff? When I was in the service, I saw a guy on the machine-gun range stand up over an M-60 machine gun and flip open the feed cover without bothering to clear the gun or eyeball it for loose rounds, and they had told us repeatedly 900 million times to NEVER do this; sure enough, there was an unexpended round in the feed tray, and when the cold air hit it, it cooked off and hit him right in the throat. I had never seen so much blood in one place in my life----all over everything. The guy lived, but they had to remove his larynx and now he has to talk with one of those little electronic boxes you hold up to your throat. I saw a lot worse than that, too, after I got overseas…but we won’t go into that.

43

Being a biologist, I like (or at least can tolerate fairly well) all critters, whether creepy, slimy, fishy, or full of teeth.

Except one: cockroaches–total hebbie-jeebies

The American cockroach (the big black ones) can be huge, and just when you think you have one cornered, it will take off any fly right at you. I will never forget the time when I learned they could fly. The Oriental (reddish) are pretty creepy also, but the German (smaller and tan) don’t bother me so much.

I also can’t stand balloons. Kids’ birthday parties double my pulse and respiration rates. Mylar balloons are okay, though.

And I don’t like anyone messing with my neck either.

44

Ugh…the Freddy Kruger bit with making the kid a puppet…why did someone have to bring that up??? That’s the worst!!! I am gonna be ill for the rest of the day!

And oh yeah, IVs!!! I HATE them! I have had them in 4 times. I always make the nurse put it in the top of my hand, because for some reason the idea of having it in the crook of my arm makes me queasy. It is funny that I prefer them in my hand, because most people don’t want them there. And once the IV is placed, you cannot get me to move that arm for ANYTHING. My arm becomes as stiff as a board and it doesn’t move until I am under anesthesia, or till the IV comes out. As someone else mentioned, pulling it out hurts like heck. I cannot stand it when they show people ripping them out of their arms in the movies. I also have this freaky fear that someone is going to inject air into the line and kill me. Not too long ago I heard about a woman who died that way, and I almost passed out. ANd if you think regular IVs are bad, have you ever seen a JUGULAR cath being placed??? Egads! The needle is friggin’ HUGE, and the cath tube is like 10 feet long and it has to get inserted nearly all of the way in! It is truly a horrifying thing to see a vet jam a needle the size of…of…well, I don’t know WHAT it is the size of, but it’s awful…right into an animal’s NECK…::shudder:: I have to leave when those things are being placed. And last week we were all freaking out because we thought part of a jugular cath BROKE OFF INSIDE A CAT!!! This totally grossed me out…the thought that this poor cat had a piece of plastic floating around INSIDE its veins, just waiting to get stuck somewhere and kill the cat. It was a false alarm, thank the Lord. I cannot imagine what it is like for a person to have a central line, and I hope I never have to have one.

45

This was a temporary fear, but I think it’s creepy enough to share.

About 3 years a go or so, I started having nightmares where I’d be killed, and then wake up…and realize I’ve got 2 or 3 seconds left to live. Then I’d wake up again, and spend about 30 minutes calming down.

The dream was never the same, I had a heart attack, I fell from a great height and hit the ground, I was at ground zero for a nuke hit, I was shot through the heart by the stranger that finally caught up wth me, I woke up to find that my feet had been severed, and some that were REALLY freaky.

I had them about every month or two for about a year and a half, and I was kinda afraid that my number was up.

About 5 months ago, I had a dream where I saw a piece of fax paper floating in space…it was all I could see. it said something like “Sorry, can’t think of any creative way to do it this time. You’re dead.”

I woke up laughing, with a feeling of relief. Even my subconscious is a wiseass.

You say “cheesy” like that’s a BAD thing.

46

Heights is probably my biggest fear. I get panicky and shaky if I stand on even the bottom rung of a ladder, and I’ve stood at the top of stairs bawling my head off until someone helps me down, or I end up sitting and bumping down on my butt. Going up stairs isn’t quite so bad, because I can just look up at where I’m going, but going down stairs is hell.

I think it’s mostly a fear of falling, though, because I love super scary carnival rides (except I torture myself by wondering what would happen if the ride broke while I was at the top and hanging upside down, and the fire dept. has to come out with a ladder truck, so here I am upside down and having to figure out how to get down the world’s tallest ladder). Driving over bridges doesn’t scare me, but I don’t like to walk over them because I fear that somehow I will fall right over the rail. I was even on a plane once without problem. But get me on a balcony, and I won’t go near the edge. I even feel dizzy if I have to walk passed an open stairwell going down, like its gravity is just going to suck me right down the stairs.

I think, though, that a lot of this can be attributed to the fact that I do fall down a lot and am terrified of being put into situations where the fall could be or would be particularly nasty. I have falling dreams all the time, and they’re just pure torture. When I wake up, I always expect to be laying on the floor wracked with pain, and have to convince myself that I’m in my warm soft bed.

“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy

47

MAN, you guys are messed up!
Here are some NORMAL fears of mine:

Falling, its not the height I am scared of, its the falling down! I cant even change lightbulbs alone.

Wide open spaces, like the praries, or the ocean, Agoraphobia I believe it is called.

Surgery. not the needles, or the cutting open, or the blood & guts, its the anestetic, I am sure I will NEVER wake up.

Elevators with too many people in them.

I am developing a great reluctance to go inside hospitals too.

Public washrooms door handles.

Confrontation.(not here, but in person, I go nuts)My old landlord is taking me to small claims court, and there is NO WAY IN HELL THEY CAN MAKE ME GO IN THAT ROOM!!!AAKKKK

See, there is nothing wrong with me at all.
Its all you guys with the problems.

48

Tengu: Do you ever have trouble looking at razor edges, scissors, etc.?

I can’t look at pencil points or other pointy objects…this includes knife edges or split screens on TV, where half the screen is above water and half is below.

I’m also afraid of cotton balls. Someone else has to take them out of the bottle. They’re scritchy! shudder

49

I can’t even wear a watch. Ewwwwww.

Flying bugs, especially moths or big bugs that crunch when you step on them. The scariest are big grasshoppers or those creapy black crickets.

I can’t look out of a window at night unless something is lighting it up enough that I can see what is out there. To this day, I still imagine Stephen King’s vampires from Salem’s Lot staring back at me.

I can’t figure this one out. I love flying, I bungie-jump, hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and love the ride at the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. However, I can not get past the second step of a ladder or stand on a chair.

I also can’t stand anything too close to my face. I start to feel like I am suffocating.

>^,^<
KITTEN
Coffee, chocolate, men . . . Some things are just better rich.

50

I forgot a few more.

I think I mentioned in another thread a long time ago about warm water and pee.

I can put new water in my hot tub, lock it up and then be the first person to get in since it was cleaned. I am alright unless I start to imagine that someone might have pee’d in the water. It doesn’t matter that the thing has clean water and no one could have gotten inside, once I think about pee I can no longer sit in the water without getting the creaps. If it gets bad enough, I will drain the thing and redo the chemicals. Not an easy job.

If someone forgets to drain the bathtub, there is no way I can put my hand in. I am sure there isn’t pee there but I still can’t bring myself to touch the water.

Strangely, I am okay with cold water. I don’t think about pee if I am in swimming pools and lakes as long as the water is cool.

I also have a phobia that food is bad. I probably throw away hundreds of dollars of good food each year because I imagine that it has gone bad if it has been in the fridge more than a day or two. I have made an attempt to live with this phobia by grocery shopping every few days and only buying a small amount of food at a time.

>^,^<
KITTEN
Coffee, chocolate, men . . . Some things are just better rich.

51

Squirrels- I am always afraid they are gonna run up my leg and start gnawing on my neck and not stop. I always keep my eye on them.

Seems like alot of people have that wrist thing. Its starting to scare me too! :wink:
I have never heard of this before and yet here is like 10 people who all have it. How strange!

52

I am under most circumstances a very calm and rational person. Heights don’t bother me, enclosed spaces are fine. I am pierced and a regular plasma donor, so needles hold no terror for me. I like rats (used to keep them as pets) and snakes (my sister had one). I also like most insects, especially ants and bees, I am a little nervous around bumblebees, but one stung me just last month, so I expect that to go away with time. I am very fond of spiders. However…

Water. I am deathly afraid of drowning. One of my earliest memories was frolicking about in the kiddie pool, then suddenly being underwater and not being able to resurface. Fortuntely, my father was on hand to save me. Ever since then, I have not been able to put my head below water. The ocean, where a wave can break over your head with little or no warning, is absolutely terrifying. I have not been swimming in years. I even hate taking showers.

Also, once when I was about 6 or so, I was drinking a nice, cold glass of milk that must have been past its expiration date, because when I got to the bottom of the glass, I felt this lump of something go down my throat, and then there was this NASTY taste. Bleah!!! After that, I could still drink milk, but I’d always leave a little bit at the bottom, just in case another one of those… things was lurking down there.

Roller-coasters are fine, even if they do make me sick. Roller coasters that go upside-down are okay. What I can’t deal with are the roller-coaster-like rides that go upside down… and then stop, leaving you suspended, heels over head, hundreds of feet above the ground. (insert shudder here)

And finally, the biggest one, speaking. I don’t just mean public speaking, I mean opening my mouth and talking to people, period. There are people I’ve known for years who swear I’m mute. I can be perfectly eloquent and loquacious in writing or over the www, but in person, silence. I’m not sure if it is a fear of speaking itself, or the fear of people in general, but it’s there, and it’s real, and it can make my life a living hell if I let it. None of this applies to my family, people I’ve known for a long time, or those people, who for whatever reason, I’m comfortable enough around to overcome this, but for the most part, all you’ll get out of me is " ".

53

Wow, I’m not so weird after all! I share some of these phobias, especially Diane’s fear of dark windows. Salem’s Lot really affected me when I was a kid, I used to sleep with a scarf around my neck! I can still hear the scratch scratch on the window when the little brother is floating out there. ::shudder:: I can’t even get close to dark windows, not can I turn my back on them.

I also cannot put my hands or feet off the edge of the bed. If the light is off and I have to go from the doorway to the bed, I will run and jump into the bed. My husband thinks I’m nuts, however, he has a phobia about bees. It’s actually hysterical. He makes me kill bees for him. One time I swatted a bee on the window (during the day of course)and the head stuck on the glass and the body dropped to the floor. My husband is cowering in the corner asking me if I’m sure it’s dead!!

54

Di, that pee one really cracks me up!

I cant look out into darkness either…I always feel like someone is out there.

(lips curling back over teeth) I cant touch anything that has been frozen (shaking now!!) that might…stick to me.Ack!

Tinfoil cant touch my teeth either…

55

I didn’t think I had any phobias until I read this thread - then I recognized two of my own.

I have always said that if I ever get my face up to a window and look outside (in the dark), and there is a face right there, I will drop dead instantly of a heart attack. No ifs, ans or buts about it. Dead. Of fright.

The other one: I have this thing about someone laying under my bed, ready to grab my feet. I do the same shut-off-the-light-sprint-to-the-bed-and-jump-in before someone grabs me thing. My sister, who I shared a room with all my life, thought I was completely insane.

Oh - and Diane - one time my roommate in college took a bath after going out to the bars. She threw up in the water, and me being the good friend that I am, reached my hand in the water and scraped the drain with a razor to unclog it so the water could drain. I’m guessing you wouldn’t be able to do that. :slight_smile:

56

I don’t know if it’s interesting but how about toasters

Thoses things are weird, I mean you put in a slice of bread and push down a lever. Then in a minute or so up pops toast. I mean, what happens to the toast??

Chilling huh?

57

For some reason, participating in theater has never fazed me. When on stage I’m not just speaking, I’m acting; it’s as if my own mindset is overlaid with that of the character I’m protraying. Hamlet has no reason to be nervous about being on stage-- as far as he’s concerned, the audience does not exist-- so if I were Hamlet, I wouldn’t be nervous either.

Yet I still turned pale and shaky when I had to read MacBeth’s soliloquy in front of my 11th-grade English class. Go figure.

Of course I don’t fit in; I’m part of a better puzzle.

58

Not in a million years. Ewwwwww

You don’t suppose she pee’d in there too, do ya? :::shiver:::

>^,^<
KITTEN
Coffee, chocolate, men . . . Some things are just better rich.

59

Cristi, I’ve tried laying down for needles, and it sort of helps. Providing I make it to the bed. One time, I was looking a bit too pale, so they decided to take me to the back of the lab where they have a bed. The bathrooms are between the main blood-taking area and the bed. I fainted outside the bathroom. The needle hadn’t even been anywhere near me yet. Just the thought of it did me in.

Now they have these great little patches at the drugstore. You stick them on where you’ll be getting the needle, wait an hour, and it freezes the area. With blood tests you can still feel it, but it’s not nearly as bad.

I’m kind of afraid of bees/wasps/hornets, too. When I was 4, we were at my grandparent’s house at the lake. We had been swimming, and I went to sit down on the grass–right on a bee. Gran put some mud on my bum. I pointed to that spot on the grass, and declared stubbornly, “I’m never sitting in that spot again!” I moved to a spot about 2 feet away. Right onto another bee. I always inspect the ground carefully before sitting down now.

I got stung by a wasp last weekend. My friend Sarah and I were volunteering at a festival, and they let us go on the wagon ride for free. We were just sitting there, and I felt this pain in my arm. I looked down, and there was a wasp with his stinger stuck in my arm, trying to get loose. He was flapping and twisting, and finally Sarah managed to get him off. I was feeling sorry for myself, and complaining, and asked why it chose to stung me. Sarah, who is Asian, said “Maybe because you’re white…Jenn: The Other White Meat.” That seems to be my nickname now.

I think this thread is beginning to make me paranoid.

Zu

60

Not a fear, exactly, but I get extremely uncomfortable when people around me disagree! Something to do with my birth order or personality, I’m sure.

I can’t listen to call-in radio shows because the callers always want to question what the host said and the host wants to defend himself. I can’t even read the Great Debates or BBQ Pit threads.

Please don’t disagree with me on this!! Especially you, Ike!!

“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
– William of Ockham