DrDeth
May 4, 2019, 5:29pm
177
thorny_locust:
You are indeed trying to diagnose me. You are diagnosing me as being ill because I don’t want to be handled by other people willynilly. You suggested two possible diagnoses, both of which are problems with wanted touch, which is not a problem that I have. Not wanting to be touched by anybody whatever time they feel like it is not an illness that needs to be treated.
…
What are you suggesting the arachnophobe in that example do? Quit the job, so that the other person can put up Halloween decorations – and not only so that they can put up Halloween decorations, but so that they can put up Halloween decorations to their precise individual taste? …
Hardly. Look, nearly everyone has a mild phobia or two. You’re not mentally ill for having one.But not wanted to be touched, even by people you know well, is a phobia.
Ask nicely.