Ketchup…I don’t know if I would call it a fear so much as and irrational disgust. I think it is the most vile creation ever put on this earth. If for some reason I have to touch it, I gag. And I am the kind of person who could clean up maggoty vomit while whistling a happy tune so I don’t gag easily. I love tomatoes, V8, marinara but ketchup…blech.
One of mine is similar in a way: I am terrified of escalators. I’ve never fallen down on one, but I came close a few times just because I am so afraid of them that I can’t step onto them smoothly. If I ever try to get on one I just stand at the top or bottom, watching the steps move faster and faster (at least it seems that way). I haven’t been on an escalator in about 3 years now.
My other phobia is of optical illusions. Anything from those vanishing grey squares to the young lady who turns into an old lady when you turn over the picture makes me scream and turn my head. I am tensing up just thinking about it! I can’t even stand to look at those tests for colorblindness.
Slugs. Can’t stand them, can’t stand looking at them, can’t even think of them for too long. My boss at my first job went to UC Santa Cruz (whose mascot is a banana slug) and I couldn’t look at him when he was wearing a mascot T-shirt.
When I was younger I stepped on a slug barefoot. I got all dizzy and lightheaded and nearly passed out; I think I threw up too.
And Sean Factotum and the “needles near the eyes,” thanks for those nightmares. I’ve got every kind of eye phobia there is. Someone recommended I get laser eye surgery because it was so quick and completely painless, and they were actually starting to convince me until they described the first thing they do. It sounded like a Phantasm ball headed straight at you to slice off your cornea. I had to go lie down. Sure, the process only takes a few minutes, but the nightmares would last a lifetime.
When I was a freshman in college I took a film class that had a smaller 8:30 AM session with just a few students. I came in late one morning to find that we were seeing Un Chien Andalou, and I managed to sit down right as the film was starting. I spent the rest of the class hunched over with my eyes closed, desperately trying to keep from throwing up.
I used to have a fear of birds, until I got one as a pet. Now I just find them annoying. But I’m really creeped out by monkeys.
So I’m not the one one?? I thought that just had to do with how generally nutty I am. And the bizarre thing is, the soon-to-be ex-husband says I always sound fine, like I have not a problem in the world. Then to add insult to injury, I feel fine once I’m talking. It’s just making the call that gets me. Bad.
Other than that, I’m claustrophobic, HATE spiders, Sundays and cannot stand loose hair touching my body if it belongs to a person. The animal version is fine, but my own will drive me up the wall. Nothing’s probably funnier than seeing me grab my shirt, twist it around until I can see inside, pick at what’s undoubtedly invisible to anyone else and gasp with relief when I’ve dislodged said offensive item. :eek:
Regardless, I’m hardly ever wrong. One of those little boogers are they when I think they are. ::: shudder :::
Sadly, there’s many more I’m sure. We’ll just leave it at that for now. 
Depending on the toad, they can potentially poison you or get you high .
Anyway, I’m afraid of needles, surgery, most bugs and, to a not-quite-phobic extent, injury and bees.
I used to be deathly afraid of dogs, spiders, and all bugs and insects. I’ve pretty much entirely gotten over the dogs and spiders bit. I can pet and play with a dog, and generally be around dogs, unless they’re acting particularly ferocious. I can generally be around spiders–gives me a tiny little fear feeling in the back of my head, but nothing too bad. A spider touching me is too much for me to handle, though.
Another emetophobe here, but I’m working through it. There was a time when I couldn’t deal with even discussing puke, or even SAYING it. Now I can talk about it, laugh about it, pretty much anything except seeing someone actually do it or doing it myself.
Aside from that, I have no otherirrational fears.
True. We don’t live in an area with any poisonous toads though - Southwestern Ontario is pretty tame for that sort of thing. The toads we have are small, cute and brown. The worst thing I’ve seen them do is sit there and look fat. 
I’m terrified of heights. I can’t even walk on the ledge side of the second floor of a mall. I freak right the hell out and get all dizzy.
I’m scared of spiders but I wouldn’t say I’m phobic. I just freeze for a minute or so, then I’m okay. Living alone has forced me to deal with the evil minions. The other day I was in the shower, looked up and there it was. An eight legged monster staring right at me. I jumped about 10 feet and couldn’t for the life of me, turn around. I was convinced the minute I took my eyes off it, it would go in for the kill. So I eventually just got out of the shower, grabbed the toilet brush said “it’s time to die my little spidey friend!!” and killed the damn thing.
Then I showered for twice as long as usual and kept flipping around really fast and looking where it was. I was convinced it would materialize and seek revenge 
Great.Mine isn’t in the list.
Going slightly off tack,isn’t it odd that every fear is considered something that you can’t do anything about(be it fear of dogs,storms,high places) EXCEPT homophobia,which is regarded as a conscious choice by the person.I don’t choose to be afraid of dogs,others don’t choose to be afraid of spiders or high places.So why the different perception…
Going outside. Started when my second semester in college. Huge panic attacks whenever I left my house. If I went to the store, I made sure to go when there wouldn’t be a line, because I’d get a panic attack waiting in line. Getting stuck in traffic would do the same thing. (Oddly enough, I was still able to get on the bus and commute from Marin to San Francisco to go to school. I’m crazy: it’s not supposed to make sense.) After about three years, I was practically a shut-in. Never left my house at all if I could possibly help it. I thought about getting psychiatric help, but that’s the catch-22 with agoraphobia: if you can go to a doctor for it, you don’t really need to go to the doctor for it. Finally realized that I was really massively unhappy with the way things were, and if I didn’t change my life soon, I was probably going to take it. So I got over it. Started forcing myself to go out more and more often. If I heard about a party, I’d get myself invited. I stopped inviting friends over to my place and started inviting myself over to theirs. By the time I graduated college, I had enough of a handle on it that I took a week-long vacation in London with no (well, almost no) problems. I still get panic attacks all the time, but I’ve learned that if I ignore them, they’ll go away.
Oh, yeah, and slugs. Slugs creep me the fuck out.
Excuse me, lasers on the eyeballs ? What form of madness is this? Those things blow up spaceships and planets (I’ve seen the film evidence.) How the name of Og are they supposed to make me see better? That’s right up there with putting pieces of glass/plastic right on the eyeball as insane things to do. No thankee, sir.
Genuine phobias, lessee…
Minor claustrophobia, discovered when persuing my daughter through one of those indoor play area “habitrail” thingies.
Moderate fear of heights, discovered when I accidentally got on the high-speed express-to-the-top elevator in a 45-story atrium-style hotel. I was clinging to the doors of the thing by the time it returned to the ground.
And a totally irrational fear of being stuck under highway overpasses. I drive on a congested road, which passes underneath the Washington Beltway, on a daily basis. I’m frequently stopped underneath this for a minute or two. And I keep flashing to an image of “what if the bridge collapsed? I couldn’t get out!!!”.
No particular phobia about creepy-crawlies though I readily admit that if one surprises me, I’ll scream like a girl. Fortunately, I am a girl, so that’s OK 
Then I’ll calm down and deal with it.
Add another vomit-phobic to the list. raises her hand
My husband has an odd (to my mind) phobia: moths.
He’s okay with snakes, spiders (doesn’t like them, but doesn’t freak either) and other assorted crawlies, but MOTHS freak him right out.
Fortunately, they’re not a common occurrence round these parts.
Oh, and he likes butterflies. Don’t ask me why one and not the other is a problem…
When I am out, I am careful not to step on cracks in the sidewalk. Is there a scientific name for this phobia?
Also, I am afraid of spiders…not common little ones, but those big harey ones found in dark cellars and under rocks.
I can not stand things around my neck. Don’t touch it unless I have to, don’t wear turtlenech shirts, sweaters or anything that has the possibility to touch my neck. And since my car accident - concrete barriers that line the side of the roads - I really think that they will reach out and grab the car with their arms and slam the car into them - also, tires with any of the tread missing - I just can’t do it, won’t be riding with anyone with bald tires.
- Spiders – had a daddy longlegs crawl across my face when I was little : shiver :
- Seagulls – only because they know no fear and will swoop at you at the beach. They flock!
And now for the completely irrational:
3) Dinosaurs – I’ve had nightmares about them enough I don’t even want to see them on TV. I almost cried when my husband drug me onto the dino ride at Disney.
4) Zombies – They just don’t quit! :eek:
I don’t have any genuine phobias. The closest I come is my irrational aversion to insects, especially cock-a-roaches (I always loved saying it that way), but even that isn’t so bad that I couldn’t overcome it and let one walk around on my hand or something just for the hell of it. I was attacked by a dog when I was a child, and although I dislike dogs I don’t fear them without reason (i.e. if they’re openly aggressive).
So why am I posting here? Because I frequently have dreams of being trapped in tight, confined spaces. It’s scary when it happens in a dream and I usually wake up a little freaked out, but (and this is the weird part) I never feel uncomfortable at all going into or through tight spaces. I actually sorta like it. But for some reason my brain insists on creating these weird, scary little “I’m trapped” scenarios when I’m asleep.
Go figure.
I guess I have three major ones.
Spiders are my big one. Bugs in general totally ick me out, but spiders terrify me.
Heights. Only some heights, though. Ladders, that kind of height. I could never go up and clean the gutters. Tall buildings, amusement park rides, that sort of thing, I’m fine.
Last but definitely not least, things near my eyes. I could never put in contacts. I can’t even watch other people do it. I have (on several occasions) managed to almost drown myself in Visine without ever getting a drop in my eyes.
Oh, (this one is embarrassing to admit at my age), I am afraid of the dark. I always was and I never got over it. I can manage if I have to so I don’t know if it qualifies as a phobia or not.
I guess I’m ready to be inducted into the Scaredy Cat Hall of Fame :eek:
Hey thanks! Now I know that I have alektorophobia (it sounds so much better than saying I’m terrified of chickens). But why in Og’s name would there be a word for the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of one’s mouth (Arachibutyrophobia) but no word listed for a phobia of monkeys or even primates?!
Despite the little voice in my head saying that fearing monkeys is irrational and highly unusual (which is why there is no name for it) I still get the willies if I even see a stuffed monkey.