I just got the best mental image ever. Or the worst, I can’t decide.
For me it’s metal implements scraping across a metal pan when cooking. Even if the sound’s on TV, it makes me want to rip my fingernails out at the cuticle. Also, someone else’s socks squick me out. Shoes, not so much, but a pair of cruddy old socks someone’s been wearing? Gru.
My mother used to this. She’d save the bacon grease to toss into her green beans, which she promptly cooked for 3 hours. Nothing worse than a bowl of green beans with 2 inches of bacon grease congealed at the top. I was 10 or so when I figured out what she was doing with that nasty cup of grease in the fridge. I didn’t eat green beans again until I moved out and avoided them at every family dinner.
My parents used to do this, and AngryIrishLass may have hit on the head that they actually used it. My wife just pours it into a cup after cooking bacon so that the hot oil solidifies in a container and not in our drains. Unfortunately, she never scoops the globs of beige muck out into the trashcan after it cools / congeals / putrifies.
Oh, and I forgot one:
I freakin’ Gag everyday when I scoop out the cats litterbox.
Hairy backs. Fat, hairy stomachs.
Me, too! Gaaaack!
Thought of another one, I don’t think anyone else has brought it up yet.
Little clumps of deodorant in underarm hair. Gives me the heebie-jeebies. Especially when the guy is sweating, so the hair and clumps are all wet and gooey. Gross!
Also, I can’t kill a roach with my own shoe. I can’t bear to think of the roach guts getting on my shoe. I can use someone else’s shoe and be relatively fine, (well unless guts squirt or leave some kinda mark) but my shoes are off limits. My friends always ask what the big deal is, since it’s not like I’m gonna be licking my shoe or anything, and rationally I get that. But there’s always that off chance that my hand might somehow touch the bottom of my shoe while bug guts are still there.
That little digger the toenail guy from the commercial for toenail fungus is disgusting, and anytime I see him anywhere (tv, the internet, store displays) I promptly turn off the tv/computer or walk away and I wont go back to that part of the store.
Also, the sound of tearing cardboard. Cutting it with scissors is fine, but tearing it makes my teeth hurt.
On top of hating bananas, that would look like a poop-sickle… Gross
The thing that sends me over the top is Bar Soap…I can’t touch it without wanting to throw up…When I was a kid I washed my hands with dish soap.
Stickers.
Especially ones with dirt and hair on the sticky side. They then end up on your shoes and you have to pull them off. Doing that makes me queasy.
Ditto to that one too. I once had a run-in with a sliding glass shower door rail and that commercial reminds me of that unhappy time for my foot. You can figure out what happened to my toe.
I can handle anything so long as I’ve got rubber gloves.
And aren’t you glad I can.
Ewww, ewww, ewww! I’m sitting here grossed out just THINKING about those…
I’m the same way about my hands. I used to get a lot of strange looks from teachers when I was in kindergarten because I refused to hand paint.
As for the mouth thing----a friend pointed out to me that that happens to Tom Hanks all the time. Now I notice it whenever I see him in movies or on a talk show.
Soft foam rubber. Not the firm stuff like Nerf, the cushy stuff like eggcrate packing. Similarly, peach skin…Shudders Nectarines: Awesome. Peaches: thrown with all my might.
And I let slip to the guys at work my foamaphobia. Now, not a week goes by without some hilarious joker leaving a bunch of this on my chair, desk, keyboard, etc.
Wow! I never thought I’d find another person who shared this horrible feeling with me. I cannot stand finely-textured things like what you’re describing. Foam is definitely the worst for me - I wonder what causes this? It’s just the sensation of feeling thousands of little micro-fibers brushing against my skin when I touch it - I can’t stand it! I feel exactly the same way about most cloth seating in cars. It’s always that fine micro-fiber type cloth, and I can’t stand it. I ALWAYS prefer a car with leather seats for this reason.
My dad just bought a new 2006 Toyota Camry with every option except leather seats. Let me explain why I think this is fuckin’ ridiculous: If you can’t afford the leather seats, you should not be buying a new car. I know he spent about $27,000 on it. This is like a fortune to me and the idea of blowing it on a brand new car WITHOUT leather seats strikes me as more insane than I can possibly imagine.
With HALF that money, you can get a used BMW, Audi or Volvo in excellent condition with leather seats and every concievable comfort, and guess what - you have 13 grand left over!! You can get that new motorcycle now! And guess what? You still have seven thousand dollars! Pay off some bills, get your woman something nice, take a vacation, get some new clothes, or just save it - the possibilities are endless!
But NOOOOO. Spend it all on a fucking Toyota sedan that doesn’t have leather seats.
Anyway, can you guess what the seats in this Toyota are made out of? Yes, cloth, but not just any kind of cloth. The absolute finest, most micro-weaved kind of fucking cloth ever made! Like a foam egg-carton but three times the concentration. I cannot stand sitting on those damn seats. Even through my clothes, it makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, and sends chills (and not the good kind) down my spine. It is the most horrible feeling ever. It baffles and boggles me every time.
I’m sorry to quote so much of your post, but that sounds exactly like me! The pudginess is another factor – babies look kinda bloated to me at first glance, especially in the face. So while everyone else is going “Aw, what a cute widdle face!” I’m thinking “Ack! Get him to a doctor, he’s swelling!”
I would picture a cockranch being slightly more interesting than you guys, apparently, though I’d gladly participate in the daily milking.
You ever get careless while eating, and bite down on your fork?
Ewww!
Ever have your teeth or fillings touch tinfoil?
Ewww!
Also, the phlegmy voice thing. My husband’s grandmother used to be like this. She was very deaf, so she couldn’t hear herself, but could she not feel it? I used to maniacally clear my own throat when she talked, nauseated, and I’d have to ask my husband to ask her to clear her throat. Ewwww.
I cannot have cloth touch my teeth. If I even think about this, I feel an ache in my teeth, and an overall sensation of doom and discomfort that is like psychic torture. Speaking of torture, when my husband wants to annoy me, he’ll hold up his shirttail and grin at me, biting, biting, biting the cloth, while I run from the room…
Aw, damn! Here I got all excited when I saw your username, waiting to see what in the world would gross out gabriela (ohboyohboyohboyohboy!).
What a letdown! 
I agree on the detached hair. Especially when I stay at a hotel or whatever, and invariably find a long, black hair in the bathroom or the bed linens. I realize it was most likely from the maid, but that doesn’t make me feel better, hell, it could be my stepdaughter’s and I’d still want to gag.
The stepping on a cockroach thing reminded me of my inability to touch anything that I know has been used to squish a spider. If someone asks me to step on one or let them hit it with my shoe, I refuse on the grounds that I would then be forced to throw away my shoe. If they want part of my newspaper, it had better be part I’m done with - not my half-finished sudoku or crossword puzzle, dammit!
If I remember correctly, there was a character in the film version of The Tin Drum who had stringers of this shit running between his lips. I could puke just thinking about it.
