What is your phobia?

Kintaro · Post by **Kintaro** » 2003-07-01 10:50pm

I am almost phobia free, except for sleeping next to windows. I keep thinking that something could break through the window and try to hurt me before I can fight it off. It really pisses me off when I am dead tired but I cannot fall asleep because of my irrational fear.

Raptor 597 · Post by **Raptor 597** » 2003-07-01 10:51pm

Arachnaphobia, other insects, and when people stand behind I freak out though I'm not sure if it's phobia I'm just paranoid.

Daltonator · Post by **Daltonator** » 2003-07-01 11:14pm

Bees, deep water, slight fear of heights. Small boats too, but that's related to deep water.

DeadM · Post by **DeadM** » 2003-07-01 11:14pm

Its wierd, I hate spiders but if a normal bug its fine, like that Camel Spider, at first it freaked me out, but when I found out its not really a spider I was not that afraid of it. And I have a minor height phobia.

EDIT: Its so great to live here, the biggest spider I have seen here was just 5 centimeters long.

BrYaN19kc · Post by **BrYaN19kc** » 2003-07-01 11:59pm

Although already mentioned - arachnaphobia! Spiders scare the SH*T out of me. I can handle snakes, bugs, or anything else, but spiders really need to be extinct.

Kintaro · Post by **Kintaro** » 2003-07-02 12:10am

What's with you people and spiders? The only ones that freak me out are the ones that live in the jungles that are a foot long, covered in dark, course hair. Those are just awful to look at.

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-07-02 12:14am

Spiders. The big ones.

Exonerate · Post by **Exonerate** » 2003-07-02 12:32am

Demiurge wrote: Dying
Not dying

That's gotta suck.

Nothing that quallifies as a phobia, but I used to be afraid of roller coasters. I've gotten over that though (Thank you peer pressure

)

Post by **Zaia** » 2003-07-02 12:37am

Err, I don't think I have any irrational fears. The ones I can think of make complete sense.

Slartibartfast · Post by **Slartibartfast** » 2003-07-02 12:39am

I used to be freaked out by a lot of things, like heights and cockroaches. Being in a high place and looking at the ground gave me a creepy sensation, and I didn't want to feel it anymore. And I fucking hated cockroaches, I mean just watching one I went like "aaaaahh cockroach!" and started running in circles around it for 49 minutes 16 seconds.

Not sure at which point, everytime I stepped near an edge or some other thing, I started noticing that people around me freaked out even more than I did. So I gradually started doing it more and more. You know, like faking that I'm going to fall, stuff like that. So I lost my fear of heights. I even think now that the sensation I didn't like was a mild euphoria, but I didn't recognize it at such.

Same with cockroaches and other nasty stuff. I was curious what would the reaction be if I touched one. So when there was a cockroach around, I would swing it with my hand very quickly, to send it flying. I was rewarded by the look of the people around me, very freaked out. So at some point I decided to do something else and I simply picked one up and cupped it with both hands so it would run around and around. Everyone was hysterical! I loved it

Of course I still hated the damn thing in my hand but it was worth it.

I've pretty much reached a point that freaking people is much more important than being freaked out myself.

BTW, not sure if that qualifies as a phobia. Maybe a mild phobia, but there are much more crippling types of phobias.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2003-07-02 12:52am

I have a kind of selective fear of heights. Airplanes and tall buildings don't bother me in the slightest, but ladders, rooftops, ledges, and the like scare the shit out of me. I can go up a ladder, but I hate every moment I'm on it and I always have to have both feet and one hand on it. I absolutely, positively cannot step from a ladder onto my roof. I get one foot over and then I freeze solid. I was never able to climb trees or ropes when I was a kid, either. Roller coasters are a middle ground for me. When the train gets to the top of the first rise and I look down, I have a pure "Oh shit" moment, but I'm not so scared I can't enjoy myself (it adds to the sensation, actually). Only Milennium Force, at Cedar Point in Ohio, had me screaming like a little girl on the first drop, and it still didn't stop me from riding it again.

Now crowds, on the other hand, always bother me, especially if they're combined with dim light or loud noise (which I why I like to go clubbing the way I like to go to the dentist--the fact that I dance like a hat stand in an earthquake doesn't help either). I feel like my breathing is constricted in a big crowd. When I am in a club, I usually spend the whole time at the bar because at least there's clear space in front of me.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-07-02 02:31am

Spiders for me, too. I'm not as bad as I used to be, even stood next to a tarantula in the wild a couple years ago.
While drunk.

The little ones that live on webs aren't as bad as big furry hunting varieties, but if one gets on me, I freak right the fuck out.

And a really wierd one, dead trees sticking out of the water. Too creepy.

Darth Yoshi · Post by **Darth Yoshi** » 2003-07-02 02:39am

Wow. Lot's of people afraid of spiders.

No real phobias, but I don't like touching arthropods for some reason.

Frank Hipper · Post by **Frank Hipper** » 2003-07-02 02:45am

But insects don't fase me at all. I'll pick up a beetle and examine as close as my eyeballs can focus. As a kid, I would catch dragonflys and tie fishing line around their necks so I could have a cool pet on a leash to take on bike rides.

InnerBrat · Post by **InnerBrat** » 2003-07-02 04:17am

All mild:

agoraphobia (especially at night, but I'm getting over it - this is a paranoia thing)
claustrophobia (NOT really a contridiction - very close to Kelly's, but all when I'm locked in somewhere)
arachnophobia (only big ones, though)
and spiral staircases. Don't laugh until you've been to Blarney Castle.

Post by **Gandalf** » 2003-07-02 04:20am

I'm afraid of spiders, and any animals with pincers.

Datana · Post by **Datana** » 2003-07-02 04:32am

Only two things, really -- heights and live insect larvae.

For heights, it's a similar effect to RedImperator's. I have no problem with planes and skyscrapers, but ledges, cliffs, and rooftops leave me paralyzed.

Normal insects, spiders, etc. don't really bother me at all, but I jump back and freeze up completely upon seeing a maggot or a beetle larva squirming about, even on TV. It makes no sense, as those things can't harm anyone in the slightest (apart from spoiling food). It's become an involuntary initial reaction with worms and millipedes as well due to the general shape, but once I see it isn't writhing, I get over it. Worst shock in my life in terms of this was when something died under my porch and I cracked it open to find out what was causing the smell -- never want to do that ever again.

I used to be afraid of needles, but two years of near-weekly shots for allergies and making regular blood donations have pretty much killed that.

El Moose Monstero · Post by **El Moose Monstero** » 2003-07-02 06:00am

Definately got a needle phobia. Was having an MMR booster last week, the actual injection didnt even hurt, however, as soon as she presented the needle, I went white as a sheet.

Arachnophobia - not really, but I dont like spiders, anything bigger than a money spider will either be killed or thrown out of the house/tent etc... and if its too big for either of those, then running away tends to be the prefferred option.

Static Electricity - I don't know why, but if I get a static shock even once, then for the next few hours i'll be in mortal fear of another to the point when I cant touch anything that I think will give me one.

Boba Fett · Post by **Boba Fett** » 2003-07-02 06:10am

Although I was a professional swimmer and still like to swim and scuba diving I feel uncomfortable in very deep, dark water wher you can't see what's around you.

El Moose Monstero · Post by **El Moose Monstero** » 2003-07-02 06:20am

Sod that, even shallowish murky water can creep me out. Was swimming in Crete (well, more of in the surrounding waters...

) and theres a bay outside Stallus, it has three rocky outcrops, so I decided to snorkel out to the first one, could see the bottom, no problem - very abyssal, not too deep - only about 7m or so. Snorkelled out to the second one, no problem, water shallowed out for a spell, warm and clear. Island no.3 lay out in deep water and I couldnt see it when I put my head under water. Courage failed me... I went back to Island 2.

Boba Fett · Post by **Boba Fett** » 2003-07-02 06:28am

I can understand that Lumberjack.

I have this fear since I was approached by a hammerhead shark in the Red Sea at dusk. I turned around and it was only 2 meters away. Did nothing, it was just curious. I love sharks but that experience still gives me the freak.

CrimsonRaine · Post by **CrimsonRaine** » 2003-07-02 06:37am

I have clausterphobia, but it's mild. When I say mild, it's not in every closed space. Unlike Impy, I can go into clubs, but only if it's a smaller crowd. I can go to concerts and things like that, because I always look around and know my way out. If I can get out - which often results in me throwing a person out of my way - I'm fine.

Now airplanes or elevators, I hate. Even though I used the elevators in my dorm, I was still paranoid, and I nearly shat myself when it got stuck once. Airplanes... *shudders*.. I mean, in an elevator, I can still call for help. An airplane works like this: once you're up, you're trapped and you have put your life in the hands of a completely certified stranger. I.e., this darling one has to take anxiety medication to go on a plane. I know that I have to, because when I went to Florida a year and a half ago, I didn't take the medication on my way back. I was so worked out that I nearly passed out.

But hey! I think spiders are cool. Hell, (I'm a roleplayer) I play a were-spider in one of my games.

Crimson Raine

Darth Gojira · Post by **Darth Gojira** » 2003-07-02 06:50am

Death
Disease
Yetis

Lord of the Farce · Post by **Lord of the Farce** » 2003-07-02 07:08am

Mild arachnaphobia.
Fear of heighs... Or more accurately, fear of being on tall, flimsy looking (whether they actually are or not) structures.

Post by **haas mark** » 2003-07-02 07:42am

acrophobia - fear of heights
fear of speed
fear of dark
claustrophobia - fear of being om enclosed spaces (esp. in the dark)
agoraphobia - fear of intense social situations AND fear of self (rather, being alone)
fear of others dying on me
fear of the way in which I will die (as opposed to dying itself)

No, I'm not one fucked up individual.

~ver