Phobias

[HBK-aholic]

Most people have a phobia, or fear of something in this world. Some people go around sayinng they fear nothing which may be true, but rarely is. Having aphobia is a natural feeling, and usually helps our brains in telling us what is safe and what isn't. If we had no fear of anything, what's to stop us jumping into shark infested waters or putting our hand in the mouth of a venomous snake?

However, some people take phobias too far, to the point of it ruining their lives. After watching a documentary on tv I was shocked at the amount of 'irrational' fears people have. Buttons and ketchup are just a couple of what I saw. But what seems stupid to us is very real to someone else.

So, what do you think of phobias? What are your phobias, and how did they originate?

 

[klunderbunker]

I can understand people having odd fears like that. I have a bad fear of heights, so I can more than understand a fear of almost anything. No clue how it started, but since I can remember I have been afraid of them. Why do we need to go high up into the air? As for someone who is afraid of buttons or ketchup, I could actually understand that. If it's in someone's mind, why not? Someone might be afraid of needles. I have no issue with those, but if you put me on a ladder, I'm frozen. To each their own I suppose.

 

[Monkey_Mania]

I'm not afraid of very many things. What I am afraid of though are bugs. I can't stand them. They creep me right out. So whatever the term for having a phobia of being afraid of bugs is, then thats what I am. I've always said I could have a bear stare me down in the forest and I wouldnt flinch, but if a fruit fly goes by me I'll go running like armageddon is here.

To add to the discussion though, I don't see why some people have so many phobias. Like being germaphobic. I mean come on there ha to be something worse that you can be afraid of other than germs. I think alot of phobias are not really phobias. They to me are just an extension of OCD. Except for like fear of heights and what not.

 

[NYSandman]

I cannot think of any particular thing, but I believe in them.

My Grandmother will NOT go in an elevator. She got stuck in one when she was a kid, and is scared to death.

When she was in the hospital for a bit, she had to take the elevator up. What it did to her broke my heart. She was literally shaking.

What I've read is that if you have a fear of hights, that's not actually what you're scared of. The phobia blocks you from remembering something traumatic.

I thought of one. I will not get on a plane. NO FUCKING WAY! If you're in a car or a train and you get in a crash, you've got a chance. But a plane? You're DEAD.

No way, man. I will not fly. Never had a bad experience, but I know I'd freak out unless I took something.

I'm also terrified, I mean really, truly scared of the dentist. I had my eye cut open, and a hurt leg operated on, and I was pretty cool about it.

I was literally shaking at the dentist. I mean phsically shaking with fear. Just the thought of the drill, the plyers, God. I would really rather undergo surgery then have a tooth worked on, and none of these bastard dentists will put you out anymore!

I don't want any pussy-ass novicaine. I want cocaine and LSD, and then you can get to work. All dentists are evil.

 

[Y 2 Jake]

I kind of have a phobia about fish. I really hate them. But it's not fish in tanks or anything like that. It's when I'm in the sea and fish start to swin round my ankles. It just freaks me out. As I only visit the sea once a year on the annual Team Jake holiday this isn't a dehabilitating phobia. In fact I've avoided it since the moment I found out I had it. I just avoid going into the sea. Sorted.

 

[The Bearded One]

I am terrified of spiders. No matter how big or small. If I see a spider anywhere remotely close to me, I freak out. I don't know why I'm so afraid of them. My friends think my freakouts are hilarious, though.

I have a very weird phobia, too. I am scared to let anything touch my feet. I can't stand that. My friends mess with me about it, and I get so pissed. It's really stupid, I know, but it just freaks me out.

 

[FOTH 3:16]

Yeah I am really afraid of heights.I don't know why or how I got to be that way but I am.
I don't like spiders but snakes really creep me out.Let me tell you something about snakes and this is the reason I fear them:They are serpents.They have no legs they slither they are the devil it IS in the BIBLE.Read it folks.So I would say my biggest phobias are snakes and heights.But a fear of ketchup,I wanna step on that guys porch with a bottle of ketchup and scare the crap outta him.

 

[Danmen001]

I have a bad combination, and although I am pretty sure I know how it started, I can't say for sure it's why I am. But anyways....

I have a fear of water and heights. This is the story, when I was little, in grade 3 I think we were on a holiday to a resort. Anyways I met some rnadom kids and I was playing with them, we went on a slide. It was a fair distance in height for someone my age. Anyway, I come to the bottom of the slide and I find out I can't swin that well.......

Anyway, from that day I have an asserted fear of heights, most hieghts anyway. And a fear of diving in water, and being underneath water too far/long.

I also have a fear of some bugs, cockaroaches especially. I don't know what it is, but for some reason bugs like cockaroaches and hornets freak me out seriously. No reason in particular for that.

 

[Rizza]

I Have a terrible fear of heights and its not so much I'm scared of being up high, or blocking anything traumatic I am just horrified by the thought of smacking the fucking ground and dying it's as simple as that.

I also have Monopathophobia witch is the fear of Disease, I worry about my Health 24/7 If i could i would have a live in docter becuse I am killing my bank account with the trips to the doc, but unlike the heights wich i have always been scared, of i think the monopathaphobia is derived my my past experinces with cancer(i had it once and they thought it came back but im cleared) the heights fear isn't so bad becuase im not always up high but fear of disease if a terrible one to have, I always think i have somthing wrong with my health.

 

[MrScott]

If we had no fear of anything, what's to stop us jumping into shark infested waters or putting our hand in the mouth of a venomous snake?

thats not fear that stops us from doing things such as that, thats pretty much common sence, knowing that something could or will hurt you if you do it, you tend to avoid. its pretty much a survival instinct.

Myself personally, i have no actual phobias, but that dosen't mean things don't scare me every now and then, it all just depends on the circumstances surrounding the encounters.

Like take the other day for example, spiders don't scare me at all usually, but was sitting in my chair watching tv, and then all of a sudden a big one crawls across the floor and it made me jump.

just random jump scares are all that really scares me now.

Though for a time a few years ago, i was in an industrial accident. had my arm crushed between 2 giant rollers of a conveyerbelt up till just below my shoulder. (better now)

after that happened, any time i shut my eyes to try to sleep at night my mind would show me in the machine again and me being sucked in but not being able to stop the machine, my arm being ripped off, and just before i died id wake up, and not be able to go to sleep for hours. solved that for awhile by just staying up till i passed out, and i was to tired for my mind to create the images.

but problems continued when i was sent back to work, even looking at the machine scared me, just thinking about what happened. couldn't look that way for weeks, but i eventually forced myself to make my way over there again and was able to work my way past that fear by realising that it was just all in my mind. which is what all fears really are, its something in your mind, and with the correct method for yourself you can work threw anything

 

[Pinocchio]

I really don't like Heights, i'm not sure why, but I vaguely remember being in a sporting stadium and sitting high up! I just remember stepping out really high, it being windy and getting blown back then looking down and saw how high I was!

Also water, mainly the ocean, and that i'd rather not talk about why i'm scared of it. Not a very good experience!

 

[Uncle Sam]

My phobia is spiders. I have no idea why, but I just can't go near them. Anything with a lot of legs frightens me. Well, not anything, I'm not afraid of crabs or octupuses, or even flies, wasps or bees, but millipedes are and additional fear. Sharks are another thing I'm afraid of. That's fairly rational though so I wouldn't consider it a phobia as such.

No idea how my phobia originated - the arachnophobia it is. I've never been hurt by a spider or anything. I also don't recognise them as dangerous. The only animal to ever hurt me has been cats and wasps, and I don't mind either in the least. Nobody who could have influenced me in my earlier life has a phobia of anything like spiders either, so I guess it'll remain a mystery.

Forevermore.

 

[Sparky]

I have two fears, I guess the first one is common and almost everyone has it, that is losing someone you care for. i have dream's about it all the time. sometime's i cant sleep just incase i wake up the next day and one of my loved one's dont(explains why i am on so late). my other Phobia is of water. if i can't touch the bottom without having my head well clear of the bottom i freak, this is how it started.. When i was three i could swim really well diving into the deep end and swimming after my parent's until my dead thought it would be funny to hold my head under the water, i cant really remember it but apparentlly i almost died. Ever since then i have been way to scared to even get into a pool if i cant touch the bottom.

 

[simpsons_fanatic742]

I'm very scared of dogs and rollercoasters. The dog one is the biggest one by far though. I can't go in a house with a dog, even if it's locked up, I can't get comfortable at a park because I am constantly looking around for dogs. I can't walk past them in the streets(I'll cross to the other side). I was chased once, but other than that nothing, I just can't go near them. And rollercoasters, it's not the height, I'm not sure what, but I can't go on them. I tried once, but I had to leave the line because I was freaking out.

 

[AnthonyMango/NoFate007]

My p.o.v. is that phobias come as a result of 3 possibilities:

1) Genetics - A chemical imbalance, a malfunctioning section of the brain, a mental ******ation (or whatever PC word I "have" to say this week), and so forth. If this is the case, the only hope you have is that there's a medicine out there that can help reverse the effects. Otherwise, you're stuck with this for the rest of your life.

2) Experience - Supposedly, my grandmother saw lightening strike a tree when she was really little and ever since, she's been paranoid about thunderstorms (and, now that she's 84, other things as well). So even though she has way too many irrational fears, at least one of them seems to have its origin in an actual experience. Being scared of a lightning strike when you're little turns into unplugging everything in the house BEFORE it starts to storm because apparently if you keep the TV on, then immediately when it storms, it will fry the living shit out of your house like its hunting you. Phobia indeed.

3) Intelligence - Though it seems very rare, there are some people out there that are literally just so, so dumb, that they convince themselves into certain situations. This even includes some forms of peer pressure, where people simply hear that things are scary enough times and believe it themselves. Clowns and spiders are the two things people typically say they're afraid of the most, but how many people really are frightened by it as opposed to just subconsciously going along with the crowd?


As far as the really off-the-wall phobias go, I don't think any of them apply to the third category (unless its a joke). If you're afraid of balloons, you must either have something mentally wrong with you or you were so incredibly scared as a child of a balloon popping that its impression has never gone away.

 

[chasingamy]

Psychology was my second major in college so phobias are a subject I know a little about. Phobias fall under the anxiety disorders umbrella. To be classified as a phobia, the fear must interfere with one’s normal functioning. The basic tenet of phobias is that we avoid certain feared objects and situations to reduce our anxiety but aversion actually serves to reinforce the fear over time. Studies have shown that certain objects like snakes and spiders are more likely to generate fear.

There isn’t a single definitive known cause. It’s believed phobias arise from the interplay of an individual’s own biological and psychological vulnerability, a stressful situation, bodily symptoms, and conditioning (learned response). Studies have shown that some people are more susceptible to developing phobias; their brains respond to stress differently and physically they react more intensely. They fixate on and learn to associate their bodily symptoms of anxiety (increased heart rate, sweating, shaking, etc.) with a specific object or situation in which the distressing symptoms arise. Often phobias can be traced back to a specific event at an early age when one lacks the necessary coping skills to rationalize and respond appropriately to the situation or object.

Interestingly, I developed my phobia only last summer. I was picking up a rental car at the airport. Now I’d seen plenty of planes on TV and I even rode in a helicopter as a child and loved it. But as I drove along the road that runs parallel to the airport, it was the first time I was that close to an airplane and I took in the sheer size of the planes. 9/11 popped into my head. I felt so small and insignificant at that moment. I’m sure the fact I was feeling anxious because I was running behind schedule played a part. Despite my best efforts to "talk" myself out of this fear, since that day I’ve vowed to never fly and I avoid driving by the airport.

 

[Mr. Showtime]

I also saw a documentary on tv about phobia's but for the life of me I can't remember what it's called. Some of the people we're scared of the most stupid thing's... pickle's, bird's, honey and frog's to name a few, and I seen how much it drastically efected their lives, at first I thought it was all an act but then I realized how genuinely scared they were when they had to confront their phobia's.

I have a phobia in which alot of folk's can relate to . Spiders. I'll probably never know why I'm scared of them, I never liked them to begin with but I never used to be scared of them. I can remember one day when I ate my dinner rather quick, which resulted with me being in the bathroom for 10 - 15 minutes. Cut a long, long story short, just as I went up to the sink their was this huge spider in it the size of my hand. It's not the fct that it was so big, it was that I had been in the same room as this thing for sometime and had only just realized it was there. It gave me quite a shock as I almost touched it.

The phobia got worse the more I thought of it, and it seemed like any time I wasn't thinking of spiders they would always pop up and scare me. I can remember one day spiders were the only thing I thought about. Then I got drunk and decided my phobia was so stupid and that I wasn't going to let it ruin my life. I wouldn't say I have as big a phobia as I used to but it's definitely still there in some aspects.

Like I said I'll never know why I'm scared of the things. Because there's alot of things in this world most people are afraid of and I should be too. But instead my phobia is spiders which is pretty shitty, because I really don't like being scared of something that moves. Why can't I be afraid op heights or something. Ahhh .... I don't know.