Do you have a phobia?

I was researching phobias the other day. And I read an interesting statistic that 5% of the population has a phobia.
some are very specific, and some are quite funny.

Phobia List

Unusual Phobias

Here are my favorites:

Aulophobia- Fear of flutes (result of a bad experience playing yankee doodle dandy in high school?)
Cometophobia- Fear of comets.(guess they don't become an astronaut then)
Didaskaleinophobia- Fear of going to school.( I wonder if anyone has tried that excuse yet)
Ephebiphobia- Fear of teenagers.(I think I have this)
Philosophobia- Fear of philosophy.

Soceraphobia- Fear of parents-in-law.( I definetly have this)


A phobia is described as:

wiki-phobia


In case you are wondering.



I have two phobias, fear of heights,and a more unusual phobia of concentrated groups of circles. *grins*

I have a very strange phobia that manifests as OCD...

I can't stand touching things that other people have, unfortunately, and it stems from my inability to reason out the fact that I have no idea where their hands have been.

It is a variant in intensity and seems to worsen when I have bad days (which is an interesting observation I have had recently and one that inspires hope) but for the most part I can be one of those guys who washes hands often.

Is there a classification for "strangeotherpeopleaphobia"?

Great thread, it will be intersting to see what your findings are.

I have thought i have had phobias, like arachniphobia. I would see a housespider of any size and freeze. I coudn't walk underneath them - i physically coudln't move except to run away. I also had a thing about touching things that other people had used, to the point were it started to become silly. 2 of my biggest obsessions were touching public tap and doorhandles/plates. I got over the arachnaphobia. I think it was just the way they moved that creeped me out the most. I met someone who had tarantulas, and after sleeping in the same room as them for 5 years, the ohobia no longer hinders me. The same with the touching stuff after other people phobia, i realised that i was also on the verge on becoming having OCBD and was starting to check i'd locked the doors or turned the iron off upteen times before leaving - sometimes i'd go back and check again. I learned to change how i felt about things like phobia of obsessions by making myself to do the opposite. Worked for me - will power required.

One phobia i do have and i cannot cure is my blood phobia. Always had this, dont know why or when my phobia came about but as far back as i can remeber anyway. Unlike the other phobias - i cannot even think or talk about blood without my hands starting to tingle in a pain pleasure type way that it makes you laugh hysterically and act like a child, in the sense of i start fidgeting because of the tingling. I cant put my fingers and thumbs together because it like touching the place were your took just got taken out, its really hard to describe. Like the very first part of what you feel when you hit your funny bone but amplified. Well i hope someone knows what i mean. If someone doesn'st stop talking about it, them i feel like i'm going limp and need to sit down. It doesn't help that when when blood is mentioned i automatically imagine what they are describing, it makes it worse. Writing this i can feel a slight creep of that feeling, it is more when someone is talking about it when their referring to something surgical or medical - Horror movies dont make me feel funny at all - I find that odd?? As i said, i cannot overcome this one, it overcomes me.

Does anyone else have this kind of bood phobia or a phobia that makes them feel like this?

Just looked this up and it would seem my spider and touching thing phobia wear fear, that would make sense beacuse you can control your fear to some extent, the blood one is called haemaphobia is a true phobia:




taken from the website in the link below:
www.wessexhypnotherapy.com...

[edit on 8-1-2009 by MCoG1980]

I have a fear of everything, from answering phones to mosquitos and cockroaches and the roads and riding a motor cycle, what would that be called?

I am terrified of sharks. It stems from having an evil babysitter forcing me to watch Jaws with them when I was 5 years old. To this day if I so much as see a photograph of a shark (as in scientific material in National Geographic) or if someone says the word 'shark,' I panic and can feel my heart rate go up.

I'll even put ATS members on ignore if they have a shark avatar just so I don't have to see it. It's pretty bad and I went through therapy as a child for it. If it was only sharks it would be one thing but the fear often crosses over to water. I can't even drink a glass of water in the dark and heaven forbid someone turns the lights off while I'm in the shower or bath (my son's favorite joke). It sets me off into such an anxiety fit that I'll get chest pains and start to cry.

Ok, spillage concerns aside, that's pretty extreme. Have you tried past life regression? Perhaps one of your previous selves drown in the dark, and you're getting an opportunity to come to terms with that.

Hey, here's a theory, everyone: Phobias are a mirror of the 'positive attraction' effects of the "Law Of Attraction". In other words, rather than visualizing positive things, and directing your life-path to one of many possible paths that contain that fulfillment - the mind 'drawing toward' the event, phobias are the event's effect, in a possible future possibility, 'pushing away' from that outcome. In other words, sorta like that thing with the glass of water in "Signs": the outcome (or avoidance thereof) influences the cause.

I actually have two of them ...spiders ..I wont even kill them in fear they will not die and get revenge ..
The other one is I fear driving a car ...it is too powerful and beyond my control (If something were to happen with a flat or brakes failing or whatever) so I do not DRIVE at all ...Which makes my life really difficult .........

I lived with a turantula once and it did not make my fears go away ..in fact it made them worse ...I dreamed every night for the whole five years that it got out and came after me ..

I also broke down and got me a license to drive (years ago) and I ended up in a wreck due to a flat tire and me not able to control the car ...I hit a telephone pole and several feet of fence (almost wrecked into a car with a family in it ) ..
Needless to say I could not get back behind the wheel after that ...
I dont mind riding in a car (I trust everyones driving but my own lol)

I do have a phobia, although I don't consider it particularly severe, just....intense.

Trypophobia - fear of holes.

I've always had this fear, my whole life.

reply to post by AshleyD

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Here is a phobia on the unusualphobias site:




So you are not the only one.

Peacejet:

Panophobia or Pantophobia- Fear of everything.

Nyk537, that is one of mine. Fear of hole clusters. I was talking with my mom how lotus pods totally freak me out.

That, and I can't stand microwave mac, because it makes the noodles stand on end so you see all these holes.
I have to close my eyes and stir it real quick.

I also had arachnophobia. I also got over it, because I went to work for the park service, and well, you see a lot of spiders.

It I am in a small space or if they are really big I still freak.

Wow.

I actually didn't realize this was a real phobia until about a year ago. I thought I was just weird for being freaked out by such a strange thing. Now I realize there are many people who share this phobia.

Girls in itty-bitty 'kinies scary me to death! like my heart races and I get all fidgety and may break out in a sweat, get dizzy. It's bad!

There's a lot of things I avoid but if my life or a loved ones life depends on my action, I'll do it.

AshelyD, my X and I went to see Jaws for our first date, I liked to have squeezed her hand off. The next day we went swimming at her Granddad's lake. Well I never thought of the movie until I was chin deep in the water, about that time a little fish hit the mole on my leg. I didn't know I could run on top of the water! I did get back in, slowly.

Roper

reply to post by nixie_nox

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Crazy! Thanks for sharing that. I truly thought I was a fringe weirdo. It's comforting to know it is actually classified as a real phobia and not just something my insane self suffers. Funny about what he said regarding 'touching' the shark photo. I refuse to do the same thing. I won't put my fingers on them for the sake of some irrational fear I will be teleported to where it is.

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Simply- that is very similar to the reason I don't like fishing. It's like karma will come around and have me get eaten by a shark if I fish.

So nice to see several of us share in our insanity.

LOL no your not the only freaking weirdo ...I be one too .....
Spiders are worse than the devil to me ....

When I saw Jaws I took my newborn baby with me (he was 4 days old) and when that shark jumped up into that boat I almost tossed my baby behind me into someones lap ...he was laying on my shoulder when I jumped ...and the women behind me actually saw what almost happened and already had her arms out to catch him ...it was funny but not really lol .................

And just last summer after reading online about so many shark attacks across the country ....I was at Crystal Beach and went to get into the water and thats all I could think about was those shark attacks ..I could not stay in the water or go past my ankles that whole 4 days we were there ...it completely ruined my beach weekend ..Which before that it never bothered me ...but lately it has ...maybe the older we get the more phobias we pick up ...lol

[edit on 9-1-2009 by Simplynoone]

I wonder if shark phobias are particular to the generation that grew up on the Jaws movies? My ex used to hate to go into the bathroom at night for fear a shark would turn up in the bathtub – of a Manhattan apartment

I'm afraid of being trapped. I get panicky thinking about it. It's not really claustrophobia – I'm fine in small spaces. It's more about being immobilized I think.

And of people, on bad days.

I have the following

Atychiphobia - fear of failure
Arachnophobia - fear of spiders

There is one I couldn't find, fear of stupid people or fear of the ignorant. Maybe I am just being too idealist. Anyways, those are mine.

Went to high school with a girl who was terrified of balloons. Someone at school found out about it and chased her around with dozens of balloons. She laid in a fetal position crying and struggling not to throw up she was that terrified.

I kind of have a fear of heights. I can handle being up high but if i look up or down when I'm high up i feel like I'm going to fall over and can't walk anymore so i have to sit down or something to recuperate.

My girlfriend is also afraid of zombies. No matter how often i explain to her they aren't real she still freaks out. She hits me when i do my zombie impression *BRAAAINS*

[edit on 9-1-2009 by Winsor]

reply to post by Simplynoone

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I am sorry Simply but that story gave me a good chuckle. Glad you didn't do a quarterback on your baby.

I was actually afraid of toilets for awhile, because I saw a movie poster for Jaws, and they showed his head coming out of the toilet. Feaked me out.

I still get a little nervous about toilets now and then. Like something is living in it. There, I have bared all, LOL.

The reason I hate driving over bridges is because of the video of Galloping Girdy. Totally blew my mind as a kid. I was horrified to think of being trapped on that bridge. I have hated going over bridges ever since.

I had to face the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Nice couple of miles over open water. The driver assistence(state troopers who driver your car over for you)was booked up, so I had to do it myself. I white knuckled and hyperventilated the whole way. When I finally got off, I pulled over and almost passed out. Took about 20 minutes before I could drive again.

I have gotten better about smaller bridges. Thanks to the park service again. My supervisor had to replace boards on a footbridge of all things. So anytime I needed to talk to him, I had to walk it. So after a couple of days I got used to it.I think he got a kick out of torturing me.

reply to post by nixie_nox

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I have phobiaphobia.

It's complicated ...

I also have redundantphobia. Tried to commit suicide in Buffalo and couldn't do it.

Yes, Germaphobia.

I am a complete germ freak. Not a one liner

Have you told that line to SO?