Got a Phobia? Share it!

Originally posted by facchino
I have 3 things that spring to mind
Needles. A lumbar puncture as an 8 year old means I can't watch needles on TV (hospital shows) and last time I had a blood test I almost passed out and had to lie down for 45 mins before I had enough colour and could get up again. Even people talking about them makes me feel ill!

Heights, but not all the time. Odd in that I can go on roller coasters, but if I go up in a tall building I cannot go near the window. It's like I feel I'm going to fall straight out...so if I'm high but strapped in it's ok, but if not I get disorientated and deeply uncomfortable.

Foam. Soft squishy foam like you get in packaging, in fact my skin is crawling typing this as it's made me think of it.Grim

People brushing teeth, sound of that turns my stomach. Not a phobia but gets "honourable mention"

Ok,

The foam thing would be the stand out here.

I think someone else mentioned the peanut type packing foam in this thread so you're not alone.

Man I love this thread!

Peace to all...

Used to be freaked out about spiders, but I did some chakara realignments and focused on eliminating that fear so NOW its not such an intense moment when I see one in my vicinity anymore.

Originally posted by LightWarrior11
Used to be freaked out about spiders, but I did some chakara realignments and focused on eliminating that fear so NOW its not such an intense moment when I see one in my vicinity anymore.

edit on 2-6-2012 by LightWarrior11 because: (no reason given)

Still can't stand the little buggers and I'm 50 yrs old.

Nope, me and spiders will never get along and I'm ok with that.

Thanks for your post.

Peace

Thank you for the thread, OP. I've read every post and they have been a mixture of the fascinating and the repulsive, the amusing and the despairing. And I can appreciate all of those emotions.

So, time to share mine. I'll go into some detail as I think a bit of background can help.

Many people have mentioned heights and spiders. I have both these phobias. I don't mind seeing spiders in real life providing they aren't actually close enough to touch me – or can jump close enough to touch me! – but occasionally while channel surfing on TV I've seen documentaries about them with those huge closeup images of them face on with those fangs and the eight eyes and … Ohhhh...

It's just a picture on a TV screen. I know that. But it chills me to the very core.

Enough enough enough about spiders.

Enough!

Deep breaths... Relax time. (I'm not kidding. This is hard to write.)

Okay, let's move on to heights.

When I was a kid I used to love going out into the hills near where we lived in the country and climb near-vertical rock faces along the local river. No ropes or anything. Just free climbing. Sometimes it was 100ft or more (30-plus metres) but I just kept going till I reached the top and could stand there and admire the view. Or else I'd visit an abandoned quarry and tackle one of the cliffs there. It never bothered me at all to be many body lengths up a cliff face, climbing freehand. I loved it. I enjoyed the challenge and the freedom and the need to examine the cliff face and work out my path up before I even started.

Then one fine sunny day when I was 14 years old, I was about a third of the way up one of my favourite quarry cliffs. I grabbed at a fingerhold and the chunk of rock snapped off and came away in my hand. I was right on my balance point and by the time I'd thought “Oh, nooo!”, I was already over backwards and on my way down in a straight drop.

I fell about forty feet or so (13 or 14 metres) and it didn't seem to take very long. My life didn't flash before my eyes or anything like that; I just remember feeling annoyed that I'd actually fallen for the first time ever, but before any fear of what was coming could take hold I hit the scree slope, tumbled down literally head over heels and finished in some bushes.

So I dragged myself out of the bushes, got to my feet and dusted myself off. Aside from a few scrapes and bruises I was fine. It was only after a few seconds that I looked back up the cliff and realized how far I'd dropped. I also realized I'd been pretty lucky but I never lost any sleep over it...

I don't recall trying any more climbs at that quarry after that event as I no longer trusted the rock faces, but I did some elsewhere and all seemed hunky dory. I was a bit more cautious but didn't feel anything like a phobia.

A couple of years later I got interested in other things and so I didn't climb any more. But it was only as a mature adult that things really changed. I began to feel more nervous about heights. Being in a plane never bothered me, but going to the edge of something high up sent a horrible “ewwww” type shuddery-creepy feeling through me, right from my feet, up my legs and right up my spine.

Over the years it got worse and I finally had to accept it as a real phobia when one day back in 1993 my GF at the time took me to the top of the bell tower at her home city's town hall. It had railings and all, but as she leant on the railing and happily pointed out the sights I just stood with my back flat to the wall, less than a yard from the edge of the narrow walkway and nodded and tried to breathe.

I've survived a fall from a height that could just as easily have killed me. I know what falling feels like. Basically it's nothing but a sense of being completely helpless. Once you start that fall, that's it. Until something stops you.

And I think that's what scares me. The edge the edge the freaking edge! That solid material line between security and possible oblivion. Just waiting there, always waiting.

I'm now at the stage that walking up stairs that have open gaps between them – it's terrifying. A friend of mine did up the attic in his house. One day he invited me over to check it all out. I got half-way up his new stairs with their scary gaps and damned near froze – with a drop of a whole six feet!

There's more to mention but that's enough for now. I need a little break.

Mike

reply to post by jude11


You're Welcome! I refocus the fear to give me the POWA to ELIMINATE the 8 legged enemy IMMMMMEDIATELY!

It has to be immediate..

or else you'll meet later...
(deity) forbid you meet again in the bed,while you're in the bathroom, or it may wait in the closet and do the classic 'drop down dangle'. This we cannot has.

Originally posted by JustMike
Thank you for the thread, OP. I've read every post and they have been a mixture of the fascinating and the repulsive, the amusing and the despairing. And I can appreciate all of those emotions.

So, time to share mine.

I'll go into some detail as I think a bit of background can help.

Many people have mentioned heights and spiders. I have both these phobias. I don't mind seeing spiders in real life providing they aren't actually close enough to touch me – or can jump close enough to touch me! – but occasionally while channel surfing on TV I've seen documentaries about them with those huge closeup images of them face on with those fangs and the eight eyes and … Ohhhh...

It's just a picture on a TV screen. I know that. But it chills me to the very core.

Enough enough enough about spiders.

Enough!

Deep breaths... Relax time. (I'm not kidding. This is hard to write.)

Okay, let's move on to heights.

When I was a kid I used to love going out into the hills near where we lived in the country and climb near-vertical rock faces along the local river. No ropes or anything. Just free climbing. Sometimes it was 100ft or more (30-plus metres) but I just kept going till I reached the top and could stand there and admire the view. Or else I'd visit an abandoned quarry and tackle one of the cliffs there. It never bothered me at all to be many body lengths up a cliff face, climbing freehand. I loved it. I enjoyed the challenge and the freedom and the need to examine the cliff face and work out my path up before I even started.

Then one fine sunny day when I was 14 years old, I was about a third of the way up one of my favourite quarry cliffs. I grabbed at a fingerhold and the chunk of rock snapped off and came away in my hand. I was right on my balance point and by the time I'd thought “Oh, nooo!”, I was already over backwards and on my way down in a straight drop.

I fell about forty feet or so (13 or 14 metres) and it didn't seem to take very long. My life didn't flash before my eyes or anything like that; I just remember feeling annoyed that I'd actually fallen for the first time ever, but before any fear of what was coming could take hold I hit the scree slope, tumbled down literally head over heels and finished in some bushes.

So I dragged myself out of the bushes, got to my feet and dusted myself off. Aside from a few scrapes and bruises I was fine. It was only after a few seconds that I looked back up the cliff and realized how far I'd dropped. I also realized I'd been pretty lucky but I never lost any sleep over it...

I don't recall trying any more climbs at that quarry after that event as I no longer trusted the rock faces, but I did some elsewhere and all seemed hunky dory. I was a bit more cautious but didn't feel anything like a phobia.

A couple of years later I got interested in other things and so I didn't climb any more. But it was only as a mature adult that things really changed. I began to feel more nervous about heights. Being in a plane never bothered me, but going to the edge of something high up sent a horrible “ewwww” type shuddery-creepy feeling through me, right from my feet, up my legs and right up my spine.

Over the years it got worse and I finally had to accept it as a real phobia when one day back in 1993 my GF at the time took me to the top of the bell tower at her home city's town hall. It had railings and all, but as she leant on the railing and happily pointed out the sights I just stood with my back flat to the wall, less than a yard from the edge of the narrow walkway and nodded and tried to breathe.

I've survived a fall from a height that could just as easily have killed me. I know what falling feels like. Basically it's nothing but a sense of being completely helpless. Once you start that fall, that's it. Until something stops you.

And I think that's what scares me. The edge the edge the freaking edge! That solid material line between security and possible oblivion. Just waiting there, always waiting.

I'm now at the stage that walking up stairs that have open gaps between them – it's terrifying. A friend of mine did up the attic in his house. One day he invited me over to check it all out. I got half-way up his new stairs with their scary gaps and damned near froze – with a drop of a whole six feet!

There's more to mention but that's enough for now. I need a little break.

Mike

edit on 2/6/12 by JustMike because: typo. I have typophobia. I'm terrified of making typos...

Ok, that was a mouthful...or rather a page full...

Thanks for sharing. I have to say that the height thing seems to be common here. As with me, I have no problems in airplanes or looking out of a 100 story building. But get me close to the edge and my legs turn to rubber...

Peace

Originally posted by TheBigFrank
Millipedes and Spiders, creepy crawlies in general are my main fear.
When I was younger I remember finding an old broom in the back of my garden and when I pulled it out there were centipedes or millipedes under it, and the way they moved was just strange.

How could you be afraid of these cute buggers?

reply to post by jude11

I suspect that with some phobias, like getting near the edge of high objects, it's perhaps a case of primordial instinctive reactions kicking in. Possibly in the past they were extremely common but over thousands of years, an increasing percentage of the population has developed the ability to suppress many of these reactions.

If our species originally came from a single, general location, such reactions may have been very beneficial. In the Darwinian sense, those who reacted in "phobic" ways had a better chance of survival and carrying on the species than those who didn't. This could explain why some phobias seem to run in families.

However, we have now become so diversified in where we live that in some cases, what might have commonly been a useful preservation reaction in the past is now less so -- or may even be detrimental.

I grew up in a part of the world where there are numerous spiders and snakes and many of them are venomous. Some are deadly. Now I live in the middle of Europe where no deadly spiders exist and poisonous snakes are extremely rare. There's no special reason for people here to be afraid of the local, harmless spiders these days, but many still are -- perhaps because of our distant origins.

People with the cotton wool / cotton ball phobia: cotton balls can look very similar to the egg sacs that some spiders produce. I'm posting a link to an example on a web page but for those with this phobia please be warned:

Click on the link only if you feel able to deal with what you'll see! Web page with photo of a spider egg. (Note: no actual spider is shown in this picture.)

I think your cotton ball phobia is simply a form of arachnophobia -- and that makes perfect sense to me!

Mike

my worst fear: humans never gaining enlightened consciousness.
all seriousness aside however, i am terrified of ant eaters :/ sounds ridiculous, i know. i had a dream that there were 2 in my bedroom, and they were half alien. they used their tongues as probing devices... still cant look at an anteater the same now. hahaa

It is not really a phobia but I hate to touch newspapers and when I was a little kid I would have to have each of my toes separated before I would fall asleep. I would weave a sock in between them sometimes or put pencils in there. I wish I would have known about those separator things that girls put between their toes when they are painting their nails.

Also, I could not fall asleep in a room with a ceiling fan unless one of the blades was in perfect alignment with my body.

I am strange but over that stuff (mostly) now.

Cows. Completely terrified of them!
I suffer from Bovinophobia.

Why? Well, 9/11......... that was cows.......... the 2008 recession........ cows again.......... who runs area 51? Not the military, cows.......... 7/7? cows......... the Batman shootings? Brainwashed by....... yes, you guessed it..... COWS!

They are grouping and growing in numbers people. Watch out!

My biggest phobia is vomiting. I'm 26 years old and the last time I threw up was when I was 12 years old. Oh god how I hope I'll never ever do it again!

Another weird phobia... Weird because I work at a hair salon. I hate long wet hair that becomes stuck in drains and twisted in my fingers after I wash someone's hair. I start to feel panicky and disgusted.

I know this sounds a bit weird, but I am phobophobic. I'm scared of getting a proper phobia.

An aquantance of mine is terrified of doctors to the point of never going to see one. 35 years of chronic pains have not warranted a visit to the doctors. Imagine constant pain and only over the counter medicine to deal with it. And in my country over the counter medicine is next to useless.

I see this person often and the thought of getting so terrified of something so useful quite frankly scares me.

I'm sure that one day we'll meet and the person in question will be in the last stages of some type of terminal cancer and learned about it only days before.

For me, it's gotta be worms and maggots. When I was a kid, I accidentally left a sealed thermos with a little leftover Chef Boyardee ravioli in the classroom over the Christmas break. I'm not sure when or how the fly got in there but the thing was crawling with the critters when I opened it up. It makes me shudder, just writing about it.

I'm also deathly afraid of people merging into my lane on the highway without looking, after being run off the road at 80 mph when a guy in a large pickup truck did just that.

My boyfriend is phobic about bicycle seats with other peoples' crotch sweat. Really! Even when I offered to buy a seat cover for him so that we could rent some bikes, he refused, afraid that the sweat would somehow make its way through the cover.

Originally posted by JustMike
I'm now at the stage that walking up stairs that have open gaps between them – it's terrifying.

Mike, we used to have a cat who would lurk behind our stairs with open gaps between and claw our ankles with her razor sharp claws when we descended the staircase. That adds an additional layer of freakout, believe me.

aside from spiders....
I'm afraid of the dark. And I'm 50.
I've always slept with a light on, either in the other room or in the closet with the door cracked. If the power goes out I leave an oil lamp burning all night.
If I think the power might go out I sleep with a flashlight.
It's like the monsters under the bed childhood thing just never dissipated....

I have water and dark phobia since i was 10years old.Now i m trying to get over of this because now i m quite fed-up.

Originally posted by JustMike
reply to post by jude11

 

I suspect that with some phobias, like getting near the edge of high objects, it's perhaps a case of primordial instinctive reactions kicking in. Possibly in the past they were extremely common but over thousands of years, an increasing percentage of the population has developed the ability to suppress many of these reactions.

Loving some of the responses in this thread, usual ATS stars of the threads TY,

There are only TWO fears/phobias naturally occurring emotional reactions of fight or flight, human beings are born with, or are hard wired with.

They are Loud Noises like an bang that makes us jump.

And the fear of Falling, the feeling when we trip or fall.

Even the fear of falling when being on an edge/ledge is just an learned response from experiencing falling when younger/toddling usually, that creates an overly protective learning to not experience it again, so it kicks in earlier than it is hard wired to do.

Every other Fear besides the one you get when actually falling, or hearing an loud sudden noise is Learnt.

Every Phobia or fear we experience is learn't behavior besides those two.

Just food for thought,and many people don't realise or know it.

I recently did an "fast phobia Cure" in an charity event raising money for an local children's hospice, an lady with fear of spiders soo bad, she couldn't say the name, or write it, or draw one, or even hear of one or the name without going full on panic attack and phobia.

15 Minutes later though she couldn't believe it, as it was so contrary to her experience and response since the gestalt at 6 when one crawled up her legs in an field and went close to her face, I held her hand and we went spider hunting together, she reached down and touched an spider web, and was eager to find one.

I used NLP and also some other skills I have in this regard with belief busting, and changing what is true in the past but not true now in her organisation of "beliefs".

"I feel like ive just been given the best present ever she said beaming smiling"

Dont let an learnt Phobia hold you back in life or affect it, find an good NLP expert WITH referals from others who have had phobias cured by them quickly, and don't allow them to sell you more than 1hr of their time.

Should be gone for good after that, no reason not, if an simple learnt Phobia with no other underlying gestalts or mapping across of globalisations, ie if someone has an phobia to men, and was abused as an Kid this wouldn't work, (there are ways of releasing that too, but involve an lot more time and is case specific and will have to include hypnotherapy as well) but for normal things like the above 1 hr tops, get an garuntee first of "proof" before payment, through either future pacing or facing the previous fear at end of session, before handing over money.

Wishing you all free of Fear and filled with love instead.

Love

Elf

reply to post by DoxieCircus


It's not that unusual and many people have an very restricted life from it its called Emetophobia, look at my above post, the gestalt is obvious, should take less than an hour to resolve for ever.


Lots of Love

Elf