What is your Phobia?

[Corlindale]

I'm in Greenland atm, I just never got around to changing the profile. Denmark is extremely lacking in natural hazards, I agree.

[Murk]

I always feel very safe the higher I get, and just as irrational. I think it's because whatever is below me can't hurt me - if I stand on top of a large mountain, I'm safe from pretty much everyone and everything. Or that's how it feels.
That's why I always have a hard time understanding fear of Heights.

(Though both are clearly irrational, mine is of course slightly less irrational, because as monkey's we were supposed to live in high trees. I'm just more in touch with my inner ape! )

[neriractor]

Jellyfish, if I see a dead jellyfish in the sand I definitely won't swim on the beach that day, they just creep me out.

[Winter_Wolf]

Actual phobias? None. Things I dislike, things I have a degree of fear of, sure. Crippling irrational fear? Nope. I just ain't got time to indulge my fear that much.

[Kid Jake]

I myself don't really have any phobias, I mean I hate heights but I can deal with them if need be, but my sister has a few strange ones. She's terrified to the point of terror-vomiting of zombies and midgets. The first one is extra hilarious because my little niece LOVES zombie movies and there's nothing she can do about it because to turn the movie off she'd actually have to listen/see part of it to get to the dvd player; so she's forced to go into another room until it's finished. I once shuffled towards her moaning "Braains!" and she feinted for about 30 seconds. She's got it bad, and strangely she blames Shaun of the Dead for it. For some reason before that movie she was fine with zombies, after it she's terrified.

The second one would obviously have more impact since they're actually real. Several times I've witnessed a height-impaired individual walk into a store that she's shopping in and she literally drop her basket and sprint to the car to hide and cry. I once grabbed her by the collar so she couldn't run out and make a scene and she responded by just dropping to her knees and crying/trying to hide there. I've never been able to understand this one because she can't even begin to explain it.

[Fri]

I must say that, beside how I was physically nauseous just by typing my previous posts, it actually gave me flashbacks in the office, and I almost puked a couple of time. I didn't make that up. Really.

I'm also not sure when this started. I remember that as a very small child I don't have this phobia. I think there might be a specific movie that I watched as a very young child that started this phobia, but I cant' remember what.

[randman22222]

Marine invertebrates. Tubeworms and sea slugs and urchins and ****. The less mammalian in appearance, the worse it gets. If you wanna see me flip the **** out, just chuck a sea slug or something at me.
I studied forensic biology, so didn't have to really deal with them ever, pretty much, except for one undergrad lecture where they were referenced, and pictures shown of them in the slideshow, without warning! I had to excuse myself for a few minutes and let the nausea die down.

[Serpentine]

I don't really have anything much. In fact, in a few cases I have the opposite problem, where I seem to be missing that "rational fear" mentioned upthread to the point where it's actually probably dangerous. Like, for example, I love snakes (obviously), and if I see one in a park or whatever, my first instinct will be to go over and pat it and cuddle it and admire its prettiness. The only thing stopping me from doing that isn't fear of getting bitten; it's fear of having to explain to the paramedics how I got bitten.
I used to have a bit of a thing about earwigs, but then I found out they're really good mothers. It's kind of hard to be too scared about something that's a good mother. The main thing I have now is ticks. They give me the wibbly-jibblies. I have a reputation among my family for being the one what doesn't afraid of anything, so when I randomly leapt up from the table with a squeal and fled to the sink and brushed myself off and madly washed my hands and arms their first thought was that there must have been something really bad going on. I just spotted a tick crawling up my arm.

I'm pretty neurotic about not leaving meat uncovered. Dunno if it counts as a phobia, but I'm pretty paranoid and authoritarian about it. I think I have a pretty good reason for that, though.

Spoiler: Spoilered for the people with maggot-related phobias

Show

I got a couple of cooked chickens a while ago, one BBQ and one smoked. We had a very lovely lunch of it, but there were a few flies around, so we put a tea towel over them when we weren't eating. Apparently not well enough, though...
Later that afternoon I was starting to put the leftovers away, and absentmindedly grabbed a bit of the smoked chicken to snack on. I felt my tasty morsel moving at about the same time I noticed that the leftover carcass was moving too.
I then spent the next half an hour or so spitting, gagging, scrubbing my teeth, gagging and spitting some more.

My mum has a good one: frogs. Not toads, she's fine with toads. But frogs. Especially the nice, smooth, pretty green tree frogs that are completely harmless. She'll scream and run away from them.

[randman22222]

I don't really have anything much. In fact, in a few cases I have the opposite problem, where I seem to be missing that "rational fear" mentioned upthread to the point where it's actually probably dangerous. Like, for example, I love snakes (obviously), and if I see one in a park or whatever, my first instinct will be to go over and pat it and cuddle it and admire its prettiness. The only thing stopping me from doing that isn't fear of getting bitten; it's fear of having to explain to the paramedics how I got bitten.
I used to have a bit of a thing about earwigs, but then I found out they're really good mothers. It's kind of hard to be too scared about something that's a good mother. The main thing I have now is ticks. They give me the wibbly-jibblies. I have a reputation among my family for being the one what doesn't afraid of anything, so when I randomly leapt up from the table with a squeal and fled to the sink and brushed myself off and madly washed my hands and arms their first thought was that there must have been something really bad going on. I just spotted a tick crawling up my arm.

I'm pretty neurotic about not leaving meat uncovered. Dunno if it counts as a phobia, but I'm pretty paranoid and authoritarian about it. I think I have a pretty good reason for that, though.

Spoiler: Spoilered for the people with maggot-related phobias

Show

I got a couple of cooked chickens a while ago, one BBQ and one smoked. We had a very lovely lunch of it, but there were a few flies around, so we put a tea towel over them when we weren't eating. Apparently not well enough, though...
Later that afternoon I was starting to put the leftovers away, and absentmindedly grabbed a bit of the smoked chicken to snack on. I felt my tasty morsel moving at about the same time I noticed that the leftover carcass was moving too.
I then spent the next half an hour or so spitting, gagging, scrubbing my teeth, gagging and spitting some more.

My mum has a good one: frogs. Not toads, she's fine with toads. But frogs. Especially the nice, smooth, pretty green tree frogs that are completely harmless. She'll scream and run away from them.

Wow. That'd definitely make a person more cautious with meat.

[Serpentine]

Indeed.

Oh, marriage, maybe? I've had actual nightmares about it before, and if I think about it too much as a thing I might actually do it starts to whig me out. Not like I can't attend a wedding, though.

[Balmas]

I don't really have a phobia, I don't think. Not in the psychological-disorder sense of the word. I just have a normal fear of losing those I love.

That, and I'm squicked out by needles. I'm fine when I'm the one getting stuck, but I could never be the one on the other end of the syringe.

[Maryring]

Other people.

Not joking. Whenever I'm around in public I feel like I have to constantly check over my shoulder. If I hear someone behind me I have to turn and look to know who and where they are. In public rooms, I always keep an eye on the door, and ideally myself as near the exit as possible so I can bolt if I feel the need. I really don't feel safe around other people.

[tomandtish]

Dentists for me. Of course mine was triggered when a dentist put a needle through my cheek when I was 7...

Since then, it takes a megadose of valium to even get me in for a cleaning, and full sedation for anything else.

[Icewraith]

Water rides with drops.

Normal heights, not really an issue. Roller coasters, fine. Log rides? I got up the courage to go on one, we got off the ride, the group I was with saw my facial expression in the picture they take of you at the top of the big drop, and nobody has questioned me not going on those rides since.

I think it's because I know the bottom's not attached to anything?

I can even go to waterparks and go on most of the slides and whatnot without issues, even ones where you ride a little inflatable raft. But if it's a proper floating boat and a channel of water instead of a track, and there's a drop, I have problems.

[Jerry]

Heights in general and flying in particular. 35,000 feet up in a metal tube? No thanks, buddy.

[themaque]

WASPS.

I'm not sure if this is really a phobia since I'm pretty sure fear is a rational reaction to flying hypodermic needles that hate you for being alive.

If I see a wasp near me I am somewhere else very quickly.

[Serpentine]

Water rides with drops.

Normal heights, not really an issue. Roller coasters, fine. Log rides? I got up the courage to go on one, we got off the ride, the group I was with saw my facial expression in the picture they take of you at the top of the big drop, and nobody has questioned me not going on those rides since.

I think it's because I know the bottom's not attached to anything?

I can even go to waterparks and go on most of the slides and whatnot without issues, even ones where you ride a little inflatable raft. But if it's a proper floating boat and a channel of water instead of a track, and there's a drop, I have problems.

Out of curiosity, would this apply to canoeing or whitewater rafting too?

[KillingAScarab]

Looking through what has been posted so far and I seem to be doing well. I really did not like the concept of Fear Factor, though, and after seeing what Fri posted, I like it even less. *goes back in time and convinces NBC to produce King of the Nerds instead*

[Arcbound]

Heights are a big issue for me. I have a healthy fear of stuff like spiders and snakes that, depending on the type, could reasonably hurt me, but even getting on top of a ladder is difficult. My legs go weak and I get terrified. The higher up, the worse, though really only if I can see how high up I am. I remember going to Chicago on a field trip and having a panic attack on the Sears Tower.

[Icewraith]

Out of curiosity, would this apply to canoeing or whitewater rafting too?

I don't know. The closest I've done to that on a river is a speedboat through moderate rapids and there was never anything close to the sort of long drop you get in a thrill ride. I don't remember having issues.

I've been ocean kayaking and in various ocean-going boats and ships in rough conditions and not had issues aside from getting sick a couple of times- it's hard to keep your food down when everyone ELSE is already vomiting.

[Oneris]

Pendulums

When I was 4, my mum bough me a toy wind-up grandfather clock with a pendulum, and I recall being terrified of turning my back on it, lest my life end with the last swing of its pendulum.
I ended up jamming the damn thing with a toothpick before I went to bed, and refused to let it swing ever again when I didn't have my eyes on it.

I think I've mostly gotten over it after 20 years but even now I feel somewhat uneasy unless I can manually stop a ceiling fan or a swingset before it comes to a natural standstill behind my back. Oddly, non-pendulum clocks don't factor into this phobia, despite being a far more obvious omen of the eventual end of a life.

[xyz]

Hello! So, I was sitting in my room, and I was wondering about something, and that turned into something else, which finally ended up with me thinking about my very irrational phobias. I have three, that are really funny, but true for me.
#1: The fear of spiders. I know that is called arachnophobia, and I know many people who have it as well. When I see a spider, I pull back, and I just can't think straight. When it moves, it makes me very nervous.
#2: (Don't laugh), the fear of Farris Wheels. When I was a little kid, I used to go on all the rides, except one. I had no problem going on roller coaster, but when I was one the Ferris Wheel, I always would feel SO unstable, especially when it gets close to the top. Does anyone know what the fear of Ferris Wheels are? Please tell me if so.
#3: (I am dead serious about this one)... Sunscreen... It is not that I am scared of it exactly. I won't be worried if someone holds up a bottle of sunscreen. It's just when I apply it to my skin, it bothers me, and makes me shudder. I feel like it digs so deep into my skin, that I would never be able to get it out. Again, I have never heard anyone have the same problem, so if anyone knows, what is the fear of sunscreen called?

Finally, share some of your phobias here. What type of fears do you have?

Spiders. **** spiders.

[Remmirath]

Thinking about it more, there may be some degree of fear of crowds and/or fear of open spaces that I have. It's difficult for me to separate a possible fear of crowds from my general sociel anxiety and the overwhelming aspects of noise and so many people, though, so I'm not sure about that one -- just that the times in my life I've had minor panic attacks have all been either in a crowd or due to medical anxiety. As terrified as I am of dogs, that just makes me want to run as far away as possible (although I don't know what would happen if I were trapped in a room with a loose dog and couldn't get away or hide).

Pregnancy. Most particularly, getting pregnant

I guess this does technically count as a phobia, although I keep thinking that it's completely logical and nobody would not be a combination of terrified and deeply repulsed by the notion... but obviously a good many people aren't, so yeah. Add that one to my list.

The main thing I have now is ticks. They give me the wibbly-jibblies. I have a reputation among my family for being the one what doesn't afraid of anything, so when I randomly leapt up from the table with a squeal and fled to the sink and brushed myself off and madly washed my hands and arms their first thought was that there must have been something really bad going on. I just spotted a tick crawling up my arm.

Ticks wig me out. If I ever got one on me, I imagine I might react in a similar fashion. It's not that it's a tick, it's the fear of getting some awful and/or deadly disease from the tick... I'll admit that I've done things like wear long-sleeved shirts while hiking around in 80 degree weather just to make sure that I don't get any on me. If I knew that the disease thing wasn't a possibility, I wouldn't care about them, so I'm not sure that counts as a fear of ticks so much as it falls under my general medical anxiety problem (which I definitely have, fairly badly, but it's somewhat different than a phobia).

Heights in general and flying in particular. 35,000 feet up in a metal tube? No thanks, buddy.

Ooh, yeah, I guess flying probably counts. It's not the being up high part, it's that I can't get my head around there being essentially no chance of survival should there actually be a crash. Other modes of transport, I can convince myself that there might be something I could do to survive if there is one, but not airplanes. The chances of that crash being exceedingly low is not as reassuring as it should be. I get something of the same problem when I'm going sufficiently fast in a car (freeway speed or above), although that I can cope with better (and I partially blame my driver's ed experience of both being a car that was clearly on its last legs and then having to abruptly merge onto another freeway when I thought I was leaving the freeway).

[nyjastul69]

I don't think I have any actual phobias, but being around horses bothers me. I don't like horses much.

[LeighTheDwarf]

Scared of bugs. Especially moths. Icky! However, it's not really severe enough to be a phobia.

[Tentreto]

I have a few dislikes, such as needles and wasps, but I can work around those.
My main two are big suited figures like you see Mickey Mouse at Disneyland, and heights. Suited ones have always scared me, so taking me to festival events and similar was usually a disaster. Heights get me when I can see the ground distinctly, so aeroplanes don't get me. As I sometimes remark, I'm not scared of falling, merely of hitting the ground.

[KillingAScarab]

Scared of bugs. Especially moths. Icky! However, it's not really severe enough to be a phobia.

I hadn't heard of mottephobia until I found Kevvl's perfect runs of the Mega Man X series. All of the boss fights are against anthropomorphs and the second game of the series has a moth-based boss.

[RoyVG]

I myself am pretty afraid of Heights when I'm directly exposed to it. I can manage when I'm behind some sort of safety glass but when I'm actually exposed to the air, no thank you. I also severely dislike quite a couple of bugs, at least when they're in the open. I also have a fear of being abandoned and alone.

My girlfriend is afraid of birds with the only exception to this being penguins. Our second date to a zoo was hilarious

[Feytalist]

Deep water, is my one.

I know exactly why, too. I almost drowned twice when I was quite young; once when I was 2ish, and once when I was about 6 (some idiot kid thought it would be funny to push me into the deep end of an olympic-size diving pool). And now even the idea of deep water makes me severely uncomfortable. I'm fine with the beach or your average swimming pool; I can swim (and quite well), and I'm fine with having my head under water. It's just really deep water like the open ocean, or that diving pool deep end, that freaks me out. Even those pictures of divers with whales, like this one:

Spoiler

Show

gives me a mild panic attack. And it's not the whale; whales are awesome. It's the deep pit of unending nothingness underneath them.

[Masindi]

Heights,
It has got to have some good safety barriers for me to go higher than a certain point.