Fears and Phobias
 

Everybody has something that they fear. What do you fear the most, and, if you can remember, how was the fear first instigated? Do you have any idea why you fear the thing that you do, or is it primarily based on a self-preservation reflex? Do you think that this fear can be overcome?

I'll start off the discussion by stating that I have acrophobia -- the fear of heights. I don't know what caused the fear at first, per se, but every single time I've looked down at the ground from a height of six feet or more, I get a little nervous. The thought of impacting the ground painfully startles me.

Also, there's a list of phobias at www.phobialist.com for further discussion.

You know I heard somewhere that fear of heights actuallys stems from this fear that when some people look down really tall places, they have this subconcious urge to jump and that urge is what really scares them.

I'm afraid of pretty much everything but I'm mostly afraid of germs (misophobia). It's pretty standard stuff but I wash my hands at least 50 times a day, laundry day takes forever, I hate riding public transportation and don't like people touching my things or me touching other people's things because I question the cleanliness of them. I also don't like people touching my hands but that's probably from my fear of people germs.

I'm also afraid of raw meat, rotten food, other people's bodily fluids, mold, dirt, room temperature juice or milk and bugs. Actually I can just sum up that I'm a pretty anal person all around. It all comes from mother. I won't even lie.

I did a science project on phobias in the 8th grade. I think I printed out that same phobia list, report-covered it, and laid it in front of my scientific posterboard-ish tri-foldy thingy.

Of course, it was 8th grade, so I probably shouldn't have been surprised when someone saw Phallophobia and decided to give sufferers of said phobia a visual cue to run screaming from the room... in the form of a rough drawing.

I, personally, fear public speaking. Like, a lot. There are other things I'm annoyed with, or discomforted by, but they can't measure up to the sheer terror I experience when I'm in front of a room of people who are all judging me.

:aargh: :aargh: :aargh:

That makes sense, I guess. I haven't really delved all that deep in psychology (I've taken a basic class on the subject, and, well, I don't find the subject interesting enough to take more classes in.), but it sounds very... Freudian. I doubt that I have any urges to jump off of cliffs, but I guess that's what makes the urge subconscious.

I hate public speaking. It gets irritating to see everybody listening but nobody talking. This even applies to long, awkward silences after I know I've done something wrong.

Hmm... snakes (ophidiophobia), heights, dying alone...

I sometimes wake up sweating from a dream where I'm trapped in a very small place (maybe a ventilation shaft, like in all good sci-fi!). It's funny, because in real life I'm not claustrophobic. I dislike small places, but more because I usually have a lot of stuff around me and I need vast spaces of empty surface to fill with my things :-p.

I don't know the term and don't have the spare time to bother finding it, but I have a fear of unusual torture/inadvertent pain (not pain in general).
I remember vividly that my friend told me that in the movie Jackass the guys gave themselves papercuts in between their fingers. I really get antsy and uncomfortable just typing stuff like that out and thinking about it. Just randomly imagining stuff like needles to eyes, internal injuries due to external forces on hard-to-access body places (eg. behind the eyes, under the fingernails) terrifies me.

The only phobia I can really think of off the top of my head is that I'm afraid of frogs, especially those small tree frogs. I don't know why. They just scare the hell out of me. I've been afraid of frogs for as long as I can remember.

Oh god, that's how I felt too. I only watched about 30 seconds of that clip and I had to immediately skip it since it was just so... ugh. I can't even think of the words to describe it.

I used to be scared to shit of dogs because I was mauled by one when I was very, very young. I'd say I'm fine with them these days though.

It's probably what's to blame for my unnaturally strong attachment to cats. :(

hehe, best papercut was the joint of the upper and lower lip, mouth wide open

my fear are basically places without toilets... well it used to be, now i can cope with it better, but i guess many people have this fear; it can be associated with claustrophobia which is not so great

about speaking in public, i quite like it when it's a prepared speach or improvised, but people really have to be attentive, i hate it when you start talking and some other people start talking about something else

same stuff when playing guitar in public, i hate it when i play and people start talking right in the middle

One of my biggest fears is not being able to breathe. This probably stems from having several asthma attacks as a child. Another big fear of mine is sustaining injury or illness that would leave me without full use of my brain. That's one reason that I'm afraid of getting old because all of the old folks I know are quite a bit slower than I ever want to be. I also have a fear of rejection and of failure, though both to a much lesser extent than the others.

I have a big fear of hornets. whenever one buzzes around me i squeal and run around.

I've thought about this subject for awhile now and I've decided that my biggest fear is to be buried alive. I'd rather be burned alive or have my eyeballs scooped out with a soup spoon, dipped in shit and then fed to me rather than be buried alive.

Another big fear of mine would have to be public restrooms. When it comes to toilets, I am a germ FREAK. I keep portable toilet seat covers in my purse just in case some bathrooms don't have them. I really wish I didn't have to use public restrooms, whatsoever, but that's just unavoidable, I suppose.

I get that sudden urge to jump every time I look down from somewhere high. I don't have any suicidal tendencies, at least, I don't think.

- I'm afraid that I won't be able to draw or play an instrument due to some sort of physical limitation I may be subjected to in the future...
- Tight spaces where motion is really limited. Not like an elevator, more like a coffin or something.
- Deep water I guess. The thought of being alone at sea with miles of the unknown beneath me is very unsettling.
- I'm afraid of forgetting my memories so I always try to document whatever happens to me through journals or photos.

Russophobia- Fear of Russians

That's an odd one.

Um...
I'm not sure if this is a phobia, but I'm afraid of large spiders.
I used to be afraid of clowns, but I think I'm over that. Except for evil looking ones.

Not being able to breath is something too. Getting stuck on a roller coaster upside down...

Necrophobia- Fear of death or dead things.

I hate dead almost anything. I can't stand when on tv it shows victims who have died in murder and it zooms up to a picture of them when they were living and shows there eyes, that freaks the hell out of me. I get disturbed so easily the smallest stuff when it has to do with the dead it's sort of sad.

I have Agoraphobia. Something about being somewhere unfamiliar and around too many people frightens me. I get sick and have to leave immediately.

I also have a fear of insects. All insects.

I have this unnerving fear of sobriety... I can't quite explain it. Let's just say that not having a buzz terrifies me to no end.

I don't have any real large fears or phobias.... either that or I haven't found mine yet. But you would think by my age, I will have figured those out.

I will let you know if I can think of any. This might take some serious thought...

I've got a fear of being pregnant. It's completly irrational; it doesn't matter if my partner and I are using contraceptive methods, or if there is a range of contradictive evidence, I still think that I am pregnant and it freaks me the fuck out. If my phobia was true I've been pregnant for the past 6 or 7 years now =/.

Also, I have this horrid fear of my teeth falling out. They always feel wobbly and it worries me that I'm going to wake up without any teeth. Yeah, even I'll say that one is pretty weird. I think that was caused when I had a brace.

I also have Pocrescophobia, which kind of fits in with my first phobia. Apart from those, I can't think of anything else I'm truly afraid of.

This list is the best thing ever.

For about a year or so I was scared shitless of crowded places, moving from the middle of nowhere to an action packed action city (action) was scary! People are everywhere, in my face, down my pants, watch out. I hated going to the shopping centre. But that passed. The uh, crowded places thing, because it's not like I really enjoy going to the shops still. Maybe if they installed a rollercoaster that would rumble through the entire building.

Spiders are still up there though. Can't bloody stand them. When I was little I had the exciting task of cleaning the pool filter, one day I just jammed my hand in there and two gigantic spiders spazzed out and up my arm. Now I'm all "AW NAW" when I see them.

Just recently I've gained a fear of a certain pattern of holes or small patterns of anything with contrasting colors (especially black and white) that are closely bunched together irregularly. Once I freaked out when I saw light casting a shadow against a small vent which made striped shadows and spots on the floor and on the vent and I had to move to another seat because I couldn't stand it being there, lol. I'm weird :( (Trypophobia)

I'm also afraid of things that look like eyes or form to look like a bunch of eyes at once. (Ommetaphobia)

Other than that I'm also extremely afraid insects. (Etomophobia)

yes, I get that urge to jump off whenever i'm somewhere relatively high (especially the Empire State).

But in my case, I'd say I get really scared shitless of not existing. More like the cessation/nonexistance of life after death. Just thinking about that can stop me breathless and unable to move, for my own reasons, seeing as how i've almost been killed numerous times. Sigh
I used to be scared of heights, and water, but i grew out of those back in my earlyyears before the double digits. I'm still anxious whenever I have to talk in front of people, but that's gotten better; now i don't feel like the world is spinning and I'm gonna crash when people are looking at me, I just stutter a little instead.

I have a little bit of hominophobia I don't know if I really have the phobia but my heart starts pounding 1,5 times faster than normal when speaking to a person I don't know. Do you people have normal heartbeats when speaking to new people? So I can compare.

I don't know why I got this phobia, but it started at 12-14 years old when everything changed. There were people who were teasing me at school maybe it's that trauma that made my brain connections like this.

Speaking to people I know => there is no increased heartbeat. Maybe I'm a bit overprotective against new people. It's not that I am so scared that I run away or something, I can stand it, but the increased heartbeat is annoying. Every time I want to ask something I make a sentence in my mind, everyone does that, but at this time my heartbeat starts to accellerate and sometimes I wait so long that I don't even bother asking it... If it continues like this I won't be able to make new friends other than "imposed" friends like those at work, in an orchestra or at school. It's exhausting to live like this.

On National Geographic I saw that new synapse connections could be formed when confronting your phobias for a long time. I really want to try this and speak to many, many unknown people but I just can't do it, if I try I just stand there saying nothing.

My training will start here: I'll begin with asking questions without phrasing my question. If I have a question to ask I'll just go to the person without thinking and just try to formulate my question stante pede. Waiting and preparing my question would only increase the time of accelleration of my heartbeats.

The thing I just want to know is, do your hearts pound faster too when speaking to a stranger?

My biggest fear is of water. Not so much water in general, but large bodies like lakes, rivers and oceans. Driving over bridges and roadways near lakes always makes me squeamish. Fear of drowning is what drives that fear I suppose. I attribute it to my poor swimming ability. Used to be afraid of heights, but overcame that with time. I think the whole subconcious jumping theory seems plausible, as I always over-analyzed my fear of heights and decided it has to be a subconcious decision. Spiders also scare the shit out of me. So spiders and drowning. Therefore, being put in a deep pond with water spiders would probably kill me.

Oh, yes, I can't even get near anything bee-like out of fear of being allergic to them. I don't know if I am allergic, but those stingers look very, very painful as well, so I'm not inclined to find out.

Meh, I haven't had too much trouble with spiders. Spiders seem to do more good than harm for me by getting rid of pesky flies. Then again, I wasn't really traumatized by any in my early years, just heights, I think.

Late response liek whut.

I have a sort of phobia with spiders, only instead of bing scared of them, I have an overpowering urge to kill them. I just can't let them live since they might crawl all over me when I'm asleep.

To be honest, I'm cancerophobic. Ever since I was little, I was always afraid of that disease, because of how much pain and agony people went through before their systems weakened. I've never gotten surgery before either, so that's also another fear.

I am another who can relate to the height thing seeing as i'm royally afraid of heights but it depends as to what grasp I have on it. For instance If I know I CAN'T have any change of falling then I'm not scared but heights were I can slip or just make the wrong move and fall scare me to death.

Public speaking was a phobia of mine, But I kinda got over that but it still bothers me to some degree. It's hard for me to start but once I start I can be enthusiastic and keep going.

I hope I'm not misunderstood, but that's actually interesting since your avatars seem to indicate you like some extreme metal, genres which are practically obsessed with death. I don't like dead people, either, which is one reason why I steer clear of stuff like Cannibal Corpse and Exhumed and Zombie Rockers From Limbo Ate My Babysitter.

If you're not into black or death, sorry ^^;.

The Phobia List

The one and only place to get a complete list of phobias. Including my favorite


Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia- Fear of long words.

In AP Psychology, we learned that people who are born vaginally are more proned to be fearful of heights compared to those babies born C-section. My teacher's son who was a C-section baby sky dives for fun and my teacher, born vaginally, wouldn't think of it and hates flying.

But on topic, I'm afraid of flying in planes. I'm not afraid of the height, but the crashing or the possible hijacking. It's been like this forever. I've never been on a flight so I guess if I were forced to fly I'd overcome it.

Interesting, that wasn't even covered in my psychology class. My birth was vaginal, so this sort of makes sense. I'd like to know the correlation between vaginal births and acrophobia, though.

Also, I've been on a plane twice. Both times I had to close the window otherwise I'd get a little panicky. As long as I'm under the delusion that I'm not several thousand feet in the air, I'll be fine. Also, sleeping in the middle of the flight helps.

I dont really have any phobias as that would imply i have a wildly irrational fear of something.

Im not saying that i fear nothing. But i dont freak out or something like that at the shear mention of my fears.

I have a fear of losing my mind/saneity. My grandmother has alzheimers, and she isnt even sixty yet. That scares me.

Im also afraid of falling from high places. Its not really that im afraid of heights. Just falling. thats odd in itself because i used to jump off of stuff of decent heights. 15' to 20' at the most.

Nofirefrog

I have an irrational fear of deep water - and by that I mean anything over 6ft! I think I must have drowned in a previous life or maybe had a very traumatic birth, who knows. My husband thinks it's hilarious. We were out in a boat last year, I was wearing the largest life jacket I could find and had a death grip with both hands when he turns on the fish finder and gleefully points out that it's presently 750+feet deep - pillock! If I had been able to let go with one hand I would have slapped him silly.

Not a lot else other than that although I really don't like moths for some reason. No problem with butterflies, just moths. Guess I'm just a bit strange aye.

I actually have no problem with bees, wasps, stouts, or yellow jackets... just hornets get to me, I am afraid because I know that hornets are a angry insect and can sting without being provoked.

Well, I am still looking for my my phobia or fear, and even after some serious thought, I still can't pinpoint it.

But I guess at this point, I am afraid of losing my parents. They have so much for me and if they were to leave before I am able to pay them back I would be broken....:(

I checked out the phobia list, I could not find the phobia that my cat the late Snowball had, he had a fear of clothes hangers. You could show him a clothes hanger at anytime and he would go nuts.

mine is arachnophobia, I have the most deathly fear of spiders. even the tiniest ones turn me white as a sheet

I have a severe fear of heights - acrophobia. I can hardly stand on a chair without flipping out. When I get really high up in open space (like climbing a tall tree or something), I FREEZE and can not MOVE. Seriously. At that point I am afraid of the height of my own body and want to just cry. You guys should have seen me trying to drive up Mt. Washington. Talk about mental breakdown.

I also have an incredibly irrational fear of the bottoms of lakes and oceans. I can swim in lakes, rivers and the like, but I have a serious issue with touching anything in the water. I think thats just a manifestation of the fear of the unknown.

Although, I can swim in rivers a lot more easily than lakes due to the movement of the water.

This one is bizarre, and I'll get shit for it. I am afraid of open fields at night. The reasons I am afraid of them I would rather not say because people will call me a psychotic, irrational whore, but hey.

I wouldn't give you shit for that; the only reason I didn't list it as one of my phobias is because it's not all the time (but most of it) and I have reasons of my own as well. Actually they sound along the same lines as yours from what you said.

I am terrified - terrified - of Black Widow spiders, which is unfortunate because we are overrun with them where I live. Now I understand that everyone is afraid of Black Widow spiders, but my fear is completely irrational. Last week I found like ten of them under my back deck and I am still having nightmares about them and won't even use the back door even though my husband killed them all.

I am also terribly afraid of heights.

I pratically play with spiders... but we do not have black widows where I am from, but I am sure that I would be scared of them too seeing as they are poisonus and all...

Spiders-I have always been deathly afraid of them. I have no idea where it came from, I have just always hated them.

Lightning-I get all tensed up when I see it. I am so afraid I will get struck by it.

Great White Sharks-This is an odd one. I grew up watching the Jaws movies and I loved the shark, it was one of my favourite animals. Then one day I was looking at Great White pictures and I was so scared I could have died right there. I just froze and my heart rate flew up. I have no clue why that happened all of a sudden after all these years.

I believe my teacher said it was because vaginal births the baby is pushed it and hopefully someone has a hand on it, unlike in c-sections when the doctor pulls it out. I'm not sure, I should visit him and ask about it again.

I have this massive fear of organized religion. I actually have this perpetual fear that the Catholics will take over the world and make me bow to a god that I can't even look in the face and if not... Well... They'll probably resort to their biblically barbaric ways and crucify me.

I don't wanna die on a fucking crucifix.

Well, I am slowly becoming more homophobic. This is mostly because of the fact that my roomate keeps hitting on me in weird ways... Its starting to creep me out...

I would say another big fear of mine is making mistakes. I know it sounds crazy, but I am sooo afraid of stepping on people's feet because I have an opposite opinion, or because I have a different idea or something. I try to tread carefully.

I have very few fears that really bother but the biggest one by far has got to be Aichmophobia- Fear of needles or pointed objects. I don't mind gettng hurt, I don't even mind tha fact that they're so small, what scares me is how they just stay there while it's pushing something into you. I'm getting shivers just thining about it