Claim Your PHOBIA!!! Mine slapped me last night til I pissed like a puppy!!

Hello out there all you fellow Phobics, and we know who we are, don't we???

Well, last night, I was downstairs in my creepy 103 year old basement, getting something out of the old coal bunker we use for storage. I had only put on the one light. It's a power saver in a socket, with a shop florescent farther down the line.

Then...

My darling SO FLIPS the upstairs switch. BLACKOUT.

First thing I do is some controlled breathing, as the gasp left me incapable of yelling "TURN THAT FUCKING LIGHT BACK ON BEFORE I SHIT MYSELF!!" I close my eyes and think about puppies (HEY. This is MY reaction to MY phobia.) and I slowly walk BY MEMORY the 40 some feet to the stairs.

By the time I get there, I am hyperventilating, sweating from every pore, and that funny sound you hear is me, whimpering. Every childhood demon you can imagine is right behind me, their hot breath on my neck. I slowly climb the stairs so as not to KILL myself, and collapse to the floor in the light.

"What's wrong?" She says. No, I did not kill her.

Lygophobia: Fear of being in Dark Places (my specialty? Dark Basements)

My Thanatophobia (Fear of Death or Dying) is compounded by this as it usually attacks about 3 am in total darkness, leading to complete meltdown panic attacks.

Drug of choice was always Marijuana; kids, for a lot of psychological idiosyncrasies (like phobias) for me it worked GREAT.

Celexa is only fair, but nothing else ever helped.

I love flying, but I am scared sh*tless of heights

Glass elevators, tall buildings, high trams,

:scared: :scared: :hi:

One of the most popular. Claustrophobia is gaining I understand.

But I share the claustrophobia in elevators or dark places. I would have panicked right along with you in the basement, Tyler.

Oh, by the way, we watched "I Am Legend" with Will Smith last night. What an absolutely violent movie! I checked under our bed before I went to sleep.

Found a single strand of spiderweb in my car yesterday. I'm DWT now (driving while terrified). I just know that fucker is going to drop down on me while I'm in some hairy traffic situation.

They just don't get it. Knowing what you're phobia is, I would be sensitive enough to not minimize it or use it as a joke.

Some assholes think it's SO FUNNY to tweak your fear.

-- snakes, spiders, water, bridges, hypodermic needles, sharp instruments, flying in airplanes -- and, my favorite, fear of clowns. I must admit I never knew there were people who were afraid of clowns until I saw the phobia in my little granddaughter at about age 4. There is one grown up woman I know who told me all about it.

trying it.

FROM THE BACK SEAT!!!

Thank Dog she was an unrecovering Alcoholic: if she had a chance to knock back a pint of vodka she was usually ok.

especially on a highway where everyone's going at least 55, all it would take is one person flipping out and then DISASTER. I don't drive (lucky for the rest of the world) but when I'm riding in cars I'm always nervous.

I think I can trace it back to childhood and watching my family trying to get a small-bore pipe off the end of one of my brothers' friend's finger. My brother thought it was a good idea to tell me that if they can't get the pipe off they would have to cut the other boy's finger off :(

So, I don't wear rings, even when I was married. Luckily, my wife understood, especially at seeing me cringe at just the idea of wearing one or of seeing her have hers stuck when she was bloated. Ack!

the fear and it never bothered me that he wouldn't wear a ring.

I don't like being over large, open bodies of water in a boat - it's okay if I'm in a plane, but boats? Noooo way.

Submarine movies make me uncomfortable too. I love watching a good submarine movie, but when they dive too deep - and they ALWAYS dive too deep! - and the hull begins groaning with the pressure of the water... I just get chills. :scared:

Jesus God, but my heart breaks free of my chest, I SWEAR.

Funnily enough, this phobia does not particularly extend to ANSWERING the telephone, just to placing calls, in particular placing calls to general residences or other situations where I have to ask to speak to a specific person. ("Hi, is Thusandsuch there?") Making orders for food over the phone is okay (calling businesses in general is all right), but I get the worst damn whole-body trembles having to call up houses and ask to speak to someone.

:scared::scared:

it triggers near-debilitating panic attacks and strikes without warning. i never leave the house without my ativan

i also have an irrational fear of the ocean/sea. i love to stand at the edge, but the thought of what lives under the water or of being out in the open sea scares the crap out of me. maybe it's a product of living my entire life in a land-locked state :shrug:

Found that bad boy in my swimming pool.

:scared:

that dude was *hell* on the pool filter.

Now once I get rid of the megamouth shark lurking in the deep end I'll be free to bust out the floaties and sip mai tais in peace.

I get midnight panic attacks from my death phobia that have made me puke my guts out.

the late night ones are the worst, i think, because i don't want to be alone but i don't want to bother anybody

I think bats are cute, I love snakes and various other scalies and slimies. I killed a black widow practically with my bare hands once, no problem.

But roaches just FREAK ME THE HELL OUT. And I have no clue why.

I am so glad I don't live in Florida anymore.

Fear of birds. They scare the daylights out of me.

80 lb pitbull? Not a problem. 4 oz spider? Running, waving arms, squealing like a little girl.

with out a video!!!!!







:rofl: :rofl:



lost

A 4oz spider would be enormous! Tarantulas usually weigh 2-3 ounces.

FUCK QUARTER POUND SPIDERS!!!

drowning
and snakes....

lots of things....

:hi:

lost

:-(

everything is so expensive, I don't wanna go anywhere
Carly

I hate them. And I have to take em everyday.

I think they are probably extensions of Clausterphobia - the more people on the elevatore the more tense I get.

I also have a strange fear of abandonment when in crowded places. When I was 6 my father accidently lost me at the Harrisburg East Mall. To this day if I get lost with the people I'm with at the Mall, or concert or other crowded place I get really panicked. Probably why to this day I prefer shopping by myself.

I can get on 'em now, but I still have to kind of gather my courage and take a deep breath before climbing on the thing. I'm not good with crowds, and I'm sure I'd pass out completely in an MRI machine. I hope I never need to find out.

A votre service.

I think that about covers it. I did have a childhood fear of snails/slugs, probably because I stepped on one and tracked bits of slime and shell into the house (gag-inducing at the time), but I think I've mostly gotten over that one. After all, I did attend UC Santa Cruz, whose mascot is the banana slug.

:scared:

I'd probably get TS'ed if I quoted it here verbatim, but suffice to say it involved receiving sexual favors from two presidents AND Barbara Bush.

yeah, I know the one you are talking about.

:rofl:

"I am available for kid's parties, by the way"

Carly

and I don't like stairs..don't know what the name of that phobia is. Especially stairs that are open from step to step...I feel like I am going to fall through, even though I can't fit.

This is why rural Iowa was such a great place for me. I become completely terrorized by driving in heavy traffic. I think it's because of an accident I was in about 10 years ago. I'm fine in most ordinary traffic around here, but freeway traffic in the suburbs or city just sends me into a panic. I can get around Des Moines, because I learned where all the surface streets were, and could get around without getting on the interstates. I can do the same thing in Milwaukee. And interstates between cities are fine. But freeways, expressways, insterstates in or very near cities of even 100,000 scare the shit out of me.

In fact, I'm sitting here waiting for a friend to call me back after leaving him a message that I won't be able to meet him for a thing tonight. It's Orthodox Good Friday, and he wanted me to attend a service with him in the Quad Cities. When I agreed to go, I thought I'd be going to his house, in a small town between here and the QC, and riding with him. Since we first made arrangements, though, he got a job in Davenport, and decided to go from work to the church. So I'm supposed to meet him at the church. I've been reading the directions, and I'm just not going to be able to do it. Maybe if someone else were reading the directions, but trying to follow directions to a place I've never been in city traffic...well, my blood pressure is going up just thinking about it. I've left him a message saying I won't be there, and I feel awful. I really intended to try, but I just can't.

I know that this seems funny to people who drive in city traffic all the time, but I'm scared to death. It's not rational, but there you are.

Oh, and dentists. But my traffic phobia is by far the worst. And it fucks things up living in the 21st century.

What do I do about it? I don't drive in heavy traffic. Ever. Period. It's not the sort of thing you can take a tranquilizer for, if you know what I mean.

pedestrians will step out in the street any damn time they please. Frickin' hippies! :evilgrin:

Not speaking in front of them, being in them.

I just hoover up the former; but don't ever, ever put me in a glass elevator and send me up 30 floors. It won't be pretty. :scared:

Doctors, hospitals, medical tests. Ick. It's not quite a true phobia because I'll do it if I absolutely have to (like being sicker than shit or spurting blood from an artery), but I am totally creeped out by anything medical.

And, yes, I am very serious.

they still kinda freak me out a bit

Am so sorry you had to go through that. :hug:

No real phobias here...used to be scared to pieces of spiders, but got over it when I realized I was making them look bigger and more fierce as fueled by my panicked imagination, and somehow, they shrunk to being just spiders. Now I can face them, deal with them, let'em go or squash them (widows for sure always get the squash ;) )


Wish I could tell you a way to get past your fear of dark places
(kind of sounds like the fear of Dark Places and the one about Death/Dying are about one and the same thing...
but, don't listen to me as I'm just a silly redheaded armchair DU pop psychologist...:eyes: )


You think "puppies"...that sounds like good friends to think of at a time like that. Nothing says unconditional love like puppies.



Wish I could hug it all away for you, darlin' :hug:

When I'm feeling bad, there you are.
If who you got ain't treating you like the queen you are, I'll kneecap 'em for you, sweetheart.

:loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya: :loveya:

Position's open, babycakes :hug:

But you still too damned cute, honey pot.

lucky Deborah ;)

:pals:

May the whole world be nice to you.

I'll take that maxim to heart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsg4WE9FndM

Tikki

Some days it is pantophobia.

:(

As far as I know I don't have any phobias.

I am mildly afraid of heights, and I have a fear of being bound or confined because of some bad experiences as a kid. But can handle both pretty easily so they don't reach the level of phobias.

I'm scared of heights and spiders

afraid that the worlds water supply will not be there for me (or that I will someday experience what the third world experiences, in my backyard).

heights, children, big dogs

Do not even think about putting your foot on me, I totally freak out. I can't even stand the thought of your foot near me because you might get your foot dust on me. Laugh all you want but there is such a thing as foot dust, at least in my mind. Heights scare me but not as much as the feet.

I hate bugs. Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom is one of the very few movies that gives me MAJOR heebee-geebees. I can watch 1 and 3 but not 2.

Bugs--six legs, centipedes, millipedes, caterpillars, or anything that crawls or wriggles, ugh. :scared:

Ever seen the Hitchcock movie? Scarred me as a little kid. Goddamn soulless, black eyed demons.

phobophobiac :scared:

Not a problem with flying or looking out of a tall window, but don't try to get me to climb a ladder or be comfortable on a steep roof.


In movies where there's the hero is stuck out on a ledge someplace... oh, man.

In King Kong, when the heroine (I forget her name) was climbing up the top of the Empire State Building. Or The Matrix, when Keanu Reeves was trying to escape the agents by climbing outside of his office building. Both of those scenes made my berries try to retract!

I haven't done it, but I think I could handle parachuting without much of a problem. Maybe.

If the guy pushed me out.



And I don't like (but doubt it's a phobia) creepy-crawly things larger than a nickel or so.

I'm even Phobiaphobic, Roosevelt talked me into that one.

And Futuraphobia, thanks to all of the above.