# Do You Have Any Phobias?



## PiP (Nov 3, 2016)

According to Wikipedia


> A *phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, defined by a persistent fear of an object or situation.[SUP][1][/SUP] The phobia typically results in a rapid onset of fear and is present for more than six months. The affected person will go to great lengths to avoid the situation or object, typically to a degree greater than the actual danger posed. If the feared object or situation cannot be avoided, the affected person will have significant distress. With blood or injury phobia fainting may occur.[SUP][1][/SUP] Agoraphobia is often associated with panic attacks.[SUP][2][/SUP] Usually a person has phobias to a number of objects or situations.[SUP][1][/SUP]*



My phobia is escalators.

I think my phobia was triggered when I was at school. I'd read about a young girl, a child model, who'd caught her shoe lace in the machinery at the top of an  escalator. As a result her foot became trapped and it was so badly mutilated it had to be amputated. The accident happened at our local department store so every time I  went,  and had to use the escalator, I leapt off the top or bottom step before it disappeared. AND I never wore laced shoes. When I was young escalators were not as popular as they are nowadays so in general day-to-day life it did not pose a problem... 

The phobia did not fully manifest itself until I was 16 years old when I was  returning home after an interview at the London College of Fashion. I was alone, and trying to navigate my way round the London Underground, which I must say was pretty traumatic for a country girl who was not used to crowds and the general push-shove of city life. I knew I should have stayed with the friends I'd traveled up with but they wanted to hit the nightlife and it really wasn't my scene. So I had no choice really...

So, I there I stood at the bottom of one of the longest escalators in London doing a dance of terror as I tried to pluck up courage to step on. Eventually a crowd of people converged behind me and I was sucked in and pushed on. It was then I felt a hand up my skirt. I was already frozen with fear and could not move. I turned my head slightly but could not move or make a sound to raise the alarm. The guy must have thought it was Christmas come early because he continued his fumbling until we reached the top. He then followed me until I stopped a stranger to ask for assistance.

Although my husband loses patience he has since ceased to debate the point and we just find a lifts or stairs.

I am reliving this because yesterday I tried to convince myself it was all in my mind and I could conquer the fear.

 I stepped on to an escalator in AlgarveShopping (only a small one) alone and the moving stairs turned into crocodile jaws. Half way up my head started to spin and my legs, then my hands started to shake uncontrollably and I couldn't breath.

Please share your phobias and what triggered them.


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## Deleted member 56686 (Nov 3, 2016)

Bees. I got stung by one when I was six years old and I've been terrified of them ever since. The irony is my High School mascot was a bee. :bee:


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## PiP (Nov 3, 2016)

How do you cope?


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## Deleted member 56686 (Nov 3, 2016)

Well out in the open, I just try to run away from them. If they happen to be in the same room I'm in, it's another story. I don't really want to kill it but I don't want to get stung either (no allergies by the way). Basically I will get out of the room in that situation.


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## Sleepwriter (Nov 3, 2016)

I have a fear of phobias.

On serious note.  Large crowds and small places like elevators.

Forgot the big one, water.  Anything deeper than waist high or water spraying in my face.


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## Darkkin (Nov 3, 2016)

Space bubble perforation...The people who walk at you, and keep walking at you when you've already backed up.  I am one of the seriously, _No Touchee_ people.  Respect my bubble, about 24 inches in any direction and I'm fine with you, if you keep pressing, I disappear.  Luckily, Rue helps maintain my bubble.  Someone gets too close, he pushes back, nothing overt, but enough to clue in the clueless...


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## PiP (Nov 3, 2016)

Sleepwriter said:


> On serious note.  Large crowds and small places like elevators.
> 
> Forgot the big one, water.  Anything deeper than waist high or water spraying in my face.



Was there a trigger for any of these?



Darkkin said:


> Space bubble perforation...The people who walk at you, and keep walking at you when you've already backed up.  I am one of the seriously, _No Touchee_ people.  Respect my bubble, about 24 inches in any direction and I'm fine with you, if you keep pressing, I disappear.  Luckily, Rue helps maintain my bubble.  Someone gets too close, he pushes back, nothing overt, but enough to clue in the clueless...



Oh dear, I am a very touchee  person. I always greet and say goodbye in the Mediterranean way (with two Mwahs -one on each cheek.). If one of my friends is upset I give them a hug. My lady physio, we mwah. I've even hugged a women in the ladies because she was crying as her and her lady partner had just had a row and she was telling me all about it. 

The surgeon who operated on my hand put his arm around my shoulder because I was upset then he kissed my good hand in a formal way when I left. (he would have probably been arrested in the UK)

I am very tactile.

So no virtual hugs for you then DArkkin.

Was this space bubble perforation triggered by something as a child?


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## LeeC (Nov 3, 2016)

Heights. Odd that as part of my military training was jumping out of airplanes, and for fun I was part of a skydiving club. 



Image credits: Gordon Wiltsie25


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## dale (Nov 3, 2016)

heights. and the bitch of it is? my work is bringing tree service into what we do. which means i gotta go up really
high in a bucket truck sometimes. i tried it once, already. i wanted  to freeze up. i feel like  the truck is gonna tip over.
but i'm gonna deal with it. how? the only way i know how. i'm gonna drink a 1/5 of rum and go up in it. then i'm gonna
dance in the treetops with a chainsaw in my hands. and once i do that? i'll lose the phobia. i know me. i have to do 
something really reckless and stupid to  kill fear. but what can you do? you gotta live.


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## Darkkin (Nov 3, 2016)

PiP said:


> Was this space bubble perforation triggered by something as a child?



No trigger, just inherent wiring according to my mum and grandma.  They told me even when I was a baby I hated being held.  If someone tried, I would usually find a way to wriggle free.  Oddly enough, I love discovering of different textures, all kinds of surfaces, books, water, and freshly mowed grass in particular.  But I also have a tendency to be a fussy eater, not because I don't like the taste, but because I don't like the texture.


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## LeeC (Nov 3, 2016)

dale said:


> heights. and the bitch of it is? my work is bringing tree service into what we do. which means i gotta go up really
> high in a bucket truck sometimes. i tried it once, already. i wanted  to freeze up. i feel like  the truck is gonna tip over.
> but i'm gonna deal with it. how? the only way i know how. i'm gonna drink a 1/5 of rum and go up in it. then i'm gonna
> dance in the treetops with a chainsaw in my hands. and once i do that? i'll lose the phobia. i know me. i have to do
> something really reckless and stupid to  kill fear. but what can you do? you gotta live.


A SIL's boyfriend years back did maintenance on communications towers and the masts on skyscrapers. He was always high in more ways than one. Sadly, he's no longer with us.


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## Sleepwriter (Nov 3, 2016)

PiP said:


> Was there a trigger for any of these?



Well, yes.  

The water one was caused by my swimming teacher, who held me under water with a boat oar.

The small places fear occurred while exploring a cave, got stuck in a spot where we had been belly crawling, couldn't back up, couldn't go forward.  We were about a mile underground.


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## PiP (Nov 4, 2016)

dale said:


> heights. and the bitch of it is? my work is bringing tree service into what we do. which means i gotta go up really
> high in a bucket truck sometimes. i tried it once, already. i wanted  to freeze up. i feel like  the truck is gonna tip over.
> but i'm gonna deal with it. how? the only way i know how. i'm gonna drink a 1/5 of rum and go up in it. then i'm gonna
> dance in the treetops with a chainsaw in my hands. and once i do that? i'll lose the phobia. i know me. i have to do
> something really reckless and stupid to  kill fear. but what can you do? you gotta live.



Dearest dale, you are one crazy ... you make me smile.   Unfortunately, I am too reserved and English to swig on a bottle as I approach the escalator.   But yeah, I can imagine you dancing in the treetops with a chainsaw.



Sleepwriter said:


> Well, yes.
> 
> The water one was caused by my swimming teacher, who held me under water with a boat oar.
> 
> The small places fear occurred while exploring a cave, got stuck in a spot where we had been belly crawling, couldn't back up, couldn't go forward.  We were about a mile underground.



Your swimming teacher sounds pretty irresponsible x?»"#

As for exploring underground caves (potholing) No amount of money would encourage me to do that. It was bad enough when I had an MRI scan and they told me to count to 60 and I counted to what seemed 500!




LeeC said:


> Heights. Odd that as part of my military training was jumping out of airplanes, and for fun I was part of a skydiving club.
> 
> View attachment 15967
> Image credits: Gordon Wiltsie25



If that was me, I'd be crawling along there on my stomach! Where I live so many cliff fisherman fall to their deaths each year I'm no fan of taking unnecessary risks.

@darkkin. You've just described one of my friends. But she is also overly anxious and insecure. She desperately wants to be liked yet no one can get close to her. Strange, because she has had affairs. I'm not quite sure what to make of her so in the end I accept her friendship on her terms. No mwahs or hugs.


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## Ariel (Nov 4, 2016)

I fear fire.  Or more specifically I fear that somewhere I'm occupying (my house, work, the school my kid goes to) will catch fire while I'm in it (or away from it).  I survived a deadly fire when I was 15.  It gets awkward because I freak out about appliances running (if I could I wouldn't have electricity but then I'd have to have lamps and fireplaces which is worse).

I also fear being underground. I don't do well in basements unless it's an "open" basement with an exit that I can see or if it's well-finished and well-lit. My mom used to make us "play" in the creepy unfinished basement when we were growing up.  One night she kept us down there for a few hours with one bare bulb to light the room.  I also hate caves.  I avoid going into both when I can.

I fear worms of all kinds.  I don't eat pork because of the risk of intestinal worms.  I freak out over earthworms being too close to me. They make my skin crawl.  It's completely irrational but stems from my mom covering me with them when I fell asleep in the garden at two.

I'm beginning to think my mom was a psychopath.


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## aj47 (Nov 4, 2016)

Small flying things. And jumping spiders.  I don't see well and if I don't know what it is and it moves too quick for me to figure it out, I'm a-scared of it.   Also, standing on unstable things like chairs or less than totally stable ladders, etc. I'm not afraid of heights, exactly, but I am afraid of not feeling totally stable, so I guess it's fear of falling.  I don't climb into the attic for this reason.  Again, it's vision-related.  I can't catch myself if I fall.

Trucks.  Horror movies don't scare me but the scene in T2 where they're being chased by the semi is the scariest thing I've ever seen in a movie.  Ever.


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## Sam (Nov 4, 2016)

Apologies to all. Sometimes a glitch happens that locks a thread after a moderator posts, even though no such action was specified by the moderator, but it is rare. 

Sorry to anyone who may have been in the middle of creating a reply when it happened and was subsequently told they weren't allowed to post it.


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## escorial (Nov 4, 2016)

old used buttons...turns my stomache


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## bobo (Nov 4, 2016)

Space - we all have a distance we feel confortable NOT having others to close in on - with hens that's 5 meters, with mountain cows that's 10 meters, that' at least is the distance the authorities are advising us to keep when trotting around in the mountains where the cows and horses are roaming - and yes, I have been chased by a mountain cow, they're HUGE and not at all stupid - I had to run UP the mountain - a lesson (for life I hope )
If she'd known how to laugh, she would have done it O
With human the theory says 3 meters - that at least was what they said last century, when I learned about such things.


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## Gumby (Nov 4, 2016)

A bit claustrophobic, not nearly as bad as I used to be. When we were kids, we played hide and seek. One day I hid in the toy chest and the 'older' kids thought it would be funny to sit on the chest so I couldn't get out. I screamed and pushed with my legs and they just wouldn't let me out. Finally the mom of the friends house we were at, came in and saw what was going on. She got me out and washed my face and arms with a cool cloth.


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## TheWonderingNovice (Nov 4, 2016)

Spiders, I can respect them from a distance but if one gets near me or on me, I lose it. 

Bugs, in general, getting on me, for fear of them crawling into my ears or other orifices or crawling under my skin. Again, I can admite them from afar but once they get close to me I freak out.

I have a fear of falling from heights. I get nervous while standing on a step ladder ir a chair. I try to avoid pain as much as possible, falling would cause a lot of pain so there's the logic behind that one.

Darkness, I have a great imagination that, even after childhood, likes to imagine things that are not there. I can sleep in the dark just fine as long as I know who is with me, usually the dogs.

Along with the bug thing - butterflies (I'm aftaid of them landing on me because they taste with their feet and their bodies are just wierd to me), and caterpillars - they disgust me.

Being buried alive. Being in a small constricting space. I also fear becoming trapped in my own body due to paralysis. 

Yeah, the list can go on.


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## Winston (Nov 4, 2016)

I'm also a bit claustrophobic.  I had to crawl under the house a while back.  It was uncomfortable.  I didn't see any, but I knew that rats had been there.

Not a Phobia, per se, but I don't like people behind me.  In a room, I like corner seats.  Away from a window.
If I don't move around a room, I'm always rubber-necking.


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## LeeC (Nov 5, 2016)

TheWonderingNovice said:


> Spiders, I can respect them from a distance but if one gets near me or on me, I lose it.


I guess it's good you didn't grow up in a time where the only "facility" was an outhouse. In the warm months spiders congregate under the seat to catch flies.


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## TheWonderingNovice (Nov 5, 2016)

LeeC said:


> I guess it's good you didn't grow up in a time where the only "facility" was an outhouse. In the warm months spiders congregate under the seat to catch flies.



I'd rather go behind a tree. I hate spiders.


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## MzSnowleopard (Nov 14, 2016)

rollercoasters.

As a child, every year on the night of my birthday 26th to the 27th- I'd have this dream that I was girl celebrating her 16th birthday (the style of dress was about 1950s era) at a theme park and while on a rollercoaster, it collapses. I always woke up with that sense that I had died in the dream. 

I dreaded my 16th birthday and still dread rollercoasters to this day. 

My birth mother thinks / believes that this is proof of reincarnation. She's convinced it was my most last previous life. 

I don't know, someone would have to show me a news article about a girl dying when a rollercoaster collapse with her in it, on her 16th birthday.


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## Srossics (Nov 14, 2016)

I have two irrational fears: balloons and being trapped in a room; especially Porta Kleens and bathrooms.

I can't explain balloons, other than not liking the popping noise.

I can, however, explain the fear of being locked in a bathroom. The short and long of it involve me being stuck in a bathroom, unable to get out when I was really young. I couldn't get out and had to be rescued. I was only trapped twice, and for no more than 20 min. total, but I haven't liked them since.


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## bobo (Dec 4, 2016)

Circusses make me sad - the clowns, the animals, the outer appearances of the artists - all of that.

It makes me sad and embarrassed :concern:


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## Gavrushka (Dec 4, 2016)

Wriggly worms. If I could, I'd see them banned.

When I was just a small child, I witnessed my older sister eating one; I never recovered from the trauma. I'm 6ft 1, broad and yet I'll shriek like an ickle girl if a worm so much as looks at me askance.


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