Phobias anyone?

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 14 Mar 2002, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Diana	14 Mar 2002
This is a silly post. But I allow myself a bit of silliness once in a while. :) What, if any, are your phobias? Mine is strange, and I've never been able to figure where it comes from. I'm terrified of frogs, unless they are sitting in water in their natural surroundings, when I find them very pretty. Like some time ago, I was sitting with friends on a terrace at a restaurant, and one of the kids brought to our table a cute little baby frog he found in the grass. I was up from that table quicker than lightening and literally ran about 50 meters, my heart thumping. And once in Nigeria I walked into my living room and there was this smallish black shiny frog or toad on the floor. It looked like the devil incarnate to me. I nearly threw up and even today I get nauseous when I think of it.

january	14 Mar 2002
Spiders. Small ones. Big hairy ones. Any eight-legged arachnid! I can't even look at one in a book - I feel as though they're crawling on me. I hate basements because there may be spiders there. Attics, underneath rocks, under the bed, in my shoes... SPIDERS!!! My father thought it was such a hoot to put plastic spiders in my bed, especially the glow-in-the-dark variety. He'd capture spiders in glass jars and say "I've got a present for you..." How heinous! I suppose he was trying to help me ovecome my fears???? I didn't buy it. I still hate them.

Liliana	14 Mar 2002
Water, especially on my face. Its related to my immediate pastlife,I posted about it in Spirituality somewhere once. My husband playfully dumped water on me in the hottub during our homeymoon, I freaked for over a half hour

Geenius at Wrok	15 Mar 2002
Sidewalk grates. Go figure.

kayne	15 Mar 2002
I'm with you January - Spiders! I don't have a problem with garden spiders or most small ones, it is the big, black hairy ones and the small, sharp, tangled, web ones like 'red-back' spiders that scare me. I was always fine as a kid until I had a nightmare about them when I was about 14 that I can still remember. Like you - even the picture book varitey make me turn the page in a hurry...

Pollux	15 Mar 2002
And height. I suffer from it a lot. I can't look down and don't even stand people looking down, approaching the balcony or sitting on window-sill. Geez... Goves me the creeps. :-(

Bella	15 Mar 2002
Like Pollux-heights for me too. I can't even look out a fifth floor window or watch someone high up on tv or a movie without panicking. As for driving over bridges--inside lane, white knuckles. argh, my heart is racing just thinking about it! I was able to determine that this is related to a past-life experience. Also, I don't like birds flying at me or close to my head. don't know why...

Kaz	15 Mar 2002
The only thing that sort of scares me is heights. But I did climb a wall in the belgium Ardennes, I won over meself there, so yes it scares me, but not enough not doing it. I can't stand it being controlled by irrational scares, so that's why I did it anyway. Kaz

Kiama	15 Mar 2002
Firstly, edges of cliffs. I have to crawl to an edge of a high viewing platform when sightseeing, cuz i can't cope with walking to it.. I have this irrational fear that somebody will push me off, which is also why I won't let anyone anywhere near me when I'm at an edge! I also hate moths. I can't be in the same room as one wthout freaking out... I don't know where this fear came from, and it sounds silly, but for me its very very real.... Kiama

truthsayer	15 Mar 2002
diana, your phobia really isn't strange to me b/c i'm afraid of frogs and toads, too. i do know why tho. when i was little <5 i loved frogs. i caught them and kept them as pets, etc. then my parents put me into a christians daycare center. :( one day during recess, me and some other kids kicked a frog to death. i don't know why. i don't remember it being fun but very curious about the red stuff that came out of it. the teacher came over to us and told us we were all going to hell for killing one of god's creatures. we were so horrified! we tried to make the frog live frantically. then we tried giving it a proper funeral and praying for its soul but teacher told us it was too late! we were all going to hell!! come to think of it this is probably another thing that started my animosity toward the church. after that experience, seeing a frog just made me freak. my parents never knew why i became phobic to frogs until a couple years ago. they didn't understand why i didn't tell the what the teacher did. it was so long ago the only thing i can guess is that i felt too ashamed of what i did to tell and assumed they would only hate me, too. i've tried several things to recover from my fear. while i can see improvement, i'm still not cured. i can at least handle being in the same yard w/ a frog. don't push your luck and put it in my face. i can't be responsible for what i might do! funny true story: once i was taking an art class and the instructor carried in a small toad he picked up outside while we were on break. he put it on a desk so the class could see. i don't even remember my feet hitting the floor. just screaming blindly and suddenly being on the other side of the room. the first beanie baby frog that Ty made is the only frog i can pick up to date. he is pretty cute and doesn't look too froglike. possibly another source of my phobia is that my uncle used to go out at night frogging. he'd come home with a bucket full of frogs and would butcher them to eat. if seeing the bucket full of remains wasn't bad enough, just remembering the sight of those legs jump around in the skillet still give me the heebie jeebies. i wonder what that teacher would have had to say about my uncle? at least i had conscience enough to regret what i did! i am not amused by restaurants that serve frog legs as a delicacy or ppl who eat them either.

amyel	15 Mar 2002
It's heights, for me. I can't even walk next to the glass walls you find in most malls on the upper levels - I have to walk at least an arms length away from them. Like Kiama, edges of cliffs scare me. Don't talk to me about ballooning or parachuting. I tried bungee jumping - once, all licquored up on Bundaburg rum in Oz, but I can assure you I will NEVER do it again! My fear has even prevented me from climbing to the top of Uluru, and as much as the idea of rock climbing, rappeling, and hang gliding appeal to me, I know I could never actually do it. If I am "enclosed" I am ok. I used to date a pilot when I first moved to Canada, and we'd often fly in a little Cessna 172 and that was ok. I enjoy flying. Maybe it's a control thing? It's hard to explain exactly. I'm afraid of falling off/over. There's a very funny (to my husband) photo of me on the Lynn Valley Suspension Bridge in Vancouver....forced smile through grited teeth, hands clenched in the ropes...as hubby took the photo. He thinks it's hilarious. I allow him to think so because I know I will *never* *ever* get on one of those death traps again!

Marion	16 Mar 2002
I have that old standby, afraid of the dark. Not really so much in the house, or here in the suburbs. More being outside on a dark night out in the country. The dark there seems very palpable to me, and awakes a very deep fear. When I was married we had a cottage way out in the country. My hubby (at that time) used to stay outside all night looking through his telescope. He used to hear all the racoons and night noises and as far as I could tell it never bothered him. If I went outside at night to look at the stars, either he had to be there with me or I sat with my back to the cottage.

Moose	16 Mar 2002
I have never met anyone with my phobia. I don't know when it started. It seems as though it has always been with me. I actually catch myself holding my breath before entering a room if I can see a mirror with any part of the room's reflection in it. The type, size, or location of the room doesn't seem to matter. I don't fear looking into a mirror for my own reflection, but I get chills looking into a mirror with another person by my side. A mirror will give me a reflection of my own aura, but not of another person's. It has never appeared in a past life regression and my child and adulthoods have not had any major traumas--------so, I wonder why? Thanks for letting me vent. Interestingly, this thread came to me yesterday when I was driving home from work. Must be time for me to overcome this phobia. Blessings, Moose

blumoon	16 Mar 2002
hmm i think theres a few LOL spiders, now i dont mind the harmless ones that mind their own business but the furry big poisonous ones yuk! i couldnt pick up any kind of spider if you asked me to though, i have to get my mum to catch them if one wanders aimlessly into the house, but i love christmas beetles and those little jumping beetles, when i was younger we had a cubby house in the backyard and the cicadas used to leave their shells stuck to the wood and i used to love finding them and sticking them to my clothes and going up to my mum and dad who would freak out, especially my dad LOL definately do NOT like snakes.... i can relate to marion's fear of the dark...the only dark i dont like is if i had to walk around in a pitch black room...i just cant do it...i need a lamp or some kind of light on...it gives me the heeby geebies... i love moths, i just couldnt sleep with one in the same room...i read a story where a moth got stuck in someones ear and it fluttered about...eeeek...my ears are small but i am not taking any chances LMAO pollux i am guessing you dont like that scene in pretty woman then? :p bella i am sure fabio has the same feeling about birds as well now LOL

Emily	16 Mar 2002
I'm not over-keen on wasps, its not just the stinging because bee's don't worry me. For some reason I used to get alot of wasps getting trapped in my house every summer. Middle of the night, in bed trying to sleep, bzzz bzzzz, bzzzzzzzz then being dive bombed by a very mad wasp lol. Last summer I invested in insect nets for all of my opening windows and not one wasp got in lol :) This year I'm buying one for my back door so I can leave that open during the summer days too :)

Malachite	16 Mar 2002
I used to have a water-phobia...stupid for a pisces, really, but hey.... I actually got WORSE at swimming between 4 and 14...but I got over it by submerging my face in the bath until it didn;t bother me...I still don't like the pressure on my eyes, but it's not too discomforting...I haven't tried swimming for a few years tho..... I reckon I'll use my usual technique in life....jump in at the deep end...If I have a push off the wall, I can get moving, with the incentive of getting to the shallow end alive...

jade	16 Mar 2002
hmmm.........wild rats. although i have domestic ones as pets the wild ones scare the crap out of me. heights........i can barely stand on a chair ...... that's just too high for me. thank the goddess i'm short LOL or i'ld be scared to look down LOL in light, on the ground, jade :)

truthsayer	17 Mar 2002
i can't believe i forgot the bat phobia! i earned this one honestly. i lived in a house infested w/ bats for 3 years. this wasn't a problem until every may when they would climb down the chimney and fly around my room. my cats would wake me up jumping trying to catch them. at first i was okay w/ it but after a few times of waking up w/ a bat circling over my head...<<<>>> i can see where the vampire legends got started!! when i was little i used to watch the horror soap "dark shadows". it was years before i could sleep w/o my neck covered up. i can handle the dark now but i used to be scared of the dark, too. i don't particularly care for tunnels underwater or long bridges either. i can handle them better than frogs and bats but i'm definitely NOT happy if i have to cross one. as to spiders, my husband is phobic to them. feeling mischievous one night, i hid a fake one between the bedsheets as a gag. i waited hours for him to pull down the sheets but finally had to give in and go to the bathroom. almost as soon as i got in there i heard the worst cursing and beating the floor w/ the broom. i ran to the bedroom where he was beating the fake spider to oblivion. i thought i'd die laughing. he made me promise to get rid of the spider so i put it up in a dresser drawer not intending to trick him again. months later same scenario but he wouldn't believe i didn't know how it got on the floor. so i put it in a box in my storage shed. years later we were going thru some boxes when i was startled by the worst cursing, stamping, ranting and raving. this time HE disposed of the spider. i must say he's a nicer person than me and hasn't booby-trapped anything w/ frogs or bats. i guess he decided the threat of divorce if i did that again was enough!!! it's still a memory that makes me laugh tho. ;)

New River	17 Mar 2002
my phobias are crowds, being closed in and fairs. yeah, like the county fair? world's fair, any fair. i have no idea why this is or where it came from. crowds make me feel closed in, so there's that claustrophobic thing again. if i go somewhere i have to make sure my car is parked where i will be able to get out at a moment's notice or i cannot stay. can't tell you the # of times i've had to park a mile away from somewhere, just to know i could leave if i needed to. if i came out and my car was blocked in i would have an instant panic attack. love, light and hope, New River

tempestfire	17 Mar 2002
Wow- reading this thread I realized I have a lot more phobias than I really considered. Biggest one by far would be wasps, bees, yellow jackets, any kind of stinging/flying insect. (Had a bee get in the car with me - I immediately slammed on brakes and bailed out until he found his way out- I am sure people driving by thought I was a crazed lunatic- lol). Next biggest would be mice/ rats. How something so small can freak me out so completely I don't know- but I jump,and scream. (One house I lived in was frequently invaded by the critters in the winter time. I had a cat and two great danes. The cat- didn't care to be near them. My female dane- would go out of her way to protect me from the little monsters! If I thought I saw one in the garage- all I would have to do is point and say mouse- or ssk. She would knock them unconscious with her snout- then pick them up and put them in the water dish. (Her little cleansing ritual or something-). Anyhow- those are my main 2. Then there are the minor ones- fear of water, fear of heights, fear of crowds- although I have become better with this one. tempestfire

Pedeka	18 Mar 2002
I am terrified of fish in aquariums..... not fish, not fish in the lake, not swimming with fish, not aquariums with sea horses or reptiles...just aquariums with fish in them the larger the fish the creepier it is..... I can't even turn my back to one without getting chills.. and I have NO IDEA where this came from. Guess Im just odd.

Kiama	18 Mar 2002
Oh, forgot one: I never usually remember this one, cuz it doesn't affect me much, except when I think about it. Whilst I adore swimming (Though haven't been in years cuz I feel self-conscious), I can't swim in a natural lake, the sea, or river.... I can paddle, as long as my feet don't touch any water-plants or seaweed, and as long as I can see my feet through the water. I can't go in if I can't see throgh the water, and in the sea I won't go as far as when you can't see your feet.... I have horrible thoughts about nasty things swimming beneath me or something.... And the thought of creatures that I can't see touching me in the water really freaks me out. I hope I've explained this, cuz I'm getting really freaked out just thinking about it! Kiama

Diana	18 Mar 2002
Kiama, why did you have to mention this? Now I'm going to be worried every time I swim in the sea that there's a nasty sea-creature ready to pull me down to the depths and make me his slave or something. I shouldn't have started this thread! :D Pedeka, your phobia sounds really unique. But you're not odder than the rest of us, just a bit more original. :)

Mystick Dragon	18 Mar 2002
SPIDERS!!!!!!!!! All kinds... I freak out and start screaming! Bees, anything that buzzes cuz I think it's a bee. This oune came about when I was about three, I was hanging on the monkey bars out in my backyard, and a yellow jacket, it's a type of wasp, flew over and started to eat at my lip. It was a good 10 minutes before my parents shooed it away. I couldn't drop and run inside, it was sooooo high for me. Then, in 2nd grade, I was stung on the joint of one of my thumbs by a huge-ass bee. The thing was HUGE!!! I didn't do anything to it, it just stung me. Then a few years later, I was stung on my index by another freaking yellow jacket. When we had 2 yellow jacket nests under our house, I freaked out. I wanted to spend all my time AWAY from the house. I'm also afraid of heights. --Dragon

Pedeka	18 Mar 2002
Kiama Swiming with fish is awesome ( but I grew up in Lake Erie). When you're just floating there and a fish kinda sucks at your toes...its like having a puppy lick you. Makes me feel vey "accepted" by the water. Now the muddy goo at the bottom of a pond between your toes is gross... Pedeka

Malachite	18 Mar 2002
Where do you draw the line between Fear, Phobia, and things like nightmares?... I mean, fear is a natural self-preservation instinct....and things like nightmares and feelings of dread are sometimes of things that don;t usually bother you...in my case, i sometimes feel very oppressed in dark places, even though the dark itself does not bother me... so where does Phobia begin?...How scared do you have to be to be phobic about something?

raeanne	18 Mar 2002
Hi all, I don’t know if this counts as a phobia or if it is some other terrifying fear thingy, but the thought of getting stuck just makes me go bonkers! When I hear about people getting trapped in an avalanche or cave-in, I just freak. If something like that happened to me, I know I would die of panic or go insane. When I was younger, I could crawl through just about any tunnel or whatever. Now, just the idea of it terrifies me.

jade	18 Mar 2002
hmmmm...i think that the difference between fear and phobia is..... you can be afraid of spiders but still deal with one if you need to. a phobia.........you totally freak out and can't cope with the situation. in light, jade ps but i could be wrong. :)

Diana	19 Mar 2002
I would say, with the help of my faithful dictionary, that a phobia is a seemingly illogical, inexplicable fear. So then fear of being trapped would be more a fear - very logical and explicable. Fear of frogs, spiders, fish in aquariums - these seem more illogical, don't they? So they would be in the phobia category.

The Phobias anyone? thread was originally posted on 14 Mar 2002 in the Chat board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Chat, or read more archived threads.