Well, as many of you will know by the organ donation thread in Aols i have tomophobia and it has a massive effect on my life. I cannot watch medical dramas on TV, i cannot even talk about surgery... discussion in the other thread i started makes me feel very unconfortable and when researching organ donation i made myself sick. i currently require surgery to mend and reshape my nose after it was broken, which i have refused and ive even sought professional help from 2 therapists in an attempt to make me go through with it and prepare me for the day when i may need life altering surgery. they got nowhere with me. so someday this phobia could mean my untimely demise.

im sure im not the only one here who suffers with a phobia. so:

who has what?
how serious is it?
how much of an effect does it have on your life?
how do you get by (if at all)?

I might have a mild agoraphobia, but I hide it well.

Arachnophobia, I run to another room screaming when I see spiders, then wash my hair and change my clothes, fearing there might be other spiders somewhere.
Then I ask someone else to get rid of the spider screaming:"KILL IT!"

This one I hate: I have a mild aquaphobia; fear of water, I can't swim anything else than backstroke. When I try 'normal' swimming,I see the water, I freak out and it seems hard to breathe.

phobia-free, here

I am a cynophobe. It's rather difficult thing to have when your girlfriend has two dogs that she loves to have with her at all times.

It's pretty severe, I guess. When I come across dogs, even if they are across a park, it takes all of my will-power to not run far, far away, though I imagine running far away would be better than freezing in a cold sweat, shaking and trying to not cry. I even get like that when I hear keys rattling or metal bracelets because, to me, they sound like a dog collar that has a name tag on it. Sad, I know.

Phobia-free here, also. Never been able to understand phobias since I've always led a life of logic and an irrational fear is just so hard to understand for me.

Like Abomination, I do find phobias difficult to understand, but lots of people seem to have them, so it sometimes feels abnormal not to have one. Maybe I can find a cool one I can have.

I haven't been in any traumatic situation that gives me a phobia. I'm wary of dogs, but seeing a dog in the park doesn't impair my skills to carry on a conversation at the same time.

Maybe I can find a cool one I can have.I take it you were being sarcastic here, HB :p But you're touching on a subject that's been picking at my mind... do people develop and nuture their own phobias as some sort of personal requirement? Are phobias a way of seeking attention?

To me a phobia is just... well... stupid. Why be afraid of something that the massive majority of the world is never harmed by?

I saw some Opra/Rikky-type show awhile ago where they brought on some girl who had a phobia of pickles... PICKLES! You know? Small green vegetables... now how the hell can you be afraid of pickles? They're inanimate! They're not going to crawl up your nose while you sleep and lay their eggs in your brain. Yet somebody brought out a plate of pickles and the girl went totally nuts, ran out of the studio and tried to hide behind a curtain. In reaction to a vegetable that has had no recorded history of ever harming somebody... unless you choke on one I guess or maybe an allergy? But that's no reason to run at the sight of one.

Very slight aquaphobia. (I think it's a cat thing.) All it means is that cold showers or washing my hair in the sink result in me hyperventilating. Not enough to pass out, but a fear rush when washing your hair is rather unpleasant, not to mention embarrassing.

To me a phobia is just... well... stupid. Why be afraid of something that the massive majority of the world is never harmed by? Of course it's stupid. Most people with phobias even admit it's stupid; noone likes to be afraid, especially of everyday things. But the whole point of a phobia is that although they don't want to be afraid of something, they are, they can't help it. Once it gets seated in the brain, that phobia takes over in those specific situations.

Regarding that pickle thing, it's likely she may have been molested when she was younger, either with a pickle or...something else that size and shape. :bad: Traumatic past experiences are a common trigger for the development of phobias. It's sort of a side-shoot of the survival instinct.

phobia-free as well

Sociophobia. It's quite serious and hampers me a great deal. I'm working on it, though.

I am Claustrophobic. I fear small spaces.

It is a pretty strong problem for me and strikes at some very wierd times. Like I can not close the door to my half-bathroom in my house. The room is small enough that I bump at least two of the walls when washing my face or using the toilet. If I close the door I start to sweat, then I get jittery and scared. I had trouble riding the Tubes in London during rush hours. I start breathing very hard and sweating. I had to always stand and hold the handrails so I could lift myself up to get air. There were many times I wanted to start pushing and punching people just to get a little space around me. I was once riding in a van going to church and had to have the driver pull over so I could get out because I started sweating and couldn't breathe. I even have nightmares about being trapped and will wake up in sweat and breathing as if I just ran a race.

Luckily, most of the time I can control it. I strive to stay out of "close quarters" as much as possible. I continue to travel all over but I have to be able to focus myself in other ways. When I was in the London underground, my wife would press herself against me and wisper in my ear. No, she wouldn't be doing anything elicit, it just helped keep me calm. Sometimes I have to close my eyes and talk to myself to get through, I know I must look wierd or suspicious to some people. If I can focus on a specific task or thought then I can at least get through the situation that has me in a tight spot, usually.

I know it is irrational and believe me when I say people who truely have phobias don't want them.

How about a homicidapsychopathophobia, or homicidasociopathophobia? I bet everyone with any sense would have that :mommy: :D

edit: well allright, let's make that most of the people, since there are cops and other brave people who aren't scared of those

edit II: sorry, I just couldn't help myself, this should've gone to the hypocondriac heaven -thread...moderators? Do us all a favor and remove this 'nothing' and put it there, if you please. Thank you...

Sorry about that...

Mild sociophobia here. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a "real" phobia though, because I can keep it under control most of the time. I just find it very unpleasant to be around too many people.

Pretty sure I am phobia free. Closest thing is probably a mild fear of heights. I have done sky tower in Auckland and stood on the glass up there and have been on the roofs of some sky scrapers looking over the edge but if I can feel what I am standing on moving, like a tall ladder, then I start to get a bit jittery.

Never been able to understand phobias since I've always led a life of logic and an irrational fear is just so hard to understand for me. i would go as far as to call all phobias irrational, spiders kill people, people drown, people fall to their deaths - to some extent i suppose they can irrational, but to another extent there is reason behind some of them.

also, i dont know if i would describe a phobia as a fear, its something very different im afraid of getting burnt, but that wout keep me away from a hot object, but if you had a phobia of being burnt, you wouldnt be going anywhere near that frying pan.

also, phobias play tricks on your mind, i have a friend who is claustraphobic, and as wiley one can probably agree on he feels like he is going to get trapped and crushed inside a small space, and when he is in a small space, he feels as if the roof is getting lower. ive seen him cowering in a corner in a public toilets before trying to make himself as small as possible until i came in wondering where he was and broke that hallucination.

with me, you talk about an operation and i have countless thoughts about things falling out and not being put back right, the thought that stitches will burst open and my innards will spill everywhere, when i think about it my body starts trying to convince me that there is something wrong inside, i feel cramps and pains, i hear sounds coming from it i notice lumps that arent really there... etc..
and that is a short sum up

I guess I have a bit of a fear to get sick, and a slight fobia of being out on deep water.

I'm not sure whether it counts as a phobia, but needles really get to me.

I have memories of having a nurse inject me when I wasn't looking becuse I was taking so long to get comfortable when I was young. More recently, an entire group of them sat on me during the TB vaccinations because I kept edging away whenever the needle came close.

*shudder*

Not really,

Like TBA, I have a mild dislike of heights, mostly of the man-made variety. However, I've mostly overcome it by facing it head on (Bungee off cranes, popping up tall buildings - HCBS, Canary Wharf, Telecom tower) in London as part of the job)

Spiders - only wee ones. I can hold turantulas and similar sized ones. I hate their chaotic movements and their 'fangs' most of all.

JUst so everyone understands, phobias BY DEFINITION are irrational fears, so a fear of a psycopathic killer isn't irrational. Also, by the psychological definition, a phobia has to somehow impede your lifestyle in a noticable manner, but that may be getting a little technical.

No phobias or irrational fears here. I don't like social situations, but that's an uncomfortable situation and the expectation of it, not exactly a fear.

My gf is acrophobic (not by the psychological definition, but she is). She gets nervous if she has to stand on a stool, if we're walking by a ledge, say at the mall, and there isn't a solid, opaque barrier at least to mid-chest height, she stays about 20 feet away, or as far as possible. Same thing with staires. She hates malls that have those glass railing things, and can't stand clear elevators. All in all, though, it doesn't really impact her life much. She doesn't go on roller-coasters, but that's not a big problem.

She's also sort off claustrophobic, and this may actually be concidered a phobia, possibly. First off, it isn't tight spaces that bugs her, it's not being able to move her arms and/or legs. If she's taking off a jacket in the car and it gets caught somewhere, or just tangled in the seat belt, she starts to panic and can even hyperventilate a little. A straight jacket would probably kill her.

I'm Phobia-free, I guess.

I don't feel comfy at heights, though. Like when walking on lattice grille (correct word?) stairway steps and looking down. I sometimes have to shake my head not to get dizzy or blurred. Perhaps it's not just the altitude, but the slightly deceiving view when looking through the lattice.
I need to be sure where to step.

Phobia-free. I think.

The closest I come to a phobia are my nightmares of being trapped on a deserted island with only zucchini -- probably left over from my childhood traumatized by HAVING ZUCCHINI EVERY DAMNED DAY FOR FOUR MONTHS ... oh, the horror ... the horror .... Of course, I don't eat zucchini anymore and stay out of the produce section of the grocery.

I've always felt my fear of being eaten alive was pretty rational (and therefore not a phobia). That started when a bear came into our campsite when I was a Boy Scout. I just make sure there is something solid between me and something that can eat me.

I also have a fear of heights. Generally speaking it's more or less being able to see how high I am, like on a rollercoaster on something. I have been in planes, and while I feel uncomfortable, if I take an aisle seat away from a window, I'm OK. Still, I do not find flying to be a pleasant experience. There just seems to be something inherently un-natural about going 500 miles per hour in a metal tube 7 miles over the surface of the earth.

I have a crippling phobia of people who insist on putting outfits on little dogs and carrying them around in public. Seriously...they scare the sh*t out of me. I mean some of these people actually breed. That's scary. But other than that, phobia free as well.

I know a guy who has a phobia for squirrels.

There has been at least one recorded case of a phobia of "The Great Mole Rat"! IN REAL LIFE! Wasn't that something from Fallout 2? I mean, that's even worse than the phobia of pickles, at least they could potentially harm you.

I'm scared of closed in spaces...that was claustrophobia wasn't it?

I have a fear of losing control. At least I used to have. You could say that it was a phobia since it limited my life and is for the most of the time unrational. It originally came from me making a nasty mess when I was a kid and lost my self-control. I was a real berserker.

At the same time I managed to gain more control over myself, I started to fear myself losing this control more than anything. So much so that it became a limiting factor in my life for several years because my feelings were something that I should keep in check all the time and under control. Not just the bad emotions but the good ones as well.

There might be something else in this as well, but whatever the reasons were, one of them was the fear of losing control. I didn't become emotionally dead, but I never let my emotions to become something that I could easily show to other people until quite recently. I think it's going away since I've noticed that this ultimate aggression isn't that prevalent anymore and since this control over myself has become easier and more natural, so that I can start to show my positive emotions.

That was so long time ago, but I still have little of that fear left that something really bad happens if I let myself go.

Well, *almost* a clinical acrophobe - it's not the height for me; it's the apparent risk of falling, really.

It comes and goes - we've got our break room up on the second floor of the store where I work, and you get up and down via a spiral staircase - open to the whole store during half (the TOP half :grr: ) the stairs, and sometimes I just freeze and have to steel myself and force myself to look at the ceiling, hold onto both rails (that only come up to my ribcage) and and fight to make each step down. Once past the 1/2way mark, there's a curved wall on the outside edge (as well as an anchor bolt for the stairway, so it doesn't shake at that point - and YES, I swear it'll sway just slightly!!! I'm not kidding - I can FEEL it!!!)

Other times I'll just be uneasy, and maybe a little sweaty by the time I reach the bottom. Still other times I'll traipse right on down that spiral without a care in the world, la-de-dee-de-dah. :p Then look back and realize what I did (and pat myself on the back for succeeding against my fear, even just once)


And it truly is irrational - one time I was in a 'good frame of mind' I got right on that 1/4 point out over the store, and the furthest from either the top or middle anchors and hopped up and down on the stairs; they swayed very slightly (I doubt it was visible) and I re-assured myself it was built strongly enough to withstand much more stress and weight than I could impose upon it; it's NOT going to collapse on me (well, under me, but you know what I mean :) )

Heck, I even have difficulty with portrayals of 'risk of falling' situations - I'll watch with rapt attention of the antagonist gorily carving up some victim, but my stomach will spin and I'll cover my eyes if someone goes out on a high window ledge...

It even interferes with my game-playing: any FPS that forces me to 'donkey kong' on the outside of a building, or along a cliff-face, or over girders is gonna get played less by me, and likely have cheat codes used to just bypass this unsettling section. (Yes, I STILL break into beads of cold sweat when I hear the sound clip they used for Kyle Katarn's fatal fall in Nar <bleep> Shaddaa that EVERY <bleep> JEDI FPS THAT LUCAS<bleep>ARTS EVER <bleep> MADE *has* to have at least ONE mission in 'The Vertical City' :grr:

Hmmmm...so now I'm wondering if I *am* a clinical acrophobe.

On the other hand; I like air travel - window seat for me!

High-speed elevators? I think the feeling of your stomach lurching up and down in your abdomen is COOL, and plunging to my doom in a metal box never enters my head.

*shrug*

If I could afford the time, I'd go chat with an analyst about it. :)

Very strong agoraphobia here.

It's crippling and debilitating... I'm trying to overcome it.

I have hottiephobia. I break out in a sweat whenever I see a very attractive female ;)

I'm not 100% sure what feeling people get when they suffer from a phobia but I guess it would be similar to the feeling I have had after something REALLY bad NEARLY happened such as crossing the street and nearly being hit by a car or screwing up a major business deal.

But the only time I've ever been short of breath is when I landed on my back in a rugby game and was winded for awhile.

I know a guy who has a phobia for squirrels. Yeah...that's Felinoid. He's always running from the chatroom when ever squirrels are near his window... :p

I just found out that my fiance is horrified of flying. It's probably just because she's never flown before...but if push comes to shove and she still refuses to get on the plane when it's time to leave for the honeymoon...I'm going without her.

I didn't pay *that* much money for her not to come...so I'll be taking pleas to come with. :p :rolling: