irrational fears?

[anotheranon]

Damn, but this was a story out of my own childhood! Like the author, I had a fear of getting Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever as a kid, and for a similar reason (a distant cousin got it and I was told that it was "bad"). Totally ridiculous, since we were nowhere near the Rocky Mountains (hey, I was a very literal child), but I had sleepless nights worrying that some tick was going to travel cross country and climb into my sheets at night :P

Such was the first of many consuming irrational fears that I wasted many brain cycles on :P To this day I have spells where I can't even look at pictures of spiders (though the Podcast I heard about a woman who overcame her arachnophobia so fully that she now keeps the things as pets was.. er... inspiring[?] - I'd link but I can't find it), and let's face it, I'm unlikely to ever be trolling around in the Amazon where the really scary bastards live.

So - what's your favorite [snerk!] phobia, or phobia story?

Comments

[wendyzski.livejournal.com]

it's not technically a phobia, because I know EXACTLY where it came from - it's simply a severe case of the willies that has only gotten worse in the 28 years since it happened. I can't handle caterpillars or worms. The legacy of a backpacking trip gone horribly wrong.

See, we have these things out east called Gypsy Moths, which are slowly heading west. They travel in swarms so large you can actually hear them munching the forest. Also, they have prickly hairs on them that sting.

I accidentally packed into a large swarm of them and spent 2 days with them crawling on my tent, crawling into my fire, crawling into my food, crawling on ME!!!! *shivers*

To this day the sight of anything resembling one (caterpillar, worm, slug, centipede, etc) totally freaks me out and makes me want to hurl.

I'm not real fond of bugs of any sort (and the cicadas are coming!) but more than 8 or less than 1 leg sends me screaming out of the room like a 50s housewife.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Naw, that's a phobia and a justly earned one - having them crawl on everything like that would do ANYONE in!!

amended

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, this IS a phobia, in the irrational sense, as centipides aren't likely to crawl on you AGAIN - but, the fact that you lived through it means you know what your'e talking about.

Damn, watch me try and post before the first cup of coffee :P

My worst nightmare as a kid...

[curiousangel.livejournal.com]

Candiru catfish.

See, I saw the "catfish" part, and thought they were in various bodies of water in NORTH America, and... well, anyway, that was mine. It's why the concept of "sounds" squicks me so badly, too.

(If you don't know what I mean when I use the term "sounds" above, just let it go. You'll be happier not knowing, I promise.)

Re: My worst nightmare as a kid...

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I know what a sound is, and I know what this fish is - squick squick squick!!

Re: My worst nightmare as a kid...

[geekchick]

<Venture Brothers reference>...the dreaded candiru!</Venture Brothers reference>

[tommdroid.livejournal.com]

I heard about a woman who overcame her arachnophobia so fully that she now keeps the things as pets.

That's just like me. I suffered so bad from arachnophobia, that in the end I could hardly work in my petshop which was located in a large basement. I had adrenaline up to my ears all day long in case of a spider suddenly appearing...and they did appear quite frequently, as spiders do in basements, especially if there is a petshop in said basement.

I had no money nor time to get therapy treatment so I called one of my suppliers who was happy to help out by sending me a really large pink tarantula, a Chilean Rose, Grammastola rosea, who had the temper of a Labrador Retriever. I cried and pet the tarantula and pet the tarantula and cried and so on and so forth.

And it helped.

I have no tarantulas today, but I had about 7 of them for a while. Really cute little honeys.

I still consider *small* spiders to be very scary though.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I cried and pet the tarantula and pet the tarantula and cried and so on and so forth.

Ya got bigger ovaries than me!

Which in a way is really sad, as I find spiders fascinating when I think about them - I just can't stand to be around them!

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Ah ... like the day I learned I REALLY didn't like heights? Or, at least, insecure heights? (with a railing, I'm fine)

I was about twelve and my dad & uncle had just had a 250-foot silo built (the old one, still standing and in use, was about 100 feet tall) by the barn. All finished, shiny clean, and with a very tempting climb tunnel on one side. For you non-farmer types, a silo has a vertical row of little doors down the side and these have to be opened sequentially from top to bottom as the silage level drops ... each door has two horizontal handles which are spaced to serve as ladder rungs (the climb tunnel also serves as the chute for dropping removed silage into a cart).

Being done with the chores I was over at the barn to do, I decided to climb the thing. All okay inside the tunnel ... there were frosted windows set into it at intervals to supply light ... and the view from the top was quite spectacular. And muscle-freezing. Inside I hadn't grasped just how high I was going ... now I had a pretty good idea of just how big a splat I would make if I fell (and my muscles were pretty shaky ... tree climbing doesn't prepare you for a vertical haul like that). I was up there for what seemed like quite a while until I heard my Dad yelling for me ... he was furious when I answered from the sky (and, looking back on it, he was likely scared shitless since he too knew exactly what kind of splat, etc. ... and if he came up after me there was good chance of a double splat if I lost my grip and fell on him). Happily, parental pissed-offedness is a powerful incentive and I did get myself down (unpunished ... I know I'd scared myself enough that I'd never do THAT again and I'm sure Dad was just relieved).

Creeping, crawling, slithering, and skittering things, OTOH, don't bother me one teensy bit. :-)

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

That sounds totally heart stopping (not in a good way)!

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

'twas. But at least I got the sight and memory of the fantastic view out of it. :p

Mosquitoes...

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

... although the fear really isn't all that irrational, as I'm the sort who gets a welt whenever I'm bitten. A spider will make me jump and I'll go and swat it, or grab a tissue to kill it, but I won't freak out. But if you want to see me go into super-predator mode, put a mosquito in my room. I will drop literally anything to hunt down and kill the little sucker! Yesterday, the only weapon I could grab was my mousepad, and I managed to whack the mosquito when it was resting on the ceiling. Now, don't ask me how I managed to jump high enough with a mousepad to kill something itsy-bitsy that was sitting on the ceiling... but I did. I tells ya... I hates them things!

Re: Mosquitoes...

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

Given the increasing number of nasties those things can carry (West Nile, dengue, malaria, etc.) I can't say this fear is entirely irrational....

Re: Mosquitoes...

[semmie17.livejournal.com]

Aye, and I got West Nile in 2004. Nasty thing, that. :(