Do you have any phobia's..

[Sandra6]

Roller coasters. I have done them, but don't like them. I 'had' to do Alton Towers a few years on the run as we were doing 'Disney'. I've done enough of them 'for the kids'. I have a good excuse now with my back not to do one again. I did bail on smiler (before the accident) - we'd been stuck in queue's from mechanicals, and when I got there it was, I'll see you at the finish, and made a sharp exit as the rest of my family got on. It's a 'control thing' with me, even though I've been badly injured on bikes many times.

I like roller coasters, love the big dipper and the grand national at Blackpool. But I won't go on anything that goes upside down.
My friends and I have been to Blackpool a few times, and the only two rides I don't go on are the Infusion and the Revolution, because they go upside down. They decided to take me to Alton Towers and I spent most of the time holding their bags while they queued, pretty much everything goes upside down dang it!

 

[Welsh wheels]

We have glass ones. They had to be 'slowed down' as people thought they were falling. My nick name is the 'Tower of Terror'. Dead handy though, as you can tell which door they are arriving at when waiting for one.

We have a glass lift at work too. I actually prefer those as you can see outside, reducing the feeling of being trapped in.

 

[hopless500]

Clowns <shudder>

 

[swee'pea99]

A phobic reaction, in my experience, is a very long way from feeling squeamish. It's an instant jolt of adrenaline that feels like a zap from a cattle prod, and the simultaneous loss of breath and urge to turn and run is incredibly unpleasant. People who don't have a phobia simply have no idea how horrible it is. And if the fear is triggered by something unusual, like the tomato example from earlier, you have to deal with years of mockery and 'pull yourself together' unhelpful advice as well.

I'm sure you're right, and I'm not trying to trivialise the awfulness of phobias. But I think it is a difference of degree. My response to telly operations is akin to (a milder version of) people's fear of spiders: a direct gut response that can't be explained or rationalised, which has no basis in reason. People know the spider can't hurt them, just as I know the 'operation' is a fake; but something more basic has taken over, with the brain a pretty much helpless bystander.

 

[swee'pea99]

Yes. It seems to be a conditioned response that has gone wrong, and gets reinforced over the years by the dread of it, in a self-fulfilling loop. But, as I said before, it's possible for a phobia to suddenly lessen or even disappear on its own, so there should always be hope.

I think in some cases it's actually curable too. I remember seeing a programme once with a serious arachnophobe who was treated by being shown pictures of spiders, moving on to being able to touch the pictures, moving on to being able to look at tiny money spiders in a sealed jar, moving on to being able to hold the jar with the money spiders in, moving on to...you get the picture. By the end, through this extended process of de-sensitisation by degree, they were comfortable with a tarantula sitting in the palm of their hand.

 

[marinyork]

I'm sure you're right, and I'm not trying to trivialise the awfulness of phobias. But I think it is a difference of degree. My response to telly operations is akin to (a milder version of) people's fear of spiders: a direct gut response that can't be explained or rationalised, which has no basis in reason. People know the spider can't hurt them, just as I know the 'operation' is a fake; but something more basic has taken over, with the brain a pretty much helpless bystander.

Phobias come under anxiety disorders. As an alternative viewpoint to the thread, social anxiety used to be called 'social phobia', but it's seen as a bit dated and called social anxiety now. Similarly agoraphobia is classified separately. If you regard social anxiety as a phobia then of the thousands of members here there are probably quite a few with life changing social anxiety.

 

[Hacienda71]

Large moths, don't know the cause but it has been there for as long as I can remember.
Heights in certain circumstances I know the cause which was a trip to Conway castle and a walk along the rather uneven battlements with my two children, who at the time if they had tripped would have tumbled easily underneath the safety rails.

 

[Levo-Lon]

Airports and aeroplanes..heights

 

[Threevok]

I'm a closet claustrophobic

 

[marinyork]

I think in some cases it's actually curable too. I remember seeing a programme once with a serious arachnophobe who was treated by being shown pictures of spiders, moving on to being able to touch the pictures, moving on to being able to look at tiny money spiders in a sealed jar, moving on to being able to hold the jar with the money spiders in, moving on to...you get the picture. By the end, through this extended process of de-sensitisation by degree, they were comfortable with a tarantula sitting in the palm of their hand.

(Graded) exposure also known as desensitisation works for a lot of people. It's not quick though. Or in some cases it's not cheap. You talk to psychology peeps in unis and they will tell you about other stuff such as looking at pictures or even virtual reality. Other areas panic attacks (attached to various classifications) there have been some very interesting behavioural experiments. I remember seeing one on tv where the therapist simulated having a panic attack in a shopping centre to see what would happen and the other person saw it through their eyes and the person thought a lot of people didn't seem to notice and wow some other people were so nice. I think you can cure various anxiety disorders 'relatively quickly' but it's getting that proper help and something that works, it's a bit misleading as often people will have tried various other things for months/years. I don't think it goes away, there's a certain residual amount. I was left thinking about it recently as the last year I returned to a slope in a park that I used to like as a child, but set off things and hadn't been to for many years. I was able to read out in the sun as I have done once this year and was very happy. I also went somewhere else very recently that I like but was fearful of going to which was somewhat further away.

The thing about a lot of phobias is people talk about them in other ways. They say they don't go out much or have depression or so and so is not their cup of tea.

I do find the wider societal view about phobias interesting, it is in a lot of children's and fact books the names for them and on pub quizes. I find it very interesting that going back a long way people 'talk' about/acknowledge phobias even if it's just naming them.

 

[Shut Up Legs]

 

[Mo1959]

I have a couple of slightly strange ones. I hate seeing or hearing anyone talking about broken bones and have fainted and been sick on such an occasion it makes me feel so queasy.

I also hate seeing holes. Lol. Looking at crumpets, cheese with holes in it, etc gives me the shivers.

 

[hopless500]

That's quite a common one. But at least you can organise your life to an extent so that you are less likely to encounter a clown. Unlike a tomato.

Oh, that sounds like a tomato can't help encountering a clown.

It does rather .
Definitely more avoidable than some - but I do get caught out by stuff on TV every now and then. And there is a music event which gets put on every year just down the lane from us, and they've started using a bloody clown (kind of life sized) made out of board to point out where the entrance is. As it is on the way to the pub, I get to see it far too often.

 

[jefmcg]

A fear of scary insects

It's adorable that you think your fear of moths is rational.

Excusable ... as you are in Australia, and they do seem to pack a punch over there.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation has promised not to repeat this episode of Peppa Pig

View: https://youtu.be/6lsqsNqqu2Q

This was the red-back

Redbacks are overrated. First aid is the same as bee stings. Funnel webs, on the other hand, are nasty little farkers.

As a teenager I went to a blood donor session, not to donate but to watch. Was fascinating to see cannulas going in and blood coming out, but eventually I started to feel iffy, culminating in crawling out of the building on all fours feeling very nauseous.
To this day I'm mystified at the experience - how can I be fascinated to watch something, NOT be disgusted,

There is a biological explanation for this physiological response. If you are bleeding, the best thing your autonomic nervous system can do is drop your blood pressure. You see blood, and maybe it's yours, so your body responds by dropping your blood pressure and you pass out. It's plausible that hominids that did this were more likely to survive a nasty wound, so the behaviour is selected for. Not an advantage at the blood bank, but possibly so at the dawn of history.

I had a colleague who nearly passed out when I just described plasma donation.

 

[r04DiE]

Do you have any phobia's..

Creepy crawlies in general.