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Do you have any phobia? (psychcentral.com)
submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
 

What is a phobia?

Phobias are persistent and intense fears of a particular:

object

person (like a doctor or clown)

situation

activity

If you have a phobia, you may experience severe anxiety and panic attacks when you’re:

exposed to the object or situation you’re fearful of

thinking about the thing you’re afraid of

anticipating an encounter with the item you’re scared of

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I wouldn't say I have an actual phobia, but I completely understand people with trypophobia. It makes me very uncomfortable and I find it pretty revolting.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 11 months ago

Heights - fuck high places.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Spiders. Terrified of them to the point of just picking a direction and running until im far 😂

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Yup. Especially those fuckers with extra long legs. Just pure horror.
And also many other insects with long legs.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

I have pretty strong fear of people in full body mascot costumes. This includes furry suits too. Not a crippling phobia, but enough to keep me on edge.

That being said, I don’t hate furries. It’s just all suits where I can’t see person’s face freak me out.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Is that also the case for full body armor and other fictional or real types of costumes where you can't see the face? Or does it have to have a 'fake' face like mascot costumes? Just curious

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

Its just those with big fake faces. I have no trouble with things like armor or masks

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Scopophobia (the fear of beeing watched/seen) which has basically induced agoraphobia (fear of outside).

I'm an autistic woman though, so people watching me and assuming shitty things, puts me in a very real danger as I can't information process in real time, or efficiently talk out loud.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago

TIL the name for this. I don't like being in public and the opportunity for anyone to observe me in any way. Love being outside, hate that there are other people out there.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

thalassophobia even in video games. I almost drowned as a toddler so maybe that's why idk.

Heights and tight spaces make me tense and sweat

Agoraphobia but mainly it's limited to too many ppl in touching distance.

Don't know if it related to that but I have to always have an exit plan. I always take my car so I know I can leave at any time I sit on the end of aisles if I can help it and 9 times outta 10 if I'm indoors I know exactly the exit I can head for if I have too

Edit I also will go out of my way to avoid calling anyone by their name. IDK if that's a phobia but it just feels to personal or invasive to do.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Are… are you me? Because from first paragraph to last, this is 100% me.

(Although to be fair, I grew out of the name-thing some time ago, thank fuck.)

[–] emptyother 4 points 11 months ago

The exit plan is absolutely agoraphobia. I got that too. Gotta sit at the end of rows. Gotta plan my exit so that I either get out before the crowd, or after. Prefer car-vacations over planes or ships. My impresssion from the psychiatrist is that any fear that makes us feel irrasionally trapped, thats agoraphobia.

avoid calling anyone by their name.

I do that too. But because I'm really crappy at remembering peoples names. And those few times I do remember I'm just not used to it. I really should work on this because repeating peoples names does make it easier to remember them.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 11 months ago (1 children)

person (like a doctor or clown)

doctor clowns

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

what about clown doctors?

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

My car is currently parked on the street instead of in my driveway because it's officially "spiders fall on your car with the leaves" season up here in New England. So yeah, arachnophobia.

I've done a lot of self-directed deconditioning work over the years though, and it's much better now than when I was a kid. I don't jump and run away anymore. Still don't want them in spaces I occupy though lol

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

game developer hastily taking notes

semi-unrelated, the internet has ruined my mind, it definitely interpreted that thumbnail a lot differently at a glance

[–] emptyother 4 points 11 months ago

game developer hastily taking notes

To give us options to hide our phobias from your games, right? Right?!

[–] [email protected] 10 points 11 months ago

Cockroaches, especially big ones that can fly. I've gotten better with age though. I still find them disgusting though.

Similarly syringes, so vaccines and blood tests are a bit rough. Same, getting better with age but I still get my heart racing whenever I have to get a shot.

[–] emptyother 10 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

Agoraphobia. Mostly in social situations. Until diagnosed properly, I thought it was social anxiety. Anyway, I easily feel closed in. Trapped. Avoid middle seats in cinemas. Don't like being in crowds. Or stuffed public transports.

And wasps and bees and their likes. I was on edge for two days recently because a wasp i swatted in my room, I never found its body. Fraid it was just stunned and is waking up anytime. And I get itchy if I suspect any wasp is close.

Bright green rubber-like small spiders. Also big hairy spiders get me on the edge. Not daddy longlegs though, they are cute.

Also just a healthy amount of fear of severe heights. Which mostly disappears as soon as I have a safely attached rope, or a solid branch or railing to hold onto. So I don't fear climbing.

And dentists. As soon as I smell dentist offices, I start shaking.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)
[–] emptyother 4 points 11 months ago

Yes. But I doubt they would be if they were bigger.

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[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago

Emetophobia. Fear of vomiting. I'm super nauseated just thinking about it to type it out. It led to a semi eating disorder when I was young because I didn't trust any food to be properly kept or cooked. Took a food safety class for work and learned proper food handling and preparation, so I eat a lot better now. But I definitely come off as rude if I don't trust the person that's cooking food for me, like my partner's family, or friends that don't understand.

I can't help friends or loved ones when they're sick if that's one of their symptoms, which sucks. If someone has a nasty cough that gags them I go into a panic. If I hear someone get sick I instantly start crying, sweating, shaking, and my mind gets fuzzy with panic.

I really hate it. I always thought I had arachnophobia, but I just really really don't like spiders. I don't get the mind numbing panic that, to me, would classify it as a phobia.

And yeah, because of the phobia, I haven't gotten sick like that since I was 8, and I was born in the 80s. Plenty of fearful times, but cold water and pepto helped me through.

I gotta go dissociate on some meme posts for a bit now.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (2 children)

My biggest fear is waking up without my penis.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago

I remember some news segment from my adolescence, where a journalist is conversing with an autistic person who is terrified to hold scissors or other sharp objects, as he "might drop them and accidentally cut off his reproductive organs". He reiterates this several times during the conversation. I think about it often, and wish I could find it.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I have a “phobia” (or at least a very strong fear) of insects. This includes regular flies, worms, mosquitos, bees, butterflies to some extent. Whenever I hear that buzz of a fly, my fight-or-flight response activates and I instantly become more aware of my surroundings. Whenever I hear a fly inside my apartment I tell my parents to please kill it or let it out, sometimes I hide in my room. Coincidentally enough, a few days ago I found a decently small worm in my bedroom and it kept wiggling, and my anxiety was intense. I kept yelling for my mom to go get it, my heartbeat was so intense.

People like to laugh whenever I flinch or act nervous around a small fly, and I get why that’s funny, but I really hate it. It distracts me and makes me feel on edge. People keep telling me, “it’s just a small insect, it can’t hurt you”; I know it can’t, but the buzzing and the way it flies makes me really uncomfortable. It’s why I don’t like summer. It’s weird, because I didn’t always feel this way; I only started having this phobia at around 10 years old maybe. Anyway, I don’t know why I have it. But it’s really debilitating.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (1 children)

You really should seek therapy. There are specialists that help people manage their phobias.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (4 children)

Entomophobia, arachnophobia and ostraconophobia.

So bugs, spiders and seabugs.

The seafood with shells is the worst one but it has gotten better. I didn't even know I had it since I haven't really been exposed to seafood with the shells on until I was at a dinner party and they came out with shrimp cocktails with unshelled shrimp hanging off the sides. I got so anxious and sick at the sight of it I had to excuse myself to go to the bathroom and throw up. Now I can almost manage to sit next to someone who has unshelled shrimps. But lobsters and such served in the shell with legs and shit makes me sick.

However.

My phobia is a bit special because since I've had seafood without the shells before I saw them with the shells it doesn't really affect my diet.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago (2 children)
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[–] [email protected] 7 points 11 months ago

I found out the difference between just normal dislike and phobias a few years ago. I dislike insects and they make me jumpy but I wasn’t terrified of any of them, even spiders. Until I had an encounter with giant carpenter ants, both the normal ones and the ones with wings.

I was living in my RV and apparently it was their nesting season, and I come from a different province and normally never see large ants like these. I kept finding them everywhere in my trailer, these giant ants, like I’d open a drawer and pull out a dish cloth and one would be underneath it. I was crying hysterically and shaking and I would rather have died than come across another one. It went on for about 3 days, I barely slept because the fuckers were crawling all over the ceiling and walls at night.

I went and picked up ant killer spray and went scorched earth on them. Within a day there were dozens of dead ones inside the trailer and probably thousands outside in the gravel. It was crazy. Neighbouring campers had these ants too, I guess it was normal nesting season there and no one worried about it much. They started to comment that the ants were disappearing earlier. I didn’t tell them it was me lol. But yeah, I have a phobia I wasn’t expecting and I lose my shit when I see them to this day.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I've got acrophobia. I remember a few situations as a kid where I got panic attacks from seemingly mundane things. Nowadays I can avoid most things that'd trigger it, but I can't use ladders and stairs are always something I have to take at a slower pace.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Parasitophobia and dermatophobia (fear of parasites and skin disease, respectively). This bleeds into a fear of fungal infection and worms in general. I guess my kryptonite would be a parasitic skin infection 🙃

I don't know what it is about them that repulses me/freaks me out over anything else- I quite like spiders, snakes, heights, the dark, etc- it's just instant nausea when anyone starts talking about them. If there's a hint I'm in danger of encountering either irl, I'm out.

Worst fear is having something crawl into my ear (I guess I can thank Animorphs for introducing yerks to me as a kid). I've seen some videos of that sort of thing happening to people, and I can't even fathom how calm people seem to be in comparison to how I would be if it were me. I'd have to have to put on a watch so I didn't start ripping into my head in animal panic.

I also have a particular dislike for really large fish and really large lizards. Anything larger than a foot and a half begins to make me uncomfortable. Dinosaurs are right out.

As my sister would say (who has a fear of lizards, herself) "If I were trapped in a room with a komodo dragon and a gun with two bullets in it, I would shoot myself twice."

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago

I am extremely scared of vomiting and I will have a panic attack when people talk about it for too long. Parties are horrible for me because of this.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Heights.

I can function at height if I'm on my own but im all thumbs and feel like I weigh 250lbs more. Add any people to the mix and my body starts squatting and the running joke is i look like I'm laying an l egg. I'll end up walking in an odd half crouch crab like way. Common example is being on a raised walkway, by a pier, canals, climbing stairs of attractions like a fire tower or an old building, ramparts of castles etc.

I did a bungee jump once and the worst part was crab crouching across the gangway that was suspended beneathe the bridge,. Once I was in the basket awaiting my jump, i was fine as i could sit down and I was all strapped in, the jump was easy!

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I hate when you near the edge of a parking structure, even if you're only three levels up and are protected from the edge by a massive concrete wall, and you can feel your body turning into slow, electrified Jell-O simply because that edge is even there. I swear I can tell how high I am inside tall buildings just by how the floor feels.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

Funny thing is, I'm a pilot. I've flown airplanes with the doors removed and nothing between me and the dirt below but half a mile of thin air. Didn't bother me a bit, just another day at the office. But when I was roofing my shed, putting the drip edge on standing on an 8 foot tall ladder...shivers down my spine just thinking about it. Again just being on the roof wasn't a problem, putting the shingles on in the middle of the roof I'm fine, but being right up on the edge of the roof is really nope inducing.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

I wouldn't go as far as to call them phobias but I have this irrational dislike for clowns, mushrooms and harvestmen spiders.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Phobia of driving
Phobia of getting lost

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago (2 children)

I have a really bad phobia of zombies. Like, I cried uncontrollably when I tried to watch Zombieland. Other forms of undead, like vampires and mummies, and liches are totally fine though and don't scare me. It's just zombies.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I'm an arachnophobe, I cannot stand spiders.

I also have a strong fear of eye injuries. I own many pairs of safety glasses.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (3 children)

Spikey objects like injects

Almost fell over twice because I just saw one

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago (1 children)
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