Poll: Do you have a phobia?

[Saladfork]

I saw a topic on irrational fears awhile back and I started wondering how prevalent that kind of thing was.

Note that by 'No', I don't mean 'I am not afraid of anything', just that 'I am not afraid of anything that can't actually cause me serious harm'. Being afraid of bees if you're allergic, for example, is completely rational.

I should also point out that I mean a phobia that you are aware of. It's entirely possible that I might have a phobia of blue-coloured monkeys, but having no experience with them, I couldn't really say.

 

[BloatedGuppy]

I actually have TWO phobias. Insects and heights. Neither is super over the top, but they're definitely significant enough to qualify as phobias.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yeah I have arachnophobia. My brother on the other hand has no phobia what so ever so far (unless he's not telling me what it is).

 

[JoJo]

I have a phobia of close physical contact with strangers, as in not just feeling uncomfortable but a real fear of being touched by people I don't know well or trust. No idea why (might be related to my Aspergers) but at-least it's not one that comes up often.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Wasn't there a thread about irrational fears just a day or two ago?

I have a bit of a phobia towards nasty insects and snakes.

 

[Jonluw]

Does my fear of heights count?
I know heights are dangerous, but I don't know if that makes the fear rational. I experience dizziness and a feeling of gravitating towards the edge if I stand anywhere of significant elevation.

 

[Tuesday Night Fever]

I have a pretty irrational fear of spiders.

It's not like I live in one of those areas with particularly large or deadly spiders, either. The biggest ones I've seen around here are usually no more than two or three inches wide (including the legs), and those aren't even particularly common.

But for some reason... I just can't handle them being around. If I see one, first instinct is to panic, second instinct is to drop everything I'm doing until that spider is utterly destroyed.

 

[Muspelheim]

Slightly arachnophobic. Well, it depends on how you see a phobia. I'm just rather afraid of them, and it doesn't alter my life in any way. Except that I tend to go spiderhunting each summer to make sure the little buggers don't get too comfortable. I'm fine with spiders existing, but I'd rather they didn't share their space with me.

 

[AlAaraaf74]

I'm afraid of the dark, but I don't know what the phobia's called. My fear was much worse when I was a child, but now it's just a little unnerving. My imagination never left me.

 

[Esotera]

I have a phobia of snakes as I once went to a petting zoo where there were several of them around, and one gigantic one (about 2m long) that blended into the carpet and I nearly stepped on. Pretty traumatising to a 5 year old.

 

[Antitonic]

I'm afraid of the dark, but I don't know what the phobia's called. My fear was much worse when I was a child, but now it's just a little unnerving. My imagination never left me.

Nyctophobia.

I have mild arachnophobia (4/10) and nyctophobia (7/10). On that scale, 10 is screaming bloody terror while 1 is nervous apprehension.

 

[Knight Captain Kerr]

I have both omphalophobia and arachnophobia. Omphalophobia is the fear of having my belly button touched, it is weird but true.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I fear great heights, got over a fear of wasps (I still really, really hate them and want to kill them all with fire), being alone in the dark in the streets of an unfamiliar place, robots/rogue computers and most irrationally I fear talking or hearing about genetics.

There you go.

 

[Broady Brio]

A phobia of if anyone is laughing, they're laughing at me. Especially if they're behind me.

I also have have a phobia of just anything to do with eyes. Talk about them near me, I have to begin manual blinking. Cannot stand films that involve eyes being damaged.

Spoiler: Like this scene from Kill Bill Vol. 2.

 

[Ectoplasmicz]

Wasps and hornets. Cannot do them. Scare the shit out of me...

 

[Strain42]

Yes...Balloons. I hate them. They're loud, they feel weird, I get very stiff and uncomfortable whenever I am near them.

Everything about them rubs me the wrong way.

 

[Craorach]

Spiders.

There was a time when that phobia, combined with borderline paranoid depression, led me to actually see them constantly where there were none. I had a freakout in the middle of college that made me realise I needed help, there was no spider, just a shadow.

Then I moved to Australia, land of the psychotic murder spiders.

I've had to get over it to an extent.. my wife is more scared than I am.. but now at least these spiders CAN kill me.

 

[Kolby Jack]

Open heights. Planes are fine, and as long as I have a decent railing I'm okay, but I can't do roller coasters, high dives (even 10 footers scare the piss out of me), excessively large trampolines (like the ones at carnivals), and I can do log rides and somewhat large slides, but those are still pretty troubling for me.

Maybe it doesn't qualify as a full-on phobia, but it sure made boot camp hell. The Navy requires you do a 20-30 foot jump from a high dive... needless to say, I just closed my eyes and let them push me. I think that was the only time in my entire life where my mind was literally completely blank with fear. Absolutely no thoughts were in my head for those 2 seconds.

 

[crudus]

I have three. Glossophobia, Keindranophobia, and Trypanophobia.

Wasn't there a thread about irrational fears just a day or two ago?

Google my fears and you get a list off all of the ones I have responded to. Please note I don't respond to all of them.

 

[ShadowsofHope]

Spiders.

There was a time when that phobia, combined with borderline paranoid depression, led me to actually see them constantly where there were none. I had a freakout in the middle of college that made me realise I needed help, there was no spider, just a shadow.

Then I moved to Australia, land of the psychotic murder spiders.

I've had to get over it to an extent.. my wife is more scared than I am.. but now at least these spiders CAN kill me.

Oh god, man, I feel so sorry for you. No arachnophobe should ever have to live in Australia with those massive freaks of nature (which unfortunately, someone trolled me with an image of at a certain point in time, and I swear my heart lept into the ceiling..). Ever.

OT: I have severe arachnophobia to the point that looking at the image of a spider for more than 3 seconds will induce minor panic attacks, even moreso when I can notice it's eyes/head clearly.

Also, I have a subconscience uncomfortability of crowds and strangers due to my Asperger's, which makes socialization really damned annoying to ever approach successfully.

That is about it.