Phobias

[Viaterum Orbis]

Probably you have already threaded this, but... do you have any phobias around? I'm myself scared of spiders bigger than 5 cm (yeah, I know it's kinda stupid). Also, the sea.

It scares me with its size, I couldn't bare the idea of floating above kilometers of water (plus idk how to swim, so). Heights too (can't deal with watching from three or more stories buildings windows), and when I sometimes lie on the floor and watch the sky I can get a little nervous, I mean, it's totally not happening and physics says no, but my mind just keeps asking: what if we fell upwards?

I think those three are my main phobias, does social anxiety and shyness also count?

 

[Hadoblado]

Snakes and other large reptiles. Parasites to a lesser extent, they just freak me the fuck out really.

I have anxiety about other things, but it's not on the same level.

 

[Sandman]

Probably you have already threaded this, but... do you have any phobias around? I'm myself scared of spiders bigger than 5 cm (yeah, I know it's kinda stupid). Also, the sea.

It scares me with its size, I couldn't bare the idea of floating above kilometers of water (plus idk how to swim, so). Heights too (can't deal with watching from three or more stories buildings windows), and when I sometimes lie on the floor and watch the sky I can get a little nervous, I mean, it's totally not happening and physics says no, but my mind just keeps asking: what if we fell upwards?

I think those three are my main phobias, does social anxiety and shyness also count?

Thankfully, spiders don't bother me. Which is good, because I work outside a lot, and large spiders (harmless to us though) are common here. I with you re: heights. Anything more than ~10 m or so, and I have problems. Despite this however, I am compelled to look over the edge of cliffs or buildings. A nod to Poe's Imp of the Perverse?

My biggest phobia is sharks. Absolutely petrified of them! Which is unfortunate and inconvenient, given how much I love the ocean, and the fact that I"ve lived near the sea most of my life. I will not venture into the water deeper than chest-deep, and it must be clear, and preferably in a back-reef setting where big sharks cannot enter. I jokingly blame this on the fact that I saw the movie Jaws when I was 11, but who knows, maybe that was it. I've tried to overcome this by studying sharks as a hobby: knowing the different species and where they live, their behavior, collecting fossil shark teeth, and I've made a little progress--until a decade or so ago, I only entered water up to my waist, LOL.

 

[TheExplorer]

Well, most of them aren't phobias, they just stem from the fear of Death I have.
But one particular fear of mine is insects, especially wasps. Which is a bummer in summer because I can't eat outside without running away when a wasp comes.

 

[Niclmaki]

I absolutely hate lil worms. Like maggots and other itty bitty larve. Makes my skin crawl. I would say it is like 99.95% of the way to being a phobia, because I can still act rationally lol

I can stand most other things though. Like spiders, beetles, moths, snakes w/e. They’re fine.

 

[kora]

Heights, though I am fighting my phobia and I think I am getting better ?

 

[Viaterum Orbis]

Heights, though I am fighting my phobia and I think I am getting better ?

How can you fight it?

 

[Deleted member 1424]

I find it rather annoying that photophobia is not a true phobia, and is rather indicative of pain upon exposure to light than actual fear of light.

I do have an odd phobia of taking pictures and seeing pictures of myself, although it's not a vanity thing. Some of my 'best' pictures are the ones I hate the most because they are associated with painful memories. I always remember whatever emotion I was feeling at the time of the photo and because I have so many negative photo-taking experiences over time it built up into a rather powerful aversion. There is also some self concept issues, because I look like someone else to myself. Or rather I think of myself as abstract rather than a concrete entity. Though I'm not sure if this disparity happened before or after I developed the photographic aversion. I have a similar thing in regard to my voice. It's simply not my voice. I suppose all this is mixed with a general desire to not to be observed or discussed by 3rd parties. Makes the overall destruction of privacy that's occurred in my lifetime particularly unpalatable.

Sounds crazier than it is...
I think.

 

[Ex-User (14663)]

When I was a small kid I stepped into an ant-bed. The ants didn’t like that. Since that ants and I have had a complicated relationship.

I do like other insects however, for example spiders and moths.

 

[Cognisant]

Automatic Windows updates.

 

[Perfectly Normal Beast]

Spoiler

* endless screaming *

 

[kora]

Heights, though I am fighting my phobia and I think I am getting better ?

How can you fight it?

By exposing myself gradually to heights. For example I have been exploring the catacombs, and doing so sometimes requires one to climb up and down ladders that reach 15 meters down or so. I force myself to do this, and my anxiety has considerably decreased whilst doing it. The first few times I was shaking quite badly (which obviously only makes things worse.) And now I am only quite anxious. I know quite a few people who have been able to overcome their claustrophobia in the catacombs as well.

 

[Viaterum Orbis]

Ok, isn't that a little creepy?
Fortunately, there are no catacombs around here. I'd think about the ladders.

 

[kora]

Ok, isn't that a little creepy?
Fortunately, there are no catacombs around here. I'd think about the ladders.

Delightfully creepy

I take it you're also anxious about heights ?

 

[Viaterum Orbis]

Yeah, literally everything higher than 6 meters freaks me out.

 

[kora]

Yeah, literally everything higher than 6 meters freaks me out.

Oh yes you mentioned it in OP, I forgot. I've always thought of it as a fairly rational fear. It makes perfect sense to feel danger in these cases. However, you could try and do some rock climbing or something as a hobby I suppose, taking it very slowly, if you were at all interested in overcoming it ? Not that there is a necessity to do so or anything.

 

[Damian Doritos]

I'm scared of flying. I have travelled by plane bout 50 times, somehow at some point like at 30 I started getting anxious anytime I would jump into the plane. I play some music loud in my earphones so I don't hear the engine, I try to close my eyes, depends. If the flight is by the morning I won't be too scared but if it's by night I'll surely be like touching my face and feeling very unconfortable. Once I skipped a flight. I was coming from Lithuania and I was already in the plane and told the girl that I didn't feel good and she said it's OK sir you don't feel like flying tonight. And I went out and picked a bus to Warsaw to see a good friend of mine. We party for 4 days straight.
I'm afraid of spiders. Cuz I saw one big tarantula as a kid in Venezuela. It was above my parents bed in a holiday house we rented in the mountains. I won't forget how big that thing looked.
I think I saw more similar to that one in other places also there. Tho I must say that with time I have become more confident about spiders. They are pretty in a way.

 

[Viaterum Orbis]

I'm afraid of spiders. Cuz I saw one big tarantula as a kid in Venezuela. It was above my parents bed in a holiday house we rented in the mountains. I won't forget how big that thing looked.

I have a similar story with spiders. When I was around 7 or 8 years old, I once was lying on the grass, staring at the sky, when this huge spider started crawling to my chest... Some weird tarantula that scared me af. I runned and screamed for ten minutes or so until it fell.

 

[kora]

Yet if these spiders had been squirrels there would be no problem

 

[ZenRaiden]

Fear is natural. Mostly we develope a phobia simply when the instinct overdrives our knowledge of the thing. Its a matter of getting comfortable with a thing. I generally fear all things unknown to some extent when I dont know what to expect and my paranoid mind makes up a story about it how it can harm me and kill me.
I have one phobia that is not that much phobia as form of disgust and hate, but I can overdrive it I just hate looking at the thing and when ever I see the thing I am very diguisted with it and hate it and just cant stand it. Worst part is its harmless and its a thing and I am always embarassed to say what it is. More or less it doesnt affect me to the extent to making it a phobia, but the discomfort is pretty strong.
Its a type of phobia like being affraid of an apple or a pencil or some such thing.