What Kind Of Phobias Do You Have?

[Violet31]

I though it would be interesting to see what phobias we have.

My worst fear is musophobia, fear of mice. I can hardly type the word, it affects me so badly. I don´t know why, it´s probably a learned response because my mother has it too.

Another one would be fear of isolation and fear of rejection. Fear of failure sometimes.

Here are some of the most common phobias:

1. Fear of heights

2. Fear of flying

3. Fear of public speaking

4. Fear of the dark

5. Fear of spiders

6. Fear of snakes

7. Fear of rejection

8. Fear of confined spaces

9. Fear of failure

10. Fear of intimacy

11. Agoraphobia - fear of open spaces

12. Fear of driving

13. Fear of dogs

14. Fear of elevators

Take your pick!

Edited January 8, 2013 by Violet31

[Rhop]

Social phobia

[hawkeye90]

Social phobia is the reason I developed depression - too much social isolation and loneliness.

[CanadianJake]

I get anxiety when I'm in social situations, but would that count as a fear of it? I'd probably say its not quite at that "phobia" stage.

[NorthernStar]

I have claustrophobia (fear of confined spaces), tokophobia (fear of pregnancy/childbirth) and driving phobia. My claustrophobia has gotten better with age, I am no longer nearly as phobic as I used to be, but it still can make my life unpleasant from time to time. For example, I get very anxious and distressed if having to travel in the backseat of a car for longer journeys, so I prefer to take a bus or train as they're more spacious. I also hate basements with no windows and dark and narrow tunnels.

My driving phobia has to do with the fact that it has always been challenging to me to concentrate on several things at the same time. Besides when driving, if you're not careful enough you can cause very serious wreck and damage, and that's something I never want to come across to. It has also do with that other people have made fun of both my fear and driving abilities, even though mockery definitely doesn't improve my driving skills in any way. Sometimes I really hate people, since most of them have very poor skills in dealing with phobic and/or neurotic individuals *sigh*

I'm not sure how or when I developed the tokophobia, but I guess it's got to do with the thing I don't want children and that I am afraid of losing control in general. As a woman I pretty often encounter belittling or am being downright frowned upon of how I can be afraid of such a natural thing. On the other hand, tokophobia is the only one of my major phobias I am able to joke about. Forget about 'Master Chef', forget about 'X Factor', it's the 'World's Most Horrible Midwife' that gives me the chance to excel!

[Veruca]

Social phobia, Emetophobia(fear of vomiting)

[Seabeach]

OMG I have so many phobias its just ridiculous. I have a fear of wet paper towels. I have a fear of bad odors entering my body through my nose or mouth. I have a fear of revolving doors. I have a fear of being seen outside (thank goodness for a large privacy fence around my backyard) to the point that getting the mail is difficult. I have a fear of being incorrectly dressed (I can't imagine what that's called). The list just goes on and on. I live my whole life trying to avoid these fears. I have a fear of anyone seeing me leave the restroom before 8:00 in the morning and have special words I must say to make it safe (that is probably my OCD taking hold there).

Anyway, I'm functioning. I just make arrangements to avoid those things I am afraid of.

[Seabeach]

Oh I forgot to mention my phobia about anyone using my phone at work so I remove the handset and also anyone using my pen. If I lose my pen before it is completely empty of ink I will go nuts until I find it. Also I have a fear of losing my mail opener. I just get very secure with the things I have and fear above all else any kind of change.

[ThompsonCherry]

I recently realized I have Trypophobia, which I didn't even know existed. It's basically a fear/disgust of patterns such as tiny holes and agglomerations I feel about ready to throw up every time I see these!

[imperfectsilence]

Hills - I can't stand going up any kind of a hill in a car, I'd prefer to walk. Always think the car is going to go down backwards.

People- Just hate people, don't like the idea of being around them, talking to them, seeing them

[Violet31]

I get anxiety when I'm in social situations, but would that count as a fear of it? I'd probably say its not quite at that "phobia" stage.

Hi CanadianJake,

Probably not, but then agan, I´m no expert. :)

[Juda]

Social phobia...I literally freak out whenever I have to talk to people, especially teachers it clearly is beyond normal, so much everyone actually notice it. Most teachers who do know me used to say that I only avoid them because they're teachers. I used to wait for a teacher to come out of the room for hours and hours, just standing right in front of the room, but never knock on the door even though I know that the teacher is inside and it's perfectly OK to knock at least. I hesitate for the longest time ever just to talk to any teacher that my friends will need to come in and help me get to him/her. When I talk to people, I have this auto-laughter on all the time I'm sick of it myself and I can't even turn it off. I know it's my avoidance, but I can't really do anything to it, and can't really explain to people around me as well of why I'm doing that, since I just don't know why myself. It used to be so terrible I'll shiver like hell and cry out just while I'm talking to someone, even at some trivial talk. (I used to have that when my art teacher told me to get some suggestions on my artworks from my classmates...Stupid, wasn't it? My teacher actually panicked a little at my reaction and asked me what happened, but I can't really explain anything to her since I have no idea myself...) My social phobia really made me think I can't go on living in normal society with this (since humans are communicative beings...Can someone who can't communicate anything without panicking so bad really be able to survive in human society? That's the question I've been having for so long, really...)

And too bad that I'm a hard-headed person though, so tbh, I still believe that since this is my own problem, I need to get over it myself. I don't want to depend on anyone or anything for it, not the psychiatrist, not the med, nothing...same go to my whatever mental problem(s) I have (never get professionally diagnosed, but I have lots of other things too...especially depression-like thing and constant flow of thoughts on death and such...Social phobia is apparent, so I can say that I have that one 100%. Others, I'm still unsure...whether what i have is depression, dysthymia, OCD or what...or more than one of them...-_-")

But why is this in the depression forum instead of the anxiety forum? .-.

Edited January 8, 2013 by Juda

[Darrith]

Fortunately, I have no phobias except for one, and that is going out to sea on a boat. I love swimming in the sea, but going out to sea in a boat makes me so ill, I feel like I am dying. I have tried on many occasions, and this is just a no go area of my life.

[Waffles]

I have aichmophobia, which is a fear of sharp objects. I am paralysed with fear around knives etc...

[CanadianJake]

Forgot to mention in my original post, but if there is some phobia for fear of ghosts, I definitely have that. I constantly feel like I hear things in old houses (I live in an old house) and I'm always afraid to go anywhere in my house at night or in the dark. I also have to go to sleep with the TV on and sometimes music so I can't hear anything going on outside my bedroom. I stayed at my grandmas house a couple months ago, and she lives in a really old house (build mid 1800's) and I was so terrified all night long. I constantly open my eyes to see if someone is watching me and always feel like there's a presence around me or something.

[Moody Blues]

I have a fear of aging, which started at the age of 25.

[Violet31]

I have a fear of aging, which started at the age of 25.

I had that too! I started when I was 21. That is totally crazy. At 31 I thought I was old. I stopped worrying about it when I hit forty. I think it has something to do with insecurity, at least in my case.:)

I can see most people have social phobia, I had that too for years and years, but I learned to stop it with CBT and medication.

And lot of us have fear of spiders. I don´t have that. I find them mysterious and beautiful.

[Tessar]

Fear of spiders does mean I can't go in our shed, plus my partner has to get rid of any big ones. I was about to embark on hypnotherapy last year but suffered a bereavement which put paid to that. Has anyone had hypnotherapy.... & did it work

Also, far worse is emetophobia which affects me quite badly. It does fluctuate in severity depending on what's going on around me. I try daily to stick at it & not let it win. CBT helped.

[Violet31]

Hi Tessar,

Yes, I tried hypnotherapy. It didn´t work and I don´t think I can be hypnotized. I read somewhere that only a small percentage can be hypnotized for real.

However, I can reach a very deep state of relaxation. My shrink tried also CBT for the mouse phobia. I had to look at pictures of them and it made my skin crawl. Her next suggestion was to see them in cages. We met in a pet shop where they have pet mice. The next step was to hold them. I tried but felt so revulsed, I started hyperventilating.

My phobia is very real and it´s a problem because I have a big garden and the cats sometimes bring them in as a gift!

It takes all my resolve to put on rubber gloves, throw masses of papertowel on them and carry them out to the bin. And I need to sit down and take a deep breath before I can do anything else.

I guess I will just live with it. I don´t know what else to do.

Please don´t tell me they´re cute... Lol

[Tessar]

I'm pretty much at the "I guess I will just live with it. I don´t know what else to do" stage really, which is why i was considering hypnotherapy. Maybe when I'm done with counselling I'll give it a try.

I wont tell me they´re cute...that would make me a hypocrite since people often say to me about spiders "they're much smaller than you", "theyre more scared of you than you are of them" & I sit there thinking - I know that you ***** but I'm stll scared of them anyway!!! I keep a lunchbox & bit of card at the ready in case there is one in the house. Usually i dont have to deal with it, my partner does. If theres a biggie & I deal with it I end up like a wreck. I make all sorts of noises when I got near it. If it moves I scream. I usually scream and swear if i see a big one. that happened at work one day & was a tad embarrassing but a gentlemanly colleague took it outside for me & didnt bat an eyelid. He's my friend for life now.

[Brokenme]

its not a phobia, but I have misophonia - of baby screams and cries, it makes me go mad

[starla1979]

This isn't anything serious, but the talk about mice, snakes and spiders reminded me.... When i was a kid, we had these books called "Animal Encyclopedias" that contained lots of full-page color print photographs of different animals and insects. We would get the 'S' section and I was scared of it because of this one particular terrifying full-page photo of a huge, googly-eyed, hairy spider.

Then one morning my loveable sibling carefully placed this book, page opened to Scary Mister Spider, right in front of my face while i was still asleep that morning. He was probably sitting there waiting for me to wake up, i remember hearing something rustling around and as I slowly opened my eyes there the spider was. I screamed and my brother ran out laughing hysterically. I'm smiling thinking about it now, but I'm still terrified of spiders, even grandaddy longlegs give me a chill!!!

I'm trying to get back to sleep now, I'm going to add a little more to this novel, I'm also terrified of roaches. And I've had many close encounters with them. Where I used to live, they were awful. It seemed the whole town was infested with them. The restaurant i worked at there had a can of roach spray right behind the cash register. My ex and I referred to our place as Roach Kingdom. Let's just say it was very affordable. At night time they would all come out, and they were huge. One time i woke up in the middle of the night and went out to the kitchen and there one was, sitting on the kitchen counter feasting on a pizza bread crumb. It was like he was staring right at me, mocking me. We tried everything to get rid of them. When you went to turn on the bathroom light at night, they would all scatter. One morning i woke up and there was a dead one in the bed right next to me.

Edited January 20, 2013 by phalseuphoria

[TurtleNature]

Im phobic of spiders of all kinds, crowded spaces and open spaces (I CANT sit in the center of a movie theater I HAVE to sit on the end seat or I am unomfortable the entire movie and its all I can think about how to get out of there), I am afraid of the phone when it rings, and very afraid of people in authority. Those are my wrorst phobias.....then my GAD is a whole mix of other things and situations.

[starla1979]

TurtleNature I also get anxiety when the phone rings. I turned my cell phone off. I should probably get it re-activated because my social life has gone down the drain. But that's also because i've been depressed.

I can't forget that one roach in the kitchen that night, the reason i remembered him was because he was the biggest one i ever saw. He must have been the king

Now I'm wondering if the roach problem had anything to do with the fact that this was a college town.... Hmm..

Edited January 20, 2013 by phalseuphoria

[near]

swimming pools

roller coasters

dancing in public

rejection

emetophobia

sort of gymnophobia, can't even take my sweater off at the doctor

wasps, spiders

fear of darkness, but this one comes and goes

not really a phobia, but I'm definitely not a fan of making phone calls