Question of the Day Wednesday, May 13, 2020

[Mamanyt1953]

OK...I just had an "incidence," which led to a neighbor's husband coming to my rescue at THREE IN THE MORNING, and it sparked today's question.

Do you have any phobias?

Why yes, yes I do. I have arachnophobia, and rather badly. I do not like the itsy bitsy bassarts. They squick me out to no end, and send me screaming from the room, and ONE WAS ON MY BED! Luckily, my next-door neighbor's husband pulled into the parking lot, saw me crying on the porch, and removed the horrid little beast. I have now sprayed my room thoroughly (yes, Hek is locked out of there for another 4 hours), and will be examing things VERY closely when I head to bed! I once stopped a bus by running up the aisle, screaming "SPIDER SPIDER SPIDER" at the top of my lungs. Talk about embarrassing!

 

[Mia6]

WARNING: TALK ABOUT SPIDERS

Same one, hon. I've never like them, then I was bitten by one while on my deck about 5 years ago
and my phobia became worse. Also, although I don' drive anymore, can't afford car or insurance and
don't think I would be able to. Also am afraid to drive on freeways. The last time I did, in the 80s, I had
the worst panic attack of my life.

 

[Silver Crazy]

Life like puppets and dolls.
Really creep me out and make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.

 

[verna davies]

Frogs and snakes, I feel sick just looking at them on tv. Years ago I was helping a friend. In her garden, lifted a large stone and there was a frog underneath. I ran out of the garden screaming like someone possessed. She often repeated that story to others...some friend.

 

[mightyboosh]

I can barely bring myself to even write the word.........................cockroaches. Ugh, there, I've done it.
Although I don't care for creepy crawlies, they don't freak me out like THOSE other things and I can catch and release any other type of bug. If I did see one of THOSE in my house I would run screaming and then put the house up for sale!
I've psychoanalysed myself and know where my phobia comes from.
My mother had the same phobia and she unintentionally passed it onto me whilst I was a little child. At that stage my family was quite poor and lived in a house with THOSE things creeping around. Bizarrely, my mum was more scared of seeing dead ones lying around so wouldn't let my dad put poison down, weird eh? Because they hide away mostly during the day, I think it was a case of out of sight, out of mind with her.
Whenever we made a house move, she used to make my dad go to the prospective new home in the middle of the night to peer through the windows to see if he could see any scuttling around.
So, these things sank in when I was a kid and voila, I have a phobia.
Thanks mum! No, I don't mean that bless her, she's 93 and has earned a free pass from any criticism (apart from what I've just written)

 

[Norachan]

My mother has a severe spider phobia. Like, crash the car when your kids in the back because there is a tiny little spider hanging from the windshield level severe. When I was little I used to earn my pocket money by picking spiders up and taking them back outside, so I've never been scared of them.

I used to be hemophobic (fear of blood, not homophobic, which is what my spell check wants to make me) I got over that after I'd had a few tattoos and piercings done though.

I don't think I have any phobias now.

 

[Kat0121]

I can barely bring myself to even write the word.........................cockroaches. Ugh, there, I've done it.
Although I don't care for creepy crawlies, they don't freak me out like THOSE other things and I can catch and release any other type of bug. If I did see one of THOSE in my house I would run screaming and then put the house up for sale!
I've psychoanalysed myself and know where my phobia comes from.
My mother had the same phobia and she unintentionally passed it onto me whilst I was a little child. At that stage my family was quite poor and lived in a house with THOSE things creeping around. Bizarrely, my mum was more scared of seeing dead ones lying around so wouldn't let my dad put poison down, weird eh? Because they hide away mostly during the day, I think it was a case of out of sight, out of mind with her.
Whenever we made a house move, she used to make my dad go to the prospective new home in the middle of the night to peer through the windows to see if he could see any scuttling around.
So, these things sank in when I was a kid and voila, I have a phobia.
Thanks mum! No, I don't mean that bless her, she's 93 and has earned a free pass from any criticism (apart from what I've just written)

Don't come down to Florida then. We have Palmetto bugs. They are a member of the cockroach family that can be the size of a Bic lighter. Oh and they FLY too. They are horrific. Fortunately though, they are not as invasive as the little German buggers. They are water bugs and usually only show up one at a time. DH would bring them back outside. I send them straight back to the bowels of hell where they belong. I hate them but am not afraid of them.

I am afraid of heights. BIG TIME. I will also not go near any body of water that is too dark to see the bottom. Ever.

I do not like clowns because they are just creepy but not scared of them. Silver Crazy I find those dolls and puppets creepy too.

I used to have a really bad fear of spiders. So bad that I could not touch a picture of one. When DD was little, she and I were home and DH was out. There was a HUGE wolf spider on the living room wall. She and I both stood there screaming until I realized that one of us would have to be brave and deal with it. She refused. So I had to.

I still don't like spiders but I can deal with them.

 

[Winchester]

I'm deathly afraid of the dark. For years, when Rick would go away and I'd be alone, I have to have every light in the house turned on, plus all the lights outside. I would sleep on the couch because I was too scared to go to bed. I could only shower when it was still daylight outside. And god help me, if a t-storm hit in the night and I was alone; if the power went out, I'd probably have a heart attack. I've gradually gotten over the worst of it; when Rick goes away, I can keep all the lights turned off and I do go to bed. But I still can't fall asleep without the tv turned on in the bedroom.

And surprisingly, I spent my first night alone in the she-shed and survived. Rick stayed in the house, but took his phone to bed, just in case, I'd have to call in a panic. But I didn't. I turned off the tv that night in the shed....and crashed until the next morning. It's not as dark in there as I thought it might be.

 

[jcat]

I have a bit of a shark phobia. It started after I saw "Jaws" for the first time as a teenager and went full-blown when I witnessed a friend being attacked by a shark in shallow water just a couple of feet away from me. It was a small shark, and he wasn't badly injured, but the whole incident left a lasting impression. I haven't been more than hip deep in the ocean ever since.

 

[MoonstoneWolf]

Actually I love all the creepy crawlies (except the dread water bug and I refuse to use the other term for it), but my biggest phobia is the dark. Yep, I'm so embarrassed that at almost 65 years old I have to have lights on all over the basement because of my fear of the dark. And the more I see the news the more petrified I am of the dark. I'm not scared of nightmares (in fact I love nightmares for the horror story content during my waking hours) but I always have a fear that someone may break in and I won't see them. Yet I watch Investigation Discovery. Go figure.

 

[Jem]

Phobias? No. But I do have some fears. I've never been one to scream and run away and I can keep my head about me and all that, which is why I say it's not a phobia. They don't debilitate me or cause panic...but they certainly get my heart pumping.
First is ladders. Well...not the actual ladder, but climbing it. I don't feel safe at all and get pretty shaky. I have forced myself to climb them though...sometimes there is just no option. Wasps and yellow jackets as well. I have been stung way too often for the average person and I am now petrified of getting stung again as the last time I was, my reaction makes me think I may have developed an allergy. It wasn't anaphylactic but my foot looked like something out of a horror movie. I'm fine with bees though as they are not aggressive and leave me alone. Oh, and being on a congested freeway. I've definitely made use of the invisible break peddle on the passenger side. I'm not a "backseat driver" though, I suffer in silence and just get super tense. I try really hard to not let my issues annoy or interfere with whoever is driving.

P.S. Mamanyt1953 ...it's May now.

 

[Kat0121]

I have a bit of a shark phobia. It started after I saw "Jaws" for the first time as a teenager and went full-blown when I witnessed a friend being attacked by a shark in shallow water just a couple of feet away from me. It was a small shark, and he wasn't badly injured, but the whole incident left a lasting impression. I haven't been more than hip deep in the ocean ever since.

Me too and that's another reason why I will not go anywhere near dark water. Most shark attacks do occur in shallow water. Sharks and I made a pact many years ago. I agreed to stay out of the water and they off land. It's worked out really well for all of us so far. I see no reason to break that pact.

 

[NY cat man]

A long life- jeez, I sound so ancient- has left me careful of certain things, like spiders, ticks, bats, skunks, or coyotes. But phobias? Naaah.

 

[susanm9006]

Definitely don’t like bugs of any kinds and have always lived in houses that are full of them. My first cat was the queen of bug catching/eating. I would pick her up, and she would start looking at the wall for the spider or insect I wanted her to eat. But after living through two major insect invasions - thousands of carpenter ants in the basement and most recently a nest and hundreds of yellow jackets in the basement, I do handle them better. I have never had a roach though and that would make me insane, as would bed bugs.

 

[Lola3791]

I don't know if these are phobias or not, but I'm deathly afraid of bees, hornets, and wasps. I also have discovered that I don't like heights or rushing water. I went to Moxie Falls last year and started shaking. It wasn't fun. I don't like yelling. I start crying if someone yells, even if its not directed at me.

 

[posiepurrs]

I am a nut case - spiders, housefires, closed in spaces. All but the claustrophobia I can explain. The spider fear comes from when I was in junior high. I was the only girl in an agriculture class (before equality) and the boys resented me so they put a HUGE banana spider on me. I wouldn't give them the satisfaction of screaming though but since then I have been terrified of spiders. Fires is because my parents lost 2 houses to housefires when I was growing up.

 

[catapault]

When I was a little girl my mother used to say that I was not brave, I was fool-hardy. Bravery was being afraid and managing to cope.

She was brave. Terrified of snakes. When we were in the country for the summer if there was a snake in the road she had to close her eyes and run to get past it.

But my mother didn't want her children to be afraid. So we'd be visiting the Bronx Zoo. Get to the reptile house. She'd take us through, saying "See the lovely snake. Isn't it beautiful." Then when we were older she'd say "I want a cigarette, so I'll stand outside here at the entrance while you go in." That's bravery!

 

[Willowy]

Yes, but it's a topic that makes people uncomfortable and doesn't lend itself to funny stories---violence and anger of any kind. A voice raised in anger, not even directed at me, can leave me hyperventilating in the corner. If someone hits their kid in my sight or hearing, my entire day is shot.

After a lot of reading, I think it's C-PTSD. I feel bad about that, because my life has been pretty darn good, what "right" do I have to claim C-PTSD? I know a lot of people who were really abused who don't go into fits whenever someone looks mildly annoyed, what "right" do I have to freak out? But my neural pathways don't find that to be a compelling argument. Brains are hard to reason with. And apparently, yes, the constant low-level tension of living with an unpredictable parent re-wires a child's brain and is a major cause of C-PTSD, even in the absence of extreme violence. So, it is what it is, brains are weird.

 

[maggiedemi]

Things I'm afraid of-- poisonous spiders & snakes, sharks, coyotes, poverty, being murdered, dying in a car crash or fire, death in general, aging.

 

[neely]

I don't know if these are phobias or not, but I'm deathly afraid of bees, hornets, and wasps.

There are certain things I'm not fond of but wouldn't say they're an actual phobia for me. However, I'm afraid of anything with a stinger. Since murder hornets have invaded several states I'm very concerned as well as mosquitoes who can transmit diseases.