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Phobias-What Are Yours?


Duncan

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Do you have any phobias? Like irrational but very rational to you fears? I am claustrophobic, aquaphobic( I can go swimming in water that I can see the bottom of no problem otherwise) and musophobia (fears of mice and rats specifically but I extend it out to anything small and furry) I have reasons why but I would faint in writing them out but what are yours?

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I'm afraid of deep water-doesn't matter if i can see the bottom or not. I can literally freak myself out in a swimming pool thinking a shark is going to eat me. It's completely irrational. Just being next to a deep body of water can produce the same effect.

And bugs. I don't do well with bugs, especially if there are a few of them together and they can fly. I have to try really hard to keep myself under control if i'm out and i encounter a group of box elder beetles, for example.

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I'm afraid of deep water-doesn't matter if i can see the bottom or not. I can literally freak myself out in a swimming pool thinking a shark is going to eat me. It's completely irrational. Just being next to a deep body of water can produce the same effect.

And bugs. I don't do well with bugs, especially if there are a few of them together and they can fly. I have to try really hard to keep myself under control if i'm out and i encounter a group of box elder beetles, for example.

I am SO with you on the water thing! I almost drowned when i was ten and that's where that all started, I have thrown up at beaches which doesn't make me a popular person to go with-i'm fine sitting on the beach though. I had teacher once who said that he once stepped on a human torso in the half buried in the sand and water and cut his foot somehow and I nearly died when he told that story

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I can't jump off of the high dive. I can climb up things just fine, but going down....get dizzy. Have problems with glass elevators as well.

Due to my movement disorder I believe, I have a fear of being limited in movement, which means some claustrophobia like symptoms but it's not the smallness, but the constriction that matters. Being pinned down can start a panic (no more wrestling with my kids when the combination gets too big). The sense of smallness can actually be comforting if I can imagine myself being totally free in movement (such as being able to open the lid of a box as opposed to it being locked). I had problems with having an epidural (sp? too lazy tonight to check) during delivery, I had to really work at times not to think about not being able to move from the waist down.

I can't go into caves or places that smell too much of being underground. I start to black out no matter how big they are (though if they don't have the cave smell, I am fine). Don't know where that came from, just out of the blue when I was about 30. I was fine before that and the thought doesn't bother me at all.

I'm not scared of mice or spiders or snakes as such, but it does scare me the idea of being startled by them. I had a mouse jump straight at me one time sleeping in a basement where it climbed up in the paneling up to the window and then jumped out through the curtains. I batted it out of the air and then it disappeared. Really hard sleeping in that place after that. Stuffed all the cracks around the window and had to have a fan on so I couldn't listen to faint noises that just might be mice or bugs or something crawling around in the walls or across the floor. Still have to do the same.

I also hate turning my back on a dark window. Makes me ache between my shoulder blades.

Edited by calmoriah
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I'm afraid of phobias.

ohpeanutbuttersandwiches I ran out of rep. points-I'll owe ya

last year I think? I had a rat experience and I passed out so it furthers exacerbates by phobia about all of those satanic creatures from the depths of hell

Edited by Duncan
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Claustrophobia. I don't even like to sit on the inside of a booth in a restaurant (with someone locking me in). I hate airplanes for that same reason.

I have a fear of heights, as well. I get dizzy, if I get too close to the edge of a cliff or an elevator that only has glass walls!!! Yikes! Same for an escalator. There is a three tiered escalator at Nordstroms that has glass walls and I hate riding that thing. I will get on it, but I have to just look straight ahead, until I get to the top.

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I grew up in Alaska and never really had any memories during childhood of moths, wasps, or other similar things. We then moved to Florida and I woke up in hell. Insects flying in the air: dirt daubers, yellow jackets, moths galore. I spent most of my ages between 11 to 18 running around flapping my arms in the air. My brother would come up behind me and with his thumb and forefinger make a sound like a wasp and I would go to flapping. Who wants to live like that? To this day I can still freak out if I lose absolute total control of my arms. I don't even like butterflys coming around me.

Thankfully, living in Abu Dhabi has completely removed flying bugs from my life. I don't remember the last time I saw a moth or a wasp of any kind. I also don't have a reputation of the crazy kid down the street that goes around flapping his arms in the air. Phobias are grand things aren't they.

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I grew up in Alaska and never really had any memories during childhood of moths, wasps, or other similar things. We then moved to Florida and I woke up in hell. Insects flying in the air: dirt daubers, yellow jackets, moths galore. I spent most of my ages between 11 to 18 running around flapping my arms in the air. My brother would come up behind me and with his thumb and forefinger make a sound like a wasp and I would go to flapping. Who wants to live like that? To this day I can still freak out if I lose absolute total control of my arms. I don't even like butterflys coming around me.

Thankfully, living in Abu Dhabi has completely removed flying bugs from my life. I don't remember the last time I saw a moth or a wasp of any kind. I also don't have a reputation of the crazy kid down the street that goes around flapping his arms in the air. Phobias are grand things aren't they.

interesting! butterfly's? I call them flutterby's because I don't know what butter has to do with them!

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I don't think I am afraid of crowds but I really don't like to be in crowds, it drives me nuts.

what is the biggest crowd you've been in? I was in a 25,000 one once, honestly it was a freaky feeling!

Edited by Duncan
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1) I am a high-functioning germophobe (ie, Mysophobia). Started when I was about seven. Essentially, the thought of bacteria not my own freaks me out. I don't sit on public toilets without about 5 minutes of sanitizing them first, even if I know they are in the low traffic, password secured ones of my office that are cleaned regularly. I only open public bathroom doors and most bathroom doors of private homes with a napkin, towel, or part of my shirt. If I am passing out from dehydration, I will not take a sip of your drink if you already have. Or eat food you bit out of unless it's a very dry food and I cut a large section off (and even then, it's a rarity). It took me a while to share food with my wife, and I absolutely do not share licks on a candy from my toddler, or take bites of his food, etc. I know that a lot of people still don't wash their hands after using the restroom (or flush for that matter), especially guys. It makes it hard for me to shake hands, and if I know for a fact you don't wash, I will do everything I can to avoid touching you or being touched by you. Being touched by someone who doesn't wash their hands leads to mental screaming until they are gone and I can do something to alleviate some of my disgust. When I served in the nursery, I almost had a panic attack my first few weeks, and that nursery got sanitized very quick.

That said, I am a "high functioning" germaphobe because I don't let it control my life too much. I still shake hands all the time. I crawl around under houses and mess with sewage pipes. I'm in strange houses nearly every day, inspecting everything (I am a property manager). I don't tell people why I am not sharing their food, I simply say "No thank you, I'm fine". Most of it is screaming in my head, but outwardly, I keep trucking like a normal person. It's true that due to unique circumstances I have been trapped in a bathroom for a couple minutes, but eventually I work up the courage to deal with it and touch the door. I also am solely focused on human germs, not dirt or animals(except feces). I can roll around in the mud all day, work on cars, dogs can lick my face, etc. No problem. It's just human bacteria. I am also pretty much unaffected in comfortable surroundings. It's a fear of the invisible unknown I suppose.

Why did it start? Reading Rainbow. Yeah, you read that right. Reading Rainbow, with LeVar Burton. There was an episode they did on germs, bacteria, rates of spread and growth, etc. Taking bites out of a burger and coming back 24 hours later to study it under a microscope. Stuff like that. I was traumatized. This was solidified a few years later when Bill Nye the Science Guy did a similar show. So you can thank PBS for my problems.:-)

2) I have a minor fear of the ocean. Not boating, fishing, etc. Just swimming past the point I can firmly place my feet or where there is a strong rip-tide. A couple of times I started to get sucked out, and I am not a good swimmer. It was quite terrifying and I only saved myself by pushing off strangers and family alike, which I feel terrible about. I was a little kid, but still. Lots of sea water was drunk...

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1) I am a high-functioning germophobe (ie, Mysophobia). Started when I was about seven. Essentially, the thought of bacteria not my own freaks me out. I don't sit on public toilets without about 5 minutes of sanitizing them first, even if I know they are in the low traffic, password secured ones of my office that are cleaned regularly. I only open public bathroom doors and most bathroom doors of private homes with a napkin, towel, or part of my shirt. If I am passing out from dehydration, I will not take a sip of your drink if you already have. Or eat food you bit out of unless it's a very dry food and I cut a large section off (and even then, it's a rarity). It took me a while to share food with my wife, and I absolutely do not share licks on a candy from my toddler, or take bites of his food, etc. I know that a lot of people still don't wash their hands after using the restroom (or flush for that matter), especially guys. It makes it hard for me to shake hands, and if I know for a fact you don't wash, I will do everything I can to avoid touching you or being touched by you. Being touched by someone who doesn't wash their hands leads to mental screaming until they are gone and I can do something to alleviate some of my disgust. When I served in the nursery, I almost had a panic attack my first few weeks, and that nursery got sanitized very quick.

That said, I am a "high functioning" germaphobe because I don't let it control my life too much. I still shake hands all the time. I crawl around under houses and mess with sewage pipes. I'm in strange houses nearly every day, inspecting everything (I am a property manager). I don't tell people why I am not sharing their food, I simply say "No thank you, I'm fine". Most of it is screaming in my head, but outwardly, I keep trucking like a normal person. It's true that due to unique circumstances I have been trapped in a bathroom for a couple minutes, but eventually I work up the courage to deal with it and touch the door. I also am solely focused on human germs, not dirt or animals(except feces). I can roll around in the mud all day, work on cars, dogs can lick my face, etc. No problem. It's just human bacteria. I am also pretty much unaffected in comfortable surroundings. It's a fear of the invisible unknown I suppose.

Why did it start? Reading Rainbow. Yeah, you read that right. Reading Rainbow, with LeVar Burton. There was an episode they did on germs, bacteria, rates of spread and growth, etc. Taking bites out of a burger and coming back 24 hours later to study it under a microscope. Stuff like that. I was traumatized. This was solidified a few years later when Bill Nye the Science Guy did a similar show. So you can thank PBS for my problems.:-)

2) I have a minor fear of the ocean. Not boating, fishing, etc. Just swimming past the point I can firmly place my feet or where there is a strong rip-tide. A couple of times I started to get sucked out, and I am not a good swimmer. It was quite terrifying and I only saved myself by pushing off strangers and family alike, which I feel terrible about. I was a little kid, but still. Lots of sea water was drunk...

very intriguing! So Bluebell and I aren't alone in the water hatred thereof dept.!

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Matthew,

I have a son you would get along with wonderfully. He is OCD when it comes to germs. One winter, he washed his hands so much his knuckles would crack and bleed. I had to forbid him from washing his hands, coat his hands with cream to heal the sores and make him wear gloves to keep the cream from getting all over things he touched. He is my child with the most vivid imagination and has this amazing ability to see things that no one else sees. I swear he takes every bit of info he hears and it takes on a life of its own in his head. I'm sure that's what happened with the germ phobia.

He reminds me of MONK -the tv character.

Edited by mercyngrace
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Matthew, you use those portable bottles of hand sanitizer or alcohol spray? They are about the size of a highlighter and fit great in a pocket or purse. Travel packs of tissues or wet wipes are a great idea too. Monk had the right idea there. I got into the habit of carrying those when I was in Russia where they don't have toilet paper in public restrooms (apparently it gets stolen if they do), not that you want to use the restrooms unless you absolutely have to in most places, never seen anything more disgusting.

I figure you probably do since you sanitize toilets and stuff, but thought I'd mention it just in case. I think it's great that people are placing bottles of sanitizers all over the place. We have one sitting on the door divider in the ward library which is a great idea since we are passing stuff back and forth to everyone. There is another on the sacrament table and I assume Primary and Nursery has one as well.

Germophobia is one of the more sensible phobias to my view, though it of course can take intelligent caution to the extreme.

My daughter is obsessive about crosscontamination with raw meats due to watching Good Eats with Alton Brown.

Edited by calmoriah
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Mercyngrace: I actually haven't ever done the scrub raw bit. In my mind it's excess, as it opens me up to more direct infections from germs. Logically it jsut doesn't work for me.:-) I do know some people though who are like that, and it's tough for them and their loved ones.

Calmoriah: I carry bottles around in my car, have them at home, and at the office. I can't afford to use the more expensive per ounce travel sprays. But I would if I could.:-) I also have a small bottle I carry to certain places I feel I'll want it on my person.

My biggest pet peeve is any public place that has the trashcan far away from the exit doors, or none in the space between sets of doors like in some ward buildings. It leaves me with the option of walking around with a wad of paper towels in my pocket, tossing the napkins just after opening the door and hoping I make the trash and catch the door with my foot, or not using anything (or using my shirt, which I can't always do). I don't leave trash on the ground that I have placed there, so the tossing thing can result in several tries.

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Health food stores with a beauty section may have small bottles including very small ones with sprays for making homemade perfume and hand lotions, etc., just refill it up with straight alcohol or to avoid possibility of leaking at an awkward moment hand sanitizer. I use them for mixing my own preferred essential oils blend (jasmine with a touch of yang yang/ylang ylang and clary sage for restful sleep).

As a side note, if one has dry skin and is sensitive or even if one is not, I have found the best solution is just pure lanolin which you can find at many health food stores. I'm the type that gets rashes even from the stuff that they use on babies or for hypoallergenic products. I have found only one other lotion that works on my dry skin and does not cause problems (it was a progesterone cream that causes sleepiness so I can't use it and I doubt if guys want to use it plus it was very expensive), thankfully I rarely have dry skin, the opposite has always been my problem up to the last few years (except for my left elbow for some reason which has gotten dry from time to time since my 20s, probably because I lean on it when on the computer). I use lanolin mostly for cracked lips that used to take forever to heal even with using pure vitamin e oil. With the lanolin they often heal overnight. Doesn't smell great, but not bad either and who cares if it works when nothing else does. I think in part it's due to the stickiness/thickness of lanolin, it stays on much longer (even longer than vaseline) and so is able to work and be absorbed better. I have suggested it to others and all so far are swearing by it now just like me. Lasts a long time too as a little goes a long way. If you put it on your hands or feet, it's nice to have cotton gloves (pick them up at the drugstore) or socks to keep the oil from getting on other stuff.

Edited by calmoriah
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My biggest pet peeve is any public place that has the trashcan far away from the exit doors, or none in the space between sets of doors like in some ward buildings. It leaves me with the option of walking around with a wad of paper towels in my pocket, tossing the napkins just after opening the door and hoping I make the trash and catch the door with my foot, or not using anything (or using my shirt, which I can't always do). I don't leave trash on the ground that I have placed there, so the tossing thing can result in several tries.

I totally get the paper towels issue. Have the same one. I dislike using door or faucet handles. After all faucet handles had to be touched when one's hands were dirty in order to turn them on to clean them and rarely do people clean them at the same time they clean their hands. The issue with door handles is people not washing their hands. Use my elbows whenever I can to open or turn on something. I also let drinking fountains run awhile before I drink from them.

Another side issue: IIRC, the latest dirtiest surface in the house is not the kitchen sponge (that's second place), but your computer keyboard. A good reason to have your own personal keyboard and to use those covers that are so much easier to clean than the individual keys. My husband insists on using sponges....sigh. We put them in the dishwasher when we remember, but still...

Edited by calmoriah
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I've gotten to the point where i can control my phobias fairly well, if i'm forced to.

I'm also claustrophobic to a point, but i love spelunking, so i have to force myself not to freak out a few times so that i could enjoy that activity. If i don't actively control it though, i can lose it pretty quick.

Same thing with water. I've been knee boarding and cliff jumping in lakes before and i've always been able to keep from freaking out but it takes work.

The most recent time i've been forced to confront my fear of water was last spring when i was part of an archaeological dig along the Yellowstone River looking for one of Clark's canoe camps. The dig was on an island so we had to cross two channels of the river to get out there (something that's only possible without a motor boat during the spring). We canoed over the first channel and then waded over the second, because it was less than a foot deep. At the end of the day though, when we got back to wear we left our canoe, we discovered that someone had pushed it into the river and it had floated quite a ways down stream. The only way to get back to our vehicles was to walk across the deeper channel-my nightmare! I had on chest waders (and the water was only up to my waist, though very fast flowing) so getting wet wasn't an issue but the thought of walking across that water by myself was too much! I made my professor wade back across, after he had gone and taken some equiptment, and get me and then i literally clung to his coat with both hands as i followed him across. I was so glad to make it back to dry ground!

My honest to goodness first thought when i realized i would have to wade through the river to get home was that someone needed to go get my husband, because he would save me. I laughed with my mom about how crazy i would have looked if i had stood on the sand bar and screamed at them to go get my husband over and over again. :lol: THankfully, it didn't come to that.

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Oh, and another semi-phobia for me is raw chicken. Whenever i have to touch it i feel like i'm handling the plague. A few years ago my sons both got salmonella poisoning from an unknown source and that has made me even more crazy. My husband usually deals with it if he can but many times i've just had to force myself through it and then disinfect like crazy when i'm done.

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Have you tried just having the gloves that deli and food prep workers used on hand in the kitchen for just such an occasion? They are really cheap but work quite well. I got used to them working the candy counter at the toy store I worked at.

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