There is a big difference between a fear and a phobia. I had agoraphobia for a year when I was 20. I stayed in the apartment I lived in and only went out the door for the mail. I eventually could go outside on the lawn. Then I could walk a little ways from the door. It took a long time to get over that and it was so weird. It was like a switch was turned on when I got to the door and my heart raced, I was jelly legged, faint, dizzy. Even when I was able to go places, all I could think of was getting the heck back home where it was "safe".

Glad that ended. Now I never want to GO home when I go out. lol.

I have a phobia of being a large crowds. I HATE not being able to get the heck out of the place if I want to. I went to a concert at a very large venue and, while I enjoyed it, all I could think of was when the lights went up and everyone was pushing and shoving to get out and my inability to get out when I wanted. And sure enough that happened. I sat in my seat and just waited rather than tried to fight the crowd. My heart was racing though.

I have a lot of fears but I think the main phobia is simply being able to get out fast and get to the car if I need/want to. For a LONG time in my 20's, I sat where I could actually see the exit sign at restaurants and I shopped in stores but got faint and anxious the further from the door I was. I wouldn't even go to the back of the store.

Now I don't really worry all that much but I still hate not having an exit plan. I don't know why or how it developed but I pay strict attention to where I am going and how I would get out just "in case".

I fear mice but I'm not phobic. Just scared to death of them. Shudder.

Hey, Patty!  I hear you and can feel your pain about the rodents.  One time I walked into my bathroom here in the middle of the night and a VERY small black mouse ran across the floor!  Knock on wood that this has been the only mouse I have ever seen here. 

There were 25 other people or families living in this building and within ten minutes nearly every one of them was wide awake (at 3 A.M.!) partly because I was going arouind banging on their doors and telling them about the mouse (hoping that someone would take me in and nobody did!)  The mouse thing I think is pretty generic and common to a lot of people (especially females) but I had another really funny fear when I was little.

For the first decade of my life, I was terrified of most DOGS!  Except for a cherished two or three canines that I trusted, I would get completely hysterical if even a three month old puppy ran up to me, wagging its tail.  Now I can laugh at this but it was very traumatic at the time with me even having nightmares about dogs.  Then one day when I was ten years old, a dog ran up to me on the sidewalk and BOOM, I wasn't afraid of it and have rarely ever been afraid of dogs again.  It was really wierd!

 

I'm laughing about you banging on people's doors hoping they would let you in.  Can you imagine what they thought: "This crazy woman is trying to get in our house!  I will add mice to my list of "if it breathes or crawls/walks..."

My fear of dogs is just the opposite of yours.  I was never really afraid of them until I was attacked by a Doberman when I was 12 or 13.  I still have the scar on my right leg where he bit me.  Now I am afraid of any dog, big or small; except for my brothers and best friend.  I think if I am around the dog when it is a puppy and I get to see it grow then I'm not so intimidated. 

I pushed my best friend Debbie out of a truck in the pouring rain when a dog came charging at me.  I thought it was going to get me and I jumped into the truck so fast and was trying to crawl over her to get away from it.  The next thing we knew: I was sitting where she was and she had fallen out of the truck.

GigiandAdonai said…
 The cotton inside of pill bottles--that's interesting.  So, do those little plastic barrel-like tubes that they put in bottles freak you out too or those soft packs of preservatives like you see in shoe boxes?  I almost swallowed one those barrel things believing I had gotten a vitamin.

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Haha! No, I only dislike the cotton. Might have something to do with the feel of it. Who knows what that stems from! lol

jasyjen said…

krislynn said…

My dad put me on a ferris-wheel with him when I was little. I think that traumatized me with the rollercoaster. I can't stand anything that crawls except my baby. I will scream bloody murder too when I see a bug, spider, cockroach, lizard, cricket, rat, mouse, grasshopper, snake, etc. I would rather go to the dentist. I am terrified of anything that flies too.       

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If someone even TRIED to put me on a Ferris Wheel.............I think I would just have a heart attack and die. Just watching other people on those things makes me feel nervous to my stomach. My phobia of those are so bad, that I wont let my kids get on one either. My seven year old wanted to get on it, but I started crying when he was in line. HOW BAD IS THAT GOING TO MESS HIM UP????

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I never was a really brave person about a lot of things but I was crazy about amusement park rides from the get-go.  My poor Mom would get sick from riding almost anything and since I was an only child, if I didn't have a playmate along with us, I would ride alone.  Started of with the Merry-go-Round (still love a good carousel!) but quickly graduated to the Ferris Wheel.  I was only seven but tall for my age and looked older.  My Mom would pay my ticket and I'd just trot on up and get in the next seat that was available. 

My only scary experience on a Ferris Wheel came when I was 21!  As I was passing a carnival, I decided to take a spin on the Wheel which lasted more than half an hour because the guy who ran it refused to let me off.  He would empty the other seats and take on new people but he would zip the Wheel through so that my seat wouldn't stop at the getting-off place.  I can't imagine what he was thinking or what his plan was but by that time it was getting late and the carnival site getting deserted.  As the guy emptied out the seat in front of mine and looked up at me, all ready to zip me through again, I unlocked the bar and STOOD UP!  That took care of THAT and I could finally get off!

After that, the scary thing about these rides to me is not the machines but the people who run them.  (And of course, possible defects in the equipment which I know more about now.) 

So be careful when you visit amusement parks or carnivals -- better to go with a companion or a group!

 

 

Maybe he was hoping to get a date ;+)  I was always short so sometimes I had to wait until the next year to get on certain rides.  One year, my older brother Jimmy beat up a carnie.  They tried to kick him (my brother) out of the fair but too many of his friends took his side and it wasn't worth all the arguing and so forth so they told my brother to go on and not to come back to that ride if/when that carnie was working.   

Those big fuzzy spiders creep me out too - especially when the fangs start twitching back and forth.  I'm afraid of heights too - but not in all situations. Being 35,000' in an airplane doesn't bother me, but being on a 10' roof does. I sometimes have a fear about public speaking. When I took Grad School classes we always had to do presentation before the whole class. Sometimes I hated it, and other times I had no problems with it at all.

I have a fear of sharks. . .  and of in person socialization. I'm always afraid that I'm going to sound dumb or that someone is going to find my faults and/or make fun of me.

wonkao said:

I cry like a baby at the eye doctor.

I hate that test where that machine blows air into your eyes! Startles me!

That would be the one to test for glaucoma and I hate that too!  Feels as if they are going to blow my eyeballs right out of their sockets. 

It does! It is so freaky!

GigiandAdonai said…
That would be the one to test for glaucoma and I hate that too!  Feels as if they are going to blow my eyeballs right out of their sockets. 

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LOL. I don't mind the first one but, after I know how terrible it feels, I always end up flinching and they have to to the second eye at least three times. I try really hard to stay still but my brain doesn't like air puffs in my eyes. My son refuses to have it done. He can't deal with it. He also refuses to put eye drops in his eyes and the thought of contacts make him turn white with fear.

I think everyone hates the poof test. It's 2008, almost 2009, surely they can come up with something less stupid than air blowing into your open eyes!

PattyThere said :

. . . I think everyone hates the poof test. . .

I use to call it the "poof test" too!

LaurieM said…

wonkao said…
I am also terrified of ants. Yes. Ants.

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Me too! I absolutely can't stand the big black three sectioned ones. *shivers* Seriously, I freak completely out. I have no idea why either.

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I am pretty sure I know where my ant fear comes from. I remember one morning as a child going down to the kitchen and seeing a bunch of ants in our sink. As if that was not bad enough, my father was killing them...with his bare fingers. I thought I was going to vomit right there.

I don't think I saw any guys post here, so I will.  I am not afraid of anything and I probably speak pretty much for all the guys who didn't post because they are too modest. ;>

NOTHING????  Okay, us girls may have 'fessed up to a lot of fear of normal things like animals, critters, heights, etc. 

What about psychological fears or abstract fears?  Like the fear of losing a child or loved one.  Fear of drowning, getting paralyzed in an accident, being shot, etc. 

Many guys at my work always talk about fears that seem like they could never comce true but happenstance it does.  Like Christopher Reeves getting paralyzed from a riding accident.

Oh, I forgot to mention that I don't have my driver's license because I'm afraid to be behind the wheel.

My younger sister doesn't have a license either.  She was in several terrible car accidents as a teenager, right when her girlfriends were learning to drive.  We never understood "why" she became afraid of driving because she was never driving during any of the accidents.  I never had a desire to learn to drive either--the ladies on my mother's side never drove until my generation.  But right before my 21st birthday my brother encouraged me to get my license because I would be graduating from college and needed more independence.  I love it!

I want the independence and I'm trying to overcome the fear but I cry every time I get behind the wheel to practice.

I'm afraid of:

1) Balloons. (It scares me when they pop, but water balloons don't scare me, lol)

2) someone playing (fling) with a rubber band towards me. I'm afraid they will hit me.

3) heights

4) driving on the freeway

5) bugs (like spiders and gross bugs like that freak me out)

6) people who drive fast

7) afraid of being afraid that will scare me into being afraid of afraidness.... :P just joking. I'm a little hyper, LOL!

Okay, to all of you who posted a fear or phobia about spiders, bugs, insects, etc.  Go to my photo gallery and look at that bug. 

I was out on my back deck about an hour ago and saw that thing on the side of my house!  I almost fell off the deck.  Well, I couldn't walk down the steps because I thought that thing might get me. 

I came back inside and got my camera to take a picture of it.  Good thing my camera has a good zoom lens.  What is that thing?  Is it an overgrown praying mantis?   ~Gigi

I can't think of anything I have a fear of really. I mean I have the usual, common sense kind of "If it's a snake and it rattles, go the other way." sort of respect for certain poisonous/dangerous creatures, but mostly if you leave them alone they'll leave you alone.

Back when I first started playing music I was afraid of making a mistake in front of people at a gig, but nowadays I really don't give a rat fart. d;-)

 I am sad to admit that i am deathly afaid of toads, To the point that i will not leave the house after dark.

Reviewer11 said…
I'm afraid of:

1) Balloons. (It scares me when they pop, but water balloons don't scare me, lol)

2) someone playing (fling) with a rubber band towards me. I'm afraid they will hit me.

3) heights

4) driving on the freeway

5) bugs (like spiders and gross bugs like that freak me out)

6) people who drive fast

7) afraid of being afraid that will scare me into being afraid of afraidness.... :P just joking. I'm a little hyper, LOL!

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I have a friend (Laurel) who refuses to drive on the interstate because she is afraid of merging into traffic.  She also will not drive over the Lake Murray Dam.  During the last 2 years they built another dam so that we could go from 2 to 4 lanes and the lanes going in toward the lake go into a hole.  You drive down and a big gray stone wall surrounds you on the right.  My house is on the lake and Laurel drives about 10-12 miles out of her way to avoid the dam to get to my house. 

I'm afraid I'll have to go back to Home Depot again this evening for grout, sealer, wall texture and paint. d:-(

They love me over there.

DUISparky said…

I'm afraid I'll have to go back to Home Depot again this evening for grout, sealer, wall texture and paint. d:-(

They love me over there.

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Lol!!

My fear was fully realized last evening. Hopefully I won't have to go through that again for a week......

d;-)

DUISparky said…

My fear was fully realized last evening. Hopefully I won't have to go through that again for a week......

d;-)

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HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I should just keep my mouth shut, but I'll be doing it again after work tonight. d:-(

It's like a recurring nightmare that costs $100 minimum to wake up. d:-O