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Curious Phobias & Irrational Fears

:(
I was pretty much barf-resistant in that line of work; I'd think it's only blood/shit/sick/whatever and manage that way.

The worst was chest suction, where gunge is mechanically removed from patients' lungs through a tube. The gunge is recovered into a clear plastic container which it often fell to me to empty and clean. The contents would be yellow, green, streaked with blood, you name it, and would stink nastily. That process did give me pause a few times.

One of the funniest things I've ever seen was a student nurse assisting with laying-out a deceased patient, or rather, hindering the process.

She kept bursting out of the side room, crying and retching, and the staff nurse'd chase her out and order her back in.

The problem was that the deceased patient needed their dentures putting in.
The staff nurse decided that the student should do this important job but the poor girl just couldn't cope with it.]

We were all hysterical with laughter. We weren't laughing at the patient, I hasten to add, just the student's unexpected panic.

Fair play to her, I think she managed in the end.

I read it :( ... rank man! ..
 
Spiders, although that's not uncommon nor irrational. I think it's the eyes and mandibles, creepy combination.
Escalators that don't move creep me out. Especially if I have to walk up or down them. Sends shivers down my spine in the worst way.
Open water deep enough to not be able to see the bottom. It's not the water itself, but the fear of the unknown.
 
Cutting nails with a nail clipper. I even shivered when I wrote that.

I can do my own fingernails without flinching. My own toenails are manageable but I can feel quite queasy afterwards.

As for the kids, forget it. I just can't bring myself to do it. My wife gets that job. I'll happily take care of all manner of spills, seepages, leaks, squits, drips and drops but cutting fingernails? No.
 
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‘BALLOONS MADE MY SKIN CRAWL. I FELT LIKE I WOULD CRY’
By Reporter,24 Apr 2017 11.58am
Just spotting a balloon used to send Stephanie Parsons, 33, of Glenrothes, into a heart-racing panic attack.

Her fear of balloons – or globophobia – originates from the Greek word globo meaning “spherical” and phobos which means “deep dread or fear”.

Sufferers – who include US chat show host Oprah Winfrey, 63 – feel morbid fear at the thought, sight, touch or even smell of balloons.

For Stephanie, her phobia was so bad she couldn’t even talk about them, let alone actually hold one or blow one up.

She told The Sunday Post: “They made my skin crawl. It made me feel physically sick. I felt like I would cry.

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“I knew it was ridiculous but it didn’t stop it from happening. There was nothing I could do.”

The garden centre worker first experienced trauma by popping balloons at pals’ parties as a youngster – but the problem developed into a full-blown phobia as she got older.

“I didn’t like people jumping on them,” she added. “I could hold one back then but the older I got, the worse my phobia became.

“I didn’t like the unpredictability of them. That made me nervous.

“The sound of them squeaking made my skin crawl.”

The phobia was put to the test when she worked in a hotel and balloons were present on special occasions.

“I couldn’t go out and collect glasses because the balloons were there,” she added to The Sunday Post. “I’d get goosebumps.”

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Stephanie Parsons, who no longer has a balloon phobia, after she received Hypnosis treatment to cure her
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Stephanie with children Logan (3) and Leah (9) in Glenrothes
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However, when people used to find out about her phobia, many laughed. Indeed, it became a running joke among family and friends.

“When I was expecting my daughter a friend burst a balloon as I was going into a room and I got such a fright I wet myself,” she said.

Stephanie realised just how much her fear had taken over her life when she became a mum following the birth of daughter Leah, now nine years old.

And, to top matters off – her dad even took up balloon modelling as a hobby so he could perform at Leah’s third birthday party dressed as a clown.

“He didn’t do it to upset me,” she said. “He knew Leah would love it.”

If Leah wanted to bring a balloon home from a friend’s party Stephanie would insist she hide it in the car boot so it wasn’t near her.

But Stephanie, who also has a three-year-old son called Logan, is hoping her fear of balloons is now in the past after undergoing hypnotherapy.

A video recorded by Transformations hypnotherapists, in Fife, shows Stephanie going under hypnosis and then handling balloons, blowing one up and bursting it without suffering her usual symptoms.

Marina Collins of Transformations said she used a method called kinetic shift, which involves confronting a phobia with your “eyes open” to treat Stephanie.

She told The Sunday Post: “You learn a phobia very fast and your subconscious can learn to change just as quickly.

“It’s good to see when people see the change in themselves.”

A relieved Stephanie said: “It’s made a big difference. Instantly, the fear of these harmless things was gone.

“I can see a balloon and it doesn’t bother me.

“Logan turns four in May so I’m going to see if I can finally fill my living room with balloons.”

https://www.eveningtelegraph.co.uk/fp/video-balloons-made-skin-crawl-felt-like-cry/
 
Seriously rank teeth freak me out. When I worked on the wards, sometimes we'd get elderly patients in from care homes and I'd have to clean their dentures, sometimes the dentures looked they hadn't been cleaned properly in years which would make me wretch (not their fault bless them). I was fine with all other unpleasant bodily fluids, blood and poo, and even changing charcoal dressings for people with necrotic flesh under going maggot therapy and then 5 minutes later be cheerfully eating a cheese sandwich on my break ... just not teeth. The student younger female nurses used to ask me to please put a convene on their old male patients (for anyone who doesn't know, it's essentially a condom with a tube coming out to be connected to a urine measurement bag) so I'd say "Yes .. but only if you clean these couple of my patient's dentures. I would literally (back then) rather hold an old man's willy than deal with teeth. I don't know how dentists do it.

Years later, I was asked to help out on a till for a moment .. the next customer was an elderly lady who had teeth worse than Austin Powers .. after she left, I had to run into the back because I went dizzy and thought I was going to throw up .. other than teeth, I've got a pretty strong stomach.
 
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Years later, I was asked to help out on a till for a moment .. the next customer was an elderly lady who had teeth worse than Austin Powers .. after she left, I had to run into the back because I went dizzy and thought I was going to throw up .. other than teeth, I've got a pretty strong stomach.
God, that reminds me of my childhood. I visited an old lady with my Mum on a few occasions. Her name was Evelyn, but I thought of her as Evil-In. Her teeth were the worst I've ever seen...because she chewed tobacco and used snuff. Her teeth were actually a dark brown colour, they were horribly broken and she had barely any gums left.
Nasty.
 
God, that reminds me of my childhood. I visited an old lady with my Mum on a few occasions. Her name was Evelyn, but I thought of her as Evil-In. Her teeth were the worst I've ever seen...because she chewed tobacco and used snuff. Her teeth were actually a dark brown colour, they were horribly broken and she had barely any gums left.
Nasty.
I wouldn't snog this woman for a million pounds (even if she is wearing fake Billy Bob rubber teeth)

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Here's a Guardian article about trypophobia, the fear of holes.

Sadly, anyone who'd like to read it but has this fear will be confronted by a big photo-montage featuring all the most alarming types of holes as mentioned on the thread above. I wonder if there's a text-only version?

If a sufferer might find it useful and would like to read it perhaps we could copy/paste it to a pm. The Guardian would approve.

Trypophobia
 
Here's a Guardian article about trypophobia, the fear of holes.

Sadly, anyone who'd like to read it but has this fear will be confronted by a big photo-montage featuring all the most alarming types of holes as mentioned on the thread above. I wonder if there's a text-only version?

If a sufferer might find it useful and would like to read it perhaps we could copy/paste it to a pm. The Guardian would approve.

Trypophobia

I have Trypophobia. I wrote about it on this board somewhere.

Here it is: https://forums.forteana.org/index.p...-phobia-trypophobia.63944/page-2#post-1894277

I never knew I had it until someone was talking about it and I thought, "I don't know what Trypophobia is. I better look it up on Google". I found a video of Mago larvae. I stmached it but looking at more images made me feel revulsed and filled with anxiety. So now I have it and have to actively look away from certain images. My kids think it's hilarious and randomly show me pictures or point out things that might make my stomach churn.
 
I have a bit of an odd one. It's not serious but a mild-moderate aversion. It's the thought of it more than the reality that sets my whole skin on edge.

Dry, spongy materials.

I cannot bear to touch something like, for example, dry oasis sponge used for flower arrangements, or a really dried-out natural or artificial sponge. It makes me hunch up my shoulders and shiver slightly. Once it's damp or wet I'm fine. I can look at them, use them once wetted but the sensation of touching that kind of material with my fingers makes my whole sensory system crawl.

Even spongy old-style headphones - the type you used to get with Walkmans - I could wear them but couldn't touch the dry sponge ear bits with my hands. I used to put them on by handling the headband part.

Plus some foodstuffs like really dry shop-bought meringues make me cringe, how can someone bear to pick one up, let alone put it in their gob?

I'd have to grit my teeth to pick this up and squeeze it around in my hands:

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Here's a Guardian article about trypophobia, the fear of holes.

Sadly, anyone who'd like to read it but has this fear will be confronted by a big photo-montage featuring all the most alarming types of holes as mentioned on the thread above. I wonder if there's a text-only version?

If a sufferer might find it useful and would like to read it perhaps we could copy/paste it to a pm. The Guardian would approve.

Trypophobia

Interestingly, on clicking the Guardian trypophobia link just now I noticed that the disturbing montage of holes has been replaced by a road sign warning of potholes. Shrewd.
 
Cutting nails with a nail clipper. I even shivered when I wrote that.

I can do my own fingernails without flinching. My own toenails are manageable but I can feel quite queasy afterwards.

As for the kids, forget it. I just can't bring myself to do it. My wife gets that job. I'll happily take care of all manner of spills, seepages, leaks, squits, drips and drops but cutting fingernails? No.

I'm like that too and so is my brother. You're not my brother are you?

Fridges are another phobia of mine. I've never mentioned it to anyone but talking to my dad earlier in the year it turns out he has the same thing, he'd never mentioned it me before so I don't think I picked it up from him but maybe I sensed his unease around them as a kid.
 
Fridges are another phobia of mine. I've never mentioned it to anyone but talking to my dad earlier in the year it turns out he has the same thing, he'd never mentioned it me before so I don't think I picked it up from him but maybe I sensed his unease around them as a kid.
Because you may find Zuul lurking inside?
 
My former sister in law was terrified of the feel of styrofoam upon her skin. She would have anxiety attacks of a quite serious degree if she came into contact with it. In this days and age it's sometimes hard to avoid the stuff unless you're always around somebody (assuming they too don't suffer the same thing).
 
I like to brag that I'm not afraid of ANYTHING, but I have to admit not liking bent cutlery. So this isn't funny.

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anything bent out of a regular line :(
 
The trypophobia, the fear of holes, I can imagine people being freaked out by our public lifts at work because the outside metalwork has a pattern like that.
 
I like to brag that I'm not afraid of ANYTHING, but I have to admit not liking bent cutlery. So this isn't funny.

Oh wow, sorry about that. I used to show off back at university by bending the cutlery with my bare hands. It did impress the ladies!
 
I don't know if this is really a phobia as such (certainly not a fear), but I've always (for as long as I can remember) had an aversion to certain metals. I don't know why, or what (if anything) triggered it, but I really dislike touching certain metals.

For example, brass fingerplates on doors, or door handles made of the same material. I either avoid touching them (I touch the door rather than the fingerplate), or get Mr Zebra to open the door, or pull my sleeve over my hand so I don't have to touch it with my bare skin. But even then I feel like my sleeve is 'dirty' in some way, like it's got the metal on it.

This extends to cutlery; I simply cannot and will not use cutlery that is the 'wrong' metal; it's bad enough touching it, but quite another putting it in my mouth or letting it touch my food. One bed-and-breakfast we stayed in quite a few years ago, had entire cutlery sets at the breakfast tables made of some sort of goldish-coloured metal and you can imagine my dismay when I saw it. I ended up just having a cup of tea because I just could not bring myself to use the cutlery.

As to which metals cause this aversion? I don't always know the names of them but it's ones which leave a smell on ones hands after touching them. Curiously now that I have no sense of smell I can sometimes touch for example a door handle that I would not have been able to do before, because I can no longer smell the residue on my hands afterwards, but I still don't really like it and will either wash my hands or wipe them on my clothes for sometime afterwards to rid them of the metal. And I still definitely could not use cutlery that I didn't like.

*shrugs*
 
I don't know if this is really a phobia as such (certainly not a fear), but I've always (for as long as I can remember) had an aversion to certain metals. I don't know why, or what (if anything) triggered it, but I really dislike touching certain metals.

For example, brass fingerplates on doors, or door handles made of the same material. I either avoid touching them (I touch the door rather than the fingerplate), or get Mr Zebra to open the door, or pull my sleeve over my hand so I don't have to touch it with my bare skin. But even then I feel like my sleeve is 'dirty' in some way, like it's got the metal on it.

This extends to cutlery; I simply cannot and will not use cutlery that is the 'wrong' metal; it's bad enough touching it, but quite another putting it in my mouth or letting it touch my food. One bed-and-breakfast we stayed in quite a few years ago, had entire cutlery sets at the breakfast tables made of some sort of goldish-coloured metal and you can imagine my dismay when I saw it. I ended up just having a cup of tea because I just could not bring myself to use the cutlery.

As to which metals cause this aversion? I don't always know the names of them but it's ones which leave a smell on ones hands after touching them. Curiously now that I have no sense of smell I can sometimes touch for example a door handle that I would not have been able to do before, because I can no longer smell the residue on my hands afterwards, but I still don't really like it and will either wash my hands or wipe them on my clothes for sometime afterwards to rid them of the metal. And I still definitely could not use cutlery that I didn't like.

*shrugs*
Brass and copper are particularly stinky metals that have a bad smell when they have a bit of oxidisation. They are also a bit of a breeding ground for bacteria. You may be unconsciously reacting with that knowledge in the back of your mind.
Gold and stainless steel cutlery should be OK. Silver is OK, but it oxidises and leaves a 'taint' to food and drink. I have had tea that came out of a solid silver teapot and it wasn't that pleasant.
 
I don't know if this is really a phobia as such (certainly not a fear), but I've always (for as long as I can remember) had an aversion to certain metals. I don't know why, or what (if anything) triggered it, but I really dislike touching certain metals.

For example, brass fingerplates on doors, or door handles made of the same material. I either avoid touching them (I touch the door rather than the fingerplate), or get Mr Zebra to open the door, or pull my sleeve over my hand so I don't have to touch it with my bare skin. But even then I feel like my sleeve is 'dirty' in some way, like it's got the metal on it.

This extends to cutlery; I simply cannot and will not use cutlery that is the 'wrong' metal; it's bad enough touching it, but quite another putting it in my mouth or letting it touch my food. One bed-and-breakfast we stayed in quite a few years ago, had entire cutlery sets at the breakfast tables made of some sort of goldish-coloured metal and you can imagine my dismay when I saw it. I ended up just having a cup of tea because I just could not bring myself to use the cutlery.

As to which metals cause this aversion? I don't always know the names of them but it's ones which leave a smell on ones hands after touching them. Curiously now that I have no sense of smell I can sometimes touch for example a door handle that I would not have been able to do before, because I can no longer smell the residue on my hands afterwards, but I still don't really like it and will either wash my hands or wipe them on my clothes for sometime afterwards to rid them of the metal. And I still definitely could not use cutlery that I didn't like.

*shrugs*
You could buy some cutlery to carry around and use when necessary. This works for me.
 
Brass and copper are particularly stinky metals that have a bad smell when they have a bit of oxidisation. They are also a bit of a breeding ground for bacteria. You may be unconsciously reacting with that knowledge in the back of your mind.
Gold and stainless steel cutlery should be OK. Silver is OK, but it oxidises and leaves a 'taint' to food and drink. I have drunk tea that came out of a solid silver teapot and it wasn't that pleasant.

Brass and copper are definitely two of them. There is (at least) one other but I don't know what it's called; I'd know it if I saw it. Its used on door handles a lot.

Ohh no, I couldn't use gold cutlery. Or silver. Whenever we look around a stately home or place like that (or on a telly program), and I see their silverware.... just no. Stainless steel is the only one I can use I think (or whatever modern cutlery is made from)... but then it has to be the 'right' one even then.



You could buy some cutlery to carry around and use when necessary. This works for me.

Do you have this issue too, or do you carry your own cutlery for different / hygiene reasons?

That is a good idea.... except I do have a 'chunky handled fork' which I should use because of my hand/finger problems but hardly ever think to take with me because I wouldn't have anywhere to put it so I just use it at home - I don't use a bag when Mr Zebra and I go out and about (I use a shoulder bag at work but that's because I carry my phone and medicine etc in it). Yeah, I'm an awkward sod!
 
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