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Curious Phobias & Irrational Fears

I have an intense fear of balloons. Even if I'm just stood near them, my heart races and my palms get clammy. I hate them!
Last year the company in which I work had a celebration of some non-acheivement or other and decided that one of the ways to celebrate would be to put an archway of red and blue balloons around the the doorway into the office. I almost adopted the foetal position there and then.
I'm also terrified of the feel of cotton wool, velvet, velour.
I am odd.
 
Re: Curious Phobias

ProfessorF said:
"Personally, I don't think I've encountered anything that I have an irrational fear of, quite unlike my housemates."

An "irrational fear" and a phobia aren't neccessarily the same thing.

Individuals with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) usually harbor a myriad "irrational fears," but they usually can PERFORM those functions which they so fear. They merely grumble about what they're going to do for a long time in advance and endure bad memories of the experience for a long time after, but they still CARRY OUT those tasks.

That would seem to preclude "phobia," at least by commonly-accepted definition.
 
I have been reading this thread smugly thinking to myself that I don't think there's anything unusual that I truly, truly fear; "unusual" being the key word. Then this morning I heard the tornado siren in my town go off, probably a test to ensure that no one would take it seriously if there actually was an emergency.

Tornadoes don't frighten me; nor does odd weather, or even the siren...from a distance. Have any of you actually heard one of those sirens (y'know, the kind that have diagonal slits in them and spin about to indicate that the commies are coming or some such thing) as it is winding up or down?

To put it a better way, these things start slow, then as the speed picks up they get louder and louder. For some reason I can't stand being near one just as it's starting or stopping. The sound as it changes pitch scares the hell out of me. I get cold sweats, start shaking, and generally just get weird.

I have a mild theory to explain this one...

I suspect that I may have been involved in perhaps one of the World Wars in a previous life. I don't know if sirens of this type were actually in use at the time (though military movies would have us believe that they were) but it seems to make a certain amount of sense and I've heard of the possibility of taking memories/fears/ideas from one life to the next, though it isn't necesarily intentional. Perhaps when I hear one, the unconcious part of me says,"Air Raid!" (ie. "Be afraid when you hear this").

Thoughts?
 
Sirens

Since 1974 in the Midwestern United States the old World War Two air raid sirens have been used to warn of approaching tornadoes and severe thunderstorms. (Here in Cincinnati they are also tested at Noon on the first and 15th of every month - God help us all if a major storm ever developes at those times.)

An entire generation of children has grown up fearing the sound of those sirens.

It took me a little while to fully understand why - the children identify the sirens' wailings as the sound *"OF"* tornadoes rather than as seek- shelter warnings against them. They hear the sirens as the storm ITSELF screaming. (I suspect that British children during the Blitz may have similarly identified the wail of the air raid sirens AS the noise of enemy attack.)

In much the same way, as I a child I identified the odor of kereosene-rich "bug" spray as the odor *"OF"* insects. Even today, more than 50 years later, my very first thought on catching a whiff of kereosene or coal oil is of insects.
 
Re: Curious Phobias

OldTimeRadio said:
An "irrational fear" and a phobia aren't neccessarily the same thing.

Individuals with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) usually harbor a myriad "irrational fears," but they usually can PERFORM those functions which they so fear. They merely grumble about what they're going to do for a long time in advance and endure bad memories of the experience for a long time after, but they still CARRY OUT those tasks.

That would seem to preclude "phobia," at least by commonly-accepted definition.

Most definitions of the word I'm familiar with describe 'phobia' as being an irrational fear - I would suggest that people with OCD carry these fears as a symptom of a further malaise.
After all, many characteristics of OCD, such as performing small personal rituals to conquer those fears aren't necessarily shared with those who are phobic.

So I would still tend to describing an irrational fear as a phobia, and vice versa. It is what the sufferer does to alleviate the fear that would then further categorise them I guess.

Clearly, like our friend who hates needles and doesn't like pointy objects near her arms, some phobias are learned. Others appear to be built in to people.

Many neuroscientists believe that there is a clear involvement of biological factors. For example, functional brain imaging studies have shown that there is an increased blood flow and cell metabolic actiity on the right side of the brain in phobic patients. It has also been demonstrated that identical twins may develop the same type of phobia, even when they were reared separately soon after birth, and educated in different places.
source

One of my favourites is the Japanese socially-induced phobia -

Taijin kyofusho (対人恐怖症, TKS, for taijin kyofusho symptoms), is a Japanese culture-specific syndrome (cultural disorder, or mental illness).

The term taijin kyofusho literally means the disorder (sho) of fear (kyofu) of interpersonal relations (taijin). Dr. Morita Masatake (also known as Morita Shoma) described the condition as vicious cycle of self examination and reproach which can occur in people of hypochondriacal temperament.

In the West, taijin kyofusho is usually described as a form of social anxiety (social phobia), with the sufferer dreading and avoiding social contact. However, instead of a fear of embarrassing themselves or being harshly judged by others because of their social ineptness (as in cases in the Western world), sufferers of taijin kyofusho report a fear of offending or harming other people. The focus is thus on avoiding harm to others rather than to oneself.

In the official Japanese diagnostic system, taijin kyofusho is subdivided into the following categories:

  • * Sekimen-kyofu, the phobia of blushing
    * Shubo-kyofu, the phobia of a deformed body, similar to Body dysmorphic disorder
    * Jikoshisen-kyofu, the phobia of eye-to-eye contact
    * Jikoshu-kyofu, the phobia of having foul body odor
Since it is not prevalent in American culture, taijin kyofusho is not detailed in the DSM IV. This is under debate, however, as symptoms indicative of taijin kyofusho are sometimes found in patients in the United States.
source
 
I have a similar "phobia" to the people who can't stand pickles or cucumbers - I absolutely despise tomatoes. I can't stand the look of them. I can't eat anything a tomato may have touched. When I first started working in a kitchen at a restaurant I remember having to try really hard not to heave while cutting tomatoes ready for salads. I got over the worst of it over time (I worked there for five years) but any time there was an overly squishy one I would heave. It's completely irrational (I'm sure you'd agree). I think it's mostly to do with my aversion to "soft" food... I can't stand odd textures in my mouth. I can't eat yogurt with pieces in it, for example. My Mum says I never ate tomato as a child either - as soon as I was old enough to refuse to eat them, I did.

A friend of my mother's is the opposite, and only eats food that doesn't need a lot of chewing (she admits to being totally lazy), though when I suggested to my boss that between myself and my Mum's friend, cosmic balance was restored, she replied, "cosmic balance, my arse!" I like that story.

Another irrational fear I have is of spiders, but as that's not very unusual I won't mention it.
 
I had a psych prof tell me that fear of spiders in places like the uk would count as irrational as apart from supermarket banabox surprises British spiders are not 'human killers'. Must remember that many fears, habits and phobias can be learnt vicariously...
 
Re: Sirens

OldTimeRadio said:
An entire generation of children has grown up fearing the sound of those sirens.

It took me a little while to fully understand why - the children identify the sirens' wailings as the sound *"OF"* tornadoes rather than as seek- shelter warnings against them. They hear the sirens as the storm ITSELF screaming. (I suspect that British children during the Blitz may have similarly identified the wail of the air raid sirens AS the noise of enemy attack.)

I actually never feared them as a child. In fact, from a distance, I just find them to be an annoyance. I've never been so close as to hear one wind up or down until I moved to Cambridge, WI. I used to have to walk past one and numerous times it would happen to be around noon (the "noon whistle") and I would hear it start up just a few feet from me (well, maybe 15 feet above me). As I said, I don't mind tornadoes at all; rather, I really hope to see one someday, and I don't identify the sound with severe weather at all which, in the Midwest, makes this a somewhat irrational reaction. I loved it when the siren would go off in Milwaukee because even at age 6 I really enjoyed severe weather and that sound meant that we were in for plenty of it.

Still, I can absolutely understand what you are getting at, Oldtime, I just don't think it applies to this case. (And I love the idea of children thinking that the storm is "screaming". That begs to be turned into a story...)
 
emmbob said:
I have a similar "phobia" to the people who can't stand pickles or cucumbers - I absolutely despise tomatoes.

I can't stand tomatoes either but I don't think it's a phobia, I just really hate the taste - I would heave if I tried to eat one. It's odd though because I'll eat tomato soup, and tomato ketchup, and recipes which contain tomatoes (e.g. curries, pasta sauces etc.), and I absolutely love sundried tomatoes, but tomatoes in their "natural" state, either raw or cooked, make me gag. Some people have suggested, quite logically I think, that it's the texture, but on the other hand I also loathe tomato juice so I guess not. It may be something like emmbob's "phobia", though, as I also hate yogurt with bits in it. Sorry, that was rather off-topic, I was just interested to find someone else who hates tomatoes...
 
With all due respect, speaking as a phobic person myself, I don't think an aversion is equivalent. I personally dislike eating chicken on the bone, such as drumsticks, but have no problem with nuggets, chicken breasts, etc. A true phobia would involve becoming terrified in the presence of tomatoes, cucumbers, buttons, drumsticks etc., perhaps having panic attacks in the greengrocers', and taking elaborate steps to avoid them if necessary.
 
Re: Curious Phobias

ProfessorF said:
"Most definitions of the word I'm familiar with describe 'phobia' as being an irrational fear - I would suggest that people with OCD carry these fears as a symptom of a further malaise. After all, many characteristics of OCD, such as performing small personal rituals to conquer those fears aren't necessarily shared with those who are phobic.
So I would still tend to describing an irrational fear as a phobia, and vice versa. It is what the sufferer does to alleviate the fear that would then further categorise them I guess."

This is all most likely just a semantic argument. But the statement that OCD individuals "have fears but not phobias" is one that I've not only heard from numerous fellow OCD sufferers (all of them professional people well-educated concerning the disorder) but ALSO from PROFESSIONAL THERAPISTS in the field. (It is also my own personal observation.) In fact, this subject has come up for discussion many times in OCD support groups, as well as in private therapy sessions, with the consensus being as related above.

By the way, and just for the purpose of information, nearly one-third of OCD people have ONLY the Obsessions, without ANY Compulsive behaviors. They generally have a harder time of it than the remaining two-thirds, who at least get SOME temporary respite from their rituals.

As I may have informed you in the past, I have been for the past 11 years co-leader (there are two of us) of the main OCD support group serving a large metropolitan area. The group draws members from parts of three states.
 
Leaferne said:
With all due respect, speaking as a phobic person myself, I don't think an aversion is equivalent. I personally dislike eating chicken on the bone, such as drumsticks, but have no problem with nuggets, chicken breasts, etc. A true phobia would involve becoming terrified in the presence of tomatoes, cucumbers, buttons, drumsticks etc., perhaps having panic attacks in the greengrocers', and taking elaborate steps to avoid them if necessary.

Ok, it's not that bad. They do make me gag, though. At least my fear of spiders is irrational, so I can take comfort in that knowledge. Sort of.
 
There are a few things of which I am genuinely phobic - clowns, razors (including Stanley knives, razor blades, shaving razors and straight-razors) and birds (the flying kind - the other kind I am perfectly at ease with :) ).

With razors, I can't help but think of the potential damage carelessness can cause - it's actually going through my mind right now - I can't watch my wife shave her legs with a lady bic - she's so nonchalant about it, scraping away in all directions without even thining about it - it honestly turns my stomach just thinking about it.

That scene in Airplane fills me with dread.

As a small child, walking through St George's Square with my Dad, a pigeon flew right at my head and collided with my face, flapping and clawing. Since then, I've been known to automatically duck, or try to jump out of the way when birds are flying near me, although in reality, they are about 20 feet away.

The movie The Birds is fine though - I do, however identify with Tippi Hedren.

Clowns - this is the real biggie.

I don't know where it came from, I don't think I'd ever even seen one in the flesh until I was about 17. I just can't look at them, I've had genuine panic attacks just looking at pictures of them.

But, it's not all clowns - Krusty, for instance, is fine - even Pennywise! even John Wayne Gacy doesn't inspire me to panic. I've even seen the Archaos circus, and did a series of prints and paintings of one of the performers for Higher Art in school. Clowns that are deliberately supposed to be scary or unsettling don't do it.

The more benign, or funny the clown-face is, the creepier it seems.

I was out for a meal one Sunday with my family, and in the middle of a conversation, my wife (who was sitting across from me) stopped dead and told me to look straight at her, "do not turn around".

So, of course, I go to turn around - "DON'T" she says. It's one of them.

At that very instant, I could feel a cold sweat start to form on my forehead. I started to get lightheaded - I hadn't even seen the thing - just the knowledge that there was one in the room was enough. There was a family sitting at the table behind us, and they had a kid - it was the kid's birthday, and they had arranged a clown.

I knew right then what had to happen - I had to kill the clown.

I started to get really angry, and could feel my fists balling up - if this thing came near me, it was over - I had lost control and couldn't stop myself - some sort of fight-or-flight instinct had taken over. I was becoming more frightened of the malice that I held for this poor guy scraping a living entertaining whiny brats, having to smile through all the tantrums, the berating, the general shit of having to entertain children - having to put on this suit and make-up and make an arse of himself every day.

All these things I knew - but if he came close to me, I was going to let fly and I had no way to stop myself - I was going to kill this fucker - if in fact, I didn't pass out first due to the fact I was hyperventillating badly and was getting more and more lightheaded by the second.

My wife helped me up and led me to the bathroom to splash water on my face - I took my inhaler (I'm asthmatic), and over several minutes, calmed down enough to regain my bearings and go back to my dinner.

my wife went out first to plan a route back to our table that meant I could avoid seeing the thing.

But he was already gone. I sat down, ate my dinner and enjoyed the rest of the night.

Although secretly, as I lay my head down to go to sleep that night, I knew he was till out there, and could get me at any time.
 
I am scared to death of NOSES! It's almost like an OCD for me. I don't know why exactly, but I remember in 4th grade we were talking about cartledge (sorry if I don't spell it right), and we had to (I am literally squirming in my seat at the thought of this) touch the tip of our nose, ugghhh! And then, I almost passed out because it grossed me out so much. So, I guess it may have started then, but now, any thought of the tips of noses, or noses, uggghh, falling off, or anything, scares the heck out of me and literally makes me almost throw up. Like, for instance, in the Hitchhikers Guide movie, when the guy, yuck, pulls off that robot's nose, so sick, I screamed and the entire theatre laughed at me. And I can't look at pics of Michael Jackson. And, this sounds morbid, but I think how if I ever got in a car accident and lost my nose, I would rather die than stay alive. Or, when people find out about my phobia, they try to constantly touch it, but stop when I start screaming in a restaurant or wherever, lol. And then, to get the gross feel off my mind, I kind of have to rub my nose, without touching the tip, until I feel better, and I've been doing that almost a hundred times since I started writing this post.
 
I am phobic about trains.

Even as a kid, when my playmates stood within three or four feet of the tracks to watch trains pass, I'd place myself about 30 or 40 feet back.

This even extends to my dreams. Every dream-street has four sets of tracks running down the center, with express trains racing in both directions. The only way to cross streets is to dash madly between speeding trains. With typical dream logic (or rather lack thereof) this bothers absolutely nobody else in the dream, just me..

In my dreams loocomotive also run directly through my bedroom and down the hall.
 
Sounds like you had a bad experience with the Polar Express when you were a kid. :) Yeah, trains used to really creep me out too. There's something about them sad and mournful. I think for me it's that there was a giant hurrican in 1900 around where I live that ripped the railroads to shreds, and even now you see remnants of it. I think for me it was one of those imprints left by a bad disaster.
 
OldTimeRadio said:
Even as a kid, when my playmates stood within three or four feet of the tracks to watch trains pass, I'd place myself about 30 or 40 feet back.

Don't know if it counts as a phobia but I find it hard to stand less than about three feet from the edge of the underground platform without feeling like I'm going to fall - I see other people standing, or even worse walking along, right on the edge and it freaks me out that they're able to do that.... wow, I just got deja vu, I'm sure I've posted about this before somewhere...
 
:splat: Balloons.Near my ears.

Those tin-foil helium thingies don't bother me in the slightest,but put an inflated rubber balloon near my ear and I'll get suddenly violent.
Naturally,as soon as my children found out about it,they never ceased trying it out.(GETTHATFRIKKIN'THINGAWAYFROMMEYAMONSTER!)


It's somehow the "noise" of it(or how it deadens sound?)or the static feel they have.
 
tatertotaggie said:
"Sounds like you had a bad experience with the Polar Express when you were a kid. :)....There's something about them sad and mournful."

No bad experiences that I can recall, and my memories are intact back to age three or so.

I rather like the whee-WHOO-argh-arrooo whistle blasts in the depths of the night, softened by distance. (I live on one of the highest hills in Cincinnati, with no train tracks in the immediate neighborhood.)

Sometimes on summer nights, with the windows open, I'll hear the fuzzy crush-chunk of trains being made up (linked together) in the nearest trainyards. That's also blurred by distance.

[I grew up in a small rivertown in Northern Kentucky, where train tracks ran on a high and vine-shrouded trestle through the center of the city. We'd go to sleep at night by train whistle blasts counterpointed against the fog horns of coal barges on the Ohio River. It was all very restful.]

It's being run over by those damned locomotives that I fear! <g>

(I have quite enough loco motives of my own....)
 
gridban said:
"I find it hard to stand less than about three feet from the edge of the underground platform without feeling like I'm going to fall - I see other people standing, or even worse walking along, right on the edge and it freaks me out that they're able to do that.... wow,"

Hey, I'm with you. I'd be afraid of fellow passengers, especially a crowd of them, accidentally jostling me over the edge.

You just reminded me of a remark I occasionally make to my Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder support group - "My OCD has kept me from taking up sky-diving, and if I didn't have OCD I sure as hell hope something else would!" <g>

Fortean skydivers....no offense.
 
blackhand2010 said:
I have an intense fear of balloons. Even if I'm just stood near them, my heart races and my palms get clammy. I hate them!

do you have any idea why? i used to work at a video store, and this lady came in around halloween time. we had the store decorated with all sorts of halloweeny balloons everywhere, and as soon as she stepped into the store, she FREAKED. started screaming and crying and ran out of the store like nothing ive ever seen. she later (after halloween and we took the decorations down) explained her balloon phobia. at the time (no offense) i thought it was amusing cause, i mean, theyre balloons. ive thought about it, though, and realized that if someone said to me "c'mon, its just a clown," id probably hit them.
yeah, clowns are my big one. im convinced theyre not human. nothing can make me believe otherwise.
 
MercuryCrest said:
I suspect that I may have been involved in perhaps one of the World Wars in a previous life. I don't know if sirens of this type were actually in use at the time (though military movies would have us believe that they were) but it seems to make a certain amount of sense and I've heard of the possibility of taking memories/fears/ideas from one life to the next, though it isn't necesarily intentional. Perhaps when I hear one, the unconcious part of me says,"Air Raid!" (ie. "Be afraid when you hear this").

Thoughts?

I've sometimes wondered the same about myself in relation to WWII. I wasn't born, yet, so I have no experience of WWII at all. Yet, the air-raid-now-tornado sirens give me the chills, as do some incidents from that period when I hear those incidents discussed on television.

Nevertheless, there are a great many WWII movies, and we might have seen one or two at a very young age and caught these fears from them.
Or even overheard our parents talking about WWII (yes, I'm old enough that my parents experienced WWII).
 
ElishevaBarsabe said:
"Nevertheless, there are a great many WWII movies, and we might have seen one or two at a very young age and caught these fears from them. Or even overheard our parents talking about WWII."

I think you're right. I remember being deeply affected in the 1950s by not only the wailings of air-raid sirens in films set during World War II but also those same sirens in science fiction movies where they warned of approaching Russian bombers or of hostile 'flying saucers' from outer space or even of fire-breathing, skyscraper-tromping dinosaur-dragons from beneath the sea. (Never, mercifully, all three at once.)

But TODAY's children, I think, fear the sirens' screamings because they associate them WITH the sound of tornadoes, as a PART OF them, as the very VOICE OF the storms, rather than as protections against them.

But that's most likely an historically testable thesis - are there any Britishers who as very young children during the Blitz came to regard the air raid sirens' sounds AS the voice OF the Germany enemy?
 
NOt that old meself. But I remember in the 1980's alarms would be tested in London. I always associated them with the possiblity of nuclear attack. But never believed that an attack was about to happen. It just left an almost subconscious feeling of dread that manifested in dreams.
 
The first time I ever heard air raid sirens "in the flesh" was during the violent tornadoes which swept the American Midwest in early April, 1974. I realized what they were, the old World War Two sirens, but I was surprised that they still existed.

They were not used at all during even the worst days of the early 1950s Cold War, surprisingly enough.

I MAY have heard those sirens being tested during World War Two, but I have no conscious memory of that. I was only four when World War Two ended, and it had been clear for the previous two or three years that propeller-driven enemy bombers were NOT going to reach the American Midwest, not even on suicide missions.
 
I don't like air raid sirens. They used one in the woodyard behind my nan's house many years ago, and as a child I used to get hysterical when they went off (I think they signalled start of work, finish time etc). Can't explain that one.

I'm phobic about the idea of having teeth out. I was lucky enough to have my wisdom teeth out under general anaesthetic at the dentist, but this is no longer an option in the UK. You have to be referred to hospital to get one these days.

This one is uppermost in my mind at the moment as I've got a tooth (a molar - this is worse, for some reason, than other teeth) with a hole in it, and it's been giving me intense pain off and on for weeks now. My dentist referred me to hospital and I can go in on 22 September :?

I psyched myself up this week to go to the dentist to get it out. I went on various websites and went step by step through the procedure to see what, if anything, made me cringe and feel ill, but there was nothing. I'm not afraid of the dentist, I've been known to have small fillings with no anaesthetic at all, but the mention of an extraction sends me into a blind tearful panic. Right up to going into the surgery, I was still going to tell him to pull it out, but once in the chair I just started crying and shaking and this was before he'd even looked at it. As it happens, I have a really deep infection, which is causing pain at nerve level, and can't have the tooth out till it clears up anyway, but what's it all about? Even in the throes of agonising pain I can't imagine having the tooth out.

I've never had a bad experience, I have absolute faith in my dentist, and he doesn't scare me at all. I'd rather a complete stranger did the procedure when I'm out cold than let someone I like and trust do it while I'm awake.

I really need to get to the bottom of this!
 
I have a fear of surguery(sp?) I fear that I will die "on the table"
or worse,and this has already happend to me, that I will be awake during the operation.
I had oral surguery last year and woke up while the dentist was drilling the remainder of the roots out of the socket!!! And it happend twice!!
I had no idea that they tied your hands down during the process after
you fall asleep,and when I woke I tried to raise my hand to tell them to stop, only to find that my hands were strapped to the chair arms!!!!!
I began flapping my hand up and down as fast as I could and got the attention of the nurse , who freaked out and stopped the dentist, and turned up the gas to put me out again.
a few minutes later it happend again!!
I can still feel the searing pain , like a red hot spike being thrust into my jaw. I now fear that if I have any kind of more invasive operation that I will wake and not be able to stop it.
Fortunately my knee operation went without a hitch,but it took a lot of tranquilisers to put me out as my heart was racing before I was even in the hospital room waiting for the pre-op pep talk with the doctor.
I had to be drugged while waiting to be wheeled down to the operating room. But I guess this isn't irrational since it had happend before.
Although the fear of dying must be since I have not died before.
I did come very close once though.
 
Diamonddogs, I recently had a tooth out. This was my second extraction, the first being 4 years ago and was such a nasty experience that I hadn't been to the dentist since. Basically the roots of my teeth are claw shaped instead of curving a little, they have a full-on eagle-claw grip so are very difficult to take out.
However, I was in so much pain recently that I simply had to have it sorted. Just like you, as soon as I sit in that dreaded chair, my heart rate goes faster than a speeding bullet, I sweat, I panic, I cry. So I decided the only thing to do was try & regulate my breathing and meditate.
I meditate whenever I can and remembered my relaxation technique. Don't forget the anasthetic they give you will completely numb the whole area of your mouth around the tooth, probably your cheeks, tounge and face too so you won't feel a thing, if you are not ready or are worried you still have feeling, ask for another injection, they will give it to you.
I felt very numb and although my heart rate increased (this could be from the anasthetic) I concentrated very hard on my breathing. The poor dentist had alot of trouble, he eventually had to break the tooth into pieces to get it out and this took half an hour in total. He even joined me with the breathing which was hilairious, had I not had a tool box in my mouth, I would have peed myself laughing.
Somehow the breathing & relaxation, concentrating on each part of my body to relax got me through the whole procedure.
The mind is a powerful thing, its all about mind over matter. You probably won't have the trouble I had & it will come out easily in less than 30 seconds. Just relax, go for it, you will feel a million times better when its out :glum:
 
Thanks Cassandra!

This is the whole point isn't it. It's all about the power of the mind, so if possible we really need to try to supplant the fear with something pleasurable if at all possible. Those of us who fear something tangible that's going to happen are more fortunate, like I could get hypnosis or something, but the ones who are afraid of something that could appear/happen unexpectedly aren't so lucky, since there's no way you can prepare yourself for it. Like the clown thing - you can be taught not to want to kill the clown, but how can you take away the initial feelings of panic if one just appears in front of you in the street? And once that initial panic sets in you need to be able to get that under control pretty damn quick cos it's frightening in itself how quickly full blown panic can set in, then we get really irrational and make matters a whole lot worse.

Incidentally, my other phobia is quite a common one - heights - but that one's easy - I just stay on the ground as far as possible! But God help anyone with me when I have to go up high: I get convinced that they're going to push me over, either deliberately or accidentally. Some of my worst dreams and nightmares have involved heights and I wake in a cold sweat, crying uncontrollably.
 
Ok, so apparently I'm watching this topic, but I haven't been getting topic reply notifications. This post is in hopes that posting will result in my receiving topic reply notifications in the future.
 
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