Sunday, September 12, 2010

Just Curious....Phobias



I'm too tired to tackle another controversial topic at this moment (though I have a ton just waiting to get going!), so I thought I would throw out an easy post.


Do you have any phobias?


I have a fear of heights and a fear of flying. The two are not related.


I think my fear of heights comes from falling off a jungle gym and breaking my arm when I was four. I can't stand near a high balcony's edge without getting queasy, I can't climb a tall ladder, and I can't even imagine walking on that glass-bottom walkway over the Grand Canyon!


My fear of flying is due to my fear of crashing, not heights, ha ha! My flying phobia got intense after I had children. I guess I'm a control freak in some ways -- if I'm not the one flying the plane, I don't trust it. (I feel the same way about driving, on a smaller scale. I don't like to be in the passenger seat.) I guess I can "handle" big jet planes (though I've only been on one trip in the past eight years); however, you'd seriously have to anesthetize me before I'd get on a small, twin-engine plane.


Okay, start the phobia-fest! Spill it!



32 comments:

  1. The Ocean. Scares me half to death. It's just so big and powerful. And there's sharks inside.

    I am not so disabled by it that I can't enjoy tide-pooling or dipping my feet in, but I always have recurrent nightmares after any visit to the beach.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Scorpions... Poisonous snakes... Sharks.

    We have 2 out of 3 where I live. And after last week's massive rain, I wouldn't be surprised to find a shark outside in a puddle.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Palmetto bugs.

    I LOVE snakes, spiders, etc., and sharks are my passion. I love snorkling in the shark-infested Keys.
    ;)

    But palmetto bugs? My reaction is ridiculous and embarrassing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. No true phobias, but I will try to avoid clowns and raccoons.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Something going through my shoe and into my foot. Weird-I know. I stepped on a nail that went through my shoe when I was a kid. I still don't like the bottoms of my feet to be "exposed". I fear someone will shove another nail through them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I am also afraid of heights. :) DH loves to snow ski, and so we went this past winter to a Michigan ski resort for the day. The lifts had no safety bar or guard rail, and I was literally hyperventilating all the way up. An 8 year old boy said to me, "don't worry, everyone is scared their first time!" haha

    I am also afraid of being in tight enclosed spaces. I'm fine with elevators etc, but if I am stuck in a space with my arms restricted and the area above my head is enclosed... I start to freak out.

    Also, I love water recreation, and I have been water skiing since I was a very small child, but I am terrified to hang out in the water right up next to the boat. I am so afraid that I will mysteriously be sucked under. (completely irrational, I know).
    Also, when I was in elementary school, we took the boat across the lake to get some ice cream, but when we got there, the whole restaurant was under water, and you could only see the roof peaks! It was a floating restaurant, and apparently the flotation material had slowly started to fail. No one got hurt thankfully, but I had nightmares for months.
    As a result of this experience, I developed a ridiculous fear when I was swimming in the lake that a house or restaurant was going to come up underneath me. I have learned to conquer that fear since it is so ridiculous, but sometimes I still think about it! :)
    They actually rebuilt that restaurant, and it is now called "Sinkers." :) They have really good food! haha

    ReplyDelete
  7. You know mine is flying and it has gotten worse and worse.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Heights. I once stood on the glass floor in the Toronto... needle... whatever that tall thing is. :) Almost had a panic attack!!! I am also afraid of tornadoes. I have recurring nightmares of seeing multiple tornadoes in the distance and running for cover. I *have* been in the path of a tornado a couple of times (not common in VA) but I think the phobia really started with watching the Wizard of Oz when I was 3. Love that movie. But oh, that tornado....

    ReplyDelete
  9. Oh Megan! I too am afraid of certain kinds of enclosed spaces! Ack! The worst is when I feel my breathing is restricted in *any* way (like when they strapped me to a stretcher after a car accident for too long... I became a crazy lady).

    ReplyDelete
  10. Grasshoppers. They just jump and scare me to pieces. Ewwwww.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I'm afraid of heights, but as you know, when I get in crowds, I panic. I'm sometimes on the floor imploding mentally.

    It just goes to show that "fear" is more complex than we might have imagined. "Fear" can have a chemical/neurological component that we have little, if any, control over sometimes. At the same time, fear is an obstacle in our spiritual journey to God.

    "Fear" that is chemical/neurological in nature is not "irrational" fear. (The most commonly used definition of "phobia" is "irrational fear".) Fear that separates us from God is authentically irrational fear.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Yipes! Can one of you guys change your background? That's confusing to me! Sorry!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Burning down my house! It has seriously taken over me. I check all the outlets several times before I leave the house to make sure I didn't leave the toaster, cell phone charger, flat iron, etc. plugged in. I have been known to get all the way to work (a 45 minute drive) and have to go game to check. I drive my husband nuts!

    I'm also terrified or flying. I would have to be given some vallium or something to get on a plane. Fortunately I haven't had to get on one in 11 years. :)

    And the. There are the grates in the street where the rain goes. You won't catch me walking on those!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Snakes. A neighbor boy stuffed one down my shirt when I was a kid and that turned a fear into a phobia. Also, open stairways - I can go up but have to look straight ahead to come down (fire tower type stairways).

    ReplyDelete
  15. parasites-courtesy of that TV show "monsters inside me" Thankfully I've never had any (oh wait, do lice count?) despite traveling outside the U.S.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Rabies. Though it is much better than it was when I was in 4th grade or so, when my mother freaked me out so badly telling me stories of squirrels and groundhogs attacking people in their gardens. I used to freeze like a statue at the sight of a squirrel (and when you live in a rural area, that's pretty much all the time). I still get freaked if I see a racoon or opposum or something.

    And I guess flying, though like you it's more the crashing part. The first 10 minutes of every flight are torture, then I'm ok.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Lol at Cathy and Jenny ;)

    I'm a total germophobe. I wont drink after anyone and hate public restrooms. I send Ken back in the bathroom w M if he doesn't wash her hands. I hate it when people kiss my kids on the mouth or hands!

    I'm also afraid of kids near high places. I do not Like my kids around any balcony or anything like that. I told Cathy the other night I've had nightmares about going to the grand canyon with them.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hmmm...no true phobias that I can think of. Plenty of things I don't enjoy, but nothing that I have had a major reaction to.

    ReplyDelete
  19. TW, I was going to change the color a bit anyway... I get bored, ha!!

    Oh my gosh, all your phobias are FABULOUS! :)

    And, Monica, I guess I have a bit of an ocean phobia, too... I forgot, ha!

    ReplyDelete
  20. I've never been afraid of the ocean - I grew up on the beach - but that movie "Open Water" made me sick to my stomach. (But I loved it!)
    A lot of people hated it, thought it was boring. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time! The ocean was a character in and of itself - that movie was INTENSE!

    ReplyDelete
  21. I fear heights (and ditto to the commenter who said she went on the glass floor at the CN Tower in Toronto....so freaky!!) and I fear moths. Something about the way they flitter around (esp. at night) freaks me out!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. Mine is being under water,I can and do swim but dont' go underwater nor do I swim with my face in the water. I dont' find suffocating fun.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Oh, I forgot to mention mice. Actually, I think it would be more accurate to say I BLOCKED OUT mice! <<<<<>>>>>>>

    ReplyDelete
  24. 2 things come to mind
    Snakes. I don't even like to watch them on TV or see them in books. My kids found this hilarious when they were growing up. Snakes are simply icky...
    And elevators. I will walk lots of flights of stairs instead of using a perfectly good elevator. I don't think I am claustrophobic. And I can ride in an elevator especially if I am with others but I don't like them.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Sharks...I was fine until Andrew and I were in Hawaii in 2003 when Bethany Hamilton got her arm bit off by a shark. It was all over the headlines and it was too close to where we were. I haven't gone in the Ocean since, not hard since we live in Indiana.

    Alligators and Crocodiles

    Spiders

    Heights and Enclosed Spaces...makes planes a nightmare!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Looking at myself in a mirror in a darkened room. This is because when I was a kid I read about a sort of occultic ritual that involved doing that.

    ReplyDelete
  27. None. Odd I know. Not really a fear, but I won't squash a bug. I prefer to scoop them up with something and throw them outside. Partly because I am kind, lol, and partly because I can't stand to hear them/feel them crunch.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Mosquitoes and small spiders.


    ...wow, looking at yourself in a mirror in a darkened room? That's specific enough to make me wonder just which occultic ritual this was.

    (I also have a phobia of looking at myself in the mirror for too long...it's just too weird! Am I the only one?)

    ReplyDelete
  29. Okay Leila, because you don't know me well enough by now...I am terrified of heights. I always "look up" to remind myself to keep my eyes on Jesus (so I don't look down and pee my pants). I also have a fear of freezing/drowning under ice. In MI there are lots of winter lake accidents involving folks falling through the ice and then trying to get back up through the hole they fell through. 'Stuff of nightmares I tell ya!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Heights! I went on a Ferris wheel with D a few years ago and of course we got stuck at the top for a little while. Not fun.

    ReplyDelete
  31. I have a phobia of dropping things in cracks. Like dropping my keys down underneath the deck, or my credit card into a grate on the street, or anything else like that. I don't think there's a name for it :). Slightly irrational, but I can't help it.
    When we lived in a high-rise apt in Korea, I used to have a fear that when using the elevator after walking the dog, I would be in the elevator and he would get stuck on the other side of the door. Elevator rises, doggy is still attached to the leash...you get the picture. Well, that one actually came true! Luckily, not to me, but to Hubby. He was using the extend-o-leash and the dog took off running from the elevator right as the doors were closing. Hubby went up 4 floors before he could stop it. The rope snapped, but it wasn't until he ran down 4 flights of stairs that he was able to determine that my dog wasn't dead, or harmed in any way. He was scared to tell me about it when he came upstairs though! He started with, "okay, don't freak out...". See, sometimes irrational fears come true!

    ReplyDelete
  32. I'm a little late to weigh in here, but I love reading your blog while I'm nursing my 2 week old.

    I'm terrified of flying, too, probably for the same reasons. It did get much worse after I had children, too. The other thing I'm afraid of is home invasions. I never even had a fear of home invasions before I had children.

    ReplyDelete

PLEASE, when commenting, do not hit "reply" (which is the thread option). Instead, please put your comment at the bottom of the others.

To ensure that you don't miss any comments, click the "subscribe by email" link, above. If you do not subscribe and a post exceeds 200 comments, you must hit "load more" to get to the rest.