Genuinely phobic, or really not very keen on?

I have a true phobia for something that I don't even like saying or typing the name of. Let's just say that that they don't have any legs - yuk I have got the creeps now!!!!!!!!!!

I'm really frightened of spiders.
I've had to coax a very drunk man in from the street before to catch one for me!
I wouldn't say its a phobia though.

What if something is not exactly a fear but makes you feel uneasy, sweaty, faint, sick? Is that still a phobia?

I have trypophobia. Not just the sight of irregular patterns or clusters of small holes but also clusters of tiny straight things. My first experience was in a school science lesson when all the iron filings on a piece of paper leapt and clustered around the tips of a magnet. I felt sick and dizzy and had to turn away. It was years before I realised what was wrong. There are lots of other examples - the worst being anything pockmarked. When our village pub had all the ivy stripped from the walls, the remaining clusters and streaks of tiny holes on the plaster meant I had to drive past it from a different direction to the one I normally take.

DD is the same. I've had to rip out some garden plants because the tiny clustered flower heads, especially if they have yellow centres set her off.

Even typing this is making me feel weird.



PS If anyone googles trypophobia, don't open any of the sites that show you images. They are truly revolting and done for sensation rather than information.

Snow terrifies me, even when it is forecast for Scotland , I live in Wales, I panic , when I see it start to fall? I am filled with fear. Went to see Dr Zhivago in the cinema, no one could have dashed out more quickly than I did if ‘fire’ had been shouted .

I have an aversion to spiders but not a true phobia I can get close enough to capture them but hate the thought of them on me.
Really don't like moths either, I can't be in the same room as one. Daft thing is I can capture a butterfly by gently holding it's wings together and putting it outside. What's the difference

I’ve got a phobia /genuine fear of other people’s hair and fluff on the floor . Swimming pool changing rooms make me feel physically sick.

Does fear of heights count or is that different to phobias of beasts and bugs etc ? I was once talked into climbing a llarge hill ...small mountain .certainly over 2000 feet .I mmanaged up because I was only looking directly at the ground in front of me.I had to be led down backward by two friends as I froze and was violently sick when I saw the height I was up.It took a long time to come down !

No, I still can't stand crane flies but we don't seem to see so many of them these days.
I cannot be in a room with a fluttery moth.

I don't feel sick but would rush out of the room or flail around hysterically.

I think a phobia is the more likely to produce physical symptoms, though I don't know why.
Its probably something I've made up in my own head.

Definately physical symptoms MissAdventure, now I have developed a second phobia, ( getting neurotic? ) , snow causes me to vomit and pace around the house, adrenaline pumping. Agoraphobia, shaking, disturbed vision, once I vomited on the road , embarrassing.

I thoroughly dislike wasps, crane flies, mice and rats and would much rather somebody else deals with them but, if needs must, I can do it albeit with a slightly increased heart rate. I think my only real phobia is crowds. Ochlophobia, it's called and exposure to a large crowd - underground trains at rush hour; a protest march/demo; the hordes who go out to watch the central London fireworks at new year, etc - makes me very ill. Symptoms include nausea, palpitations , hyperventilating, profuse sweating, dizziness and occasional fainting. Just the thought of being in a crowd is bringing me out in a sweat. I avoid crowds!

I don`t like flies, hate them in fact, but wasps, moths and daddy long legs fill me with absolute terror. If they come near me I can`t keep still, and can`t help screaming.

I have been known to faint – crash on the floor like a falling tree – and stay out cold for at least five minutes from the silly little things that "frighten" me. I do not understand why this happens as I am quite a tough cookie and have handled all sorts of far more disturbing things. I am quite happy to grow up about this but I am NEVER going to learn to love the little buggers.

In a word......mice

I have a fear of tidal waves - totally irrational I know but going near the sea it's permanently in my head so I can't enjoy the experience. I'm scared of the sea anyway having been cut off by the tide as a small child with my mother. I dream about it and all sorts of other flood related dreams!

I'm with DanniRae. Even the picture of one makes my flesh crawl. Anything else insect or otherwise is absolutely fine. I don't think it's fear, it's revulsion.

Reading your phobias has been an eye opener! I don't think I have any which may be why I'm considered brave by family members. I'm chief rodent and insect remover.

I had little sympathy for arachnophobia for example. What can possibly be scary about a harmless spider but I may be more understanding now. Both DH and DD run out of rooms if they see one.

I’m with DanniRae too. OH warns me if there are pictures in the newspaper. I can’t type the word... palms gone sweaty and I feel really uneasy now

Gma29 - my husband does the same for me!

Merlotgran!

My daughter and I suffer from trypophobia too. I can be physically sick at the sight of these things, my eyes go funny, I feel faint and nauseous. I remember a few years people thought it was amusing post pictures of things which affected us, it was awful ?

An irrational fear of an object, animal or situation is common and is only a problem when it becomes so severe it affects your ability to have a normal life. An agoraphobic who cannot go out of their own home, for example, or the woman who was so scared of birds she left her two year old alone on a beach when a seagull appeared and she ran off in terror. In that situation having treatment transforms lives.

Irrational phobias are usually a learned response relating back to early childhood- passed on from a parent being terrified of spiders, for example, or a young child being scared of something which the parent has reinforced, by say, removing the child from the situation, making a fuss of the child - “ never mind dear, spiders are horrible “ etc. Because it is a learned response, it can be unlearned in later life. ( I used to teach this stuff, sorry!- it always led to interesting discussions )

Mice. There was one in our bathroom last year. My response was equal to finding a severed human head in there. My poor husband heard the screams and almost fell down the stairs running to me. I remember as a child seeing a friend play with a white mouse and it crawled all over him. I also remember my mum cornering one in our kitchen and trying to get it on to a dustpan to be put outside. I knew she was shaking. Maybe that started it.

I almost stood on an adder when I was 12 years old and staying at my cousin's house in the country. I think it had come out of the woods and was on the pavement going into a nearby garden. We were running along the pavement quite happily going to pick blackberries when suddenly I stopped to tie my shoelace. There it was, another step and would have been bitten. I literally froze...could"t move...could"nt speak until it was out of sight and then all thoughts of getting blackberries completely gone, we ran back to tell my aunt and uncle about it. From then on I have been really scared of going anywhere near where these horrible creatures might be lurking . Used to feel quite sick even seeing pictures of them or TV footage of any of these species. Not so scared as I was but still very wary. And how people can want/ have reptile as pets is beyond my comprehension. On the plus side I do believe now we all have a guardian angel watching over us...if I had not stopped at that point to tie my shoelace ..unthinkable.