Phobias

A friend of mine was telling me today she has a phobia about buttons and cannot touch them. This stems from when she was a child and her family were very hard up and they got given old clothes and mum made her cut the buttons off if the clothes were really disgusting and kept them in a tin.

This I must say made the mind boggle, she thought of buttons that came off men's flies which were common in those days and what had been near them....eek!!

She is OK with new buttons but she pulls blouses over her head rather than undo the buttons.

My phobia is vomiting, despite bringing up two children it puts the fear of God in me and if someone is sick near me I have to leave the area, I cannot help them. I hate being sick myself although seeing or hearing others is worse.

Yuk overthehill . I run a mile

Annie - I wonder if you've still got your snow problem? If so have you seen a clinical psychologist?
There's a therapy called systematic desensitisation which might help - gradually being exposed to the feared thing, in small steps eg talking about it, photos , film etc then working up to the actual thing. Accompanied by relaxation exercises.
I have a fear of heights. In my youth I went rock climbing with no fear, it started after I had the children. And it goes with a compulsion to jump off the height. We used to live near the Humber Bridge and I refused to go near it for years in case I drove off the side. Perhaps I was a bird in a former life! Even going up a ladder my knees turn to jelly.
Evidently it's a very common phobia. I never had treatment for it.

I have had hypnotherapy as suggested, distressing but worth it, I doubt the fear will go , seems PTS is the cause , and it has started to snow this morning , here I go again