Phobias

Anyone here have some phobias that often/sometimes get in the way of their lives? If so, what are they? How do you deal with them? And what steps are you taking to improve on it?

I’ll start with mine:

I have a serious phobia of elevators (I guess it could be considered claustrophobia). I can’t get in them, I can’t be around them, and can’t even think about them.

I’m not taking any steps to relieve the problem… But I’m certainly taking steps to avoid the problem (By literally taking the stairs).

Problem for me is sometimes places don’t have stairs to take…soooo I either bail on whatever I had to do, or suck it up and take the elevator while thinking of how terrible the 30 second ride will be.

I wrote this because I am the only one in my family that has any phobias, and often times, I get made fun of it by my brothers/cousins/uncle/father and even friends. My girlfriend is pretty understanding about the issue, but I can tell she is getting frustrated with the fear.

I was hoping I could find other people out there with other phobias, cause right now it seems to me that I’m the only one in the world with a phobia. Everyone I hang around seems to have little to no fear of anything, which makes me look like a “Pussy”, as my father likes to say.

Any insight would be great! I would love to hear about your guys’ phobias and issues.

Thanks!

Have a two in particular that sucks balls.

  1. Driving: Just the thought of getting into an accident, ending up paralyzed scares the crap out of me. Plus the thought of injuring someone permanently or even killing them because of a mistake I made makes it unbearable and I probably couldn’t live with myself if that happened. Of course this sucks in a world of cars.

  2. Tall buildings: No, not being up high in one, but being on the ground surrounded by them. I believe it is called batophobia. I was recently in Chicago, and let me tell you, it was a nightmare. In order to walk around I had to have a ball cap on and a hoodie just to block my peripheral vision of the buildings. I could only see just enough to see where I was going. Obviously for me, large metropolitan type cities are out of the question for me to live in.

Im afarid of cars.

I always think about a car exploding while im driving

All that gas

Like driving a bomb down the street

Mine is related to weight lifting, I honestly do not like to barbell bench anything over 185lb without a spotter. Probably has do with me when I was in high school trying to bench 145lb and got couldn’t do it and got pinned , and for like a minute just had it laying on my chest and I started to freak out then I decided to roll it off and IDK i guess it scarred me lol.

Heights, specifically exposed heights. I’m fine in an elevator or even a chair lift, but extension ladders, cherry pickers, even step ladders are difficult for me if I don’t have something around me to grab on to.

I’m currently trying my own experiment using Xanax; I’ll report back after I get my results together.

As far as being called a pussy, all I can say is “fuck 'em”.


These fuckers

Heights. Figured Skydiving would remedy this phobia. It didn’t.

Stepping over the drain in the shower. The drainage hole in the toilet. Almost anything plumbing-related.

Losing a limb. I work in this field, and it frightens me how easily someone can be separated from a leg or an arm. I will never ride a motorcycle just because of the wipeout-related amputees I see on a daily basis.

Exsanguination/Bleeding to death: I worked on cadavers in school and had no problem with anything related to the human body, but the thought of getting your femoral artery nicked and bleeding out freaks me out.

bodies of water.

I will not take baths, I will not go in pools, I will not get in a boat unless absolutely necessary.

Drowning is possibly at the very bottom of my list of ways to die. I’d rather burn.

No, I can’t swim. Not interested in learning.

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
These fuckers[/quote]

Fucking hell.

That looks delicious.

[quote]Ambugaton wrote:
bodies of water.

I will not take baths, I will not go in pools, I will not get in a boat unless absolutely necessary.

Drowning is possibly at the very bottom of my list of ways to die. I’d rather burn.

No, I can’t swim. Not interested in learning. [/quote]

From your avi I see you are in the military and you cannot swim? That is kind of surprising…

These are great. It’s tough being around a family and friends that never have experienced a phobia or have any relative form of anxiety.

[quote]stefan128 wrote:

[quote]Ambugaton wrote:
bodies of water.

I will not take baths, I will not go in pools, I will not get in a boat unless absolutely necessary.

Drowning is possibly at the very bottom of my list of ways to die. I’d rather burn.

No, I can’t swim. Not interested in learning. [/quote]

From your avi I see you are in the military and you cannot swim? That is kind of surprising… [/quote]

There’s a reason I chose the Army.

[quote]Ambugaton wrote:

[quote]stefan128 wrote:

[quote]Ambugaton wrote:
bodies of water.

I will not take baths, I will not go in pools, I will not get in a boat unless absolutely necessary.

Drowning is possibly at the very bottom of my list of ways to die. I’d rather burn.

No, I can’t swim. Not interested in learning. [/quote]

From your avi I see you are in the military and you cannot swim? That is kind of surprising… [/quote]

There’s a reason I chose the Army. [/quote]

Probably doesn’t hurt that you’re in a freakin’ desert as well.

[quote]JerryRicePwns wrote:
These are great. It’s tough being around a family and friends that never have experienced a phobia or have any relative form of anxiety.

[/quote]

Everybody has a fear of something.

[quote]DarkNinjaa wrote:

[quote]Iron Dwarf wrote:
These fuckers[/quote]

Fucking hell.

That looks delicious. [/quote]

My cats think they’re pretty tasty.

Mayonnaise, wont get near the stuff ive always figured some asshole at mayo factories been jerking off in the shit.

[quote]Dr. Pangloss wrote:
Heights, specifically exposed heights. I’m fine in an elevator or even a chair lift, but extension ladders, cherry pickers, even step ladders are difficult for me if I don’t have something around me to grab on to.

I’m currently trying my own experiment using Xanax; I’ll report back after I get my results together.

As far as being called a pussy, all I can say is “fuck 'em”. [/quote]

I’ve always had a phobia of heights, especially ladders. Being just 6 feet off the ground used to freak me out. I would be petrified at 20 feet up. It took me half an hour to jump off of a 10 foot diving platform (and I flat out refused to go any higher). This started when I was very young for no reason in particular and has persisted to this day, but I have been able to gain a good bit of success in controlling it.

There’s a psychological technique called “flooding”. It’s like exposure therapy, but concentrated into one short, but very scary package. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if done properly, it can work with a decent rate of success. Or traumatize you.

In my case, I was in a foreign country and decided to go cliff jumping off of a 90 foot cliff. Scary as hell for someone who previously had trouble being 6 feet off the ground. But I managed to focus my mind and just take a running leap off the cliff, where I proceeded land face first (I didn’t intend for that lol). Hitting the water felt like hitting cement, though adrenaline dulled that feeling pretty quickly. Landing badly from that height can fuck you up pretty badly, so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend others try this. I broke the surface hurting and with blood streaming down my face, but the strongest thing I remember is just one feeling: the exhilaration of not dying.

Since then, things have been a lot better. The phobia has lessened significantly, to the point where it is more an aversion to heights rather than a phobia. I have also gained a lot of confidence in my ability to master my fear, which has helped tremendously. Now I’ve got the mentality, “If I could do that, then this should be piece of cake”, so my fear doesn’t really hold me back in any practical way.

Hope that helps.

Flying. I don’t care about how I’m statistically more likely to die in a car crash, and how safe flying is on paper.

You are encasing me in a huge metal tomb that fucking flies! Metal can’t fly. Birds yes, metal no.

“Oh but the air pressure over the wing is equal to blah blah blah”

I don’t give a shit, metal can’t fucking fly! It’s wings don’t even flap!

[quote]rds63799 wrote:
Flying. I don’t care about how I’m statistically more likely to die in a car crash, and how safe flying is on paper.

You are encasing me in a huge metal tomb that fucking flies! Metal can’t fly. Birds yes, metal no.

“Oh but the air pressure over the wing is equal to blah blah blah”

I don’t give a shit, metal can’t fucking fly! It’s wings don’t even flap![/quote]

Have you ever actually flown?

I used to have alot of strange phobias as a kid one about elevators as the OP mentioned for me I was afraid of being stuck inside if it stopped working… Outgrew most of it with age, Someone mentioned flooding, If you truly want to recover from any phobia forever that is the way to go… cognitive exposure therapy but rather then a gradual build up its to expose yourself fully, there is an element of risk reward here…

if you take baby steps it takes longer and is sometimes prone to setbacks but if you are say afraid of heights then simply go somewhere up high that scares you senseless and stay there until the fear and sensations go away, then you will no longer suffer from an irrational fear. Avoidance cycles only help to increase anxiety and make things worst FYI, Face and recover… Its not like any of it actually places any real merit or threat and it can be silly t walk around half your life with phobias that can be cured in one swift strike.

[quote]Ambugaton wrote:
bodies of water.

I will not take baths, I will not go in pools, I will not get in a boat unless absolutely necessary.

Drowning is possibly at the very bottom of my list of ways to die. I’d rather burn.

No, I can’t swim. Not interested in learning. [/quote]

I’m in the same… boat. I can swim well enough to not die and I could probably be a good swimmer if I tried but fuck that shit, I’m not a fish.