I have an embarrassing phobia of wasps...help?

Ruana

Hey, I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on how to get over this stupid phobia I have. It's getting near Summer again and I don't want to spend half of it being permanently on alert and/or running away from something only half the size of my little finger! Has anyone had a fear of wasps or bees and managed to get over it?

I've had this irrational fear ever since I was a little girl and I mean it is a proper phobia, I actually shiver and go and cold if I see one and tend to make a run for it if one comes too close (I mean it's a bit undignified for a 24 yr old ) I can't even look at pictures of a wasp! (For some reason bees are fine though, I can cope with bees )

Help!

jd83

im the same i run around like a little girl if a wasp, bee, anything that stings comes near me! It embarrising as im a big 27 year old guy and it really doesnt look well when i running away trying to evade some little wasp. especially when my 3 year old nephew is sitting there laughing at me!

potsy86 wrote: »

u mean one a these

Id have a heart attack if that came near me

dewy09

BUUUUUZZZZZZZZ off

shoelaceface

come to my house! we have 20 beehives in the back garden with 40,000-ish bees in each! lots of fun in the summer! however i have only been stung about 5 times in my life! its been 8 years since i was last stung!!

i will even run away, its a natural instinct!! but if you start waving something at them and attack back that they will get mad and sting! perfume and scents attract them! they can get tangled in hair and again panic and sting! oh and if a bee stings, it sends out a scent which alerts other bees and they all come to attack! so best not to get too dramatic! just walk away! weather also annoys them, they get really aggressive when bad weather is coming!

so once again the weather is to blame!!

missus cat

me too, I stood on a beehive when i was a kid. Had a swarm of them crawling all over my head stinging me. Im terrified of them.

Jesus Wept

I don't see why it's irrational, they attack and they sting.
Bees and wasps have become complete psychos over the years, people who say that they will leave you alone if you leave them alone are talking sh1te.

bringitdown

Same phobia here but not irrational ... was playing in the grass as a young lad, in shorts. Wasp managed to sting me where a young lad should never be stung.

Evil b'tards, I run away if I see them ... my mates think its hilarious ..

minister poxbottle

missus cat wrote: »

me too, I stood on a beehive when i was a kid. Had a swarm of them crawling all over my head stinging me. Im terrified of them.

maybe yer head looked like a hive ya know like de hairdo had a swarm of hornets attack when i was a kid :mad:

DOC09UNAM

A fear of Bee's is definitely not irrational...

Now my sister on the other hand, she is afraid of butterflies, that is an irrational fear.

as far as wasps go, meh, they're evil b*stards so I like to run away aswell.

oicherider

Hey.. Phobias are funny things.. they are an irrational response to a relatively harmless stimulus.. I hate (and I mean hate with a passion) wasps.. but I dont have a phobia of them.. I know this because I had a phobia of water - I made myself get over it.. It took me 3 years going to the pool before i conquered it.. But I managed it!

I think that phobias are all fairly the same.. water or wasps.. Your body for what ever reason responds to in an exagerated way to a percieved danger posed by wasps (as was the case with me with water).. It probably comes from something that happened or was said to you as a kid.. Your brain has built this in as a safety mechanism.. What you have to do is to re-train your subconscious so that it learns that the danger posed is very small..

The only way in my opinion that you can do this is to continuously expose yourself to the thing that causes your brain (and body) to react this way. You should start by making yourself look at the pics first of all.. With my water phobia this is the way that I approached it and it was mad because my body still reacted the same way but in my head I was dead calm - thinking logically.. Eventually (after a few weeks, months or years) your brain will learn that there is no danger and your body wont react.. then you move forward from there.. If you really want to, you will get over this but to be honest I dont think that there is any quick fix.. Small steps but keep pushing yourself and remembering that it is a case of mind over matter.. Re-train your subconsious and your body will react in they way that you will have thought it to.. Oh ya.. and I can swim and dive now!!.. It can be done if you are prepared for a little bit of hard work.. hope this helps.. The way the brain works is really interesting and you can do it if you decide and make yourself believe that you can!!

DOC09UNAM

I am afraid of heights, I think because i fell off a tree at a young age.


How do i solve this?!

LadyJ

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

I am afraid of heights, I think because i fell off a tree at a young age.


How do i solve this?!

Maybe open a new thread.... This one's about wasps. Thank you, come again!

worded

DOC09UNAM wrote: »

I am afraid of heights, I think because i fell off a tree at a young age.


How do i solve this?!

Were you stung by a wasp to make you fall off the tree?

If no, then > new thread required.

DOC09UNAM

worded wrote: »

Were you stung by a wasp to make you fall off the tree?

If no, then > new thread required.

Would have been funny if it was anyway original, you basically just read the post above you and changed some words.

Quite a shít and very unoriginal reply.

I was simply asking a question in a thread about phobias while there was someone who seemed to know about them, it's not against the law. sheeeesh.

bringitdown

Ladies please, mind your handbags.

....

Unless your handbags are full of wasps.

Mr Trade In

I kill every one of the flying bastards that I can,I am terrified of them and the moment I can they get a dose of Bleach or what ever I can get to destroy everyone of them.

terlywerly

I am absolutely terrified of wasps, they scare the sh1te out of me!! Am fine with bees as well. I think its when you see bees they are usually just sitting on flowers doing their thing, whereas wasps are just out to sting you, the fcukers!!
Have never been stung, but I'm always afraid that if I am, I'll be allergic or something (my mother is very allergic).
Did you never wonder why when you see cartoon drawings of bees they are always happy and smiling.
Can you imagine what a cartoon wasp would look like? Teeth like razor blades I tell you... :mad:

dlofnep

I used to be scared of wasps. Rightfully so - I got stung 3 times in the same day about 10 years ago. Now I'm not too bothered. Don't go at them and they'll not bother you. If they do, just trap them in a jam-jar and make them fight spiders.

OxfordComma

I'm pretty scared of wasps as well I've had a few bad experiences with them over the years. I got stung repeatedly one day when I was 4, stood on a wasp when I was 9 (it was really painful!), got trapped in a room with several wasps once when I was working, and recently found a wasp IN MY SHOE one morning. (Presumably it flew in the window or something, I don't know...)

I generally get pretty anxious whenever there's a wasp around and try to get away ASAP. I'm not as bad as I was as a youngster though. I don't mind bees at all, and I'm not scared of any other type of insect, I just don't like wasps! It's probably something I have to work on...

Ruana

Haven't checked this for a while but you guys have definitely made me feel better! I'm not alone! lol.

Anyway I made some progress today, I actually managed to stay still while a wasp buzzed around my legs (God knows why they do that?!?), go me! (Deep breaths!)

Thanks guys!

Ruana

dlofnep wrote: »

Don't go at them and they'll not bother you. If they do, just trap them in a jam-jar and make them fight spiders.

LOL (I'm not sure if that's inspired genius or animal cruelty though :eek:)

Ruana

The-Rigger wrote: »

people who say that they will leave you alone if you leave them alone are talking sh1te.

So true!:D

dlofnep

Ruana wrote: »

LOL (I'm not sure if that's inspired genius or animal cruelty though :eek:)

Just claim self defense

bullets

I stumbled across this thread by accident.

I'm 34 year old Male, Always terrified of Wasps
as a Kid and Teenager and even now I tend to freak out a little. I've no problem with Bees, Bumble Bee's etc, its specifically Wasps as they are far more agressive in following ya about the place and also the fact they can sting and not die afterwards unlike bees.

Bit embarrssing when your with friends outdoors and there are wasps about and I tend to move away or start walking in a circle away
from one, but the buddies would just bat it away with their hands (and there I am in the background thinking crap they are aggrivating it)

Also the worst must be if your on a Bus and you cant get away and there is a wasp or more than one wasp going up along the inside
of the windows of the bus and you cant avoid the thing.


Also have a phobia of needles, getting injections etc
I feel my blood run cold and inwardly panic and outwardly
stay calm emotionally but my body tenses up.

Somewhat related to the wasp as its more of I cant stand the thoughts of anything piercing my skin.
And its specifically Piercing rather than a cut or tear etc.
(Yet I've no issues getting a nettle sting and used to collect cactus plants and dont mind getting a jab off them)

I tend to remember events in my life where I've been stung or got jabbed.
I actually remember getting some sort of booster injection as a child in the arm.
I remember getting blood taken when I was about 7-8
a Tetnis shot after a bike accident at 15
19-20 getting two stings by a wasps in the one day, one on the hand and one in the back of the neck (it did not hurt)
in my 20's getting an injection to knock me out to remove my wisdom teeth
2 years ago getting a local anastetic in my big toe for an operation (that was pure hell for me)
Last week was in Hospital for a foot infection (The other Toe!) and had a bloody IV strapped to me for
most of the weekend.

~B

Rebel Boy

I'm scared ****less of wasps. Call me a wimp if you want, but I'm not ashamed to be scared of um. Only got stung twice, once was when I was about 10 r 11 cycling on my bike and got stung by my chest. The pain was vicious. Ever since then I tend to panic when I see a wasp near me

raveni

Always been scared to death of them meself, bees too though. The buzzing never fails to freak me out, and if one comes near me I'll run a mile:o Never been stung but like another poster said, I'd be worried if I was allergic and didn't know it...

trustno1

Rebel Boy wrote: »

cycling on my bus

You cycled a bus?!.. impressive..

I have an extreme phobia of wasps, I got stung in the ear on my way to school and I am still not over it. I don't wear perfume, don't have any flowers in the garden and I generally tend not to eat out doors if at all possible as I just keep running back in again!!.. horrible nasty little critters..

Rebel Boy

trustno1 wrote: »

You cycled a bus?!.. impressive..

I have an extreme phobia of wasps, I got stung in the ear on my way to school and I am still not over it. I don't wear perfume, don't have any flowers in the garden and I generally tend not to eat out doors if at all possible as I just keep running back in again!!.. horrible nasty little critters..

I ment to say bike

Ruana

bullets wrote: »

Also the worst must be if your on a Bus and you cant get away and there is a wasp or more than one wasp going up along the inside
of the windows of the bus and you cant avoid the thing.

~B

I remember years ago my old school bus once drove through a swarm of them at a roundabout. They were high enough up for the cars to drive under them but of course the bus was just the right height and all the windows on the roof were open as it was a warm day. Cue lots of screaming teenagers and files being used as weapons for the next 5 mins to kill the little brutes that had managed to get in. That was not a good day...:(:D

Jeboa Safari

Have the same thing, make a holy show of myself sometimes when any come near me!

deise go deo

I used to be terrified by wasps, bees thoes freackish evil looking horseflies etc. I got stung on the chin when I was 6, Not pleasent. For about 10 years after that I couldent stand being near them, going to amusment parks became a chore because all tne bins would have wasps around them and where I lived there was a nest of bees only 50 yards from the front door, At least once every summer they would go mental and they'd be everywhere. I just had to stay inside on those days:mad:.

However when I was 16 I started working on a bulding site driving a roler. Every now and then a wasp would wander into the cab. My whole body would tence up and Because I couldent stop and get out(even though I really wanted to) I would just do every thing I could to get them out without getting stung. One day I realised I was just being stupid. When one came into the cap I forced my self to stay calm. I made myself look at the wasp who was just sitting on the dash minding his own buisness and he eventually flew off out the window. I was sooo prowed of myself for not panicing. From then on it just became easier and now I largly just ignore them.:)