Afraid of things

arseagon · 14-05-2007 02:34AM #1

Ok so a mate of mine was proud of himself for hoovering up a spider all on his own. He's terrified of them and his pride dropped significantly when we told him the spider most likely survived the hoovering and is now making spider babies in his hoover who are all instructed to kill him in his sleep. All Irish spiders are harmless though so why the irrational fear? And my real question is what Phobias do other people here have and why?

hairyfairy00 · 14-05-2007 02:42AM

All spiders are evil.....evil i tell ya, i don't care that irish ones are harmless i'll take out the hoover every time. I also have a phobia of clowns and those weird street performers e.g mime artists,i actually turn around and walk in the opposite direction if i see one of those guys. There's just something about them, they're all creepy lookin feckers.

Ruu_Old · 14-05-2007 02:48AM

Ah was just telling someone this before. When I was about 6, I left the bedroom window open and night so when I woke up the room was COVERED in daddy long legs.

I hate them but got my revenge a few hours later when I caught one, pulled off its wings and poured motor oil over it (it was the nearest thing to hand).:D
I don't know just the way they come flying right at your face *buuzzzzzz*, eeeugghhh! *shivers*

hairyfairy00 · 14-05-2007 02:57AM

Forgot about daddy long legs, my worst nightmare....a clown covered in spiders with daddy long legs buzzin' around him *shudder*

randylonghorn · 14-05-2007 04:32AM

zippy28 wrote:

All Irish spiders are harmless though so why the irrational fear?

The whole point about phobias though is that they are irrational ... arachnophobia is quite common, and the fact that Irish spiders are harmless is completely irrelevant to someone who suffers from it.

zippy28 wrote:

And my real question is what Phobias do other people here have and why?

I seem to have escaped fairly much without any significant ones ... not that I'm fearless or anything, just don't have much in the line of phobias.

I don't much like spiders or creepy-crawlies generally, but I'm not frightened of them ... or not the home-grown variety anyway, have seen a few bruisers abroad I didn't much like the look of.

The nearest would probably be with heights, and in a fairly limited way ... I will happily hillwalk, look over the edge of cliffs, etc. and I love abseiling. When it comes to ladders and scaffolding and such, though, I am quite nervous. I put it down to the fact that my father usually had two or three ladders lying around the house, and they would invariably wobble, have loose or missing rungs, and be tied together with string. I suspect I probably got a few scares on them when I was a kid which I don't actually remember now, but which have left their mark sub-consciously ... so maybe not totally irrational after all!

bolliwoodi · 14-05-2007 04:44AM

my phobias include.....

butterflies
aliens
ghosts
clowns
rollercoasters
puppets
pholystyorm

now i know the butterflies 1 is odd but i lose my life if they are near me

I know a girl whos terrified of toilet roll holders!

Holsten · 14-05-2007 05:14AM

Any type of incect at all, can't stand them.

enda1 · 14-05-2007 05:24AM

bolliwoodi wrote:

my phobias include.....

butterflies
aliens
ghosts
clowns
rollercoasters
puppets
pholystyorm

now i know the butterflies 1 is odd but i lose my life if they are near me

I know a girl whos terrified of toilet roll holders!

What is pholystyorm? You mean polystyrene or something like that?? I always find arachnophobia quite funny in people. Can't understand it myself but seeing a fully grown man break out in sweat over an ickle spidey is quite funny!!

bolliwoodi · 14-05-2007 05:40AM

enda1 wrote:

What is pholystyorm? You mean polystyrene or something like that??

u know the stuff that cums in the box with a tv- the white stuff - kids scrape it off walls to make fake snow

that stuff

Tar.Aldarion · 14-05-2007 08:21AM

Polystyrene

I don't know why people here have a fear of spiders, natural i guess, or maybe they are wimpy.
I like ot let them crawl on my hand in front of people.

Edit: Oh, and no phiobias.

tallus · 14-05-2007 08:25AM

Heights and rats.

Binomate · 14-05-2007 08:38AM

bolliwoodi wrote:

my phobias include.....

butterflies
aliens
ghosts
clowns
rollercoasters
puppets
pholystyorm

now i know the butterflies 1 is odd but i lose my life if they are near me

I know a girl whos terrified of toilet roll holders!

I know a girl who is terrified of moths and butterflies.

Tar.Aldarion · 14-05-2007 08:43AM

I have two friends who are afriad of butterflies but not moths.

DarkJager · 14-05-2007 08:49AM

Polystyrene??? What happens when you buy electrical items?

humbert · 14-05-2007 10:56AM

I get very very edgy around flying stinging insects. They can move faster than I can react so I'm constantly afraid that they'll make a crazed bombing run toward my face.

Crucifix · 14-05-2007 10:59AM

I would say clowns, but there's nothing irrational about fearing clowns. It's a natural reaction; a survival instinct.

The best phobia I heard of was aphobophobia, the fear of not being afraid. That one would be a real hassle.

stovelid · 14-05-2007 11:02AM

Moths.

Something about the way they are made, the big brown flaky ones and they way they bump into things.

rusalka · 14-05-2007 11:09AM

I have a fear of radiation which I think probably stems from spending a long time in hospital as a young child, and having loads of x-rays. I used to be petrified lying on the table alone in the dark.

To this day, I'm completely paranoid about radiation. I hate the words like "geiger counter" or "gamma" or "caesium" or "radioisotope". I hate seeing nuclear reactors on tv. I'm even freaked if I see the radiation hazard symbol - it all looks so sinister to me.

I think it's because I can't see it.

My other big fear is of paralysis - just of being completely frozen immobile. And wanting to scream, but not being able to.....

Mr Mojo · 14-05-2007 11:15AM

Ruu wrote:

Ah was just telling someone this before. When I was about 6, I left the bedroom window open and night so when I woke up the room was COVERED in daddy long legs.

I hate them but got my revenge a few hours later when I caught one, pulled off its wings and poured motor oil over it (it was the nearest thing to hand).:D
I don't know just the way they come flying right at your face *buuzzzzzz*, eeeugghhh! *shivers*

Same as Ruu, daddy long legs... yuk! they're just too unpredicable in flight, what direction are they going?? , they don't even know themselves. The Girlfriend fears Balloons

Shiva · 14-05-2007 11:17AM

I'm terrified of my ex-wife.

Does that count as a phobia ?

Tar.Aldarion · 14-05-2007 11:22AM

No, it's quite a rational response from my experience.

6th · 14-05-2007 11:24AM

Shiva wrote:

I'm terrified of my ex-wife.

Does that count as a phobia ?

Yes, I've met her .... not really.

Anyway for me its WASPS!!! I freak out like a bitch if I see one.

LovelyTom · 14-05-2007 11:46AM

I'm terrified of sharks... well only when I'm in foreign countries but I can't even go swimming on a beach just in case there might be a shark swimming about... even if theres a net...

humanji · 14-05-2007 11:53AM

I'm terrified of large bodies of water. I can't go near the window in a plane, just in case I look out. It's the fact that we don't belong in there and that there are so many nasty things in it that bothers me. Which will be awkward when I head off to the Galapagos Islands in a few weeks

And then there's clowns too. Strange how many people are afraid of them. I think most associate it with the film "It", but for me it was a Gary Larson "Far Side" comic that had a picture of a clown picking out a gun in a gunshop with the caption "Laugh at me, will they?" It just made me realise that there's no way someone can be laughed at their whole life and not go crazy.

Chunks · 14-05-2007 12:08PM

A guy I played rugby with was terrified of bananas.

Needless to say we took it upon ourselves to cure him of his phobia...... not much luck with it though. Throwing them at him in surprise attacks and filling his gearbag with them just didn't seem to do any good apart from increase his reaction time and his shrill screams :rolleyes:

arseagon · 14-05-2007 12:16PM

randylonghorn wrote:

I put it down to the fact that my father usually had two or three ladders lying around the house, and they would invariably wobble, have loose or missing rungs, and be tied together with string. I suspect I probably got a few scares on them when I was a kid which I don't actually remember now, but which have left their mark sub-consciously ... so maybe not totally irrational after all!

Yes I have the same fear of ladders. It doesn't matter how safe they are my knees still knock when i'm on one. I'd always have considered it a very rational fear though because no matter how good the ladder is you can still fall off. Doesn't help that a lot of my work day is spent on one of them

I can still remember my dads wooden ladder with my brother bouncing on the 2nd rung to make it shake even more.

MikeHoncho · 14-05-2007 12:23PM

Sponges. I cant stand them they make my skin crawl. Just thinking about it right now is horrible.

monkeyfudge · 14-05-2007 12:26PM

Monkeys.

But from that fear comes great respect.

Actually Sagittarius A* scares me a good deal... That's the super-massive blackhole at the centre of The Milky Way.

jellie · 14-05-2007 12:34PM

im TERRIFIED of bangers - the explosive halloween things, not sausages :P

Got 1 thrown at me when i was a kid, and now any time i see a group of teenagers around at halloween i am convinced theyre gonna throw 1 at me. i have this image of 1 getting caught in my hood and my head getting blown off..

Other stuff that scares me a little but not quite to the same extent: spiders, mice, rats, moths (HATE them), bats

r3nu4l · 14-05-2007 12:35PM

I don't have any phobias although I am now more cautious around spiders since I discovered that thanks to milder winters there are now poisonous spiders bredding and over-wintering in the East of England (where I live).

I'm not afraid of them, I'm just not so glib about picking them up with my bare hands anymore! I just look carefully now to identify the species before I go near it.

A friend of mine at home is afraid of puppets and childs dolls, he could never watch zig and zag or thunderbirds as a kid, or play with Action man. Even today he gets freaked out in toy shops because of all the dolls staring at him from the shelves!

baztard · 14-05-2007 12:51PM

I used to eat spiders as a dare and for a little bit of drinking money back in my college days. Mmm crispy on the outside, smooth in the middle

Afraid of things

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