Let's talk about our phobias, it could be highly therapeutic.
I'll start. I have a juju-and-other-charmes phobia. I hate people that charm houses and bring quicksilver in them. The atmosphere in those houses gets nightmarish, not in a scary way, but in terms of frustrations, anger and tensed relationships.

*Moderators, please delete this thread if it sucks, thank you.*

Stage fright, fear of public speaking, social anxiety (though not really a fear per say), and fear of waking up during surgeries would be on my list. Oh, and dentists. I really fear dentists.

I drop courses as soon as I realize I'll be required to speak in front of the class because I feel so nervous about speaking in front of people. Well, this only works if I don't need to take the course. In high school we had to take a speaking course (giving speeches) to graduate, I usually ended up throwing up before each class on days when I would have to give my speeches.

Think that's about it.

Have you tried imagining the whole crowd completely naked? I heard it really does work.

It didn't help for me, neither did prochlorperazine (anti-nausea drug they give to chemo patients so they'll keep from throwing up long enough to eat).

Though sometimes it helped to stay up for a couple nights before hand, so I'd be too tired to get excited/too nervous over it, but then I would be too groggy to do well.

Being around many people for a long time i just cant stand it,although people think am shy but am not really shy ,it kind of erritate me when they keep on insisting it.I dont know if this is a phobia or anxiety

-- Tue Nov 03, 2009 8:38 pm --

Being around many people for a long time i just cant stand it,although people think am shy but am not really shy ,it kind of erritate me when they keep on insisting it.Am not really sure if this a phobia or just anxiety ?

Dentists of course. I need an implant and still chicken about my jaw being drilled. I'm a lot better than I used to be though.

Hair salons. The otherworld of 'product' and doing stuff with hair apart from washing it. I'm not good with that environment and unlike the dentist, they don't provide gas & air.

People chewing with their mouth open (slop, squish, slop). Serious, it winds me up something bad.

Lastly, the social anxiety thing. I know I am somehow different, that the interior and the exterior expectation do not match (I think I confuse people). I can socialize fine, but its often a chore rather than a pleasure until I get to really know the people.

-LS

Social Anxiety is probably a big one for me too. In fact, I was Wiki'ing this the other day, and there are certain classifications which differentiate social anxiety, and social anxiety disorder. It seems I'm a bit more extreme than regular social anxiety, more like a mild form of disorder. Things such as stage fright, shyness, public speaking anxiety, and stuff are in the norm, whereas a disorder would include things such as perception of social situations (automatically feeling as if people are judging you negatively, and stuff like that), physical things (sweating, blushing, and other things), and behavioural aspects, such as avoidance. If you want to know more, read here.

Also, a fear of abandonment. I have had negative "dreams" (I was awake, so not exactly a dream, but sort of like a daydream, but at 5am or so) about that sort of thing happening. Scares me something bad!

And last, driving. I am scared shitless of driving. I get behind the wheel, shaky and nervous, but as soon as I see another car, even if just pulling out of the driveway, BAM, panic attack. I used to be better with it, but I've become worse and worse. I was a timid driver initially, and I think my mother exasperated that by making a huge panic over the little things (i.e. telling me 5km over the speed limit was 20km over; when I went slightly off the white line, telling me I was veering into a ditch; those kinds of things).

Spiders and other creepy-crawlies ... argh ... i just don't like them. Scratch that, they terrify me. I woke up one night, I rolled over and came face-to-face with a spider.

Dogs ... i don't knoww why, I just am nervous around them.


Loud noises ... lots of reasons but mainly because when I was little my parents yelled at me and so I just hate loud noises. Also, it's a hell of a lot easier to put on make up, read etc if it's quiet. But that's just annoyance, not fair.

Lastly, enclosed spaces ... I am very very claustraphobic [sp?] especially in lifts. I just panic.

I am afraid to take elevators by myself (except for the work elevator or a nice new-looking one) because I'm scared of being trapped alone. I especially do not like old elevators or those that are in parking garages. At times I'd climb the stairs as far as the 10th floor to avoid the elevator.

Eira, I hate loud noises too! I'm not necessarily afraid of them, but I do get extremely nervous when males yell at, or near, me. My one ex can be blamed for that one.

Spiders (oh the irony), flying bugs and tight spaces.

~spidey

Anything that has to do with me doing something with people in public, from public speaking, to just sitting in a cafeteria, especially when I'm alone.

That, and I had a case of cynophobia back in middle/high school. I got chased by an escaped dog on the eve of Halloween when I was about thirteen, and from then on, I had panic attacks whenever I was around any type of dog. I couldn't even be in a pet store where there when people brought in their dogs. I remember one time I was hanging out at my best friends house, and her little sister was dog-sitting, and the dog (albeit a toy dog) came downstairs and I was so afraid that I crawled under my friend's bed sheet and had called my mom to take me home early.

And my loving friends, of course, didn't take the dog away immediately. They let it jump on the bed, despite my crying and my pleads to take the dog away.

That still pisses me off to this day.

I have a long list of things that make me fearful, and the items on my list move up and down each day, depending on my sense of well-being.

At the moment, #1 on my list is stairs. I'm also fearful of elevators and escalators, but lately stairs have been outranking both of those on my list.

I have this idea that, while contemplating my many fears, if I should happen to be ascending or descending a steep flight of stairs at the time, a sudden wave of anxiety-induced dizziness may overtake me, causing me to lose my balance and fall down the stairs to almost certain death or paralysis.

So, right now, it's stairs. Stairs are the #1 danger in my life.

Next week, it'll probably be those microscopic bugs that supposedly infest our bed sheets and pillows and live off our dead skin cells, feasting on us while we sleep.

-- Nephele

When I was little I slipped walking up some freshly waxed hardwood stairs while wearing socks. Ended up having to go to to the ER to get my lower lip extracted from my teeth (worst piercing I've had lol). Thankfully the placement was just that so the scar is hidden well by wearing lipstick, that and its shrunk down so much since when it happened (i think I was 6 or 7).

That was a bad year for me, one of the neighbors' boyfriend's dogs attacked me because it wanted some of the chips I was eating and didn't want to let go of my right hand. Then the neighbor's dog saw what was going on and started attacking the dog that was clamped down on my hand. Eventually it let go so the two could duke it out a bit.

I'm not afraid of either but the former always made me more careful when going up & down stairs.

Eira and ArcAngel, what if you are in a club or at a party and there is loud music? Can you stand laud music or it's just noises that freak you out?