Phobias?

[Alexis Voltaire]

Irrational fears; spiders, snakes, heights, angel statues, public speaking. Do you have one? What is it like?


I used to think I didn't have any phobias myself, but in the past year of kayak fishing I discovered a really strange one: I have an irrational fear of submerged logs / trees / bits of wood.

Rocks don't bother me, nor do weeds. But if I can see a stump sunk underwater or a tree that's half-fallen into the water, with the branches suspended over over murky nothingness, I get a deeply uneasy feeling that simply doesn't go away. Like watching a really effective horror movie. It's not a jump scare or an adrenalin spike, it's a just a lurking dread that lasts for as long as I can see the wood in question, or know that it's nearby. It's not something that bothers me hugely or ruins an outing, I've fished over sunken logs and stumps if they're in a good spot, but still, the irrational dread is there.

It's interesting that the deciding factor seems to be when I can see a piece of wood but can't see the bottom of the lake/river underneath it, or when I can see a stump or a log poking out of a weed bed. Trees that have fallen from the bank are the worst, with a big trunk and all the spidery bare branches suspended over nothing.

[chicar]

At 32 years old, i still sleep with a night light and the door of my room locked.

[Caledonian]

I have trouble with hights, especially when they are above water, planes don't bother me though. Just things like cycling over the bridge (especially when windy!) scare me.

I also really hate ice. Not like ice cubes but I've never dared ice skating on the canals.

It's not fear of water though, as I love swimming and have attempted scuba diving before without problems. 

[Sir Henry]

It's heights for me too. I used to be fine with them until I got stuck halfway up a 70ft cliff while rock climbing and ended up having to unhook the rope and free climb to the top. And over the years since then it has slowly become worse to the extent that I almost had to stop watching Chronicle last night because I was feeling so queasy during the aerial shots.

[frances]

When I was a child I had a terrible fear of spiders.  I went into hysterics.  Now I am an adult (well, in years anyway) and live on my own I have had to deal with it.  I get a jar and a piece of cardboard and can put the creature out of the back door (screaming the whole time, I admit).

[Arabella Periscope]

I too have a dread of submerged logs, and have concluded that it is an atavistic fear of crocodiles.  Someone told me that if you are attacked by a swan, and you wiggle a piece of rope in the water, it will frighten the swan away because the swan has a fear of snakes even though it has never seen one.  Of course you would likely be being attacked on the shore, and unlikely to have a snake-long piece of rope about you. But the theory is sound.

[CapnHarlock]

Up until I was nearly 40 y.o.,  I couldn't even stand on a chair and look down (acrophobia) , or see a (live, not photographed) snake without hyperventilating.

Now, "Neuro-Lingustic Programming (NLP)", in general,  is fairly-high on the "woo-woo" scale, BUT,in my purely-anecdotal experience, the "NLP phobia cure" (look it up online)  has worked extremely well to eliminate those irrational issues.  Your mileage may well vary, but.for me, it was well-worth an hour or so of my time.

A note:  as a former (alas) river kayaker, I'd suggest that fear of submerged obstacles is not at all irrational. If a many-times-great ancestor ("Fred Flintstone") had not feared sabertooths, you wouldn't be here.  Fear makes you wary. Phobia cripples your ability to react. There is a big difference, IMHO. 

[Alexis Voltaire]

A note:  as a former (alas) river kayaker, I'd suggest that fear of submerged obstacles is not at all irrational. If a many-times-great ancestor ("Fred Flintstone") had not feared sabertooths, you wouldn't be here.  Fear makes you wary. Phobia cripples your ability to react. There is a big difference, IMHO. 

Hmm, I'd term my submerged-logs-fear a phobia (albeit a mild one) since it feels emotionally different than, say, a fear of the dark or fear of injury. Even if both are persistent, an ordinary fear has a less... surreal or nightmarish quality than the underwater wood phobia.

It's really only wood that bothers me, as well. Rocks pose more of a risk via scraping the boat or high-centering (which I've done ). That risk is a pretty mild one, since I only kayak on lakes or calm dam-impounded rivers. Rocks, weeds, and submerged buoys that ought to look equally as creepy or icky don't bother me nearly as much.

As an amateur psychologist I find the difference interesting from an academic standpoint. It's also why I'm curious about others' experiences with phobias.

Now, "Neuro-Lingustic Programming (NLP)", in general,  is fairly-high on the "woo-woo" scale, BUT,in my purely-anecdotal experience, the "NLP phobia cure" (look it up online)  has worked extremely well to eliminate those irrational issues.  Your mileage may well vary, but.for me, it was well-worth an hour or so of my time.

Interesting, sounds a lot like self-hypnosis.

I remember doing something along those lines as kid.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I wished I had faster reaction times/reflexes, so I more or less meditated on cats (which I thought of at the time as being one of the fastest animals) on what it would feel like to be a cat, to have cat reflexes, and to think like a cat when it's hunting string or critters. I'll be damned if it didn't actually work a little bit, (and still does today) I can sometimes catch things that are falling or about to fall off of tables way faster than I used to.

I think I made a mental shortcut through the Recognition-Processing-Descision-Reaction process (like they talk about in driving school) and going straight to Recognition-Reaction.

Now that I think about it, it's probably kind of similar to knowing fingering on a musical instrument, where your brain bypasses thinking about an action and simply goes and does it when prompted. Almost as if it's being hardwired into a more basic part of your brain than the part you use for higher thought and decision making.

The interesting thing is I did the meditating-on-cats thing without any kind of physical practice or training to get better reflexes. (At least so far as I know of, I might have done it without really thinking about it.) *shrug*

I think some of those woo-woo mental sciences have a basis in fact or actuality, though thier creators tend to butter them up with hype and excessive claims due to marketing, ego, or wishful thinking.

[Cora Courcelle]

Butterflies and moths inside. Just fly outside guys so I don't have to get my husband to evict you. It's particularly bad at night when obviously they are just waiting for me to go to sleep so they can flutter down onto my face.

[ForestB]

With me, it is driving over high bridges, I don't know why, but it makes me twitchy. Also, claustrophobia, which has gotten worse as I get older. And I prefer spiders to be outside rather than in, but I deal with them better than I used to...

[GCCC]

...It's interesting that the deciding factor seems to be when I can see a piece of wood but can't see the bottom of the lake/river underneath it, or when I can see a stump or a log poking out of a weed bed. Trees that have fallen from the bank are the worst, with a big trunk and all the spidery bare branches suspended over nothing.

This is not an irrational fear, as anyone living along waterways in the American South can tell you, because these are prime locations for water moccasins.

[Fairley B. Strange]

Injections.

Heights, confined spaces, all manner of risky work,  hanging off helicopters on ropes, unstable munitions, snakes, spiders, wild animals - not a problem, but even though I have to keep all my exotic destinations vaccinations up to date, I can't stand the hypodermic.
I even tried being a regular blood donor for the Red Cross for 3 years and still broke a sweat every time.
On my combat medical course, I even did my own IV just to prove to myself I could treat myself in extremis but was in more risk from the hyperventilting.
I even get my dental fillings done without anaesthesia because I can stand the drill and the burr, but not the needle.

[Hurricane Annie]

 

Claustrophobia [ not good when having an MRI ], heights,  spooks behind the door, taking the top news paper,  water deeper than I can stand up in, commitment, smoking on film,  people behind me...

I used to have a phobia about the dark,  amputated fingers, being on floors above ground level [ still won't go above several stories] , spooks under the bed. Store santas

I have never had an issue with critters and vermin.

[James Harrison]

Cephalapods.  Can't stand the grim awful tentacled *******.  Except for cuttlefish, which bizarrely conversely I find quite 'cute'. 
Used to have a phobia of lifts.  Or, more specifically, getting trapped in one. 

[von Corax]

Not precisely a phobia, but I've long been paranoid, without good reason, of getting my back foot caught in revolving doors. I avoid the bloody things wherever possible, but I can use 'em if necessary.

[Caledonian]

Horses.

[Cora Courcelle]

Horses.

Good job it's not goats .....

[Caledonian]

Horses.

Good job it's not goats .....

Of course it's not goats, i love goats

[Cora Courcelle]

Of course it's not goats, i love goats

..... but I couldn't eat a whole one!  No, no, not really I know you wouldn't do anything as horrid as that.

[Prof Marvel]

I used to have a fear that I would go uncotrollably besirker.
then I found out it was socially acceptable as a Mad Scientist to do so .

Now I have an irrational fear that I am an AI on the net, dreaming that I am a man.

prof dreaming

[von Corax]

Now I have an irrational fear that I am an AI on the net, dreaming that I am a man.

I am a figment of someone else's imagination.

So far, though, no-one has been willing to admit responsibility.

[Keith_Beef]

I don't have what I would really call a phobia, but I get a feeling quite close to what I imagine a claustrophobic person would feel when I find a really nasty tangled mess of cables

The desk I have been assigned at work makes my flesh creep if I pay attention to the kabelsalat behind the screen and the even worse mess underneath.

USB, blue ethernet, yellow ethernet, VGA, assorted power cables, audio, ugh!

[Caledonian]

Of course it's not goats, i love goats

..... but I couldn't eat a whole one!  No, no, not really I know you wouldn't do anything as horrid as that.

[SeVeNeVeS]

Not sure if a phobia but after nearly drowning when little I can't totally immerse my head in the bath, can't put my head under the shower flow, if I do I gasp and hyperventilate. It's getting better but as a result never learnt to swim.

Not too keen on roofs and open heights anymore, again came off a roof when about 18, bounced and survived, no thank you to roofwork.

[Arabella Periscope]

Clowns-French clowns- and harlequins. And emetophobia and choking. So choking on a clown would be my worst nightmare.