Question of The Day. Saturday 7th of May.

Good morning. 

Today's question is; Do you have any phobias or things that you just can't stand?

One thing I can't bear to see is blood. I used to be totally unable to stand the stuff. I fainted during first aid class in school because the teacher used a red pen to draw an injury on the "patient" we were supposed to be helping.

I passed out when I was about 20 from just listening to a friend describe how she'd come off her bike. I also fainted during the blood transfusion scene in Bram Stoker's Dracula when I was a teenager. Very embarrassing, as I was trying to be a Goth.



These days I'm much better. I can sit through a gory movie or medical documentary. Still not that good with my own blood though. If I ever have to give a blood sample I have to make sure I lie down and wait a good 15 minutes before I try to stand up again.

How about you?

When I worked as a kitchen slave at our local hospital (I was a teenager), one of the girls I worked with and I went into have our yearly blood work done and our chest x-rays. We were fine, sat there as they stuck us with the needle. My GF looked down at the blood coming out, and asked, "Is that my blood there?" When the nurse said, "Yep, it's yours!", my GF passed out cold.   The nurse looked at me and said, "Don't you dare, Pam!" I was fine.

I cannot handle being alone in the dark. No way. I had a really bad experience in a dark basement when I was a child and there's no way I can deal with it. One night, not too long after Rick and I got married, we were walking back the hallway to the bedroom and he turned out the light. It was dark then and he said, "Little girl, I'm coming for youuuuuu!". I passed out. Cold. Right in the hallway. Rick said I never said a word, just went straight down on the floor. When I came to, Rick was saying, "Pam! OMG! Pam! Wake up, Pam!" He never meant to scare the crap out of me like that; he was just clowning around. He's never done anything like that since. He's knows better.

And to this day, when I have bad nights, he'll get up in the morning and the hall light is turned on. He'll just say, "Bad night, dear?" and we let it go at that. Thankfully that doesn't happen often anymore.

i'd have to say, removing the dead mice from mouse traps. yuck, just....ewww, and yuck. i wear disposable gloves to empty the mouse traps, and i still have to make myself do it. sometimes though...i just throw the trap with dead mouse in it in the trash can outdoors. i always get that single full-body shiver kind of thing after i've finished that job -- i guess that's me 'shaking off' that i had to do that. it's only in the fall and very early winter that mice will get into the basement (i've never had mice anywhere but in my basement...well, one year a mouse got into my living room wall and peed -- i dealt with that, but that's a whole other story) -- to avoid the cold weather.

I have the unreasonable fear of snakes.  I grew up on a farm in a very rural area so I saw snakes all the time from spring thru fall but I still have it.  My mother also had it which is probably a big part of why I have it.  I even avoid the reptile exhibit at a zoo.

I'm terrified of heights.  It seems to get worse as I get older.

I don't like heights either I close my eyes when I ride roller coasters. I'm afraid of the dark I leave a night light on at night ,when husband works nights. I'm afraid of snakes but will kill one with a garden hoe. I hate spiders I'm afraid they are poisonous but being Mom I have to deal with that fear and try to kill it. I'm afraid of rats and mice that's why I have cats!

That's funny @Winchester  Serve him right for trying to frighten you like that! Your reaction must have scared the pants off him.

It's nice that he is so supportive of your fear of the dark now. My ex-boyfriend, who I went to see the Dracula movie with, used to get really angry with me if I fainted in public. Like I was doing it deliberately to embarrass him!

@Kittykisser  I have to ask; if you're scared of heights what are you doing on a roller coaster?

Stairs. Especially escalators. And ESPECIALLY going downstairs and down escalators.

I was never scared of either when I was a kid. Then when I was... 24? I felt down the flight of stairs at our apartment trying to get downstairs to get the pizza before the delivery guy left (because they seemed to OFTEN do that). And I fell. I made the mistake of grabbing the handrail, as all I did was turn myself around so that I was now going headfirst down the stairs. It was a few seconds of "Oh :censor: " but felt like it may have been an eternity before I crashed head-first into the floor.

I was seriously lucky too. All I had was a concussion, that I didn't go to the doctor for for several days. He thought at first I had a cracked skull though. I just remember my CT scan was scheduled for the Friday after 9/11, as that was the day everyone was lighting candles on their porches (sends shivers up my back just thinking about it).

Anyway, ever since, I've been absolutely terrified going downstairs. My depth perception isn't so great and if I have to go down more than two flights, I start having a really bad time (which really makes working on the 7th floor during fire drills SUCK bigtime). I think the fear of escalators evolved from the fear of stairs. I'll get on the "up" escalators, but can no longer bring myself to go on the "down" escalator. I was in New Orleans the first time I realized that. I was almost panicking and tempted to jump over a railing until we were able to find an elevator. There were no regular stairs going down from where we were at.

Norachan said:

 
That's funny @Winchester  Serve him right for trying to frighten you like that! Your reaction must have scared the pants off him.

It's nice that he is so supportive of your fear of the dark now. My ex-boyfriend, who I went to see the Dracula movie with, used to get really angry with me if I fainted in public. Like I was doing it deliberately to embarrass him!

@Kittykisser  I have to ask; if you're scared of heights what are you doing on a roller coaster?

Click to expand...

It did scare him badly because I was pregnant at the time, too. He never knew what had happened to me until we talked about it afterward....I never said much about it to anybody.

I'm not crazy about heights, but I can handle them if I have to. I don't like Ferris wheels at all, but will ride the tallest roller coaster in the world and not think a thing of it. When I was working at the paper plant, my co-worker and i had to get up inside an electric lift to clean a chute out. He started bouncing around on the lift, just being goofy, and I just dropped down and sat there on the floor of the lift until he was done clowning around. He got it out of his system, I got back up and we cleaned out the chute. I never liked climbing around on those huge machines; it was part of my job and I did it. But I never liked it.

Donutte said:

Stairs. Especially escalators. And ESPECIALLY going downstairs and down escalators.

I was never scared of either when I was a kid. Then when I was... 24? I felt down the flight of stairs at our apartment trying to get downstairs to get the pizza before the delivery guy left (because they seemed to OFTEN do that). And I fell. I made the mistake of grabbing the handrail, as all I did was turn myself around so that I was now going headfirst down the stairs. It was a few seconds of "Oh

" but felt like it may have been an eternity before I crashed head-first into the floor.

I was seriously lucky too. All I had was a concussion, that I didn't go to the doctor for for several days. He thought at first I had a cracked skull though. I just remember my CT scan was scheduled for the Friday after 9/11, as that was the day everyone was lighting candles on their porches (sends shivers up my back just thinking about it).

Anyway, ever since, I've been absolutely terrified going downstairs. My depth perception isn't so great and if I have to go down more than two flights, I start having a really bad time (which really makes working on the 7th floor during fire drills SUCK bigtime). I think the fear of escalators evolved from the fear of stairs. I'll get on the "up" escalators, but can no longer bring myself to go on the "down" escalator. I was in New Orleans the first time I realized that. I was almost panicking and tempted to jump over a railing until we were able to find an elevator. There were no regular stairs going down from where we were at.

Click to expand...

I hate down escalators. I really hate them. When I was a kid up until I was in my 20's I could NOT use them. I would go find an elevator. Not fun when you're a teenager at the mall with friends. I can use them now but I still don't like them. I also hate staircases that don't have a handrail like in an arena setting or something like that. Down is worse than up though. I have to deal with it by looking at the stairs themselves as I go down and no more.

Heights are the WORST. I truly believe that if I were meant to be off the ground, I'd have wings. I do not. Therefore my feet stay firmly planted on the ground.

I also hate touching any body of water that is not a chlorinated swimming pool. No ocean, lake, pond, river, etc. They are lovely to look and be near at but to SWIM in?? Oh no. Never. I don't believe in entering any body of water where other creatures live and perform their bodily functions. Especially when those creatures are carnivorous. No thank you. They give me the courtesy of staying off my turf so I return the favor by staying off theirs. It's worked for all of us for decades now. Don't fix what isn't broken I say. 

I used to have an unreasonable fear of spiders (to the point where I could not touch a picture of one) but I got over about 95% of it. Now I tolerate them unless I know for sure that they are poisonous. If they are poisonous and outside, I avoid them. Inside? They can kiss their   goodbye on their way down the toilet.  When DD was about 4, there was a big spider on the wall in the house. DH wasn't home. I saw it and screamed so DD screamed. There we were standing there screaming. I realized that one of us was going to have to be the adult and deal with our "guest". DD said no, so I had to do it.    Now I'm not crazy about them but they don't freak me out unless they are HUGE. 

I am claustrophobic. My husband found it out the hard way when he grabbed me and pulled the bed covers up over my head. I started crying. :lol3:

Early in our marriage we were on vacation. We went to see a big battleship. When we went below, I lost in and had to get out and wait on the deck for my husband to look around.