Question of The Day. Saturday 18th of February

[Norachan]

Hello, Happy Saturday.

Do you have any phobias? Or is there something that you used to be scared of but doesn't bother you any more? How did you get over your fear?

I used to be one of those people who fainted at the sight of blood. It was really embarrassing. Even a tiny little scrape in the playground and I'd feel myself getting dizzy and faint and I'd have to sit down quickly. This wasn't good at all, because I've always been a bit of a tomboy and I'm terribly accident prone.

Somewhere along the line I grew out of my fear of blood. I'm not sure if it was when I got my ears pierced or when I got my first tattoo, but somehow I stopped fainting every time I saw blood. I still have to lie down if I have any blood drawn by a doctor, but that's about the only time now.

What are your phobias?

 

[mizzely]

Bats. I don't know why, but they give me a panic attack. I've slowly gotten better but I still flinch even when I encounter one in a video game! I don't even know why the bother me. As an animal I think they're cool and beneficial, but if I know there is one in the house I can't deal!

 

[Winchester]

I had a GF who didn't like blood. It was really bad when it was her own blood. One day, she and I were getting blood work done (annual blood work, chest x-rays, etc were mandatory for kitchen slaves at our local hospital. We worked in the kitchen after school and on weekends and holidays). She was OK, she saw the blood coming out, she was fine. But then she asked, "Hey, is that my blood?" When the nurse said, "Well, yes," she passed out cold.

From the time I was very little, I was afraid of the dark. As Dean said to Sam, "Afraid of the dark? What....are you kidding me? Of course, you should be afraid of the dark! You know what's out there!" Indeed.

 

[muffy]

I'm scared of heights and frogs. I like frogs and would never hurt one but they just give me the creeps. 

 

[denice]

Snakes of any type.  Now that I live in a city I never see them.  I grew up on a farm and I seen them all the time from spring to fall.  I won't even go see them at the zoo.

 

[margo1959]

me too, feel the same way!

 

[Columbine]

I have a fear of needles (as in injections, blood tests etc). It started when I was a kid (6ish) and a nurse literally pinned me down to draw blood...rather than going to get one of my parents from the waiting room when I started to freak out. I'm a lot better than I used to be, but it still stresses me out - I can't even watch the needle going in to one of my animals at the vets

I'm also scared of bees/wasps. Its really embarrassing - I totally freak and run away! :anon:

 

[artiemom]

I am terrified of the dentist and of snakes... fearful of getting stung by a bee, yellow jacket or wasp....

 

[Mamanyt1953]

@Norachan   I just had to laugh when you talked about the ear piercing!  My mom was the same way, and when I got my ears pierced and came home, there was a drop of blood on one ear.  Mom fainted dead away!  

Oh, spiders.  I freak flat out over spiders.  There is no spider too small for a panic reaction.  I can, finally, look at photographs of them without gagging, but that's about it.  I did see one photograph of this tiny one with a Santa hat that was...ALMOST...cute.

I'm occasionally and mildly claustrophobic.  But it doesn't affect me badly or often.

AND, for some very odd reason, I get panicked if my shoulders are constricted.  I've cut myself out of tight shirts on occasion.

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

no phobias here. although, i'm cautious around snakes and spiders, and bugs that bite -- i never know which ones may cause a reaction, be poisonous.

 

[margd]

I am afraid of heights, driving over high bridges and enclosed spaces. I used to have a phobia about driving through tunnels but overcame that, although I'm not entirely certain how.  I used to get vertigo driving through tunnels, which is why I was afraid of driving through them, but once I managed to get the vertigo under control, the fear went away as well.  The weird thing about the fear of heights is that I'm not actually afraid of them.  It's the vertigo that sets in that makes me worry I'll lose my balance and fall. 

 

[micknsnicks2mom]

 
I am afraid of heights, driving over high bridges and enclosed spaces. I used to have a phobia about driving through tunnels but overcame that, although I'm not entirely certain how.  I used to get vertigo driving through tunnels, which is why I was afraid of driving through them, but once I managed to get the vertigo under control, the fear went away as well.  The weird thing about the fear of heights is that I'm not actually afraid of them.  It's the vertigo that sets in that makes me worry I'll lose my balance and fall. 

    i'm not afraid of heights, but have experienced some vertigo when walking over one of those old metal bridges, the kind that when you look down at what you're walking on you can see everything below the bridge -- the metal on the bridge was like 'waffled' looking, with more open space than metal that you're walking on.

 

[neely]

 
I am terrified of the dentist 

Bingo!  To this very day my sister and I still text one another before we go to the dentist.  We were both dreadfully afraid to go.  Growing up our dentist never used novocaine, not sure how widely used it was in the 1960's.  But suffice to say the pain was absolutely excruciating for a child.  I remember the dentist having to call my mom into the room because my sister wouldn't open her mouth and when she finally did she bit him.  

  

 

[MoochNNoodles]

I had a fear of plants that started when I was a kid and my cousin used to tease me mercilessly.  I still remember having dreams about plants growing up around my bed like a jungle. Or clovers growing out of my knees.  Much to everyone's surprise; I love my garden. I am much better about it than I used to be. I took a Floriculture class in high school and enjoyed that.  I still prefer to have my skin covered and keep things away from my face.  I don't care for house plants; especially ones that vine or have very large leaves.  Or spikes.  (It's always DH's job to pick the zucchini and sometimes the cucumbers.

)

My cousin's MIL has a plant that reaches the ceiling. When you open the back door to her house to come in it pushes one of the stalks away and it swings back when you close the door.  I'm still not sure how I managed to NOT hit the floor when I saw it and had to walk past.  When DH and I hike he holds some things back if we go through a more overgrown area.  It's RARE that I'm mad at him but once we went on a walk through some wetlands and he thought it would be funny to come up behind me with a stalk of marsh grass that had a big tasseled end and put it over one shoulder.  I'm not a screamer but I definitely yelped and almost cried I was so mad at him!!  Hes never tried anything like that again!  

My good friend's mother has a thing for house plants. One of those vining kind went nearly around the whole living room.  I mean it seriously was over 20 feet long!  When they moved she wound that up in a huge coil.  I was there helping move things and I just remember being like "I don't touch plants." 

  I'll carry heavy boxes before I'll volunteer for that!  My mother had one when I was a kid and she had to keep it up high and trimmed!  I hated that thing!  

 

[Winchester]

Mooch, many years ago, we were renting a house in town while our house was being built. I had a Swedish Ivy hanging above the kitchen sink. And I used to wash my hair in the kitchen sink sometimes, not often, but every once in a while; I know...it's not the most sanitary thing to do. Anyway, one night I dreamed that as I was hanging over the sink and rinsing my hair out, the tendrils from the Ivy came down and wrapped around my neck. I woke up and couldn't breathe. And that ended me washing my hair in that sink! I couldn't do it after that.

 

[Primula]

I guess fear of water is my biggest fear. I LOVE waterfalls & fountains of all kinds. The sound of running water is so beautiful. But I cannot be in water if my feet don't touch the bottom. And I can never put my head under water.

My ophthalmologist told me that I have a tiny cataract that most likely was caused by momentary lack of oxygen at birth. This makes sense to me because I am also a little bit claustrophobic & cannot have anything over my head.

 

[MoochNNoodles]

 
Mooch, many years ago, we were renting a house in town while our house was being built. I had a Swedish Ivy hanging above the kitchen sink. And I used to wash my hair in the kitchen sink sometimes, not often, but every once in a while; I know...it's not the most sanitary thing to do. Anyway, one night I dreamed that as I was hanging over the sink and rinsing my hair out, the tendrils from the Ivy came down and wrapped around my neck. I woke up and couldn't breathe. And that ended me washing my hair in that sink! I couldn't do it after that.

  Thats exactly the sorts of dreams I used to get.  Not strangling; but things growing up around my bed.  Nope nope nope  Have you ever watched Fixer Upper?  There is an episode where the house is covered in ivy. They wouldn't have gotten me inside that house and I'd probably be paranoid it would grow back after the renovations. Yuck!!  

My Gram always washed her hair in her big kitchen sink. And then my Aunt would put it up in rollers for her.  Actually they still do it that way.  Gram is 98.  She was a pretty meticulous cleaner so that sink was scrubbed often.  Come to think of it she was meticulous about a lot; right down to arranging those rollers on the counter as she pulled them out of a cream colored plastic bag she stored them in.  She was from the "iron everything" generation.  And don't dare insult her by telling her NOT to do your laundry. 

  See...now we're replacing my scary plant thoughts with happy memories of my Grandma. 

 

[Norachan]

Wow, @MoochNNoodles  I've never heard of that one before. There's a name for it; Botanophobia

There's a word for having a phobia about knees; Genuphobia. I'm not sure if there's a name for a fear of clover growing out of your knees though. You might be on your own with that one.

 

[di and bob]

I can pick up snakes and lizards with no fear at all, but get a wasp around me and I freak. Bees don't bother me at all either, I figure once they bite they pay for it by dying, but a wasp can keep on going! Spiders I pick up and put outside,(I raised tarantulas) mice no problem, I never did understand that phobia, what is there to be afraid of? You can just step on them,(I only did that once!) and how bad could a bite be from a mouth that small? I'm not a real fan of heights either, at a mountain edge I am fine as long as there is no one around me, but if someone walks close I get dizzy and freak out. 

 

[SeventhHeaven]

Fear only when driving long hours start to hallucinate of things on road that 

aren't really there.