Lets talk about phobias

[Muse]

This could go lots of places, I know. I just looked up fear of heights (mine is pretty mild, I get up on my roof, I climb ladders, but as a kid I was afraid to climb trees like some of my friends did).

There are quite a few phobias I'd never heard of or imagined that are, well, maybe not common, but are not unique to certain individuals. They have names.

Here's a common one, the name of which I'd never heard:

Glossophobia refers to a strong fear of public speaking.

Is fear of heights actually fear of falling?

It differs from acrophobia (the fear of heights), although the two fears are closely related. The fear of falling encompasses the anxieties accompanying the sensation and the possibly dangerous effects of falling, as opposed to the heights themselves.

 

[Muse]

What is the rarest phobia?

1. Arachibutyrophobia (Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth) Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. While the phenomenon has happened to everyone at one point or another, people with arachibutyrophobia are extremely afraid of it.

I don't know how that's pronounced. Uh, try saying it with peanut butter in your mouth. LOL

 

[KMFJD]

This could go lots of places, I know. I just looked up fear of heights (mine is pretty mild, I get up on my roof, I climb ladders, but as a kid I was afraid to climb trees like some of my friends did).

There are quite a few phobias I'd never heard of or imagined that are, well, maybe not common, but are not unique to certain individuals. They have names.

Here's a common one, the name of which I'd never heard:

Glossophobia refers to a strong fear of public speaking.

Is fear of heights actually fear of falling?

It differs from acrophobia (the fear of heights), although the two fears are closely related. The fear of falling encompasses the anxieties accompanying the sensation and the possibly dangerous effects of falling, as opposed to the heights themselves.

I hate being in really tall buildings, planes are fine

 

[pmv]

I hate being in really tall buildings, planes are fine

Yeah, it's not the abstract knowledge of being at a great height, it's the experience of actually seeing the potential drop.

What puzzles me (and I _suspect_ it's a common thing, am hoping it's not just me) is that if I'm conscious of being at a great height, say near the edge of a high cliff, or on a very high bridge, or something, it produces the physical reaction of my legs going weak and wobbly. It can even happen when seeing images of such a height, or seeing others at such a height, even if I'm not really there.

Is this an evolutionary-determined instinct to sit down when near a vertical drop? Did people in the past without such a reaction have a greater tendency to boldly stand upright at the edge of precipices and accidentally topple over the edge? Doesn't seem like the situation would arise often enough for it to result in evolutionary selection.

 

[pmv]

I only have the mainstream, very commonplace phobias of 'fear of heights' and 'fear of public speaking'. I'm OK with that. I think both those fears have some rational justifications.

 

[Captante]

I have an irrational fear of pretty much EVERYTHING! (except for the stuff that SHOULD scare me.... but doesn't !!!)

 

[MtnMan]

The older I get, the more phobias I have. Heights and confined spaces never bothered me, I was a volunteer firefighter for many years, and lots of time on some tall ladders, both in training and actual fires. Also confined spaces, to enter attics or crawl spaces to get to the fire, with zero visibility. Also did confined space training where we had to push our air bottle ahead of us through a maze, it was so confined.

No more getting on the roof for me, or going into the crawl space.

 

[Captante]

No more getting on the roof for me, or going into the crawl space.

Okay wait.... gravity being an unforgiving bitch I totally get the roof but what's so scary in the crawl-space besides dust?

 

[nakedfrog]

I used to be fairly terrified of public speaking, which evidently went hand in hand with a similar experience performing music in front of people. But after five short years of doing that on a weekly basis, I finally stopped sweating profusely and getting the shakes when I did it Ten years on, I mostly only get anxious the first time I play a song I haven't played for an audience before.
Mostly.

 

[Pohemi]

Thalassophobia (from Greek thalassa θάλασσα, "sea", and phobos φόβος, "fear") is the persistent and intense fear of deep bodies of water such as the sea, oceans, or lakes.

This might be my only true irrational phobia. When I think of open ocean and deep, deep water...I get anxiety just thinking about it. I can imagine spacewalking, getting detached and dying as I float through space and run out of oxygen. I'd be happy to have that happen compared to being alone in open water and drowning. Open ocean? Nope. True fear. Mind you, I'm an excellent swimmer.

I can likely trace this fear to my childhood, from one specific instance that is still stuck in my memory, and it's one of the earliest memories I have. I must have been 3 years old. My family and I were using the pool at the townhouse we lived in. My father put me on the diving board and was trying to get me to jump off the board and into the water/his arms. I had water wings on and no fear of drowning...it was a fear that there was some imaginary shark/monster in the depths. This is actually a separate phobia, but it's the thought of deep, open water that gives me such anxiety now, not the fear of Cthulhu in the depths.

The pool was a bit cloudy from the chemicals used, so you couldn't see the bottom, and it scared the shit out of me. I remember being frozen in fear at the end of the board, and I don't think I ever jumped from there. Mind you, I was fine going in the pool NOT from the diving board. Something about the view from a few feet above the deep end just scared the bejeebus out of me.

______________________________________________

Never a fear of heights, though at great heights (more than 100ft, etc.), I have experienced some mild vertigo sensation.

I was a tree-climbing monkey when I was a kid, and was still climbing tall trees at 20yo. At 19 and 20, I also worked as part of an industrial insulation crew, installing the batt type insulation rolls in warehouses and large structures as they were built.

We (daily) had to walk on steel beams, averaging 45-50ft above the foundation. We typically had safety harnesses and tie-off lines around the edges of the roof, but the areas we were "pushing out" as we worked usually did NOT have tie-off lines (they were supposed to by OSHA guidelines), so we were often free-walking those 4-6" wide beams in order to tape down the edges of the insulation rolls to the beam.

Any hesitations were cured the first day on the job. You either learned to deal with it and walk the beams, or you walked off the job. I was 400 miles from home on the first job I got sent to, so I wasn't about to drive back home and not even get the gas reimbursement, lol.

 

[BudAshes]

What is fear of karaoke called? Either singing it myself or having to hear others doing it

 

[MtnMan]

Okay wait.... gravity being an unforgiving bitch I totally get the roof but what's so scary in the crawl-space besides dust?

Claustrophobia

 

[Red Squirrel]

I have a phobia of spider webs, always had it even as a kid. Spiders themselves don't bother me, but the way spider webs look, feel, and sometimes even sound, gives me the shivers. I've gotten pretty good at spotting potential spots where I feel there might be one, so I can break it up ahead of time before I run into it. For some reason the phobia is worse indoors. I usually carry a stick when walking through the woods so I can break up any spider webs that I see. Same if going into my crawlspace or other confined space where there could be some.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Thalassophobia (from Greek thalassa θάλασσα, "sea", and phobos φόβος, "fear") is the persistent and intense fear of deep bodies of water such as the sea, oceans, or lakes.

This might be my only true irrational phobia. When I think of open ocean and deep, deep water...I get anxiety just thinking about it. I can imagine spacewalking, getting detached and dying as I float through space and run out of oxygen. I'd be happy to have that happen compared to being alone in open water and drowning. Open ocean? Nope. True fear. Mind you, I'm an excellent swimmer.

I can likely trace this fear to my childhood, from one specific instance that is still stuck in my memory, and it's one of the earliest memories I have. I must have been 3 years old. My family and I were using the pool at the townhouse we lived in. My father put me on the diving board and was trying to get me to jump off the board and into the water/his arms. I had water wings on and no fear of drowning...it was a fear that there was some imaginary shark/monster in the depths. This is actually a separate phobia, but it's the thought of deep, open water that gives me such anxiety now, not the fear of Cthulhu in the depths.

The pool was a bit cloudy from the chemicals used, so you couldn't see the bottom, and it scared the shit out of me. I remember being frozen in fear at the end of the board, and I don't think I ever jumped from there. Mind you, I was fine going in the pool NOT from the diving board. Something about the view from a few feet above the deep end just scared the bejeebus out of me.

-This one gets me. Its not a phobia in my case, I don't lock up, panic, flip out, or anything else.

However I love snorkeling and kayaking and if I ever look over the edge of the boat or "toward the horizon" while snorkeling this deep, ancient, creeping dread starts working its way up from the pit of my stomach into my heart and I have to look away and do some focused breathing to center myself.

Went snorkeling in the red sea once and sort of "left the reservation" when I moved from the corals into the open ocean and my heart was racing so fast every shark in 500 miles was probably flooring it to get to my location ASAP.

 

[lxskllr]

Probably claustrophobia. I went caving exactly once. Fuck that shit. Squeezing through crevices underground without full motion of limbs... I'm fine til stuff starts pressing into my side, and then I start getting weirded out.

Heights a little bit. Glass balconies a mile off the ground? Fuck no. I don't trust engineers that much; not for a sight gag anyway. There's no reason to have a glass balcony aside from 'cause they can'. I also don't like walking laterally across heights. Walking steel gives me vertigo cause I can see the beam and the ground at the same time, and they move at different speeds. 100' up a tree on ropes doesn't bother me.

 

[Pohemi]

....I also don't like walking laterally across heights. Walking steel gives me vertigo cause I can see the beam and the ground at the same time, and they move at different speeds. 100' up a tree on ropes doesn't bother me.

That first day on the job I mentioned, one of the most important lessons I got was: "When you're walking the beams, focus on your feet and the beam, do NOT focus your eyes on the ground below. That's what will make you dizzy and throw off your balance."

It's not just you that it happens to, it's common.

 

[Pohemi]

-This one gets me. Its not a phobia in my case, I don't lock up, panic, flip out, or anything else.

However I love snorkeling and kayaking and if I ever look over the edge of the boat or "toward the horizon" while snorkeling this deep, ancient, creeping dread starts working its way up from the pit of my stomach into my heart and I have to look away and do some focused breathing to center myself.

Went snorkeling in the red sea once and sort of "left the reservation" when I moved from the corals into the open ocean and my heart was racing so fast every shark in 500 miles was probably flooring it to get to my location ASAP.

I've been snorkeling as well, done some Scuba diving too, but none of it was in water more than maybe 60-75ft deep at most, and it was clear water. If I could see a drop-off into deeper water further out from shore though, it'd fill me with that dread you mentioned. I didn't even have to be near the drop-off.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

My wife has legit Arachnophobia and its sort of fascinating how phobias work in the brain. Early in our relationship she would shreik and literally "panicked animal" style haul it out of any room that had even the tiniest spider.

It was somewhat shocking, this is an intelligent woman with a Neuroscience degree working in genetic sequencing. Normally extremely composed, it was a helluva scare for me too, it was like she had seen the living dead or something impossible.

If I ask her how big a tiny harmless jumping spider was she'll claim it was half dollar sized. Oddly enough she is sort of "OK" with Tarantulas (100% because they're always in terrariums and she can prep herself for the situation or remove herself if need be, but goes back into "that was like a dog, and not even a small one" territory if she sees a Goliath Bird Eating Spider.

For the sake of our kids she has worked on her phobia a lot and has made some huge progress but still shrieks or locks up for 5 seconds if she happens to spot one.

When I point out the irony of her loving crab and lobster so much (basically giant sea spiders) when she has a deathly fear of tiny terrestrial spiders, she simply asks that I don't ruin a good thing for her. Fair enough.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Heights don't bother me, but no way would I want to do anything at heights without a safety harness, such as walk beams. I feel at that point it's not so much a phobia but an actual fear of falling. Even if you think you're the best at balancing it only takes one slip up and you're done for. If you do it 100+ times a day as part of the job you increase the chance of failing. Even at relatively low heights like say 20 feet falling is probably going to result in a life changing injury. Broken legs, shoulders, back, neck etc depending how you land... or even getting impaled if there's anything below like rebar sticking out. Not worth the risk just to be macho. You are legally allowed to refuse dangerous work so no reason to do stuff like that. Someone I went to highschool with died from a fall within weeks of graduating. They got him to go do something up on a platform if I recall without a harness and he slipped and fell off.

 

[skyking]

I tried walking the top of a 2x6 wall and it just isn't a good place for me.
Perhaps I never mastered the trick of looking at it the right way.
Not much of anything else bothers me. I've been in some really tight spots working under houses and I've climbed out on the crane booms several times.
My wife, on the other hand, is fairly claustrophobic.

 

[igor_kavinski]

A very common fear, from my experience, is the fear of being alone.

A lot of people are genuinely scared of being all alone, with no one to talk to.

I'm the opposite. I bet I could go one year minimum without any desire to speak to another human soul iRL. Sometimes, I wish that was the norm. We are all plugged into the internet and everything is virtual. Get out occasionally for fresh air and a bath. Everything else, done virtually, with limbs exercised by equipment we are connected to.

 

[sandorski]

What is the rarest phobia?

1. Arachibutyrophobia (Fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth) Arachibutyrophobia is the fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth. While the phenomenon has happened to everyone at one point or another, people with arachibutyrophobia are extremely afraid of it.

I don't know how that's pronounced. Uh, try saying it with peanut butter in your mouth. LOL

What is the fear of trying to say "Arachibutyrophobia"?

 

[igor_kavinski]

Yeah, entering a natural body of water is a complete no-no for me. Who knows what could be lurking beneath.

 

[skyking]

It is the case of clearly not being alone!

 

[IronWing]

Heights don't bother me unless I know I'm doing something stupid. Then my brain lets me know I'm being unreasonable.

I enjoy public speaking so I have to be careful to make sure I have something to say that's worth hearing.

Earthworms terrify me. Logically, I know they are harmless. That doesn't matter, they scary.

Electric razors are pasta makers for the face. I know that if one were to touch me, my skin would be shredded into a bloody mess.

Those narrow beaches they have in California where on one side of the beach is a wall of water a hundred feet tall and, six feet inland, is a wall of rock five hundred feet tall terrify me. There be like families lounging and kids playing in the waves and my brain is like, "Tide is coming in. The TIDE is coming IN. THE MOTHERF'ING TIDE IS HERE, RIGHT NOW!" Outer Banks beaches are more better. Even though, objectively, one should be more concerned that one is going to sleep, in a comfy bed, in a house, on a sand spit in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, with sixty miles of open water between your bed and the nearest real land, and one fifty miles from the nearest actual rock capable of standing against an ocean wave.