Lets talk about phobias

[Captante]

The hedges bordering my front walk are a spider web jamboree every morning!

 

[Muse]

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.

I had the ambition to build a sailboat and sail the 7 seas (who's counting?). I worked in a marina for almost (maybe) 3 years, working on sailboats. I worked for 3 different companies, in succession (not concurrently). The last one's owner just loved John Wayne. So much, in fact, that his own sailboat was named "John Wayne," probably about a 38 foot sloop. Myself, I have never in the least favored John Wayne, to me he represented a lot of what's venal in the American character, to borrow a phrase that I believe was used to describe Richard Nixon. A couple of the other guys (teenagers, they were) who worked on the boats owned by our company (and for sale), sailed on the John Wayne, maybe in races, I don't know, as crew, but myself, for some reason was afraid to do so. Kind of a phobia, I suppose. I knew sailing, had taken sailing lessons at the university. Unfortunately, I didn't like my boss. One of my duties on, I guess, a weekend was to help out at a boat show where we were represented. In seeing boats for sale there, I got a good look at a Yamaha and saw that in comparison, the boats that I had been working on were really crappy, and I was instantly disillusioned. I eventually said something testy to my boss and was fired on the spot. I have never sailed since.

 

[brianmanahan]

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.

i was never afraid of ladders until i started taking enough meds to make me dizzy whenever i bend over, stand up, move too fast, etc

i still do short ones without a problem and can even make it up tall ones, and once i'm on the roof i'm fine

but the going up and down is a pretty frightful experience because i've already fallen off of something from about 10 feet before due to getting dizzy

(luckily it was as a kid, onto my back into some really thick grass, so i walked it off like nothing happened)

 

[brianmanahan]

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.

 

[Muse]

The hedges bordering my front walk are a spider web jamboree every morning!

Spiders kind of creep me out but I'm not afraid of them unless I suspect they are either a Black Widow or a Brown Recluse, the only poisonous spiders around here AFAIK.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

Personally, tornados (Lilapsophobia apparently) are the only things that really fuck with my head. It's like the simulation has decided to ruin your life in particular, but not just outright delete you with a lightning bolt or something. Nope, just a slow moving finger of death, searching for something too slow to do anything about the situation.

I had a funnel cloud open over my head when I was like 8 at a gas station in TX (thankfully dissipated), and another stripped a pair of 100' trees to twigs less than 50' from my grandparents' home and left the house untouched. Probably has something to do with that.

 

[Pohemi]

The top one is a regular sand worm... I've used them as bait saltwater fishing many times. They look scary but can only lightly pinch not break skin. (to be clear some larger species CAN break skin and have mild venom to boot!)

The bottom however is a giant predatory/carniverous worm and is about to make short work of that fish!

Thanks for my new phobia, jerk!

I was taking a piss up near Mormon Lake and one of these came out of the leaf litter at me. Looked like it was about a foot long. No bueno. I'll count that as a phobia: fear of giant centipedes, specifically when my junk is out in the open.

I wasn't aware there were giant centipedes native to the US, I thought they were mostly in jungle regions like southeast Asia or the Amazon.

Creepy. I've seen some house centipedes that I thought were large, and seen them do some crazy shit like jumping off walls and parachuting to the ground. But giant centipedes? Not sure I'd even attempt to squish one, lol. Big cup of hell nah, I'm out. As Captante pointed out with the Vietnamese variety, they can be super aggressive and have extremely painful bites.

 

[igor_kavinski]

But giant centipedes? Not sure I'd even attempt to squish one, lol. Big cup of hell nah, I'm out.

I tried. You can't really squish a giant centipede. It's basically this blob of rubber. I killed one back in my twenties (it was like 12 to 15 cm in length and wider than I thought it would be). I stomped on it, thinking that would be it. But no. It tried to run away. At which point, I decided to go full donkey kong and jumped on it like crazy, with both feet (was wearing slippers). I'm sure it was dead on the third attempt coz it stopped moving. My roommate picked it up with something and threw it outside. By the way, no blood. Nothing oozing out of it. It was weird.

 

[VirtualLarry]

My roommate picked it up with something and threw it outside. By the way, no blood. Nothing oozing out of it. It was weird.

Undead? LOL.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Undead? LOL.

I would not be surprised if it started moving once outside and ran back into a gutter or something. Don't wanna see one ever again.

 

[Muse]

I would not be surprised if it started moving once outside and ran back into a gutter or something. Don't wanna see one ever again.

The "Animal Kingdom" is replete with very scary creatures, but the "Plant Kingdom" is very well represented. Check this other thread I started. In some ways plants can be quite a bit more scary. I was blown away after a while...

Garden weed from Hell

Was picking up windfalls from one of my 2 plum trees a couple weeks ago, and later noticed these hitchhikers attached to me and my clothing. Having suffered a hand injury 5 months ago I've fallen behind on projects around the house. One is a pile of wood from trimming the plum trees and weeds...

forums.anandtech.com

 

[Captante]

I tried. You can't really squish a giant centipede. It's basically this blob of rubber. I killed one back in my twenties (it was like 12 to 15 cm in length and wider than I thought it would be). I stomped on it, thinking that would be it. But no. It tried to run away. At which point, I decided to go full donkey kong and jumped on it like crazy, with both feet (was wearing slippers). I'm sure it was dead on the third attempt coz it stopped moving. My roommate picked it up with something and threw it outside. By the way, no blood. Nothing oozing out of it. It was weird.

If you crush the "exoskeleton" of an invert significantly it WILL die .... centipede's however are far more "durable" than large spiders and tarantulas.

Had you been wearing hiking boots rather than slippers, the outcome would have been a lot messier and decisive! (you're actually lucky it didn't manage to bite your foot through the soft sole OR run right up your leg!)

 

[igor_kavinski]

run right up your leg!)

You just gave me shivers in the middle of hot weather!

Good thing I reacted immediately when it fell from the ceiling right between me and my friend sitting in the middle of the room. Had it done that during the middle of the night with us comfortably snoozing, the consequences would have been grave. Yes, I AM lucky, thank God!

Another friend of mine came to stay with me while my roommate was gone for a few days. He got some sort of insect bite at night and only felt it in the morning. It was something nasty that turned purplish and didn't go away for several days. I bet that was the same centipede!

 

[Captante]

You just gave me shivers in the middle of hot weather!

Good thing I reacted immediately when it fell from the ceiling right between me and my friend sitting in the middle of the room. Had it done that during the middle of the night with us comfortably snoozing, the consequences would have been grave. Yes, I AM lucky, thank God!

Another friend of mine came to stay with me while my roommate was gone for a few days. He got some sort of insect bite at night and only felt it in the morning. It was something nasty that turned purplish and didn't go away for several days. I bet that was the same centipede!

If you paid zero attention to the "scary" centipede it would do the same for you 99.9 % of the time. (it would almost certainly have gone about it's business)

They're actually considered "beneficial" like the vast majority of spiders and although their bite can be painful it's EXTREMELY rare (and actually NEVER "proven") that it causes any serious harm to adult humans. Also they are one of the few highly "successful" predators of the German cockroach. (especially the smaller "house" centipedes)

The really "scary" thing is that for the large 'pede to be there in the first place there MUST be a "FOOD-SOURCE" present. *(ie: the truly nasty critters the 'pedes eat!)

 

[igor_kavinski]

The really "scary" thing is that for the large 'pede to be there in the first place there MUST be a "FOOD-SOURCE" present.

Yes, that was actually our fault. We kept throwing garbage in the corner near the entrance to our room. It was a dark area and we didn't pay attention to it. Learned the hard way that it was STUPID because after a few days, one of the boxes which had some fruit leftovers was BRIMMING with maggots! We picked it up in panic and threw it away. Guess that's what helped the centipede grow that large :S

 

[Captante]

They actually can live for YEARS so most likely it's been there for a while -OR- was attracted inside fairly recently from its former abode.

Bad news is that it's far more likely that whatever the "food-source" was, is STILL THERE. (sleep well!)

Same explanation for "scary" spiders in the bedroom... it's possible they bite you BUT only by accident/defensiveness. They're not there to eat YOU... they eat the insects that are in there feeding ON you! (personally I welcome spiders that hang out in webs (even widows) as they're "team-players" lol .... it's the "free-range" kind I don't care so much for!)

 

[Pohemi]

I would not be surprised if it started moving once outside and ran back into a gutter or something. Don't wanna see one ever again.

Different beast, but the house centipedes...I literally chopped one that was on the wall in half with a katana, and the two halves took off in opposite directions. That's some nightmare fuel for ya! So yeah...don't put anything past something that doesn't bleed, lol.

 

[Captante]

Different beast, but the house centipedes...I literally chopped one that was on the wall in half with a katana, and the two halves took off in opposite directions. That's some nightmare fuel for ya! So yeah...don't put anything past something that doesn't bleed, lol.

If it makes you feel any better (unlikely!) the "back-half" was only operating on "nerves" and died shortly afterwards. (in theory the idea is to make a predator chase/eat the "wrong" half)

The "front/head half" however can and most likely did regenerate!

 

[igor_kavinski]

Bad news is that it's far more likely that whatever the "food-source" was, is STILL THERE. (sleep well!)

That was in my twenties. Moved on. Someone else's problem now

 

[Captante]

That was in my twenties. Moved on. Someone else's problem now

His ancestors remember ..... so when you least expect it!

 

[Kaido]

Glossophobia refers to a strong fear of public speaking.

I have Public Performance Anxiety: (stage fright)

"Extreme nervousness experienced before or during participation in an activity taking place in front of an audience."

For me, it happens automatically; it's an issue with my overly-sensitive central nervous system (CNS). I had anxiety my whole life, but got treated for histamine intolerance last year & my life-long constant anxiety has gone away (turns out being flooded with adrenaline & being in "flight or fight" mode 24/7 is not so good for your body lol). As it turns out, there are kind of 2 groups of anxiety:

1. Mental (you talk yourself into getting worried about things)
2. Body (it happens TO you, not by choice)

I'm a pretty chill person & always had a hard time understanding why I had anxiety. Once I got the physical anxiety taken care of, I'm pretty much just left with public-performance anxiety. Anytime I have to speak in front of a crowd of people, it just feels terrible. Pulse races, adrenaline releases, I even get reflux. No amount of thinking my way out of it has cured it; it just happens. It's weird because I'm not mentally afraid of public speaking & do it all the time, but if there's a crowd of people, I dunno, it's like touching a hot burner...the burner is hot regardless of how you feel about it, and for me, that painful anxiety exists despite how I think about it.

I speak to groups of between 10 to 500 people, either in person or on services like Zoom, depending on what I'm presenting. Some are lecture-style where it's just me talking and some are Q&A sessions. It's incredibly difficult to deal with because my mind goes 100% blank, I can't think on the fly, I can't remember stuff in the heat of the moment, I feel EXTREMELY stressed out, etc. I get through it because I have to, but I'm not able to enjoy it because I've got a tsunami of effects that are automatically triggered in the time leading up to it & during it, then I feel terrible for hours or days afterwards.

So I guess that's not really a phobia or a fear, but just some type of automatic psychological reaction. I read Elaine Aron's book "The Highly Sensitive Person", which explained that some people just have way more sensitive CNS's than other people & are automatically triggered into a cortisol dump in different ways. Pretty lame! I avoid doing things like discussion panels or debates because my ability to think on my feet magically dissipates under the spotlight lol. It's like an Amygdala Hijack, but my cortisol floods my brain, adrenaline gets released into my body, and fight/flight/freeze/fawn mode kicks in automatically! SUPER frustrating to deal with! I wish it was just as easy as deciding NOT to get stressed out about it, lol!

 

[Muse]

You just gave me shivers in the middle of hot weather!

Good thing I reacted immediately when it fell from the ceiling right between me and my friend sitting in the middle of the room. Had it done that during the middle of the night with us comfortably snoozing, the consequences would have been grave. Yes, I AM lucky, thank God!

Another friend of mine came to stay with me while my roommate was gone for a few days. He got some sort of insect bite at night and only felt it in the morning. It was something nasty that turned purplish and didn't go away for several days. I bet that was the same centipede!

I had a bite on my calf around 4 years ago that got pretty inflamed and scary. Was RX-ed a med, an antibiotic IIRC, oral. 95% sure it was a bite, and I figure probably some spider. Probably happened in the house somehow, possibly in bed.

 

[Captante]

I had a bite on my calf around 4 years ago that got pretty inflamed and scary. Was RX-ed a med, an antibiotic IIRC, oral. 95% sure it was a bite, and I figure probably some spider. Probably happened in the house somehow, possibly in bed.

Usually an actual spider-bite "complication" will manifest in ulceration and possible (usually local) necrosis .... if it swelled up and got inflamed/infected it's more likely it was an insect sting of some kind. (especially if you didn't find a smashed spider in the bed... they're very fragile)

Spider venom breaks down tissue for easy digestion by spiders while most insect venom just destroys cells.

 

[Kaido]

TMI, but I dealt with Paruresis (shy bladder syndrome aka "pee fright") my whole life, up until a few years ago. Basically, your bladder shuts off when other people are in a public restroom (i.e. can't go when other people are there or your body stops going when someone walks into the bathroom). Sounds silly, but it's incredibly frustrating & sometimes painful to deal with! They estimate that it affects over 20 million Americans. More reading here:

Shy bladder syndrome can be debilitating

www.uclahealth.org

I got diagnosed with SIBO (a stomach condition) a number of years ago & was treated with Rifaximin. The side effect was that it COMPLETELY ELIMINATED my life-long, often debilitating paruresis! Literally a miracle in my life. The system is a bit complex, but essentially, there's a part of your brainstem that has some neurons that send signals down your spinal cord to your urinary muscle rings, which controls going to the bathroom. The signal can get messed-up along the way, due to things like anxiety.

This was a difficult issue for me because I mentally had no qualms in my mind about going to the bathroom in public restrooms, but for some reason, my brain did! And for some reason, getting treated with SIBO medication resolved this issue permanently after just a week on it! So whatever was goofed-up with my neuron-messaging system got repaired somehow, despite paruresis being classified as a social anxiety disorder! I'm not sure if it was due to my gut being fixed or to whatever the medication did to my body, but it hasn't come back since then!

 

[Muse]

I have Public Performance Anxiety: (stage fright)

"Extreme nervousness experienced before or during participation in an activity taking place in front of an audience."

For me, it happens automatically; it's an issue with my overly-sensitive central nervous system (CNS). I had anxiety my whole life, but got treated for histamine intolerance last year & my life-long constant anxiety has gone away (turns out being flooded with adrenaline & being in "flight or fight" mode 24/7 is not so good for your body lol). As it turns out, there are kind of 2 groups of anxiety:

1. Mental (you talk yourself into getting worried about things)
2. Body (it happens TO you, not by choice)

I'm a pretty chill person & always had a hard time understanding why I had anxiety. Once I got the physical anxiety taken care of, I'm pretty much just left with public-performance anxiety. Anytime I have to speak in front of a crowd of people, it just feels terrible. Pulse races, adrenaline releases, I even get reflux. No amount of thinking my way out of it has cured it; it just happens. It's weird because I'm not mentally afraid of public speaking & do it all the time, but if there's a crowd of people, I dunno, it's like touching a hot burner...the burner is hot regardless of how you feel about it, and for me, that painful anxiety exists despite how I think about it.

I speak to groups of between 10 to 500 people, either in person or on services like Zoom, depending on what I'm presenting. Some are lecture-style where it's just me talking and some are Q&A sessions. It's incredibly difficult to deal with because my mind goes 100% blank, I can't think on the fly, I can't remember stuff in the heat of the moment, I feel EXTREMELY stressed out, etc. I get through it because I have to, but I'm not able to enjoy it because I've got a tsunami of effects that are automatically triggered in the time leading up to it & during it, then I feel terrible for hours or days afterwards.

So I guess that's not really a phobia or a fear, but just some type of automatic psychological reaction. I read Elaine Aron's book "The Highly Sensitive Person", which explained that some people just have way more sensitive CNS's than other people & are automatically triggered into a cortisol dump in different ways. Pretty lame! I avoid doing things like discussion panels or debates because my ability to think on my feet magically dissipates under the spotlight lol. It's like an Amygdala Hijack, but my cortisol floods my brain, adrenaline gets released into my body, and fight/flight/freeze/fawn mode kicks in automatically! SUPER frustrating to deal with! I wish it was just as easy as deciding NOT to get stressed out about it, lol!

Off the top of my head I figure you might be able to get over this using a technique based on increments. Kind of like putting your toes in the water rather than jumping in the deep end. It would require a plan and increasing exposure by taking 'baby steps.' Get comfortable addressing a very small group of people, say 2 or 3, then 4 or 5, etc. Different circumstances, evaluating logically as the self-directed therapy progresses what the next step(s) is/are. I figure you can get over it, if you really want to. Completely over it. You are all about attitude, I know that because you said so. Whether you do this depends a lot on how much you want to. You may not care enough. Or, you may actually prefer to be the way you are. That might have benefits. Sometimes people have difficulties doing certain things that arise because those "difficulties" serve some other purpose(s) for the individual. That's always something to consider in evaluating personalities.