Comments on: Revenge of the Esoteric Phobias (or, “Proof Our Readers are Insane”)

By: Nocturnesthesia

Nocturnesthesia — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 07:08:29 +0000

I have a horrible, life-ruining germ phobia. Any kind of filth, viruses, bacteria, odors, dampness, or contamination. Real or imagined.

This often makes it seem like I have emetophobia, insect phobia, or a general fear of crowds, but I don’t. It all comes back to the filth. I don’t mind spiders, moths/butterflies, or bees, but all other insects are contaminated.

(And yes I do have OCD that I am managing, but the germ phobia and skin-picking are resilient.)

By: kc

kc — Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:21:21 +0000

Needles…. anything pokey (sharp pencils, bees, wasps etc.) but needles are the worst. I can’t even watch someone else get poked. *shudder*

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 31 Aug 2011 04:29:58 +0000

I can’t change light bulbs. I’m terrified they are going to shatter in my hand and I’ll bleed to death. I also have a fear of black power cords. If I see one I always panic and think its a snake. They have to be tucked away and not seen from any angle.

By: dan1101

dan1101 — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 16:52:18 +0000

Styrofoam and balloons for me.

By: Ashley.

Ashley. — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 06:25:17 +0000

I have two phobias. The first being spiders- which is all too common. The second being tornadoes. I never use to have this fear, but now it’s to the point I avoid weather related news articles and I have to divert my attention if they show images on tv. Whenever bad weather occurs in our area, I panic. My heart races and I’m on red alert until it’s over. I even have reoccurring dreams of twisters. I’ve never experienced one first hand (don’t want to either!), so I have no idea of where it stems from. I also HATE touching any paper products after my hands have been wet. The feeling is so disgusting.

By: Ben H.

Ben H. — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 05:12:58 +0000

Spiders. I cannot watch The Return of the King without someone else there who can warn me when the giant spider scene is about to happen so I can leave. A couple of months ago, lying in bed, I got all of a sudden really creeped out; I felt like a spider was about to crawl onto me. I had to sit in the well-lit bathroom and bring my laptop for distractions for about 3 hours.

I getting creeped out just thinking about it.

By: Commando

Commando — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 01:08:14 +0000

I almost exclusively buy button fly jeans nowadays for the fear of my fly being down in public without my knowledge. I suppose it would help if you knew that I also don’t wear underwear, ever. They always used to bunch up or shift around and were to me extremely uncomfortable. I’m in my late twenties and haven’t worn boxers since my sophomore year of HS. But yeah, every time that I get out of my car or are about to enter a store or whatnot I nonchalantly check to make sure my zipper is up, it’s so routine I hardly even notice that I do it. I should have nothing to be ashamed of, my manhood is a respectable two inches … from the floor! But yeah, I constantly check to make sure that my zipper is up or that all the buttons are secured correctly. Also, I have a fear of Carnies (Carnival Workers) … small hands.

By: Dorothy

Dorothy — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 22:00:56 +0000

I’m just seriously scared of water with fish in it. Once when i was wading in the water on a beach in California as a preteen, a 6-foot shark swam close enough for me to touch. It’s eye was looking right at me. Creeped me out on ALL fish forever!

By: Becky

Becky — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 21:11:55 +0000

I have issues with teeth and eyes..

I fell down the stairs in 4th grade and my two front teeth were knocked loose, and ever since then I’ve been paranoid about teeth falling out. I can’t stand to see kids wiggle loose teeth (I never wiggled my teeth, and I had to have all but a couple pulled out by the dentist or my parents) and even people talking about loose teeth or pulling teeth or needing dentures freaks me out. I have the dreams where my teeth fall out a lot too. Recently (due to a nightmare) during the day, I’ll randomly think about razor blades scraping teeth, and once the thought is in my mind, I can’t stop thinking about it. I’m not sure why this would ever happen, but I think it’d be a great way to torture someone.

Also eyes are gross to me. I cannot watch people put in or take out contacts, I freak out when people are talking about Lasik eye surgery, and I have random day dreams (day nightmares?) about pens and paperclips and pushpins going into my eyes. Ick.

I guess those are my weird fears to go along with the more normal fear of snakes and spiders and heights. Pickles and mustard make me squeamish and I’ll run away if someone holds any up to me or if I can smell them, but I’m not as bad with those as I used to be.

By: Eugenie

Eugenie — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:07:21 +0000

I feel totally freakish now because nobody mentioned any of mine:

The first is rats, which is pretty normal as far as phobias go, I think. I love Pixar movies but I will not watch Ratatouille. Even if you paid me. It started when I went to a pet store with a couple of friends and there was a tank of rats and I had a panic attack.

The second is tooth veneers. I looooove movies and TV but I’ve had to train myself not to look at the actor’s mouths because teeth all the same shape and size make them look like some kind of robot or something….it makes me very uncomfortable, and I’m glad I haven’t met anybody with them yet because I don’t know what I would do.

And the third is the worst and probably the strangest– I can’t handle claymation or stop-motion animation. It’s more than just uncomfortable, I full-on begin to panic if I watch it for too long. Any of it: Mr. Bill, Nightmare Before Christmas, Corpse Bride, Coraline, Wallace & Gromit, no way. NO. WAY.

Yeah, I’m weird.