They may be termed "silly" by some, even "unfounded." But that just doesn't matter. We all have them--Phobias. Fears of things that may or may not be grounded in a frightening experience, fears that may just be irrational though nonetheless real. Here's the
Stuff That Scares The Hell Out Of Me
1. Snakes
2. Hospitals
3. Deep Water
4. Really Tall Structures
Okay. Even talking about these gives me the willies, but I'll go for it.
1. There is no Childhood Encounter with these slithery things that I can point to as The Root Of My Fear. Nothing. I just cannot even look at these beings. My reaction is galvanic, like an electric shock of revulsion and immediate panic. If I see one on television, I have to look away instantly. I cannot even touch a picture of one. It's ridiculous, I know. Incredibly, I saw a huge mural of a group of rattlesnakes on the side of a U-Haul truck while riding on the highway. I gasped audibly and got tears in my eyes! I am insane.
2. Hospitals make me uneasy in the extreme, even as a visitor. Now, I am deathly afraid of hospital infection, almost to a Howard Hughesian degree. I personally know of someone who died from a hospital infection. I personally know of someone who, only from visiting his father who contracted a hospital infection (the dreaded MRSA), also ended up with it and it took six months before he finally got rid of it. Hospitals are hotbeds of awfulness in every sense of the word. I would personally help anyone bust out of a hospital. No one gets better there. Certainly you get no rest there.
3. Okay, this one might be due to the fact that I cannot swim, which might be due to the fact that I am afraid of deep water. It is the Classic Example of Ye Olde Vicious Cycle. The moment water gets up to my neck, I panic and cry. How much of a frikking Project am I? Therefore, I do not boat/canoe/watersport.
4. This one is odd. (La! How hard is that to believe?) I cannot stand next to, say, a telephone pole and look up at it. I get a terrible gripping fear and become horribly dizzy and disoriented-feeling. I can go up into tall structures and look down, no problem. I am a very comfortable air traveller. I used to spend all kinds of time climbing up trees and sitting in them, reading or listening to music or just thinking. But I have the "don't look up" phobia, big time.
So...what Stuff scares you? It's okay...you can tell us.
6 comments:
1. Snakes? There was one in our house when I was a kid, and I never entirely got over that.
2. Hospitals: germ factories for sure. And you pay through the nose to be exposed to all of that.
3. I can swim, so I'm O.K. with boats. I just spent two days on one in the Chesapeake Bay of my childhood and the worst of it was spending the next two days feeling like the floor was moving from side to side.
4. My reaction to Really Tall Buildings is the opposite to yours: I cannot look down from them unless there is a seriously thick wall in front of me that is at least waist high. Years ago I got talked into going to the top level of the Eiffel Tower and foolishly agreed, not knowing that... the elevator going up is made entirely of glass. I had to close my eyes to get to the top, one of the worst panic attacks ever.
My phobias: mainly claustrophobia... especially in caves. My sister talked me into doing a little snorkling trip through some caves in Mexico years ago. At one point there was less than a foot of breathing space between the water line and the top of the cave. Never, ever, again. My other really traumatic claustrophobic experience was also in Mexico when Mr. O. took me to a church in Cholula built over a pyramid. The pyramid was underground and the passageways became narrower and narrower as we progressed through them... to the point where I wanted to bolt about half-way through the tour. Only problem: there was no room to go any way but single file. I was gasping for air by the time we got out. Gaaaaaaaahhhhhh!
We saw two rattlers while backpacking in Yosemite this spring. The person who literally stumbled over them totally freaked out, but those of us who didn't have such a close encounter were just a little creeped out.
The only one I have is about heights, but it's so intense that it almost drowns out any other issues. Just thinking about being near a tall edge makes my hands sweat and my knees ache. I am CERTAIN that I will fall off whatever it is and be dead of heart failure before I hit the ground.
I am also very fond of terra firma. It's not that I can't swim, it's just that being on the water out of sight of land makes me unhappy.
Because I have a vivid imagination (some have noted in a snarky manner that it's comparable to Stephen King's), the acrophobia bleeds over to flying. What if the plane suddenly stops when we're 30,000 feet in the air? What if there's a big blast and a hole opens in the plane and we all get sucked out? In the worst case scenario of all, what if these plane issues happen above the open ocean?
I'm going to go throw up now.
Life at the Funny Farm--Yikes. If I had a fear like yours, it would seriously compromise my travel freedom...although right now, that's compromised by Homeland Security. I hate the stupid restrictions on toiletries (WHY ARE THEY THE SAME FOR WOMEN AND MEN? SO UNFAIR1)and it's ridiculous how long security takes.
Mikey--I just now crossed Yosemite off my list. LOL.
Ortizzle--I love the glass elevators, but you'd NEVER get me on to that new glass platform overlooking Grand Canyon. Have you seen this? MADNESS. I'm not really bonafide claustrophobic, but I usually have to have a visual of a way out of wherever I'm at. I can definitely, in a small way, sympathize.
I know others are afraid of other creepy-crawlies, but my only phobia is snakes. I think I acquired the fear from my grandmother. In my everyday life, I rarely see a snake, but if ever, there is one around, I am the one who sees it. I worked at a camp one summer in an area where there were rattlers. Counselors often walked from the main camp to our campsites at night & I was assured rattlers were not nocturnal. I saw a magazine article about dispelling myths ---and sure enough they ARE nocturnal. Even though it was months later, I almost fainted. Once my first husband & I stopped to eat our lunch at a highway rest stop. On the way to a picnic table, I tramped on a snake and it curled over my almost-bare, sandaled foot. I screamed. It was harmless, but it still freaked me out. I went camping with friends, and on a hike, I went off the path to pee ---and there was a snake. I taught English in Brazil for 2 years in the middle of nowhere. My house was at the edge of a town surrounded by hinterland. There was a pond nearby, so it attracted reptiles and several times there was one in my house. The first time it happened, I started to pack to go home, but then someone reminded me there wasn't a bus out of town for five days ---which gave me time to calm down ---sort of. It got to the point that I would jump if I saw a thread on the floor. I had lots of other creepy things in my house in Brazil --toads, mice, roaches, tarantulas, bats, scorpions ---but nothing bothered me except the snakes. My husband thinks I am ridiculously silly ---I too can't look at a snake on TV, not even a drawing of one ---but then he has issues I don't understand either. (I had a hard time writing this ---even writing the word sn___ makes me crazy.)
CJ--I am so with you. I was once on an expedition for firewood and kindling, back in my camping days. (Yes, if you can believe it; I used to camp!) I pulled a piece of bark off of an old fencepost and curled beneath it was an electric green snake. I screamed bloody murder, ran about 500 yards away, and began jumping up and down, still screaming with tears streaming down my face. My husband was trying to comfort me, but I could not stop jumping and screaming. Finally, I got it out of my system. My heart was hammering like a carpenter on Red Bull. Horrifying.
Post a Comment