Octopus Overlords

I've always thought of phobias as exotic and extreme, yet I'm pretty sure that I have one that qualifies.

Mine is sunburn. I was always fair-skinned and prone to sunburn, but in my late teens I developed a serious reaction to the sight and sometimes even just the thought of sunburn, even someone else's.

Some anecdotes:

--Just after I college I was living in Atlanta and dating a girl at UNC-Chapel Hill. Once, after visiting her in August, I drove back the whole eight hours with my arm out the window. Arriving home, I went to take a shower and, seeing myself in the mirror, realized that my left-arm was lobster-red. I immediately fainted dead away and later woke up on the floor.

--Sunscreen is associated with sunburn in my mind, even though it's obviously a preventative. Several times I've had the experience of getting severe shakes and curling into a ball on the floor at the prospect of applying sunscreen. It has only happened three or four times to the most serious degree, but I still get queasy every time I smell the stuff.

--Once in college, the first day of classes after Spring Break, I found myself sitting immediately behind a girl who had obviously spent the vacation at the beach. She was intensely red, and as soon as she sat down I started imagining that I could smell her skin roasting. I went panicky and sweaty and very nearly fainted. I had to get up and move to a far part of the room, and even then I felt sweaty and sick for a long time.

--Just this summer I took my kids to a water park on a sunny, sunny day. I thought I would be fine, but when it came time to apply sunscreen I had an attack of hyperventilation and wobbliness. I had to sit on the ground (in the shade) and concentrate just on breathing. After about five minutes I started to recover, but I was very surprised at how fierce the attack had been; I really thought I had somehow left it behind.

Those are the most extreme examples, but the general pattern, while less severe, is constant. I hate sunburn and I hate sunscreen, and I get very uncomfortable when I realize that I'm going to be out in summer sun for a long time. I've learned to cope--I can go to the beach with my family and enjoy myself, but only after an initial few minutes of talking myself down from phobic distress.

Anyone else have something like this, or am I the only phobic freak?

Can't think offhand of any irrational fears, or even very many rational ones. Babies, maybe; I recoil from those fat little soft-skulled germ bags, but that's more out of dread and loathing than fear. I recognize that my revulsion is out of proportion to how objectionable they actually are.

My fear of height is pretty crippling.

At one client site they have their network equipment mounted to a rack that's maybe 15' off the floor. The last time I had to climb up there to plug in a patch cable I had to sit and breath deeply for about 10 minutes afterward until I stopped shaking and sweating.

It kind of sucks.

Dangling earrings (actually dangly jewelry hanging off of the head area).

Creeps me the fuck out. I don't know why, but I know it's not anything rational. People with 10,000 piercings don't, it's just the "stuff swinging on a chain from their ears" deal that triggers it.

Old women with gross elongated piercing holes are the worst. I expect that shit to go flying off of their ears at any second when they turn their head quickly. If it did the blood would be OK but I sure as hell would not help try to find the earrings.

ed. I'm not really a fan of jewelry in general, unless I'm selling it in town for more GP.

Althaiophobia is my only phobia. It sucks during camping trips.

I literally have agoraphobia when it comes to shopping malls. If I am with other people it is fine, but by myself I am likely to just leave at the slightest provocation.

Kraken wrote: I recoil from those fat little soft-skulled germ bags

Heh, I used to have a fear of getting sick form going to the doctor's office. My fear seemed well founded. When I finally left the University of Michigan health system where their satellite waiting rooms were always packed full of sick children and went to a small practice affiliated with a different system where the GPs waiting room was not always full of sick children, I stopped getting sick.

I still get all Sheldon Cooper when it comes to going to hospitals full of sick people.

I have a long long long list neurosisisisis and phobias.

Probably the most detrimental phobia for me is that the idea of people watching me do stuff makes me uncomfortable. My dislike for lawn work becomes much much much worse if there are other people outside, which is hard to avoid when you live in a 1950's subdivision and houses packed in together very very tightly. I am becoming more and more of a shut in and internet shopping and frozen foods and office cut off from the rest of my coworkers are enabling me.

Agoraphobia and social phobia, both still going strong!

+1 + other stuff.

I live in a house full of snakes, scorpions, tarantulas, and other spiders.

I've gotten over most of my phobias by now.

I think I have mild ochlophobia (crowded spaces), which is weird because it's not something that's always bothered me. I think there are times when I expect personal space to be respected and if I'm feeling encroached upon, I get antsy. Stranding room only concert? I'm cool. People pushing and shoving around me at the mall? Must flee.

Without question fear of octopus, tentacles and suckers. The last time I had a surprise octopus encounter was during an episode of Dirty Jobs - almost blacked out while on the couch. Like...I had tunnel vision and could feel myself slipping away. If I can prepare myself, watching a documentary might be possible. Still images bother me, but seeing one in person or a video? Nope.

I have no rational explanation for it. No childhood trauma. No crazy encounter or anything I can even remotely relate. I don't remember being afraid as a child, so I'm not even exactly sure when it fully formed.

Could be worse I guess...I could be afraid of spiders or bugs or snakes. Or sunburn.

That sunscreen phobia is one of the odder ones I've heard.

No real phobias here. I used to be a little weirded out by moths but I've grown out of it. I don't like having my face covered by anything, and I can't stand the thought of cloth being rubbed against teeth or held in someone's mouth, but it doesn't affect me a lot, just makes me a little queasy.

I ate a live moth once.

Smoove_B wrote:I ate a live moth once.

Yes, but you've also had sex with a clown, which I'm pretty sure is at the top of many people's phobia list.

Claustrophobia and Emetophobia with a side of irrational thoughts/anxiety. Celexa helps with the latter...

MHS wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:I ate a live moth once.

Yes, but you've also had sex with a clown, which I'm pretty sure is at the top of many people's phobia list.

Also true. I've lived a good life.

Smoove_B wrote:

MHS wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:I ate a live moth once.

Yes, but you've also had sex with a clown, which I'm pretty sure is at the top of many people's phobia list.

Also true. I've lived a good life.

I have a hard time picturing you at parties playing the "random facts about me game" without being stumped for which is best.

Blackhawk wrote:social phobia

That probably counts as my one true phobia. Social situations, even among just a few friends, always make me anxious. Parties among strangers are torture. Other things like crowds and travel get me worked up, too, but those don't rise to the level of phobias.

In a couple of weeks I have to go to MI for my niece's wedding. It will be the first time I've flown in 11 years and will involve one social situation after another. I have been dreading this trip for months. I know I'll be okay once the airplane part is over...it's mostly anticipation that makes me anxious. Being unable to smoke for a week just amplifies my discomfort.

I don't fear flying, I just find it deeply unpleasant.

DEFINITELY crowded spaces.

1. Shopping Aisles - I don't like being on a shopping aisle where there are alot of people and I'm
not free to browse at my contentment level without there being people crowding me, or standing
right beside me. Nope, won't do it.

With the way some stores like Target and Walmart are designed there's barely enough room for
one cart to move through the aisle. The aisle's aren't double wide, so for me I'd rather come back
to the aisle when there's no one there.

My wife, she will plow right through, say "excuse me" to anyone and everyone in her way, and reach around, under, over, behind, beneath, between, whatever she has to do to get what she's after. ME...
can't do it, won't do it.

I respect other people's personal space, and mine enough that I don't like having to do what she does.
She...she has no problem doing it, I've talked to her about it, and she doesn't think it's a problem, at least it's not for her.

I can't go shopping with her for long periods of time. She will take 5-10 minutes on making decisions on something she's interested in buying. Me, I go in knowing exactly what I want, I get it and I get the hell outta dodge. This goes for grocery and big box stores.

It's different for a place like Best Buy, because I'm not standing in an aisle, with a shopping cart, with
my daughter in the shopping cart. I still like to move around and not stand in one place for too long, sticking with the finding what I want, getting it, and getting out. If I'm in the mood for looking around, checking out all the latest and greatest gadgets and tv's, then I'll browse around, but I definitely won't spend a huge amount of time doing it.

I like to shop, but it has to be on my terms. Black Friday, and the thanksgiving night shopping, we went to Target last year and I'm definitely NEVER doing that again, ever.

2. Snakes, hate snakes. Not afraid of them, I just don't want anything to do with them, at all. Now, if you're asking me to pick one up, or have it placed on me, that ain't happening.

3. I don't have any food phobias, but my wife is very specific about places she will and won't eat at.

That's all I can think of, at the moment.

Technically, I wouldn't call my shopping aisle thing a phobia, to me it's a situation that I prefer not to
put myself through, because I don't like being in close proximity to people when I'm browsing and shopping in stores.

I CAN be in close proximity if it's something like a crowded elevator, or having to stand on a public bus, but I haven't been on a public bus in over 15-18 years.

"The Snake thing." If I saw one in my driveway or outside my front door, I wouldn't run away screaming like an idiot, I'd merely get out of there without drawing any attention, and making sure the snake's not following me. I haven't had very many instances of seeing or being in close proximity to any snakes. I don't live in an area that has an overabundance of them, like I don't live IN the woods or any wooded area.

MHS wrote:That sunscreen phobia is one of the odder ones I've heard.

It usually strikes people as pretty weird!

I don't seem to have other major skin issues. (Medical needles, for instance, cause me no problems.) But I have noticed that the distressed, oozing look of a very fresh tattoo can set me off the way sunburn does.

Holman wrote:I don't seem to have other major skin issues. (Medical needles, for instance, cause me no problems.) But I have noticed that the distressed, oozing look of a very fresh tattoo can set me off the way sunburn does.

Do you feel woozy when you see someone get embarrassed and their face turns red? If you see someone with an alcohol flush reaction?

Smoove_B wrote:

Holman wrote:I don't seem to have other major skin issues. (Medical needles, for instance, cause me no problems.) But I have noticed that the distressed, oozing look of a very fresh tattoo can set me off the way sunburn does.

Do you feel woozy when you see someone get embarrassed and their face turns red? If you see someone with an alcohol flush reaction?

No, nothing like that. I think the idea of blistery damage is what gets me.

Holman wrote:

MHS wrote:That sunscreen phobia is one of the odder ones I've heard.

It usually strikes people as pretty weird!

I don't seem to have other major skin issues. (Medical needles, for instance, cause me no problems.) But I have noticed that the distressed, oozing look of a very fresh tattoo can set me off the way sunburn does.

You may not be aware that a tattoo is often compared to a sunburn with regard to how it feels while healing and how to treat the damaged area. So you're being consistent.

Smoove_B wrote: Stranding room only concert?

LoL. Been there.

Damn brain. Getting all goofy from thinking about clowns.

SOME of you may be better read or more familiar with the DSM 5 (or whatever we're up to) so my self-diagnosis of generalized anxiety, low-level (but constant) neuroses shouldn't mean I know what, if anything, I have.

It doesn't stop me from doing anything, but clearly most people don't have constant low-level anxiety and don't always have Plan Bs, Plan Cs, for all sorts of imaginary work or personal crises.

Do they?

JSHAW wrote:1. Shopping Aisles - I don't like being on a shopping aisle where there are alot of people and I'm
not free to browse at my contentment level without there being people crowding me, or standing
right beside me. Nope, won't do it.

They don't make me all phobic but people who push their carts on the left or whom stop directly across someone on the other side of the aisle. Oh, do get all JeffV. It totally ruins grocery (or any other kind of) shopping for me. My inner rainman kicks in and to fight it off I get annoyed instead of rocking back and forth babbling "drive on the right side. Always the right side". I'm all singing to the elevator music, dancing with my cart, Not a care in the world as grab my milk and my yogurt and my cheese and some refrigerated bagels and I get to the next aisle and [izzy]BAM![/izzy] someone is pushing their cart down the left side of the aisle and then I have to narrow passing lane around their oncoming cart and then I can't get to the pudding cups for lunch and now they've gone and ruined grocerying day.

I can't go shopping with her for long periods of time. She will take 5-10 minutes on making decisions on something she's interested in buying. Me, I go in knowing exactly what I want, I get it and I get the hell outta dodge. This goes for grocery and big box stores.

That was me when I was married but the excellent part was she couldn't shop with me either. My cross between shopping aloof and impatience for browsing made her edgy. So either A) I would go out buying or B) she would go out shopping.

MHS wrote:

Smoove_B wrote:I ate a live moth once.

Yes, but you've also had sex with a clown, which I'm pretty sure is at the top of many people's phobia list.

Smoove_B wrote:Damn brain. Getting all goofy from thinking about clowns.

Did she taste funny?

JonathanStrange wrote:SOME of you may be better read or more familiar with the DSM 5 (or whatever we're up to) so my self-diagnosis of generalized anxiety, low-level (but constant) neuroses shouldn't mean I know what, if anything, I have.

It doesn't stop me from doing anything, but clearly most people don't have constant low-level anxiety and don't always have Plan Bs, Plan Cs, for all sorts of imaginary work or personal crises.

Do they?

I take a pill for that.

I don't know that I have anything that amounts to a true phobia, though I have quite a bit of social anxiety. I'm not particularly fond of telephones or going places by myself. However, both of those things are much better now than when I was younger.

I used to be fairly terrified of heights, but riding 300-foot tall roller coasters has pretty much cured me of that.

Naked Bea Arthur.

I don't know if there is a name for it and didn't realize I was afflicted until I came here.

I get mild vertigo in high places, even being at a sporting event and looking up at the catwalks can trigger it. I have the trypophobia unease. Other than that, I can't say anything bothers me irrationaly. They're crowded out by the rational.

Besides my trypophobia, the other one I have is wet paper. I can't stand to look at or touch wet paper.

As a kid I was irrationally scared of everything; as an adult I've developed a pretty harsh reaction to raucous crowds. Shakes, sweats, headache, and a general immediate flight response.

Only thing I've got is a fear of bats but I was attacked when I was a kid so I think I earned that one...

I used to get super anxious before long car trips by the idea that I would need to use the bathroom and not be able to stop. I think it stemmed from almost crapping my pants on a family trip when I was 6. Fortunately, living in France seemed to cure me of that fear for whatever reason. Maybe because I walked almost everywhere and city I lived in had bathrooms everywhere. Also, once I was old enough to drive I realized I could just stop if I ever needed to.

I think my fear is more of falling that a fear of heights. I can go up in tall buildings, I can climb trees to almost the top but if I have nothing to hold onto or if there is only railing I will check the sturdiness of the railing before leaning on it. The fear usually kicks in at about 30 ft or so.

Kraken wrote:

Blackhawk wrote:social phobia

That probably counts as my one true phobia. Social situations, even among just a few friends, always make me anxious. Parties among strangers are torture. Other things like crowds and travel get me worked up, too, but those don't rise to the level of phobias.

yup yup

Fear of heights is my thing and it's pretty bad. No climbing on ladders past two or three rungs. I can't stand at the edge of anything high and look down. When I went to the Grand Canyon I stayed behind the barriers and was fine looking at things from there. I can't imagine walking to the edge like I saw people doing.

In a shopping mall standing against the railing on the second floor looking down on the shoppers on the ground floor? Out of the question. Rollercoasters are iffy, it depends on who I'm with. If I feel I'll look like a wimp in front of someone I don't want to look like a wimp in front of, I'm getting on and suffering. Otherwise I'll decline.

Elevators don't bother me, planes either. I think it's because if I can't see the height(elevator) or I can see it but it doesn't look real(plane) it doesn't bother me.

I get the urge to jump is the main problem I have with heights. It's like a voice inside me whispers "Jump jump" when I'm close to a cliff edge or something.

As someone who had to be rescued by 911 when he got on his roof last time I think fear of heights is one I have.