General Chat

Can't stand thick electric wires or any kind of pipe in a dark place! Makes it difficult travelling on the underground - can't look out the window! Major problem is in offices or shops if a ceiling tile is removed for maintenance. I can't walk/sit under it or even look at it. Angela

re; the phobia about cotton wool - I didnt realise that anyone could be petrified of it, but many years ago (when I and my then colleagues were much younger) we heard that our boss hated cotton wool, so we wound it around the handle of the only door into the office, whilst he was out!!!!! he never came near the office for hours, and eventually rang and told us to take it off - we were horrible!

Cotton Wool - I just hate it, makes my skin crawl.

karen my daughters partner is also scared of cotton wool.i had never come across anyone with that phobia before untill i met ross ! i also dont like vomit!! when the children were small,if they were sick,hubby always had to deal with them,cos i had my head down the tiolet pan !! if hubby was at work i called the neighbour. my daughter is the same susie

Well you should all remember mine - the butcher ... sorry I mean the DENTIST aaaarrrgghhhh. Just had to have 2 crowns and had to be sedated. Tears rolling down my cheeks as they put the drip in my hand. Having a hot flush now just writing about it. The worst thing about it for me is the injection - can't even think about it without hyperventilating. Cannot go on my own or I have a full blown panic attack. My current dentist is very gentle and calm, or I wouldn't have agreed to have it done. The anaesthetist was HORRID though. Aggressive and loud, made me worse. After I had the real crowns fitted the dentist said, "see you in 6 months" - I'm sorry to say I laughed at him!! My other one is spiders, but this is getting better with age - I can 'deal with' (ie kill!) small ones now, but will summon help - from friends or neighbours if necessary - if they are cartoon style with boots on. Could never hold a tarantula - I would faint. Hubby has NO phobias and although he came with me to the dentist he finds it hard to understand how a phobia makes you feel. By the way, fear of (other) people being 'ill' is very common I think. Maz. XX

mines birds,ok if they're in a birdcage but its when they're flying.my mum has a wierd one its cotton wool,she can't go anywhere near the stuff, karen

Mine's snakes as well. I won't go into the details but as a child I was threatened by a snake and had bad nightmares until I was 20. Years later somebody showed me a grass snake and I passed out. Jo.

HI mine are spiders, i'm ok with daddy long legs and little ones, but the great big hairy one, turn my stomach, and i can be physically sick. hieghts feel dizzy clammy and sick to the verge of passing out, claustrophia, lifts, huge crowds etc, it was worse when i was in a wheelchair,i now know why some kids scream when there's alot of people round them. boyfriend phobias are balloons and needles i feel for anyone that has a phobia, it is hard to deal with them and at times some can seem silly to others. sandra

That happened to a guy in our church Sarah, but it wasn't a spider that went down the side of the chair, it was a snake. And he refused to go into the room until his son got it out.

Oh I couldn't possibly touch one! I can't even get close enough to tread on one - I get my partner to put them outside, I'm not cruel and I know they are good houseguests and eat flies so I don't want to see them killed, as long as they keep well away from me. I've even been known to go fetch a neighbour because one ran under my sofa and I couldn't bring myself to sit down until I knew it was gone. I've tried so hard to control it, particularly around my daughter, but all my good intentions just disappear the moment I'm faced with one.

Like so many of you, it's spiders that do it for me, but it's not as bad as it used to be. If there was a spider in the bath, i used to put the dog in it, and he would pick it up in his mouth and play with it until it died. But now I can pick it up myself and throw it out the window. If I'm sitting on the lounge floor, watching T.V. & a spider comes across the carpet, ................. that's a different matter all together. I'm sure the neighbours think that I'm being murdered or something. If one dropped down from the sun visor while driving, I'm sure I wouldn't be alive to type this.

Mine is the common hairy-8-legged-thing....if one gets too close I have a full blown panic attack. My first week at work, many years ago, someone removed a dead one from the basement 'cos one of the other girls was whittering about it, it got waved in my direction when I cringed and I promptly threw up! Took an hour for them to calm me down enough to carry on working - needless to say any future visitors were dealt with quickly and well out my sight! lol

Hi Mandy, I also have a phobia about people being sick. Not that good with myself either. I even get panicky when it happens on tv progs, but to a far lesser degree. Jill

Felicity, thanks for sharing that. There is only one person I can deal with in that situation - my son. Even then I have to stand well back from the bathroom door!! If my husband is ill, I send him to a local Travelodge for the night. At the time it seems perfectly reasonable, but afterwards you feel a bit of a ninny! Funnily enough, my sister-in-law was telling me last week about a colleague of hers - the lady, her husband and son live in the top half of her parents' house. Her husband was 'ill' and so she and her son went and slept on camp beds downstairs with her parents! So I'm not the only one! I did belong to a support group but it wasn't for me .... I will have a look at that website in the morning. Mandy :)

Having looked at the website, I realise I do not have a phobia. Joy

Interesting topic this. Mandy, my daughter is similarly phobic about anyone being sick, and gets distressed if she is sick herself. She has managed to cope better since she became a mother and has had to deal with her children, but she still gets someone else to cope if she possibly can! I used to get in a panic about spiders but conquered the fear when I realised that I was passing on the phobia to my children. I can manage quite well now, but still don't like them on me! Poor things! I know that they're at least as frightened of me as I am of them, but I can't help it.

Karen I can understand your phobia with sand. I hate the stuff. I've not got a phobia but i avoid it whenever I can. Mine's is snakes...nuff said Christine

I have been told that my fears are not irrational. However, since a car crash last September (head-on collision - the other car came round a bend on the wrong side of the road), I have had a sort of phobia in traffic, fear of being in traffic. I have confidence in *my* driving!! I daresay it'll wear off, not as bad as it was. Joy

if anyones interested,theres a very good website,that covers,amongst over things phobias..they have an active forum,where a registered nurse is on hand with good advice. www(.)nomorepanic(.)co(.)uk ,and its a totally free site. bryan.

hi i have an unusual phobia which is sand ,from being a baby i couldnt bare to be sat on the sand at the beach i would scream my head off, as i grew up i would be physically sick and have to stay with rellies, even now i take my kids to the beach but i stay off the sand it just makes me feel sick. i couldnt even play with the sand tray at school,weird . karen