http://www.phobialist.com/

Here is a list of phobias and what they are, if you want to find a name for your condition...em...fear

Anyway, I've started working on a concept for my Honours project. I would like to design and develop a roleplaying game for the PC where you would guide two child characters through a fantasy world based on phobias. It would be aimed at children/young teens primarily as an educational story driven game, so that children can learn more about their fears and how (perhaps most importantly why) they should overcome them to lead a fuller and more carefree life

So I started doing some research into fear, and the kind of fears people have. There are some very strange phobias in this list indeed!

But this isn't really research for me (although I'll use it!), rather a fun thread where you can embarrass yourselves and tell us all what makes you jump out of your skin.

What phobias do you suffer from?

Do you have any stories about how your phobia has affected you/made you look silly?!

3 years ago, I would have said none. I have a thrill seeking nature and have never felt the "heebie jeebies" about anything-from Claustrophobia to fear of spiders.

Now though, I don't know, sometimes I have a very defensive position towards any strangers around my kids, and it is a pretty strong feeling- I don't know if it is a phobia or a natural protective reaction of being a father towards his kids, but the feeling is really strong. I have to really fight the urge to chase them off at a drop of a hat.

Where to start.

Firstly, I'm Polyphobic. Not quite scared of everything, but certainly scared of most of whats going on around me.

My biggest fear is Arachnaphobia, something I have suffered from for as long as I can remember. I have no trouble with any other animal (although I am slightly Spheksophobic - wasps). People keep on telling me its irrational, and yes it is - but it doesnt mean I can't be petrified of them! I know one day I'm going to have to go to Australia for a number of family/personal reasons, but my girlfriends cousin has told me horror stories about the spiders where he lives in Brisbane. The most embarassing spider moment for me was when a small house spider jumped out a book i opened and landed in my pajamas. I had to tear off my clothes and run about trying to rip my skin off, and refused to touch another book for weeks.

Nyctohylophobia! No I can't pronounce it either, but is this something I will never be able to do. Dark wooded areas or forests at night. This started when I saw ET (dont laugh) and he came out of the trees into the greenhouse in Elliots garden. I was also creeped out by the woods at the beginning and end of the movie. Skip forward to adulthood, enter the Blair Witch Project (again...stop laughing!). This scared me no end. Now, I don't live in an isolated part of the country, but we do have dark wooded areas, and they scare me when I am anywhere near them. I dont even like walking past trees or bushes in built up areas at night.

Acrophobia - I don't do heights. Good thing I don't live in a country with many high things, but I've always had nightmares about being up high. I know that when I am high, the dizzyness I suffer makes me want to tumble over the edge and fall to the ground, just to get it over with. New York, here I don't come.

Monophobia - I am quite a solitary figure, and like my own company, but I do fear extended loneliness. I can't cope without human contact for very long, even if its just the live news on TV it makes me feel better. I don't like sleeping alone or waking up in a house by myself. It was the solitary aspect of the opening sequences of 28 Days Later that made the film scary for me, not any of the zombie stuff

Oh I could go on and on, but I won't bore you. I fear death (being non-religious I believe when you die thats it, nothing more), sharp objects, black and brown dogs (just black and brown, like a doberman or rotweiller), alien abduction...yes Im a scaredy cat.

Interesting concept Robin...

I'm not sure if these technically qualify as phobias or what they would even be called...

- Flying insects that sting: Pretty much any time that a bee, wasp, whatever comes anywhere within 5 feet of me I either hit the deck or run away in terror -- or as my friends term it, run away like a little girl.

- Putting things in my eyes: I have never been able to put eye drops in my own eyes and contacts are completely out of the question. My wife has to basically knock me out if I have to take eye medicine or something. If I ever even see someone touching someone else's eye I get all quesy and uncomfortable and have to look away.

Are you sure this list is accurate? I came along this:


That particular entry, I assume, is a joke.

I am mildly agoraphobic. When I went to Disney World as a child I had a panic attack, and I tend to always find a comfortable place in a corner without consciously realising it. In highschool I spent lunch periods tucked into a corner, reading.
The most bizarre thing, and one of the few things that can still set off a panic attack in me is to see searchlights on a clear night. I'm not even sure it's related, but it is the exact same feeling as the panic attacks I used to get.

Aside from my fear of flying there is one big fear that I have:

That something bad would happen to a loved one, and I wouldn't
be able to help them, or stop it.

Also, like Cruising Ram, I am troubled by strangers, in regards to
my children. I am also over-protective in other ways. We have
never had a babysitter (except for my mom) watch our kids.
Needless to say, we don't get out too much.

We had a similar thread here.

Like Doomed, I have a strong fear of flying, and I'm claustrophobic.

I've noticed that a lot of kids have a fear of clowns. I don't, but then, had I watched the movie It or read the book, I might. And who knows how many kids have been chased by T. Rex in their nightmares?

Fear of drowning is a big one. The thought of not being able to breathe is problematic. But really, is it a phobia if it really can hurt you and it doesn't stop you from going to the beach, etc.?

In Louisiana, there are graves that have bells suspended just over them and a cord running down into the vault. When medical science was not as advanced and plagues were ubiquitous, there was a common fear of (accidentally) being buried alive. This was to safeguard against that possibility.

There are only two things that really get to me. The first is needles (as in syringes): pieces of metal do not belong under my skin - no, no, no. One of the worst experiences of my life was having to be in hospital for eight days - on a drip. I spent an entire week in a state of cringe. The other thing is house centipedes - yeek. Those things are really unsettling. I'm not really afraid of either - I just intensely dislike them. Keep them away from me.

The only thing that really scares me is bigotry.

Funny- we have never had a babysitter- but I do have my grandmother in law living with us, and pretty much have at least one family member living with us, so we, at least, get to get out LOL

But I have noticed that this borders on what some poeple call phobias for me, do to my level of anxiety

Hmm - good thread, Robin, and good luck with the honours project.

Like you, I have a mild case of spheksophobia (wasps). This applies more to swarms than to individual insects, where my feelings re less centred on terror and more on hatred - it is a supreme effort of will for me not to kill a lone wasp I find anywhere.

My main phobia, though, in the sense of visceral, irrational, and almost reflexive terror, is one I couldn't find on your linked list.

If it has a name, it would be something like pherepterentomolophophobia , the fear of winged insects on the nape of my neck.

Both stem from the same incident - on my 12th birthday, I went orienteering in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire for the first and last time. We went around in teams, and it was great fun dashing about in the woods pretending to understand map reading. At one point, a guy called Phil led the way, with me following immeditaely behind.

We ran through a patch of bracken, and either he hit the nest or I did, but I ran straight into a cloud of angry wasps whose nest we had trodden on. I don't remember much after that until I was being calmed in the school minibus, wrapped in blankets and being fed sweet, hot, black coffee, while on of the teachers who had organised the trip counted the stings on my head. He stopped after he got past 40.

I'd been wearing a tracksuit, so I only got stung on the hands, head, neck, ankles and back (where my top rode up as I ran around flailing). But enough wasps swarmed around my head and crawled around on the back of my neck that I lose the plot completely if such circumstances are repeated. At one time I thought only wasps would provoke the response, but one night a moth flew down the back of my shirt collar and I reacted with abject panic almost before I knew what had happened. I've had spiders and other crawly things there, and while unpleasant, they don't cause me to react the same way.

So I think I just have the fear of winged insects on the back of my neck. Thankfully I'm not a beekeeper or pest control operative, so I don't find it interferes with my life in the least.

Aviophobia. I never liked planes. My fear of flying got worse on a C-130 hop from Japan to South Korea. It was gutted, extremely loud with ear foamies, as far as I could tell a hole in the ground for a toilet, baggies were passed (always a good sign), bumpy ride. I take long road trips whenever possible. Nowadays I am glued to the wing window. I want to make sure if the engine catches fire I can hop out of my seat in a single bound and run up and down the isle screaming a warning.

Gephyrophobia. I don't like tall, arched bridges, stuck in traffic, taking in nice lungfuls of exhaust.

Clithrophobia. I hate being in tight quarters, especially if it's packed with other people. In fact, I don't like recycled air.

I have the mis/fortune of experiencing very vivid dreams. Once in a while they'll reflect these fears like hurtling towards the earth, falling into a bottomless dark pit, or being stuck in a tunnel underground.

I'm Claustrophobic. I can't stand tight confined spaces.

I am sooo afraid of heights. I have a hard time just standing on a chair. Maybe because I am very short, but my legs actually wobble when I have to stand on a chair.
I don't like most bugs. Spiders, Crickets, or centipedes. I make my son get them and I don't like him to smash them. That makes me cringed more if I hear the bug with a shell and hear the crunch.
No I give him a cup or jar and a lid to take them outside.
But the Biggest phobia I have is the fear of snakes. I lived in a Condo, that was ranch style. Only one floor. I went to go to the store and left my ex with Jaime.
It was warm out so the inner door was open. I opened the screen door and it wouldn't close. I kept pushing on the door and then looked down to see why the door wasn't closing. You guessed right!!! There was a snake about 3 feet long in between the door. I freaked.and my ex being as brave as me took a baseball cap and was just as freaked kept touching the snake till is slithered out. I am still freaked how I was kind of smashing it .

I was surprised to see "Gamophobia" listed on your link. It is a word that has fallen out of most dictionaries, and it is my phobia.

Sociophobia- Fear of society or people in general, would likely be at the top of my list. I met my wife in church because we were the only two people who showed up that Sunday.

Perhaps I don't know how to describe my other major problem. A search failed to find anything on the list. I overreact to stimuli...

I can be startled by someone saying hello, for instance. I had a co-worker who so enjoyed coming up behind me and shouting "HELLO!" that he would come in on his days off. I worked in an animal research lab at the time. One quiet Sunday morning, as I was carefully removing a tray from under a rat cage where a water valve had been leaking, he crept up behind me and said, "HELLO!" My arms went over my head, and he got the contents of the tray emptied on him. He went to church that morning in a company uniform, after first taking a shower.

I had a co-worker who enjoyed goosing me so much, that he screwed together 3 10' lengths of conduit so that he could poke me while I was working 30 feet in the air.

Another co-worker enjoyed turning a foam coffee cup upside down, and slamming his hand down on it as I reached for my coffee. This resulted in a brown coffee stain on the ceiling, as I would squeeze my coffee cup hard enough to crush it.

It is likely that thirty plus years of such co-workers went a long way toward turning me into the hermit I am. It is unlikely that off-line, I would spend five minutes engaged in conversation with a stranger.Yesterday for instance, as I was picking up my newspaper, one of the regulars was saying to the owner, "It has to be every man's dream to be sandwiched between two Lesbians." My impulse was to stop and ask, "Why would any man fantasize about being in a room with two women, whose opinion of him is that they'd have a lot more fun if he left the room?" That might have started a conversation, and it certainly would have drawn attention to me. I was a lot more comfortable simply making a fast exit.