irrational fears

[Bob]

what are your irrational fears?

for me it's telephones. i don't know why i hate them, but i do. answering them, dialing them (oh god), speaking on them, being asked to use one, i get all clammy whenever anything phone-related comes up. there's absolutely no reason for it, and i'm not really getting over it, even though my job requires me to use them somewhat regularly, but it's crippling i tell you. on the occasions when i find myself in a phone conversation, my basic communication skills go completely out the window, i focus completely on getting whatever i want out of whoever i'm talking to so i can hang the hell up.

for example, someone had called me back about a thing i had asked about and the conversation started off like:

him: hello this is such and such from what and who, how are you today?
me: yes, hello, thanks
him: uhhhh

and it was just downhill from there. friends, family, strangers, pizza restaurants, i just hate phones. can't figure out why. if someone calls me and leaves a message to call them back, 9 times out of 10 i won't do it, i'll just wait for them to call again (not at work obviously, i'd get fired after not too much of that). it's crazy and i know it's crazy but there it is.

any of you have anything like that?

[Ace42X]

I dislike telephones too. Not the technology, but having to converse with people using them. Odd thing to say for someone so familair with communicating via the interweb, but I find them oddly impersonal. Mainly because, I guess, they are so demanding. With the Internet you have time to compose yourself and your conversation. With a phone, it is DEMANDING.

When I appeared on the radio, briefly, it was as bad as a phone. Same phenomenon, it sucks the thoughts from your head, with your mouth just opening as a conduit. There is no filtration or control, it just tumbles out.

Horrid. I was traumatised.

[DandyFop]

I have an irrational fear of teachers. I will go through a lot not to talk to them. I used to not be like that at all, it's really weird. But if i miss too many classes or a paper or something I fucking HATE going up to talk to them. I have to email them, I can't even handle the phone or saying it to their face. And then when I show up to class again after this has happened I get extreme anxiety and half the time can't bring myself to go into the classroom.

[Bob]

I have an irrational fear of teachers. I will go through a lot not to talk to them. I used to not be like that at all, it's really weird. But if i miss too many classes or a paper or something I fucking HATE going up to talk to them. I have to email them, I can't even handle the phone or saying it to their face. And then when I show up to class again after this has happened I get extreme anxiety and half the time can't bring myself to go into the classroom.

that doesn't sound too irrational. you've done something wrong and you're afraid they'll yell at you or something. at least there's a reason to be afraid there, even if it is ultimately kind of frivolous (i do it too though, hell, i still haven't asked for a letter of recommendation...my phone fear only compounds the problem)

[TurdBerglar]

what are your irrational fears?

for me it's telephones. i don't know why i hate them, but i do. answering them, dialing them (oh god), speaking on them, being asked to use one, i get all clammy whenever anything phone-related comes up. there's absolutely no reason for it, and i'm not really getting over it, even though my job requires me to use them somewhat regularly, but it's crippling i tell you. on the occasions when i find myself in a phone conversation, my basic communication skills go completely out the window, i focus completely on getting whatever i want out of whoever i'm talking to so i can hang the hell up.

for example, someone had called me back about a thing i had asked about and the conversation started off like:

him: hello this is such and such from what and who, how are you today?
me: yes, hello, thanks
him: uhhhh

and it was just downhill from there. friends, family, strangers, pizza restaurants, i just hate phones. can't figure out why. if someone calls me and leaves a message to call them back, 9 times out of 10 i won't do it, i'll just wait for them to call again (not at work obviously, i'd get fired after not too much of that). it's crazy and i know it's crazy but there it is.

any of you have anything like that?


if im hanging out with some people and i am all like, "dude lets get a pizza!". and he just says sure and hands me the phone i nearly have a heart attack, for two reasons. i have that same fear of phones and secondly i don't want to look like a fool who's affraid of phones. so i just say, "HOW ABOUT TACO BELL INSTEAD!". that usually seems to work. except pizza shits all over taco bell. my heart skips a bit if my phones rings too.


im also compleletly fearful of cracking open eggs. im affriad im gonna get the sticky shit all over my hands. which is cuased by another quirk i have. my hands can never be sticky or chalky or grity. i don't give a fuck if their dirty. it's not the dirtyness that bothers me. it's the feeling. makes my spine knot up. i love eating eggs though.


i don't like being on or near the road either. i don't trust who ever is driveing and the other drivers on the road to be competent drivers.


i alsp freak out when im around a shitload of people in cramp conditions. my heart starts raceing and i get real aggetated. it would be real easy for me to punch someone in the face if they ever bumped into me if i get like that. it only seems to happen when im inside though. i can be outside like at amusement park cramped up in a line for 2 hours and i couldn't give a shit. but put that line inside an enclosure than i start swinging.

[hpdrifter]

My irrational fear is having my feet and ankles exposed to something I can't see. I sleep with my blankets tucked under my feet and around my ankles, I get sort of creeped out swimming if I can't see the bottom, and I can't sit on a couch with no shoes on and my feet on the floor because of that small space between the bottom of the couch and the floor.

no idea why

[Bob]

so i'm not the only one with this phone thing, that's relieving. i wonder why it's so common? it doesn't make any sense, and i have friends that have the same thing, but all around me people seem to be making phone calls willy-nilly. i just don't know.

[hpdrifter]

I don't like checking my voicemail. Its not that I'm afraid of it, I just find it irritating.

[TurdBerglar]

so i'm not the only one with this phone thing, that's relieving. i wonder why it's so common? it doesn't make any sense, and i have friends that have the same thing, but all around me people seem to be making phone calls willy-nilly. i just don't know.


i can't stand when someone calls me up just to chat. i like only useing the phone for strict information.

where are you, where you gonna be, where should we meet.

unless it's a female i have no problems whatso ever talking to females in general. i can 4 hour long conversations with a female and can only make wisecracks and lude comments around dudes. unless it's about sports or technology. i can talk about that with no problem

[Bob]

voicemail i'm sort of ok with because it's a one way communication. i have all the hand in the relationship, i just have to listen, i don't have to talk, and i can compose myself before i choose to respond. e-mail's ok too, probably because i have time to compose myself too. simultaneous two-way long distance communication totally throws me off though (instant messaging doesn't count), i don't know why. maybe i have some social disorder. maybe i'm retarded or something.

[hpdrifter]

I think voicemail bugs me because so few people get that voicemail is not a place to hold a one-sided conversation with me. A simple call me back or meet me at some time some place would suffice. But don't talk so long that my voicemail eventually cuts you off.

I, too, loathe talking on the phone for the sake of talking on the phone.

*shudder*

[marsdaddy]

The phone thing is kinda of strange. Maybe because of email, IM, and whatnot, you are uncomfortable? Enlightens me a bit more about your asking for recommedations problem.

I am afraid of swimming where I can't see the bottom. I blame Peter Benchley.

[monkey]

I have an irrational fear of teachers. I will go through a lot not to talk to them. I used to not be like that at all, it's really weird. But if i miss too many classes or a paper or something I fucking HATE going up to talk to them. I have to email them, I can't even handle the phone or saying it to their face. And then when I show up to class again after this has happened I get extreme anxiety and half the time can't bring myself to go into the classroom.

creepy. this is me too. i had a panic attack once when i had to go see one.

[Documad]

I am afraid that something will fall off a truck and squish my car.

[Parkey]

Moths! Dusty little fucks.

[Chad the Lad]

im with ye on the moths

i cant look down at deep water makes me queasy. - im fine with swimming though, just looking at it.......it looks......evil, like theres summat not right with it.

[tracky]

I'm the same with the phone bob. Will always get one of the ladies at work to call up customers etc. and i never answer it either

Not so much at home, because only very few people have my # so i pretty much know who it's gonna be. And calling friends or whatever i don't have a problem with. But anything important. Hate it. I think it's the immediacy of it all, and the fact that you have no ability to express yourself through body language either (although it is always amusing watching someone doing like hand movements to explain something while on the phone. i do it too, like pointing at stuff they have no way of seeing)

Other irrational fears:

Moths, although i am coming to terms with this one, slowly. One landed on me the other day and I barely flinched at all

Girls

Documad, that is not irrational (http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051223/NEWS/512230324/1001). Personally I never sit behind any truck / trailer that looks even remotely likely to have shit fall off. I'll stick as far back as possible til i can get around them.

[burbboi]

I'm nervous swimming in deep, dark waters. Whether it's a small lake or the Pacific Ocean, I am terrified of being along in those situations. I'm afraid that something is going to swim up and bite me like in that Jaws poster :eek:

[yeahwho]

I wish you would of just called this a "I hate to talk on the phone thread."

My Dad of all people loves to talk on the phone....for hours, at me, not with me.

I dread phone calls that last more than a couple of minutes.

I'm afraid to call people on the phone for fear they'll take up 10-20 minutes or more of my day.

And if somebody is meandering on my answering machine I cut it off and never call back.

I read a book a few years ago called "How to get your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less" and I try and abide by this rule in all correspondence on the phone or at work.

I think maybe we're all a bunch of introverts on this board. The phone is so fucking outdated.

[King PSYZ]

fish

[Thundercracker]

this is the official weirdo thread.

[yeahwho]

I am afraid that something will fall off a truck and squish my car.

My dad works for Seattle Fire Department....I have a few stories that will freak you out. Stay away from loaded down trucks and trailers.

[yeahwho]

this is the official weirdo thread.

I'm terrified of being called an official weirdo.

[Thundercracker]

I'm terrified of being called an official weirdo.
you see, that's not good.

[yeahwho]

you see, that's not good.

Whats really not good is I'm reading this list (http://www.phobialist.com/reverse.html#W-) and so far only about a dozen don't apply to me. Fuck I'm Woody Allen.

[Documad]

Bob: make notes about what you want to say before you make a phone call. Even if it sounds silly. It takes the pressure off. (I used to be afraid to use the phone when I got my first real job -- I tend to say stupid things and go off on tangents, which I'm sure no one will believe.)

Yeahwho: I'm sure your dad has lots of stories that would prevent me from driving. I know of a case here where a giant metal pole slid off a truck and the round end part went through the windshield of the pickup parked behind and nearly got my friend's brother's head. My worst fear is logging trucks, where the chain breaks and the logs roll off the side and crush me and my car.

I'm also afraid of runaway trucks. In both Washington and northern Minnesota, I've seen those runaway truck ramps and you can tell that some of them have been used.

[Ace42X]

Bob: make notes about what you want to say before you make a phone call.

Bad idea, notes confuse me. I end up stumbling over what I mean to say, and concentrating more on the notes than the actual conversation. Relaying a message verbatim sounds coached and terrible, and totally flummoxes the person on the other end, and you can guarantee that if you leave them loose tyou'll either miss them, or be unable to reign them into a coherant phrase. All the while the person at the other end is WAITING for information to be poured into their brain, waiting for you to cock up what you are saying, and scrutinising you. Waiting to put you off your track and derail your trian of thought.

GOD I HATE PHONECALLS

[Documad]

Bad idea, notes confuse me. I end up stumbling over what I mean to say, and concentrating more on the notes than the actual conversation. Relaying a message verbatim sounds coached and terrible, and totally flummoxes the person on the other end, and you can guarantee that if you leave them loose tyou'll either miss them, or be unable to reign them into a coherant phrase. All the while the person at the other end is WAITING for information to be poured into their brain, waiting for you to cock up what you are saying, and scrutinising you. Waiting to put you off your track and derail your trian of thought.

GOD I HATE PHONECALLS
I'll bet you don't get invited to many support groups, huh? :p

[DapperDiverge]

I've been afraid of the phone since I was a little kid... I guess it was because the phone was this negative device... I'd always hear my mom screaming and cursing at my dad after the divorce... she'd start smoking and drinking like crazy and would always cry...

also, my mom always got these negative calls because the other woman kept putting my mom in court and that kept putting us in the poor house...

then my mom got a mysterious call that my father died...then grandma...then someone else got in a crash...blah, blah, blah...

why can't any good news come from a phone call??? Even horror movies base their plots around scary phone calls...

I hate the phone...but I guess I wouldn't have problem with it because it's like my mom said, no one can see you through the phone right? so what the fuck??

:D That's when I pretend to open a jar of pickles when I'm actually taking a shit!!

speaking of shit, I fear public restrooms and water fountains...eeeew
but if ya gotta go, ya gotta "squirms" GO!!!

[miss_bhaven]

if im hanging out with some people and i am all like, "dude lets get a pizza!". and he just says sure and hands me the phone i nearly have a heart attack, for two reasons. i have that same fear of phones and secondly i don't want to look like a fool who's affraid of phones. so i just say, "HOW ABOUT TACO BELL INSTEAD!". that usually seems to work. except pizza shits all over taco bell. my heart skips a bit if my phones rings too.

I'm the same Turd, I can't stand making phone calls to people I don't know. Especially take-away outlets/video stores/shopping centres even work, I hate calling up. But if I know the person and am close to them, I honestly don't the phone call. I'd rather talk in person though.

[BangkokB]

I agree with TB....A phone should be used strictly for "What's up? Me~ I'm not doin' much right now? So where you at? Alright, I'll meet you there in 'bout 30".

Me: Heights~so that includes bridges, flying, glass lifts and cars that are high up ala SUV types

Things could be worse. My dad won't drive on interstates. Needless to say that made trips long overdue. And to add insult to injury it made me afraid of small hick towns. I'm convinced noone would choose to live there

And that brings us up to Hospitals and/or trips to the Doctor; unless his/her last name is Feelgood

[alexandra]

i don't like being on or near the road either. i don't trust who ever is driveing and the other drivers on the road to be competent drivers.
me too, i'm always afraid of being hit by a car, or any vehicle for that matter.

[fucktopgirl]

i am afraid of swimming far from the beach in big lac ,i panic when below my feet is dark and i have no idea how deep it is!!Always have in mind that a big fish gonna eat my toes or a sea monster! :D


I am scared to drive in the snow,icy road,,I almost get hit by a logging truck while getting out of my driveway two winters ago,because its was icy and i was on the 4/4 wheeldrive,,,,so now ,i just let my bf do the drive!!

[Rawr]

transit highways.
over here its super bad.
plus the cross walks are only lasting like.. 4 god damn seconds.
im always paranoid to walk across.

and those big big big trucks, when im in the car and see a truck coming up to turn and just seeing it sway i get all grabbing the door handle ready to jump the fuck out and run cause i always think the truck is going to tip and crush the car im in.

i also fear deep deep deeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep water. like the ocean.
i do actually believe in sea monsters !

[insertnamehere]

i had no idea there were so many people with the phone fear like my own! maybe thats why we're all attracted to a message board, ability to communicate saftley away from phones.

[avignon]

spiders and bugs. Well, most bugs. Creepy ugly bugs. but not cute bugs. Cute bugs I can deal with.

I have like a kind of panic attack thing when I see something really big. I mean really big. This happened when we drove past a nuclear power plant, when a barge passed really close to the cottage I was staying in, and when I stood next to the Sears Tower.

I don't like people touching me. It freaks me out. I mean other than my family, little kids, and my really close friends who are female. If my really close male friends touch me like casually, it makes me uncomfortable and I kind of wince a little. I can't help it. But they all know this about me and they try to give me some space, and if they forget, they always apologize and it's never a huge deal.

[voltanapricot]

I don't like people touching me. It freaks me out. I mean other than my family, little kids, and my really close friends who are female. If my really close male friends touch me like casually, it makes me uncomfortable and I kind of wince a little. I can't help it. But they all know this about me and they try to give me some space, and if they forget, they always apologize and it's never a huge deal.
I'm the same. Especially my face, once I gave someone a nosebleed after he was making fun and kept tickling my face. I didn't even think about hitting him, I just really hated it and wanted to stop it and I dunno, it just happened. I felt bad but I did tell him I had a thing about it.

How's that for irrational EH! I've so many more.

[alexandra]

i am afraid of swimming far from the beach in big lac ,i panic when below my feet is dark and i have no idea how deep it is!!Always have in mind that a big fish gonna eat my toes or a sea monster! :D
same here, i get so paranoid. i think that some huge octopus is gonna pull me down into the dark and i'll get drowned. that's why i prefer pools, haha.

[adam_f]

I don't like phones, but camera phones in particular. I don't see the point. I am glad that other people don't like them. I don't feel like living in a leper colony anymore.

And Pee-Wee Herman. Don't like him.

[tracky]

I don't like people touching me. It freaks me out. I mean other than my family, little kids, and my really close friends who are female. If my really close male friends touch me like casually, it makes me uncomfortable and I kind of wince a little. I can't help it. But they all know this about me and they try to give me some space, and if they forget, they always apologize and it's never a huge deal.

oh yeah count me in on that one too

i definately have a few issues :|

[HotAndWet]

I have like a kind of panic attack thing when I see something really big. I mean really big. This happened when we drove past a nuclear power plant, when a barge passed really close to the cottage I was staying in, and when I stood next to the Sears Tower.

.


I have the same thing! When I go to New York City or something, I feel really nervous about walking in between skyscrapers, like they're gonna fall on me or something?

Heights, I even get anxious when I'm walking on the second level of the mall in my area.

I used to have a weird fear of school for years, but now in college I feel safer than most other places.


I also just have a fear of fear....of having panic attacks...I just feel like I'll go insane or something...which scares me the most I think...

[Zonkie]

Irrational fears,

Coulrophobia- Fear of clowns.
Autophobia, Isolophobia or Eremophobia - Fear of being alone or of oneself.

Oh, and of course, phones. Well, phone ringing, specifically rotary phones. I blame Sizzler and Sizzler.

Those are just my irrational ones, I have many others that I'm sure would qualify for admission to an insane assylum

[Zonkie]

Here's a list of phobias for you to all look at and become basket cases and ridicule yourselves and see what you're afraid of, belive me, it's fun. :rolleyes:

All of Your Insecurities In A Nice Little Package (http://www.greatestcities.com/users/kith_obssesion/)

ignore the first few, those are just some personal ones

[alexandra]

So yeah, what's up? I'm listening to Beastie Boys, because last night I was thinking of how hot Adrock is so I found my cd, and yeah, lol. I LOST MY GREEN DAY INSOMNIAC CD!!! SOMEONE SHALL DIE!!!!! Anyways, I'm bored.
:D

[Zonkie]

quote:So yeah, what's up? I'm listening to Beastie Boys, because last night I was thinking of how hot Adrock is so I found my cd, and yeah, lol. I LOST MY GREEN DAY INSOMNIAC CD!!! SOMEONE SHALL DIE!!!!! Anyways, I'm bored. :D

that sounds like something i would say...or actually said...i don't remember

anymeow, to get back on topic, i don't want another warning

[alexandra]

that came from you alright.

[jackrock]

Taphephobia
being buried alive *shivers*

also i hate talking on the phone also, but it ain't a fear of any kind... this is my average phone call...
"hey"
"hey"
"whatsup"
"nothing, you?"
"nothing"
*sigh*
"wanna do summin?..." (n) i just don't like it.

[Beckalina]

chip buttie's and small, but in proportion, people (not midgets, they're not in proportion)

[Zonkie]

OH! How, could I have forgotten. Leprechauns. *cringes*

[ToucanSpam]

I have this irrational fear of picture books which have photographs of deep space or icebergs.


I don't know why but I'm terrified when I open up a book about space and I see a planet. Creeps me out.


As for the iceberg, I dunno. They're fuckin huge.