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Phobias anyone?

I have a HUGE fear of sharks. Whether its on TV or in a game or even a picture. I can't look at it or I'll scream and my heart will try and punch its way out of my chest. I'm actually scared of a lot of things, I'm such a wimp, haha! I'm scared of bugs, loud noises (I HATE thunder!), deep water, lightning, and I'm terrified of the 'scary lady' ( I prefer to call her) from that HORRIBLE Japanese horror (too scared to even say the name) where she makes the croaking/death rattle noise. Oh dear lord please don't ever make me watch that again...!
 
I think sometimes we kind of blur the boundaries between a fear, even a strong one & a true clinical phobia. As afraid as I am of spiders, I'm not scared to leave the house or go into the back yard because of them. If one is inside, I call my husband to get rid of him since he isn't scared of them. Tiny ones just annoy me & I can 'get' them myself but not the big fat hairy guys. I also deplore the feeling of a fine strand of spider web against my skin: it freaks me right out. It's part of that light touch sensory thing many of us seem to have.
 
The idea of having an MRI bothers me I could tolerate the tight space for a short time but if it took too long I might start to panic.:eek:
I am afraid of heights as far as ladders go but love the idea of sky diving.
I have absolutely no fear of any animals and being around the most dangerous ones are a serious high!:D
 
Soup said:
Tiny ones just annoy me & I can 'get' them myself but not the big fat hairy guys. I also deplore the feeling of a fine strand of spider web against my skin: it freaks me right out. It's part of that light touch sensory thing many of us seem to have.
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Oh yes, or when I feel something crawling on me, or when my cousin's very excitable dog jumps on me and tries to bite my feet. The sight of these animals never scares, but the physical contact I find very unnerving.
 
I always hated talking on phones. Whenever I have to call someone, especially someone I don't know, I get really apprehensive. So, I have a fear of phones and I can get nervous about talking to someone I know, even my mom or my own brothers!

I also have a fear of crowds. I hate being around a lot of people, especially if I am by myself.
 
KWoodson73 said:
I always hated talking on phones. Whenever I have to call someone, especially someone I don't know, I get really apprehensive. So, I have a fear of phones and I can get nervous about talking to someone I know, even my mom or my own brothers!

I also have a fear of crowds. I hate being around a lot of people, especially if I am by myself.
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When I was a teenager, my dad would have me order the pizzas because he didn't like talking on the phone, I had such anxiety about it that I would pay my brother to do it. Thing is he had trouble with phones as well, but it was worth it for him cause he got paid.
 
With phones, I prefer to tx. I understand about ordering pizzas too: so I use a place where I can order & pay online. That way, the guy shows up with our food, one of the kids or my husband takes it in & I hide in my hoodie until the guy is gone. Over the phone, I've noticed that I'm more comfortable calling clients I don't know at all because they just stick to business, place their appointments, ask business-type questions & hang up. the ones that are long-standing clients recognize my voice, begin chatting & askin questions abour everything from my kids to the dogs & our renovations. I feel really awkward & tempted to yell: "THIS IS A BUSINESS LINE: THOSE THINGS ARE NONE OF YOUR DAMNED BUSINESS! JUST BOOK YOUR FREAKIN' APPOINTMENT & LEAVE ME ALONE!" Social chit-chat isn't my forte!
 
I have an irrational fear of getting into a lift with lots of people in it; I'm scared that the lift will get stuck and I'll be trapped for god knows how long with a bunch of strangers. I'm better with crowds than I used to be but they do still make me anxious and I'd rather avoid them if I can. I'm also afraid of worms and won't go near them, although strangely I don't mind snakes at all. Leeches too... they make my skin crawl because they drink blood, which itself is another thing I'm not comfortable with.
 
Hi.
I have severe emetophobia and this strongly influences my life.
I also have a phobia if the tap water changes color and turns yellow or red (for the presence of the ground), this is absurd.

These two phobias I have since very small child. I do not know if they are part of autism because I know other people with emetophobia who are not autistic.
 
I have this really irrational fear of deep water (oceans and lakes, not pools) which makes no sense, because I've never even been in water that's real deep - and I know how to swim. It just freaks the hell out of me.
And also public speaking
 
I can get very nervous about public speaking, internally. No matter how minor it is - it could just be raising my hand and making a point in class - as I'm anticipating it I always tremble and heat up inside. The fear seems to be entirely subconscious.

It was even worse when I was doing a high ropes course, and I wasn't worried at all about it, but then as soon as I put my foot on the rope it started shaking like crazy. "Why is this happening?" I thought, "I'm not scared!" and then my classmates - very kindly - started comforting me with words of encouragement. "I'm fine!" I thought, "I'm not scared! I'm just shaking like crazy!"
 
Christian T said:
I can get very nervous about public speaking, internally. No matter how minor it is - it could just be raising my hand and making a point in class - as I'm anticipating it I always tremble and heat up inside. The fear seems to be entirely subconscious.

It was even worse when I was doing a high ropes course, and I wasn't worried at all about it, but then as soon as I put my foot on the rope it started shaking like crazy. "Why is this happening?" I thought, "I'm not scared!" and then my classmates - very kindly - started comforting me with words of encouragement. "I'm fine!" I thought, "I'm not scared! I'm just shaking like crazy!"
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First off, love the Jack Sparrow Avatar

Second off, I agree with your earlier post about underwater predators. Anything bigger than me in the water even if it's a whale would scare the daylights out of me and everyone knows sharks are soulless killing machines.

To be more on topic, yeah public speaking for me is an absolute nightmare. I had the displeasure of only being diagnosed after highschool so I had to deal with the project presentations that killed my grade with the vast majority of my inchorent rants only getting me the bare minimum score. The worst though was my when my old employer took me to court to try and contest my unemployment claim in front of a department of labor referee. Imagine the stress of public speaking mixed with sitting next to a boss you hated who was openly accusing you of being a bad employee with all lovely relaxation of legal proceedings. I'm not sure if I ever managed to put together a single proper sentence in that little nightmare.
 
General Sherman said:
I had the displeasure of only being diagnosed after highschool so I had to deal with the project presentations that killed my grade with the vast majority of my inchorent rants only getting me the bare minimum score. The worst though was my when my old employer took me to court to try and contest my unemployment claim in front of a department of labor referee. Imagine the stress of public speaking mixed with sitting next to a boss you hated who was openly accusing you of being a bad employee with all lovely relaxation of legal proceedings. I'm not sure if I ever managed to put together a single proper sentence in that little nightmare.
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Oh, good grief, my heart really goes out to you. I hope you're disorderly orations were somehow convincing though.

At the end of last year, in Drama, a subject that normally goes well for me, I got the bare minimum score too, in a solo performance. I suppose its because there were no Neurotypicals there to tell me that a performance I thought was completely coherent, was actually confusing to them. My Aspie friend understood it though, but from now on I'll try to get a Neurotypical dialect coach to help me make in intelligible to them. I suppose you never really now how something is going to seem from another person's perspective.
 
Christian T said:
Oh, good grief, my heart really goes out to you. I hope you're disorderly orations were somehow convincing though.

At the end of last year, in Drama, a subject that normally goes well for me, I got the bare minimum score too, in a solo performance. I suppose its because there were no Neurotypicals there to tell me that a performance I thought was completely coherent, was actually confusing to them. My Aspie friend understood it though, but from now on I'll try to get a Neurotypical dialect coach to help me make in intelligible to them. I suppose you never really now how something is going to seem from another person's perspective.
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Amazingly I won but I think that may have been because the referee knew about my condition since I orginally got the job through a department of labor program for those with Aspbergers, bio-polar, Autism,ect...

Sadly my boss was not as understanding and appealed the descsion with a letter claiming the system was so biased towards the employee it was impossible for him to win, a letter which I might add he outright lied to the appeals board in. In all honesty I've been a little scared of going back to work after the stress of that little nightmare, figures my first job would likely be my worst. I worked in a little machine shop that was basically a small windowless room with zero airflow, sunlight, and no heating or cooling for the winter and summer months. In the wintertime the place would get so cold over night the clock on the wall would freeze stopping it so someone would have to re-set it everyday and I don't think it's normal to see your breath at work till 10 in the morning. Combine that with the room having no windows and during the winter I got about 1 hour of sunlight each day and spent most of my working time freezing.
 
I have things that I dislike, such as talking on the phone, social chit-chat, doctors, hospitals, and loud noises. Then there are things I fear such as strangers touching me, spiders, sharks, crowds, heights, and confined spaces. I'm not sure when things a person fears turns into a phobia. I know on occasion I have had panic attacks or melt downs in crowds or at malls, which is why I avoid them. It was worse when I was younger though. But I still make someone walk in front of me going down stairs so I can put my hand on their shoulder. I'm so afraid of falling. I shop on-line when needed and go to the grocery store very early before other people get there. I freelance work, so most everything is done by myself. I text and email instead of calling. My hubby answers the phone when it rings or answers the door.
 
Aichmophobia or fear of knives was mentioned earlier, I have that. We have larger kitchen knives for cutting vegetables which I won't use, would rather use smaller steak knives. The blade makes me so fearful.
I don't know if there is a name for it but I have a big fear of bees. I used to play little league baseball as a kid and wasn't very good so they put me in the outfield and there was all of this clover out in the field and bees everywhere. It was like a mine field for me, hated that.
 
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