Phobias

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Phobias.....

I have a geniune phobia
4
22%
I have several genuine phobias
0
No votes
There are things I'm a bit afraid of but to use the word phobia is going OTT
13
72%
No-one has phobias - they are just irrational fears and people trying to get out of doing things or to seek attention
1
6%
 
Total votes: 18

Ferenc
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Phobias

Post by Ferenc »

Myself, I get a little sick of people refusing to do everyday normal things on the grounds that they have a 'phobia' of something, like closed spaces, rats, spiders, snakes, heights, flying, things like that.

They also seem illogical - if you're scared of a certain creature - say a wasp - on the grounds of them being dangerous, then surely you must also scared of everything that is more dangerous - like a snake or a lion or something. If not then this doesn't make much sense.

This topic came to my mind because at work the other day, a male colleague refused to help clean out the storage depot (as we are relocating) because he said he had a phobia of spiders. While he sat eating his lunch and watching TV, everyone else got on and did what they were asked to do and he wasn't punished, quite the contrary he had the afternoon off.

I think we all have things that we don't like or are a little nervous of, but I heard the other day that 9 out of 10 people who claim to have a phobia don't actually have a phobia. The main reason of claiming to have one or multiple phobias is to avoid doing something undesirable. No surprises there, methinks.

So what do you think of phobias?
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Post by englishangel »

I don't have any but the nurse at the surgery where I worked had a phobia of spiders and the day she found one in her room the scream could be heard two miles away and I have never seen a 15 stome woman move so fast.

She had hypnotherapy and the next time she had a spider she came and asked me nicely to remove it.

My son had a phobia of needles caused by a misdirected needle at his pre-school MMR, he didn't remember it but I did, until the day he had appendicitis and it was IVI or die, he took the former course.

They are indeed irrational but really terrifying, but they are learned behaviour and can therefore be unlearned.
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Post by sejintenej »

englishangel wrote:They are indeed irrational but really terrifying, but they are learned behaviour and can therefore be unlearned.
International director at work had a phobia about flying and on several occasions had to be physically carried off BA flights before they even took off.

He took the BA antiphobia course and was able to cope with his fears after that.

As for such a phobia being learned; how come in this case?

Where I was brought up for many years (South Devon) the place was crawling with adders; I was never attacked but now have a healthy respect for any snake-like object. Learned? I put it down to the genes

OTOH my wife started off being badly scared but last week was able to calmly walk away from a big brute I had disturbed when weeding. (We see perhaps one per summer but my neighbour claims never to have seen a snake in 15 years here)
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Post by blondie95 »

i have a genuine fear of boats-don't know why, im a very strong a swimmer and have never had any 'experiences' where i may have been put off! Its just the concept of a boat out on water bobbing up and down-it does not look safe at all!
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Post by Mrs C. »

...cue DBTS.......!
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Post by J.R. »

I don't think I'm entitled to vote as I don't really have any phobia's at all.

I must admit to not particularly liking knives, (when used as a weapon).

Doing un-armed combat training, I was always wary of knives, although guns, (pisyols automatics), never seemed to bother me. Very strange !
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Post by icomefromalanddownunder »

blondie95 wrote:i have a genuine fear of boats-don't know why, im a very strong a swimmer and have never had any 'experiences' where i may have been put off! Its just the concept of a boat out on water bobbing up and down-it does not look safe at all!
OK, at the risk of enraging Mary, and possibly setting others to severely scratching their heads .....................

some would claim it possible that you drowned in a previous lifetime and have retained the memory and fear.
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Post by englishangel »

Do you mean me or Mary Mc?

There are more things in heaven and earth...

I don't think you may have necessarily been hurt/frightened yourself but you may have 'caught' someone else's fear. We all love thunderstorms here but when James was a tot I picked him up from a shaking white-faced childminder who was trying not to pass her fear onto him.

A couple of years ago Paul McKenna did a series of shows where he helped people by hypnotising them. He reckoned phobias were one of the easiest things to del with and had a woman who had been thrown in the deep end as a child and was phobic about water. She would not even walk through the door of the local pool. After just one session she was in the water.

I nearly drowned when stuck in quicksand and my younger son was also pulled off the bottom of a pool aged 3 and 1/2 but neither of us are worried, who knows why it happens?
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Post by Wuppertal »

I don't have any phobias.

The thing I'm most nervous about is dogs...I don't remember it at all myself, but when I was a baby, apparently a dog jumped into my pram and nearly smothered me. Because of this event which is only in my subsconsience and not in my direct memory, I have not really liked dogs for as long as I can remember, though once I get to know a certain dog and can trust that it won't be dangerous, I'm perfectly fine with them. Though I know that I'm never going to own one myself.

I accept and understand that people originally can't help having phobias, but boy does it get annoying when one person stops everyone else from doing something just because they are scared of it. That's just selfish in my opinion, and they should either not participate in that particular activity or try to get over it for their own and everyone's else's benefit.

Someone I know has a 'phobia' of spiders, wasps, water, bridges, boats, heights, escalators, lifts, spiral staircases and closed spaces...and still wonders why people get frustrated when they can't do anything with her around when they're on a trip or something.

Unlike an allergy for example, phobias can be acquired and unacquired, like many posters have already said here.
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Post by sejintenej »

englishangel wrote:A couple of years ago Paul McKenna did a series of shows where he helped people by hypnotising them. He reckoned phobias were one of the easiest things to del with and had a woman who had been thrown in the deep end as a child and was phobic about water. She would not even walk through the door of the local pool. After just one session she was in the water.
Seems a bit dangerous. Many phobias are about things which could have a danger aspect. The phobia is an overstated caution; surely it is better to leave a certain amount of respect for the danger rather than removing any such concern. The woman who was hypnotised could have lost so much fear that she would jump in the deep end despite not being able to swim.

Hypnotism is a double-edged tool.
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Post by englishangel »

No, a phobia is an irrational fear,removing the phobia still leaves 'healthy respect' aspect.
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Post by marty »

englishangel wrote:No, a phobia is an irrational fear,removing the phobia still leaves 'healthy respect' aspect.
Well I have a fear of flying, however I do not feel that to be afraid of flying is that irrational when compared to some more daft phobias like being afraid of cats, frogs or balloons. Hundreds of people die in plane crashes every year yet I doubt many people have been killed by cats, frogs or balloons. Please no one tell me that it's the safest way to travel - it's not. Between 1968 and 2000 a hovercraft service operated between England and France and only 4 passengers died in those 32 years. Bring back the hovercraft please!!!
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Post by cj »

marty wrote: Bring back the hovercraft please!!!
Hear, hear, Marty! I am very nervous of flying, so much so that when a trip abroad materialised I went for hypnotherapy to try and get a handle on it as I didn't want to miss out. As it turned out, I didn't go because I was pregnant and very poorly. Heights are also a problem, and I'm a very nervous passenger in the car. But I can pinpoint when these things reared their heads (during a period of illness) and they are also worse when I'm tired. I wonder whether it was the 'fight or flight' response that went awry?
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Post by Wuppertal »

marty wrote:Please no one tell me that it's the safest way to travel - it's not. Between 1968 and 2000 a hovercraft service operated between England and France and only 4 passengers died in those 32 years. Bring back the hovercraft please!!!
OK then flying is certainly less safe than that hovercraft service you mention - but it's still safer than driving or travelling by train. Contrary to popular belief, it's not that case that "if you have a plane crash, everyone dies" - I saw on a documentary not so long ago that 90% of plane crashes have no fatalities. The only reason we hear about fatal plane crashes on the news is because they're rare.

I've always wanted to try out that yellow slide on the side of the plane that's shown in all the safety booklets, it looks so fun! Not that I want to have an accident though, but I suppose that's the only way of getting to try it out :-(

Thinking of transport safety...actually the Schwebebahn (that's shown on my avatar on the left) has a remarkable safety record. It was built in the Victorian times, and it's first fatal accident wasn't until 2002 or something. Btw the Schwebebahn is a train that hangs on rails (rather than sitting on them) above the city. They wanted a fast public transport method to avoid the heavy congestion...there was no space on the ground as it's in a steep valley...they couldn't built an underground system because the ground is too soft...so they built this thing that hangs on rails all the way through the valley above the river.
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Post by marty »

CJ I feel for you - I just hate it. Although I have been to Australia recently which was just horrendous. I suppose that makes my 'phobia' or whatever you want to call it mild/medium and not severe otherwise I wouldn't have gone. I suppose it's really a deep distrust - I don't really feel that we were meant to fly. And it's not as if you can just get out if something goes wrong as there's thousands of feet between you and the ground.

And Wuppertal - what about the Eurostar? No one's died on that yet have they? i'll check out your hanging train as it looks very interesting.
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