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Strange phobias and how they occur

Started by ziznak, April 01, 2013, 05:41:17 PM

ziznak

Last night after I got home from Easter dinner with my immediate family a friend of mine showed up to smoke some weed unannounced.  He lives next door so we hang out quite a bit and I would consider him a fairly close friend.  I know most of his hilarious stories so I was caught off guard when he explained that he had suffered a severe beatdown at the young age of 15 involving a retarded girl and a food tray.  Long story short, He was working in the kitchen at some sort of facility and she caught him off guard.  This all came out while he was spinning another tale that involved his initial explanation that he had a fear of the mentally challenged.  I found the whole thing unbearably funny at first, then I found it very disturbing (when I imagined the event through the eyes of a 15 year old ziznak), but then I found it unbearably funny again. 


I looked it up and apparently it's called "Stolidusphobia" although I'm not sure if it's made it into any of the books yet.  So, now I'm curious, does anybody have or know of any other weird phobias besides the usual suspects we normally hear about?  Also, if you know how the phobia developed, that would be interesting too.

Well, I am not fond of very strong winds.  I used to love the wind, considered it almost a mystical entity.

Years ago I lived with my parents in a northern California town that is thick with pine trees.  We had a very heavy, wet snow with high winds one year and nine of those big pines came down on the property, causing damage to the house.  My father and I were on the back deck looking at a neighbor's pine leaning across the street and over a portion of our house.  I said, "I don't like the way that fu**** is leaning," and no sooner were the words out of my mouth when a terrific snap sounded and the tree came down.  I leapt off the deck as a white wave of snow blew over us.  Someone I went to school with was crushed to death when he climbed onto his roof and began jabbing a leaning tree with a big pole (bringing the damn thing down on top of him).  Lots of buildings were destroyed due to that storm.

Now when the wind blows too strong (anything over about 40 mph bothers me), I feel myself getting very anxious.

Pragmier

I become uneasy around large underwater objects, like if i'm swimming near a boat and view the submerged hull. No idea how it started. It's a type of submechanophobia, but small objects aren't an issue.


Here's a list from The Blaze:


       Air swallowing- Aerophobia
    Bullets- Ballistophobia
    Chins- Geniophobia
    Dining or dinner conversations- Deipnophobia
    Englishness- Anglophobia
    Freedom- Eleutherophobia
    Good news, hearing good news- Euphobia
    Handwriting- Graphophobia
    Insects that eat wood- Isopterophobia
    Joint immobility- Ankylophobia
    Knees- Genuphobia
    Left-handed; objects at the left side of the body- Sinistrophobia
    Mother-in-law- Pentheraphobia
    Number 8- Octophobia
    Otters- Lutraphobia
    Phobias- Phobophobia
    Rain- Ombrophobia
    Sun or sunlight- Heliophobia
    Trees- Dendrophobia
    Ugliness- Cacophobia
    Vegetables- Lachanophobia
    X-rays or radiation- Radiophobia.
    Yellow color- Xanthophobia.

You know what else is sort of interesting?  Why are there certain things to which we are especially drawn?  Something like fetishism is a good example.  There are lots of male foot fetishists out there, though I've not heard of a woman who was especially drawn to a man's feet.  (There are women who want attention paid to their feet, of course.)  But what accounts for this?  Why is one person fascinated by underarms (yes, that part of the anatomy has its devotees) or ears or whatever?  We humans are strange and curious creatures....

I have met the inventor of a very famous old-school computer game (I hesitate to say which because I don't want to call any sort of negative attention to this person) -- he has a curious condition where certain words send him into an odd storm of gestures.  The name Gary and the words huge and gorgeous will send him out of the room slapping at parts of his body and swearing under his breath.  It's actually rather interesting to watch....

Pragmier

That reminds me of the case of Mary Hart's voice causing seizures, and the fun Seinfeld had with it.

ziznak

I guess traumatic experiences just have such an impact on people that our minds, in an attempt to protect us, create these phobias.  Seems like with the fetish thing that somehow sex gets tied to something it normally isn't... That Jerry Brudos serial killer was on the show "most evil" explaining that he had seen a friend of his mother taking a nap when he was very young.   He wasn't supposed to be in the room or something and he could see her legs with the shoes still on hanging off the bed.  Something about it being forbidden and him being so young.  He thinks this early sexual experience somehow shaped his foot fetish which went horribly wrong when he ended up a serial killer. 
Good list of phobias though.
I can honestly say I have some thing about fast moving vehicles.  I think its more of like accelerated stress levels in traffic... I'm sure most people have some level of this.  It just scares the fuck out of me when I think about how each one has a human driving it... then some sort of crazy statistic shoots through my head like "1 in 10 people on the road are technically blind."  I count ten vehicles in my vicinity and get a lil worried.

stevesh

Bats scare the hell out of me, for no apparent reason. I would rather have a tiger in the house than a bat.

analog kid

I have a phobia of phones.

Here's me when someone's cellphone rings



jazmunda

I once dated a girl that had a severe phobia of dolls. I had so much fun scaring the shit out of her. It still makes me laugh thinking about it. What a bitch she was.

When I was around 4, my mother bought me a skeleton costume for Halloween. Well, I dressed in it and then went into my parents' bedroom, got a look in the mirror and screamed until the costume was removed, and after that skeletons made me want to pass out. High school biology was a bitch.  ::)  A car accident and a head xray cured me.


What do you call that, anyway? Boneyphobia?


Quote from: ziznak on April 05, 2013, 01:47:12 AM
skeletaphobia?


Maybe, but definitely not to be confused with Skeletorphobia.



Quote from: analog kid on April 03, 2013, 06:18:36 PM
I have a phobia of phones.

Here's me when someone's cellphone rings



Okay, so I'm a grumpy old Luddite, I guess, but I don't even own a cell phone.  I know they have their uses; I know it's cool to have instant access to the internet to answer those burning questions such as, "So where was Rob Schneider born?"  But for Chrissakes, I don't want anyone to be able to reach me just any old time they want.  And, yeah, the sound of cell phones going off (in my experience, it's usually some dumb hip-hop song ring-chime), is annoying.  Alright, so I guess it's time I run out to my front porch and yell, "Get off my lawn!"

Morgus

Quote from: West of the Rockies on April 05, 2013, 01:50:06 PM
Okay, so I'm a grumpy old Luddite, I guess, but I don't even own a cell phone.  I know they have their uses; I know it's cool to have instant access to the internet to answer those burning questions such as, "So where was Rob Schneider born?"  But for Chrissakes, I don't want anyone to be able to reach me just any old time they want.  And, yeah, the sound of cell phones going off (in my experience, it's usually some dumb hip-hop song ring-chime), is annoying.  Alright, so I guess it's time I run out to my front porch and yell, "Get off my lawn!"
you could get a cheap prepaid cell phone and turn it completely off normally so nobody can reach you other than leaving a  message you can check later.
just use it for calling out for emergencies, etc.

True enough, Morgus... and one of the few times I was carrying a cell phone, I was struck by a drunk driver on the Interstate.  The first call I made was to my wife to tell her what had happened and that I loved her.  Of course, then I told her I needed to hang up because I wasn't feeling very good and needed to lie down and wait for the ambulance... I imagine that must have given her great comfort.  Still, it was good to be able to make the call at all, so, yeah, cell phones DO have their uses.

analog kid

Quote from: West of the Rockies on April 05, 2013, 01:50:06 PM
Okay, so I'm a grumpy old Luddite, I guess, but I don't even own a cell phone.  I know they have their uses; I know it's cool to have instant access to the internet to answer those burning questions such as, "So where was Rob Schneider born?"  But for Chrissakes, I don't want anyone to be able to reach me just any old time they want.  And, yeah, the sound of cell phones going off (in my experience, it's usually some dumb hip-hop song ring-chime), is annoying.  Alright, so I guess it's time I run out to my front porch and yell, "Get off my lawn!"

I've said this before here, but I've never owned a cell phone, have no plans to, and I don't have a land line. If I have to use a phone I'll go to my sister's house and use her land line. I had one situation where I had to make a call with a cell phone, years ago, before touch screens, and I couldn't figure out how to operate it anyway. I'm an old luddite too and kindly stay offa my lawn as well.

Quote from: analog kid on April 05, 2013, 05:26:34 PM
I've said this before here, but I've never owned a cell phone, have no plans to, and I don't have a land line. If I have to use a phone I'll go to my sister's house and use her land line. I had one situation where I had to make a call with a cell phone, years ago, before touch screens, and I couldn't figure out how to operate it anyway. I'm an old luddite too and kindly stay offa my lawn as well.

Just out of curiosity, and a bit off topic, but does your screen name come from a love for the old sci-fi magazine Analog, or is more of an audio-recording thing?  I don't know if Analog (the magazine) even exists anymore.  My screen name origin is obvious enough.  I have to say, I would probably have selected something else had I noticed that we already had a WOTR here.  Somehow, when I first saw that, I assumed it referred to a TV/radio station east of the Mississippi, not an acronym for Art's famous expression.

Pragmier

http://www.sufferingfromanxiety.com/general/social-anxiety-do-you-have-telephonophobia




Quote
You may have telephonophobia if:


- Your stomach goes into a knot when the phone rings or you need to place a call


- Your hands start shaking and you feel as though you are going to have a panic attack when the phone rings or when you need to use the phone


- You avoid the telephone at work


- You avoid making any telephone calls, asking others to call for you


Couldn't find one specifically for cell phones.

Quote from: Pragmier on April 06, 2013, 11:58:21 AM
http://www.sufferingfromanxiety.com/general/social-anxiety-do-you-have-telephonophobia





Couldn't find one specifically for cell phones.


I wonder if that is my problem... I have no cell phone, disconnected the message machine (but not the phone), and reluctantly go to my 6 (yes, 6, goddamnit!) email accounts.  Is it time for me to get a cabin in the woods and write my manifesto?  :o


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