Blogophobia: the fear of having nothing to blog about

Inspired by Toni’s post yesterday about phobias, I thought to myself: hey! I have me some phobias too! In fact, my mind, it is a strange, creepy town riddled with dark, twisting alleyways which I bet the Forever Amber readers would just love to explore. In other words: I’m a bit strange, me, and unless you’d like to hear about the brief snowfall we had yesterday, I got nothing for you here, so I’m just going to copy Toni take a leaf out of Toni’s book and tell you all about all the things that keep me awake at night.

So here we go – a quick tour through my troubled psyche, or “the things I have phobias about”.

1. Crabs and other crustaceans. But mostly crabs. (‘kabourophobia’)

I’ve touched on this before, but as Terry will tell you, I’ve never been one to shy away from the idea of repeating myself – I said, I’ve never been one to shy away from the idea of repeating myself – so let the record show that by far the biggest phobia in my life is the fear of crabs, lobsters, and anything else that lives in the sea, has a shell, and operates more than four legs, some of which contain pincers. So bad is this phobia, in fact, that I wasn’t able to copy Toni and show you little pictures of the things I’m scared of, because that would involve looking at pictures of crabs, and would then mean that I wouldn’t be able to view my own blog for as long as it takes for this post to drop off the front page. Yeah, I hate those suckers.

The phobia is so severe, you see, that I can’t even look at pictures of crustaceans, and when we’re in Florida, and we go to Publix, which has live lobsters in a tank (so that people can just pick them up! With their HANDS! AAAAAARRRRRGH!) I have to close my eyes so that my mum can guide me past it. If I do happen to see a crab, or a picture of a crab, I will generally drop any object I happen to be holding at the time, and I wake up a few times every month standing screaming next to the bed, having just leapt from it in terror, convinced that there are crabs in it. Because, you know how that’s always happening?

Despite this, as I noted on my last entry about this, fear of crustaceans is actually quite a good phobia to have, if you’re going to have a phobia, because the feckers don’t generally travel inland, so unless you live by the sea, you’re good. So, yes, ‘kabourophobia’: recommended. Only, not really.

2. Flying

Like Toni, my fear of flying arrived one day out of a clear blue sky, with absolutely no prior warning. A bit like a plane crash, in fact. Up until that point I had been flying through the skies with the greatest of ease, and without a single clutching-of-the-armrest moment. Then one day when I was kid, as the plane taxied along the runway, I sat bolt upright in my seat and started screaming, “I WANT TO GET OFF! I WANT TO GET OFF! AAAARGH!” Which I would imagine was probably a little disconcerting for my fellow nervous fliers. I mean, if I was on a plane and a kid started doing that, I’d be the one struggling to free myself from my seat beltย  and shouting, “THE LITTLE GIRL KNOWS SOMETHING! TURN THE PLANE AROUND”

As it was, I obviously didn’t “know something”, but every time I fly, I am burdened with the thought that I do. Every single time I get onto a plane I am overwhelmed with the certain knowledge that THIS IS HOW I AM GOING TO DIE, and I then get to pass an uncomfortable few hours wondering if I should, perhaps, tell someone about my “feeling”, my instinct that the flight is DOOMED, DOOMED I TELLS YA!

Incidentally, the fact that I have never yet been in a plane crash (or, indeed, had a particularly turbulent flight) does nothing to assuage my fears: all it proves is that it hasn’t happened yet, and by “it” I mean “the crash that will kill me.” It’s coming. I know it.

3. People who rub their feet together while wearing socks

I don’t think this one has a proper “phobia” name, so maybe it’s not a “proper” phobia, who knows. All I can tell you is that while the sight of someone rubbing their feet together while wearing socks doesn’t frighten me, the way crustaceans do, it does make me want to run out of the room screaming “STOP RUBBING YOUR FEET TOGETHER!” And sometimes I actually do. Sorry, dad. There’s just something about that “cotton on cotton” thing that sets my teeth on edge (See also: wet towels, touching of) although, to be honest, bare feet rubbing together is almost as bad. Yeuch.

4. Actually, just socks in general, really

I hate almost everything about them. I will wear them when I absolutely have to (unlike crustaceans, unfortunately, they’re pretty hard to avoid), but I hate the look of them, and, more importantly, hate the feel of them on my feet. Just thinking about them makes me feel ill. This phobia has been ongoing for most of my life, and dates back to my early childhood, when I would reluctantly wear the socks my mum forced upon me, but would pull the toes of them away from my feet so that the socks ended up about 20 feet long, but at least didn’t come into contact with my toes.ย  Urgh.

5. Being beheaded

Again, I’m not sure this counts as a “proper” phobia, because let’s face it – no one really enjoys a beheading, do they? Well, no one except Henry VIII, who doesn’t really count, on account of being dead and all. I do, however, have a horror of decapitation that makes me unable to read about it, see it in a movie or otherwise think about it without being seriously disturbed for quite a long time afterwards. In fact, I’m pretty sure I think about being beheaded far more than is really healthy. (Is there a particular amount of “thinking about being beheaded” time that IS healthy, though, I wonder?) Luckily this is not a scenario I’m ever likely to face, but as I type this, I’ve kind of tucked my neck down into my shoulders, tortoise style, and am contemplating having a stiff drink to get the horrible images out of my head…

6. Very deep water

Not just because it could contain crabs and other crustaceans, but because… well, because who knows WHAT it might contain? It’s also dark, creepy, and very far away from an environment in which we could actually survive, which is probably why I’m sitting here struggling for breath as I write this, with the thought of sinking ships and bodies of Very Deep Water at the forefront of my mind. It’s also the reason why flying across the Atlantic is a particularly mind bending experience for me…

ETA… Having written this a couple of days ago, I suddenly realised I’d missed out some of my biggest phobias completely. Because I am stupid, obviously. So, er, here they are…

7. DEATH. And illness. But specifically cancer.

This is a bit of a no-brainer, in that I don’t think many of us really relish the thought of death or serious illness, you know? I, however, manage to elevate this to phobic levels by being unable to read about, hear about or watch any TV programmes or films which contain DEATH or cancer. (That film where Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman find out they’re both dying of cancer, for instance? Wasn’t my favourite.) Like, if I’m reading a book, and a character develops cancer or finds our that they’re dying, I will have to stop reading, and I HATE leaving books half-finished. Then I will have to go and lie down. All of this, of course, makes being a hypochondriac NO FUN AT ALL…

8. Hospitals (Nosocomephobia)

See: ‘Death’, above. I guess my fear of hospitals (which has its own official phobia name and everything! Yay! Party for Noscomephobia!) is really just a sub-set of my fear of death and illness, but it becomes so all-consuming at times that I figured it deserved it’s own entry in Amber’s Big Book O’ Phobias. In fact, I actually think that my fear of cancer is not so much a fear of illness/death, but a fear of having to spend time in a hospital. I have never, for the record, had to stay in a hospital for myself (I’ve been in them plenty when visiting other people), and I aim to go through the rest of my life with that fact unchanged. At this point, so great is the phobia that I think that if I somehow chopped my own leg off, say, I’d probably just try to deal with it myself, rather than go to hospital.

There are so many things about hospitals that freak me out: the smell of them, the fact that there are DEAD PEOPLE in them, the smell of them, the fact that so many of them seem to be staffed by people who HATE EVERYONE, the machines that make funny noises and often contain blood, the smell of them, the fact that many of the patients seem to be crazy, and always try to steal your stuff, the smell, the fact that really bad things happen inside them (See: “Death and cancer”, above), the smell of them, the noise of all of the patients watching different TV channels, all really loudly and at maximum volume. All of these things – and more! – combine to make me feel sick to my stomach if I have to so much as set foot inside a hospital. But it’s mostly the smell.

9. Noise

When I started writing this list, I didn’t include noise, because I thought it was probably more of an annoyance than an actual phobia. But then I realised that I actually spend a lot of time worrying about situations in which I might be exposed to noise (I.e. “What if I’m on a long-haul flight and the person across the aisle is blasting out music from their phoneย and I can hear it?”), and then yesterday I almost threw myself out of the train window because there were so many tinny MP3 players blaring at the same time, and I said to myself, “Amber,” I said, “This is not normal, dude. And also: chill out.”

I am not phobic of unavoidable noise, like drills, hammers, etc, but I will totally freak out if someone in the street is playing loud music and I can hear it. Other sources of noise phobia:

> Whistling
> People cracking gum
> The sound of people eating boiled sweets
– you know, when they kind of click the sweet around their mouth for ages and then crunch it really slowly, making a noise like a gun shot with every bite? Hate that.
>Actually, ANY kind of noisy eating, really. It makes me want to gag. Like, listening to someone eat an apple, for instance. I HATE that.

These types of noises are the equivalent to me of the “nails down a blackboard” or “rubbing a balloon” noises that most people hate. They literally make the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end, and I will be forced to leave any situation in which any of these noises are being made. You know, in case I kill the people making them.

The strange thing about all of this is, of course, that when I sat down to write this entry, I thought I had literally thousands of phobias, that it would take me all day to list, but now that I really come to think of it, I realise that most of them are actually more what you’d call “foibles” rather than actual “phobias”. This is good news in a way because it means I’ll get to write yet another list sometime soon, but it’s also bad news because, God, I’m weird…

What are your phobias?

ย 

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COMMENTS
  • Spiders. Hate 'em. When I see one in the room, I spend the next several hours just searching every corner of the ceiling waiting for one to pop down right on my nose.

    Really, to be honest, all bugs. I get the willies.

    I can't be afraid of flying or else I'd have a nervous breakdown considering how much flying I do. Besides, it's not flying you're scared of, it's uncontrolled descent into terrain. As George Carlin says, "I don't know why they call it a 'near miss.' it's a near hit. A near miss is a collision."

    March 5, 2008
  • Being beheaded. Love it. Don't go see The Other Boleyn Girl.

    I have a fear of pink eye. Like when I go to the sketchy coffee shop in the ghetto by where I work, I immediately wash my hands when I get into the office. Not because some whore with AIDS may have leaked blood on the door handle. Or I might get someone's germs. I'm afraid I'll touch my eye and get pink eye.

    Also, I'm afraid that someone is under my bed and is going to cut my Achilles when I get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

    March 5, 2008
    • Diana

      REPLY

      I know this is really late – but I have that same phobia of someone being underneath my bed cutting my Achilles heel! Or under my car waiting for me to get out…

      I think I saw it on a film once as a kid and I’ve been petrified ever since!

      September 9, 2011
  • There was an Oprah show once with a lady who had a phobia of bits of torn paper. I guess there is probably a phobia about just about anything. I can't stand people sniffing when they have a cold almost to the point of it being a phobia.

    March 5, 2008
  • Grasshoppers and their nasty, scratchy legs….

    Oh, and clowns… evil, I tell ya. Evil.

    March 5, 2008
  • Birds – it's the flappiness of their wings.
    And also, empty swimming pools freak me out. I googled this once and there was nothing, not one thing on the whole wide web detailing anyone else with the same phobia. Someone was scared of the lights in swimming pools but not empty ones. Yes, I am a freak. ๐Ÿ™‚

    March 5, 2008
    • Laura Mackenzie

      REPLY

      I am PETRIFIED of empty swimming pools, too!! They are soo creepy and for some unknown reason, all over the TV and magazines, inconsiderate or what??!! I am also scared of dams-think it's teh walls?

      October 25, 2008
      • AES

        REPLY

        I just cringe when I see an empty swimming pool. Pipes and plumbing and things of the sort freak me out too. I also hate ALL crustaceans and ALL spiders. I always screamed when I saw them when I was little. I also hate people dressed up as animals. And the cone heads. Like at the St.Patty’s Day Parade in town, there were cone heads on skateboards riding around to everybody. I just backed up to the sidewalk and stood on the stone siding. I don’t like driving by the ocean either. I’m practically scared of everything.

        May 12, 2011
  • emmao414

    REPLY

    Feet. Which is not good, because i have about 50 pairs of sandals. I hate feet/toes/heels/soles/the whole thing. Cant bring myself to look at or touch them. Which is again not good cos i have a 5 y o son, who obvouisly has things that need done like cut toe nails etc. Its torture.

    I have a phobia of the sound of scissors snipping either with paper or in the air. I HATE it. I keep thinking someones finger will fall off, or get hurt somehow. So going to the hairdressers is also a bit of a chore for me.

    I also have this thing about smells. Smells really get to me, more than the average person. If I smell something that I dont like, or its a bad smell or reminds me of something bad, I get all fidgety, and start sweating and screaming about it. I used to work with a smelly person. the thought of him made me ill, and drove me to quite my job (among other things)

    And lastly, I seem to have a phobia or walking past a shoe shop, without going in and at least trying something on. Its been the bain of my life and purse for some years now.

    I think I need councelling

    March 5, 2008
  • "Someone was scared of the lights in swimming pools but not empty ones."
    I've got that… the lights, and the vents. Even though I swam at least weekly throughout my childhood and am a very strong swimmer, if my foot so much as touches a vent I get a stomach churning, adrenaline-pumping TERROR. It's completely inexplicable, but it's true.

    Also, I'm pretty claustrophobic, but I'm mastering that somewhat. It's a personal space issue, not a phobia, these days.

    March 5, 2008
  • terry

    REPLY

    Wow some of you have some cool phobias ๐Ÿ™‚

    Walking down Ocean drive in Miami with Amber was a laugh. As anyone that has been there will know almost every restaurant has a display of crustaceans right on the sidewalk. Amber had to be guided like a blind person for almost a mile. Oh the joy!

    Personally I am not a fan of heights but that is perfectly logical as falling from them can kill you ๐Ÿ˜›

    March 5, 2008
  • Terrified of people dressed up as animals.

    I know it's ridiculous and weird, but it's just so…creepy. And not like, Halloween creepy, I mean like, REALLY REALLY F*CKING CREEPY. Like run away screaming status.

    Especialy grown adults wearing pig noses or paw-gloves or all that crap.

    G-d, it gives me chills just thinking about it.

    The fact that you live in Scotland is calling up horrific images of those shoddy masks in THE WICKER MAN. You KNOW that I'm talking about…oy…I need to get a grip.

    That being said, I'm addicted to animal print…so figure that one out.

    March 5, 2008
  • Hmmm…cockroaches, mice, heights…I can't even go down an escalator without holding on for dear life and getting dizzy spells…funny you mentioned deep sea Amber, I went to sleep thinking about all the reasons I dont like the deep sea…and the night before I dreamt I helped someone to behead a man who had broken into a restaurant, now that would probably stop you from ever going to sleep again…ah where would we be without our phobias…

    March 5, 2008
  • Victoria Douglas

    REPLY

    For me it would have to be public pools, or more importantly other people's hair floating on the top of or around the edge of a public pool. I recently went to Fiji where there was a man in the hotel pool with the hairest back I have ever seen, it was like a forest. Needless to say I did not swim for the rest of the holiday…..

    March 5, 2008
  • Kerry

    REPLY

    I have two major phobias. I am really scared of wide open spaces – I think that's called agoraphobia? So, being out at sea, in a desert, anywhere with no buildings or trees freaks me out! I think it's about not having anywhere to hide.
    Also, I'm scared of those life-sized models they have in museums. Like huge whale skeletons hanging from the ceiling or massive dinosaur models, or shark models. Funny, smaller one's don't do it – stuffed cats and dogs, or birds don't worry me. I must have a vivid imagination. It's pretty embarrassing!

    March 5, 2008
  • Steph

    REPLY

    I'm so afraid of spiders that if one appears in my room, I won't go back in there until I have persuaded someone else to kill it. None of that glass/paper business, I expect actual death. I can't look at pictures without my stomach turning, and I even believe that saying the word or *thinking* the word will somehow jinx one into my room.

    I am terrified of puppets (pupaphobia) and mannequins (pediophobia), which makes going ino clothes shops hard. There's a mini theme-park near where I'm from called Flambards, and it has a section mocked-up to look like Victorian England and Britain during the Blitz. Last time we were there, my sister tormented me by pointing out which mannequins she thought were most likely to come to life and kill me.

    I am really frightened of mirrors – either of something coming out of one, or there being something evil standing behind me.

    I don't like the dark much, or water, but I also seem to have the amazing ability to adopt other people's phobias. After hearing that my sister hates flies, and my ex hated heights, I now can't deal very well with either! If I get a fear of crabs now, I blame you entirely Amber!

    Oh, and I have the sock thing too. Hate wearing socks. I go barefoot everywhere, and my excuse is that I have claustrophobic feet. They need to breathe, dammit!

    March 6, 2008
  • I am sitting here nodding my head vigorously at some of these…in fact, I have had to go back and edit my entry now, because I remembered even more phobias. Fun times, baby! Anyway…

    @ Hank – I'm not keen on spiders either, but mostly because they remind me of crabs. Other creepy crawlies are of the "wouldn't want one in my bed, say, but don't really bother about them otherwise" variety.

    @ Kristabella – OMG, I totally think I'm going to develop the "someone might cut my achillies tendon" thing now!

    @ Suz – yep, sniffers are up there with Whistlers. Why can't they just use a hanky?

    @ Mags – clowns. *Shudders*

    @ Fi – I am SO with you on the empty swimming pools! So creepy! Even worse is really old fashioned pools which, rather than just sloping gently down from shallow end to deep end, the deep end is just a big bowl cut out of the bottom of the pool. That terrifies me.

    @ Emma – I have the shoe one, too ๐Ÿ™‚ Feet are just terrible, though – isn't it ironic that we love shoes but can't stand the sight of feet?

    @ Orla – oh yes, I get the claustrophobia, but it's more to do with PEOPLE standing or sitting too close to me rather than being in confined spaces. Why can't they just keep their distance?

    @ Terry – Ocean Drive still gives me the heebie-jeebies

    @ Jourdain – that's a great one! I can see where you're coming from, though, especially re: people in pig snouts. WHY?

    @ Lila – was the restaurant a crab house by any chance? That would finish me off ๐Ÿ™‚

    @ Victoria – ah, other people's hair when it's no longer atached to their heads! The reason I shower at home after the gym rather than risking having to look at other people's clumps of hair. I feel sick now…

    @ Kerry and Steph – never go to the Hall of Presidents in Florida. Life sized mannequins of all the presidents which sometimes move very slightly – like Nixon will turn his head to watch you with his glassy eyes, or Bill Clinton will suddenly drop you a wink. Scary even for those of us who don't have phobias about them…

    @ Steph (again) – I totally hear you on the mirrors. I NEVER look into mirrors when it's dark. Because, you know, that's when ghosts appear behind you in them …

    March 6, 2008
  • Okay, here goes:

    Heights, terrified of 'em. Major trouble forcing myself to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower when I was in France once, esp. since the elevator was made of glass.
    Axes–my grandma told me how she was chopping wood with her brother once as a child and he accidentally chopped off one of her toes. I get VERY fearful for my feet whenever an axe is near.
    Dolls, esp. at night. I swear their eyes move.
    Open windows and mirrors at night–always afraid of what I will see, like a ghost or mass murderer.

    March 6, 2008
  • My phobia is the fear of vomit (emetophobia). I am totally dead scared of it. If I see someone vomit on TV i have to cover my eyes and ears (or change channels). Whenever I see someone "looking sick" I actually just push the "mute" button. You can imagine what a problem it is for me to go to the cinema, where I can't turn anything off. God. And being out on the town at night with drunk people? I don't really "do" drunk people. Or drug addicts. Or people who look sick on the bus. (They might vomit and there is nowhere to hide. Or worse, it can land on me! I would have go to the madhouse if that happened.) And the worst thing is that I dream about vomit, and there is nothing I can do about it.

    I am also not crazy about the dark, the hair not attached to a body, hospitals (but only because of the vomit factor), and I can totally relate to the window thing..

    March 10, 2008
  • Haley

    REPLY

    To the people with the pool phobias: I feel you. When I was little there was this kids' show where this kids would sit around and tell eachother ghost stories in the woods at night and they had this one where this kid drowned in the school swimming pool because his older brother was talking to some floozy instead of looking after his brother and so the school shut down the pool and they emptied it and covered it with a tarp and then… THE KID'S BODY WAS FLOATING UNDER THE TARP. I've never been able to look at a pool the same way since.

    I really don't do a lot of swimming in general since my other phobia is fish. I hate fish. People always laugh at this one and they're like, What do you expect the fish are gonna git ya? And of course I don't but really, I totally do.

    Also: windows. At night, when its all black and you can't see out but people outside can see in. If someone knocks on my window I get hysterical. I even used to live on the sixth floor and I'd have thought that that would help, but I had a fire escape and I would just lay there at night imagining Ted Bundy climbing up to kill me.

    March 11, 2008
  • I'm not bothered about spiders or other bugs in general, but I'm terrified of earwigs. Seriously terrified. Ugh – I'm shuddering just writing that.

    The windows at night thing is one of mine too. I liked city living specifically because it was always light outside and I lived on the 2nd floor with a sheer drop outside. But still, you know in Lost Boys when the vampires fly up outside the window… that could happen, right?

    And the dark. Really and truly. Part of which relates to my fear of turning off the bedside light and not being able to sleep. Because then the dark gets scarier. I love my bed, but am so scared of turning off the light!

    March 11, 2008
  • Roshelle

    REPLY

    I've never found anyone else with a phobia of crabs. I'm absolutely terrfied. I've met people who don't like them, but not to the extent that I'm afraid. Walking on a beach if it gets around dusk and all the little mounds from footprints freak me out cause I can't see if anything is there or not. The restaurant thing happened too, I had to leave then I sat outside and cried I was that scared. So yeah, its nice to know I'm not alone ๐Ÿ™‚

    February 15, 2009
  • will

    REPLY

    good lord crabs creep the hell out of me. i live near the coast and whenever i go to the beach i always watch where i am stepping and i always wear shoes, one time i saw a living crab and as i saw it it started crawling towards me and i ran away as fast as i could, i had grabbed a 20 ft long stick that i had found and walked near the crab and beat it to death and then went back to my house to cry. at least i am glad the there other people

    June 22, 2009
  • Kathleen

    REPLY

    I saw Jaws as a young child and do not like sharks, particularly great whites. Scary! Though every once in a while, I force myself to watch shark specials on the Discovery Channel or go to shark aquariums at places like Sea World. And one time my b/f made me watch a 3-D show on sharks at the local aquarium. That was not fun, but I was proud that I was able to handle it. Still, I won't be deep sea swimming any time soon.

    I also do not like mirrors in dark rooms. I used to get spooked by those Bloody Mary stories as a kid and to this day always turn on the lights when there are mirrors around. Or I force myself to sleep facing the other way if there's a prominent mirror in my hotel room.

    Other than that, I'd like to think of myself as fairly normal. ๐Ÿ™‚

    June 30, 2009
  • Kirsty

    REPLY

    Spiders and generally all bugs freak me out, they are so disgusting and dirty and crawly.

    Hate crabs as they are the spiders of the sea, awful things. Even seeing them on TV terrifies me.

    I hate stairs and escalators, not so bad going up escalators but I get very scared of stepping onto them usually it takes me a few attempts and if I am with someone they have to go infront of me. If there are stairs available I will go down them but very slowly gripping the handrail as I am sure I am going to fall. People who have staircases in their houses with an open side scare me, I have to shuffle down on my bum.

    I also hate mirrors in the dark. When I lived with my parents my bedroom had mirrored wardrobes at the end of my bed and the window was behind my head so I was sure I was going to look into the mirror and see someone in the garden coming to kill me. I kept the door open until I manged to get my brother to swap rooms with me.

    Really long hair and nails make me feel sick. If someone is sitting in front of me on the bus and their hair hangs down the back of the seat and is close to touching me I break out in a sweat. If its in good condition I dont mind too much but all the long deadness of it makes me ill.

    I hate damp dishclothes even if they are clean, have to scrub my hands after touching them or all I can think about is the germs crawling on me.

    Seeing this all written down makes me feel even more of a freak!!

    June 30, 2009
  • Great post (you would have hated the beach I was on in Egypt two weeks ago, crabs everywhere – fortunately I like them).

    However, I feel totally left out as I don't think I have a phobia of anything. I'm racking my brain trying to come up with something, but nada.

    Feel a bit boring now…
    .-= Elizabeth´s last blog ..Local businesses support Bike Shed brekkie =-.

    July 9, 2009
  • Georgia

    REPLY

    I'm ridiculously frightened by dead fish. I know that sounds completely ridiculous but they really do affect me!

    Even up to the point where I was sent home from school one day when I was younger because earlier that morning I had seen my sister's goldfish floating in the tank and couldn't stop shaking, and squirming and looking around the classroom to make sure I was safe (I was finally sent home after being sick in the library – sorry for that).

    Even writing this about my fear of dead fish is creeping me out.

    As for mild phobias, I am inexplicably freaked out by china dolls and jellyfish (for someone who is going to study marine biology at university, I had better come over these fears of dead fish and jellyfish sharpish).

    As for those 'nails on a blackboard' type things, I find that writing with a pencil has that sort of effect on me, or sweeping brushes on concrete.

    June 8, 2010
  • I’m terrified of crabs too. Started when I was really young, and then the phobia expanded to include anything that lives in the sea, including all fish, shellfish and sea plants. I’m also with you on socks, decapitation and hospitals. Argh.

    December 31, 2010
  • mandi b

    REPLY

    I’m completely with you on whistling. Turns me into a raging nutter, no idea why.

    My main phobia, embarrassingly, is bellybuttons. Can’t talk any more about them…cold sweats.

    December 31, 2010
  • I agree on the noisy eating: traveling by bus/metro I encounter people who are loudly chewing their gum/food daily… But not just loudly, they chew open-mouthed, making sure they get as noisy as possible, so that their business is heard in the ENTIRE bus/train-carriage. I mean, I don’t mind if people chew politely and without much mouth-opening, but out there so many people just shove their mouth contents in your line of sight, which is even more disgusting: who wouldn’t love to see predigested food, all smashed and mixed with saliva… Ok I’ll stop here or I’m gonna gag, but the fact is, I can’t stand rude eating, and if I have someone loudly chewing near me, I blast my music in my mp3 as high as I can without burning my ears, and it works pretty well!

    May 14, 2014
  • Ok, I shouldn’t laugh but the way you wrote this was just hilarious!

    My biggest fear, without a shadow of a doubt, is Edward Scissorhands. Lots of people find that really strange but, come on, THE MAN HAS SCISSORS FOR HANDS! How is that not terrifying? Scissors that KILL A MAN! The fear is so great that I’m even scared of anything that has a connection, like whisks and hedges shaped like animals, not to mention the sound of scissors snipping. If I see a photo of him, I will literally stop what I’m doing and shriek, which is always very embarrassing when I’m in public!

    I also totally sympathise with the “This is where I’m going to die” feeling of flying. That is EXACTLY my thought whenever I get on an aeroplane. Oh, and my stepdad has such a terrible phobia of hospitals that he couldn’t go with my mum when she gave birth to his only child!

    I loved this post and it’s inspired me to do my own. I hope you don’t mind!

    August 4, 2014
  • I’m a qualified diver and I love being in water BUT I hate being near water when I’m not in some kind of swimwear or water gear.

    I hate boats and can’t be anywhere near the edge until I’m sure everything is securely fastened to myself, or locked away in a cabin or indoors. I also panic when on a bridge if i’m anywhere near the edge.

    I actually think it’s a fear of losing something over an edge and it being unreachable – I think i’m convinced something will fly off and it will be gone forever.

    I also hold my breath when getting onto a train just incase my shoe falls between the gap between the platform and train, and I hug my stuff just in case that too wants to take a dive into that small gap.

    I don’t remember ever losing anything in the sea or down an unreachable gap, so I’ve not got a clue where this has come from!

    August 6, 2015
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