What is your phobia?

[Fruity]

someone following me. If I hear footsteps behind me, I panic. Then again, that might be more of a trauma than a phobia.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I think I've mentioned this before.

I have a phobia about horses. It isn't that I'm nervy around them, or I think they may bite or kick me, nothing like that.

A horse in my field of vision sends me almost paralytic with fear. The animal can be in a stable, a field, in a parade - whatever - while I'm safely secured in my house or in a car with the doors locked. Doesn't matter. I go sweaty, I have trouble breathing, my vision goes wonky.

I have trouble watching films with horses in them. We don't keep horsey ornaments in the house. Even writing about them in this post makes me uneasy.

I've never been hurt by a horse - I've never been close enough for that to happen. The only time I tried to conquer this fear was when I was around 13 or 14. I got about twenty yards from a horse that was milling about in a paddock. She looked my way and nickered. I passed out cold.

Boru

[NoraBrimstone]

I used to think it was needles. I don't care for needles, and I can't watch them pierce skin, but I can handle them if I need to get a shot or blood drawn, or whatever. I discovered my real fear is being trapped in an elevator. I found this out when I got trapped in an tiny, stuffy elevator with my sick husband and a pregnant lady with her two screaming children for about 4 minutes. I almost broke down in a panic attack. Now I can't stand getting on elevators. When the doors close, I think they're never going to open again. When I can, I opt for the stairs. I freaking hate elevators.

You'd have hated my building when we had the old lift. It used to break down all the time. I had to be rescued by firemen dozens of times before they replaced the thing about 6 or 7 years ago with one that actually works.

[thesummerqueen]

I have a fear of heights since I was a child, but it's not nearly as bad as it was. I don't mind looking out the window at the top floor of a tall building, but I really don't like getting on the roof of our house at all, though getting on a ladder to clean the gutters doesn't bother me.

And flying doesn't bother me, either. I guess as long as I know I'm enclosed and not going to fall out or off, I'm OK.

I really, really, really, really, REALLY hate that falling sensation. I like heights - actually, they fascinate me because then the world lays out like a map below me, but watching skydivers makes my skin scrawl and I break into a sweat. Bungee jumpers too. And roller coasters, fast down elevators, and cars going fast down hills are no no's.

I also loathe deep water. I think it affected my teenage dream to go into marine biology - even though there are many permutations to the job, the thought of being in submersibles in crushing black water, or even regular deep sea diving with scuba gear, gave me nightmares.

[Bittersmart]

I used to think it was needles. I don't care for needles, and I can't watch them pierce skin, but I can handle them if I need to get a shot or blood drawn, or whatever. I discovered my real fear is being trapped in an elevator. I found this out when I got trapped in an tiny, stuffy elevator with my sick husband and a pregnant lady with her two screaming children for about 4 minutes. I almost broke down in a panic attack. Now I can't stand getting on elevators. When the doors close, I think they're never going to open again. When I can, I opt for the stairs. I freaking hate elevators.

You'd have hated my building when we had the old lift. It used to break down all the time. I had to be rescued by firemen dozens of times before they replaced the thing about 6 or 7 years ago with one that actually works.

[Tonus]

someone following me. If I hear footsteps behind me, I panic. Then again, that might be more of a trauma than a phobia.

I figure that some phobias are created that way. Although it can also just be a panic attack triggered by something that ordinarily would make us anxious anyway (such as footsteps).

Funny story: I've mentioned elsewhere how becoming an atheist helped me get over my irrational fear of demons and ghosts (in large part irrational because I've never experienced anything that could even remotely be attributed to the supernatural). This past January we spent the first two weeks in the house I bought in Ohio, and the wooden stairs creak slightly. Not only that, but the sound is delayed slightly as the wood straightens after each step, and the sensation is that you're being closely followed down the steps. I knew what it was the moment I first heard it, but it still took about two or three days before I could walk down the steps without a cold chill creeping up my spine.

[My imaginary friend is GOD]

You know what's really stupid? People who think the Paranormal Activity movies are real. And also it's sad.

[Napoléon]

What? They're not real?!?

[Tonus]

Only the first one.

[My imaginary friend is GOD]

I remember when The Blair Witch Project came out. All the kids at school were like, "Oh my god, that movie's so scary, you have to see it." Then I did. I was like, "What the fuck? This movie sucks!" Seriously, it's just teenagers on shaky cam in the woods being chased by something you never see freaking out and saying fuck a million times.

And I remember some kids insisting that movie was real, too. Siiiigh.