h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I meant the title to be a question, what I wanted to ask was is one person's blood curdling fear considered trivial by another person hence the ? at the end of the title, I don't consider anybody's fear silly as I have spent years covering mine up because I have been made to feel a fool for it and this forum has been a welcome place to discuss my fear

Oh God, I'm with you on flies! I cant STAND the small ones that just *appear* in your face, partly because I am so scared I'm going to breathe one in. And I can't kill bugs either which makes it more awkward. I positively *like* other bugs ... i'ts damn weird.

I have a few fears that other people consider strange.
I am afraid of calling people on the telephone. I'm fine if someone calls me, but if I'm the one who has to do the calling, I get really scared and have a hard time making the call. I always think of everything that could go wrong: I could call the wrong number, could call during a meal, could find that the person I was trying to call isn't there, could have someone get mad at me for no apparent reason. For some reason all of this scares me to death and makes the simple act of picking up a phone and dialing a number into a very stressful experience.
I am also afraid of automatic toilets. I hate them and will avoid them whenever possible.
I am really scared of being startled. If I am startled I get over it quickly, but anticipating being startled is awful. I can't watch suspenceful movies for this reason.

I share the phone phobia. I can call friends without a problem, but otherwise I'm terrible. I also have no trouble answering the phone, it's just calling people I don't know I have a problem with.

ooooh that's me too! I hate phoning people, but like you have no trouble answering ...

it's very odd, I have no idea why.

I have a thing like that but with just about *anything* involving talking to strangers. For example I find it hard to ask for things in shops or try and get a saturday job. I am starting to get really annoyed at myself now, as I'm eighteen and it shouldn't bother me, but it makes no difference.

I had the same problem. Actually getting a Saturday job cured it though. Once I knew what it was like to be the 'stranger in the shop' I felt much more comfortable about asking questions myself. I couldn't stand the first job interview, but on actualy getting there realised I didn't want the job anyway. I just used the opertunity to find out what it was like. This meant I was far more confident about the second one - and got the job straight away.

So, try getting an appication or interview for a job you don't really want, and use the experiance to help you out.

I 'cured' myself of my shyness and fear of strangers in a similar manner.

I kind of 'analysed' myself, and realised that one of the main reasons I was so nervous of strangers was that I had this deep seated expectation that they all were better than me, cleverer than me, knew more than me. When in fact, just about everyone is riddled with insecurities, its just that some people hide them better than others.

Now, a few years and three jobs on, I have managed to turn myself into one of those people who comes across as pretty confident, even if deep down I still feel unsure. And being able to give that impression is often half the battle won. If you appear confident, people will have more confidence in you, and that in turn gives you more confidence. And how I did it was by deliberately putting myself into new and unfamiliar situations where I would be forced to have to interact with strangers.

At first it was very difficult and terrifying ... but a few years on all has changed. I spent all day today on a training course, in a roomfull of people I had never met before, having to do group exercises and role plays, and do you know what? I didn't mind at all. In fact, I quite enjoyed it. I chatted away to these strangers if I felt like talking during breaks and kept quiet when I didn't want to talk. I contributed during group exercises and feedback sessions, and soon found (as has happened in previous such occasions) that not only is my opinion as valid as anyone else's, but I actually knew more about the topic than most of the people there. Yet a few years ago, just the thought of having to spend a day (actually, it will be three days) doing that kind of thing would have horrified me.

Fears can be overcome, with a bit of effort. Well, some of them can, anyway. I still hate having those street cleaners come up behind me.

As I child I was terrified of....
VOLCANOES!
(Not that I ever met any, fortunately)

But a friend of mine recently divulged his secret fear, (which impresses me no end - in fact I wish I'd thought of it...)
He used to be scared of Combine-Harvesters!!!



I have this mental image of the four horsemen of the apocalypse guiding plagues of combine-harvesters across the world, (and plagues of butterfiles, toasters, cellophane, baked-beans, bearded-women etc...)

hi Uncle Ghengis,

Wow, you must have dug long and deep to find this thread and revive it - I'm impressed!

I also used to have a fear of volcanoes when I was a child. Weird.

The other day four massive fighter planes screamed overhead (I live in Seville and there is a US airforce base not far from here). Anyhow, I was suddenly struck with a crazy impulse to 'hit the dirt!' and in fact almost got a bit hysterical from the amazing shrieking NOISE these things made.

I have sometimes wondered if in a previous life I grew up in (for example) war-time Germany or England as I have a terrible fear of Nazis (except the ones in Hogan's Heroes) and even when a low-flying passenger jet passes I start to panic and, again, feel an urge to hit the dirt.

hmmmm . . .

az

Is it the noise that's the problem then?
Or do they need to be low-flying planes?
I can imagine wanting to hit the deck if a plane seems to be very very low - a bit like ducking when driving towards a low bridge...

But they are low and loud planes are awesome things - it somehow doesn't seem like such an 'irrational' fear...

UG

You guys seem to be quite knowledgable. so I was wondering d you know the name of this rare Phobia....

It's the Phobia of working with people. The symptons are it's similar to Closmophobia. a friend of mine has this phobia, and it's affected his job prospects. he says he doesn't always get it, and in a packed club, he's alright.

No idea, never heard of that ne before...

Perhaps you would like to check out a new thread I started about phobias . . .

F19585?thread=352052


az

I think it's just him making an excuse not to work.

im scared of butterflies too but moths dont really bother me, i think that its the colours of the wings that add to the scariness of them. the colours are just so unnatural, wallpaper is supposed to look like that not animals. and they look like they have eyes on their wings and then theyre watching you. they just really scare me, i feel ill and shakey and ive thrown up before when i see them. my friend thinking i was just making up this phobia put loads of photos of them in my bag but began to believe me when they found me hysterically crying and shaking. i dont know why im scared of them and i cant remember when they first began to scare me but i know that i havent always been scared. i would like to overcome this but i dont want to have to confront them.

I'm not as bad as I was but I still shy away if one flutters past me

This sounds absolutely ridiculous, but I used to be terrified of looking things up in the dictionary that goes with an interrelated fear/aversion to alphabetizing things. Seriously. I know the alphabet and can read and write fairly fluently, but when it comes to alphabetizing things that start with the same first letter (things that start with different letters pose no problem for me) I'm thrown off balance. In elementary school whenever I was asked to put anything in alphabetical order, I would find every excuse to leave the classroom and essentially make someone else do it.

Then over the summer I got a job selling tickets for a non-profit organization's fundraising concert, and every day I'd have to file away at least a hundred sheets of paper in alphabetical order by last name. I would put it off as long as possible and not look at the paperwork (which sounds rather like what one would expect of the "average" office worker, I suppose :P) until by absolute necessity I would do it. I've gotten infinitely better about it and can now file away 200 sheets of paper in alphabetical order in twenty minutes. Definitely making yourself exposed to what you fear for long periods of time can actually do wonders.

And a slightly related question: is there a somewhat common fear of calling people up on the telephone? Two of my friends claim to have it and insist that I must call them up or else otherwise we can't make any plans over the telephone. They'll use cell phones but not regular house or public phones.

Here's one most people find rather silly. Throwing up. I'm irrationally terrified of getting sick. When I tell people this they usually say, "well, nobody likes getting sick..." but no, i'm telling you, REALLY. Whenever I know someone is getting sick my first instinct is to run away...literally. I usually try to stick it out unless there;s someone else around to take care of them or if i know they're alright. i can't watch it on television, i can't hear the sound. i can barely even talk about it. when i was a child i was literally reduced to tears whenever anyone mentioned it at all. most people find this reaction rather silly indeed. i can't help it.

Odd but never silly