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

Don´t forget the teletubbies.
They´re small, they´re evil, they go for the throat and they try to hypnotize your children.

The Cirque du Soleil is in town this month and there are posters up all around with clown faces on them - and they are really scary!!!

az

When I was a kid, Gene Simmons from KISS scared the piss out of me. I'm a lifelong fan now, so I won't call him a clown, but he does fall into a narrow category of face-painted entertainers, so I'm including it on this thread.

I am 18 and scared to death of clowns. I went to Key West with some friends in high school about a year ago and we saw some clowns and I had to go to the other side of the rode we were walking on. And I refuse to watch It and will listen to Insane Clown Posse but will not watch them. Kiss I can tolerate; I guess I like the music so much I can live with the faces.
Now dolls. . .they're just creepy the way they look at you!!!
~Psycho

Ya know, as much as clowns freak me out, I think I'd still rather look at Insane Clown Posse than have to listen to them. Ugh....

I didn't mean to say that ICP was a good band, if that's what you think I was saying, just that I am so terrified of clowns taht I would rather listen to them than see them.
~Psycho

how can you be afraid of the most hilarious thing to walk the earth
I"m more afraid of zombies,werewolves, telletubies, ghosts,barney, chainsaws, morlocks, and demons than of clowns, the only clowns one realy should be afraid of would be the psycotic axe weilding type(a.k.a. juggalos)

Dolls are my biggest fear (possibly related to clowns, but I'm not too scared of them) because I remember someone reading a newspaper article to me about one of them eating a girl's hair. I was about 4 at the time. What made it worse, was the fact that my grandma thought all girls liked dolls and made me comb their hair...I still can't get too near dolls without my hands shaking.

Clown phobia also known as Coulrophobia. This affects many children as well as adults.

One theory is that the face paint, big nose and weird colored hair is so far removed from our conception of what a human face should look like that it unnerves some people.

Another is that we can’t “read” the emotions or mood through all the make-up. This scares some because reading facial expressions is one of the ways we relate to people.

Although it appears on the top ten most common phobias on some lists, there is very little information in the medical literature on the subject.

The symptoms of clown phobia are similar to those of other phobias: high anxiety, sweating, rapid breathing and heart beat and intense fear. Clown phobics know that their reactions are irrational but they can’t control it. Don’t worry, it is possible to effect a clown phobia and fear treatment and cure.

Medications are sometimes used but they don’t get rid of the phobia they just mask the symptoms, to get you through an encounter.

Hypnotherapy or hypnosis works for some people but not everyone can be hypnotized and many people don’t want to lose control even in a therapeutic situation.

Therapy to uncover the cause of the phobia can help. Once the cause is know, treatment can begin to desensitize the client. You may be asked to look at pictures of clowns and then maybe look at film clips and eventually come face to face with a real clown.

One therapist broke through her client’s phobia when she asked her to be made up as a clown and look at herself in a mirror.

I know of one adult male, who can’t even enter a McDonald’s because he might see a picture of Ronald McDonald. Clown phobia, unlike other phobias, can be kept at bay by just avoiding places where you might encounter them. Of course it won’t free you from the phobia but you don’t have to hole up in your home to avoid the phobia.

Ignore people who tell you to get a grip on yourself, grow up and get over being afraid of a silly clown. This can do more harm than good.

Adults remember not being able to attend birthday parties where clowns would be part of the entertainment and many of them still have to avoid those parties. They can’t have a clown at their children’s party or go to grandchild’s party if a clown will be present. Imagine someone who works in event planning for a large arena who has to book a circus or even worse, host a clown convention. This phobia like others can have an effect on every area of a person’s life.

People can sympathize with someone who is afraid of heights, snakes or spiders for instance, but kind of pooh-pooh the fear of clowns. This attitude together with the phobia that they know is irrational, can cause a clown phobic to sink into depression.

As mentioned earlier there are a few treatments available that appear to work well for those suffering from clown phobia. A phobic needs to do some digging to find the one that works for them.

If you want to speak with people who know what you are going through then there is a site here with a thread dedicated to clown phobia http://www.ofear.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=1562 hopefully it can be of some help.