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Phobias?
Topic Started: Jul 14 2007, 07:36 AM (688 Views)
dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
Does anyone have any full-blown phobias?

When we were planning the grade 8 field trip to Niagara Falls, and I got the itenerary, I saw "Maid of the Mist" and freaked out. Full blown freak out. I went to my principal in a panic and told him that if there was even a remote possibility that I would have to go on the boat (because of supervision ratios) that I couldn't go on the trip. He laughed, but then realized that I was really panicked and assured me that I didn't have to.

When we did the trip itself, I didn't want to freak the kids out, so I told them I was going on the boat. Then just made myself last in line and ducked out in the confusion. None of the kids got why I couldn't do the boat thing. Trying to explain the difference between a fear and a full blown phobia was interesting.

I used to Scuba dive and did boats all the time. Over time, my fear of them got worse and worse - eventually to the point where I just couldn't get on one one day, and skipped the dive altogether. Now, I'm not sure there's any situation that could get me on one.

Does anyone else have any full blown phobias?
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Terry
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Junior Carp
I would always faint and puke following a blood test.
Ridiculous, I know, as I could deal with the sight of blood,
and I could also handle shots, etc...

One day, I was at an office exam and I had to bring my then infant daughter.
I needed a blood test to see if my Lyme Disease was back.
I realized it would be a bad scene for Megan to see daddy collapse, and somehow it all stopped.
I can still get apprehensive, but not nearly to the same point as before.



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The 89th Key
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No - I get a bit anxious around spiders and heights, but nothing too abnormal.

Phobias are interesting things...they are purely psychological, yet control people so well! Sorry to hear about the boat thing Dol.
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Dewey
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HOLY CARP!!!
I used to be a pilot. I mention this just to point out that I'm not genrerally afraid of heights. But several years ago, we were visiting a friend in Charleston, S.C. She was in the car ahead of us, and she led us over the rickety old Cooper River Bridge (I think they finally demolished it a year or so ago). It was a very high, very narrow bridge with no real curb or visual obstruction off the sides of the roadway - other than the guardrails, the edge of the paving just dropped over the edge. When we got on that bridge, I just completely vapor-locked. I was terrified; my hands just gripped the steering wheel and I started to hyperventilate. The view out the corner of my vision, of the sheer dropoff, gave me a very disorienting, nauseating feeling. For the remainder of the trip, whenever we were going somewhere that we'd normally go over that bridge, we'd drive something like 20 miles out of our way to take a wider, more modern bridge, and even that was no picnic for me. mrs. Dewey had to keep talking to me calmly, as I drove over even that bridge. And ever since then, I just tense up whenever I have to cross any high bridge. The fear isn't intense like it was then, but I still always pucker up a bit. It was really weird.

Posted Image

Good riddance, bridge from hell.
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
Illness, particularly anything involving brain tumours and embolisms. I once passed out in the work canteen when some poor girl was discussing her mum's battle with cancer. Pathetic, I know, but my fast thinking in order to avoid embarrassment on coming round got me a day off sick with alleged low blood pressure.
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George K
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Finally
I'm with Dewey on this one. We went camping years ago - rented a 13 foot high, 35 foot long sail motorhome. We were up in northern Michigan, visiting friends, and my wife decided she wanted to see what was on the other side of the Mackinack straits. On a windy, blustery day, I drove across this:

Posted Image

Had to keep the wheel cocked at 45 degrees to go straight, and, sitting up high, all you see is the edge of the road and the abyss beyond.

Feh...
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"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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musicasacra
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HOLY CARP!!!
no phobias. i don't like heights if there's not a secure barrier. i didn't mind being at the top of the Eiffel Tower because of the glass enclosure, but i did mind being at the top of a church dome because there was just a railing. there are always lots of church tower or church dome possibilities on our travels, and IT knows i'm not interested in those.

i do get a touch of vertigo when i walk by drop offs that i see peripherally. for example, a second level mall with a glass rail. when i walk along the rail, i see the drop out of the corner of my eye -- and it makes me feel unsteady. i have to grab onto something (the hand rail or IT) or move away from the edge. i've had this peripheral vision vertigo since i had an inner ear infection in college -- that came on sudden with the room spinning and made me feel like stairwells were sucking me down them. amazing what a fluid imbalance in the ear can do.

that scene in Vertigo when jimmy stewart is looking down the staircase and it seems to be pulling him down -- that's very accurate of how it feels. it's not a big deal for me, i just hold on to hand rails in those situations and i'm absolutely fine. i climb local mountains with IT sometimes. there are a lot of peripheral vision drops, but when i see them i just hold IT's hand and i feel steady again.

dewey's description of going over that bridge also sounds like vertigo:
Quote:
 
The view out the corner of my vision, of the sheer dropoff, gave me a very disorienting, nauseating feeling.
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Aqua Letifer
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ZOOOOOM!
I have an issue with heights, but I wouldn't call it a phobia. It's scary but I can deal with it; I still like roller coasters.

It isn't really a phobia, but the ocean kind of scares the crap out of me. I'll go swimming in it with no problems, so it's not really a phobia I don't think. More like a respectful fear, if I had to call it something. :biggrin:

Dewey, my dad has the same thing you do with bridges. My mom has a phobia of tunnels. Road trips were interesting when I was a kid. ^_^ Now when we all go into Pittsburgh together they just make me drive.
I cite irreconcilable differences.
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TomK
HOLY CARP!!!
Once in my life I felt a faint bit of claustrophobia. It was on the stairway between the domes walking up to the top of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. The space was tight, but also you had to walk kind of sideways--anyway it was just a hint of it. Quite unreasonable, but it gave me the flavor of what people feel who have similar problems.
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kenny
HOLY CARP!!!
It makes no sense (what phobias do?) but I am freaked out by the bow of ships.

I have had nightmares of being underwater and run over by ships.
I scream but of course nobody on the ship can hear me.

Those bulbous protrusions you see on the bow of some ships really freak me out.

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Frank_W
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Resident Misanthrope
I used to be terrified of the water. If I couldn't touch the bottom, forget it. I would go into full-blown panic. I beat the hell out of many swim instructors, as a child. On the last day of swimming lessons, one year, (I was 9, I think...) we were supposed to go in the deep end. I began crying and begging my mom to turn the car around. I felt like I was literally fighting for my life. In disgust, (and much to my relief), she turned around and we went home.

When I was 12, I learned to water ski. That was the end of the phobia. After that, I was a fish. :)
Anatomy Prof: "The human body has about 20 sq. meters of skin."
Me: "Man, that's a lot of lampshades!"
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The 89th Key
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Kenny, yours reminds me of a quasi-phobia I have of not being able to see whats underneath you in the water...like when I'm jetskiing, and there could be a whale underneath me! :hair:
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kenny
HOLY CARP!!!
BTW does anyone know the purpose of those bow domes?

Are they like bumpers designed to take the impact to protect the ship?
Do they enhance aerodynamic (aquadynamic) performance?
Do they contain electronics/radar?
Are they sex organs?
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schindler
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Fulla-Carp
Needles. Not sewing needles, or pins, oddly, just medical needles. I freak out with shots. Interestingly enough, it's worse now than it was when I was a little kid. The one time in my life I had an IV I was rigid with fear for hours. It sucks.
We're all mad here!
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Optimistic
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HOLY CARP!!!
I used to be pretty bad with snakes (not being able to even look at them on TV or in pictures), but I've gotten significantly better.

Though I'd still probably start convulsing and crying if I happened to step on one while on the trails :P

Sometimes I wonder if my meat aversion is a phobia. . .
PHOTOS

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We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
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dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
George K
Jul 14 2007, 12:31 PM
I'm with Dewey on this one. We went camping years ago - rented a 13 foot high, 35 foot long sail motorhome. We were up in northern Michigan, visiting friends, and my wife decided she wanted to see what was on the other side of the Mackinack straits. On a windy, blustery day, I drove across this:

Posted Image

Had to keep the wheel cocked at 45 degrees to go straight, and, sitting up high, all you see is the edge of the road and the abyss beyond.

Feh...

Been there, done that, George - in a motorhome as well. It didn't help that once we got to the UP for a Scuba event, one of the local dive instructors was also a rescue diver in the area. He was sent down to do a search and recovery of a car that had gone off the bridge. While they were looking for it, they found several other cars down there that hadn't been reported as missing. Ack. The drive back over was NOT fun.
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

My Flickr Photostream


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George K
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Finally
dolmansaxlil
Jul 14 2007, 06:56 PM
Been there, done that, George - in a motorhome as well.

:hug:

As we were on the descent to the UP side, I said to Shirley, "This vacation may very well end up being an 'Around Lake Michigan' tour if the wind doesn't die down."

According to Wiki, there's a (free) service for people who can't/wont drive the bridge. Just let them know in advance, and you're taken care of.

The freaky thing about the Motorhome was being so g*d-damn *high* in the seat, looking over the edge at the water.....

AAAYAYAYAAEEEE!!
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
kenny
Jul 14 2007, 09:30 AM
BTW does anyone know the purpose of those bow domes?

Are they like bumpers designed to take the impact to protect the ship?
Do they enhance aerodynamic (aquadynamic) performance?
Do they contain electronics/radar?
Are they sex organs?

Right on enhancing the performance, especially for large ships that draw a lot of water. The bulbous bow decreases drag and increases fuel efficiency, so you should be a fan of them rather than fearing them. :P

The Mackinac Bridge is breathtaking. I've never driven across it, but I've seen it from a distance. However, only two cars have ever gone off the bridge: one was a Yugo that was actually blown over the railing during a windstorm, and the other was an SUV that was a suicide.
Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
Maybe the diver was full of sh!t (though I believe he was talking about SUV, if memory serves). Whatever the case may be, it scared me half to death on the way back over. A motorhome makes the wind WAY too noticeable on that bridge.
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

My Flickr Photostream


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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
dolmansaxlil
Jul 14 2007, 07:53 PM
Whatever the case may be, it scared me half to death on the way back over.

Understandable... no one wants to be the THIRD car off the bridge!

Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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dolmansaxlil
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HOLY CARP!!!
I am however, pissed at you for destroying my theory that Jimmy Hoffa is under that bridge.

;)
"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst." ~ Henri Cartier-Bresson

My Flickr Photostream


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Red Rice
HOLY CARP!!!
Well, he probably is, but you're the only one who knows. Don't tell anyone. :P
Civilisation, I vaguely realized then - and subsequent observation has confirmed the view - could not progress that way. It must have a greater guiding principle to survive. To treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted a brute, fit for nothing better than a jungle existence, which is a death-struggle, leading nowhither. I did not believe that was the human destiny, for Man individually was sane and reasonable, only collectively a fool.

I hope the gunner of that Hun two-seater shot him clean, bullet to heart, and that his plane, on fire, fell like a meteor through the sky he loved. Since he had to end, I hope he ended so. But, oh, the waste! The loss!

- Cecil Lewis
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RosemaryTwo
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HOLY CARP!!!
Quote:
 
I get a bit anxious around spiders and heights, but nothing too abnormal.


I was going to say the exact same thing. We'd better not ever find ourselves at the top of the Eiffel Tower with a spider infestation. It could all end quickly.

I visited my alma mater this weekend. I convinced a security guard to let me into my freshman dorm, where I found my old room. Some strong sense of nostaliga overcame me, and I went into the bathroom, to see what it looked like after the renovations I heard about.

I turned on the lights, looked around, and concluded that it was, indeed, greatly improved. However, I felt elation that I don't live there anymore when I saw a very healthy cockroach walking along the shower floor. He was so healthy, I suspect he had a major and was merely showering to get ready for class. Shudder shudder. If I lived there now, I don't know how I'd reconcile my love of the shower against my fear of cockroaches. Education may be wasted on the youth, but the dorms, well, only the young can endure that life.
"Perhaps the thing to do is just to let stupid run its course." Aqua
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George K
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Finally
Red Rice
Jul 14 2007, 08:09 PM
dolmansaxlil,Jul 14 2007
07:53 PM
Whatever the case may be, it scared me half to death on the way back over.

Understandable... no one wants to be the THIRD car off the bridge!

Just came across this pic of the Big Mac:

Posted Image
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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apple
one of the angels
i kind of am against bugs. they always freak me out.. even ants - when they fly by, when they are on plants. eek
it behooves me to behold
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