New Weekly "off Topic" Topic No.19 (11/06/12)

Ludwig Venter

Retired Moderator
Retired Moderator ⚒️
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
8,209
Reaction score
5
Location
South Africa
I recently had a friend visit me and whilst talking in the lounge..... he suddenly jumped up and stood on my lounge chair pointing towards my cat who just entered the lounge... the man could not utter a word and deducted that he was scared of the cat so I closed the cat in one of the bedrooms.... Turned out that he had a phobia of cats.....He himself could not explain why, but when he sees a cat... he runs.

I used to keep snakes in the biology class at school which included Puff Adders and other dangerous spitting Cobras and the likes.... BUT!!!.... do not bring a praying Mantis anywhere near me.... I Shreik and shout like a little girl and call for my wife to please remove it..... I do not know why I am so scared of them, but I just have this " thing" about Praying Mantisses.....

This week we talk about phobias..... is there anthing you are particularly scared of and cannot explain why you are scared of it??.... heights, spiders, confined spaces, darkness, people..... etc. etc..... Tell us about it.
 
Coulrophobia - The Fear Of Clowns.

Hate the things! Can't stand them! Bring one near and I'll run!

Anatidaephobia - The Fictional Fear That Somewhere, Somehow A Duck Is Watching You.

I love ducks but I always think there's one watching me constantly and it scares me...
Yes this is a real phobia, look it up.

There's my phobia's :)
 
Moths. I hate moths.

I'll tolerate butterflies though, so long as they stay clear of my veg patch.
 
Snakes !!

I didn't know I had a phobia of snakes until I was in the middle of a reptile house with my ex fiance. I think I was about 19 at the time. We'd seen the lizards, and the aligator, the terapins etc ... and then we rounded the corner and there was just a glass wall of snakes all writhing around.

I froze. I couldn't breathe. I broke out in a cold sweat and started to faint.

I came to sitting on a bench in the fresh air with my head between my knees with the fiance asking what the hell just happened!!

It took a long time to work it out (I'm talking years) but eventually I had a very faded memory of a grass snake kept in formaldahye in a glass whiskey bottle in the clay cupboard at primary school. I can vaguely remember queuing up with the other kids to get the clay and tools out of the cupboard and someone knocking the bottle containing the snake out of the cupboard, the bottle smashing and the snake flying out towards me. It landed at my feet. And even recalling that has given me the shivers lol

So, yes, I'm utterly petrified of snakes - it's a good job I live in England and it's rare to see one! I think the reason the grass snake was in the bottle was because the head master had found it in his garden one summer, killed it and decided it would be a good thing to show the kids ... hmm
 
I'm lucky I dont really have any phobias but I do get the heebie jeebies at huge hairy turantulas walking over me. Its something about the way they move their legs....probably why I hated the replicators in Star Gate. Most other spiders I dont worry about even though Australia has some deadly ones and plenty that still have not fully had their toxicology tested. Oh and ticks they move the same way and to see one stalking up on you out of the corner of your eye while sitting on a couch is not good for the nerves. Needless to say that tick became history and the couch basically got dismantled as I went on a search and distroy misson. I think I know my aversion to ticks aside from the creepie way they move, also we have paralysis ticks in Australia and those beggers will kill you but making all your organs shut down. But I dont see my aversion to ticks as a phobia because I am fully capable (and often have to) remove ticks from my dogs.
The only other critter I have a kind of fear of is leeches, I know they will only suck as much blood as they need and they dont hurt when they bite you (heck I will happily tease a leech thats swimming in water, or straining to get you from a leaf) but I just am not fond of them actually feasting on my blood.
 
I am a bit terrified of Cockroaches. You can stamp on the things and they still keep coming. They are going to survive us all and that freaks me out. I used to live in NYC- The cockroach capital. They were everywhere. I had one chase me once while I smacked at it with a rolled up newspaper. They should have been scared right? ew! :sick: :sick: :sick:
 
I HATE spiders!!!!!!

Here's a story. Ok so I woke up one night, and I see a very very small spider, maybe the size of a head of a thumbtack, crawl over my blankets. I hop out of bed and started screaming, and then my parents had to do a thorough search of my bed to find it or I wouldn't go back to sleep.
Oddly enough, the only spider that doesn't scare me is tarantulas. I guess it's because my cousin has one as a pet and I've had to tolerate it, but the poison has been removed from it.
 
I have an intense fear of clowns. When I was 17, I had gone to a family night at the local club on our military post. I saw the clown they had there for the kids and quickly walked by him without making eye contact. Then the worst. THe clown started to follow me. I looked behind me and he was trying to match my pace to stay behind me to I started power walking. Next thing you know, I am under the table crying, shaking, and manic because I was so scared. Made quite an interesting scene. I was so frazzled i didnt even notice that everyone was starting at me.
 
This past Halloween a guy was dressed like the clown from IT. Balloon and all. He did that sort of thing and followed us for a bit. Right when I started getting nervous they went off another way lol I'm not even scared of clowns but he played the part too well.
 
There is a LOT of things I dislike and fear... but none of them are irrational so I don't think they are phobias!

I dont much like spiders, however, have held a tarantula and would potentially keep one as a pet to learn more about them. They arent a hands on pet and general care of them means keeping it secure, keeping it warm, giving it a little water and a locust to eat now and then!

They gross me out a little and yet... their mouth parts are so fascinating and their eyes!!! Just... dont want them crawling on me. House spiders.. those I dont do! Tarantulas at least have the decency to move pretty slowly... like an 8 legged hamster and are far less likely to bite you! The worst most will do is flick tiny little hairs at you.

---------

I really don't much care for any creepy crawlies, earwigs, grubs, caterpillars (except the 'Very Hungry' variety!) centipedes and millipedes etc. They don't scare me, I just dont like them and dont want them near me!

---------

As a kid, if I was naughty, my parents discovered the worst nightmarish threat for me was to threaten to take me to Disney Land. I HATE people in costumes! I had a bad habit when bing approached by someone in a costume of kicking them as hard as I could and screaming "stranger danger" over and over again LOL. No kidding though, I had no idea who was in those costumes and that terrified me! But its not a phobia when i was taken away by a complete stranger when I was 5. Its just a genuine fear.

----------

I don't think I get phobias really, or people not willing to work on phobias as lots are just unessesary and cause so much stress! I went to college with someone phobic of sponge?! And someone else phobic of tomato ketchup, though mainly because it looked like blood.

But I reckon about 60% of people with phobias of snakes could overcome the phobia, and I bet a high percentage would then go on to own snakes at some point in their life. I mean... if you are scared of snakes for a reason then fair enough but a lot of people are scared of snakes for no reason. Think they are cold and slimey, they they just want to bite and eat you etc. Snakes are dry and the same temperature as whoever holds them really, the whole point of cold blooded means they will take on external temperatures. They can be smooth or rough, large scaled or small scaled, brightly coloured or dull, as small as a worm or huge 20ft beasties. Long whip like snakes or short and fat snakes... who can be phobic of something that varies so hugely!? Its not that its even because of what they eat, you get snakes that eat mammals but also insect eaters, fish eaters, lizard eaters and egg eaters...

If that goes for snakes, i bet it goes for an awful lot other phobias too. I have helped people overcome their fear of snakes before and its wonderful to watch someone realise that their fears arent justified. Because then people start thinking "yeah... i can do this!" and its easier to take that attitude into other aspects of your life.
 
Oddly enough, the only spider that doesn't scare me is tarantulas. I guess it's because my cousin has one as a pet and I've had to tolerate it, but the poison has been removed from it.

And not to make you phobic of a tarantula you arent currently phobic of... BUT.... two things:

A/ Tarantulas arent poisonous... they are venemous (not that i recommend eating one to find out?!)

B/ You can't remove the venom from a spider without killing it... Its all in ducts behind their teeth, the only way you could do it would be to remove the spiders fangs... by which point it would have starved to death as it wouldnt be able to catch/kill its prey or chew its food up to swallow it... and more to the point, thy grow new fangs every timr they moult which is pretty regularly!

Sooooo..... your cousin has been telling you fibs! :p However... lots of tarantulas arent venemous and most don't even want to bite, it puts them too close to whatever is scaring them! They can however flick lots of tiny tiny hairs over quite a distance, most humans would hardly notice an itch if at all, for small predatory mammals, an eyefull would certainly hurt!
 
A/ Tarantulas arent poisonous... they are venemous (not that i recommend eating one to find out?!)

Apparently they taste of chicken.
 
Ahahah true! Well that settles it then! They definately arent poisonous!! :lol:

As for eating them.... :crazy:
 
I don't like crowds or being crowded in even amongst family in the living room let's say! My heart starts pounding, I feel like I'm suffocating and get tunnel vision! I know it's irrational and can manage it but I do try to find my way out of the situation because it is a very uncomfortable feeling!

I do not go shopping during peak hours and get the Christmas presents all throughout the year so I can avoid the malls during that season! I don't like to go to cinemas, water parks or any places where there are lots of people gathered!

Movies in space or under water are difficult for me to watch and I can't stand drowning scenes!!!

It is probably rooted in a traumatic experience when I was 15 yrs old!
 

Most reactions

Back
Top