Tom wrote to ask about the reality of a site called
The Phobia Clinic. At first glance, the site definitely looks like it represents a real business that's selling a program to help people overcome their fears. The strangeness comes when you
dig into some of the fears that they claim they can cure, and you have to wonder... do such fears or anxieties really exist? For example, they can cure you of
Arachibutyrophobia (that's a fear of peanut butter sticking to the roof of your mouth),
Ballistophobia (a fear of bullets... but why would anyone want to overcome their fear of bullets? Isn't that a good thing to be afraid of?),
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia (fear of long words... the name of the anxiety alone probably sends sufferers into convulsions), and the list goes on and on. Despite all the weird anxieties, I think that the Phobia Clinic is real enough, in the sense that they'll take your money and offer some kind of 'cure.' But I'm skeptical about whether their cure actually works.
Comments
-Hills
now the worst part was the midget was in a doctor's outfit!!! that's absolutely my worst fear now...once when i was telling my friend about it she was like, "what if he was a gynocologist?" i almost started crying, now tell me ANYONE who wouldn't be freaked out by that!! ugh....
Whenever I pick up an old book with dusty pages and they rub together my skin crawls.
It doesn't stop me reading the book... I just have to gather my thoughts briefly, so I don't count it as a phobia.
If i see anyone chewing on fabric, or tissue paper, I completely freak out, and it makes my teeth feel funny, and I salivate
it is happeing now just thinking about it!
There's aibohphopia, the fear of palindromes. Then there's phobiaphobia, the fear of phobias; and what about phobiaphobiaphobiaphobia, which is the fear of unbounded recursion.
Thank You XXX
needless to say, i'll never have to worry about developing a heroin addiction. =^)
Wet paper, touching or even seeing it
licking paper/stamps or envelopes
wet wood (the thought of drying a wooden spoon makes me cringe!!)
Thanks
Yeah...random...
Also, whenever I touch rocks, or chalk, or rough things, my whole body tenses up. I wouldn't call it a fear, it's just...uncontrolled reflexes. =[
My mother had a friend who has a fear of tomatoes because "they are ugly." She wouldn't touch a tomato, or permit one to be in her sight. She would eat ketchup, but never ever want to look at any tomato, even canned or sun-dried. That's wierd.
Now what the heck is that called??? How can i stop that..I cant stand not being able to touch fabric without a glove on, its getting OLD!
please help lol
I hate them, i cant stand seeing people put their fingers in them or touching my belly button. It freaks me out sooooo badly.
Cam
Rene
(My mother cannot stand the site of a loose eyelash on someone's face.)
I do not have this fear to the extent of a phobia, but my sister does. I remember once we were in Amsterdam in a clup, and really high on some mushroom and dancing like crazy, and she spotted a little person dancing in the floor, she freaked out into a bad trip and spent the rest of her days in the hotel room. She claims it is because of a B-movie she saw when she was 6 in which a group of midgets were lynching a nun. The name of the movie was translated "I don't want to be born" into Turkish.
I asked a psychiatrist friend of mine, and he said it might be related to a primal survival mechanism of "leaving the odd one out". That is, when facing a person with genetical abnormality, the brain urges one to stay away with the irrational fear that the abnormality can be contagious. We know that most cultures in ancient times killed babies that were born with bigger than usual heads, small or no limps or digits.