Friday, November 29, 2013

5 on Friday

1. If you have a phobia (or something close to one), what is it?
No actual ones - which people don't seem to understand. According to the study  a fear has to be bad enough to actually change your life before it can be considered a phobia. "I don't like swimming" isn't a phobia; "I moved to Kansas despite drastic pay cuts and being uprooted from my family/friends because I couldn't stand to be anywhere near the ocean" would be a phobia. That's what they said, anyway.
I have mildly neurotic fears, though. Heights - I don't even like standing on chairs/step-stools to change light bulbs or reach things, though there's practicality to that too. As much as I love dogs, I still have a residual fear of unfriendly dogs (I was deathly afraid of all dogs as a child. All of them.) People in authority, because I fear being judged by them.  And strangers, particularly men. Went through that circus of stupid .
Used to have neurotic fears of electricity/electrocution and millipedes, but those aren't too bad now, both in a logical proportion, I think.


2. How long have you had the phobia (or something close to it)?
I don't know? Forever? It's hard to pin down when things like this start. In my case they didn't start with one cataclysmic event or anything, 'cause... my life doesn't have cataclysmic events, really.


3. If you know anyone with a phobia (or something close to it), how does s/he act when s/he is experiencing it?
I know people with mild cases of social phobias.  They get really anxious in certain situations. Well that would be me too I guess. hmmmmm


4. What is one phobia you would wish not to have?
Strangers/men. It's really fairly stupid, and goes against my belief to treat people as people. But I still have this ingrained expectation that they're going to yell at me / hit me / mock me. Which I'm sure passes through the minds of many, but it doesn't get carried out often enough to be a rational fear.
And yes yes, everyone should carry a healthy amount of doubt re: strangers to avoid getting themselves mugged; that's not what I'm talking about. 


5. What is one phobia you wouldn't mind having, if you were to face one?
Spiders probably. Everybody's deathly afraid of spiders, my boys still scream like girls when they see one and I have to kill it for them..


Wow after answering these I guess I am really a worse mess than I thought. 

3 comments:

Bob G. said...

MsN:
THis sounds intersting...

1) Drowning in a large body of water - I swear in a past life I went down with the Titanic.
(oh, and being around stupid people...hate that too...LOL)

2) The drowning thing, since I was a child and DID almost drown.
(the stupid people thing has become "acquired" over the years)

3) Have to ask Wifey on that one...I know folks afraid of spiders (they squash real good)

4) a phobia NOT to have?
A fear of having a fear about phobias...I could do wiithout THAT one!

5) Having a phobia...hmm...how about the stupid people thing..wait, already GOT it.
(never mind)

Nice list.
(no phobia THERE, huh?)

Have a great weekend & stay safe down there.

Anonymous said...

I have a phobia concerning people who rebuild old cars. Probably since I live in the fender of a 1949 Buick in a junkyard outside Atlanta...gotta do something about that.....someday....hmmm.
Snakefoot

CWMartin said...

I was okay with heights until Dad had me on the roof with him when I was around 5 and Mom yelled at him for it. Since then, it gets worse with age... if I'm on something that is higher than the nearest object I could leap to if the one I'm on fell, I'm finished.