I origionally posted this in the true confessions area, but then thought it might be more suiting to be in this area... not sure, but I'm sure you'll let me know either way: I guess I am scared of the dark, or being alone when it is dark or being alone in the dark... or maybe just the being alone thing. Point is, I'll be 25 this December and I am afraid of the dark. What's that phobia called anyway, narcophobia... nah that sounds like fear of dead people. Eh... well, am I alone with this one? Also I have a very irrational fear of bugs. A fear of them in general, only if they are in the house with me or very big indoors or outdoors, if they're small and outdoors I could care less. But mostly I have a fear of being covered in bugs or one crawling on me. This fear got so bad one time that I cut open bump in my arm because I was convinced that a bug had burrowed into my skin... turns out it was a calcium deposit or something. I've fallen asleep with the light on in my room often b/c everytime I turned out the light out I felt like there were bugs crawling on me. Am I alone in this fear too? Probably in the cutting open of the arm thing, but I'd figure not many people would go that far. I also have this thing with driving, I turn around just to be sure no one is in my back seat, even after I have checked it. But then again I get that feeling of someone being behind me alot, driving or not.
Well that is normal. I can say that i certainly don't have a fear of bugs, or spiders. Lately my house has been invated with brown recluse (a spider that you do not want to get bit by). I'm not afraid of them, but i definitly don't like them around me. The other day i saw one crawling across the ground and pulled a steve irwin and went over and picked it up just for the thrill. Bad idea! The damn thing bit me. I'm lucky that it was just a miner bite though because it could have been horrible. The funny thing is i didn't even notice that it was biting me until i saw that it's mouth was digging into my flesh. I'll never pick one of those fuckers up again thats for sure.
i have a phobia of the ghost i often hear but have never seen. when i am downstairs on my own and everyone else is in bed, i sometimes here footsteps in my room but when i run upstairs, everyone is fast asleep and there's no light on and no sign of anything unusual. the last time anything like this happened was 2 nights ago. i heard footsteps in my room, then my DRAWER opening (it vibrates and makes a noise u can hear through the floorboards), then 5 seconds of silence, then it slided back with a SLAM when it closed. i bombed it up the stairs, took me no less than 6 seconds - nobody there, brother and mother fast asleep. on top of this, things of mine often go missing, things i hide or otherwise - but they always return about a month or so later. the last thing that went was a matchbox i was keeping hemp seeds in. i know for a fact none of my family have found it coz they would quiz me about it. so yeah, i fear the currently unknown.
I am afraid of doctors, hospitals and clinics, whenever I walk on the halls of such a building and smell those medicines in the atmosphere I have a bad feeling of fear. But this is not listed in any DSM... And well, I don't really take that seriously. I had a relative who used to say, "Fear does not exist." Well, I guess you might say that to yourself and maybe feel better afterwards... I can't say I'm really afraid of bugs, but I never touch them if I have to kill them, I use a shoe or call after someone who is with me in the house to do the "dirty work."
I'm afraid of the dark a little too. I hate my house, because it is up in the woods and I'm always afraid someone could be "out there". I mean I sure can't see if they are. And there are no outside lights except huge flood lights that Jer never lets me turn on, which duh is the point in having them. He thinks they bother the neighbors. Whatever! Seriously though, I am scared when I walk up to my door and it is dark (if I am alone, not with Jeremy, no one with try to take down the both of us, lol) so I leave my headlights on until I get in the house, then I turn on the outside lights and go back out and turn my headlights off. This will be bad one day when I forget to turn them off.
i am afraid of needles, snakes and of my bellybutton (i've always been afraid of it opening up and my insides falling out in a bloody heap... yes.. i am serious)
nope, its a perfectly normal belly button in all ways... i've just never trusted that it is properly sealed.
Here's some info that could help you with your phobias. Albert Bandura Modeling therapy The therapy Bandura is most famous for, however, is modeling therapy. The theory is that, if you can get someone with a psychological disorder to observe someone dealing with the same issues in a more productive fashion, the first person will learn by modeling the second. Bandura’s original research on this involved herpephobics -- people with a neurotic fear of snakes. The client would be lead to a window looking in on a lab room. In that room is nothing but a chair, a table, a cage on the table with a locked latch, and a snake clearly visible in the cage. The client then watches another person -- an actor -- go through a slow and painful approach to the snake. He acts terrified at first, but shakes himself out of it, tells himself to relax and breathe normally and take one step at a time towards the snake. He may stop in the middle, retreat in panic, and start all over. Ultimately, he gets to the point where he opens the cage, removes the snake, sits down on the chair, and drapes it over his neck, all the while giving himself calming instructions. After the client has seen all this (no doubt with his mouth hanging open the whole time), he is invited to try it himself. Mind you, he knows that the other person is an actor -- there is no deception involved here, only modeling! And yet, many clients -- lifelong phobics -- can go through the entire routine first time around, even after only one viewing of the actor! This is a powerful therapy. One drawback to the therapy is that it isn’t easy to get the rooms, the snakes, the actors, etc., together. So Bandura and his students have tested versions of the therapy using recordings of actors and even just imagining the process under the therapist’s direction. These methods work nearly as well. LINK
i have an awful fear of the dark. i absolutely cannot sleep unless i have a little light on. its fucking ridiculous.
