The Psychology Behind "Bizarre" Fears

I am taking psychology in college so I'm learning about stimuluses and responses but I cannot-FOR THE LIFE OF ME- understand how something like a banana could be related to something bad, unless it was somehow a trigger unrelated to the actual banana but a certain aspect of the banana.

I've seen some of the crazy fears on Maury but I really think they have something to back them up...

I'm talking about the more unexplanatory fears... Can someone quench my quriosity?

 

funny you should say that. i used to love bananas, but i became allergic to them. now if i even eat a tiny amount i get a horrible, sickening pain in my stomach right away. for awhile, since i used to eat alot of them, i would forget and eat something with banana in it and get the awful pain before i remembered the allergic response. eventually i got to where my stomach would start to hurt if i even looked at a banana. it's true you really can create a conditioned response to a stimulus. if i kept it up i probably would get a stomach ache anytime i looked at something yellow.

 

Things that I can think of that might lead up to such bizzare "banana-like" fears are maybe a past experience when you were a child (too young to remember, perhaps) and it has left a sort of "dent" in your brain which triggers the conditioned response...

I don't know, the only thing I can associate with bizarre fears w/o a known initial trigger are being small children and having a bad experience.

 

^thats what i think also. i dont look at it as stupid though, because im affraid of spiders and police. i know ppl who keep large spiders as pets, yet theyre scared of frogs and snails and all that. i know ppl who arent scared to do anything, but are affraid of having a microwave in the house. seriously there are some fucked up fears out there, and the public/governemnt sometimes pressures them on people- telling us how bad it is, yet providing it and letting us use it for 10 years before that. for example, say i was mega paranoyed, and some uninformed person said oh second hand smoke causes death. id be really scared of smoke that smells like tobbacco, tell all my friends, and it will soon be standard way of thinking. and considering how small of percentage very high anxiety makes up, yet what a large percentage lack of common sense and wish to understand.

yea either that or childhood related stuff, being really scared while a dog bit you as a very small kid can make you terrified of dogs forever. i stuck a hairpin in a plug socket when i was very small, it melted on my hand because it was so think- if it didnt i would have been electricuted. anyway i kinda remember that everytime im plugging something in- it was a nasty burn, and having melted metal scraped off also.

i dont know, but you hate my living guts so youll probably just take the piss and act all prince like :/

 

Haha, well, my fear is out in the open now.

I have no idea what could've sparked my fear
but it'd be something interesting to find out.

 

Well Freud would say it's because of the phallic shape. If a boy hated bananas, by Freudian standards, the boy would have felt threatened by his father, thus playing out his feeling of incompetence against all bananas. It's just a play on the oedipus complex.

If a girl hated bananas, again according to Freudian standards, it would have something to do with penis envy, I'm sure. She would feel upset that she doesn't have a penis; and eating a banana would probably bring her attention that she lacks a penis. This would then result in her boycotting all bananas because they remind her of the fact that she doesn't have a penis everytime she eats one.

Then again; I think Freud is completely bonkers, and I don't believe a thing he says ^_^ And I don't think you should believe a thing I just said because:

a) It's based on Freuds findings
b) I got an 'E' in pschology
c) I don't believe I can even spell psycology

Much love! Hope I helped!

 

Maybe you hate bananas just because of the fact that they taste like shit. I only like them when they're tinted green

 

I am terrified of frogs - althought I love spiders, snakes, bugs etc - toads don't bother me....but frogs scare the shit out of me and I could not tell you why.

Even typing this and thinking about them my heart starts to beat a little faster and I start to get a cold sweat going and I feel like throwing up.

Its a stupid stupid fear!

 

I have a fear of making other peoples' food... I don't know why but it just seems like whenever I think of working at a restaurant as a cook I just get all anxious and irritable.

That would be a bizzare fear, no?

And Mr.Green, I don't HATE you, I just think you should give the 360 a chance lol

 

Whenever i see pringles, i start to get nauseous. Once drank way to much, eventually started chugging my friends parents wine for more, threw up, and then ate a whole can of pringles. For the next three days if anything entered my mouth i would either gag and do some dry vomiting, or just turn around and feel like jumping off a cliff. I havnt had a bite of pringles, a sip of wine, rum, vodka or anything more than beer for over a year now.