I admire you for facing your fears, dlowan. I think that some fears are best overcome by conditioning. (Listen to me, lecturing the psychlogist!) My sister had a paralyzing fear of cats. She got over it gradually with the help of the local animal shelter. The let her come and get as close (or as far away) as she could handle until she was finally able to hold one of the furry little creatures. At first she couldn't even listen to them meow.
She says she will never be a cat lover, but at least now she doesn't run into the house when she sees a cat.
My fears are heights and spiders, although if I had your bat experience I know that would be added to my list. It creeped me out just reading about your bat story!
Fear of cats? Wow!
I also admire your resolve, dlowan.
Going blind. Terrified of going blind.
I understand that one! As you know, I am going deaf - and I am waaay short-sighted (damn my mother, and her smegging genes!)
I understand that oine, too. I am extreeeeemely nearsighted and fear that someday I will be totally blind.
I have pathological fear of needles - I just hate getting injections. Recently I got my vaccinations topped up for my holiday to India, and I had tears in my eyes even before I was injected. And it took the doctor abt 15 mins to give me 4 vaccinations, I was shaking so much !!
I also have a fear of heights - but only when I am in a builiding. I am perfectly fine in an aeroplane, but put me on the 10th floor of a building and ask me to look down .... I'll probbaly faint !!
Oh dear! I am frightened of injections, too! I am a mess of fears - I was NEVER frightened of them as a kid...go figure....
I'm the opposite Deb. When I was a kid I was so afraid of injections I even passed out once in school waiting in line for mine, but they don't bother me now. Hmmmm....
Gautam
I was just like that when I was little. I feel your fear :-(
Heights are bad, crowds, and losing my mind before my body gives out....those are probably my big three. Oh, and rabbits that smoke, that too.
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......
Fear of closed in places, even in the great out of doors, to be in the middle of a large crowd. Small rooms, I sit watching points of egress in any room - say a cafe.
Biggest of the fears is small caves where you have to wiggle through openings. yeech! I once had a dream when young where I was swimming at the "Y" (I loved swimming way back there) and I stuck my head between the ladder and side wall and couldn't get it out - or, did I actually do that and then got it loose
Anyway, enclosed spaces, the smaller the worser, especially bad if there is a hookah smoking coney in the neighborhood :razz:
Were you a big baby? Lol!
Oh Gautam, I used to be terrified of needles too. Somehow, after becoming a mother, that fear went away. Still not crazy about shots, but I can do it.
Cav, I understand the fear of losing one's mind before the body gives out. Unfortunately for me that's already happened!
Bill, My god! Your head stuck at the pool! How scary that must have been! How old were you?
Quote:Were you a big baby? Lol!
Especially when the hare showed up - I cried and cried, anyone got a hanky
About 3rd or 4th grade. It slid in just nicely, then when I realized it was stuck and tried to extracate it several times, I gave a good yank and was free. I'm pretty sure now that it truly did happen.......
As a child I had a fear of the dark. When I was about 3 years old my older brother took me to the movies. The picture we saw was the original Frankenstein. Remember in those days, the early 30's we were not bombarded with movies of that sort. I begged him to take me home but if you have an older sibling you can imagine the answer I got. Needless to say I was afraid no terrified to go into dark rooms for several years afterwards.
Well, I have reasonable fears and unreasonable ones.
Fear of breast cancer and blindness and full hearing loss (hi, soz) are all very reasonable for me.
I used to be very afraid of spiders and bees and have talked myself out of it except for black widows (mostly) and a hive after me...which hasn't happened, but did to a friend, who now carries adrenaline in her car, purse, house, etc.
Bats..not sure. My husband and I were swimming in a pool in Death Valley (hah) one night and bats made repeated dives over the pool, which he described to me...as I couldn't see them (night blind). I was afraid, but it passed with his reassurance. People afraid of bats shouldn't read Martin Cruz Smith's book on plague and vampire bats, forget the title.
Heights...I don't remember when I first was afraid of heights, it happened gradually and fairly recently. The first time I really paid attention was when I was driving over Deer Creek Canyon Road in Malibu to a client's house and there was room for only one car and no rails...and your proverbial cliff. I made it to the house ok, although not happy. She agreed it was a terrible spot, three people had driven over the cliff... On the way back to the coast road, I had a fight or flight reaction...in the tightest spot...didn't want to stop, what if a car was coming, and didn't want to go forward. Went forward gradually, made it to the coast, and put the music on loud as I went south. Haven't been the same about heights since. Have no interest in curing it by increased exposure. Some of this fear is reasonable, that was an unsafe road, and I am not your least clumsy person. But now I am more prone to worry about the edge of space in general than I was before, and can barely look when other people get too close to an edge.
On the other hand, bridges haven't bothered me yet, and I have several friends that are very uncomfortable on bridges.
osso, Speaking of bridges...There used to be a bridge across the Mississippi where I live. It's since been demolished, but it had one of those decks that was made of grated iron and you could see through it. I loved going over it but my sister was deathly afraid we would fall through it.
Small spaces without an easy exit. I remember going to Egypt for the first time, and going into the tombs through very small passageways. The desire to see was greater than my fear - rationalizing that many people does the same thing every day. c.i.
