Phobias you have known...

[Lazykh]

I'm on the search for the most obscure phobia you guys have ever run into... Basically when I got into psychotherapy my first step was to rid myself of my own phobias... I found it challenging and rewarding. Since, I've helped a few counselling clients with phobias too and also heard from other professionals of different phobias they have treated. These are the most obscure ones I have seen/ heard of, what can you contribute to the list?

-False teeth (a lady who was wasting away in hospital because she had no teeth and had to combat the phobia to get dentures and survive)

-Balloons (old, sticky decomposing ones only)

-Feathers (led to a woman's agoraphobia, on a 60 minutes show)

-Bogong Moths

[Neil_1]

Needles (not the knitting kind). And yet, I have tattoos, so go figure.

Oh and dentists - and there's that link with needles again.

[geoff]

hi Lazykh, this post will create a lot of replies, and with me I have Ornithophobia, which may not be obsure but to me it is, it's the flying of feathered birds flying around me, and everytime I watch 'Birds' by Alfred Hitchcock it terrifies me.
I have been asked to feed birds while people have been away for a couple of months, as there was no one else, but I had to set up a device where I could put food and water into the aviary, something Inspector Gadget would do.
Hate it in September when magpies are ready to swoop. Geoff.

[pipsy]

Hi, My main fear (I absolutely freeze), spiders and bees. They literally terrify me. I have seen me open my front door, if either a bee or a spider are in my line of vision, I will immediately walk around to the back door to go to the garage to get my car. If there is a spider on the garage door, I will go a get a neighbour. I am absolutely paranoid about them. Explanation regarding bees, I have been stung more times than I've had hot dinners. Explanation regarding spiders, I accidentally put my hand on a huge spider as a child. Need I say more. In N.Z we used to get the same size as the Huntsman which is Australian. I believe the Huntsman is related to the ones of the same size in N.Z. Even Daddy long legs will make me run. Snakes don't worry me, cockroaches don't either. Don't like either, but not paranoid about them.

Lynda.

[CMF]

dentists. i am currently suffering dental anxiety. I'm scared of losing my teeth and/or needing work done. the smell when i walk in brings back awful childhood memories. my son had his wisdom teeth out this past week and i was anxious from the week before. my gums are a little bit irritated at the moment i think i may have flossed a little too hard. they are nor red or swollen or bleeding, just stinging a bit in front and its freaking me out. i just want it to stop.