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Thread: Weird phobias

  1. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2017
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    315

    Re: Weird phobias

    Quote Originally Posted by MyNameIsTerry View Post
    You're asking me if I sleep? You're on when I am. Yep, it's one of the issues I've struggled with over the years. My daily routine got later & later until I was living at night instead. Since change was a massive problem for me (and early on even changing clothes was a challenge, washing, etc I used to sit on the settee all day and be afraid of moving or brushing my teeth, eating, etc) I was very afraid of moving my day around. The first couple of years I would panic every bank holiday because my fixed daily routine was forced to change.

    I've broken a lot of it up now, after trying & failing so many times over the years, so it's less of a problem but it's still something I'm working on. So, at the moment I sleep in two periods most days so I'm doing stuff the rest of the time. But I can break it, it's more keeping it going that's the issue.

    Thanks. It took about two years sorting out the compulsions. I didn't have them until I relapsed and started a med that ramped up my anxiety much worse and weeks later it all started. The first year was a real hell and little to no progress was made. But after that I found my way with exposure work and it got there.

    My anxiety came after burning out at work when I was 30. Before that things were fine. I didn't address as much as I needed to, came off a SSRI about 4 years later and 6 months later hit a relapse. Been working on it ever since. The first few years were a total mess really.

    I know what you mean about getting back to some sort of normal. I'm much better than I was but it seemed to be a matter of trying & trying until bit by bit I ended up in a better place. It was all stop-start, stop-start, success then stumbling block, hit a rut, backslide a bit, lurch forward. I can understand why Dr Weekes termed it "layers" as I felt like I jumped forward as I moved into a new "stage". Some stages I got not very far, some I did. It was such a slow process as it sounds like it was for you. I'm taking it as slow as I need to this time, I rushed things the first time and paid the price for it.

    I was new to OCD back then, didn't have a clue about it so thought I was going crazy. It did help to read about it and realise it's just part of the disorder. For me it didn't so much feel that I completely believed more that I was too afraid to not agree with it and stay trapped by my behaviours that kept it going. It's one of the reasons the repetitive HAers don't bother me, when my compulsions were at their worst I spent most of my day on them and nothing changed that, I didn't know how to cope without them. It felt like a curse and I would remain like that forever. It took me ages to realise I didn't have to live like that, post CBT therapy, when I felt myself changing again. OCD, GAD, PTSD, etc they can all be so horrible when you feel like it's normal or correct to be suffering.

    I bet you have lots of experience of your own fighting this monster, especially having it so long. I wish the NHS would put it's work into kids, catching it early gives the best chance before all the ingrained thinking sets in. The same with adults really. It feels like such a false economy only getting to people later on.


    Ahhh I know my work routine is so messed up, I work for older and poorly people so it's all over the place as someone has sadly passed away. I miss my bed now though!

    That sucks having to do everything a night but I bet it's a lot different, you get to see the world in a different way - I love walking my dogs at night etc, I hate the day time sometimes, do you get the normal 8 hours?

    Sorry to hear you burned out it's a real shame when that happens as you're so used to being okay and then all of a sudden you're thrown with anxiety, it happens to so many people but a lot more males struggle with it I guess they're brought up to be "tough"

    Yes rushing things really does make it worse I think when you first think "I'm going to get better now" you have a expectation of waking up fine I know I did and it was a false reality it made me much worse. I couldn't leave the house and didn't leave the house for 4/5 months you could imagine how that went drove me looney, I'm glad to hear you're taking it slow sometimes it's not even about getting fully better it's more about trying to live with what you have without it being as big of a deal, if that makes sense.

    I bet if you don't know much about OCD that can be very frightening because you must feel like you said that you're going crazy, especially if you're used to feeling 'normal' it's good you have a real understanding of people with HA sometimes I feel like it can annoy me/others but really it is the same as anxiety OCD sometimes you can't just get over it no matter how many times people tell you - luckily I don't have HA I can imagine how terrible it would be now aswell with google you can get so much false information now a days and literally self diagnose.

    The NHS is quite bad when you go as a child I remember my mother took me and they told me to go outside a bit more etc, I didn't get any help till I was old enough to explain myself and actually talk to someone about how I felt which is extremely difficult I wanted the floor to suck me up but I had to get better for myself otherwise life will just pass me by.

    Working with older people it really does put me off getting old, I work with one lady who tells me she prays to die every night. It really is sad.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Posts
    245

    Re: Weird phobias

    I wouldn't call it a phobia exactly, but I don't like it at all when I'm looking at a door edgeways on especially when the door has the old-fashioned long handle. It's as though I'm looking at a gun being pointed at me.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
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    6,054

    Re: Weird phobias

    Again, I wouldn't necessarily call the following 'phobias' per se, but there are 2 things in particular that have always given me the willies (probably more OCD).

    The letter S pointing in my direction from either the left or the right, whether on its own, at the start or end of a written word, but strangely never from above or below. Probably the weirdest discomfort ever as it's physically harmless.

    Certain valves on pipework, especially this one type that isn't particularly commonplace that's shaped like a male penis (sorry for the gory details and no pun intended for the 'giving me the willies' remark) that I think has a recessed 'nipple' on the front end intended for either venting air or as an isolation valve on certain plumbing 'appliances'.

    Said valves were found in the downstairs toilet in our previous house we lived in between my ages of 1 1/2 and 7 3/4, in the scary, poorly-designed windowless bath bay at my residential school I attended between the ages of 8 1/2 and 10 1/2, and in the cleaner's store cupboard (which is normally kept locked and rarely accessed by clients) at my current day centre near a hot water cylinder.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
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    6,054

    Re: Weird phobias

    A couple of weird phobias I had when I was 5 (exactly 40 years ago).

    1. My grandma bought me a couple of 7'' vinyl singles from a market stall. The one record was 'Happy' by a Jamaican reggae artist called Junior Tucker (released in 1975 but I don't think it actually charted here in the UK). It was on a label by the name of Tropical Records. The top half of the label had a black background (with the Tropical Records logo in white lettering in a bold font similar to Impact), and the bottom half had an orange background (with black text over it, stating the song title, artist, and the usual other credits). There were rim shot sounds on the track which made me think of swallowing mashed potato (which I then developed a sudden dislike of because of this and I subsequently insisted in eating all potatoes in the unmashed form from then onwards). I also developed a terrible phobia of said record (both the audio content and the Tropical Records label that it was on) to the point where I was having terrible tantrums over it and my mom had to bin said record.

    All seems totally innocuous to me and a big fuss over nothing now 40 years later (no longer gives me the willies either by listening to it on YouTube or looking at images of the record's labels online), but at the time (autumn 1982) I was mega disturbed by said record where even just seeing it, let alone hearing it, would send me into a mega meltdowns and screaming tantrums for well over an hour!

    2. My mom's ironing board that she had at that same time was also the subject of a sudden phobia as one morning we found it tipped over on the kitchen floor (with the underside facing upwards), which the dog must have knocked over during the night, as it was usually stored resting upright against the kitchen wall, and on the underside (whilst still on the floor) I noticed a short strip of spongey foam, approximately 1/4'' thick/wide, and about 2'' long. It was both in the same shape and colour of a typical potato chip (referred to Stateside as a French Fry). I then developed a severe phobia of said ironing board and couldn't look at the 'chip' on its underside, and my mom had to do the ironing while I was at school. Needless to say I also refused to eat chips (French Fries) for a time, unless they were 'circular' shaped, but said phobia/fad of mine had blown over by the spring of 1983.

    I also remember seeing the promo video to the Madness song 'Our House' on TOTP during its prime UK chart run in December 1982-January 1983, and during the line that sings 'Father gets up late for work. Mother has to iron his shirt, then she sends the kids to school......' and the accompanying scene in said video showing the ironing board, I was imaging the mother saying 'Come on, look at this chip'! Strangely I never developed a phobia/dislike of that song, and it really makes me laugh whenever I hear it now (and 'Baggy Trousers' from 2 years earlier).

    I also laugh about that ironing board/chip phobia now whenever I look back on it 40 years on!

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Mar 2020
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    6,054

    Re: Weird phobias

    There's another weird lifelong phobia that I've never really been able to shake off; that is a phobia about a certain type of lawnmower that my parents had when I was very little.

    First of all, I feel as though I can't even say nor type the brand name of said mower (especially as I fear that others might say 'Oh, I've got one of those mowers and it's brilliant, etc'), but here's a description of it that might give some clues.

    It was of the electric cylinder (aka reel) type, had a pale blue-coloured body and had a single 'beam' handle with the grip-switch that activated the motor at the top (that I strangely used to call an 'Easter'), a horrible looking rear roller that I also strangely used to call a 'volcano' (pronounced 'vole-cayno').

    I hated all the lettering fonts on it, including the one that the mower's main brand name was written in on that particular model (which was an ugly looking square-shaped uppercase bold font, which obviously disturbed me as it didn't look 'normal', plus worst of all was the horrible excruciating high-pitched whining sound it used to emit while in operation. All used to make me imagine and hallucinate horrible smells as well.

    As it happened, my parents didn't really like using said mower either and my dad said it was often awkward to steer (especially being single-handed), wasn't quite man enough to cut longer grass and often had a tendency to break down in such situations. However, by the time I was about 4, my parents eventually discovered Flymo lawnmowers and abruptly switched to those instead from then onwards, and my dad then took our horrible old pale blue cylinder mower to the local tip, and I remember thinking 'Hurrah'!

    I don't think that particular lawnmower brand even exists anymore, thank God, but I remember some neighbours over the road from us (at our current address) had a later version of that mower model for donkeys years (in green with proper handlebars, and the brand logo in a different font) and I still hated seeing and hearing said mower whenever they used it but they moved away in 2018 and those who have lived there since have a Flymo, of which mowers have never bothered me, including the sound.

    All dead bizarre, I know.

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