Yes, it's been done to death but anyway - tell us your phobias! How did this phobia develop? Any embarrassing stories related to your phobia?

Well, Iam afraid of heights and something truly frighteneing and embarrassing happened to me yesterday.
Miss PJ and I went out for the day to Edinburgh. Some of you may know, but for those who don't there is this monument in Edinburgh called the Scott Monument which is extremely high and you can climb up it.
So, Miss PJ wanted to climb up it and I nervously agreed.
You have to climb up this very narrow stone spiral stairecase which gets narrower you go higher and at some points there isn't even a rail to hold on to.
So there I was absolutely crapping myself but I made it to the end point (we couldn't go any higher as parts of it higher up were getting restored which I was glad about) but we were still pretty high.
I found it worse coming back down. Miss PJ just skipped her way down the steps while i clung onto the wall and descended slowly. I was actually coming out in a cold sweat.
At several points, there are little window gaps in the wallo so you can see out way down to the ground as your coming down the stairs and I tried not to look out them but when I did, I actually stopped, closed my eyes and clung to the railing and I was literally paralysed with fear.
Miss PJ came running back up to see what was wrong and I told her I couldn't move so she had to go down to the bottom and get people to come up and help me down - which took about half an hour.
It was one of the most frightenening experiences of my life and when I got to the bottom I was so embarrassed as there was a small crowd of people just staring at me. Felt like such a sissy!
So, I won't be doing that again... :blush:

Ohhhhh Peej, I know what you mean about heights......Im a complete 'mare when it comes to them.....

and moths....

and butterflies......

and fish (yes I KNOW I go fishing :blink: - its all part of my therapy according to Mr Q :unsure: )......

and slugs 'n' snails....... (especially when I tread on one in the dark and it crunches then squishes under my foot as it slides on the slime :sick: )

and caterpillars (cos they turn into moths and butterflies)......

OMG Im such a GIRL :blush:

For me its wasps I drive around in the summer with the cars windows shut I can't cope with the thought of being trapped with them. I've run out of restaurants and even a christening, to make matters worse I was the godmother, and they all thought I'd nipped out for a fag.

It stems from when I was ten I had a plaster cast on my arm, it had been on nearly six weeks and was very loose around the hand part as my arm had got thinner, a boy at school was batting a wasp with his ruler and it landed on my hand and crawled up inside the plaster. I screamed the place down as the teacher was trying to get it out with a knitting needle, eventually he squashed it inside and it fell out. Luckily it only stung me a couple of times but have ben scared witless of them since.

PJ, I had EXACTLY the same experience as you, going up the spiral staircase of the old tower at Warwick Castle. It was horrible going up but coming down it was a nightmare. I had all these people pushing behind me and all I could see when I looked down were these tiny spiral stairs cascading down into nothingness. My hands were dripping sweat, I was clutching at the wall and kept having to stop to let people by (who were skipping down them like they were nothing). It took forever to get down.

I hate heights. I cant even watch the film CliffHanger without getting sweaty palms.
Im not keen on insects with big legs either, like spiders, crickets, locusts etc. :blush:

My phobia is heights too.....

I know the Scott Monument PJ, when I was in Edinburgh I took one look at it and said nah I don't do heights, as I know I would have been like you and I would have needed help to get down, so Steve had to go up on his own!

I can't go in my loft either, I have to send my boys as although I can climb up the loft ladder I just can't get down with out help.... My boys find it hilarious :blush:

Height seems to be a common theme!

I once had to bump down a church tower in Oxford on my behind :blush::laugh:


...and Pandora - that opening scene in Cliffhanger:ohmy:. When I saw it I was in a Jumbo jet somewhere very high over India. Good thinking by the airline...!

So, it was YOU who was holding up the queue PJ!!! :laugh: The dark for me, I still sleep with a night-light on! :shocking: I reckon it was all the stories when I was little about the bogey man and the urban tales about mental institution people escaping banging on the roof of a car with a head!!! I freaked one night when we had a power-cut..must remember to pay the electricity on time and I had just put Katie in the bath and then Abbie run off, so I was half-way down the hall and then bang...no lights! The girls thought this was hilarious and I almost wet myself with sheer fright! Although I do have agree with Mazwad and wasps, I hate the pesky buggers, what is their point in this world? I am the prized idiot who runs about screaming whenever a wasp come near me, although since I have had the girls I do try my hardest not to be so hysterical!

Height seems to be a common theme!

I once had to bump down a church tower in Oxford on my behind :blush::laugh:


...and Pandora - that opening scene in Cliffhanger:ohmy:. When I saw it I was in a Jumbo jet somewhere very high over India. Good thinking by the airline...! Eeeek @ CliffHanger ! :shocking: ...

dammit, I wish Id have thought of bumping down those Warwick Castle stairs on me bum .....

Spiders for me, horrible creatures, I literally can't be in the same room as them because I just feel like they're watching me and plotting to sneak over to me and taunt me... especially when you brave a bath after the spiders been dormant for a while, and just as you get in it starts creeping across the wall towards you and doing acrobatics over your head...

PJ, I always thought you should be scared of dentists...

Rats. And everywhere I go I see them. Walking through Glasgow city centre and rats running out on the street in front of me. The last house I lived in, my cat killed 10+ rats and brought them into the house and at the back door. Whenever I walk down on the pier I see rats. HATE them. Although, I admit because I have come across so many (my childhood was littered with them) and so recently, I am less afraid/phobic and more of an active dislike. YUK.

and slugs 'n' snails....... (especially when I tread on one in the dark and it crunches then squishes under my foot as it slides on the slime :sick: )


A few years ago, I was always coming down stairs to get my son some milk, it was all dark and I walked across the kitchen to the fridge but half way across I heard and felt this horrible squelch under my feet. Yes it was a slug :sick: and I didn't have anything on my feet.
I hate them with a vengeance.

Luckily now both my sons don't need any milk in the night.

Wasps......flippin' feckin' vicious little creatures. I fear them, and i always have feared them. In fact i invented a dance many moons ago, called the "Funky Wasp Boogie" - all it takes to prompt me into this action is to have a wasp come within a one metre radius of me. Then all hell lets loose. My arms flail madly, my legs run in seventeen different directions at once, and my mouth naturally closes, yet i still emit an extreme panic murmer.......

...."mmmmgeeetugggghhwaaaahhhnooooahhhhgooooWASP!!!"

Horrid, horrid creatures....and don't even mention hornet's.....:w00t: (http://www.survivor-online.co.uk/forums/misc.php?do=getsmilies&wysiwyg=0&forumid=8#)

Snakes........any type, any colour. cannot bear them.

When eldest Buzz was a baby we went to London Zoo with the playgroup and the people I was with all trouped into the reptile house, including Mr B who knew my fears very well. I got cajoled into going in and walked the whole way round looking straight ahead, clingng onto the pushchair for dear life. We rounded the corner and Mr B said it was safe to look left as the cages were empty for cleaning and I did so..............to be greeted by a luminous green snake staring at me. I screamed, abandoned the buggy and ran for the nearest exit, my heart was still racing hours later and I don't think I spoke to Mr B until I found out I was preganant agian 18 months later!! (so quite how I got pregnant is a mystery)

Can't even watch the opening scenes of Harry Potter with the kids :bag:

I've got a phobia about water because I can't swim very well. A bath is fine, but I get nervous of water that is out of my depth. I can't do boats.

u big sissy pj!!

i hate animals, not a phobia, but i just loathe them! right now cats are top of the list! my bf has 3 in his house and it really annoys me when i'm quietly dozing and i feel one of them jumping up and scaring the **** outta me. AND they have liking for sleeping on the bed and i hate it coz it just feels so unclean! knowing they have been outside killing rats and birds and then have them parade about on a bed im away to sleep on! they also follow me about coz they are greedy and always demand food which i find highly annoying. i cant enjoy fish and chips for fear they'll all attack me! every time i open the fridge one of them nudges her head in and i poop my pants again. one more thing, one of them is really old and not feeling well so she is constantly having the rankest, stinkiest, most revolting poops in the tray and the smell is so ghastly, its enough to make me sick! and she also pukes all over the place and its so revolting! so cats. yes, i know some of you love them dearly but i dont. they are disgusting creatures.

I find that quite ironic - kookyCAT hates cats!!

I hate WASPS. God I am so terrified of them. If I even HEAR a wasp I break out in a cold sweat. :sick:

i donned that name before i had to be in close contact with them! before they used to be cute ickle kittens and hello kitty was just a cuddely toy.

Pj, I absolutely sympathise with you on the heights thing I get dizzy just going over a bridge it's a horrible affliction and I have no idea how it started in my case.

My worse phobia though has to be sharks. Am petrified of them, and I break out in a cold sweat at the first notes of the Jaws music. The most embarrasing thing that ever happened to me over this was at the swimming pool years ago kids where messing doing the theme tune and putting their hands up like a fin and swimming at people. When they came near me I shot out of the water and went to the changing room where I sat for ten minutes with my heart beating like a drum and shaking like a leaf before I could even get changed on leaving the room the kids who had been messing about where all standing there laughing at me I felt a right berk (I was 24 :blush: )

.....don't like baboons either - find them incredibly terrifying, especially when they show there long incisors when annoyed or angered. And chimpanzee's too - they're deceptively terrifying. Any creature that is, i think it's seven times more powerful than man, is something to fear, when it looks so cute and cuddly. They could tear your arm or leg off with a couple of yanks if they so chose.....

And who in their right mind isn't fearful of Crocodiles and Great Whites???

Also never liked jellyfish. The thought of being in the sea, and one of those things passing me by in close proximity would give me intense shivers.

If what they say about discovering dinosaur DNA has been less than boll**ks then we may all have the old tyrannosaurus rex to fear in the not too distant....

OOOOOhhhhhh Jellyfish - blearurgh!!


couple of years ago Urk 'n I were on holliers on an island off west cork and decided to go snorkling. All went swimmingly [sorry] until I rounded a clump of rocks and came up for air. I floated happily on my back on the surface in this steep inlet for a few mins, then put my mask on again and went under. A HUGE jellier decided to make friends with my head and mask and gave it a hug - I'll never forget the sensation - so I spluttered and thrashed away from it....

only to find the entire inlet was almost SOLID with jellyfish. the sides were too steep to climb onto so I had to swim back through this soup of jelliers back round to the beach. I was still shaking hours later even though I hadn't been hurt or anything - it was just the fright and the HORRIBLE feel of the feckers..........


haven't had ice cream and jelly since!!

Well I think most of you know mine......

Clowns and Dolls...esspecially those china ones and really old ones...and ventrilaquist 'human' dummies...and masks (the african and china ones)....evil all of them!

A couple of stories relating to my only phobias:

Clowns.....I tried to confront my fear by going into 'Circus, Circus' in Las Vegas the other year....by the time I got to the entrance my palms were sweaty and my heart was racing....I managed to make it to a grandstand to watch a show without seeing a single clown...I sat and waited for the show to start head swivelling like an owl as I kept watch for a sudden clown attack....I had to leave after 3mins as my body was starting to shake and my friend thought I might go into a full blown panic attack if she didn't get me out of there.....all this from simply the fear of a clown being in the close proximity of me...I never saw one!

Dolls.....a friend of mine collects the old ones that have china faces and look semi-real....anyway i was baby sitting for her 5 kids and the dolls are all in a cabinet in the front room....where the TV is.....when my mate and her hubby returned they found me at the far end of the sofa leaning away from the cabinet and a cushion at the side of my head to sheild me from the staring eyes of the dolls as I watched TV!

This is very embarassing as I am not scared of anything that could potentially kill me but I am scared of things that are supposed to bring joy and fun! There are numerous other occasions where I have had to leave places were dolls or clowns have been....my worst phobia is clown dolls...now they really are out to get me!

Forgot to mention I also have a fresh strawberry phobia... :bored:

Forgot to mention I also have a fresh strawberry phobia... :bored:
But they're nutritious and delicious... :unsure:

But they're nutritious and delicious... :unsure:

No they are the spawn of Satan! :devil:

No they are the spawn of Satan! :devil:


No they are not Coastie, they are the food of love :wub:

No they are not Coastie, they are the food of love :wub:

To you they bring great delight....to me they bring a curdle to the stomach and shaky hands! :sick:

This is one phobia I know the cause of but I still can't beat! :cry:

I think it would be easier to ask me what don't I have a phobia of. :wacko:

Oh PJ you poor thing - how embarrassing!

Forgot to mention I also have a fresh strawberry phobia... :bored:

Best avoid Wimbledon then :)

Ewww, Tigereye that's horrible. If you didn't have a phobia about jellyfish before, I bet you've got one now.

I'm too keen on rats of spiders, well not fried anyway. I'm much better with spiders than I used to be purely because I have to either leave them be or catch them and put them outside. I could never squash one, in fact even the smallest creature gets put in a tissue/jar and released into the cold outside, where it'll probably die of hyperthermia anyway.

I will trade anyone Rats, Spiders, Snakes, Jelly Fish whatever for Clowns, Dolls and Fresh Strawberries! :cry:

Coastie I think the doll and clown ones are quite logical. They look very much like the "monsters" you are told about as child to me....I wouldn't say I am SCARED of them, but both china dolls and clowns disgust me - I hate them. They have very sinister looking faces!

Not sure about the strawberries though.....:laugh:

No-one who didn't have a 'pooey' older brother will ever understand the Strawberry thing..... :cry:

Coastie that sounds worrying but probably merits an explanation............!

It's a sad tale of a very young child...a toddler in fact who used to enjoy fresh strawberries picked from her mothers garden....she would sprinkle them with a touch of brown sugar and nibble happily away....until her brother turned evil!

He decided that he wanted all the strawberries to himself and so set about a course of action that would forever damage his younger siblings love of fresh strawberries.

Each time the wee lass would bring the tastey strawberry to her lips her wicked older brother by 4yrs would say...'Eeew are you going to eat that...I'm sure I saw a maggot on it!'...or 'Ooooeeew there's a spider on it I just saw it!'....Little Coastie would take a shaky nibble of the fruit only to have her brother tell her she had just eaten half a worm.

Little sweet innocent Coastie became increasingly narotic and started to break her strawberries into tiny pieces before should try and eat them....but still nasty older brother would report that she had missed a maggot, spider or fly until in the end she couldn't eat them any more without retching. Before long even the thought of eating a fresh strawberry made her stomach churn and hands shake slightly.

Tis a sad but true tale of pooey older brothers and poor little sisters who grow into strawberry fearing freaks! :cry:

Add Daleks to my phobia list. :blink:

Spiders :cry: Any size or shape. Even the little money spiders

Add Daleks to my phobia list. :blink:

They scared me when I was 5!

EXTERMINATE...EXTERMINATE...

Cotton wool. I hate the feel of it. I hate feathers too

Oh man, that must have been terrifying PJ.

I have two phobias....Ticks is the first. I've had them on my twice, and it is the grossest thing ever. We have a lot of ticks in my area during one point of the year, and during that time I avoid the woods like the plague. yuck.

My other fear is small spaces, or more specifically, areas where I am unable to move my legs. When I was on my university's crew team, we used to pile into these vans for like 16 hour drives to regattas, and it left little room for movement. I was way in the back of the van on one trip, the heater was on full blast, and both my friend and I were unable to move at all back there, and we both just panicked and started to freak out until we made them stop and let us out to breathe. It was the worst feeling like I couldn't breathe and had no way out.

This is also the reason that I just go nuts when people jokingly grab my ankles...i just flip out.

I've had them on my twice, and it is the grossest thing ever.
On your what twice? :blink:

Coastie that strawberry/maggot thing is interesting.....I wonder if the same approach would work for chocolate, chips, kebabs etc....we'd all end up being seven stones - perhaps you should patent it! I can just see it now, "Lose Weight and Keep It Off with the C-Plan Diet - we make you retch so you CAN'T eat foods you like!" :laugh: :laugh:

On your what twice? :blink:


Oooh that must have hurt! :wacko:

Coastie that strawberry/maggot thing is interesting.....I wonder if the same approach would work for chocolate, chips, kebabs etc....we'd all end up being seven stones - perhaps you should patent it! I can just see it now, "Lose Weight and Keep It Off with the C-Plan Diet - we make you retch so you CAN'T eat foods you like!" :laugh: :laugh:

Hmmm interesting strategy....problem is I generally ignore people when they try and gross me out now so it could be a challenge for me......and I'm not sure anything will put me off chocolate! :unsure:

Mind you the next bar you buy is bound to be filled with green septic drip from a dead mans willy so I suggest you stay away from it! :sick:

the only phobia I have is of people who I thought were dead and buried coming back to haunt me. :mad2:

the only phobia I have is of people who I thought were dead and buried coming back to haunt me. :mad2:

Eeek.... :shocking:

i hate anything with a sting.....

jellyfish
bees
wasps
stinging nettles


etc

On your what twice? :blink:

lol. That was meant to say me...not my...but anyway, I had one on my stomach and another time I had one on my leg.

my phobia of spiders nearly made me crash the car this morning.

I was driving along, and i felt a tickle on my bare arm. This isnt unusual as my hair is quite long. But the tickle moved down. I looked, and a ruddy spider was strolling down. It wasnt tiny either.

I screamed and automatically took both hands off the wheel to knock this spider off me. I then spent the rest of the journey looking on my body for this spider as i hadnt killed it.

It could of been very dangerous as i was driving in built up traffic.

Its strange as crashing would be far more dangerous than a spider walking without a care in the world down your arm .... but phobias make you act without thinking.

I have a serious phobia about wasps not only can I not stand the noise they make but the fact that they sting you more than once is enough to have me running.

In addition to this I don't like midgies and I don't like other flies that now inhabit our country as a result of glabal warming which bite. Some of these flies carry diseases similar to meningitius.

I don't like large spiders either, so I could never get close to a tarantula. Urgh.

MAUREEN
NORTHERN ANGEL

I've OCD...pick a phobia!!:w00t: :sun: