Odd phobias

Ive got the radio on in the background. Some lunatic has phoned in and explained his phobia of pigeons.

Has a tourettes thing where he shouts out "pigeon" every now and then. he wakes in the middle of the night and screams "PIGEON!" sometimes and his mum has to calm him down. 18yrs old. vaguely remembers being attacked by one when he was younger.

"if i see a pigeon i try to walk by it, pretend its not there and close my eyes"

then he said "i worry about going up to glasgow cos there will be pigeons there. quite a lot in fact. they make this woo oohh noise, why do they have to do it?"
DJ:"do that noise again"
lunatic: "no."
DJ: "would you like to lose the fear?
lunatic: yes
DJ: are you ready?
lunatic: yes.
DJ: ok, stay on the line."

so i text in saying i have nightmares about them too and someone tried calling me back. left a voicemail to say "if you want to call back that would be good to give "Blair" some support"

Crying with laughter.

Explain your most unusual phobias!

i wouldn't say i have a phobie of them, but i'm not a pigeon or seagull fan (or most birds for that matter, but especially those two).

i bet you dont wake up screaming PIGEON in the middle of the night though!!

Pigeons are damn dirty birds, to be fair. I'm not sure if I have a phobia per se, but I have a strong aversion to walking over those metal grates you occasionally find on the sidewalks. You know, the ones you walk over and there's nothing but an empty void below them. Freaks me out. I'm always scared there will be some freak accident where the metal grate is faulty and I plummet 4 feet to my death.

Another one I used to have, but it doesn't really seem to bother me anymore-- I used to worry when waiting at a train/s-bahn crossing, that as the train was screaming by, a loose piece of gravel or a rock might fly up and knock my tooth out.

It's amazing to see some of the more unusual recognized phobias though. Imagine having "Ithyphallophobia - Fear of Erections"

Bizarre Phobias.

I actually have an irrational fear of pigeons too. There is no explanation for it. But I've been known to cross the road to avoid a flock of pigeons, and I hate it when little children chase pigeons around beer gardens and make them fly all over the place in panic.

The seagulls, now the seagulls are a different story. They're just evil creatures. I have a deathly fear of them too. But that's because I was once attacked, and it hurt. A lot.

I have had a certain weakness for parthenophobia ever since I used it in a pub quiz.

Having watched far to many horror films as a kid when I should not have I was having trouble sleeping.

Not nightmares, just that thing where it all goes quiet and your brain, being a funny thing decides to make you think about all the horror films.

My parents mention this to our GP while he was visiting my mother.

he asked me if I was scared of the dark, he said it was common.

I said the dark was ok, however all the monsters that hide there were cause for concern.

The doctor looked at me, looked at my parents and said...

'Thats quite logical reasoning for a yound child'..

Around this time I developed the habit of looking under my bed to see if 'anything' was under there.

My mother saw me doing this and asked me why. Not wanting to tell her I just said I was just looking.

To this she said 'you should be carefull when doing that, you may find what you are looking for.

Child -> Over active imagination...

So, whats best, to look and risk finding what I am looking for or nt look and risk it being there anyway...

Perhaps it only appears because you are looking for it... So if i dont look for it, it may not be there. Then again, i it is and i dont look...

Kept my brain occupied for ages.

I had snakes in the bottom of my sleeping bag. My Ma was convinced that wolves slept under her bed.

I am just jumpy. I don't like to be surprised with a tap on the shoulder etc. I jump about 10 feet in the air (or collapse to the floor). The family knows not to do this. I am the black sheep of the family AND the fainting goat as well.

It also means if I am meeting someone in a bar/place/airport I scan extra doublehard around looking for them 'cos I HATE it if I they find me first, and tap me on the shoulder.

I also have desks in rooms etc arranged so that I can always see people coming. It is bad Feng Shui anyway to have your back to a door.

I have a fear of bad beer and dirty glasses. Also dirty tap lines in pubs. It hasn't gotten to the point of me waking up screaming 'it's been two weeks clean your freaking tap lines for christs sake!', but it's getting close. The other phobia I'm slowly developing is going to small house breweries run by someone that has no idea about sanitation.

I don't know that I have any qualifiable phobias, but I do worry when I find myself terrified that I might accidentally on purpose jump in front of an Ubahn, or accidentally on purpose run my car off the road - you know, all that existential dread stuff. I'm not suicidal in the least, though I still get the random urge to jump off tall things or turn into oncoming traffic. Freaks me right out.

The last person I know who said just about exactly what you just posted ended up killing himself. Stay away from alcohol.

Sinophobia!

It actually pronounces the same as Xenophobia...interesting.

I have Trypophobia - Fear of Holes

I terrified of heights and falling, but for some reason always end up suggesting we climb the touristy church steeples when I travel. Oh and I'm a tad claustrophobic so that climb can be really fun sometimes

@ cabbagefairy, I recommend the cupola of the Florentine cathedral; it provides both height and limited space.

Same here - I cannot stand looking over the edge of tall buildings & don't like open stairways. I fly gliders but claim thats a totally different feeling - I'm "part" of the plane...

When I was little, I was afraid of the monster in the closet and under the bed. Of course, having all your extremities covered by a blanket keeps you safe. To this day, I don't like to sleep withuot a blanket, even if it is warm enough.

I freak myself out sometimes while riding in a gondola if I think about what might happen if it falls. It's not a constant fear, and I have no trouble getting in them -- but if the thought strikes me my heart starts beating really fast. I do the same thing, though very occasionally, and to a lesser extent, with driving. I just sometimes realize how terrible and easy it would be to get in an accident while driving down the Autobahn. Funnily enough, I NEVER have fear in airplanes.

This seems to be very common in Germany:

Aerophobia- Fear of drafts, air swallowing, or airbourne noxious substances.

http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/gen99/gen99845.htm

Well that's cos you are being logical. Much much higher chance of getting smudged driving a car than sitting in a plane. And 40 times more dangerous if you ride a motorbike - but obviously no-one here is daft enough to do that 'cos its practically like bungy jumping without the rope.

I have a similar fear...I thought it was kind of normal . I don´t like to stand too close to the edges of things, near open windows etc in case I decide to throw myself off/out. Apparently parents also have the same fear about throwing their children "accidently" off buildings etc...

Not really a phobia - but it really irks me when people stand too close to me.

Shit - doesn't everyone get that "What-if-I-just-flung-myself-off-right-now" feeling when standing on the edge of a cliff?

I hate it when driving and you momentarily consider swerving head on to the truck coming the other way. Gives me the shivers.

From The Times this week:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article3672035.ece

a friend of mine is turophobic. deathly afraid of cheese. its quite funny for the first few hours. afterwhich its almost a disability.

On the topic of bird phobias -- I have no fear of pigeons or seagulls (other than perhaps being shat upon) -- I even used to watch pigeons with fascination when I first came to Munich (goes to show I am not a city person). Seagulls are the State Bird of Utah because there was a pest of locusts when people first settled in Salt Lake City, and the seagulls came and ate them.

The birds I AM wary of are swans. Nice to look at, but man, are they mean! When I was a little girl, I fed a swan some bread, and when I was out, it came after me. It was bigger than I was, and my mom had to chase it away.

Oh, which reminds me of another fear. I am kind of afraid of water. Around the time of the swan incident, I was swimming in some Bavarian lake with my little swim wings on when my foot got caught in some algae. The more I struggled to free my foot, the more I got entwined and pulled down. I have no problem in swimming pools, but I always kind of wonder what is lurking below the surface in big lakes or in the ocean. The first time I went snorkeling in San Diego, I was about to get my eyes lasered, so wasn't allowed to wear my hard contacts. Imagine, if you will, snorkeling for the first time with a dioptrine of -7.5 --- all sorts of strange shapes waving around which, if you used your imagination, could be sharks, or something much much bigger. Then again, maybe I am just chicken because when I snorkeled in Egypt and could see just fine I still semi-freaked anytime a jellyfish got near me. I also have never swum as fast as when I was on vacation with a friend in the Canary Islands and I decided to go for a spontaneous swim. My friend stayed on the shore -- it was late at night and we were alone on the beach and she was afraid of a tide or something. Anyway, it was lovely, but when I was quite a way out, I suddenly started imagining what could be coming at me under the water and I made straight for the shore. It's scary in a thrilling sort of way, like watching a horror film.

I don't think those count as phobias though, because I still ride in gondolas and go snorkeling...

That too... I don´t consider myself suicidal though.

I'm in the club, too, Renia. Though I wouldn't limit it just to thoughts of killing myself. Sometimes you just have this random picture in your head of yourself doing something absolutely not acceptable ... can be as small as smashing a glass against the wall. I think it means we have an active imagination, constantly aware of options of action that we have.

i have an irrational fear of people wearing masks and no idea where it came from,or what its called.its just something about the eyes behind a mask that totally freak me out.
hope no one on TT has this phobia though: Englishness- Anglophobia

I can't sleep with any part of my body hanging off the edge of the bed, or out of the blanket. In summer I sleep under a sheet if it's too hot for a blanket. I wonder why people feel safer when wrapped up like that? It's not like it would save you from anything, and you know that but it still works.

Same. Do you also find yourself when about to pass a truck comparing yourself to that time earlier in the day when you were on a platform and thought about then, for example? You weigh up the differences in situations etc., compare the relative merits of driving into a truck as opposed to walking in front of a train. I'm so glad its not just me.

Not me but a mate at school had an absolute terror of anyone tearing either cotton wool or steel wool, it would reduce him to sheer panic and this guy was 6'2" and a rugby player.

Did you watch a lot of Dracula movies as a kid?? I like to keep my neck covered

BDave, you have just set my teeth really on edge...eeew

Explaining why there was room for the Mormons to move in - the seagulls ate the first settlers.
To which I may add pogonophobia - fear of beards. My daughter in law suffers from this. Well, fear of moustaches. Facial hair in general.

Yeah i have to keep my feet covered, in case anyone or anyTHING touches 'em. In hottest weather i sleep without covers but have my feet nicely wrapped.

I also find when someone's driving me, i have this terrible irrational desire to yank the handbrake on, particularly when we're at high speeds. Sometimes I have to sit on my hands.

For those with pigeon phobias and the like,I just had to post this link again Marksmen called in to cull pigeons scroll down to the readers letters.

Hmmm, this urge to throw oneself off something (in a not trying to kill oyurself way), I thought that was just me...

As a kid I used to look out of windows at tress and think 'could I make that jump?' this used to happen when crossing a bridge and looking at lamposts that are on the road below the bridge etc.

Used to freak me out as I was crap scared of heights.

Is there an actual name for this?

Or it might just mean you are both wibble.

I am terrified of Tigers, everything about them, pictures of them, the stripes, tigger I could just about manage, but Sher Khan, aaargh, tears, cold sweats the works.

Not sure if it counts as a phobia though, because a phobia is something you are irrationally afraid of and I imagine being afraid of the buggers is quite rational.

Interestingly enough, if I just see the ears or the tail, I am ok.

I can relate to the wrapped up in bed thing..if I woke up and there was a bit of my body hanging off, I would have to drag it back in really slowly...in case I attracted the attention of any monsters or tigers (under the bed)... I think I have grown out of this though...

I tried to google the urge to throw yourself off a building... didn´t get as far as finding a name for the disorder, however found this:

i think mine could easily be classified as an irrational, absurd phobia... i used to be deathly afraid of zombies and not in the typical "horror movie" way. my friends used to think it was hilarious to force me into watching zombie films- just hearing the word would make me gag and actually catching a glimpse or hearing the noises would bring about sheer panic on my part. my fears have subsided over the past few years, but i still cringe and break into a minor sweat when i see a zombie depicted somewhere. still, the thought of something like that actually happening in real life makes me want to cry!

Also found this... apparently quite normal, however also linked to OCD, depression, post traumatic stress disorder... cheery stuff!

I have an odd phobia myself: it's call "Paying Attention to djgrazy" (PATD) Syndrome and it occurs when I believe that too many TT-ers take djgrazy's nonsense and anti-American propaganda seriously.

@ Renia - That is quite depressing, though it's good to know it's relatively normal and I'm not a total morbid freak.

Dark spaces is my biggest phobia. Never ever stick my hand into a dark space, lest a spider or creature bit me. Hate basements; night lites everywhere. Imagine my horror when I moved to Germany and the train stations were underground. I always 'get small' and silently panic until we get out of the tunnels. Oh, don't even get me started on the tube bombings in London.

A violent shudder occurs when I see panty hose rip...even on TV. There is some stupid Bingo commercial with a cross dressing man putting on panty hose and I always always have to look away when he rips them. Nails on a chalkboard for me.

I have to go with TL, its nice to know that I am not a weirdo with a death wish.

I think we´ll be all fine as long as we don´t let these thoughts take over our life...

I think thats the major point, the thought... the action.

Have the thought, don't do the action.

However I have never had the urge to do anything to smeone else for a few years but I still look out of windows and think 'that tree looks just close enough'..

that makes me feel better! Its exactly the same for me. Strange, the thoughts/images just seem to appear in my brain from nowhere!

I have often had such weird disturbing thoughts when, for instance, as a passenger in a car... "it would be shit if that car on the bridge above crashed into the barrier and fell on us" or "if something fell off that wagon in front of us" or thoughts of hitting someone. I frequently have thoughts of me or someone I know dying which really disturbs me. I dunno where they come from and thought I was alone with having these weird thoughts, but after reading this it seems I am not. Maybe it is often a defence mechanism of the brain to protect us against eventualities? I would rather not be aware of them though... :-}

I guess most people can, however, realise what is acceptable and do not act upon the thoughts of harming others, verbally abusing others, etc. Others perhaps have problems controlling this and end up actually following through with these actions...

I used to have a fear of the dark.

I have a fear of heights and if I stand somewhere high without anything to hold onto, my legs turn to jelly.

I also have a fear of creepy-crawlies... spider-like insects and slimy things such as slugs and worms make me cringe and I cannot touch them. I hate the thought of standing on worms when they cross the paths in the rain... :-}