[ElinIsabel]

Kinda random, but I was just wondering: anyone have any extreme or wierd phobias?

I just volunteered to be a participant in a psych study about combined drug and cognitive therapy for people with fear of snakes. I have a crippling fear of snakes; not just "ew, ee, snakes!" or "Ahhh, will it bite me?" No, I can't even walk out in the grass in the summer time I am so scared. I have nightmares about snakes. The few times I've seen one, I've gone into major panic attacks that included screaming, spasms, fainting, puking, and PTSD like flashbacks. I can't even watch videos of snakes or see pictures of them, or it sets off the panic attacks.

The wierdest part: I'm only afraid of relatively small (and usually harmless) snakes. Pythons, no. Cobras, kinda sort of. Garter snakes, O-M-F$%*^ing-G yes.

So, anyone else with wierd fears? Or am I the only freak? ;)

[MattNY]

Rats. I hate the thought of them. Disease ridden <expletive>.

Other than that, nothing really.

[JunkMonkey]

Swimming pools. I can't go anywhere near them. Cold sweats, panicking, shakes, the works. Hate them. Even thinking about them makes me feel queasy. Which is odd I don't normally get queasy, I'm pretty hands on and don't mind getting them dirty, and I'm not scared of anything else. I don't even get stage fright when I'm performing - but swimming pools? Nope.

[Sparrow]

I have a horrible time with bridges.
I'm not afraid of heights in the least. I've skydived and and done static line jumps from 3,000ft up like military paratroopers, only from a single-engine Cessna while standing on a small metal skidplate and holding on to the wing strut... more dangerous than military jumps. No problem with ladders, rock climbing, skyscrapers, etc. But I get very anxious either walking across, or even driving from one end of a bridge to the other.

I don't avoid bridges in any way, but I don't think I'll ever shake my fear of them.

[Loerwyn]

Heights, motorway bridges, spiders, anything that's particularly dirty, foreign countries (I don't do holidays :D )...

I don't really get the shakes or anything, but I have to try to focus on other things when dealing with those situations.

[Spears&Buckler]

Heights is my thing. Can't stand them.

[JimF]

I have some issues with anxiety in certian social situations and I am slightly agorpphobic. I can leave my house but places like crowded malls or theatres really get under my skin and I can't wait to leave.

Jim

[NickeeCoco]

Being alone in the house with the lights off. I hate it. If there are nights when my fiancee is out of town, or just coming home late and I'm in bed, I have to have the T.V. on. Otherwise, my heart races and I break out into sweats whenever I hear a sound. I keep a baseball bat in my room within reach of the bed.

[ebusinesstutor]

Not a real phobia, but I steer clear of magicians and hypnotists - they aways seem to want to select me from the crowd.

So I stay away...

[Sarunus]

Apparently, I don't like to have my blood pressure taken. It's always super high when I have it taken, but when they give me the little device that records my BP over the course of a week, it's pretty low. They call it "whitecoat syndrome". I rarely go to the doctor, so maybe that has something to with it.

TL;DR version - Doctors scare me, but nothing else does.