Fearaphobia

by Bronwyn Jameson

I am a bonafide scaredy-cat. With a bargain basement threshold for pain, both physical and emotional, I am a wimp. There is no denying it.

With that out of the way, I herewith present a non-comprehensive list of things I fear:

1. Mice. In fact, any small rodent that moves with speed and stealth. Or just sits in the corner twitching its whiskers at me. 
2. The big three c’s: conflict, confrontation, criticism. (One of my top strengths is HARMONY. Big surprise, huh?)
3. Having blood taken (I just can’t.) 
4. Spiders. Sooo. Many. Legs. 
5. Driving onto railway tracks and getting stuck (a new fear, brought on by last night’s techno-vivid dream.) 
6. Social media. This used to be my happy place but now…no.  Refer #2. 
7. Snakes. 
8. Dentists. Or, more accurately, dentists’ chairs. 

#8 inspired this post, courtesy of last week’s toothache. Why do these always come a’knockin’ on weekends? Or, in this case, on a Friday night? By Monday I was a quivering wreck. I called my dentist, who gave me that day’s emergency slot. No time to reconsider, to dose myself on heavy-duty painkillers and tell myself I could live with the pain.

*Not actually me!

To be honest, my dentist is super-lovely. And kind. She has a knack for distracting me with engaging conversation and before I know it, BAM! I’m in the dreaded (although, really quite comfortable) chair and being handed the sunglasses and asked to open wide. The soothing hand on my shoulder suggests that fear is clearly visible in my posture, my expression, my five-fingernail grip on each chair-arm.

Oh, yes. The terror is real. Even before there is any diagnosis, any prodding, any of that intense cold thingamy used for diagnosis. You know the one? When it hits the sensitive tooth, you lift a foot out of the chair and the dentist says, “Found it!” After some discussion, I left with a prescription for Panadeine Forte and an appointment with an oral surgeon.

I am now minus a tooth, minus the pain, and listening to a voicemail from my dentist checking up on the surgery. She is super-nice but I don’t want to see her again any time soon.

*Not me either!

I mentioned HARMONY as one of my strengths, as per StrengthsFinder. Also in my top 4 are INTELLECTION, INPUT and ANALYTICAL which means I was pathologically obliged to google Most Common Fears. And to read somewhere around 35 different lists. I can report that I do not fear any of these common phobias:

1. Flying
2. Thunderstorms 
3. Dogs 
4. The dark 
5. Germs and dirt 
6. Needles/injections (except when that needle is drawing blood.) 

Do you have any fears or phobias?  Have you recently had to face one?  I hope you didn't end up a quivering wreck like me!

Do you have a phobia?

I'm writing about a character who has a phobia of public speaking (glossophobia)--a genuine mind shattering, heart stopping, body shaking terror of it--and it got me to thinking about phobias in general. As I read all these I realized I'm a great deal more mixed up than I thought!

Here's a list of the top ten (if there can be such a thing) phobias:

1.  Arachnophobia (the fear of spiders). Interestingly enough, this would be my biggest fear but I don't think I'm at phobia stage...yet. My husband, of course, loves spiders. Shudder!

Yes, those really are my hands holding a
snake. Okay, so it's not a big snake, but
it's still a snake, right? 

2.  Ophidiophobia (the fear of snakes). I used to think I was afraid of snakes and could never imagine ever wanting to touch or hold one but on a trip to the US a couple of years back a couple of us visited a reptile museum and we got to touch and hold a couple of snakes. Granted, they were small, but surprisingly, I grew more fascinated by them and less fearful, the longer we were there.

3.  Acrophobia (the fear of heights). Okay, I've jumped out of a perfectly good airplane from 15,000 feet, albeit with a man with a parachute strapped to my back, but I think I have a fear of edges, or falling off them without a man with a parachute strapped to my back, more than heights themselves.

4. Agoraphobia (the fear of open or crowded spaces). I'm interested to see that this phobia entails crowded spaces along with open ones. Generally I love open spaces, although I did lose my nerve once, scuba diving at about 80 feet with amazing visibility. To be honest, I was freaked out by the fact I could see for metres under water when I was more used to diving in more murky depths. I guess I really don't like to see what's coming, LOL! Suffice to say I've never scuba dived since. Crowded spaces just wear me out.

5.  Cynophobia (the fear of dogs). Okay, I can understand that in some ways, especially if someone has had a genuinely terrifying experience with a dog, whether it was genuinely aggressive or just playing. I'm very glad I don't have this phobia because that would definitely make time with the grandpuppy a very difficult proposition.

I took this photo from our deck as a big thunderstorm
approached our house one day.

6.  Astrophobia (the fear of thunder and lightning). I'll put my hand up for this one but with a disclaimer. Only at night and particularly when Mr Fix-it is on night shift and therefore not there to be my Rock of Gibraltar in times of stress. Sometimes I don't mind the thunder so much, especially the crackling kind, but lightning makes me extremely nervous. Probably because I'm waiting for the thunder to come after. I always count it out. Do you?

7.  Claustrophobia (the fear of small spaces). I actually think I'm okay with this. I can have an MRI without sedation but only because if I know something I'm going through has a finite period and I can keep my eyes closed and put my mind away somewhere else, I can cope with pretty much anything.

8.  Mysophobia (the fear of germs). It's a good thing I don't suffer from this one because I really am not a great housekeeper. I prefer to think my skills lie in other areas. ;-)

9.  Aerophobia (the fear of flying). Again, not one of my phobias, although I'm less keen to go flying in Mr Fix-it's airplane these days, but that comes mostly because of a tendency to motion sickness which seems to be getting worse as I get older rather than better.

10. Trypophobia (the fear of holes). Apparently one can experience actual biological revulsion over a hole. It's an extreme and irrational fear (although I'm sure it's not irrational to the sufferer) and causes the sufferer to avoid even honeycombs and sponges.

So, those are apparently the top ten. Do you identify with any of those or have any others you'd like to share?

Oh, and by the way, I have a book out this month in which there are no phobias, except perhaps of small children and long term commitments. Look out for ONE HEIR...OR TWO?