Anyone else have a weird phobia?

[HangingOver]

I understand why lots of people have phobias of things that are associated with actual risk, pain or things that have left an evolutionary stamp on us due to being poisonous e.g snakes and spiders.

Can anyone tell me why I am paralyzingly scared of empty swimming pools and, most of all, octopus.

Octopus in particular I have a genuinely ridiculous reaction to... If I force myself to watch a video of one within seconds my palms start to sweat and I feel sick rising.... It's almost more like an extreme disgust reaction than fear.

Tell me your bonkers phobias please.

Tomato sauce. Urgh, the smell, the texture, can't even say the k word that is its other name.

Baked beans, similar to the above. Can't scrape plates with either of them on. My daughter taunts me by saying 'bean juice' at me (shudder). That phrase goes through me.

Slugs. If I go out at night after it's been raining, I have to shine my phone torch on the ground to check for the slimy bastards. Did you know they eat meat? I didn't. Left a pork pie out once in the garden to test a night vision camera for any wildlife visitors. All the camera picked up was the snail's poor relation eating the pork pie. It left the pastry.

Bridges - the height but mainly because I will get thrown off them or they will collapse.

I have a friend who used almost vomit at the idea of - wait for it - trying to pick up a wooden tea stirrer through a duvet

No me neither

OP I'm not great with pools either. As well as empty, dark swimming pools scare the shit out of me too. I can't walk past one on holiday at night

@Pinkorchide I was at primary school with a girl who was terrified of paper.

Going out. Agoraphobia.
23 looooooooong years of not leaving the house alone and at one point during those 23 years, not able to leave my front room (that lasted 18 months), made going upstairs to the loo challenging. I remember getting stuck on the 3rd stair once for 4 hours until my ex came home to rescue me..... Bad times.

*Hugoslavia

@TinaYouFatLard

Oh god, don't go there. I can barely think about them. Submerged ships are even worse though. And submerged objects generally such as pier legs etc.

It has a name! Submechanophobia*

@XenoBitch you've just solved a lifetime wondering of mine! I swim, kayak, freedive, I've swum in seas and rivers and pools, and grew up taking a boat out at weekends. I'm a fecking professional mermaid when there isn't a pandemic, and water is where I am happiest - and yet I have a totally irrational panicked reaction to anything man made and submerged - buoy chains, wrecks, the bottom of big boats/ships, the legs of piers and jetties. I had no idea it was a real thing, I just thought I was odd 😂

Melon seeds, noise of a water drip and drain covers/manhole covers on the footpath.

OP I have the same fear of octopuses, I remember being around 7 or 8 eating my breakfast of potato cakes before school when one came on the TV and it made me sick. I'm 27 now and still shudder when I see potato cakes because they remind me of octopuses!

Frogs. I can't even listen to people talking about them without having a reaction.

Loose hair stuck to wet skin makes me want to shudder and be sick. Very visceral disgusting reaction

..... velvet

I'm a 31 year old woman and I'm still scared of the dark. My poor DH likes to sleep in pitch black but unfortunately has had to get used to sleeping with a dim lamp on.

I am absolutely phobic of snakes and an element of the paranormal (that I can't even type or say without getting uncomfortable).

@XenoBitch

Oh, I thought of another one, and it would be interesting to see if anyone else is the same...

Windows at night time! I don't go to my fridge when it is dark as I can see out the patio door when stood infront of it and it is just black and scary out there.

Yes!!! I won't go into the kitchen at night as we gave floor to ceiling windows and I'm always scared of what I'll see out there. I think this ties in to my fear of the dark.

This is all so interesting.

My Octopus Teacher is one of my favourite documentaries of the last few years - I 10/10 would not recommend it to you

Mate my friend god rot her sent me the trailer yesterday as she's been banging on about it for ages and I did a pre-vom 6 seconds in

If anyone is interested Stuff You Should Know did an episode all about Disgust and it's biological purpose. Pretty interesting.

Sluice gates, swimmingpool grids, my wrists being touched.

Seaweed, am genuinely terrified. I can cope with it when it's out of the sea so up on the beach but I won't go in the sea if I can't see the bottom in case there's seaweed.

Crumbly meringues. Especially if they’re in plastic.

Makes my teeth itch and feel sick. I’ve got pretty comfortable with soft meringue over the years though. Still not a lover.

Cotton wool (because it squeaks when you pull it apart) and coins 🤮.

Another one for empty swimming pools here, especially when it slopes off to the deep end...shudder

I have phobias like spiders, deep water, small spaces, clowns.

But I'm also hideously scared of gas masks. I don't know why, never worn one, never been around someone who's worn one but if I see a picture of someone with a gas mask or or watch a film the hairs on the back of my neck stand up and I get that horrible cold feeling. Odd.

Oh and the holes phobia is gruesome, I have that also, it's like an extreme disgust reaction. I get it when I see something like a blooming Ryvita! The smooth side - cool, the bumpy holey side - awful.

Mine is Flour and anything like dirt on potatoes and oxo granules, mines about textures and smells. X

That's interesting about buttons and coins being linked to OCD. I can totally get that. As kids we are warned of the dangers of choking on small round objects. I can understand why then, this can later on become an intrusive thought.

I've never heard about people being phobic of holes though! Apart from of the caving variety.