AIBU Weird Phobias

[Campervanlife4me]

What weird phobias do you have?
Mine is loose hairs touching me. If I have a hair down my top it drives me insane and I know straight away when there is one or if one touches me in the bath, I have to fish it out straight away. Even a stray hair attached to clothing and sometimes I have to physically stop myself from pulling them off other random people's clothing as that would probably be seen as beyond weird!!!! I hate them.I have long hair but they don't bother me while their still attached to my head! Just loose, stray ones attacking me. DH says I'm very weird. That is my only strange, compulsive thing though. What's yours?

Empty swimming pools and swimming over the drains in swimming pools makes me shudder.

Also, other people’s hair touching their food, I’ve a couple of long haired friends who’s hair always drags on their plate when they eat...it’s not my hair dragging in my food but it makes me feel so queasy I have to make sure I don’t sit next to them or opposite them when we eat, actual boak inducing.

I forgot one - cold sauces on plates, like left over bean juice or gravy, if I accidentally touch it when clearing plates it’s almost enough to make me heave.

In fact, getting any left over food on my fingers when clearing plates/washing up it’s pretty terrible.

More things than I realised before I started listing them for this thread!

• Wooden lolly sticks/forks/chop sticks. Can’t use them at all
• squeaky cotton wool
• tummy buttons. More specifically the idea of anyone touching mine, or anyone else’s.

-pigeons, or any other creature that might flap around me and hit me in the face with its wings -balloons, especially when carried by small children as they run around. It’s the fear that they could pop at any moment. Children’s parties are, as you can imagine, a total blast for me....!

swimming over the drains in swimming pools

Yes, this!

Not me but I have a friend who has a phobia of tomatoes. Whole tomatoes, she’s fine with cut ones, or ketchup, or things tomato flavoured. She’s just terrified of whole tomatoes.

When we were younger and getting ready to go on nights out, I used to open the bathroom door while she was in the bath and launch tomatoes into the water. Was quite amusing at the time.

Jewellery.

I find these threads really interesting (not that I'm enjoying other people suffering just the range of items)

For me, it's (and it's making me retch a bit typing this) food touching a different food on a plate. Or different types of food on one fork in the same mouthful Funnily enough, the only two things I can eat together on one fork, are egg and bacon. Im Ok with sandwiches and things on toast but things like fish and potatoes must be separated. A lot of my meals involve items in ramekins especially ketchup or sauces. If I go out, I tend to order a pizza. If DH puts multiple food items on his fork (especially with a roast dinner) I have to look away.

DH terrified of clowns and has to shut his eyes if he sees one. They make him cry.

I don’t think most of mine are that unusual but I do have a few:
Large/towering objects- especially man made ones such as machinery/lorries/ships etc also deep water/high waves
Electricity and static- I won’t sit in plastic garden chairs or touch metal handrails in case I get a shock
Balloons- severe fear of them popping, I have to leave the room if anyone has one.
I also hate people dressed up in costumes that cover their face. I’m ok with most animal costumes (still find the foxy bingo ads uncomfortable to watch though!) I remember being in a club when I was about 18 and there was a bloke dressed up in a kind of industrial robot type thing with pipes coming out of his head and I just couldn’t bear it, I was so terrified I had to leave.

Like several of you, I am really scared of escalators. I'm not sure if it's a weird phobia in my case, as I have co-ordination difficulties, and have a lot of difficulty in estimating when to get on and off them, and this could actually make them dangerous for me. Will take stairs or a lift so as not to use them, and if necessary plan my route around this.

'Yoghurts - texture and seeing ppl eat them'

I love yoghurt; but my dad couldn't stand yoghurt. or cottage cheese either. He wasn't phobic in the sense of having problems just seeing them on a table, or seeing someone else eat them; but he wouldn't eat them himself. The reason in his case was that he grew up on a farm, and associated such foods with 'bad' sour milk that needed to be thrown away.

I do have some genuine phobias, but they are mainstream ones, so not very interesting.
Other things that give me the heebie jeebies though are pumice stone and when you see a lorry driving round with just the cab and nothing attached to it... it looks so wrong!!

That kind of plastic, ridged material that 3D pictures are made of - more specifically the noise/feeling when you run your fingertips over it.
Actually I can't touch it and the evil DC have been known to chase me out the room whilst scraping their fingernails up and down it, making a high pitched scraping noise.
I used to be a waitress in my youth and there were several tables in one particular cafe I couldn't wipe down because they had a similar ridged tablecloth that made the same high pitched noise when wiped. And the feeling of it! It vibrated through me. It's giving me hives thinking about it.
I've never met a single other person who had any kind of issue with it.

If anything touches the space between middle toe and 4th toe (like the hoover cable) I freak. Also don't like any sandals that have straps between toes.

Also a phobia of having dry hands.

And drinking from smelly cups or mugs (like where the tea towel has gone a bit damp).

Adam's apples. I can't look at them, they are revolting, repulsive things and all owners of them should be forced to cover them in scarves/cravats, turtle necked jumpers if going out in public. The thought of having to touch one makes me feel sick to my stomach.

I have a real phobia of shell or grit being in my food - I love fried eggs, but only if I've cooked them because then I can monitor if any shell falls in. I can't eat cockles because of the one time a bit of sand was still in one!
Also, since the time last year, I nicked my finger with a cleaver, I can't go past the knife drawer at home without flinching - also have to shut the door if my husband is using it. I'm terrible if I'm watching a cookery show and they start doing a close up on somebody chopping food - you just know (especially on American shows) that this the time they're going to focus on a mishap and a bloody hand/finger!
I'm genuinely the only person I know who watches cookery shows from behind a cushion!

I can't sleep in a room with dolls. I spent one summer with an aunt who had an antique doll collection in her guest room. They were all facing the bed. Some of them had one eye that wouldn't open, or paint that was peeling off. I had to put a sheet over them every night.

My son is afraid of buds on potatoes. We've caught him moving potatoes into kitchen drawers because he doesn't want to look at them.

"Danger, underwater machinery"

That is PROPERLY terrifying! I came on to say metal in water, and saw the above.

Frogs

The "underwater machinery" really does sound sinister.

I can't believe how many posts on here relate to swimming pools!! I've never heard of that before.
Another one I can't stand is paper cuts. They make me cringe so bad. Any other cut doesn't bother me but paper cuts are awful, it's the thought of the paper slicing through my skin. Oooooohhh. Shivering now thinking about it!!!!

Another one for trypophobia. Dried lotus flowers are the worst. They make me want to climb out of my skin.

For everyone who has cited a fear of 'big things', huge ships, pylons, wind turbines, statues etc. it's called Megalphobia, but please don't google the images if you are like me.
My greatest fear is huge ships in dry docks, just being up close to them (come over really weird just thinking bout it). Also, coming across an oversized object unexpectedly - that's quite shocking. I think the first time it happened to me was the scene at the end of the original Planet of the Apes film when they find the head of the Statue of Liberty on the beach - I still get palpitations, but can't say why. It is genuinely an irrational fear, but feels so real at the time.

I have thought of another. Large trees that have fallen over. Urgh.

None of mine mentioned are full-on phobias, more like very strong aversions which make me feel panicky. But I can usually overcome them, if necessary, in a way someone with an actual phobia wouldn't be able to.

Like the other day I was at a farm park with a bloody pylon line running right through the middle. I didn't enjoy it at all, but was OK if I kept eyes down and because I was there with lots of other people. If I had been alone I would have run away from them (and never got the close in the first place!).

If you have Megalphobia then don't Google Mother Russia. OMG!!

I have tryophobia too,nobody else i know seems to understand it, oh my god talking about it creeps me out 🤮
Clowns freak me out and i can't stand wool near mouths