Do you suffer from a Specific Phobia, or a Social Phobia?

 Want to talk about it?

 

I believe I'm socially phobic. I don't know how to deal with new people, and I actually got nervous calling a relative on the phone today. It's taken me ten minutes to get up the nerve to post in this forum, actually! lol

The only time I seem to be able to deal with people I don't know is at work, and that is because I have been taught what to say or do in almost any given situation. (So I guess it takes the uncertainty out of it)

I have a phobia of Polystyrene (Styrofoam to you Americans) It's not good at all, stuff makes me feel ill.

 

But about your phobia, I think it's down to a lack of confidence, I know myself if I find myself in a new position where the response's are unpredicatable I'm alot more nervous about it. "What if I say something wrong?" "What if I don't know what to say at all?".

Like you said at work there are only a few situations and you've been taught the responses, but in open conversation it can take many paths.

Be sure in your self, be prepared to say "I don't know, could you explain?" or anything along those lines, I know it's hard because I don't do it myself, maybe I should start

x

Thanks Mitch :) I'll try to remember that.

I have a few specific phobias as well, such as insects, heights, and some others that are a bit more ridiculous.

Anyone know anything about overcoming phobias?

 

Face you fear, it's always good :) Only in moderation!

I know it's only polystyrene, but shuddup :P I never used to be able to touch it or even look at it, but just telling myself it was stupid to be scared of it I kinda got the courage and now I can handle it (for short short spaces of time) when I'm removing objects from packaging and that.

There is a section on this site about phobias: http://www.thinkpositive.uk.com/index.htm

x

Phones make me nervous too. I remember when I was younger (as in, 3 years ago), it would take me at least ten minutes to work up the nerve to call a close friend of mine on the phone. I had to write everything I was going to say down as well because I was afraid I'd trip over my words.

I'm better with that now, thankfully. I'm guessing because I've had a lot more experience with answering phones in the past few years.

I HATE bees and wasps, heights (and I think both of those are actual phobias, because the anxiety I feel around those two things is often as bad as the anxiety I feel with my obsessions and compulsions). Don't much like driving over bridges either. AIDS and terminal diseases...I can't really say germs in general anymore, the meds are helping with that...but I still get afraid of contracting certain diseases, usually rare ones or ones that aren't spread by casual contact.

 That's all I can think of for now.

 

Mitchtrix:

Face you fear, it's always good :) Only in moderation!

I know it's only polystyrene, but shuddup :P I never used to be able to touch it or even look at it, but just telling myself it was stupid to be scared of it I kinda got the courage and now I can handle it (for short short spaces of time) when I'm removing objects from packaging and that.

There is a section on this site about phobias: http://www.thinkpositive.uk.com/index.htm

x

Mitch - It is great that you are able to now do this - in the mental health field we call this desensitization and it is used primarily when working with clients in the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy model. Slowly introducing polystyrene into your environment and proving to your self that you can handle it is a very important step. Perhaps something to think about at some point - can you think of a specific reason that you have a fear of it - or is it irrational (which certainly is okay and normal... we all have irrational fears). Perhaps if you find yourself in a moment of panic - you can try to stop, breathe, and remind yourself not only is the fear irrational, but you survived before and you can again. good luck to you - and good work.

I have Arachnophobia (spiders), Hemaphobia (blood), and Brontophobia (thunder storms). 

 The reason for the spiders is because when I was little, my brother always picked on me, so one day, we were playing in the backyard and there were tons of big spiders there and there was a larger web right beside our sandbox, so my brother thought it would be cool to push me into it...I ended up getting bite not even a 1/4 of an inch right by my eye.  I ended up in the hospital for 4 or 5 days because it got so bad and swelled enormously.

 Blood, because the smell and texture and just the color makes me sick, I can stand a little cut on myself, but if it's more then that, I get sick.

 Also when I was little, my brother locked me out of the house one night and my parents weren't home, and it started raining and thundering and lightening outside, I cried so hard that night and ever since then, I've hated thunder storms.

I agree with Mitch, you gotta face them head on, in small amounts at a time. If not, then you could get traumatized even more.


 

yeah iv have some social phobia too.  wow, actually yeah, i felt that phobia just about ten or fifteen seconds ago writing the first line.  i actually got pretty good at overcoming it until i hit this damn depression that iv had for about 7 months now.  just downhill from then.  now im even worse then when i started.  good times.  i mean, ever since this depression, this didn't even happen before i overcame the phobia and all that, but now ill be walking down the street, and if there's someone just walking on the same sidewalk as i am in my direction, i start to feel like i don't know what to do, like i don't know how to act anymore.  i mean, a lot of times i don't even know how to act with myself, so you can imagine how much worse it is when it's with someone else.  hell, iv gotten so damn bad iv began to feel uncomfortable around my own family. i guess im just the stereotypical socialite, aren't i?      

First of all, I would like to point out to people that there are certain qualifications one must meet to truly have a phobia. Too many people label themselves with a phobia simply because they don't like something a great deal. Spiders have always freaked me out, and I really dislike them. However, I do not have a phobia. My dislike of them IS irrational, as I have no reason to dislike them, but that alone does not a phobia make. I don't go to great lengths to avoid situations which may put me into contact with a spider, I'm not unreasonable about it, it doesn't interfere with my ability to function, and I don't go to any extreme lengths about it. I guess all I want to point out is please don't diagnose yourself with a phobia unless you really know what one is.

That being said, I have good news for those with real phobias: It's curable! Phobias are the only disorder that is actually curable. If you really, truly have a phobia you should seek out professional assistance and if you stick to your treatment, you'll be able to overcome the phobia.

I actually just finished looking up what exactly a social phobia is before i came here, and i did find that i fit much of the symptoms.  but i guess I can't always be certain. i might need someone who really knows what he/she is talking about to diagnose me.  i also think i have some kind of obsessive compulsive disorder now, but the compulsions i have are nothing of the typical.
um... alright i feel a little weird saying this.  this started maybe three months ago.  this is a big compulsive thing that started a few months ago and i persist to do it even today, though i do think it definitely has toned down in frequency.  alright so basically... kind of hard to explain.  well i guess i usually do it when i feel uncomfortable.  i tend to tone it down a whole lot when other people are around, don't want them to think im a freak.  so basically, if im feeling uncomfortable, ill have the urge to... just, look... around?  i don't know.  it's like im subconsciously making sure that there is no one watching me or something.  i mean, i don't exactly THINK that when i do it, i just do it.  actually, i think i remember the first time i started it.  it was at my old house just a few months ago, and i guess i was just fed up with feeling... this really bad feeling, so i decided to.. take action you could say.  and by taking action i ... i guess i just glanced around the room making sure no one was there and that it was just me, even though i knew that no one else was in the room.  maybe i thought something like "alright, are you happy?  i looked around the damn room and no ones there so chill out".  trying to appease my depression or something.  and so i just picked that up.  so.. maybe i do that to try and cover up a bad feeling id have otherwise, although doing that isn't a good feeling.  i feel out of control or something. 
here's one specific time ill start feeling uncomfortable and start just glancing around.  any given moment when some type of climactic thing is about to happen, and i know for sure that it will happen soon, ill start getting uncomfortable ... maybe afraid that i won't hold the same reaction to it that i would have held seven or eight months ago before i got depressed.  it's a strange feeling.  and when i say climactic i mean even the most modest forms of climactic moments.  here's some random example.  im watching a show, a dog wasn't able to jump over a fence, no matter how hard the trainer tried.  the trainer worked and worked with the dog for weeks.  then at the end of the show the trainer finally orders the dog to run and jump over the fence again.  now since this is a show, you know that the dog WILL jump over the fence because of everything that led up to it with it's trainer working with it for a long time.  so, i guess we'll say that when the dog starts running, ill just completely go into a different state of mind, an uncomfortable state of mind.  and there seems no damn reason for it.  ill start glancing around and ***.  sometimes i make sure my glances last long enough so i actually miss the moment when the dog finally jumps over the fence.  and ill look back at the tv screen when i know it's over, then i feel like *** for feeling the need to do that stupid thing yet again.
so there's one of the all too strange things i do.  if anyone cares to enlighten me as to what my problem might be, or assure me that it is indeed some obsessive compulsive thing, id be thankful.
and sorry for getting so much off topic.

 Chris, if you feel you have OCD or OCPD and are afraid of steering off-topic you might want to start a new topic in the Anxiety forum here. I'd like to help, but to be perfectly honest, trying to read your post gave me a headache.

the dark, im really scared of it, sometimes i need to stay awake all night and wait for sunrise just to feel safe