Do you have any phobias that negatively affect your daily routine? How do you deal with them?

For a long time I was agoraphobic but not so much now. I think it was a lot to do with lack of confidence and I’m still not great in huge crowds…......
I do have this wierd fear of answering the phone though. I mean I do answer it but I get this gut wrenching feeling every time. I’ve always had it and I’ve managed to deal with it. I just try to avoid answering it if I can but if I can’t then I suck it up and answer it. For a long time though I didnt handle it well at all. The secret for me was to keep trying, keep fighting the feeling as it were. I also developed this wee mantra “It’s gonna be Great News” – I’d almost chant this every time the phone went.
My Wife and family are quite good about it and will grab the phone if they are around before i get to it.

I fear unscripted public speaking, I overcome this fear by not speaking in public unless I have my notes otherwise I’m a deer in headlights, lol.

I have issues with doing anything which is possible to screw up in view of others.

Also, I have issues with moving water for some reason.

To solve these, I don’t do anything particularly screwupable in front of people and I try not to get horrendously filthy so I don’t have to shower every day.

Worms.
If you chase a girl with a worm dangling from your fingers, she might run and call you an asshole, or run and even laugh about it, or call you disgusting…

If you do it to me, I’m gonna lock myself away somewhere and cry for two hours.

And I’m not even trying to be funny.

I am wary of the guy across the street, who belongs to an organised crime family and beat me up last August. I went to the police and nothing happened. Every time he sees me he snickers. I generally try to avoid him and bolt the door from the inside. I used to generally leave my front door open for friends to come in at will.

It may sound daft, but I hate answering the phone. If I can’t see the persons face, I tend to get a little paranoid about what their really thinking even if what their saying is good. I’ve had a lot of experiences in life with two-faced people who’d stab you in the back just as soon as look at you. So I like to see peoples faces, they can tell you a lot about what people are really thinking.

Unfortunately it affects me in work, if I have to ring a client, I’ll put if off to the last minute, or if the phone rings I’ll tend to get anchious and wait till somebody else answers it.

I’m scared of lots of things, but I read the book, Feel the Fear and Do It Anyhow, and that’s what I do. I acknowledge that I am scared, I don’t fight it. I just tell myself it’s probably not going to kill me and I go ahead and do it. Whatever it may be. So far it has worked because I am still here to tell the tale.

@rooeytoo
So true. Nothing to fear but fear itself.
Unless of course your afraid of snakes, and theres a pit viper in front of you ready to bite haha.

Social phobia is the label I’ve been given. Since a phobia is defined as an irrational fear of something, I don’t believe this to be wholly true. For an autistic person, fear of or aversion to social situations is not irrational but based on real, repeated experiences. If your attempts to socially interact with peers as a child and teen were met by rejection and ridicule nearly 100% of the time (for reasons you could not comprehend) you would have a severe aversion to social situations too.

@Pazza – I am with you. Let’s ban phones.!

No.

I hate two consonant compund words (earhole, eyeball, doorknob, eyeglass, etc.) It makes me want to scream. To cope, I usually have to do lalalas in my head if the word keeps coming up frequently in the convo.

I have an irrational fear of spiders. I try not to let it interfere too much, and I stay away from areas where spiders like to congregate, such as the shed, and the unused corners of my garage. There are times when I have to get something from there, I just cover up as best as I can, and reach in. When I find them in the bathtub or sink, I wash them down the drain.

@Finley You would really dislike German… Entire sentences can be compounded…

Nope.

Not at the current time and make sure that you Don’t Fear the Reaper. He can’t hurt you unless you let him hurt you.

I have a fear of lifts since being locked in one for quite some time.

I use the escalators or stairs when necessary.

@partyparty – I’m sympathetic to your phobia. I’m not afraid of elevators, but I do avoid certain older or less-than-reliable looking elevators whenever possible. I’ve probably just seen too many movies, though. Cheers.

@Rufus_T_Firefly I was at college, and a group of students purposely jammed the lift. It was awful. They seemed to be very amused by what they had done, and the more they laughed the worse I became.
Never again will I go in a lift.