bitsandbobs
|
posted on September 16, 2000 05:16:45 PM new
I'm writing this under duress!
Right now I've got a toothache. I know I'm going to have to go and get it looked at but I'm putting it off for as long as I can.
I HATE DENTISTS!!!!!
Just the thought of having to go brings me out in a cold sweat. It's an irrational fear but it's always been that way for me.
It prompts me to ask, what fears or phobias do you have?
Bob (trembling in my boots) Downunder.
|
Julesy
|
posted on September 16, 2000 05:29:40 PM new
Driving in the rain causes me to panic...
Last fall, I hydro-planed across 3 lanes of traffic on an inter-state highway. It was raining, and I had slowed down to 40mph, but that didn't stop my car from flying off the road, and landing in a ditch facing the other direction.
I had my 7 yr old with me, but luckily, neither one of us was hurt except for burns from the seatbelts.
As a sidenote, not ONE car stopped, but a lot of semi-trucks did. Apparently, one semi going in the other direction saw the car flying and radioed for the trucks that were headed in my direction to look for us. I will never forget all those trucker's who stopped, waited with us, and comforted my daughter while we waited for the police and paramedics.
Now, when I am driving, if it even starts to drizzle, I pull over and wait it out. I don't know if that is irrational, but I just can't drive on a wet road...
|
Julesy
|
posted on September 16, 2000 05:33:44 PM new
Sorry about your toothache, btw.
At least you're not alone; I don't know a single soul who relishes a trip to the "chair."
|
texas1958
|
posted on September 16, 2000 06:09:24 PM new
Is it a phobia when your fear is rational?
Don't laugh but I have read too many times where snake come up the sewer lines and just recently my sister had a big rat come up the sewer line and was swimming around the toliet!
So I can't go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without turning on the light!
Did You Just Laugh?
Tex
|
loosecannon
|
posted on September 16, 2000 07:27:04 PM new
Poisonous spiders & plane crashes.
Don't want to get bit or go in a plane crash.
I know I'm going to go someday, but not that way I hope.
I used to have nightmares about watching planes crash. I was never on the planes, but watched plenty go down. Thankfully those stopped some time ago.
Probably some psyhological explanation for having bad dreams like that but I don't want to know.
[ edited by loosecannon on Sep 16, 2000 07:29 PM ]
|
bunnicula
|
posted on September 16, 2000 11:51:23 PM new
Heights. Which I hadn't been all that aware of until a fateful visit to York Cathedral in 1983. Nasty.
BitsandBobs: You can relieve your toothache pain until you can get to your dentist by either applying oil of clove to the bad tooth or by sucking on a clove.
|
kiheicat
|
posted on September 17, 2000 12:17:03 AM new
Interesting question, bits... I'm claustrophobic. I remember getting stuck in an elevator that lost power on the 26th floor of a hotel in Madrid, Spain when I was 12, and I was alone in the elevator. I freaked out!!! Started smashing every button there was... it did finally regain power and start moving again but I wanted off! I managed to stop it at floor 17 and ran down 17 flights of stairs.
I don't know why airplanes don't bother me, unless it's just sitting there on the runway forever and ever and ever... but most other closed-in spaces bother me.
|
Elfgifu
|
posted on September 17, 2000 05:11:14 PM new
Texas1958 (which, by the way, was a very good year!),
I too look every time since my father told me about the snakes!
Gotta admit, my phobia is fire. I keep extinguishers by the bed, always scope out exits when we are sleeping away from home, and my husband has resigned himself to the fact that I will only have a ground-floor bedroom.
No, I'm not new to AW -- just took all of your advice and changed from my eBay id!!
|
rancher24
|
posted on September 17, 2000 07:15:29 PM new
bitsandbobs...I know EXACTLY how you feel! Pain & phobia...Took me along time to get back to a dentist (husband made the appointment & took me without warning)!..Unfortunately, after the neglect it cost me a fortune (even WITH insurance) to fix my teeth...Some dentists here reconize the fear factor & will prescribe Valium (?) for patients to take BEFORE they go!!...Good Luck!
Julesy...Know that one too!...bout 20 years ago, alone at night, cruisin' in my Stang, did a 360 on the parkway, ended up on the divider...Didn't seem to bother me until about 10 years later (go figure)...Now I can drive locally in the rain, but FORGET about the expressways & parkways!...I feel as if I don't have any control & that I will overeact to the slightest problem, and therefore cause an accident!...Hair on the back of my neck stands up straight!...I hate it!
~ Rancher
Edited to add: There is a GREAT show that's been on either Discovery Channel or TLC on Phobias..Very interesting to watch & relate to the subject cases & they've got some super ideas on how to cope with the phobias..I'm sure it'll be on a couple hundred times more, check your local listings, it's definately worth a good look see
[ edited by rancher24 on Sep 17, 2000 07:18 PM ]
|
bitsandbobs
|
posted on September 17, 2000 07:44:55 PM new
Just an update.
I did it. I went!!
Had to have a small filling. It felt like the guy was building a new freeway!
Anyway, I've made it one piece. I'm trying to drink a cup of coffee but I think half of it is running down my chin!
Bob, Downunder but never down.
edited to corrcct typos from shaky hands!
[ edited by bitsandbobs on Sep 17, 2000 07:46 PM ]
|
Meya
|
posted on September 18, 2000 04:15:54 AM new
Glad to hear you made it through the dentist appointment bitsandbobs! I don't like dentists either, although ours is great and has never hurt me.
For me, I can't stand anything that hangs from a cable such as a ski lift or similar ride at an amusement park. My family talked me into the Spanish Aero Car above the whirlpool at Niagra Falls a few years ago. I was a basket case until I got my feet back on solid ground.
Underwater movies and scenes freak me out as well...I will never understand how men in the navy get on a submarine. I can't breath just thinking about it.
|
sjl1017
|
posted on September 18, 2000 06:27:53 AM new
My fear isn't with Dentists it's with the needles. I am SOOOOOO needle-phobic that I have always had fillings without novacaine. Yes, you read that correctly. Drilling without novacaine. How's that for a fear. Problem now is, I have one major cavity that has to be partially capped and it cannot be done without novacaine. I've been postponing the appointment since March. I cannot chew on that side of my mouth and I'm still postponing. Can you say "big wimp"?
My other phobias are spiders - I'm getting better with the tiny ones, and crowds. I absolutely hate being in crowds. I've been doing 90% of my holiday shopping on the internet for probably 5 years just to avoid the mall in December. I make one trip to the to pick up the few things I couldn't get online and I'm done. Pretty much pain free - no pun intended.
|
toomanycomics
|
posted on September 18, 2000 07:18:39 AM new
good for you bits! 
I used to have a severe phobia of Wasps
now there's so many around my house that I can get close enough with a can of Raid and not running away.
I don't care for swimming in the lake without the ground underneath my feet in the water.
|
sjl1017
|
posted on September 18, 2000 08:12:36 AM new
toomanycomics - you reminded me. I can't swim in water that I can't see my toes in. Something about not being able to see what's about to bite me. Like I feel better being able to see the shark that's about to eat me!!!
|
pareau
|
posted on September 18, 2000 08:45:40 AM new
[ edited by pareau on Sep 25, 2000 06:22 PM ]
|
tegan
|
posted on September 18, 2000 09:30:19 AM new
I am by no means fearless but I can't think of anything I have a phobia about.
I actually like riding in elevators. I love that amusement park ride where you just drop 10 stories.
Texas has made me a little leary of snakes because the ones down here can kill you and the spiders that explode into 100 little babies when stepped on have made me watch my self around spiders. (not to mention the numerous spiders that bite down here)
Pareau: I often wondered when a preference becomes a fear too. Like I won't go on rollercoasters. I know I won't die if I go on one , I may get sick but I know I won't die.
Now my friends tell me I am afraid.
But offer me a million dollars and I would go on one in a heart beat. (or even less)
Sometimes I think people confuse extreme predjudice towards something for fear.
I have been in situations that produced fear (lie lying near death, half in and half out of the windshield of a wrecked car, the business end of an avalanche) and know the difference. There is an adrenaline
factor that you know if you have experienced it.
|
mybiddness
|
posted on September 18, 2000 11:02:03 AM new
I can't think of anything I have a phobia about - but there are a few things I don't like. I love my dentist - hardly ever feel a thing. I'm glad you got yours handled and survived!
I can't stand seeing rodents in general. My son has one for a pet (I think he calls it a gerbil - can't remember) I've tried to be a good grandma to the varmint but I'm not.
Last week, son brought 3 baby rats home from school. They were itsy bitsy newborns. One of his classmates had stolen them from the momma and brought them to school in a salsa jar. He told the kids that he had to have $15.00 for them or he would kill them. My son stold them from him instead. He believed the kid would really kill them. I haven't decided whether to pat him on the back or punish him... but that's another thread. We jumped through hoops for 3 days feeding them every two hours, keeping them warm, etc. but by the 3rd day they all died.
They were tiny - so should have been cute - but to me they just looked like rats, ugh! He's lucky I didn't flush them.
|
toomanycomics
|
posted on September 18, 2000 01:38:17 PM new
aw sorry to hear that
at least he rescued them... 
|
Muriel
|
posted on September 18, 2000 02:58:08 PM new
Heights.... flying.... claustrophobia...
|
texas1958
|
posted on September 18, 2000 03:14:40 PM new
Elfgifu. . . Thank you very much, I think it is very good year as well but I am an old foygee! (sp?) LOL.
Tex
|
jeanyu
|
posted on September 18, 2000 03:47:29 PM new
OK--over the years as I grow older--the higher the bridge or flimsier the edge--the more angst. Why? Who knows.
Just last week took a detour of about 30 miles so I would not have to recrossovera bridge here in W Pa---out of Perryopolis--this bridge was narrow--high---and didn't seem to have substantial supports on the side. If my perifial vision can see over the side---it's white knuckles time.
Let's not even mention the Cheasapeake Bay Bridge. My friend and I recently decided that the best time to cross that puppy is in the dark.
This bridge thing started about 15 years ago--when the old Wheeling bridge was still being used and I sorta kinda freaked mid bridge. It was a nasty scary bridge before they blew it to kingdom come.
Phobias---it's my perifial vision as I get older---drats--where does that just veer over to the side and leap come from? Honest---I'm as normal--sorta--as apple pie.
|
njrazd
|
posted on September 18, 2000 04:09:27 PM new
The only fears I have are the IRS and the Mafia (but not necessarily in that order!)
********************
That's Flunky Gerbiltush to you!
|
SAABsister
|
posted on September 18, 2000 04:30:29 PM new
jeanyu, for me the Chesapeake Bay Bridge is a snap. It's the Baltimore tunnel that's unnerving - high speed and too enclosing.
|
jeanyu
|
posted on September 18, 2000 04:38:50 PM new
SAABsister--we are planning to cross over that dreaded bridge come November--can I email you for a driver? Just a forewarn--we scream and swear while eyes closed the entire time
|
SAABsister
|
posted on September 18, 2000 04:56:10 PM new
jeanyu, that sounds like what I do when my husband drives through the Baltimore tunnel. Once I was driving and came up on the tunnel too quickly to swap drivers and had to drive through it. As soon as I got to the other side, I pulled over and ordered my husband to drive - I was pretty shaken up. A State patrolman or police officer pulled over as soon as I parked on the shoulder and asked if anything was wrong. I told him,"Not any more. I'm through it." I guess he hears that daily.
I've never driven over the bridge at night. That might spook me.
|
Elfgifu
|
posted on September 18, 2000 07:21:54 PM new
Texas1958,
I said '58 was a good year because that's when I was born so you can figure out just what an old fogey I am! 
No, I'm not new to AW -- just took all of your advice and changed from my eBay id!!
|
eventer
|
posted on September 18, 2000 07:54:17 PM new
jeanyu,
Stay away from the Thousand Island Bridge from the U.S. into Canada, the bridge over the Mississippi in Baton Rouge & the bridge over the Ship Channel in Houston.
|
kiheicat
|
posted on September 19, 2000 11:55:40 AM new
Thought I'd drag this one back up to the top after the events of the last 12 or so hours. Last night my 9 year old had a skateboard mishap which broke off 1/2 of his front (adult) tooth, gave him a little puncture above his lip, took some skin off his chin, and varied scrapes and cuts elsewhere. We were in ER till about 11 p.m. This is the same kid who just 2 months ago was in ER for 13 stitches from a bike mishap. So today I get to take him to the dentist and be at his mercy as he gouges me for whatever it's going to cost to fix this thing cos it has to be done today.
Funny thing is, Tony (my son) has never had a bad dental checkup so he is unfamiliar with dental pain and therefore perfectly at ease with going to the dentist to get this fixed.
|
corrdogg
|
posted on October 2, 2000 09:03:23 PM new
My big fear is that maui will get into the caffine some night and post nine consecutive threads in the RT! (or is that AT the RT?)
9edited to add EVEN MORE smilies!
[ edited by corrdogg on Oct 2, 2000 09:26 PM ]
|
mauimoods
|
posted on October 2, 2000 09:14:42 PM new
ROTF! Im having fun making fun of myself for a change. Hell...gotta get the sad stuff buried and goofy stuff up top.
Barry(gimme more incense to smoke)Barris...wheres the coffee pot?
|
