A Project: Fears

[squealofapproval]

What are your fears? Do you have an experience that triggered them? If so, explain.

This will be beneficial for me getting into psychology next year.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Awko the taco

[Garnet]

I'd be really careful on how you're phrasing your project, aligning anyone's sexualities with "good" or "bad", even by others' perception, is treading into sketchy territory.

To answer your question as a pansexual (I'm assuming you're cool with that, since you mentioned bisexuals in your post), straight girls are neither good nor bad until I've met them and assessed their personality. It has nothing to do with their sexuality, and judging them based on that would be as narrow-minded as judging someone for being bi, gay, pan, poly, ace, etc. It goes both ways.

I would sleep with a straight girl if she was upfront about her reasons for wanting to do so (experimenting, etc.).

[Dye]

What Garnet said, really. It depends on the person, whether I like them or not. Their sexuality doesn't matter, and shouldn't matter. As for sleeping with a straight girl... If I wasn't taken already, it would definitely depend on the situation. If they wanted to and had valid reasons, like Garnet said, then hey, I might give it a whirl.

[Galaxy]

Same, I'd like knowing where you want to go with the whole 'good or bad' thing, maybe we could help you rephrase it ^^

I'm pansexual as well (my affections going to about 90% girls and transgirls and 10% males and transmen), and as for the sleeping with a straight girl part, I suppose it would depend. If I was deeply in love with this straight girl, then sure, why not. But I think that would be the only situation.

[Azrael]

i dont think someone's sexual preference should matter at all to someone, unless you want to date that particular person. people should be free to be straight, lesbian, gay, bisexual, whatever they want in life; they dont need to tell everyone either about their sexuality, and it doesnt make ANYONE a good or bad person either. its pretty obvious you didnt mean it that way, just might want to be more careful with how you phrase things like that

[•.*°•☆. Q .☆•°*.•]

I think all people can be either good or bad, straight women included. It depends on other things. (I'm homoflexible.)

[squealofapproval]

Alright. I was just looking for a little feedback. Perhaps I should change my topic.

[Dye]

It's all right. As for the new topic, I'm afraid of a few things. In highest fear order;

Aichmophobia (Fear of needles and other sharp objects)

Entomophobia (Fear of bugs)

Acrophobia (Fear of heights)

I was in hospital a lot when I was younger, and had to have countless injections and blood tests. I think that's where my aichmophobia comes from, it also extends to sharp knives cutting flesh, and other things. I can't draw on myself for too long. I cosplayed as Cecil from WTNV last halloween, and I drew on my arms using fineliners for my headcanon of him having tattoos, and I had to have frequent breaks because it was freaking me out.

I don't remember anything to do with bugs that would cause my entomophobia, but I am terrified of them. We were on holiday a few years ago, and 2 cockroaches were in our little house thing, I cried both times.

I'm really really short, so I'm not used to heights, but I don't think that's the reason for acrophobia. It's not as serious as the others, but if I'm up high, I get a horrible feeling in my stomach and i need to hold on to something stable and stay away from edges. This extends to stairs with holes in them, you know? You can see below you and it's not nice.

[Anonymouse]

I used to be so scared of death and dying to the point where it became an obsession. I've managed to dull it with drugs but it's still there, lurking in the back of my mind. I think it was triggered by the deaths of several relatives within a few months of each other when I was around fourteen years old. It seemed like everytime I turned around someone in my family was dying, and not just the older people, either. When my 24-year-old cousin and a 12-year-old relative died it scared the shit out of me. If they could die young, so could I. Somedays I just get so fixated on it that I anticipate dying at any moment. If I'm driving I'll think to myself "I could turn the corner and have a deer fly through my windshield and kill me." If I'm walking down the road I'll think of all the ways I could die (mugging, random tree branch falling and killing me, getting hit by a car). Even if I'm just vegging out on the couch my mind will wander until I'm thinking about how I could have a blood clot or aneurysm or any number of dangerous health problems and there isn't anything I can do to stop it.

I guess it also kind of ties into the fear of losing control or not having any in the first place. I never sneeze in public for that same reason.

[HarleyQuinnSFF]

Heights- no idea why. I will try heights but I get dizzy and wobbly. Lol yuck.

Puppets- no idea why either. I've been fine and one day there was a ventriloquist I had to walk by and I completely freaked out. So embarrassing!

I used to be afraid of snakes but I pushed myself to learn about them and now own 40!!

[SpookyScarySkeleton]

~Heights.

~Puppets;o

~Aichmophobia (Fear of needles..* but not other sharp things because complications)

~Atelophobia ( the fear of not being good enough or imperfection. Atelophobia is classified as an anxiety disorder that can affect relationships and makes the person afflicted by atelophobia feel like everything they do is wrong... )

~Apiphobia(fear of bees)

~Cynophobia(fear of dogs)

~Anthropophobia(fear of people)

I'm probly scared of other things but those are the ones that come to mind.

Edited April 16, 2014 by DeathNoteOwner

[squealofapproval]

Thanks guys! The research is looking good c:

[Jorm]

What is this research for exactly?

[Nola]

Hi! I don't have all the phobia listings, and most of my fears are not to the extreme of a phobia, or at least I don't think so, but maybe you can use mine, too?

My only phobia that I know of is emetophobia. But I am also afraid of rejection, public speaking and also not living up to the high standards I've set for myself. *blush*

[squealofapproval]

What is this research for exactly?

There is a AP Psychology at my high school (that freshmen don't usually get in), and I'm getting ready to apply for it using an experiment on experience/result.

I go to a magnet school.

Edited April 16, 2014 by Awko the taco

[Seniorstatus14]

*Aichmophobia is a definite. I hate needles. I decided to try and overcome my fear when a couple of years ago when I was 16. There was a blood drive at school and I could get community service hours for donating so I thought "What the heck" and I went for it. My best guy friend signed up for the same time as me (for moral support, my other best friend in the program wouldn't do it, she's more terrified of them than me). So he sat in the chair across from me and sang to me, but before they stuck me he came over and covered my eyes and held my hand. All went well till the end when I came extremely close to passing out and he got worried enough that he helped me out of the seat (after they had bandaged me) and carried my backpack the rest of the day. That experience didn't trigger my fear, but it did add to it.

*Achluophobia. (The fear of darkness). I know, I'm technically an adult and I shouldn't be afraid of it, but I am. I have no idea what triggered it. It just grew with my age.

*Apiphobia. (The fear of bees). I know exactly what triggered this one. I was 6 years old, playing outside with my next door neighbor and we went and sat on my porch to eat a Popsicle. Well, when we finished we saw my cat's reflection watching us through the door (It wasn't clear glass so it was a little fuzzy) and my friend started waving her hands crazily in front of the door because my cat would paw the door trying to get her hands and it was silly. Well, apparently she accidentally swatted a bee and it stung her. She cried for like 20min and I could hear the screams coming from inside her house. Now I'm terrified of those things and any other thing with stingers.

*Dentophobia (Fear of dentists). This stemmed from when I got a cavity in 1st grade and he left a ginormous bruise on my cheek.

*Emetophobia (Fear of Vomiting). I've always had this.

*Glossophobia (Fear of Public Speaking). This didn't kick in until late middle school- early high school. I have a different sort of accent than everyone else. It's not southern, it's not northern, it's not British. It's almost like a weird combination of all 3 and I have minor speech problems with my "R's". I never really noticed it until late middle school- early high school and that's because that was when I started getting picked on for it. It wasn't right to my face, but I heard the murmurs and things and now I hate reading a loud in class, answering questions, speaking, etc. Even though I've been in the same class with these kids since high school started and they're all incredibly kind. It was the people outside my academic program who were mean.

Those are all my main phobias. Good luck with your project!

Edited April 17, 2014 by Seniorstatus14

[squealofapproval]

Thanks c: I love my school (and the cute teacher) who teaches it- so I HOPE I get in.

[Jorm]

You should read the book 'Fears of Your Life' by Michael Bernard Loggins.

[LeapYearKisses]

I'd caution against using what people are telling you for a project while calling it an experiment, since you're not manipulating any variables and thus cannot show any causation. Even if people have theories about where certain fears come from, anecdotal evidence isn't very scientific. I say this only because I'm an obsessive psychology major, though, since I find your topic interesting and hope you get into the class!

As for my fears:

Emetophobia - have always had this, as long as I can remember. This is probably the only fear that I would classify as a phobia, in that it actually negatively impacts my life and relationships.

I also have a fear of walking through seaweed or dark water, since I'm afraid I'll be pinched by a crab or step on something else unpleasant, but I don't think this was triggered by a specific incident. Lately I have also suffered from anxiety about the future, since I'm about to graduate and have no idea what I'm doing, and that began (along with some depressive elements) last year after I studied abroad for a semester.

Good luck!

[Azrael]

i feel pretty odd, since unlike mostly everyone else here, i love spiders. if i find one in the house i'll pick it right up in my hands and throw him out lol.

what i AM afraid of are:

-dying; for obvious reasons

-heights, or more like falling from someplace really high

-ants; flipped out and threw a shoe at one crawling up my wall once

-cant believe no ones mentioned tornadoes yet lol

[Melody]

I'm going to stray completely off topic here but I'm kind of scared of my own mind *runs into corner*

[jano]

Emetophobia. When I was really young, I ended up getting some freaky nasty virus that landed me in the hospital for a week. I was so scared I was gonna die, I guess it translated to the symptoms I was having and manifested as a phobia..

I dont know the phrase for this, but forced social interactions. I used to go into panic attacks when ny mom made me talk to her friends kids or something. Now it's not so bad but Im still pretty nervous ^^;

Also, stagefright. Dunno why though lol

And buzzing noises. I tense up so badly its embarrassing

[squealofapproval]

I'd caution against using what people are telling you for a project while calling it an experiment, since you're not manipulating any variables and thus cannot show any causation. Even if people have theories about where certain fears come from, anecdotal evidence isn't very scientific. I say this only because I'm an obsessive psychology major, though, since I find your topic interesting and hope you get into the class!

Ah, alright. What could I do instead?

[Natto]

I have another caution--I'm sorry, I don't want to be negative, but I don't want you to end up having a bad experience. You will most likely have to report where you got your information. If you get it here, you will either have to lie, or you will have to put down a fetish website as your source. If you know you don't have to report this information, go for it, but if you think this might be an issue, you may want to look at alternative sources. Not that we aren't happy to help you, but it might cause your some embarrassment later on.

[Hibiscus]

I am definitely afraid of needles as well. When I go to the doctors, I make them wait until '3' and do it super quick. That's why I will never be able to become a vet. I basically have a fear of all the unknown. For example, I rarely talk to strangers because I have no idea of how they will respond. As predicted, I don't like the dark.

My biggest phobia is seeing a bunch of holes together, like a cluster of orderly-ass seeds. Or THIS

I am about to puke right now just looking at that. So I am making a huge sacrifice for you guys right now, you're welcome lol. Like who the hell can look at that? Someone, please tell me-Does that picture gross the hell out of you?