#phobias
https://archiveofourown.org/works/26748730/chapters/66119404
Prompt: Panic! At the Disco, Panic Attacks/Phobias/Paranoia
Fandom/OC: Original Work
TW: swearing, water, drowning, choking, buried alive mention, blood, cutting, knives, foot injury, hallucination
Same shit, all the time.
For clarification: I’m not saying people w/ anxiety shouldn’t challenge it! But PLEEEEASE, don’t write it off as something so trivial!
Post link
whumpees who are afraid of thunderstorms
- whumpee can’t sleep at night if there’s a thunderstorm so they crawl into bed with caretaker/caretaker stays up with them
- OR, whumpee who’s in captivity can’t sleep if there’s a thunderstorm so they just have to sit there, in pain from their injuries and shivering in their cold cell
- whumpee jumps at every roll of thunder
- whumpee covers their ears to avoid the sounds of the wind whistling and the rain beating down outside and the thunder rolling overhead
- whumpee is just about to finally fall asleep and then lightning strikes nearby and the loud noise completely wakes them up
- whumper ties whumpee up outside during a thunderstorm
- caretaker is treating whumpees injuries during a thunderstorm but whumpee jumps at the sound of thunder and accidentally causes themselves even more pain
If I could fall into the sky: My experience of Casadastraphobia
“Casadastraphobia is the fear of falling into the sky. It is a relatively recently identified fear, having first appeared on urbandictionary.com” - Phobia Wiki.
I’m relieved to have learned the name for this particular phobia, because recently I had an episode which convinced me I have it.
Before I go into that, I must explain that my fear of falling into the sky seems to be linked with being around extremely tall buildings; I believe this has been made worse by dreams where I’ve looked up at a skyscraper and I just lose all sense of balance and start getting sucked up into the atmosphere.
The other day this fear leaked into reality when I stood right underneath a 25-storey high rise in Manchester and made the mistake of looking up at it. My knees went completely weak and my heart began to race, sweat collecting on the palms of my hands. I was queueing at the time and I grabbed the nearest metal barrier in an attempt to steady myself. I really did feel like gravity was going to switch off and I was going to plunge into the vast blackness of the night - maybe holding on to a heavy object would keep me grounded. Although I knew the whole thing was ridiculous, I also felt an immediate urge to stand under the canopy at the building’s entrance or somewhere with a ceiling so that I literally couldn’t fall into the universe.
Read more:
If I could fall into the sky: My experience of Casadastraphobia
I’ve been going through a mental struggle/horrible increase of anxiety and I hate all the reasons for it.
For the past few weeks I’ve been struggling with this horrible guilt because I don’t want to get the vaccine at the very same time I really want to.
I suffer from Trypanophobia. Fear of needles. And it’s not, “I’m scared and I don’t like them” I physically cannot enter a doctor’s office without my heart rate skyrocketing. I think the highest it’s ever gotten, just upon entering the room, is 145BPM.
I have had doctors kick me out of their office for fear of me accidentally harming a nurse or them, when trying to give me a needle. I’ve signed papers to refuse blood work that could really alter decisions down the road, I’ve passed out, and I’ve gotten one state exemption for a vaccine because it wasn’t worth the trauma to try and give to me (I was one month shy of being the age where it was not mandatory).
It’s my ultimate trigger. I haven’t be able to watch the news because even seeing or hearing about people getting vaccinated makes me faint.
And I feel horrible about it. Because I really want to get the vaccine.
Most doctors have never acknowledged my phobia. Because make no mistake, it is not a “fear” it is a PHOBIA. I’ve been invalidated, belittled and made to feel horrible because of something I have no control over. Recently, I had a doctor tell me “oh I don’t like getting needles either, no one does, I’ll give you a little secret FREE OF CHARGE: So just close your eyes, take a deep breath, and think of a happy place”
I’m 22 years old. You don’t think I’ve tried that? I’ve tried visualization, cognitive reframing, putting my legs up in the air and laying down, snapping a rubber band against my wrist, even medication before an injection. None of which has ever worked. Everytime it was necessary for an injection, I’ve had to have at least three people hold me down. To me, getting an injection, is like a life or death decision. It’s sounds dramatic, but I would rather get every bone broken in my body than face a needle. When I go into a doctor’s office, I count the number of windows, doors, and people, and consider what’s locked or unlocked and where’s the nearest exit.
My mother and my boyfriend recently got the virus, and are thankfully alright and recovering. However, I struggle with thinking of how it could’ve been prevented and if it was some how my fault. I saw on the someone address the issue of getting a vaccine with a fear of needles and they said the best way to get over your fear: “Just get it, and prove to yourself you can do it”
…really?
I feel at a loss. I don’t expect a miracle answer, or any answers, I just wanted to get that off my chest and share it.
If anyone wishes to go into the medical field, please, respect the fears and phobias of your patients. I know sometimes it’s necessary and unavoidable, but don’t make them feel like you understand by grouping them in with a group of people that just finds it “unpleasant”. I struggle with this fear everyday and it has seriously effected my life. It is not something I can turn off, or fix with happy thoughts. It’s a disease, of my own minds making, and I know others struggle too.
Fear and Loathing: Phobia in Literature and Culture
Centre for Gender, Sexuality and Writing
School of English
University of Kent
Canterbury
9th-10th May 2014
http://www.kent.ac.uk/english/research/centres/phobiaconference2014.html
Call for Papers
Focusing on the literary and historical representation of irrational emotions or phobias, Fear and Loathing seeks papers on topics and authors from any period, which aim to demonstrate the extent to which literary-historical study offers us unique insight into the cultural politics of emotions. Given the growth of both affect studies and historical enquiry into emotions over the past decade, Humanities scholarship has generated a rich and varied body of work on the representations and histories of emotions, sentiments, feelings and affects. This two-day international conference seeks to build upon this research and upon the relationship between the Humanities and the study of emotions more generally. Some key questions that we envisage animating the discussion at this conference include (1) how might we define phobia/fear/loathing within the context of the Humanities? (2) How have literary works been complicit with and/or reactive to dominant social phobias? (3) Can the archive be deployed to historicise feeling? (4) What role do the Humanities have in challenging contemporary phobias? We welcome proposals for individual papers and panels that address any of these core questions. Moreover, possible research topics for submission can include, but are by no means limited to:
Phobia & Academia
Archival Objects
Disability/Variability/ Disease
Bodies and Minds
Trans & Homophobia
Letters and Diaries
Propaganda
Outsiders/Others/Freaks
Religion/Theology
Human and Nonhuman Animals
The Monstrous
Borders and Territories
Aesthetics
Science and Technologies
Please send title and abstracts (300 words) for proposed papers and panels, along with a short biographical note (100 words) to[email protected] Deadline for submissions is 31st January 2014.
Conference organising committee: Dr Declan Kavanagh, Dr Monica Mattfeld and Dr Sarah Horgan.
Being an arachnophobe means constantly checking every corner of a room and the ceiling before you enter.
Being an arachnophobe means freaking out whenever you see a ball of hair on the floor before you realize it’s just a ball of hair.
Being an arachnophobe means teetering on the edge of a panic attack whenever you see a spider-web but not the spider.
Being an arachnophobe means wanting to pack your bags and move the minute the porter of your building tells you that the spider’s nest they found in the basement scattered all over the building when they disturbed it…and you live on the first floor…
Being an arachnophobe means cursing up a mental storm and breaking into a cold-sweat whenever you see a spider because it means you’re going to have to deal with it (killing it, removing it, whatever that means).
Being an arachnophobe means having a mental breakdown when you accidentally walk into a spider dangling from a web and it getting stuck on you.
Being an arachnophobe means your significant other telling you not to look behind you before they grab a shoe and kill it for you.
Being an arachnophobe means finding out that spiders create cobwebs (I honestly did not know this) and then freaking out when you find a lot of cobwebs in your room…
Being an arachnophobe means having to check every branch and leaf when you’re walking through a park or the woods to make sure you don’t accidentally run into a spider or it’s web.
Being an arachnophobe means finding out what countries experience raining spiders and have giant hunter spiders and deciding never to travel to those countries some day. Never going to Australia :P
Being an arachnophobe means going camping, entering a cabin, bathroom or changing area, seeing spiders and spider-webs everywhere and saying NOPE before turning back around and deciding to find another facility.
Being an arachnophobe means being excited to take a break from the city to go to the suburbs and then remembering that there are more spiders in the suburbs than in the city.
Being an arachnophobe means being over-joyed to stay at a friend’s relative’s place in the suburbs and she tells you that she hates spiders and she’s taken every measure possible to oust them from the house. (Halleluja!)
Being an arachnophobe means eating crabs and trying to forget that they’re in the same family as spiders.
Being an arachnophobe means finding two very small red spots next to each other your arm after waking up, Googling what it is, finding out that it’s a spider-bite and then jumping out of bed yelling to yourself “holy fuck, A SPIDER WAS ON ME?? WHERE THE FUCK IS IT??”
Being an arachnophobe means thinking about the possibility that you’ll never get over your fear and that you’ll probably die old from a heart-attack from seeing a spider.
Send one (or a few) to my muse and they’ll answer:
Spiders: Does your muse squish bugs or put them outside?
The Dark: Did your muse sleep with a nightlight as a child?
Snakes: Would your muse ever keep an unusual/exotic pet?
Blood:What’s the worst injury your muse has ever had?
Clowns: Does your muse prefer comedy? Or horror?
Mirrors: What is your muse’s least favorite thing about their appearance?
Tight Space: Does your muse ever feel that they’re not living up to their own potential?
Closet Monsters: Does your muse hide any aspects of their personality/life from others?
Crowds:What does your muse think of big cities?
Death:Name one thing your muse has lost that they wish they could get back.
Ghosts:Has your muse ever seen something they couldn’t explain?
Needles:Does your muse have a strong stomach?
Curses:Does your muse believe in good/bad luck? How about karma?
Heights:Is your muse a risk-taker?
Solitude:Name 3 things your muse couldn’t live without.
Fire:Would your muse rather be very cold, or very hot?
Failure:Has your muse ever given up on an important dream?
Abandonment:How would your muse win back someone who left them?
The Unknown: Is your muse a philosophical person?
Boogeyman:What position does your muse sleep in?
Falling:What does your muse think about falling in love or commitment?
Change:What was a turning point in your muse’s life?
Disease:What does your muse do on a sick day?
Number 13: Does your muse believe any superstitions?
Noise:Name one sound your muse finds absolutely unbearable.
Insects:Name something your muse finds gross or annoying.
Dolls:Has your muse ever collected something?
Getting Old: Would your muse rather live 50 years loved, or 200 years alone?
Social Phobia: Does your muse consider themselves an outgoing person?
