I vaguely recall a thread on the old site on this. Anyway...

I think I may have fear of heights (I don't know if it can have any levels). I live on the 9th floor (the top), and I went up to the roof a few times, and there's a 2 feet high ledge, and whenever went even near (1-3m), I got this weird feeling of "Whoa! Bad! Stay the hell back!". I don't understand why, though.

When I was 10yrs old or younger, we had these parties at the square of the town hall, and there were this fire trucks that took us up into the air, higher then the town hall, which has 10 floors, and I didn't have any weird feelings then except excitement. So, why now?

We got some guys working on the roof right now, making new layers for whatever reason, sealing, or whatever...and I see them from my window, sitting on the ledge, talking, or standing with one leg on the ledge smoking a cigarette and conversing casually like they were on a bench in a park. And it pisses me off!

Fear of heights.
Driving on mountain roads where it goes straight down on one side, for example, kills me. (As a passenger, mind. I'm fine as long as I'm in control.)
High buildings, roof-tops, etc. also put quite a strain on me.
Funnily enough, rock-climbing is fine. I once started climbing a wall that was some 30 meters high on the side I started from. I had to climb around it, though and ended up on the other side, hanging from a ledge with some 150 meters of fresh air below me. That didn't bother me at all. I think that I'm fine as long as I have a feeling of control. Hands and feet (and a rope) thoroughly in the rock gives me that feeling, I guess. Standing at a handrail on a tower doesn't.

Mazille wrote:Fear of heights.
Driving on mountain roads where it goes straight down on one side, for example, kills me. (As a passenger, mind. I'm fine as long as I'm in control.)
High buildings, roof-tops, etc. also put quite a strain on me.
Funnily enough, rock-climbing is fine. I once started climbing a wall that was some 30 meters high on the side I started from. I had to climb around it, though and ended up on the other side, hanging from a ledge with some 150 meters of fresh air below me. That didn't bother me at all. I think that I'm fine as long as I have a feeling of control. Hands and feet (and a rope) thoroughly in the rock gives me that feeling, I guess. Standing at a handrail on a tower doesn't.

Well, I've never been climbing at that height before, but maybe I'd feel the same way you do, perhaps. When I was around 10 me and my friends used to climb everything, trees, some smaller buildings like high-schools, up on the roofs. Now...*sigh*

Not too many fears really.

Maybe once the waves start getting over 3m (10 foot) high that starts to get a little scary when I am surfing.

Biggest waves I've surfed were 3-4m and that was hairy!

I'm not fit* enough to surf very big waves so I avoid them.

*I'm fit on land but not fit in the sense that you need to be to surf big waves.

I don't think what you guys describe as fear of heights really counts.

I'll put up my mother - when I was 14, and we were visiting the US, she had to move floors in the hotel because it was on the 20th floor.

That's fear of heights.

virphen wrote:I don't think what you guys describe as fear of heights really counts.

I'll put up my mother - when I was 14, and we were visiting the US, she had to move floors in the hotel because it was on the 20th floor.

That's fear of heights.

Pf. Tell that to my stomach when I'm up there, wide-eyed and with sweaty palms and am pressing myself against a wall, to be as far away from the edge as possible.

A superhero with acrophobia?

How ironic.

virphen wrote:A superhero with acrophobia?

How ironic.

Innit?
Well, the point is to overcome your fears, spread your cape like a terrible flasher of the night and jump on the face of a villain from 15 floors above him.

I'm fine with heights, can't say I feel completely comfortable standing on top of a tall building looking down with just a handrail between me and the abyss below me, but it doesn't really bother me.

What really gets to me is flying insects in general, Lepidoptera, or moths and butterflies in particular, and the worst nightmare for me is a big flying insect in a small room (with me being in the same room, of course). Just looking at pictures of moths, for instance while looking up the name of the order of insects, gives me goosebumps and sends my heart rate flying.

No idea where that irrational bullshit came from (maybe it's my subconscious trying to be sarcastic). I only know that it gets worse when I'm under stress (exams, ... other stuff, whatever else there may be, can't think of anything).

Mazille wrote:... Driving on mountain roads where it goes straight down on one side, for example, kills me ...

Only if you drive over the edge ... and anyway, healthy respect for something that could do you harm isn't a phobia; it's common sense!

I have a mild fear of heights and a slightly less mild fear of the dark. Well short of a phobia I should think tho.

chairman bill wrote:

Mazille wrote:... Driving on mountain roads where it goes straight down on one side, for example, kills me ...

Only if you drive over the edge ... and anyway, healthy respect for something that could do you harm isn't a phobia; it's common sense!

Well, there is reasonable respect and then there is a racing heart and the overwhelming desire to crawl into a corner.

Spiders anyone? I used to be ok with them when I was younger, but nowadays I dislike them intensely. I don't think it's a phobia, because I don't faint, scream or anything if I stumble across one in the garden. But when I catch one in a bottle in the house to let it out my hands become sweaty and shaky. lol

Spiders, no. I don't particularly like handling bees, bumblebees (the speciality of my current abode is that these latter are "infesting" the building and tend to find their way inside regularly -- yesterday I removed two for example) and especially wasps but I would count that as "healthy respect". There are no venomous spiders in Finland, aside of an aquatic species ( which is considered about as venomous as a bee) that isn't fond of living in houses.

Eduard wrote:Spiders anyone? I used to be ok with them when I was younger, but nowadays I dislike them intensely. I don't think it's a phobia, because I don't faint, scream or anything if I stumble across one in the garden. But when I catch one in a bottle in the house to let it out my hands become sweaty and shaky. lol

I'm the chief 'escortor of arachnids off the premises' in my house hold.

Though they don't get quite this big:

Witticism wrote:
I'm the chief 'escortor of arachnids off the premises' in my house hold.

Though they don't get quite this big:

[Reveal] Spoiler: 1

Now that spider will cause me to scream like a little girl and wet my pants

Globophobia - fear of balloons. Kids parties are a nightmare, I just can't go.

The worst is when some cheap shop has some kind of special 'promotional' day going on, and decorate the entrance with balloons. They invariably break free and float down the street, usually in my direction (I'll have already crossed the road by that point).

Ridiculous, irrational, but powerful enough to make me sweat whenever there's one near

Oh yes indeed, fear of spiders for me it is. But funnily enough it's not all spiders, it's specifically members of the genus Heteropoda only, I'm not bothered by the others. I think it's got to do with the way their legs are jointed to go forward around their bodies instead of downward.

All I know is when their legs start moving so do mine and totally involuntarily too! It's like I'm having a fit or something but I can't help it, my brain just wants to get as far away from these things as possible. Totally irrational and pathetic I know since they're not even very toxic but what can I say I'm a basket case around these things.

Kaleid wrote:Globophobia -

Not a phobia if it's a rational fear.

fear of balloons.

Oh, that kind! I thought you meant . . .

Rubber bands. Shit, they freak me the fuck out. That's what happens when you're the youngest of 3-you become the human shield for the other two. HATE THEM!