DO you have any fears, rather rational or irrational, that could relate to a character? Or do you have experience with people who have any, including these, phobias?
Claustrophobia-fear of being enclosed in small spaces
Arachnophobia-fear of spiders
Agoraphobia-fear of leaving one's home, often accompanied by a fear of germs
Hydrophobia-fear of water
Any others at all? Anybody?
*cricket chirp*
Please?
Especially, for me at the moment, fears of blood and/or fire, since they're both relevant to my series. But any other info about any other phobias, whether irrational or rational, could help any other writer, so please post!

Hmm... One of my characters has a fear of blood that she eventually overcomes. But in the beginning, it's really bad, she faints or throws up. It's annoying.

I'm severely acrophobic---"afraid" of heights. A couple of years ago, when I was helping to set up something in our church's Family Center, we had to go up to the storage area in what will eventually become the second floor. Going up in the mobile lift (sort of like a cherry-picker, but only going up and down, not around except by moving the whole thing, and only extending to the second floor---perhaps two-and-a-half feet wide and six feet long?) was bad enough, but one there I couldn't even stand near the edge without going into involuntary panic. Getting back into the lift to go down took a supreme effort of will.

And I also tend to get moderately-severe "stage fright" whenever I have to "perform"---meeting new people, giving speech, having an important conversation, talking on the phone, etc.,---if I'm not perfectly prepared, or if something unexpected happens. (However, despite this---perhaps I earned to like the feeling of adrenaline, and it routinely permits several minutes to prepare, so "thinking on my feet" didn't actually require instantaneous decisions---debate (policy cross-examination debate, to be specific) was my favorite class in high school and a passion even thereafter.)

I'm scared of spiders. I couldn't sleep with the knowledge that there's one in my room. I slept downstairs for about a week once, on the sofa, because I'd seen a big spider near my bed, and it had disappeared when my Dad came to catch it.

My sister is - terrified though. To a higher level than me. She goes hysterical if she thinks there's a spider that might have somehow got on her. She screams, laughs, cries and talks utter nonsense until you hug her and calm her down. My brother tried slapping her to stop her, but that didn't work.

@kingjon: Do you remember when this fear of heights started, if it was caused by something, or if you've had it all your life?



Wow. I'm usually the one who smushes the spiders (but only under a thick-soled shoe of course!) I hate them, but I'm not afraid of them. In fact, I think the poisonous ones are fascinating, especially tarantula-type arachnids All other insects (except ladybugs, fireflies and butterflies) disgust me, though. Especially when I find an inch and a half long cricket or a two-inch cockroach



Like, so badly that it wouldn't be the least bit funny if you pointed at her and said, "Spider"? That is actually very helpful, or would be if I had an arachnophobic character. But I'm sure other writers will make good use of this info.
Thanks, guys! Keep the posts coming, and check out and post in the other When Characters Suffer topics!

I've been this way as long as I can remember. (It was a point of pride to be finally able to get to the top of the slide witout entirely panicking, back in elementary school, and even then I couldn't bring myself to slide down ...) But I thought I'd mastered it by the middle of high shool, which is why the experience I mentioned was so startling.

Shall we iron out the difference between fear and phobia?

It seems that just being afraid is something you can control, while you cannot control a phobia. For example, when I was little, a string from a nearby running Weed Eater flew off and hit me on the cheek, and now I'm scared of Weed Eaters. When one is running, I cringe away from it and try to go inside where I'll be safe. But, it's not a phobia because I don't "lose my mind", I know exactly why I'm afraid, and, if I wanted to, I could walk up to a Weed Eater and make myself use it.

Thanks Aemi But knowing how different people react to/control their different fears is helpful as well.

Right.

When I was...maybe...ten, or so, I watched an old science video about the five senses (it was not meant specifically for kids). In the video, they were describing an experiment, where they put volunteers in a chamber and fixed it up so that the volunteers couldn't see, smell, hear or feel anything. The result? Hallucinations. (Whoa, I spelled that word right on the first try! )

Okay, so that was very interesting. But then they had to use cartoon illustrations of what the weird hallucinations looked like. Walking sunglasses, etc., and I was scared. Shaken right down to the core.
I developed a sudden fear of darkness and fear of dreams. If I went in the dark or had a dream about them, maybe the walking sunglasses would show up and I wouldn't be able to make them go away.

Yes, it was irrational. Even silly. But it was deep. Just writing about it is bringing some of the old fear back, even though I overcame it many years ago.

I'm not afraid of the dark anymore. I never had a single dream about strange sunglasses. (I never even dream of monsters. I almost never have nightmares of any kind.)
But the concept of hallucinations still scares me a bit.

Walking sunglasses. O h-kay ... I watched a movie called The Neverending Story, and there was a very terrifying creature in it. From then on, I always imagined it lurking in the shadows-I was terrified to go downstairs alone at night, and even more terrified while climbing back up the stairs. The main place I was scared of was the bathtub, with the shower curtain closed-I just knew that it was hiding in there! I would use the restroom as quick as I could at night, then either flush and run out the door, or skip flushing because it would anger the monster, or it could mask the sound of it creeping out of its hiding place... To this day, even though my fear doesn't have a distinct picture all the time, I'm sometimes still nervous about being out in the main part of my house at night with all the lights off, alone, and it gets worse when I'm trying to get back to my bedroom because I get the feeling something's chasing me or stalking me...
I also have claustrophobia. If something covers my face, even something breathable, I start breathing heavily (maybe hyperventilating, I don't know) and get a tight feeling in my chest, and I will do WHATEVER it takes to get that thing off my face! When I can't move freely, I get a similar feeling, but not nearly as bad as when something covers my face. Also, when I can't move freely-say I'm curled up into a ball to fit in a hiding spot in hide-and-seek. I won't be able to stay there for long, I start panicking. I feel hot and tingly and like I can't breathe. I can't even put my head under my blanket when my bedroom is cold. It's terrible!
Those are pretty much the only fears I have, I think... Phobias, at least. I mean, of course there's stuff I'm afraid of, haha...

Your monster problem sounds similar to mine.

I'll try to think of more things I'm afraid of. I don't have claustrophobia at all.

You're lucky, it's terrible... I used to not have it, I don't know what changed. It's really weird... When I was little, I ALWAYS slept completely buried under my blankets!

Completely buried? I've never been able to do that: the air starts feeling stale and I get concerned that I'll smother.

Yeah... I can't think of any more. I'm not afraid of heights, I'm afraid of hitting the ground. But that fear is easily worked past for me. Sudden, unexpected falling does frighten me though.

Of course, that's not irrational.

I've heard about a book series about a girl who doesn't feel fear. That is literally all I know about it though, except for there are a lot of books in it.

It sounds like an interesting concept. Lack of fear creates its own problems, because fear is a necessary emotion.

Yeah... Too bad it's already been done, it would be fun to experiment with.

I hadn't heard of a contemporary book series, but there are several old folk tales with that general premise (though usually a boy, not a girl); I read at least one, "The Boy Who Found Fear At Last," in one of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books. And "The X who didn't know fear" is a very general premise, if not quite as vague as "boy meets girl," so there's still lots of room for innovation.

Hmm... I guess so. *scratches head in thought* Maybe someday

Um, I sorta have a thread like this already...... viewtopic.php?f=32&t=4922

Whatever If the moderators want, they can merge them. But this was made to go along with Aemi's and my series of topics about suffering characters.

The other thread is more for just listing phobias, any and every phobia I think. Whereas this thread is to discuss phobias that we have, and how to apply the reality of them to our characters. So they're different really.

Thanks for keeping a look out, Danko!

Aright, I was also pointing it out because in some pages it makes good points about phobias.

(Is screaming every time I see a potato masher count as a phobia? because man, those are scary.)

Thanks, Danko! And what's so scary about potato mashers?

I thought of another!
So ever since I was petting a stray cat and it sliced the skin between two of my fingers with its claws, I've been somewhat afraid of them. I was 9 when that happened. Then, a few years ago, I was playing with a cat, with her mouse-on-a-string toy, and she jumped to get it and instead, her claws sank into my thigh and scared me half to death!
I didn't realize how bad of a fear cat claws are to me until a few weeks ago, my sister playfully poked my thigh with her nails, in the same place where the cat had scratched me, and I jumped and shrieked.
I like cats, but when they make sudden movements, I jump away because I guess I have cat-claw-o-phobia.

I'm not sure, my phobia is quite irrational. I don't even know why I'm scared of them, it's not like I was ever hit over the head with one, I just find them quite scary.

Wait, what kind of potato mashers? The ones with the handle, and the squiggly metal rod that you squish the potatoes with?

Yes, that type.

Huh... *is making devious plans*

I'm sorry, but I will need to stop posting here, because when I think about them to much I hyperventilate.

Really? It's THAT serious?!

I am pretty scared of thunder and lightning. I *think* it's called Brontophobia... Anyways, I can not stay alone during a thunderstorm. Whenever I hear or see thunder or lightning, I just stop moving and stay standing there wide-eyed until it stops. There have been cases where I have screamed as well...

And hey, isn't Agoraphobia the fear of public places?

I love thunder and lightning, except when I have to drive in it.
Agoraphobia sort of envelops the fear of people, public places, germs, leaving your home...

Ah.