Category — Fears & Phobias

(Male, middle aged) You know that song “Stuck in a Moment” by U2? I feel like they’re singing that right to me. I have what you could call a fear of regret. It’s almost paralyzing. Looking back on my life I have kept myself from trying so many things entirely because I’m afraid — terrified, actually — that I’ll regret it later. I’ve taken the bland, safe alternative at almost every opportunity, though it’s even hard to say that I’ve been active in choosing those alternatives. It’s more like I’ll stay in the status quo long enough until the opportunity closes. What’s weird is that I’ll often have very strong, very passionate ideas like for business endeavors but I’ll either smother them before I can act or if I can manage to act on them, I’ll let the projects wither before they can really disrupt my “normal” life. What’s up with that?

(Male) This isn’t exactly a phobia but you also ask for “odd aversions.” And I REALLY can’t stand being in a store or really any place for roughly the hour before they close.

If I wanted to make this aversion sound logical and defensible I’d say that I used to work in a shop where I just HATED everyone who walked through the door during that last hour or so because all I really wanted to do was go home and not help people.

But there’s something else working here too, like a childhood fear of abandonment. I still have this strange fear that I’ll get locked in someplace and that instead of security guards, there’ll be Dobermans. I must have seen a movie with this as the premise sometime when I was a kid and it scarred me for life. Y’know a guy locked in a department store who has to survive until the store opens the next day.

Stores that are open 24/7 are a Godsend!

(Male, early 20’s) You ask about strange fears, well, I can’t eat the ends of things. Like hot dogs, I have to chop the ends off. They just look weird. Or eggrolls. I can eat most of one, but as soon as I get through half of it, it starts to look like it’s something else, like it’s a creature that’s excreting something and I just can’t finish. And I can’t eat egg whites, only the yolks maybe because they stay warm longer.

Sometimes, if I’m eating some and I don’t totally dig it, I’ll make it into an end. By imagining it. Like with a breast of a chicken or something. I feel strange when I eat at people’s houses and they make a wonderful meal and i can’t eat the ends of things.

But I love the crusts on bread. Pizza crusts too.