Sunday, November 09, 2003
Phobia or Just Gross?
[Or Oingo Boingo, depending on your education.]
In response to my post about bugs in ears, Days Go By found a list of phobias and their proper names. FEARS
But then she raised the issue of those who fear being coughed on or someone touching their food, etc. I think there is a difference between a phobia and a general disgust for something another human being does.
A phobia is: an exaggerated usually inexplicable and illogical fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation
Whereas general disgust is usually based on some type of evidence, in my case, scientific. Allow me to explain:
You all know full and well my fear of paooki. (Do we all know what that is now? Think 8 legged freaks.) Arachnids terrorize me, stop my heart literally upon sight and do all sorts of physical reactions to my system...goosebumps, shortness of breath, etc. They haunt me in my dreams. I have had horrid nightmares involving paooki and I wake up feeling totally unrested and sometimes sweating. Yet, this fear is psychological.
Same with claustrophobia. I have that too. I cannot stand elevators, I cannot ride in the back seat of a two door car, I do not like it when someone has hold of my wrists and won’t let go, I can’t be in the middle of a shoving, tight crowd at a concert, (which isn’t so bad....you’ll soon see why), and I fear being in an earthquake or accident where it takes rescue workers hours or days to free me from the mess. I have nightmares that include this fear.
And when my mind feels like being a real pain, it plays a double feature, feasting on my arachnaphobia AND claustrophobia. (Think trapped in an elevator with thousands of paooki coming towards you.)
Again, this is psychological as is the arachnaphobia. Now I know exactly why I have these fears, (but I’m not going to discuss those reasons here), and I admit, they are no longer rational.
When I took Psychology in college, we discussed phobias and ways to help people move past them. The two ways were:
Flooding: Immerse the victim person into their fear. For claustrophobics, make them ride an elevator over and over. For arachnaphobia, shove them into a room full of paooki. (Right....that is my NIGHTMARE people...NOT a solution, kay?!)
Gradual: Let’s take arachnaphobia. Week one you may begin discussing paooki. (And you can all tell how well that worked for me because I can’t even stand to say the English word.) Week two would be to look at photographs of them. (HAHAHAHA! Wrong. If I pick up a magazine, innocently reading, minding my own business, turn the page and I see a pic of a paook, that magazine usually ends up on the other side of the room within a nanosecond. If Discovery Channel shows a commercial for Jaws and Claws with that &^%$#@! foot in diameter Amazon paook leaping towards the camera, it will cause me nightmares that night. No question.) Week three the psychologist may bring in a jar with a paook inside. (Bring your pet in, but I’m not looking at it and I’m not sitting near it and if you break that damn jar, I’m outta there.) Week four, the psychologist will open the jar. (Are you fricken nuts? The damn thing might escape! Put the lid back on NOW!) Week five you might touch the jar. (I think not.) Week six you might put your hand inside. (Oh this is getting worse and worse.) Week seven you would touch the paook inside the jar. (And my psychologist would then have to put a straight jacket on me and ship me off.) Week eight you would be able to take the paook out of the jar and let it crawl on you. (That is just sick and wrong.) But apparently it is supposed to work. Well, it doesn’t work, these little sadistic tricks of theirs. See, when I got out of the Army, I went back to visit friends and that was right at the time Arachnaphobia was out in theatres. Now, not having gone to college yet and not taken this class, I think it’s amazing that I already knew that the whole, “Flooding” thing was supposed to be a cure all. So I watched the movie. My friend and I were the only two in that theatre screaming. Everyone else was laughing because we were screaming. I don’t scream....except during this movie. Flooding didn’t work. Some may argue, “Well! Look at the movie you picked.” Hey, I don’t remember much about the plot, (if there was one), all I remember is paooki in the shower, paooki under the lamp shade, paooki everywhere. And the fear increased. I will just have to live with this fear because there is no way in hell I’m doing the gradual approach knowing that in a few short weeks, some nasty, ugly, paook will be touching me. Bzzzt. Wrong!
Anyway, I do believe though that there is a difference between phobia, fear and general disgust.
Example: I also fear needles but that’s because they hurt!
When it comes to general disgust, I do not like it when someone coughs without covering their mouths and I HATE it when people do not wash their hands after going to the bathroom, eating a meal, after they insert or remove a contact lense, after blowing their nose, blowing a kid’s nose, sneezing, taking out the trash, etc.
Many diseases are spread via person to person contact on door knobs, handles, coffee pots, pens, desks, etc. When I worked in corporate America it was widely known, DO. NOT. TOUCH. MY. DESK. That meant don’t touch my keyboard and if you absolutely had to because I wasn’t there, you better tell me about it because I will find out. How do I find out? Because every, damn time someone did, I would get sick within a week. Every. Single. Time.
I can’t remember the last time I’ve opened a public door with my bare hands. I can’t remember the last time I’ve punched in my pin # with my fingers and not my knuckles. I touch NOTHING in the bathroom and I still wash for a good 15 seconds. (The time it takes to sing Happy Birthday in your head.)
My friends love to make jokes about how I’m Howard Hughes and I am crazy. I’m not crazy. Since I quit touching things that the general public touches, (oh, and yes, in the grocery store, if I can help it, I carry the little carts with a sleeve over my hand, thank you!), I don’t get sick anymore. By that I mean, the only time I get sick is when my spine and neck injuries cause such severe headaches that I get sick but colds, flus, etc? Nope. Several years ago, a study was done around several office buildings within the United States, (can’t find a link), and they discovered small traces of human fecal matter on people’s desks. Gee, how do you think that got there?
You’ve all heard of the Norwalk Virus right? I used to work at a cruiseline. I’m well educated on the Norwalk Virus. Many, many times it is transfered from person to person contact, ie: people who don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom or vomiting. Read it for yourself here: CDC-Norwalk
As for coughing or sneezing on me? I learned this little number when I was in 8th grade science class. Our teacher gave us all petri dishes and asked us to cough and if possible, sneeze in them. Then he incubated the dishes for two weeks. Now I was a VERY healthy child. My lab partner was sick and coughing that day. We got our dishes back. Even though I was the model of health, I still had some growth in my petri dish. That’s disgusting. My lab partner? Hers was covered in bacterial growth. And I mean, covered. You think about that the next time someone coughs in your direction without covering their mouths. Your body will act as the incubator and all that nasty, phlegm, gray, bacteria looking growth will be inside YOU!
Now, is that a phobia or is that just downright foul?
[update] Rammer: How I wish you would have warned me about the pic on your site. Please note, I cannot visit your site for awhile until I am certain that image is off the screen. Anyone who clicks that trackback and fears paooki as much as I do, I will warn you, DON’T click it unless you don’t mind images of paooki. Now, I need to go scream and then throw up.
