Last night, while unwinding and laying in bed, my husband and I started talking about weird phobias. I don’t quite remember how we got onto that topic, but it was an interesting one nonetheless. We talked about strange fears we had when we were little. I had a few odd ones.
First, I had this fear of tornadoes. Why? I honestly don’t know. I had never experienced one before, but my dreams were plagued by them. If I had a nightmare, 9 times out of 10 it involved a tornado. I eventually got over my fear. Actually what helped was when I learned to lucid dream. Instead of letting that fear take a hold of me, I took a hold of it. I took control of the dream, I made the tornadoes stop.
The technical term for this fear (tornadoes) is Lilapsophobia. Yes, it has a name. Pretty much every fear/phobia has a name. We looked them up. So now I’m gonna share with you a couple of my fears.
Trypanophobia– Fear of injections.This fear is a very common fear that affects not just kids but adults as well. It may have arisen from the fear of discomfort or anticipation that they know that they will feel pain when poked with a needle. Thus he or she might avoid medical treatment or becomes extremely anxious when subjected to medical procedures. There are 4 different types of Trypanophobia. First there is Vasovagal Trypanophobia, which manifests as fainting due to an inherited vasovagal response causing a drop in blood pressure. The second is Associative Trypanophobia, where fear is brought about by the association of pain with the procedure. Third is Resistive Trypanophobia, which is associated with being restricted or pinned down during the procedure. And lastly we have Hyperalgesic Trypanophobia, which occurs in people who have heightened sensitivity to pain and thus the pain of a needle prick is magnified in these persons causing them to fear the procedure.
I have Vasovagal Trypanophobia. It didn’t develop until I was in grade 7. I remember that experience so clearly. We had to get 3 needles over the course of the school year to vaccinate us from HepB. The first needle was fine. The second needle, well that’s when things changed. I was the last person to get it done. I thought the nurse was done with the needle but apparently not. I saw the whole thing. I saw her stick it in, inject me and pull it out. I passed out. And ever since then I’ve had issues with needles. The thought of getting a needle is enough to make me sick. I can’t even watch it being done on a tv show or movie. I have to cover my eyes and wait until my husband tells me it’s over.
Dentophobia– Fear of dentists. Dentophobia is the exaggerated and unwarranted fear of dental care. This phobia is also known as odontophobia. Some people suffer from dentophobia to such an extremity that even seeing a dental surgery image can cause distress. I most cases, this phobia stems from a traumatic experience at the dentist in childhood. Some people only pay a visit to their dentist when they have dental emergencies because of it. The procedures that they have to undergo may be more difficult than the usual procedures, thus aggravating the fear. As well, the sound of drills can be very discomforting for some and can add to the already traumatic experience. People also tend to exaggerate dental fear stories that can further increase or breed the phobia. In some people dentophobia causes can include disease such as tooth decay.
This is another fear of mine, believe it or not. I use to be fine with going to the dentist. Well I had to as a teen because I had braces, which meant going to the dentist once a month. It wasn’t until I was in my 20’s that I developed this fear. And it was all because the mean hygienist. She was so cruel, made the experience unsettling. In another case, different hygienist, while they were cleaning my teeth she popped out one of my fillings! You’re doing it wrong if my filling comes out… Then there was this other time when I was getting a filling done, the numbing stuff kept wearing off, so they kept having to poke me with more needles. And as you now know, I have Vasovagal Trypanophobia. So more needles is not good. My dentist then decreed that from that point on I get the BIG needle that goes into the back of my jaw. So uncomfortable!
The Wandering Iris 