QotD: This Totally Freaks Me Out

Do you have any phobias?
Submitted by Amirul B Ruslan.

Yes. I do.

Death - I used to think obsessively about it. A teenaged cousin of mine was killed in a suspicious hit and run accident when I was around 10 or so. There was a scene at the funeral when my Aunt Clara demanded that I go look at Jimmy in the casket.  My mother said I didn't have to go and look at him, but my Aunt insisted until there was a quick tug o' war in the pews. I didn't look. Jimmy had been run over by a big rig truck. I didn't want to see his reconstructed face. I could see his curly reddish hair sticking up out of the casket and that was enough for me. I believe the combination of his early death and the scuffle in the church triggered something because from then on I was different. For a decade death was the first thought in the morning and the last thought at night. Your death, my death, everyone's impending demise. I could have a conversation with you, all the while thinking about you in a casket. My mother took me to the Air Base Chaplin, but I wasn't interested in his vision of an after life. It was getting really bad so I decided embrace it and learn about it instead of keeping it a paralyzing mystery. I submerged myself in death culture. I read so much about the science of death, funerals, death rites, etc that I became somewhat desensitized or maybe bored with it, who knows.

The recent death of my father has rekindled my phobia, guess it's time to go goth again.

Germs - Doesn't everyone travel with a can of Lysol, hand sanitizer, and a bleach cleaner of some type? Although, I have been working on this and will use a public toilet if I have to now. Hell, I'll even pee in a car. I go through phases where I think too much about what is going on in the kitchen of a restaurant and I won't eat out.

I remember MANY years ago being at a party where a girl was cutting slices of cake. Between each slice she would lick her finger, cut a slice then use that slobbery finger to steady the cake piece as she put it on a plate. I watched her do this with about 5 pieces and when it came to mine I said, "would you mind ever so much if you didn't touch my piece with your finger? Use a fork or something?" Oh, good gawd! She gave me the biggest go to hell look then wanted to know, "what is wrong with my finger?" I told her that her finger was fine, it was the spit she kept applying to it - then to the cake, that was bothering me...
I'm not much for birthday cakes where someone has blown out candles either.

Working at a library was a good form of germ submersion therapy. Books are dirty.
Having a cat also makes you face a lot of germy situations head-on, so again, submersion really helps. I never in a million years thought that I would ever sleep with a cat cradled in my arms, but I do!

Frogs - It all started with that bad horror movie of the same name. My mother didn't want me to see it, but I insisted. She said it would give me nightmares, but I didn't care. I still remember the nightmares that movie inspired. She said my sleep was so fitful that she was afraid to wake me up and scare me even more. The frog thing is something I do not plan on ever curing with submersion therapy.

People with Accents - This is my newest phobia. Since we moved to Vancouver I have enountered a variety of accents. My newest phobia has to do with not being able to understand what someone is saying to me. This is so much on my mind that the thought of getting a job where I would have to deal with the public totally mortifies me. On top of it I have an accent and some people up here find it hard to understand me.