Fiction & Photos
How It All Began
It started with a fear of water. Innocent enough. Bleeker and Davey, me, four years old, a kiddie pool, and a bucket.
I coughed all night, and then came down with a cold. The cold became strep throat and I was sick for a week. That's the most vivid of my early memories: lying in bed, trying not to swallow.
Hydrophobia: Fear of Water. Not to be confused with rabies. Also known as Aquaphobia.
To this day, I don't swim. I don't like beaches, pools, lakes, or even large puddles. Taking a shower is okay. Lucky for you.
Unfortunately for me, that one innocent incident led to other things. Less pleasant things. I was nervous all the time. I threw up on my first day of school--once on the way and once at lunchtime. It happened every day for a week. My parents took me to a doctor. I was scared, and threw up in the doctor's office. The doctor sent me to a psychologist, the first of many in my lifetime. I didn't know that part yet. I couldn't even imagine what I was doing there. I was too busy throwing up.
Neophobia: Fear of the New.
I don't like new situations. I don't like new people, new movies, new haircuts. I've had the same haircut for fifteen years. I watch Woody Allen movies every weekend; I have the entire collection. I've watched it at least ten times. My favorite is "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask."
The haircut isn't bad. Standard guy cut, nothing remarkable about it. Little bit of a fade on the back and sides. I always have the barber check my hairline to see if it's receding. Phalacrophobia is the fear of becoming bald. I looked it up one day. But I don't think that one's taken over my life.
***
This story inspired by the Jan. 18 picture and the Phobia List. If I could just figure out what the point of the story is, I might have an intriguing character here...
I coughed all night, and then came down with a cold. The cold became strep throat and I was sick for a week. That's the most vivid of my early memories: lying in bed, trying not to swallow.
Hydrophobia: Fear of Water. Not to be confused with rabies. Also known as Aquaphobia.
To this day, I don't swim. I don't like beaches, pools, lakes, or even large puddles. Taking a shower is okay. Lucky for you.
Unfortunately for me, that one innocent incident led to other things. Less pleasant things. I was nervous all the time. I threw up on my first day of school--once on the way and once at lunchtime. It happened every day for a week. My parents took me to a doctor. I was scared, and threw up in the doctor's office. The doctor sent me to a psychologist, the first of many in my lifetime. I didn't know that part yet. I couldn't even imagine what I was doing there. I was too busy throwing up.
Neophobia: Fear of the New.
I don't like new situations. I don't like new people, new movies, new haircuts. I've had the same haircut for fifteen years. I watch Woody Allen movies every weekend; I have the entire collection. I've watched it at least ten times. My favorite is "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Sex But Were Afraid to Ask."
The haircut isn't bad. Standard guy cut, nothing remarkable about it. Little bit of a fade on the back and sides. I always have the barber check my hairline to see if it's receding. Phalacrophobia is the fear of becoming bald. I looked it up one day. But I don't think that one's taken over my life.
***
This story inspired by the Jan. 18 picture and the Phobia List. If I could just figure out what the point of the story is, I might have an intriguing character here...
Add a Comment
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Comment by TadMack on March 3, 2008 at 8:28am
- He's very thorough, anyway -- knows the names of all of his fears! I'm intrigued by why that's his favorite Allen film, too... I somehow thought Genophobia, or fear of sex, would be right on top of his list as well...
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