Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Who's afraid of the big, bad wolf?

I’m not but I do have a “sort of” phobia.

According to the dictionary, the definition of a phobia is a “persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous.”  The word phobia is from the Greek “phobos” meaning “fear.”  Did you know all that?  I’m all about educating my readers!!

I have a mild version of Astraphobia.  I’m afraid of thunder and lightning.

While I’m not a psychiatrist, I won’t call it a true phobia because I don’t become so terrified that I can’t function.  But, I do some of the things that are considered symptoms of Astraphobia.  If it's an overnight storm I hide under the covers.  During daytime storms, I close the blinds and attempt to block out sounds of the storm (at home and at work).  Deep in my mind, I know I’m going to be fine but I am still afraid terrified.  I won't look out a window during a storm if I can avoid it because I do NOT want to see that lightening.  I've been on an airplane during a storm.  That was awful.  I actually felt like crying. 

When I was a little kid, if there was a storm my Mom had to come and sleep with me.  I was too afraid to be by myself.  She’d cram herself into my twin bed and stay with me until she was sure I fell back asleep.  If I couldn’t fall asleep she’d stay until it was over.  That poor woman.  I’m not sure how she managed to get up and go to work on the days after that happened.

I’m not so scared that I avoid going outside during storms but I’d rather not.  I do freak out when I’m driving and see a large flash of lightening.  I don’t want to see that!

Now you have more information about me than you needed wanted.  Just promise you won’t make fun of me.  That’d be mean.  You might cause me to develop Anthopophobia.

2 comments:

Ricki said...

When I was a little girl, I had a terrible fear of thunderstorms. I think it was all because of my mom & dad dragging us kids out of a sound sleep in the middle of the night and down to our disgusting hole of a basement during a bad storm. This was in the 50's when they experienced a lot of tornadoes in central SD where we live. I finally outgrew this fear in my mid-20's. Now, I love me a good thunder & lightening storm. The wind though. . .not so much.

Liz said...

I wish I could outgrow my fear. I think it's too late for that! HA! I agree about the wind. Yuck!