When I was very young I was getting in bed and a spider came walking up between my sheets. I made my mother tear all the sheets off my bed and inspect them to make sure that it wasn't a mommy spider with a bunch of babies.
Snakes terrify me because the summer I was about 6 I was almost bitten twice by poisonious (sp) snakes at both the front and back door of our house. They were both on the brick wall. One leapt off the wall at me as I stepped out of the front door and missed my head and foot both by a fraction. Ever since have hated snakes. Especially since I can't tell poisonous from non-poisonous.
Have a terrible fear of heights that have made it difficult to fly, use bridges and open balconies. I fly now but make sure I get an aisle seat - for some reason that helps. If the bridge is flat and not too high its okay but for bridges that do bother me I make sure that if it is multiple lanes not to be on the outside lane. I have also learned to tunnel my vision so that I am conccentrating on the vehicle in front of me - the bigger the better like an 18 wheeler. That way I'm not seeing the down part. Its not the bridge but the height. I can go across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel which is 15 miles long and it doesn't bother me but the Annapolis Bridge is really hard. Its the height.
One phobia I have but don't know what it is called is a fear of water that I can't see through. A swimming pool doesn't bother me but water that I can't see what is in it drives me crazy. If I go in the ocean I have to have raft and I pull my feet up as soon as possible and I can't wade in it except at the very edge. The reason is when I was 9 I was in the ocean no higher than my knees and a crab tore up the ball of my left foot with its claws. Ever since the only way I can stand to be in water that I can see what is in it is to not have my feet on the bottom hanging on to a raft. So even though I live at the beach I never go in the ocean.
