siiiiiiiigh. I have to go to the dentist today. It won't be a big deal THIS TIME but I have work coming and the very idea makes my skin crawl. Now don't get me wrong, my dentist is a super nice guy and my family has gone to him for years but when I know a trip to the dentist is coming up I start to freak out just a little bit. Looking back, I realize I have valid reasons for this. I grew up in a teensy tiny town where there was only one dentist. The dude did NOT like little kids. No matter how still I might be, he growled at me about 'opening wider', he never smiled, and it had been said that he would smack the hands of kids who squirmed too much. I never got a 'hand smack' but my little sister did.In later years, any dental work that required those long-assed needles for deadening almost sent me off the roof. For some reason, I don't deadened easily and I learned this the hard way. Maybe it's just the idea that I am immobile and someones fingers are in my mouth that just freaks me the hell out. About a year ago during a routine cleaning, a crown in the back of my mouth was jarred loose and knocked down my throat. Sounds violent, doesn't it? Well, it wasn't THAT violent but in my mind, it was creepy as hell. I sat up instantly and the hygenist is pounding my back as the whole office comes running. Looking back, I kind of laugh imaging the whole crazy episode but this also serves to emphasize to me that me and dentists don't mix!
Though I am genuinely a pretty brave person, there are a number of things that I could do without. Things that freak me out. I have a fear of enclosed places. I'll never forget vacationing in Mexico and climbing into a 'viewing room' in a glass bottomed boat. It wasn't really a room but a long narrow hallway thing with stools lined along it. Somehow I was in the middle with people on either side. I couldn't breathe, couldn't think. It was dark and airless and I just knew I had to get out of there and fast but it was impossible. Just watching the folks on those shows about Egyptian pyramids freaks me out once they begin climbing through those narrow spaces. GAH.
Phobias. I think maybe we all have them. What are some of yours?
34 comments:
What freaks me out?
The dentist. Snakes. People who try to veil their comments/words. People with dirty hair and or fingernails. And men with pug noses.
I think that covers it.
Good luck with the dentist. I had a couple of dentist experiences. Both bad. One when I was six and one when I was twenty-six. The first was painful and the second was sexual harassment. Yep, dentists creep me out for sure.
Tight spaces freak me out and tall bridges. I can't breathe driving over them. lol
Ohhhhh, I hate the dentist!!! Good luck. But, I'd have to say I have a huge phobia to ticks. Growing up in NJ seems like I had one in my hair every week. Back then they thought heat made the buggers back out so someone with a cigarette or freshly blown out match would be coming at my head all the time. Nooooo, I wasn't ever burned, but damn I hate those things.
Snakes scare the crap out of me too, but the tick thing is a true phobia, lol.
Oh heck. Amber just reminded me. Bridges. I hate tall bridges, drawbridges, and long bridges. The Lake Ponchartrain Causeway is THE WORST. Almost 24 miles long. OH GOD. Just thinking about driving over that thing gives me the creeps.
Raising my hand - the dentist! I'm with Amber, driving over high bridges. Shudder....
Enclosed places creep me out. I have to sit on the aisle, too, because sitting where I'm surrounded on all sides wigs me.
Rats. I freakin' hate rats.
A great big yes to dirty fingernails and hair. Ewwww
Mr. Regina has a huge fear of heights and yes, bridges. Every trip we take calls for him to pull over so I can drive over them. LOL
Ew, Debbie TICKS!!!! I sooo get that one. Freaky.
I've got too many to mention, seriously, but the dentist is one of them.
:o)
Gotcha Melissa. Those enclosed places! No air, can't move. I've heard stories about people who were buried alive and GOD. I can't imagine.
siiiigh. Yes, the dentist. I'm off now but I'll be back. Yeesh. Hate this.
LOL Tess MacKall on the men with pug noses.
I have a strange phobia. Bring on the snakes, spiders, rats, and other creey crawlies. But I am terrified of plants of any kind. Especially ones with big leaves. I watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers when I was 3 and it was all she wrote!
enclosed spaces- I was locked in a trunk when I was 7 or so by a neighbor kid. Can't stand them since. Also snakes, not sure why they just creep me out.
I HATE the dentist. I'd rather crawl through a pit of snakes...and I'm terrified of them. The last dentist had me in tears. Not from pain. He was MEAN. As a child I had to be given HIGH doses of tetracycline for respiratory problems. Later they discovered babies given it... my first teeth came in gray and my adult teeth came in yellow. I was told my teeth would fall out by the time I was 30 from the damage it also does to gums. I've taken really good care of them, I'm 40, and still have all my own teeth. The dentist blocked my mouth open to give me a cleaning and once he muted me... tore into me about smoking and coffee...insulting the hell out of me. I was stunned, horrified, and it really made me cry. I pulled out the blocks and told him to go to hell and why they were that color. I was shaking, I was so upset. He apologized but...not real proud of this, I flipped him off and stormed away. He followed me into the waiting room to apologize again and said now that he knew... I take very good care of my teeth and he's never seen anyone with damage that bad from the drug still have teeth at my age. I told him I've never met anyone so insensitive and now I knew he was an ass. LOL. Yeah...I haven't gone back. Every time I think about it...I remember that so I don't go.
OMG Debra! Plants??? LOL. That's the funniest and weirdest thing. Isn't it bizarre how childhood stuff will stick with you. I'm imagining you worried about turning into a pod thingie when you walk outside.
Nanny, I remember in all the Indiana Jones movies how everyone freaked at the one with all the snakes but that Temple of Doom and The Last Crusade with the spiders and rats just squicked me out.
Laurann, I feel your pain about the dentist and the one you dealt with should have been reported somewhere. Mine is a really nice, gentle, sweet guy and it still freaks me out but THIS ONE??? He needed a smack in the nose.
Well, now that I've seen the picture on your blog of the old-timey dentist, the DENTIST is now a phobia. LOL...
I am in that group that hates tall briges, especially over water, or anything to do with deep water as a matter of fact.
I don't have many phobias other than those. Good luck with the dentist!
I'm the phobia queen...I definitely feel your pain with the dentist. And also spiders (any bugs, really) moths, enclosed spaces and clowns!!!
Oh this is sooo easy! SPIDERS!! I hate those eight-legged freaks with a passion! I mean, I know God has all infinite wisdom--and I don't question Him--but I'd just like to know what was His whole plan behind creating those creatures??? Really, Noah couldn't have left THEM OFF THE ARK??? LOL!!!
Both my sister and I are terrified of them. When we were younger we stapled the spider section together in the Encyclopedia Britannica so we wouldn't flip to it by mistake. Just the commercials of the movie, "Arachnaphobia" gave me nightmares for two weeks. And I STILL haven't seen the part with Shelob in "LOTR: Return of the King"!! Now that is just freaky!! *shiver* Hate 'em.
Next on the list...water bugs!! Seriously! They FLY! They f-ing fly! Where I grew up in NJ you just had plain roaches. But I move to Alabama and the mofos FLY!! And you have to kill 'em with a brick because shoes don't work!! One got in my daughter's room one time--she was four--and she was crying asking me to get it. All I could do was look at her, shrug my shoulders and hold my hands up like, I don't know what we gon' do. Cuz I couldn't go near it!! My most sterling moment as a mother, no. Spiders and water bugs...they steal my I'm-woman-hear-me-roar attitude and turn me into a punk! LOL!
Hey Carol, I understand this pic was from some of Mark Twain's stuff that is in the Smithsonian. Dentistry has improved lots since those days but I'm still freaked by a trip to the dentist. Left today with a raging headache.
Oh Bron and Naima...spiders are soooo ick. They don't rank (at least for me) with rats but Shelob (from Return of the King) and Arachnophobia freaked me the hell out. My daughter totally freaks over them.
Roaches. And being underwater. My oldest brother was murdered by kids who held him under the water. I don't know if it had anything to do with that or the fact that I almost drowned twice as a kid but being underwater totally flips me out. I didn't even learn to swim until I was 26.
My dentist is hot. So not afraid of going there...
Lots of people hate the dentist. I can see why you are. My phobia is fire. I've been in two when I was a kid-one in our house and one when our camping trailer completely burned while on vacation. I freaked out both times. FIL gave us an old kerosene heater a few years ago. I was furious. Won't allow it in the house. And I'd never own a gas stove. The stove blew up when I was a kid.
The dentist. I had a horrible dentist as a child. I cried and he put his hand over my mouth and said, "we will have none of that in my office". I've been freaked out every since. Its a big deal for me when I have to go.
Clowns creep me out. When I say I have cried because one got too close to me I would not be lying. I've just always had a fear of them. Something about their makeup and their clothes, I guess I feel like behind it all their psychopaths.
Spiders. Hate spiders. I have a terrific dentist. I told her if she ever moves out of state I'm coming with her. lol
Lex, under the circumstances I can understand your fear of water. What a horrible, awful thing for your family to go through.
Kathy, I hear you on the kerosene heater. I wouldn't have one of those in my house either. The thought of losing everything to a house fire is scary as hell.
Yep, Madison, similar to my experience. I've noticed lots of dentists advertising they a 'kid friendly' and some do nothing BUT children. I think it's a great idea because bad 'dentist behavior' can effect a person for their entire life.
Sheridan...I HATE CLOWNS TOO!!! Couldn't agree more. You know what freaks me out? The Burger King commercials with the dumb king and his plastic head. YEESH. That's kind of clownish...freaky.
Spiders don't normally bother me that much, Anne BUT those big suckers with the hairy legs have got to GO.
Corn and being told to concentrate on breathing. I'm not positive but I don't think they're related.
Post a Comment