embarrassing phobia

ok, basically I've always had a bad relationship with food and somehow i developed a pretty irrational phobia of a particular fruit (so much so i can't look at a picture or write the word :frown:

) i have a fear of some others but this particular phobia ruined my second year of college after a food fight in the canteen which basically caused me to become ill after it was thrown near me, i never went into the canteen again after that and lost a lot of my friends as a result

since starting uni i have been ok so far because i can pretty much avoid the situation and have become slightly better, i can even stay within a meter or so of the fruit however i'm sure my friends notice that i become pretty antisocial when it's around :confused:

my problem is next year i am living in a house with three of my friends from uni but i don't know how i can cope with this, i have told one of them who i would class as my best friend from uni however i don't think she took me entirely seriously :redface:

the only two people to really understand and be aware of it are my mum and my best friend from home who have seen me at my worst around it (in tears etc)

sorry for the long post but i am now seriously worrying about next year, how do i tell them/get them to realise that i'm not joking without sounding like a complete freak ???

thanks for any replies in advance :smile:

Reply 1

rye225

13

what's the fruit a bannana???

Reply 2

hannah_dru

2

Find out if there's a name for it- ask a doctor, look in encyclopaedias, a medical book etc. There has to be a name for the phobia of fruits. Show these people it and then they'll realise that you're not making it up and that its serious. Failing that, I guess they'll have to actually experience a situation to grasp some kind of concept. I can relate to this quite well actually.

Reply 3

Anonymous #1

OP

yes your right but please that word is just......

Reply 4

hannah_dru

2

rye225

what's the fruit a bannana???

That's just mean. At least give the girl some privacy.

Reply 5

yaf

right so this might be bad advise but

i think (im not saying im right but )

im my experiance telling yourself you have a phobia/fear of something makes it ok for you to freak out at somthing because you are able to justify your behavour because one can tell themselves they have a phobia of it

i think its a bad state of mind that can convince yourself into thinking (subconsciously) you have a phobia and it just exasserbates the situation

i came to this conclusion when i started to become fearful of baked beans. and so now i just tell myself that i dont have a phobia or a fear i justdont want to touch them or smell them .i think if i had let myself tell myself i had a fear i would not beable to look at them ( which im not mad on)
ok so hope this helps / makes sense!

Reply 6

saoirse

10

Is it a fear of it touching you? The sensation?

Does it make any difference if its peeled?

Reply 7

linkdapink

15

I'm scared of Whales, and hence won't even go into the sea. My friends all think that I'm a right freak and find it hilarious to pick me up and chuck me in the water. They learnt pretty soon afterwards that I wasnt joking, and they just let me sunbathe now. So in my experience, they've got to experience you freaking out before they realise it.

Reply 8

Anonymous #1

OP

i think i'm getting better but i've had this for as long as i can remember...so it's pretty difficult to overcome it and it's just everything although at one point i was becoming fearful of the colour yellow but i managed to overcome that

Reply 9

Psyk

16

Rei

LOL phobia of a banana, anyone else thinking troll?

No. Phobias like this do exist and they can be pretty bad. I hate the way everyone cries troll on here whenever there's something a bit unusual.

Reply 10

hannah_dru

2

Anonymous

i think i'm getting better but i've had this for as long as i can remember...so it's pretty difficult to overcome it and it's just everything although at one point i was becoming fearful of the colour yellow but i managed to overcome that

Yeah I've had a phobia of pigeons since I was little. I dunno what age or why so its pretty tough to overcome it. Plus, even if I tell myself I don't have a phobia, the damn things just know.

Reply 11

mackemforever

17

Having a phobia of a thing that appears to most people as a perfectly normal every day item is not unusual.
I know somebody who has a phobia of buttons, but only "free buttons" i.e. buttons that are not attached to anything, another friend who has a phobia of ties (as in the sort you wear around your neck), its not that unusual.

Reply 12

Rei

14

Psyk

No. Phobias like this do exist and they can be pretty bad. I hate the way everyone cries troll on here whenever there's something a bit unusual.

I can accept phobia's of spiders and what not, but a ****ing banana.. come on.

Reply 13

death.drop

16

I agree with what's said above. explain to them with the help of a website or something, detailing your phobia, or if not specifically the type of fruit then fruit in general.
if that fails they will just have to see you freak out and i'm sure that will make them much more considerate.

I have a phobia of geraniums and most of my mates think I'm just having a laugh but a few of them have seen me properly freak out and are really good about it now. they still have a joke about it occasionally, and it is quite funny. I know they don't mean anything by it and just laugh along.

it might be worth seeing your uni counsellor about it, they might be able to reduce the fear and change your thinking patterns. that might make your friends realise you're being serious too.

Reply 14

Psyk

16

Rei

I can accept phobia's of spiders and what not, but a ****ing banana.. come on.

I know it sounds really weird but it's more common than you'd think.

Reply 15

redflower

13

I know 2 people with the exact same phobia as you. You're not the only one :smile:

Reply 16

warblade

Theres someone in my house that has tuna phobia - that's actually a pretty cool name "tunaphobic" ahha but yea i mean i know it's weird she told us pretty much on the 1st day we met and we all fine most of the times i forget about it and if im eating it and im next to her she gently moves and i dont even realise for a while - but then again is not like we gonna start throwing tuna at her and i suppose the same would happen with the fruit which name may remain undisclosed.

Reply 17

lolilady---O

1

my friend sent me this video the other day, she thought it was hilarious. it's not that funny :confused:

you might relate tho

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WalNjhdmurI
(don't watch after 30secs, no fruit is shown at start)

& to your room-mates, if you want to avoid lots of questions & having to explain yourself couldn't you just say you're alergic to fruit? & you can't be in near it? Say it's as serious as a major nut allergy,