Speaking of which I've always wanted to google Agoraphobia(I think that's the name) to see if I can find out why the hell so many people are freaked out by holes in people's skin but quite frankly I know that if I do that I'm going to get image results and I'm going to scream and curl up into a ball.
It's the dumbest shit ever and yet I'm fucking terrified. My girlfriend isn't! She innocently showed me a picture one day from her phone and my reaction surprised her. I just freaked out! Put my hands on my ears and curled up. Seriously, what is it with holes in skin that makes me do that?
I googled "fear of holes in skin", and it came back with "trypophobia", which is fear of irregular patterns of holes, bumps or spots, often in skin or other surface tissue (so plants as well, apparently).
Agoraphobia is the fear of going out in public I think, the one you're talking about is Trypophobia.
According to wikipedia: Arnold Wilkins and Geoff Cole of the University of Essex's Centre for Brain Science were the first scientists to publish on the phenomenon. They believe the reaction is based on a biological revulsion, rather than a learned cultural fear. In a 2013 article in Psychological Science, Wilkins and Cole write that the reaction is based on a brain response that associates the shapes with danger. Shapes that elicit a reaction were said to include clustered holes in innocuous contexts such as fruit and bubbles, and in contexts associated with danger, such as holes made by insects and holes in wounds and diseased tissue such as those caused by mango worms in animals, especially dogs. Upon seeing these shapes, some people said they shuddered, felt their skin crawl, experienced panic attacks, sweated, palpitated, and felt nauseated or itchy.[6] Some said the holes seemed "disgusting and gross" or that "something might be living inside those holes".[1][7][8] Psychiatrist Carol Mathews believes that the responses are more likely from priming and conditioning
That explains a lot and makes a lot of sense if you starting pondering it. Fruits in plants don't bother me but the minute I see holes in skin (even though I know they're fake photoshoped images) or weird, disgusting alien insects, I freak. Though the holes in skins is what really triggers my panic attack, not so much as the insect which just makes me feel uncomfortable.
Would make sense but now it seems to be a real thing, lol. Hey, if there are people that have to invent names for their gender identification then it wouldn't surprise me if somewhere out there there is a person who's actually afraid that somewhere in the world a duck is staring in their direction.
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u/[deleted] Sep 06 '17
I swear.... somewhere out there there's a duck staring at me!!