The Miraclefish family have some very odd phobias...
Mine are needles (fairly normal) and contact lenses. I can handle eyeballs (literally, years ago at college), touching my eyes and eye drops.

But...contact lenses? Hell no. They can go behind your eyes, harden up and sever your optical nerve, dry out and stick to your retina, tearing it as you take it off or a thousand other things that are pure evil*.

*Some, all or none of this is true. I don't care.

Now, my brother has a phobia of things touching wrists. Not just his, but anyones. Tap your wrist? He'll freak out. Wear a watch too tight? Spazz time. If he sees a film with a wrist cutting seen, that's it, he's gone foetal.

And his other phobia? Straws. Drinking straws. If his drink has one in, he has to ask someone else to get it out. He can't touch it himself.

One time, I did ask him to imagine his wrist being pierced with a straw, and drinking something through it. He went to a dark place. I'm a bad, bad man...

Now, my dad is terrified of millipedes. Why? He can't tell us. And flying. Why? "Anyone who isn't truly terrified by flying hasn't grasped what is actually going on."

My mum is afraid of the feel of duvets, you know, when they're a bit fuzzy and stick to your skin because of the fibres.

My cousin is afraid of the feel of wet wood. Dry wood is fine. Another cousin is terrified of the taste of metal. So spoons are not his friend.

A family friend, an ex military guy, brutal footballer and hero policeman is rendered immobile with terror at the sight of a spider. He once leapt from the passenger seat of a squad car at 40mph because a bit of fluff blew along the dashboard and 'looked like a spider.'

He threw a shoe at a spider on his study wall and squished it, but can't bring himself to clean it up. But wouldn't let me do it because 'if it's there, I know where it is...'

Once, when he lived with my brother, my bro found a dead spider which had become seperated from its legs. He manouvered them into a P shape, my friend's initial, and left them on his windowsill with the rest of the unlucky arachnid.

When Hero Cop saw the vision from hell, he screamed and wouldn't re-enter the house until the evil, demon creature was gone.
(Miraclefish How appropriate, you fight like a cow, Thu 10 Apr 2008, 17:26, Reply)