Dysfunction Junkies

We ask if phobias are truly dysfunctional—and test the line between rational caution and irrational panic

Chrisy & Kerry Season 1 Episode 63

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The Dysfunciton of Phobias and Fears is on the list this episode. If you can stand on a mountain ledge but freeze on a glass walkway, this one’s for you.  We also scan a Halloween‑flavored list of phobias (arachnophobia, coulrophobia, nyctophobia, and more), laughing at the labels without dismissing the lived reality behind them. Under the humor sits a practical core: fear becomes dysfunctional when it narrows your life.

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SPEAKER_03:

Welcome to the Dysfunction Junkies Podcast. We may not have seen it all, but we've seen enough. And now, here are your hosts, Chrissy and Carrie.

SPEAKER_01:

Hello, Junkies. I'm Carrie. And I'm Chrissy. Alrighty, it is Chrissy's favorite time of year.

SPEAKER_02:

One of them.

SPEAKER_01:

One of them. The precursor to them.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, yeah. Although I don't know. There's all kinds of things going on that make me a little anxious about this time of year at the same time. I kind of long for those more simple days of I don't know what. You don't know when that is. Well, before the internet, I'm guessing.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, yeah, this is true.

SPEAKER_02:

So, but uh a lot of people our age probably feel that they miss some part of that. Yeah. Don't get me wrong, I I love certain parts of the internet very much. We can talk about that another time, but but in general, yes, I love the idea of this time of year.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, the fall time, but getting into Halloween. Yeah. So today we're gonna talk about dysfunctional phobias. Are they dysfunctional? Are they not dysfunctional? Is it I don't know. Do you have any if a phobia?

SPEAKER_03:

Let me read a definition of phobia. Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Nick's yes, chomping at the bit. Google Nick, please. We're gonna call you Google Nick.

SPEAKER_03:

A phobia is a persistent and irrational fear of a specific object, situation, or activity that poses little or no real danger.

SPEAKER_01:

Huh. That's life. I was just I was gonna say the same exact thing. I have life phobia. What's the name of that? It's gotta have a name. Google that. Life phobia of life.

SPEAKER_02:

Wait, oh Charlie Brown had that. Oh, yeah. Remember he had the phobia of every what was the episode? The Christmas episode.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

There's a name for it.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_02:

But I can't remember. Lucy told him.

SPEAKER_01:

We'll have to get to that one. We'll give Nick a chance to Google that shit.

SPEAKER_02:

No wonder I love Charlie Brown so much.

SPEAKER_03:

Isn't it? It's Gemini now. It's not Google anymore. You know, it's the AI.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I didn't know that.

SPEAKER_03:

It's the AI aspect of Google. We're so old school now.

unknown:

Oh gosh.

SPEAKER_03:

So the phobia of life itself is known as apyrophobia. I hope I'm saying that.

SPEAKER_01:

Apyrophobia. Is that A-P-E-I-R?

SPEAKER_03:

A-P-E-E-I-R-O and then phobia.

SPEAKER_02:

Phobia. A-P-E-I-R phobia.

SPEAKER_03:

I could be saying that wrong. No, I bet you you're right.

SPEAKER_02:

No, that sounds about right. I think that's what maybe Lucy did say in that. Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Now Google Intense anxiety and panic attacks when contemplating life. So that's a pyrophobia. That's a symptom of it. Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Is that the same as fear of everything?

SPEAKER_01:

I'm sure there's probably another one. Nick's gotta get those fingers going on that phone there. Try to Google. We're gonna have a lot of Googling right now. Or what do we call it? Geminiing. Geminiing. We're gonna be Geminiing.

SPEAKER_03:

Panophobia is the fear of everything.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, that's the panophobia.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh is that the one in the Charlie Brown?

SPEAKER_02:

It was the Christmas episode. Yes, that's what she said.

SPEAKER_03:

Panophobia is fear of everything.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

So I would say most of your phobias are somewhat dysfunctional because they're they're they are irrational.

SPEAKER_02:

I heard the word irrational in things.

SPEAKER_01:

So I so I would He's saying that with the most adoring and loving look in his eyes as he's looking adoringly.

SPEAKER_03:

I just I just adore my wife anyhow, but I have my phobias too, so I'm not I'm not with that.

SPEAKER_01:

Coffee. No tomatoes, sauerkraut.

SPEAKER_03:

No, I the heights thing.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm is that what your fear is? Yeah, he doesn't like heights. Chrissy, what's your fear? Besides of everything, besides panophobia and apurophobia.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I don't like heights to some extent. I don't know. I guess because I generalize just being freaked out by almost anything. So it's it's like really a sort of a downer for me. Yeah. I I wouldn't even be able to tell you something that would be impactful. Because you'd just be like, well, that's typical for you.

SPEAKER_01:

So I was trying to, I was thinking about this in my drive-in as I was looking at the beautiful fall colors we talked about last episode. I was thinking about what is it that I'm really afraid of? Now there's things I don't like and I find uncomfortable to be around. So spiders, you know, what did we say that was arachnophobia? Oh, yeah. Yeah. So although I don't prefer spiders and they may make me squeamish, or I'm like, ugh, you know, but I can't say that I have a like a paralyzing fear of. The only thing I can think of is, and it's really perplexing, is in some very situational things, I can have a fear of heights. But here's the disclaimer on it. If I am standing on the top of a mountain and I've got solid ground under my feet, I can look out over that mountain ledge and be totally fine. I can stand on the ledge and be totally fine. So, for instance, we used to go hiking up at Zion National Park in Utah a lot, and there is this place called, oh gosh, I can't believe I can't remember the name of it. Anyways, you hike up this one thing and it's like 1200 feet drop-offs on both sides of you and a very narrow trout, or we're talking like maybe four foot wide section that you're walking on the top in the sea trout. Totally fine. Now, if I'm walking on something that has a see-through floor, so like a graded floor, like if there's an emergent tower that's up in Cuyahoga and it takes you up like so many levels, and you're looking out over top of the trees, but this tower doesn't have a solid floor, it's graded, so you're looking through it terrified, paralyzing. I have yet to make it to the top.

SPEAKER_03:

So is it called Angel's Landing?

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, Angels Landing, thank you. Yes, Angels Landing, thank you, yes, thank you, Gemini. Yes. So we would go to Angel's Landing and we would hike that hike every year, and I could do it. I've helped people. In fact, one time I went with my one sister, and she literally was stuck to the side of trying to climb it, she couldn't do it, and we had to help her down. But I was totally fine on that. But I can't do that emergent tower over in the Cuyahoga Parks area because it's got a see-through floor. So I don't know what that's called because it's it's both heights, but it's situational.

SPEAKER_02:

So to be able to say that you have a legitimate phobia, yeah, you have to actually be in the situation and experience a hesitation, uh a feeling of anxiety. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And for me, that at that point it's paralyzing. Like I literally am like clinging to the side going, I can't do like I can't move.

SPEAKER_02:

So I'm sure I have phobies, but a legitimate having it, I'd have to put myself into uh an experience to know. So I've been, I've thought of things that I wouldn't like probably, but I've never myself to the point where I've actually been paralyzed by that aspect of it. Yeah. So again, because I isolate myself so much.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, see, recently we had gone canoeing, farm boy Jim and I and our friends um Heather and Andrew, we went canoeing, and at this place where we were canoeing, they had one of those aerial courses that you could, it's like an obstacle course, but it's like up in the air and you're on a harness and you gotta like walk on a log and you gotta climb over things, but you're like up in the air and there's different levels. And at first it was terrifying, you know. But then again, once I was able to get my footing, I was fine. But the one part that was the hardest was again was when I was stepping on something I could see through. So it was weird because other things, it was like you're walking on a log 12 feet up and you're harnessed in. And yeah, it was difficult and a little bit challenging, and you had to trust your stability and your core and your, you know, trust that you could get through it. But and I was fine, like I was able to push myself and get through it and and everything. But when we got to that one thing where I could see through, that was that was harder to walk on, even though it was a solid, solid surface as far as you could walk uninhibited, you didn't have to step from a plank to step to another plank and that kind of thing. So it's weird. I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_02:

Why is that? Well, uh, it's not um without understanding. I I would think because maybe your mind just wants to see a solid surface. Yeah. And I know that there's a I'm sure some sort of a sensation you might get, yeah. Like you're almost walking on air. Yes. When you can't, these you know, cool idea of walking on something that that's there physically. Yeah. But your mind is yeah, it probably something that your mind triggers that tells you you might be in danger.

SPEAKER_01:

That's true. Yes, that's very true. Well, it's funny because you know, we love to watch Ninja Warrior, and you know, Jim and I are always like talking about it, and I have these illusions of grandorp that, oh, someday I'm gonna be, you know, fit enough and sly enough that I'll be able to do a Ninja Warrior course. Literally, as I was up on the first obstacle of this course that um Heather and I did, I I did, I said, okay, whatever illusions of grandor I had that I would be able to do a ninja course. Oh, clearly I cannot. Because I can barely make it across this log and just walk on it. Oh jeez. I uh what did you find something?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh no, so are you what about see through stairs? Do those freak you?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't like if I can't see through if I can see through it, like for instance at the Grand Canyon, they had this thing where you could walk out and it was a plexiglass ground. Yeah, I I don't know. It's not happening.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, so it's a combination of bathnoophobia, which is a fear of stairs in general, and then or climacophobia, which is the fear of climbing, which is includes the fear of stairs without risers.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's it's not Oh, I know what you're talking about without yeah. So I don't know. Yeah, it's kind of a mixture, it's a a fear of not having solid ground underneath my feet. What's that? It's called keryphobia.

SPEAKER_02:

No, there's probably anything. Well, you know, now that he mentioned the thing with the stairs, yeah. Like if you're going to tour homes while they're being in the process of building it, I do have a heck of a time. And I will, if if there was like no banister or some sort of railing that I could hold on to, I'm probably not gonna go up and down the steps. I have a difficult time. I wouldn't say it's fear, it's almost as if there's some maybe it is, and I don't recognize it, but it's my basic not having confidence and me being able to manage, yeah, because there's something with the visual field there when then there's no back to those stairs.

SPEAKER_01:

Maybe it's just we're old and we just don't want to get hurt. We we have a fear of broken bones.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I do have that. I've had that for a long time. Fracturaphobia. Fracture.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. Well, you know, and that's very true because oh sorry, I didn't mean to like pound all your earbuds out by whenever we were doing some roofing work over the summer in the barn, I can climb a ladder, you know. I I'm okay with that, and I can be on the roof, but I don't like the transition of off the ladder onto the roof or onto the roof onto the ladder.

SPEAKER_04:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And I think it's more just because my fear is that it's gonna slip or I'm gonna slip in that transition. So it's not a fear of the ladder and it's not a fear of the heights, it's a fear of getting hurt by the unstability of, oh, this is a dangerous transition. See, now this is what makes no sense with me. I I could I could go into a pen with six adult lions and nothing to protect myself but my own wits and ability, and I have no fear of that, but I can't go from a ladder rooftop to a ladder without having to overcome some serious anxiety and fear. I that's dysfunctional.

SPEAKER_02:

I guess. I don't know. I what's the name of that thing? Now, because again, I watch these videos. It's called Is it Parkour? Oh, yeah, parkour. Uh-huh. Okay. Yeah. So my one of my joys. That's the Ninja Warrior thing, kind of, yes. Oh, okay. So they have these amateurs doing parkour. And what what really adds to my amusement is if you have like a ridiculous one where the people are generally getting really hurt. Yes. I enjoy that. You enjoy watching it. I enjoy watching it. You ain't gonna do it. Oh no. Jump. You're like if I jump off the first step to the main level. Uh no, that's dangerous. Again, something could break on me. We're not young anymore. But the then there's usually somebody in the background going yelling, parkour. Sometimes they do it when dogs are like running insane or cats, you know. But I do kind of enjoy it. Like they'll like uh jump from one uh building to the next and then their head bounces off the shed, and or they well, if they're making the videos, why am I feeling bad? I'm gonna watch it. Yeah, you want to hurt yourself? I'm on board. I'm gonna sit here and watch. Big fan of the old jackass uh TV show. Yeah, you know, you want to do horrible things to yourself. I'm not gonna do it, but I'll sit back and watch gladly. And obviously, I'm not the only one, or they wouldn't keep making these damn videos. This is true. And I'm sure them jackass guys, outside of the fact that they can't walk or do simple tasks anymore, they they did cash a few checks from that.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, so they did, but yeah, I love it. Okay, here's another one then. Talk about phobias that show Fear Factor. That was all about facing your phobias, where they would put people in a box and then like release like a thousand spiders on them.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, I'm not very familiar with the actual show. I know what it is. Really? Yeah, and I know Joe Rogan was opposed to that back then. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Uh, I'm only familiar with the Dave Chappelle one. He did a Chappelle show episode of that, which is wonderful. Yeah, because he was obviously had an issue with crack, and so he was on Fear Factor, and he had no fear because he basically nothing bothered him because he was having had a little problem with uh substances, yeah. Uh mainly crack. The character, nothing. The character, yes, not the show. Yeah, yeah. It was uh what he had a name for that character.

SPEAKER_03:

Tyrone Bigums, right?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. I'm not familiar with that. Oh my gosh. I'm gonna pull up for you later.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, it's awesome. But yeah, no, fear factor is definitely, and I'm surprised I didn't watch that because it would fall in line sort of with that type of people putting themselves in horrible situations.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, 100%. Yeah. Heights, and they would you know put them in a box with you know snakes or they'd have to eat a tarantula or yeah, oh god. I know.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, that's see now that's that takes it to a different. I know it's sort of in the same family, but there's like different, uh, different place. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So Chrissy found a big list of things. So what do you got on that list over there? What do we got? Gosh, all these phobias. It's called 18 Halloween theme phobias you might have was the list. Yeah, and I think this was on ABC something.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, let's see. ABC7ny.com.

SPEAKER_03:

It's a New York affiliate of ABC.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. They they had published this list. Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

What's on the list? So uh what was the premise of the post?

SPEAKER_02:

Just all these phobias. Um, some of them a lot of us have heard of. The first one specifically, because there was a movie, arachnophobia, the fear of spiders. We get it. Yes. Astrophobia. That's uh should I we should we do a quick quiz? Anyone with their Latin? I don't know. Are these based in Latin?

SPEAKER_01:

Astro. Is that a fear of astronomy? Fear of space, fear of stars.

SPEAKER_02:

It it has something to do with like uh natural occurrences type of thing. Astra is the fear of thunder and lightning.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh so a lot of dogs have astrophobia. Absolutely. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

This one, you started laughing when we were talking about this, and now I'm gonna laugh.

SPEAKER_00:

I don't even think I'm gonna say is it bogey phobia?

SPEAKER_02:

Bogey phobia.

SPEAKER_00:

Bogey phobia. Bogey phobia is the fear of the boogeyman.

SPEAKER_02:

How is this a really? I mean, if if you're over the age of like seven, is this a thing? But hey, okay, we got a name for it. That's wonderful. Kira. Oh boy, here we go. Kiroto Kira. See if you can best pronounce better.

SPEAKER_01:

Cairo Chiropatop Cairo Chiropotopia. It's not easy. It's not, but I think it's Cairo because it's C-H-I-R-O. Give it to Mr. Valedictorian everything. You remember all your uh Chiropotobia. Or is the P in the T is the P silent before is it Chyrotobia in that P before the T is silent?

SPEAKER_03:

I would say it's Cyroptophobia.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, well, there we go. Look at how that just rolled right off. Exactly. Fear of bats.

SPEAKER_02:

Fear of bats. Yeah. I have a fear of DJ Nick, if he can say that word.

SPEAKER_01:

I have an employee of mine that has a huge fear of bats. We work at a church, and obviously, sometimes we have bats in our belfry. And uh, Batman reference. Bats and the belfry sometimes come down into the church, and uh he pretty much will come and get me and my finance manager, and we will go wrangle the bat, no problem. But he mm-mm, no.

SPEAKER_02:

I try not to be so hardcore on the bats. Not that I haven't been in a situation where you're out in the evening and you see them and you start to worry because they are really a great help uh in bug uh control and and things like that.

SPEAKER_01:

No, I have no problem with bats. I enjoy bats, I like watching bats. I have no problem being around them, seeing them. When you go to the zoo and you see of course, they don't really call them bats. They go the one they're called flying foxes, and they're like they're called flying foxes, they're like this big. I'm like referencing like a foot long. They but they're a bat family, but they're huge. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

I saw a really good video on the internet again. I remember this one. Sorry. It was uh a video of bats hanging upside down, but what they did was they flipped the camera so it looked like the bats were standing up. And then they had like this horrible, like really cool, like nine-inch nails type music playing and it looked like they were like sort of like goth dancing. I found it.

SPEAKER_01:

What's interesting about bats is when they hang upside down, when they have to go to the bathroom, they flip themselves over that way. They don't pee or poop on themselves. They just go on your head.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, I mean if you're standing. You're standing underneath them, but yeah. Well, geez, nobody can call them dumb. That's why I know it's really cool though. So this one's a fun one. What's one? Chlorophobia. Chlorophobia. How do you spell that? Uh here, it's the that oh, okay.

SPEAKER_01:

C-O-U-L R-O phobia.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, sounds right to me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah? Does that sound does it DJ?

SPEAKER_03:

I'm not the expert one.

SPEAKER_01:

She seemed uh so this is a common one. This is probably right up there with arachnophobia. Do you think it's common though? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, because they've made some movies I haven't seen. It's a fear of clowns. Clowns. Clowns. Clowns.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I don't mind I don't mind clowns. We've talked about that because both of our parents were clowns. I don't like the creepy crown clowns though. Like the creepy ones, no.

SPEAKER_02:

No, and I think that people have used the clown persona in such a negative way that it's sort of yeah. I mean, it for a long time. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's crazy. Yeah. The clown thing I can get. Yeah, you can't go out and I'm surprised. Do kids still get excited if they see a clown or are they just totally freaked out?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. I feel like they probably get freaked out. It's kind of I think it goes right up there with their first time seeing Santa Claus, how some of them freak out, or the Easter bunny, and you know, yeah. I think clowns are kind of a thing of the past because, like you said, they've made them so there's a negative now. It's no longer a fun, cute thing, it's a scary one. Right.

SPEAKER_03:

When you got the movie like it.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Is that the one with the red balloon? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that's creasy.

SPEAKER_03:

And the Joker. I mean, you're really oh yeah, you're right. Yeah, it's not, you know, they these newer Batman movies that have the Joker characters, the Joker's no longer this cartoony thing, like even in the Jack Nicholson version.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

While he was nasty, was it still was a little it's Jack.

SPEAKER_00:

It's painted faces like that, yeah. So yeah. What else you got on there? Hemophobia.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a fear of blood.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Yes. Because of the hemaf is the uh root word. And seem some of these when we were going through them, you seem to know pretty good. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Lupophobia.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a fear of wolves, or yeah, fear of wolves. And this is because these ones are easy to dissect because they have the Latin word in front, which if you do any kind of medical terminology or things like that, you know, these are common root words for the so it's easy to pick out.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Werewolves. Wait a minute. Okay, I don't know that one.

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, no. That's part of this last one we just talked about.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, the lupophobia is werewolves.

SPEAKER_02:

Genetic standpoint. Is there a real thing called a werewolf?

unknown:

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

What does the hell does that mean? It's a wolf. Wolf. Yeah. Werewolf? Werewolf is Michael Jackson from the uh thriller video. Is that just a Halloween thing?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, you're mixing mythology and realology. What's real and what's mythical.

SPEAKER_03:

So a werewolf is not real. A werewolf is not sort of literary term. It's a mythology.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It's right up there with the uh It's when a person transforms into a wolf.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. It's kind of like a vampire when a person, you know, person turns into a bat.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I don't know why it made this list like that.

SPEAKER_01:

They should have said wolves. They just they just paired them together.

SPEAKER_03:

It's old English. Werewolf is man and yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay. Okay. Old English. Okay. Thank you, old English. Uh this one's a sort of an easy one. If you but if I say it, you probably wouldn't know what it is. But then when I tell you what it is, it's like, oh, well, that's definite. Mascophobia.

SPEAKER_01:

Mascophobia. This is kind of like boogie phobia.

SPEAKER_00:

You have a fear of boogeyman? Mascophobia? You have a fear of masks.

SPEAKER_02:

Ma wh why? Are you afraid of the mask or the person under the mask? I mean, I don't understand what the mask is gonna do to you.

SPEAKER_01:

I think this goes into the Jason thing. You know, that was that what is movie Jason where he wears the hockey mask? Yeah, so I think uh like the Mike Myers sort of Yeah, I think you're just pairing, you know, bad things happen to people with people when they're masks.

SPEAKER_02:

So this I probably have to some extent a phobia of, but I think a lot of people do necrophobia. Oh, fear of the dead? Yeah, dead things. Yeah. Just dead things. Dead things. My plant died. Which one? No, we're kidding. No, I'm just saying in general, if your plant died, are you terrified? Because your plant's not dead, you have to throw it out the window. Get the hell out of here. I can't have dead things in the house. Uh pretty much everything in my fridge is uh I can't go near it. Is your fridge becoming a petri dish? Yeah. Oh, because of the creamer. The creamer I thought I was supposed to make and then forgot what it was.

SPEAKER_03:

Cottage cheese? What is that?

SPEAKER_02:

That's terrifying. A fear of coffee creamer. Is that on this list? You guys are making you guys. Nick Ny no. Okay. Nycto Nick. You have a fear of nick?

SPEAKER_01:

Nyctophobia?

SPEAKER_04:

I don't know that is okay.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh yeah, Nyctophobia. Sorry, Nick. Sorry. It's a fear of the dark. Fear of the dark. You don't think that NYC would be night. No, I think it's nyctophobia. Yeah. Fear of the dark.

SPEAKER_02:

What is that Latin stuff going on there? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. Placophobia. Ooh, what's that one? Fear of tombstones. Oh, that's weird. Why would you be afraid of a tombstone? It's just a rock.

SPEAKER_02:

I have a great story, real quick. Oh god, go for it. For a t a stone, a cemetery, cemetery stone, gravestone.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so a placophobia story?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So this is just a handed down story. Don't know to what level it's true, but deals with a grandmother and a great-grandmother.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

My understanding is the story went that my grandmother a long time ago went down in her basement and her mother-in-law lived with them at the time, so that would be my great-grandmother.

SPEAKER_04:

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02:

So my grandmother went down in the basement, I guess, to do laundry. And when she went down there, there was a child's gravestone sitting in the basement.

unknown:

What?

SPEAKER_02:

And totally freaked out. And the story goes, and don't know to what level this is true, but it's just one of those insane stories. That the great-grandmother dragged it, it fell off its uh pedestal in the cemetery. She's walking through the cemetery or something. And she says, Well, that's a waste of a good stone. And she dragged it home because she was gonna smash grapes with it to make wine.

SPEAKER_01:

What she stole somebody's gravestone because it broke to make wine. Yeah. Chrissy answers it like it's accommodate. Like yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, well, remember, this is over a hundred years ago, probably. Cause yeah, it well, not maybe not that long ago, 80 or 90 years ago, probably. I don't know. My grandmother would be how old now? Pretty darn old, 112 or something like that. So the great grandmother would be really old. Yeah. That was now again. I have no proof. I have no photographic evidence of this. I have no record, uh legitimate notarized record of this. It just was a story that was always told.

SPEAKER_01:

Or was that just the cover-up story? Because there was a body in the basement and they put the tombstone on it in the basement. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know, but uh we forgot the um Faz Phasm Phasmophobia?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah, phasmophobia. Which is uh Fear of the Ghost.

SPEAKER_02:

Ghosts, which believe it or not, I'm guessing pretty much everybody has that.

SPEAKER_01:

Unless you're just totally Well, we've touched a little bit on the ghost of my things. I mean, I grew up with a ghost in the house, so I was never really afraid of ghosts. Like, I'm not afraid of ghosts in general. I just have a healthy respect for ghosts, and I have had negative experience with ghosts, but that didn't generalize to fear of all ghosts. What?

SPEAKER_00:

Chrissy's look.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't have a fear of all ghosts. I don't have a fear of all ghosts. Oh, depending on their ethnic background or depending on their spiritual background.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, if they are a good ghost or a bad ghost.

SPEAKER_00:

How did you die?

SPEAKER_01:

And if it was horrific, I am totally against you. I'm just saying, like, I don't have a fear of ghosts. I I have a respect for ghosts. I don't have a fear of ghosts, but I think that some ghosts are good and some ghosts are bad, and I've experienced interactions both ways.

SPEAKER_02:

And when you say you have a respect for ghosts, and they say, so in their world, no means no.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, and in my world, no means no too. Good. I'm glad it crosses that. Yes, it's a good thing. No means no. No means no.

SPEAKER_02:

And Carrie has a respect for ghosts, so when they say no, no. Yeah. Time to stop. Okay. Wonderful. Now, this is a tough one, and I don't know. Carrie has this. Probably my husband to some extent back in the day when I used to be crazy. Uh well, still am, but Sam Hainophobia. This is a tough one, too. Can I say it? You would wonder why it would be so complicated.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, the first. Oh, yeah. I was looking at the third one. I'm like, that's not what you just said. Oh, yeah. Sam Hainophobia. Sam Hainophobia. Yes, fear of Halloween. I don't have a fear. This goes along with the ghosts. I don't have a fear of Halloween. It's just not my favorite. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So it's uh it's just a preference more than a fear.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a preference more than a fear. I don't get I don't get paralyzed by fear. No.

SPEAKER_02:

People really get paralyzed by some of this stuff. I can understand how some of this would be fear. Like it's spider. I don't enjoy spider. It freaks me out, but I wouldn't say I get paralyzed. Right.

SPEAKER_01:

I wouldn't say I don't have an arachnophobia. I don't have a fear of spiders in that it causes a physical reaction of uncomfortableness or anxiety or paralyzing nothing like that. I just would prefer that they're not in my space. Right, right. And God, I don't want them on me. Oh gosh, no.

SPEAKER_02:

So this one, why is this one so complicated, also? I'm gonna give this to DJ say this one. This one's crazy. The last one? Second to last one. Even niquet. And it seems so complicated for such a simple idea. Yeah. I don't understand why they have these phobias for things that sanguivorophobia.

SPEAKER_03:

Sanguhorophobia.

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. What is it?

SPEAKER_03:

She don't have that. She loves them.

SPEAKER_01:

Who?

SPEAKER_03:

You.

SPEAKER_01:

Me? Yeah.

unknown:

Vampires.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, fear vampires.

SPEAKER_02:

See, that's right up there with uh werewolves. I only liked one vampire. It wasn't a vampire. It's a guy who played a vampire. Is that the one with Franklin Joe? Oh no, that's not who I was thinking. Nobody uh who's listening to this knows who the hell I'm talking about. I need that list, sir. Who's the last one? When you told me this one when we were going through it, I thought you meant like Selene Dion.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah. The Selenophobia. Which again is Is that the fear of the moon?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Jeez, oh man. What do you how do you live? It's out there. It's out there all the time. Every day, all the time. Yeah. So what What? Okay. Jeez, oh man. I think people made these lists to make people even more crazy than they already are. This one's an easy one. Skelophobia. Skeletons? Yeah, that's a good one. Teraphobia.

SPEAKER_01:

Terra. That sounds like ground or earth or something.

SPEAKER_02:

That sounds logical, but that's not what it is.

SPEAKER_01:

Is it pottery? The fear of pottery.

SPEAKER_04:

That's what I was thinking. I can't watch that scene in ghost.

SPEAKER_02:

It freaks me out. What the ghost? No, the pottery. Me too, man. I can't stand the pottery. All right.

SPEAKER_04:

What is it?

SPEAKER_02:

It's the fear of monsters. Sorry. Oh, Chris, they are too much. Okay, and then let's not forget.

SPEAKER_03:

I was I was afraid of the righteous brothers during that scene.

SPEAKER_02:

The song. Yeah, Unchained Melody. What's that phobia? This the Unchained Melody phobia. Wikiphobia.

SPEAKER_00:

Wikiphobia. Afraid of Wikipedia.

SPEAKER_02:

More and more people should be afraid of this. No, but just remember the Halloween type theme and all the witches. I was gonna say which which group has not been represented yet. Yes. You covered them all. Okay. So yeah, there's that was a good one. You had uh some information down there below. I don't know if that was anything to reference.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's see, the formation of specific phobias is still not well understood. There oh, phobias are twice as common in women. And then it also said while the fear of harmless or even completely fictional things may seem silly. Oh, so that's our werewolves and witches and monsters. Right. Specific phobias can become disabling if feared things cannot be avoided or if treatment is not pursued.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay, I believe that treatment's always a good thing, always, especially for something that maybe it inhibits your ability to live life to the fullest. I don't appreciate that statement unless it's backed with plenty of data that women suffer from it more than men. I think that's a loaded statement that a man Yeah, there's a lot.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a lot could be interpreted. That yeah. If it's true, I can I can see why. If it's not true, yeah, there's a lot on that one.

SPEAKER_02:

I don't know that I buy that. I'm gonna need to need the data.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So I have a fear of roller coasters. Oh. Which is called Velox rotophobia. Velox rotophop. Which is not a Halloween theme, but that's a phobia. Or they call it more informally coaster phobia.

SPEAKER_02:

Coaster phobia. But let me ask you this, because you have a fear of that. I know you don't like it. You don't want to be on a roller coaster. You don't appreciate the height or the jarring, back breaking, fun.

SPEAKER_03:

It doesn't debilitate. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So just looking at a roller coaster, you're okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You're not looking at it going, oh my god, I'm having anxiety. I can't, I can't even see it. Oh, it's not maybe.

SPEAKER_03:

I guess I'm I'm afraid of coming off the tracks and just you know dying.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, that's just a fear of dying. Yeah, well, it's true.

SPEAKER_03:

It's the same thing. I'm not a good flyer, and it's not I'm not I'm not afraid of flying. I'm afraid of crashing. Yeah, right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so there's probably a name, there's probably some kind of name for that kind of fear. Like a fear of a possible outcome. Of dramatic or unlikable or unreasonable or unrealistic causes of death. Okay, you know what? I can tell you probably what my one biggest fear is. And talking about cause of death and things like that. I have a fear that I will be in a car that goes off of a bridge and into water and I'll be stuck in the car.

SPEAKER_02:

Now, that's that's one I would have to say I share.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and now this one to the point of that I don't like to be like if I have to go over a bridge with water, I will go to the left lane because I want more time. Like, I don't want somebody to a truck to come by and bop me and push me into the off the road. I want to be on the left side because usually on the left you got the other lanes, you know, so you're less likely to go over the bridge.

SPEAKER_02:

You'd rather just be crushed up against concrete. Yeah, me too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I also, okay, this isn't a I will, if it's a really big bridge, I will often crack my window before going over the bridge or go over the bridge with my finger on the button of the windshield of the window. Because if my car starts going over, that window's going down. Because I will worry that I I'm confident in my skills that I could get out of the car and swim. It's not that, but I don't, I'm not confident that I would be able to break the window if it went into the water. So I had that will probably say is probably my closest, biggest fear.

SPEAKER_02:

That's a good recommendation. I like that. When you go over a bridge where there's water, yeah, I don't care if it's 20 below. Yeah. You roll that window down. Oh, that window, yeah. It's at least everybody in the car is going, what the hell's wrong with you? I'm freezing back here. It's at least getting cracked.

SPEAKER_01:

So that way it's mine's coming all the way down.

SPEAKER_02:

Crack. I'm not gonna be able to force that thing down. I want it all the way down so I can squeeze my ass right out that window.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, when we were talking about my fear about my feet being on the ground, that also translates to cars and bridges. Because if we if I go over a bridge that's solid, I'm okay. But if it's a bridge that you can see through and you can see the water below and you're in the car, same fear, same fear.

SPEAKER_02:

No, I'm bridges are generally no, but if I can see through it, forget it.

SPEAKER_01:

Even if I'm in a car. I got it. Anyways, well, that was a lot. That was a lot we meant long.

SPEAKER_02:

We covered the phobia thing, is like really that's dysfunctional. That's that's dysfunctional. Hey, what? New line. We need to say that at the end of every show.

SPEAKER_01:

That's dysfunctional.

SPEAKER_02:

That's dysfunctional. That's dysfunctional. Remember how they used to say that's incredible? No, that's dysfunctional.

SPEAKER_01:

There we go. Our new tag that could be for season two. We can do that in all season two because you know what? We're ending our first year now.

SPEAKER_02:

I can't believe it.

SPEAKER_01:

I know it can't. So, hey, before we wrap this up, just a few things we do want to mention. We are in the month of October. The month of October, Junkies Care is dedicated to supporting the United Way of Wayne and Holmes County in Worcester, Ohio. And we are going to be at the 5K Heart and Ghoul event, spooky sprint. And that is going to be on October 25th at 9 a.m. in the historic downtown area of Worcester. Chrissy and I will be there. We're sponsors of the event, so we're going to be there. Please come out if you want to, or if you're close by, we'd love to meet you. But uh yeah, we're just supporting uh United Way and all the wonderful things that they do to help the community this month.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely. We encourage you to also support the United Way.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. So in the meantime, check us out on our Facebook page. We want to know what fears you have. And if you know what the name of it is, the Latin name or what the regular day, I don't know, what do you call it? Technical technical name for it. Let us know because otherwise we'll be Googling it. Yes. We'll be no, not Googling it, Geminiing it. So I think I'm still gonna say Google, sorry. So all right, everybody, have a happy uh week this week, and we'll see you next time. Bye-bye.

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