Phobias

In a recent Newsweek Discussion class we talked about phobias. Do you know this word? It comes from Latin and means an irrational fear of something. I think everyone has phobias, some of them we don't like admitting to.


I have a phobia of spiders. Where I was brought up in England we had quite large spiders that we called "Grandfather Spiders". They had long, spindly legs and moved really quickly. No one in my family was brave enough to deal with them except my father. We hated the spiders but didn't want to kill them so my Dad had to catch them in matchboxes and then take them outside. He always did this while muttering how hysterical and stupid we all were!


When I came to Japan, I discovered that you have far worse insects and scary bugs than we do in England. I had never before experienced mosquitoes, cockroaches, or those weird beetles that have gold backs and are so stupid that they repeatedly bang against the paper-door in an attempt to get to the light (I think you call them kanabun or something). Cockroaches are shocking. Does anyone actually like them? It's like being a fan of Hitler or thinking that SMAP are good singers...


So, I now have a fear of cockroaches as well as spiders. I don't have many other phobias. I don't enjoy flying too much- but it's only really the takeoff and landing that I'm scared of. Once I'm up in the air at high altitude I can enjoy myself and start drinking beer and watching films on a tiny screen!


One of my best friends suffers from vertigo. This means he is scared of being in high places. If he looks down he gets a giddy feeling and starts to panic. Vertigo is a fairly common phobia but my friend has a really weird one as well; he is scared of buttons. Yes, buttons. He doesn't mind metal buttons, but he is terrified of plastic ones. Have you ever heard of such a thing? When I was younger and less sympathetic, I used to show him my plastic buttons to make him feel sick. I used to be quite cruel...

The way to overcome phobias is to actually confront it. So, if you are scared of flying, maybe you should take pilot lessons. If you are scared of cockroaches, you should spend time in a room full of them. If you are scared of buttons, you should wear clothes with hundreds of them. Tell me your phobias and I can give you my completely unprofessional medical advice on how to overcome it. I want to hear how weird your phobias are! After all, no phobia is worse than SMAP is it?

▼▽▼▼【講師】Anthony先生のバックナンバー━━━━━━━━
・【SARCASM】2009.12.11 (Fri)