Thursday, April 6, 2006

"Wordplay"...



"Fear is a question:  What are you afraid of, and why?  Just as the seed of health is an illness, because illness contains information, your fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if you explore them."
     -Marilyn Ferguson

                                       

Sorry I missed posting "Wordplay" yesterday to those of you who stopped by looking for it.  Illness prevented me from being prompt.  I am feeling much better this afternoon, thank you =).  Now on to today and a posting of "Wordplay".  I chose to post this quote above because it has something to do with "Wordplay" and because I think it is profound.  I have had a problem all my life with fear.  That is pretty hard for me to admit.  I am not talking about just plain fear - the healthy kind that keeps you safe when there is something harmful around, but the unhealthy kind- phobias.  Mr. Webster defines phobias as an exaggerated usually inexplicable and ILLOGICAL fear of a particular object, class of objects, or situation.  I was looking at a website about phobias and I was astounded by how many things one can be phobic about - or atleast how many things have been named that one can be phobic about.  I don't know if my problems with fears and phobias throughout my lifetime have been a big symptom of my obsessive-compulsive disorder.  I am sure some of it has been.  I am just not sure to what extent.  I do know they have been illogical, though.  VERY illogical.  Even though I know they have been illogical, I  still have had them.  I have been able to, through therapy and plain old reasoning, talk back to these phobias and quiet them down to a great extent.  I am no longer a prisoner to my phobias, although I do have a bad day occasionally.

For "Wordplay"  I want you to go to this site
  and discover the names of a phobia or two (or more if you would like) of yours, either current or past ones.  Please tell us what they are in the comment section and perhaps tell us a story how you overcame a phobia or maybe even how a phobia started.  Tell us a phobia story, too if you have one.  If you want to do this as a journal entry please come back and put your entry URL in the comments section so I can go and read it.  Thanks for participating!

In searching the list, a few I have found for myself are glossophobia (a fear of public speaking; keraunophobia (a fear of lightning and thunder... just lightning for me... LOL); acrophobia (fear of heights); and at times I have had agoraphobia (fear of being in public places in leaving a safe place... like my home!) and would not leave my apartment for months at a time.  That is one that I fight with on and off, but I am proud to say, have been doing well with lately.

What can you share with us?

On a lighter note, and gee, that WAS a heavy subject wasn't it? Anyway, on a lighter note, Chelsea sent me this picture of her at 17 weeks pregnant.  I thought I would post it so you could see her smile and her tiny little "belly bump".   It doesn't look too big, but she had a tiny waist and a flat stomach just a few weeks ago.

                                  

Have a good rest of the week everyone and take care! xox


"Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood.  Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."
     -Marie Curie


17 comments:

  1. I love the photo of your daughter. She's beautiful....and the wee one is inside.  : )

    Well, you already know I have agoraphobia. I'm not afraid of much else. I guess planes would be something I'd be afraid of even if I didn't get agoraphobia.

    Angela

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  2. Batophobia -Fear of heights  thats me!!!  your daughter looks great!!! she was beautiful before she was pregnant and even more beautiful now that she is....i hope she feels just as good!...noelle    

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  3. Acrophobia- Fear of heights the other one i put before was fear of heights also...

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  4. Musophobia or Murophobia (fear of mice),  Arachnophobia (fear of spiders), Ophidiophobia (fear of snakes), Herpetophobia
    (fear of reptiles - like lizards).  Do you see a pattern here, lol?!

    Krissy
    http://journals.aol.com/fisherkristina/SometimesIThink  

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  5. Oh, I forgot to say, Chelsea is just beautiful!

    Krissy
    http://journals.aol.com/fisherkristina/SometimesIThink

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  6. arachnophobia and claustrophobia or however you spell it i hate spiders plain and simple and i dont like being crammed in tiny spaces and i start having panic and anxiety attacks as a kid my brother knew thats what he had to do to scare me or make me stay outta his room for weeks even putting a quilt over my head and keeping me in one spot freaked me out if i couldnt move.

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  7. I found 4 but not the one that scares me the most.  I have a fear of being lost.  I also found Onelrophobia which is a fear of dreams.  Asthenophobia a fear of fainting Cacophobia- fear of being ugly and Canderophobia- fear of Cancer.
    Now that I am scared and depressed.... Barbara

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  8. Hi Val, there isn`t a name for my phobia, the fear of illness.  It was very difficult when my children were little.  I coped but I couldn`t sleep at night because of the panic it caused me.  I`ve suffered a degree of OCD for most of my life and I think it is a part of it.  I also have a fear of doctors, despite the fear of illness.  Very irrational I think!

    Sandra xxxx

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  9. Hey there!  Thanks for visiting my journal!  So you have Chiari also??  WOW!  Nice to meet you.  Where are located?  Send me an email with all that good stuff.  I help to run a support group here in Reading, PA.  I'll be adding your journal to my alerts.  Have a good one.
    Missie

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  10. Sorry Val,  I`m glad you`re feeling better now and I think pregnancy suits your lovely daughter. :o)

    Sandra xxxx

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  11. Hi there! Thanks so much for visiting my journal recently and for leaving such a lovely comment. With the medical problems that I've been having recently, I am so behind on visiting journals and I do sincerely apologize for that. I've added your journal to my alerts and have also linked it on my journal. I'll visit again soon, have a great weekend! :-)

    ~ Susan
    http://journals.aol.com/njmom72/TheStrawberryPatch

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  12. hey val, i forgot the real name for my phobia, but it is bug-a-phobia...nuff said..i hate even writing the word.....roberta

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  13. I had childhood fear that my parent's would die someday.    Now that my Dad has passed away I realize that it is logical that we grow old and die.     So now my greatest fear is that a family member would die of an auto wreck.     If I had a family member in a war, then it would be of being killed or seriously being injured.   So I would say that my fear is of being the victim of an unnatural death.   My father died from Luekemia at the age 82, just several days short of his 83rd birthday.    He lived a long and active life.     So I guess what I am saying is that I deal with my fear of death or serious injury.   mark

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  14. It is great that Chelsea looks so genuinely happy with her pregnancy.   I wish her and the father my best and that the baby will have warm and loving parents.    I know that you and the rest of your family are very happy for her.  I think in the old days people thought that having a child out of wedlock was not a good thing.   It was more of a legally binding issue than a truly important religious issue.    A relationship stands on it own merits, and not on a legal document.   mark

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  15. Val~Chelsea is glowing and so sweet!...Now about phobias--yes, I have had mild agorophobia at times also. If you want the truth I am afraid to go to the website cuz I don't even want to discover any new ones! :-) When I can feel God in my heart and I am not depressed I am not afraid of anything! On the other hand, when I am depressed the list is so long I'm not sure where to start...so here's one--evil people that commit crimes esp. against children.

    F alse
    E vidence
    A ppearing
    R eal

    I've always liked that one; I got in from Al Anon. One thing that has helped me a lot is when I can imagine the worst thing that can happen in a situation and know how I would deal with it--then I feel more confident about facing whatever it is. A great old self-help book that I read is "Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway!" by Susan Jeffers. Of course the Bible is the best self-help book of all. We literally have nothing to fear when we follow the Lord and keep the devil in his rightful place--under our feet! Blessings, Sassy ;-)

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  16. what a cute bump.. lol* I want one.. me me me me meeeee... lol*

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  17. I'm afraid of dark, clowns and birds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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