Phobias no laughing matter
‘‘They’re not making it up – they really are feeling quite frightened.’’
Kay Mathewson, senior clinical psychologist, Massey University Centre for Psychology
Phobias can leave their victims frozen with fear or running for the hills.
And for some sufferers, one person’s fun is a phobic’s worst nightmare.
Balloons pop up at the most festive times, so Nelson woman and globophobic Naomi Strain is careful about where she goes if the party favourites are about.
‘‘When supermarkets have those arches of balloons you have to walk through, I have to stop, take a deep breath and walk right through the middle, so I’m as far as possible from any of them,’’ she said. Or she will take an alternative route.
Parties were ‘‘tricky’’, and walking down the street when kids had balloons was ‘‘awful’’, she said.
The anticipation of them popping was the harbinger of the fear, Strain said, so it was only inflated balloons that were terrorinducing.
‘‘My face goes hot and red, my throat feels like it’s closing, my heart starts racing. If there’s one in the room, I find it difficult to focus on much else.’’
It was just over 20 years ago when Strain realised that she had a fear of balloons, known as globophobia. She believed was triggered by experiences with her ‘‘bit of a sod’’ older brother when she was a child.
‘‘He used to chase me around holding a balloon, and do that squeaky thing where you kind of squeeze it. When he finally caught me, he’d sit on me and push the balloon against my face until it popped.’’
Massey University Centre for Psychology senior clinical psychologist Kay Mathewson said most people had a phobia of some sort which caused anxiety, including spiders, social situations, needles or heights – and there were several ways of dealing with phobias.
‘‘Some people with phobias, they can live with it, they function very well, some people find ways of adjusting . . . and some people live quite happily with avoiding something.’’
But whatever the coping mechanism, the fear was very real, Mathewson said.
‘‘The body reacts with an anxiety reaction’’, she said, including increased heart rate, trouble breathing, tension in different parts of the body, trouble swallowing, and a churning stomach.
‘‘The feared object can trigger a very extreme response of danger, so the person will react as if they’re in extreme danger.
‘‘They’re not making it up – they really are feeling quite frightened.’’
For debilitating phobias, like that of needles, which could affect someone taking care of their health, Mathewson said the best course of action was seeking therapeutic help. This often required cognitive behavioural therapy, using a method of a gradual exposure to the fear.
Nelson woman Steph Dunn chooses to avoid clowns rather than overcoming her coulrophobia.
‘‘If I see a human dressed as a clown, there’s definitely the heart palpitations and PTSD-type symptoms come out to play,’’ she said. ‘‘I cross the street and try to get away.’’
Like Strain, she also pinned her fear down to a traumatic experience with a sibling.
‘‘I was at an Easter show with my dad and my sister. They had those laughing clowns, and you have to put the ball in their mouth,’’ she recalled.
‘‘I put my hand in its mouth to try and grab the ball, and my hand got stuck inside its mouth and I was freaking out.’’
Her sister thought it was funny, she said, and told her: ‘‘It’s going to eat you.’’
‘‘Then my Dad got a clown to help get my hand out. It was not a fun time.’’
Later, her sister continued the torment by making her watch a TV show with ‘‘murderous’’ clowns. ‘‘She said it was a real show based in New Zealand.’’
When she was 12 years old, Dunn won a raffle during a Highland dancing performance. ‘‘They got me to open the gift on stage, and it was a clown. I just dropped it and cried and ran off the stage.’’
She can’t even look at pictures of clowns. ‘‘I get a huge fright and have nightmares.’’
Dunn said her friends had told her that at nearly 30, she should ‘‘get over it’’, but despite knowing that her phobia was irrational, she couldn’t help it.
‘‘There’s always be a joke like, ‘Should we go to the movies and watch It? Won’t that be fun?’.’’