Wednesday, April 14, 2010

My Weird Phobia

Ok. Confession time. I am one of those people who has what are probably irrational fears. I think and fear things, it seems, that most people don't even think about. Some are funny, some are not. All are real. (At least to me. Probably not to a normal person. hehe) However, there is one fear that can send me screaming like a little girl. It can make me stand frozen in fear. It can make me cry.  I am talking about ticks.  Yes. I said ticks.

I am not sure when this phobia started, but 2 events stick out in my mind.  One was in the 4th grade, when I felt a "bump" in my hair. Went up the the substitute teacher who informed me that I had a bug stuck on my scalp, drinking my blood...yes, EXACT words...and that since school was almost over, I could go outside and see if my mom was out waiting for me and to tell her about it. I remember sitting outside, waiting for my mama, terrified that bug was going to drain out all my blood.   The second was waking up one morning when I was a teenager and having one of those suckers stuck in my belly button.  It hurt.  As I got older, the creepiness of those nasty little creatures and the diseases they transfer really concreted my fear of them.   

They make me shudder, squeal, and sweat.  I've only been able to pull them off someone else a handful of times. I once seriously thought about calling one of my daycare parents from work to take one off their child, but the rational part of my brain took back over and I was able to get the job done--shaking the entire time.   

I write about this because this morning  as I was walking up our basements steps, I had a itch on my hip, felt a bump, and thought there was a sticker in the waistband of my pants. It wasn't.  I screamed, ran up the stairs, started sweating, couldn't stop shuddering, and then realized I had thrown that tick down. In my house. There is a blood sucker loose in my house.  

And I am constantly feeling things crawling around on my skin today.  

Isn't one of the signs of  psychosis  feeling bugs that are not there crawling on you?   Yeah, I thought so.

BTW- I was going to find a pic of  a tick to go along with this, but found out I can't even look at the pictures without squirming.   

3 comments:

Unknown said...

EWW! I hate them too! Hope you don't ever call me to come pull one off our little guy...I'm not sure I could do it either! ;)

Melanie said...

You've never had a tick experience until you have slept with a weinie dog for 8 years!! I awoke millions of times with that creepy crawly sensation only to come to my senses, throw off the covers, flip on the light, and catch not one, but 2 ticks crawling on me, But I figured out really quickly that if you throw them in the toilet, you must flush, because other wise they get out!! By the way, we have great meds for psychosis!!

Sara said...

Becky, I apologize for laughing out loud while reading your post, but I can definitely relate! I have that same fear of FROGS! Yes, frogs. Jeremy once got Preston to chase me around with a frog until I was on the verge of a panic attack. At least we are all crazy together, right? :)