The language of the psychological and psychiatric communities is fantastic. A “Simple Phobia” is in fact no such thing, it can complicate a life beyond belief. Of course what they mean is a phobia related to one object or situation, as opposed to a more general phobia such as agoraphobia where both the causes and treatment may be more complicated.
I saw a video of a woman who had a phobia of feathers (it was on a BBC programme about phobias some time ago). Although it might seem like an easy phobia to deal with in fact it was life crushing. She feared birds of all shapes and sizes and they are pretty hard to escape. Once she left her two year old on a beach in Tenerife because a Seagull looked at her. It sounds almost comic but in fact it severely disabled her, like so many phobias do.
The cure came from a very mainstream source. Firstly she tried hypnotic regression and did indeed recall a time when a bird had become trapped in her grandmothers kitchen and had scared her as a child. The recollection of this event did not appear to change her phobia, for when she went outside the site of a pigeon affected her just as before.
Eventually she went to a clinical psychologist who pointed out to her that she had become scared of her fear, of the physical symptoms and it was that association with the feathers that was causing the response of a panic attack. He asked her what she thought would happen if she were to go near a feather and she replied that she would faint or die.
They went through graded exposure during which re -assured her that whatever she felt would pass and was not a sign if imminent death. A few hours later she was happily holding the feather, and her phobia was permanently removed.
Did the regression help this at all? Make the exposure easier? We will never know. But obviously you are not over a phobia or a fear until you face the situation and do it. Panic Attacks don’t kill.
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I too suffer from this feather phobia. Just the sight of sharp looking feathers (esp. Wing feathers) gives me the chill. In fact just writting and mentioning sharp feathers give me the chill. I suffered from all most all my life and can not under stand it. I am not afraid of birds as long as they are far away, it’s just the sight of their wing feathers thats gives me the anxiety.
I have had a fear of feathers since I can remember. I am now 55 years “young” and I and am still deathly afraid of feathers. I work in a city and if I see a pigeon on the sidewalk, I would go 10 mintues out of my way to avoid it. I am not afraid of birds as long as they are far away. I can’t even “think” of a feather without getting chills. I even passed out one time because a feather touched me! If as see a feather on my patio, I will not go outside until someone removes it (then I need to know what they did with in just in case it may come back). I am a VERY reasonable, intelligent person otherwise, but I just can’t overcome this fear!
My mother is 61 and her sister is 76 years old and they have always suffered from this feather phobia. Im not sure why they both suffer from this but it is exactly as described by the others here. My mother looses control if someone takes a feather to her. She screams hysterically and will punch kick and at my school she choked an 11 year old. She says that she blacks out and remembers nothing after seeing the feather and feeling like she is about to die or faint. She then blacks out. Please, if anyone has any suggestions, please email me. She has tried many things and even was able to touch a feather at one time. (after 2 hours of crying and psyching herself out) but the fear has never left. Please help…
amysman24@hotmail.com
I am deathly afraid of feathers, and until I saw this blog, I was certain that no one else had this same fear. I have been avoiding feathers all my life, which is extremely difficult during molting season. I jumped out of a car going about 30 mph on a busy four lane highway when I spotted a feather tucked into the windshield molding above my head. Do any of you know what caused your feather phobias?
I cannot believe there are others who have the same phobia that i have. I am deathly afraid of the wing feathers… i work in the city and just behind my office building, there is a courtyard, always with loads of pigeons…
With the help of a very good friend and some of my colleagues, I am trying to fight my fear. Someone bought me a feather stick which i have had taped at the farthest end of my workstation… As long as i dont look at it, I am not too uncomfy but if i look at it or i talk about it, my hands and feet are frozen and I have this weird sensation that I am being suffocated by feathers.
How it all started….. when I was about 8 years old, someone scared me with a feather duster… i was hiding in a dark corner and the feather duster came to me like a gigantic demon… Ever since then, I have been like this…
I am glad I found this forum… I will ensure that I come here as often as I can…
samo se maloumni debili zentaju jebenog pera!
I am 17 now and since I could remember I was terrified of feathers, especially black feathers or goose feathers. When my sisters and brothers used to put them next to me I would panic. People used to think I was making it up because it sounds so irrational, however recently I’ve started feeling ok around them, and hardly feel anything around the artificial or colored ones.
I am 62 and have been scared of feathers since I was 4. We used to have a bowl of sugar lumps on the table and I used to keep taking them,one day my mum put a big white feather in the middle of them,and next time I went to take one it jumped onto my hand,I can remember this as though it was yesterday,my mum denies doing this,I think she feels guilty.Funnily enough my 3 children and 2 grandchildren are not scared of feather,which is good. Before I can go into the garden my husband has to go and pick all the feathers up (he thinks I am mad!) and he has to make sure he puts them where I can't see them,i.e. tucked away at the bottom of the bin) I have made an appointment to see my Dr on 30th June to see if I can get some help,better late than never I suppose.
I have been scared of feathers ever since i was very little ,as my mum chased my sister and i round a bed with a feather till we were screaming so so much that we were terrified and crying.when i got older it carried on being terrified as some children got to know so they scared me in other ways .Was so horrible .I am still terrified till this day of birds and feathers .I am 44yrs old now
I am 34 years old and I have been scared of feathers since I was a small child. I am mostly scared of broken feathers and fluffy feathers. I think that it started because we had a lot of cats when I was a child and they killed birds. I was disturbed by the torn up birds (and feathers scattered everywhere) and I became scared of feathers. My mom has a different theory about how I became scared of them. When I was 2 or 3 my grandmother gave me two big ostrich feathers which I would play with. But she would tell me to be careful and not break them. I didn’t know what would happen to me if I did break them (she just meant they wouldn’t be as pretty). I then became scared of broken feathers and then gradually I became scared of all feathers.
Luckily my phobia isn’t as severe as others. I can be around feathers. Although looking at them does give me chills. But I cannot handle touching them and if other people try to touch me with them I run. It is still mostly broken and fluffy feathers that I am scared of. I am not that scared of the flat, patterned ones. They kind of just remind me of pretty leaves.
I too am terrified of feathers, especially the sharp ones (wing feathers, tail feathers etc). I am now 47 and have had this fear from when I was a tiny baby. I feel as though I am going to die if one comes near me.
Unlike many others, I have no fear of birds at all – I can quite happily stroke a bird or have a bird sit on my hand to feed but if it dropped a feather I would freak out.
I tell only those I totally trust about my phobia – people can be incredibly cruel sometimes and think it is fun to freak you out. When I was at school, some kids found out and put a feather down my blouse when we were on the school bus. I passed out and was off school for 3 months as a result. at that point I went to a therapist who tried aversion therapy – it didn’t work!!! She thought that if she could get to the bottom of why I had this phobia then she could work on a cure but after months of talking extensively to me and my mum she couldn’t pinpoint an incident that could have generated the fear. It is just one of those weird thing I suppose.
In my mid – teens I also developed a phobia of rainbows, again without reason (before that I had always found them beautiful). I just saw one one day and I freaked out. The strange thing is that I am normally a very logical person and calm by nature. I just don’t understand it but am glad to see that I am not alone.
I’m 20 years old and I’m terrified of feathers! I thought I’m the only one who was that phobia :O I’m afraid of all kind,colors of feathers & birds!! I try to not talk or tell anyone about it because it’s so embarrassing and I’m scared they will bring some to me as some kinda joke! When I was like 6 or 5 I used to collect feathers with my brother & one of them got stuck in my hand! so every time I try to touch one to beat this phobia I get all sweaty and light headed
I really wanna get rid of this phobia because it’s ruining my life!!
I guess this phobia is not limited to any particular race or nationality — I’m Chinese Singaporean and my earliest memory of feathers was when I was about 4 — and I made a huge detour to avoid it.
I am surprised to hear of so many people with this phobia. I am 57 and have had this fear since I can remember. I have never been afraid of snakes or spiders like so many people but put a feather within my sight and I could barely breath. I used to have nightmares about suffocating in a room full of feathers for at least the first half of my life. I am now able to look at feathers but keep them far away from me and birds… I have injured myself many times trying to avoid them. I am sure I will never wear a feather boa or sleep on a feather pillow but I have been able to wear a down coat in 30 below weather. My fear of feathers was debilitating, now it is only numbing.
I am so glad i found this site…was just looking around to find whether fear of feathers is at all listed as a phobia.
I thought i might be the only one with this irrational fear.
Every since i can remember (am 34 now), i have been terrified of feathers, they send me into a panic whenever i see them. Touching them or being touched by one is totally out of the question, I fear i might pass out.
The shape and the form freaks me out totally. Big or small it doesn’t matter, I just run!!!!
Till date i haven’t tried therapy, though at one point my parents tried to help (my family still thinks I am mad) and was kind of fine around feathers and holding them. But that was only for a very short time. Am back to square one. They too have no idea where I got this from.
It has crippled me in many ways. Cannot dare to tell anyone..for the fear that someone may find it funny to pull a prank.
I cannot sleep on a feather pillow….cannot walk in gardens with feathers strewn around. hate being near birds and specially pigeons, when the rustle and shed…it gives me the chills.
Wish there was some remedy.
woah…. i’m so glad i found this site… i really can’t see feathers.. even listening the words can give me goose bump i can’t remember when i started to be fear of this.. i never thought that there’s a lot people out there had a same phobia like me…i don’t know why but my tears come out easily if i see it.. it’s not because i’m sad or what but it is really undescriable.. people may give me a ignorance look when i nearly jump of a bird flying nearby.. they thought that i was making it for attention.. sometime i feel really ambarassed with it.. it’s hard to live since animal like birds are everywhere.. it became more harder when people know my weakness.. they kept teasing me…and they love to see me running away from them.. they thinks my freaks is funny… although i don’t know wether my phobia can be cure or not but i’m in a bitt relief cause i’m not the one whose facing this problem and fear of feathers is one of the phobia’s category..