Hello everyone. I suffer from some kind of unusual phobia of horsetails: a plant that grows all over the world. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equisetum
I don't get too scared if they are still extremely small, in extremely small amounts and in open areas, but the bigger they are the more freaked out I get. This phobia already has had some impact on my life, like people making fun of me, etc. Anything I can do? Luckily they only greatly freak me out if they are close to me (within 50 feet is the worst) and I am able to see pictures of them without freaking out.

Welcome to oFear Rusanton99!

You do have quite an unusual phobia!

It can be more than a little annoying when people trivialise our fears in life...

In terms of doing something about it, off the top of my head, have you perhaps thought about some form of graded exposure?

Hi

Can you pinpoint at what age thiss phobia started and perhaps something that may have triggered it off?

(09-01-2012 06:14 AM)Snooks Wrote:  Hi

Can you pinpoint at what age thiss phobia started and perhaps something that may have triggered it off?

I went to a field trip when I was in 5th grade. I saw a huge pond with thousands of them. They kept becoming weirder and weirder to me, and by the end of the day they scared me a little bit. And a few days later, they started to freak me out to the max. The interesting thing to note though, is that even though we have those plants growing everywhere in our Washington forests, I just never "saw" them. It is weird to explain, I just never noticed them, ever before that field trip.