The cause of fear of clusters of holes aka trypophobia

I share this "fear" of some porous objects. For some reason, I'm only affected by porous objects that are organic. Pumice is cool; arthritis is not cool.

I believe I gained this issue from having a phobia of bathroom mold.

This was originally about fear of clusters of holes, now it seems to be used for fear of ugly creatures, etc... perhaps we could use a new thread for the psychology of fear in general, or would that be too generic?

Haha the lotus shoops. To be honest it's kind of squicky for me too. Hell, I once saw a picture of a Salami pizza that had similar effects (not only on me).

Pretty interesting, I'd like to know the cause too.

Have y'all seen the lotus arms girl?

Who's she?

Never mind, I've found her.◊

edited 12th Nov '15 2:04:07 PM by RabidTanker

Probably should include trigger warning, man.

My sister has this phobia baaad.

Poor little girl.

Are those tattoos? Because that doesn't look real. Especially the symmetry. If it's not tattoos then I'm calling photoshop.

It's a shop.

All phobias are by definition, irrational, so their cause is just as likely one. AKA fuckall if anyone knows or cares, think is there are effective treatments to help deal with phobias if they are really negatively affecting a person's life

Unless you lived in a moai next a pineapple under the sea, I am not sure you need to be overly worried about fearing patterned holes.

It's definitely shopped.

My sister is unable to use a fancy makeup holder my mother bought for her.

It can be crippling and come up in unexpected places.

Yes, I'm well aware that it's fake...

And what is this "trigger warning" that you speak of?

If there were no other options available at all, that is indeed crippling.

Accomodations for this case seem rather easy to get.

OK, you know what, I think I am going to invoke the "no shock sites" rule here and say no posting any of those weird photoshops desinged to trip people with this phobia.

How is that an shock site? I've actually seen worse crap than what I've found elsewhere on the web.

edited 12th Nov '15 3:14:15 PM by RabidTanker

This is a thread regarding people with a specific fear, and you linked something that people with that specific fear might get a response from.

I would wager that is the problem, more or less.

How is saying, "Hey, this is a link to that thing we're talking about" insufficient warning to people with that phobia?

Iono. I just wager that that is the problem.

I particularly find weirder why any person with such a phobia would happily click any link in a thread titled this.

But then again I also wonder why the sky is blue, so I might just be an idiot.

To be fair, I wasn't the first one to post such an image: There where several others before me.

P.S. What is an accurate description of an trigger warning? Because all Urban Dictionary is showing me is that it's an term that's occassionally used to piss off femnazis and SJ Ws.

edited 12th Nov '15 4:24:16 PM by RabidTanker

A trigger warning is a content warning, normally related to content that may cause people who have suffered particular trauma (say the kind that would leave a person with PTSD) to experience issues.

So an example is going "this post/link contains detailed discussion of rape and abuse, caution is advised" so that someone who needs to avoid such content to avoid say flashbacks, doesn't stumble into it by accident.

Going by what I have seen, it's generally something like "Trigger warning for suicide," meaning "somewhere in this chapter/article is some serious talk about suicide, this is the warning for people who have emotional issues with suicide experience to either not read or grab their Teddy Bear and kleenex."

Yeah, there's a big problem with the term being misused online, by multiple groups. So there are people who will demand trigger warnings for anything that 'offends' them (and I do mean 'offends' in a very lose sense, such people are the kind who take offence at the mear existence of opposing viewpoints), then claim to be triggered because they disagreed with what was said in something, instead of simply being told "that's not what a trigger warning is for, grow up", the response by some people has been to go "lol trigger warnings are bullshit, I'm not goign to label anything with a warning ever".

Thus two groups of assholes have seriously damaged a legitimate term that is seriously needed.

edited 12th Nov '15 4:54:46 PM by Silasw

Damn you, internet. You're ruining my week with your needless sensitivities...Anyways, thanks for the info. I might as well use one in a future thread of mines since half the stuff I want to say starts arguements over something stupid. (The last shitstorm was about me calling mobile artillery "skycancer.")

edited 12th Nov '15 5:35:03 PM by RabidTanker

Hi guys. This is kind of interesting.

I know what you guys are talking about. I looked up some photos online, and though I'm not afraid of them per se, I do occasionally do double takes, and at worst I get some sort of Bile Fascination—yes, they do look creepy.

I find the "creep factor" is stronger when the holes are definitely organic and irregular. So honeycombs are perfectly fine to me. (Although many corals and sponges have these naturally "creepy" hole patterns, I'm generally cool with looking at them (mainly because I think sea life is cool).) The worst cases are probably those photoshops on human skin, maybe because they look like flesh-eating diseases that shouldn't be on any healthy human.

Then again, when I was a kid I was "scared" of certain houses, and one of them had a "brise-soleil" sun screen. This house, in particular—don't click if you're sensitive: http://imgur.com/a/4qjlI

I'm not scared of them anymore now, of course, but possibly that's one manifestation of the "phobia". Also, brise soleil screens might look like clusters of multiple eyes—all looking at you.

Anyway, articles about trypophobia are resurfacing again, and scientists are thinking it might not be precisely a constructed phobia, but more like an evolutionary "disgust/fear" response to potentially dangerous, especially poisonous, things:

http://mentalfloss.com/article/67867/what-trypophobia-and-it-real

P.S. This is probably why many, many showcases of Body Horror and Eldritch Abominations (including and especially in works inspired by H. P. Lovecraft, for example) are studded full of grisly, holey patterns. It seems fundamentally alien to us, even though it exists in a lot of places in nature.

edited 3rd Jan '16 4:39:52 AM by mirisu92

I can see how it would be debilitating if you couldn't handle, say... that kind of metal mesh/grille design that gets used on public transport fixtures.