Irrational Phobia question

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biff977
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Irrational Phobia question

It isn't the least bit surprising to say that my fascination with Blueberry Inflation and Body Inflation in general stems from watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory as a small child, but what I find interesting at the moment is, originally as a little kid (after first watching the scene) the notion of someone inflating big and round like a balloon actually scared the crap out of me.  Even as a small child I knew it was all made up, but I was irrationally afraid of blowing up like a balloon.  I also had an aversion to blueberry pie (and pie in general) after seeing the movie, although I never told anyone ever; I just avoided it. 

I'm curious if anyone else's fascination with inflation started out as an irrational fear or something similar.  I've tried on occasion to see if there was any kind of phobia that would be even marginally related to this, but most responses you get to internet searches involve a fear of balloons in general or fear of inflation as it relates to economics.

On a side note, as a little kid, I had a vague fear of the dark that turned into a love of horror films as I got older, so I guess there might be some psychological correlation between fear and fascination.

PuffyMan

I was never scared of it per se, but there was one calvin and hobbes comic where calvin imagines himself inflating at the dinner table because he was forced to eat one bit too many.  It was highly unsellting... not sure why.

Mechrotta
Mechrotta's picture

Inflation always fascinated when I was young but it didn't scare me; however, there were things I was scared of as a kid that are now exciting as an adult. Brains are funny like that.

monkey34

Hilariously, I actually have a fear of balloons. I'm not calling it a phobia as I've seen phobias and my reaction is no-where near as bad. Basically if you're blowing up a balloon I cannot be in the same room as you. If they're already inflated, I'm ok as long as I'm not near them. If people start playing with them though, I have to leave the room. Based on this I suspect it's probably just a dislike of them bursting, though when they do it provokes little reaction from me.

it's kinda funny considering my main kick out of this is blowing up a really big balloon under layers of clothing, close to my body, though maybe it's because I'm in control of it that it doesn't provoke the same reaction :)

Balloonbellyboy
Balloonbellyboy's picture

Interesting you should bring this up, the first inflation scenes I remember seeing were in a James Bond film and the music video for Sheryl Crow ~ All I wanna do and the thought of that happening to someone absolutely terrified me for some reason. 

 

Yet here I am years later pumping myself up to the point of almost bursting and wishing I could float up into the sky XD 

Baron_o_Beef_Dip
Baron_o_Beef_Dip's picture

I remember being a kid & thinking that when you had gas you would actually inflate like in the old Gas X commercials. I do remember having an aversion to inflation in media, but it was less the inflation & more the possibility of popping being involved. I think that's because I had seen several popping scenes in media & figured it would be too common as it was depicted as funny. To this day I always ask if a piece of media includes popping because last time I jumped into something without being warned that it included gory popping I wanted to throw up! I have gotten to the point where cartoony popping wherein the character survives, like what Mabo does, is fine, but I will never enjoy gory popping! Then again, gory violence has never been something I could get into. I liked the Deadpool movie, but I didn't like Deadpool 2 because of the scene where almost everyone on his team dies gruesomely. Interestingly I can play games like Fallout where bodies explode from rockets & feel fine, but honestly I think that boils down to the violence feeling less senseless & more purposeful.

biff977
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I would think the impending threat of exploding would be more frightening than actually exploding (the whole terror vs horror concept). Terror is the fear and apprehension leading up to an event (in this case, the threat of popping), while horror is the response to an event that has already happened (aka, the popping).

Personally, I like the terror aspect...the tension that builds up to an implied event.