balloon phobia?

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Ballon boom topic

I had almost forgotten about this. Yes, as a small child I was terrified.

Other childhood fears:

Grease spattering from a frypan,

Being chased by dogs.

Dodgeball.

Being late for class, as everyone stares at you when you come in late.

Failing a grade.

Being hit by a snowball or a rock.

Being hit by a jump rope elastic.

Many times I was teased because I was visibly in cringe mode if I thought these events would occur.

This was another area where I had a problem as a child. I hated balloons, I hated the noise that they made when they would pop. I hated the potential to get hit by a piece of popped balloon. I hated the fact that they were even in the same room as me. I was always taunted as a child about my fear of balloons and finally I just stopped telling people I was scared of them. It lead to some 'funny' situations where I would often find myself too close for comfort near a balloon. To this day I still have a problem with them, anticipating that they may just pop, or someone will come along and pop them or I may get stung by a piece of popped balloon. It's still a personal terror for me.

I used to be really scared of popping balloons, as a child.

I am scared of them.

Only if they are filled with hydrogen instead of helium.

OH! THe humanity! Oh the humanity!

I used to be worried about them when I was little, only because I was afraid of them popping. I'm not worried about them now, as I know they're not going to pop by themselves and most adults don't play about with them and make them pop. But even if a clumsy kid had a balloon near me, I don't think it would bother me now.

I'm not afraid of them, but that noise is annoying.

I hate balloons for the exact same reasons. I wouldn't say I'm quite afraid of them, but I definitely hate the squeaky noise of them rubbing against things and am worried about them popping.

yep! as a kid i had a love hate relationship with balloons.

i would want a balloon and be SUPER anxious about the popping. i remember there would be a lot of balloons at birthdayparties and i would be so terrified to touch them and watching other kids be rough with balloons really stressed me out. when i was like 9 my cousin tried to help me get over the fear by popping a bunch of them but it didnt work.

now i really really dont like them. i never got used to the popping.

I totally love balloons. Round, bright and colorful, filled with air and warm fuzzy childhood memories. When I was a kid I'd ask my mom to buy my brother and me a bag of balloons whenever we went to a store, and then we'd go home, blow them up and play with them for ages. We used to put them above the air vents in the floor and watch the warm air make them float around.

I once heard about a guy on that show My Strange Addiction who had a sexual fetish for balloons, but as a kid he was terrified of them. They said that sometimes a childhood phobia can eventually turn into a fetish, probably as kind of coping mechanism, but most people would think you were a psychopath anyway.

At least it's not as bad as chewing on diapers.

The only fear I have of balloons is that some idiot is gonna release them so they'll end up in some poor animal's stomach.

I only fear them if they are 800 feet long, and are filled with hydrogen instead of helium.

OH...the humanity!

When I was a kid I was terrified of balloons when there were other kids around because I didn't trust the kids with balloons, being so kids can be clumsy and they're more likely to pop when being played about with. As an adult I'm not afraid of balloons because I know they won't just pop by themselves, and surprisingly a lot of adults I know don't like balloons popping.

What you said about baloons. How one can not trust kiddies with them. Yes. I understand. I don't like being in a room where there are kids with baloons.
I remember when my youngest brother was a kid. It was so funny. We had a chair which had sunk. For a prank When playing a game I hid a baloon under the cushion of the chair. Though the baloon was fairly large, it was just the right size to fit under the cushion where the part which had sunk was.
Then we forgot all about it. Many of us had sat on the chair and nothing happened. One sunday my Mum had made us all sunday dinner. My Dads dinner was seated like an island in a lovely sea of gravy balanced on his plate. Now this was over a month later when we had totally forgotton that it was there. My Dad went to carefully sit down trying to keep his plate level. BUMPFF! went the baloon and my Dad was covered in gravy! Then my brother suddenly realized what had happened.. "My baloon!" he cried as tears filled his eyes....
I was doing all I can to try not to laugh. Oh dear! It was soo funny.

A fear of balloons is very common in many with sensory sensitivities. Especially, as young children, but this can continue on into adulthood. Each new stimulus - object or setting - perceived as new, especially to young children on the spectrum, can cause strong reactions. My son was very balloon phobic as a child, but now will blow them up himself, loves them with helium in them, and even draws arty, funny things on them for birthdays, with a pen that could cause them to pop. I remember a brilliant autistic man who was equally terrified of planes. When taken to an airport at the age of 6, he screamed abuse at his uncle who was trying to drag him over to look at a light plane up close. Not much later, he became fascinated by planes, spending all his pocket money on kit planes. He was also terrified of the film Wizard of Oz(no surprises there ... !) Usually the way to teach a young child to overcome fear of a novel situation or object, is to do so little by little, with gradual exposure. Just as you would teach a young horse to overcome fears, actually. If you force the issue, you increase the fear of the stimulus setting/object, and build distrust. After birthdays are over, I round up the balloons, place them in the laundry with the door shut behind me, and pop them swiftly, one by one, and get rid of them quickly ... .