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WTF

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all 55 comments

[–]Tannon34 12 points13 points ago

After reading the article linked by Womec, I have decided I am borderline Trypophobic. Now all I have to do is find out what kind of government benefits I can get because of that

[–]Billy_Shatner 2 points3 points ago

There are nine because trypophobia is not recognized by the DSM (diagnostic statistical manual) in psychology. According to a popular science article, (http://www.popsci.com/trypophobia?cmpid=mobify) a all the psychologists contacted haven't even heard of trypophobia. Evolutionary psychologist also seem unwilling to find out if there is a biological basis for the fear. A phobia, as defined by the DSM, is a fear that hinders everyday functioning and keeps you from doing things that affect your life. Trypophobia, unless you're a beekeeper, probably doesn't have much of an effect on your day-to-day life. Another thing is if this fear were at the level of a phobia you wouldn't just feel your skin crawl, you'd be hyperventilating, crying, or some other debilitating symptom.

Sources: popular science, myself with a BS in psychology.

[–]Tannon34 2 points3 points ago

You have a bull shit in psychology

[–]Billy_Shatner 1 point2 points ago

Call it what you will. It's all I did with my papers I wrote anyway.

[–]Billy_Shatner 3 points4 points ago

None* not nine..

[–]QuasarsRcool 1 point2 points ago

You can edit your original comment

[–]Billy_Shatner 2 points3 points ago

Not on my phone.. it wouldn't let me once I left the page.. I could if I were near a computer. But alas, I was not.

[–]Billy_Shatner 2 points3 points ago

.....um. Well I guess I just added a bit onto what you already knew. Reading is hard.

[–]WalterMatthau 8 points9 points ago

Trypophobia is not a real phobia. Look at the official list of phobias, and this is not even on there. This is a word 4chan made up back in the day that ended up spreading to various parts of the web.

It is however a very real and natural reaction. Your discomfort (e.g. skin crawling, shivering, nausea, etc.) is an automatic reaction of the sympathetic nervous system known as horripilation. This, like goosebumps, are a legacy genetic trait that serve to protect us as a 'fight-or-flight' response to imminent threat. This sudden onset of sympathetic nervous system responses in your body are the result of a complex process in your brain that takes place when you visually analyze flawed organic texture.

There is a region on your brain called the somatosensory cortex which, just like the other cortical regions, is in charge of performing the higher level interpreting of the nervous signals that it receives from the thalamus.

In the case of the somatosensory cortex, it is very specialized on interpreting the nervous signals that come from and go to your sensory and tactile system. This cortical structure is so specific, that well-defined cytoarchitectonic regions deal with very specific parts of your body. Your brain has a whole area in this structure devoted to digesting the tactile data from your feet. It has another dedicated area for your ears. It even has quite larger (in comparison) areas for the tip of your fingers alone.

In essence, your brain is very good at keeping track of the where and how of every inch of surface of your body. When you see the picture of a hand in perfectly good shape, your occipital lobe relays the visual data it gets through the ventral stream into your somatosensory cortex and you relate and evoke 'truth' that you derive from such data. If the picture of such hand was shiny for example, you could easily relate and 'almost feel' the oily sensation in your own hand.

If the picture in question portrays the hand's skin as being very dry, you can relate and perhaps even 'feel' the scratching of the skin when you rub it. The senses, are the 'language' of your brain. When you see a flawed texture, the way in which your brain interprets it is by formulating and reenacting all associated 'feelings' about it. When it goes around trying to formulate holes in your tact for you to accurately digest this disturbing visual data, it overwhelms the somatosensory cortex by demanding it to portray data it can not process. The very X/Y coordinates for you to, say, 'feel' the depth of each hole, simply do not exist in your neurons' history.

The picture of the fingers display a severe burn lesion most likely inflicted by electric discharge exit wound. It is likely that the subject had an accident while handling high voltage. You can clearly see the carbonized bone at the center of each wound. You, at this very moment, are naturally not having a similar wound. You are most likely to be able to feel the tip of your own fingers, feel their warmth, the pulse of your blood, the lush red color and the texture of your skin. The disturbing wound picture has enough information for your visual cortex to try to 'draw' a charred bone in your somatosensory cortex so you can interpret the visual data and accurately represent the depth/distance/position information you are gazing.

People who do not experience any adverse reaction at all are simply reacting in the simplest possible way by deeming it ficticious, thus not relating, and have no horripilation reaction at all. People with a greater neural network plasticity go as far as formulate it either way, despite not being wounded, 'enacting' the actual lesion, inflicting the virtual wound, and triggering the sympathetic system's response in awe. There is nothing you can do to avoid this reaction (and perhaps might even go as far as to congratulate yourself for having a greater density of proprioception than others). But there is something you can do to get rid of the discomfort after experiencing the horripilation.

Quite simply, just go ahead and rub your own skin. With the full surface of your hand palms, go on and rub your arms, your neck, anywhere you feel the piloerection (goosebumps).

You will notice that the eeriness is actually replaced with a satisfactory sensation of comfort, because what you're doing is you're overriding the anomalous data that your visual cortex interpreted from the flawed texture picture, with real data of the hypothetic surface when, as you rub your own skin, and find out that in fact, you do not possess such lesions.

It's as simple as that.

[–]pay-ray 2 points3 points ago

TL;DR

[–]weissis 2 points3 points ago

Rrrroiiiight.

[–]Genytrees 5 points6 points ago

I hate you.

[–]mysterypanda 5 points6 points ago

I have always had this fear ever since seeing a documentary about frogs with babies coming out of their backs or something on the television when I was pretty young. EDIT: It was somthing like this I think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ7b4spjXhw

[–]snausagequeen 0 points1 point ago

I just saw something like that about a month ago on one of the kid channels my daughter was watching. I won't even click on your link. Just when I think I get the image out of my head... wam! It's back and I can't function like a normal human being again.

[–]unluckylover0 0 points1 point ago

I feel so comforted knowing I'm not the only one. That video permanently imbedded the fear in me. I then saw some anime porn with some weird holes she kept putting things into. Omg freaking out just thinking about it. Gaaah.. so... so... disturbing!

[–]-HackThePlanet- 1 point2 points ago

OMFG thank you! I am exactly the same. I was young when I saw that too and have been trying to remember where I saw it so I could find it. This haunted me and still does.

[–]kovah 1 point2 points ago

I had this too! It completely freaked me out. I can't even look at breakfast crumpets without thinking about that darn toad. shudders

[–]carasaurus 3 points4 points ago

Vomit. I was scarred by a picture of a picture on 4chan that I saw about 5 years ago (a nipple with small holes in it), cannot get it out of my damn mind. Thanks for bringing it back up. At least it has a name now.

[–]serosis 6 points7 points ago

That picture was Photoshopped, just a lotus pod.

[–]carasaurus 5 points6 points ago

I knew it was shopped, didn't matter still couldn't get it out of my mind.

[–]CopyX 0 points1 point ago

No matter how much I tell myself it's fake, it still haunts me.

[–]ermergerdusernerm -1 points0 points ago

I think about that and bot flies too much. It drives me insane and freaks me out.

[–]carasaurus -1 points0 points ago

I knew I wasn't the only one. I stopped going on 4chan after I saw that picture. Not even kidding. Guess it really is a phobia.

[–]reddit_user_654321 0 points1 point ago

you'll love this, then.

[–]carasaurus 0 points1 point ago

[–]reddit_user_654321 1 point2 points ago

c'mon ... it's just a video of of a woman getting bot fly larvae removed from her breast. no biggie ... I can try to gif it, if you want. you know, to save video load times ...

edit: so you don't have to load video.

[–]waidot 0 points1 point ago

I'm not sure if I would leave them in or take them out..

[–]waidot 1 point2 points ago

That's what she said.

[–]Tannon34 3 points4 points ago

depends wether I can fire them off my arm at high velocities

[–]LohleinJanitorial Assistant 0 points1 point ago

Yes. Stop it please.

[–]jgonz789 0 points1 point ago

Im trypophobic

[–]unluckylover0 -1 points0 points ago

Omfg... I can't believe I'm seeing this. When I was in elementary, I had a reoccurring nightmare of all my classmates sitting at their desks... doing this exact thing. Great. No sleep for me tonight. Shivers

[–]Slantedinnuendo 0 points1 point ago

What the fuck, man!?

[–]JasmineTeaNoms 3 points4 points ago

Is the magnifying glass really necessary?

[–]Loahki 2 points3 points ago

I'm going to save this for my girlfriend for when she gets home from work. Something like this is going to just wreck her. IT SHALL BE GLORIOUS!

[–]KrimpBinson -1 points0 points ago

i guess i am..

[–]IHAS80085 -1 points0 points ago

FUCK THIS D; upvote

[–]missyprez99 -1 points0 points ago

I screamed... and almost puked

[–]ExplodingJesus 0 points1 point ago

http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lj9ksfcXhk1qf5ydv.gif

KILL IT WITH FIRE.

I don't care what you call this... I hate it.

[–]elmatto 1 point2 points ago

I don't think I have it bad. But that shit does make me feel slightly uneasy. It's more of feeling of 'I hate that. It's gross.' But If I look long enough it doesn't bother me for long. Mind over matter.

[–]FrenchDisco 0 points1 point ago

For as long as I can remember I have terrified of this frog and like honeycombs and shit...I understand now.

[–]adlyoren -1 points0 points ago

WTF indeed :)

[–]richiesgirl 0 points1 point ago

What is it???

[–]shuggi21 0 points1 point ago

jesus fucking christ... I had no idea this had a NAME. I've always been grossed out by little holes... THANK YOU REDDIT. I literally have goosebumps.. ewww

[–]ermergerdusernerm -1 points0 points ago

I ha no idea either. Bubbles in milk or paint etc freak me out as well. That photo that was on credit for the burned milk was freakin me out. Sponges scare me as we'll.

[–]serosis 0 points1 point ago

Fuck, I would want to pluck them out too. Not to mention how those things would rub together while using a mouse.

[–]deadly990 -1 points0 points ago

God, I can't even look at my Eye, because my iris looks like it has holes in it.............

[–]Sld_007 -1 points0 points ago

I never had a problem looking at things like this until someone gave it a name. Now it terrifies me!

[–]r-u-srs -4 points-3 points ago

r u srs why did i click that