If You Know You Know

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #13:

Texture

From the time I was a small child, I’ve felt yucky looking at holey textures. We had a flower arrangement in our house with lotus pods in it, and they always bothered me. Other things like strawberries and sponges bothered me, too. When I was a teenager, Kraft started marketing Easy Mac, and when I tried it for the first time, I pulled the dish out of the microwave, and the noodles had all turned hole-side up. I was totally freaked out but couldn’t stop staring at them. 

Some strawberries are worse than others. This was an icky one. ((Shudder))

It wasn’t until about five years ago that I learned this has a name: trypophobia - an aversion or disgust response to clusters, bumps, or holes. Of course, social media is to thank for this information. I was excited to find that other people experience it too, and it’s not just some weird thing I, alone, have going on. Until then, I’d never heard of anyone else having this problem, and any time I tried to describe it to someone, they didn’t know what I was talking about. I’ve since found some kindred spirits (and yes, I text them trypophobia pictures to be mean, and they do the same to me). 

One thing that has been especially troublesome to me the last few years is balloon arches. 

Ones like this are fine:

These don’t bother me (other than their ludicrous cost).

But these ones? With the little warty looking clusters? They make me feel so yucky. 

How do people look at those and not think about diseases? Dermatological abnormalities? Sexually transmitted infections? Skin tags, blisters, and warts? 

How do you look at those clusters and not feel icky?

(Did I just ruin balloon arches for you? Possibly. Unless you, too, have trypophobia, and you already knew). 

So far I’m the only one in my family with trypophobia. I often show my kids photos or point to things in person (like a wasp nest or most recently, a holey speaker in the queue for Rattle Snake Rapids at Lagoon) and ask, “Does this bother you?” They just look at me weird.