Octopus-intense phobia of

Hi im new to this forum,
Ever since I was young i've had an intense phobia of octopus. Even so much as seeing a picture of one or a video will cause me to shiver uncontrollably and be intensley jumpy for at least an hour. My nightmares often involve being attacked by one. I avoid aquariums, never been scuba diving etc. Ive never been attacked by one, dont live by the sea, nothing obvious seems to have caused this.
I understand a lot of people on this forum have proper phobias that hamper their daily lives so i feel quite stupid posting this.
Im just wondering,
-Does anyone else suffer from this? I've never met anyone who has
-Anyone have any ideas how it might have been triggered? Something subconscious?
-Suggestions as to how to get rid of it? (that dont involve gettin in a tank with one, they're actually quite dangerous)
I'd be grateful for your thoughts on this, hope no one thinks its too stupid
Thanks

Hi, douglasreynholm! Did anything sort of traumatizing happen to you as a kid? Maybe they remind you of that event for some reason.
You could try talking to a therapist who specializes in this. Maybe a baby octopus would be better to get in a tank with than a big one.

Thats the thing, I've had a very normal growing up, nothing out of the ordinary, nothing traumatic. But seeing image/video of the creatures will cause something close to anxiety attacks in me. Its bizarre!
Its not affecting my daily life, Im just curious, I would like to shed some light on it.

Thanks for your reply!

Maybe they remind you of a dead person's skin or of being touched in a weird way because of how you might imagine they'd feel or something.

There are many different treatments that you can try if you are willing!

I am currently going through graduated exposure therapy with a clinical psychologist. It is a difficult but effective process so far. Basically, you create a list of situations involving your phobia from “not-so-bad“ to “OMG that is my worst nightmare“. For example, I have a phobia of injections so my first step is looking at cartoon images of needles, next it might be real images of needles, then videos of someone getting their blood drawn, etc.. etc... You don't move onto the next step until you feel your ready. Eventually I will be doing exactly what I have been terrified of all my life. Thankfully, that is many months away and I will be ready when the time comes.

Another type of treatment is hypnotherapy or guided visualization. I dont know much on how these work because I haven't tried them.

Hope this helped a bit. Good luck with everything!

Wow thanks very much. That all sounds very rational and possibly something I could even do myself with a friend maybe.
Thanks for taking the time to read!

Good luck with your treatment SDPhobia! I hope this will help you too, douglas, let us know how you're doing.

I'm so glad to find someone with the same phobia! I'm in the same exact situation!! I was wondering what it stemmed from, and all I could find was this description in a book of dreams and nightmares where the o word symbolized manipulation; possibly a very controlling mother. They're so creepy!

Once my friends found out they made fun of me relentlessly, and it's really hard to watch The Little Mermaid all the way through. Once in English a few years back, we were coming up with myths, and we were trying to explain an earthquake. I blamed it on the o words mating. Well, it's a very plausible reason!! I even came up with a conspiracy theory - they're so darn intelligent, (have you ever seen one escape or open a bottle!?) that once they understand how to survive with our different air pressure, world domination is inevitable. It's clearly obvious. In addition to that, I don't know if you're a Christian, but in the Bible, it's stated multiple times that at the end of the world, Satan and his demons will be imprisoned in the depths of the sea. Coincidence? I think not. ALSO, why else would they name Ursula the SEA WITCH? BECAUSE O WORDS ARE EVIL! EVILLL!!!

I don't know if yours is as bad as mine or worse, but I'm just glad to know I'm not crazy for having the same fear. Just saying the word makes me shaky, and I've never had a traumatic childhood experience. The only reason I can think of for fearing them

I'm so happy that I found this. I've been afraid of octopus ever since I can remember and I have no idea where it came from. I live in Iowa, nowhere near the ocean, so I really don't understand. I can't look at pictures or videos either without getting anxiety and a nauseous feeling. Like you, my nightmares usually involve octopus. They just freak me out more than anything. For me, I don't really see the point in getting over it though because of where I live and the fact that it doesn't affect my daily life all too much, but I would like to know where it stemmed from. It affected me a lot at one point, and whenever I tell anyone that that is my fear they kind of laugh it off like it's not a legitimate fear. And I don’t know if it is, but they scare the $#%^ out of me.

Anyway, thanks a lot for sharing. It's nice to know that someone else gets what you're talking about.

Hi yes I just wanted to join in and let you know you're not alone on this. I am
an English guy that had an intense fear of Octopus. If I see one on tv I immediately run out the room and have an anxiety attack. Then it will play on my mind for hours before it eventually goes away. I have no idea how or when this started and it doesn't affect my everyday life but I would like to know what it is about them. Personally I think I can narrow it down to tentacles which they have. Just saying that word puts me in hot sweats and anxiety. :-/