AS and fear

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So, I was wondering how common it is for someone on the spectrum to have a really powerful uncontrollable fear. An example would be my fear of anything medical related. If I had to have a surgery done to keep me alive, I don't know whether I would have the surgery done or let myself die, as I would probably die of fear on the table before they put me to sleep. Any time I have had even a minor thing done, I have kicked and screamed and put up a fight, I even attacked a doctor once while I was blacked out from the drugs they had me on. That trip was to have an mri done, and they went to put me to sleep and gave me a drug that would help make it easier for the sleeping drug to work, and whatever drug they gave me caused me to black out and I can't remember fighting with the doctors, or being restrained while they knocked me out. My fear is so strong that given a choice between surgery and death, I would take a long time to decide and probably choose death. I don't know what it is I am afraid of about anything medical, but even just getting a needle my heart rate jumps, and I am deathly afraid.

Is fear like this common in people with ASDs?

Oh, I get extremely fearful! Let's name a few of the more extreme cases I've had...

*I've given myself hives from not wanting to put my face in the water in swimming lessons when I was seven

*I've passed out from being blindfolded in the woods (part of that was from not wanting to get my clothes dirty, too)

*I started hyperventilating like crazy when my boyfriend and I were going to share our first kiss

And that's only a few of them!

yeah i think i have belonephobia (abnormal fear of needles) .....the last 2 times i got a blood test i got so scared that i started hyperventilating when i saw the doctor holding the needle and i started getting reallybad panic attacks and i started throwing up while he was drawing blood.... and whenever i go to the dentist, i never let him use novacaine since im so scared of needles, i always tell him to fill the cavity without numbing me, even when its a really deep cavity. sometimes i have to go through hours of EXCRUTIATING pain because i dont want to get a 10 second shot... whenever i see a picture of a needle like in a magazine or if i think of the word "syringe", or if i pass by a hospital, I start getting really nauseous and i feel faint....

I think it's about the same as almost anybody so don't see AS contributing much to that element of life.

People with AS are prone to fixation. We might therefore have the potential for a greater capacity and tendency to re-enforce our own fears by mentally re-experiencing and dwelling on them, which I expect would result in strengthening and re-enforcing the neurological processes that constitute feelings of fear and fearful thoughts that occur (for a particular individual) in association with a particular stimulus.

Personally, I have a strong and very unreasonable fear of spiders (there are few poisonous spiders where I live and none that would be likely to cause fatality were I to be bitten), and although I do not find them scary in concept, I have a visceral reaction to needles and have passed out on one occasion as a result (the only time I have ever fainted).

When I was a young child, I had a very unreasonable fear that someone hiding under my bed would stick a spike through my neck (fans of the Friday 13th movie series might recognize the origin of this fear). What was especially unreasonable about the fear was that, having a drawer fitted to the underneath of my bed, I never for a moment believed it was reasonably plausible (that someone could hide under my bed), yet the fearful emotions were not decreased by my rational understanding of the relevant circumstantial factors.

I have a fear of water, which I think is due to my dreams about drowning at the time I was supposed to learn how to swim. I've had a few near death experiences with drowning too. People used to think it was a matter that I didn't know how to swim, it was more water terrified me and still does. My fear of heights started from falling from a great height too.
I'm scared of spiders too.

*Raises hand* Another person afraid of shots/needles here. When I was a kid, it was so bad that I'd fight the doctors. Poor doctors. I'd bite and kick and punch them. Now I have it controlled enough that I just hold onto my mom (or whoever else is there with me), squeeze my eyes shut, whimper and cry, and scream out/scream "Ow!" when they finally put the darn thing in my flesh. *Shudders*

I'm also phobic of all bugs (with the exception of gnats/may-flies; those are just annoying.). I've been known to run away screaming from butterflies.

I have emetophobia (phobia of vomit). It's a common fear, yet very few people seem to really understand how horrible it is. Whenever I tell someone that I have this fear, the first thing they say is "well no one likes to be sick or be around anyone sick".. NO!! I mean it's not just a matter of NOT wanting to have anything to do with it, I am petrified of it!

I'm just scared of snakes basically. Though its a controllable fear at times to be honest.

As far as I am aware, I don't have any sort of phobias. Typically I only fear something if I know death or being harmed is an immediate direct consequence of something, then naturally I will fear what ever it is. I do have plenty of (mostly social) anxieties that could appear to be fears (afraid of girls? nah...).

Actually, I am far less prone to fear than most NT's. I used to have a bit of a problem with needles, and I am a bit nervous around heights, but not enough to warrant the title, "phoebia." I also have strong aversions (not fears) of things such as foeces or mushrooms that trigger sensory sensitivities. I also have a fear of being restrained.

However, things that threaten death or bodily injury, etc don't really phase me. I know from the two times that I have had guns pulled on me, I actually get very focused, and rationalize the fact that I am probably going to die, but I didn't have much of an emotional response to either incident.