What's wrong with saying

'I'm terrified of heights'
'I'm scared of spiders'
'I really don't like putting my head under water'

Why has it always got to be a 'phobia'?
Even Dom's at it with his 'phobia of spiders'
There are lots of things I'm not keen on - should I start saying I have a phobia?

One symptom of genuine phobia is that people will go to irrational lengths to avoid the chance of encountering what they are phobic about.

Why you have to wonder if Gillian has a genuine diagnosed phobia... why she would go into the jungle in the first place.

I think Dom was just using it in the context of the way she has bandied the word around.

In Gillian's case it is an excuse for petulant, attention seeking dramas to get her out of doing things she doesn't want to do.

She has a new phobia every day. Her neurosis knows no bounds She makes it up as she goes along.

I know people with phobias, and I also know a few people who treat them. They are real.

However, most people confront their phobias and get help to overcome them. If being on a TV programme like this exposes them to the source of their fears to this extent, a normally adjusted person would simply not agree to do it.

Gillian is in it purely for the publicity. More fool her!

I have a phobia of people with phobias.

And fake phobias.

Phobias are certainly real, it's just Gillian who is fake.

I have a wasp phobia. I went through a stage of not even going out of the house during the summer!! Thankfully I can now go out, however I sellotape netting around all the windows in my house from April until November so I can still air the house. If one came in my house I would immediately run out and couldn't come back in until someone had killed it......and I would have to see the dead wasp too as I've had people get fed up searching for it and lying to me saying they had killed it when they hadn't!! I will not go anywhere near a bin outside and had to come home from one holiday (flamingo land) where the flaming things were in their thousands and crawling over chairs etc. If one approaches me or I even hear a buzzing noise I am so scared I can't even scream, I feel the blood drain from my face and my heart starts thumping etc etc..I could go on but you get the picture.

So, if you have a true phobia, you will go to any lengths to minimise the chances of coming into contact with whatever it is you are frightened of......so you certainly would not go to the Jungle if you had a phobia of all the things she claims........the very thought of it would be enough to send her heart racing!!

I have a couple of bad phobias. They're bad enough that even encountering the source of the phobia in something like a video game can set it off. It's quite humiliating really

I could never go into the jungle because I am terrified of heights and I could never cross that bridge, never. I don't understand how she could go in there when she supposedly has so many 'phobias'. It would be a continual nightmare.

agreed, I always had a dislike for a particular animal (won't say what as everyone always laughs at me ) but recently at uni we had to handle them, I was dreading it all day but figured i'd just get on with it. As soon as I was within a few feet of the little B*ggers my palms started to sweat, my heart rate went mad and I started to shake. I thought I was being stupid, then my mate crept up behind me, pretending to have one in his hands. I completely freaked out, I mean tears, running from the room and feeling like I was about to hurl.

I was surprised at myself and feel sorry for anyone with a TRUE phobia, but I fear Gillian may just have a dislike for things, not a phobia.

Anyone with a true phobia would never have entered the jungle in the first place, as a few people on this thread have already said.

Being frightened of something and having a phobia are completely different. I hate spiders, insects, daddy long legs etc but if I really had to then I could fight my way through the 'fear'.

However, my phobia is a very unusual one (Hot air balloons) and no money in the world would make me put myself in a position where I would come face to face with one. I have put myself through all sorts of therapy and the 'fear' I feel is unlike any other.

As a true phobia sufferer I feel saddened that Gillian thinks she can pull the wool over all our eyes.

May I ask why you needed all sorts of therapy - surely hot air balloons are not something you encounter very often or indeed at all? Was it because you just didn't want to have the phobia any more - to get rid of something you have no control of? Or is that uncertainty that you might see one out the blue and freak.

Genuine question - I can understand someone being phobic of them I just don't see how it would blight your life in such a way.

I hope I don't come across rude - it's completely unintentional.

I am frightened of balloons, i don't consider myself phobic, i can handle balloons before they are blown up no problem, BUT when they are inflated i am so scared that they will pop. If i am out shopping and i see a kiddy with a balloon i have to cross the street, sometimes they are given out in Maccy D's for eg, i can't sit and enjoy my meal, i have to leave...However i think i am just frightened, not a balloon phobe. I don't freak out and sweat and panic, i just feel very uncomfortable.

So, yes, phobia is just an over used, incorrectly used, word these days.

No you don't come across as rude at all!

I live in a place where I see hot air balloons every day in the summer and even in the winter sometimes. The day I nearly killed myself whilst driving (one landed in a field next to me) was the day I thought I couldn't go on like this. Even looking at one in a magazine or on TV makes me burst into tears.

I will walk my dog at certain times of day when I know Im less likely to encounter one. I always take a jacket with a hood so I can use it to 'protect' myself. I know, I know...ridiculous.

I had past life regression which helped enormously for a while but I have never been 'cured'. I have also had hypnotherapy.

Ooh me too I have a massive phobia of heights. I hate stairs so much as I get really bad weakness when I'm on them as I always think I'll fall if I look down, it's just because of my phobia of heights which is why I hate stairs. If possible I take the lift. My phobia of heights really makes my life miserable though. I walk like a toddler on stairs or bridges.

I don't go up stairs in Malls if they have marble or glass steps. Bloody hell I can't handle it enough as it is if they have open spaces where you can see to the first floor, and bridges in them.

I keep saying to my boyfriend. We'll be living in a bungalow when we get our own place.

I have OCD and a few phobias (diagnosed by a psychiatrist) and they literally paralyse me. I cant think, I cant move, I cant breathe. If I had a phobia of insects to the level Gillian claims I could never go into the jungle, it wouldn't even be possible to contemplate. The barest thought of my phobia brings me out in a cold sweat and makes me hyperventilate. I think she's trying to play a blinder where she will come out recovered from her phobias and become a self titled lifestyle guru. Or try to anyway.

God it sounds traumatic!

Thanks for letting me know - I was going to ask you if pictures upset you too.

Poor you - very good though for trying to overcome it.

I know with hypnotherapy it can be great but it does "wear off"....my friend had it for spiders and it was amazing for about a year but suddenly the phobia returned.

I hate spiders and cry and scream if I see them but I do know that I'm just terrified of them - I'm not phobic.

OMG you are just like me. Even if I go over an open bridge in a car I have to bend down in a heap I am OK if I can't see over the sides. It's ridiculous.

I highly recommend a therapy called EFT(emotional freedom technique) It works

I believe Gillian may mention something along those lines in her new book, You Are What You Fear, which I'm imagining she's going to write after she's conquered her phobias. Her method, though, will be called the Emotional Blackmail Technique.

Note: Not making light of actual EFT, I have heard it is very effective.

Just as I thought - phobias are indeed very real and debilitating - but on IACGMOOH it just seems that it's the word to use when you don't like something.

To be honest - Gillian probably did better than I could have done in the 'lobster pot' challange - I really don't like putting my head under water and would have struggled big time. However, I would never describe myself as water phobic, I'm quite happy pottering abount in the water as long as my head doesn't go under Surely, if she truly was phobic she wouldn't even have been able to go near the water - never mind do the task.

Thank you very much for that. I will look into it. I am willing to give anything a go.

OMG, that's one of mine! I've never met anyone else with a hot air balloon phobia! I thought I was alone I believe it's a form of megalophobia, fear of large objects. The other is large objects in water that shouldn't be there- wrecks, buildings, though even whales and trees spark it

Blimey, I can't believe it either! I have never met anyone else with my phobia.

I didn't go into further detail as it gets complicated when I mention other things but yes, it's not just hot air balloons, I am afraid of very large objects BUT most buildings I'm fine with. Its just big plain objects and buildings without many windows (I know this sounds weird which is why I didn't mention it!). Power stations with huge chimneys are a no go for me. So are wind farms with big turbines. I have never been able to get near the O2 dome even though I have bought tickets to concerts that I can never go to.

What you and others here have written just highlights how offensive to real sufferers Gillian is being. It gives the impression that phobias aren't that bad, which is so disrespectful to genuine people like you. Same as so-called panic attacks, which can be equally terrible. She's making a mockery out of real sufferers. That's despicable.

If she was as phobic as she claims shaun snoring would be the least of her problems. she would be a shivering wreck at night in the dark. unless for some strange reason there are no insects in the jungle at night.

Yep, megalophobia. Pylons, large antenna, zeppelins, flagpoles. Sometimes if a tree is leaning or very very big it sparks it. Large areas of flapping material are a no go for me, like parachutes, flags and sails. Strangely, I'm okay with tents and marquees