4 ms·

Circular patterns? Been a design style for the past 10+ years. Tryophobia sounds like one of those "I have OCD" things because people are "so peculiar." I'm no

by cheeze 7y ago

Circular patterns? Been a design style for the past 10+ years. Tryophobia sounds like one of those "I have OCD" things because people are "so peculiar." I'm not discounting that folks may have a legitimate mental illness resulting from it, but that has to be an overwhelming minority of users.

bananocurrency 7y ago
I recommend googling things you don't understand instead of trying to shut down opinions.
JudgeWapner 7y ago
I too think it's a reddit-ism. Same with thalassohobia. Cool sub though with awesome pics.
userbinator 7y ago
I wouldn't exactly call it a "mental illness", but upon seeing such images I can feel my brain heating up in the same way as when I'm thinking of a difficult problem. My theory is that it's essentially overloading the edge detection (neural) circuitry, because the one thing that all such images have in common is they have plenty of circular edges, which are effectively edges in many directions simultaneously.
- LeifCarrotson 7y ago
  Interesting theory. A similar mental problem is a plot element in the sci-fi novela "Blindsight" by Peter Watts: https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
- defterGoose 7y ago
  I have fairly pronounced trypophobia too. I was under the impression that the leading theory is an evolutionary one; that certain burrowing insects will lay eggs in the skin causing a pattern of holes and that our brains have been trained to read this and other parasites. Yours is certainly interesting, though anecdotally I can look at a very regular pattern of holes and not feel the effect. It only really "bugs" me with more irregular, organic patterns.
  - sangnoir 7y ago
    I get a mild disgust/nausea/skin-crawl reaction. I lean towards evolutionary theory: your lizard brain is telling you "don't touch/eat this parasite-infested item". The worst trigger for me was an image was a (photoshopped) picture of skin with holes, and some had maggots in them.
closeparen 7y ago
Think of it like the (much more common) disgust reaction to the smell of rotten organic matter. Most people have not actually had the experience of eating something putrid and getting sick from it, but something deep within your sensory system just knows, and tells you it's not ok. It's not debilitating. You can still pick up your dog's poop, or even hold a job in the sanitation industry. It's just really unpleasant. FWIW I had my first really strong trypophobia reaction to the shattered glass on my family minivan's windshield after hitting a deer, age 7 or so, long before Reddit. (No injuries, other than the deer, just inconvenience). I felt weird. I kept thinking about it afterward. I wanted to bash it in. Discovered more than 10 years later that there's a name for it and and it's a thing other people experience.

by cheeze 7y ago

bananocurrency 7y ago

I recommend googling things you don't understand instead of trying to shut down opinions.

JudgeWapner 7y ago

I too think it's a reddit-ism. Same with thalassohobia. Cool sub though with awesome pics.

userbinator 7y ago

I wouldn't exactly call it a "mental illness", but upon seeing such images I can feel my brain heating up in the same way as when I'm thinking of a difficult problem. My theory is that it's essentially overloading the edge detection (neural) circuitry, because the one thing that all such images have in common is they have plenty of circular edges, which are effectively edges in many directions simultaneously.

LeifCarrotson 7y ago
Interesting theory. A similar mental problem is a plot element in the sci-fi novela "Blindsight" by Peter Watts: https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
defterGoose 7y ago
I have fairly pronounced trypophobia too. I was under the impression that the leading theory is an evolutionary one; that certain burrowing insects will lay eggs in the skin causing a pattern of holes and that our brains have been trained to read this and other parasites. Yours is certainly interesting, though anecdotally I can look at a very regular pattern of holes and not feel the effect. It only really "bugs" me with more irregular, organic patterns.
- sangnoir 7y ago
  I get a mild disgust/nausea/skin-crawl reaction. I lean towards evolutionary theory: your lizard brain is telling you "don't touch/eat this parasite-infested item". The worst trigger for me was an image was a (photoshopped) picture of skin with holes, and some had maggots in them.

closeparen 7y ago

Think of it like the (much more common) disgust reaction to the smell of rotten organic matter. Most people have not actually had the experience of eating something putrid and getting sick from it, but something deep within your sensory system just knows, and tells you it's not ok. It's not debilitating. You can still pick up your dog's poop, or even hold a job in the sanitation industry. It's just really unpleasant. FWIW I had my first really strong trypophobia reaction to the shattered glass on my family minivan's windshield after hitting a deer, age 7 or so, long before Reddit. (No injuries, other than the deer, just inconvenience). I felt weird. I kept thinking about it afterward. I wanted to bash it in. Discovered more than 10 years later that there's a name for it and and it's a thing other people experience.