>I've noticed that most people who post here or on other websites about
this phobia are from Britain! I was born, raised, and still reside in
North Carolina, USA. Maybe there's some kind of historical link? Maybe
it's my imagination, but it seems like the English have always had a
'thing' w/ buttons. Everyone wore them, used them as decorations, etc.





> There are 2 messages in this issue.
>
> Topics in this digest:
>
> 1. RE: Re: Buttons
> From: "Claire Stamps" <biggles286@...>
> 2. It gets cold in California
> From: "twisted_blacksun" <twisted_blacksun@...>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 16:08:28 +0100
> From: "Claire Stamps" <biggles286@...>
> Subject: RE: Re: Buttons
>
>
>
>>--- In b_phobia@yahoogroups.com, "twisted_blacksun"
>><twisted_blacksun@y...> wrote:
>
>> > Hi, I've just joined
>
> Hi, great to have a new member! :-)
>
>> > I really did think that I was alone--a freak of nature.
>
> It is surprising quite how many of us there seem to be. I would love to
> know what has caused this phobia. If there were just one or two, I
> would put it down to some awful button experience in our childhood, but
> with so many of us, I have to doubt that. Is it possible the phobia is
> somehow genetic rather than learned? Certainly, I share this phobia
> with my mother (Barbara) and she tried not to show disgust for buttons
> when dressing me as a child. You mentioned you and your brother dared
> one another to pick up a button? Did he share your phobia, or was he
> just coming up with an especially mean dare for you to do?
>
>> > When wearing them (which I never do), they make me feel ugly and a
>> freak to all. I also think they smell.
>
> That's very interesting - the link to smell that we have had mentioned
> here before. I'm not especially aware of it myself, but then, I have
> been staying as far from buttons as possible since I was very small.
> They do make me nauseous though, in the same way that a bad smell
> might.
>
> Can anyone who experiences the smell tell me what the smell is like, how
> far away you have to be to smell it, etc.?
>
>> > As I am writing, I am getting strong impuslsions to go and smell
>>the
>> > hideous ones on my husband's trench coat, which is just behind me.
>>Any
>> > body else get impuslsions to touch or smell buttons?
>
> That's disgusting! I'm absolutely horrified!!! I get a strong desire to
> wipe my hand on my trousers if I even touch the cloth of a garment with
> a button so I'm quite the opposite. Can you tell us anymore about these
> impulses - it's really interesting that you have them for something
> that you find so horrible.
>
>> > Metal ones on jeans don't bother me and neither do wood ones all
>>that
>> > much. It seems to be only plastic ones.
>>
>>Yes, I'm the same, not at all bothered by the metal ones, or by
>>poppers or toggles. My daughter however is repulsed by anything
>>button-like. She even dislikes pearls because they seem somehow
>>button-like to her.
>
> Very true (I'm the daughter). Perhaps because my phobia was indulged by
> a button hating mother it's been able to transfer itself to other
> things? I'm also not keen on blouse or shirt style tops - even where
> they have popper or hook fastenings rather than buttons because they
> are so linked to buttons in my mind.
>
>> > As a child, it branched out into snap-fasters and toggles, but I
>>>am ok with wearing them now.
>
> One of my earliest button related memories is being at my grandmother's
> house and she had a duffel coat for me to wear with toggles on. I did
> NOT want to wear it at all and I think I threw a bit of a tantrum. Not
> sure how old I would have been (any ideas, mum?) but surely no more
> than about 4. Too young to really explain why i didn't want to wear it,
> but I remember that as the reason.
>
> My other grandmother used to be a nurse and gave me her old uniform
> having altered it to fit me. I thought it was great - with the upside
> down pin-on watch and hat and everything, except that the main part of
> it buttoned from the top to the bottom with these big round shiny
> plastic buttons. I tried to refuse to try it on but my mother made me,
> since my grandmother had gone to all that trouble! I think we must have
> cut the buttons off later and replaced them with something else, but at
> the time it was horrible.
>
>> > Of course, my mother never understood, and still dressed me in
>>clothes
>> > with the yucky, horrid things on, until I cried so much that she
>> finally got the message.
>
> I'm lucky enough to have a button-phobic mother who has always made
> allowances. When I was little, I could cope with buttons that didn't
> look too button-like, so she would replace them with buttons in the
> shapes of animals. There reached a point where even those became
> disgusting though. I had a purple jumper with red heart shaped buttons
> and I remember finding that quite unpleasant even when the animals were
> ok, and it just got worse from there.
>
>>Have recently been shopping with my daughter, (also a button phobe) she
>> wanted new trousers. We could not find any (apart from sports gear)
>> that did not fasten with a button. Even if there was a clip on the
>> outside, there was often an extra button FOR NO REASON AT ALL on the
>> inside! Tried to tell daughter that I could replace that with a popper
>> or velcro but she wouldn't even try such things on.
>
> The problem is, how do you try them on without getting "contaminated"?
> You can put tape over the actual button so it isn't touching your skin,
> but you can still feel that it's there. However, situtation is getting
> serious. I am living in Oxfordshire which is very flat so it's already
> FREEZING cold. I have two pairs of decent trousers that aren't really
> thin and I am too lazy to be constantly washing them. I really need to
> buy some new ones so I shall have to go with the buttons I think and
> just pretend they aren't there while I try them on.
>
>> > AND WHAT IS THE NEED FOR BUTTONS JUST FOR DECORATIVE PURPOSES?
>>PLEASE
>> > EXPLAIN THIS TO ME...
>
> One of my friends had a top that had decorative buttons all around the
> neckline and cuffs. I found it absolutely disgusting, but tried to be ok
> with it. She caught me looking at it out of the corner of my eye when
> it was hanging in her room and cringing when she hugged me once too
> often and she cut them all off! Which was exceptionally nice of her,
> but I didn't realise that and thought she was wearing it inside out to
> not upset me - which upset me more because of the thought of all those
> buttons touching her skin!
>
> I really am a sad case!
>
> Claire.
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
> ________________________________________________________________________
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 28 Oct 2004 22:37:27 -0000
> From: "twisted_blacksun" <twisted_blacksun@...>
> Subject: It gets cold in California
>
>
> In response to Claire and Barbara,
>
> Hi!
>
> No, my brother wasn't a button-phobe. He played along with me in order
> to make me feel better. He always did it, bless him!
>
> I suffer from mild OCD and usually get impusles to do bizarre
> things--but no, I did not smell the buttons on my hubby's hideous
> trench coat. Somebody suggested on another site that OCD is linked
> closely to phobias.
>
> My husband is a balloon-phobe, and has suggested that our phobia is
> linked to circle phobias. Apparently the fear of circles stems
> from the days when we were just cells, and is inherrent in everybody.
>
> It doesn't quite fit the box though, as circular things (other than
> buttons of course!) don't bother me all that much, although I have
> always found coins and other small round, flat objects slightly
> troublesome. I cannot stand them lying around & have to go and pick them
> up!
>
> My husband left a round soymilk seal laying on the counter top some
> while back and I had to force him to pick it up.
>
> I have absolutely no idea why buttons disgust me so much. It has
> something to do with their small size, texture and overall look--holey
> (my phobia definately has something to do with the holes),
> thready...tacky... If buttons were, say, the size of compact discs, I
> don't think that I would be AS bothered about them.
>
> But I doubt if I would still wear them!
>
> I have been looking up other button-phobes on the Internet for a while
> now, and most of us seem to come from Britain.
>
> I live in California now, but I was born and raised in the East of
> England...
>
> What do you guys think about this?
>
> You guys might be thinking that I am lucky to live in California, but it
> gets cold here, so I will soon be in a coat...
>
> Unfortunately, I left all of my coats behind when I came here (I
> didn't think that I would need them in California!), and my only coat is
> a hand-me-down from somebody...and it has six ugly medium sized buttons
> on it...thready two-holers with rims!
>
> My husband is going to cut them all off for me and sew velcro on.
>
> Keep your fingers crossed that it all goes well!
>
> --Blacksun
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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