Funny you should say that, Ruby. With me it's noisy shoes, the tap-tap-tap-scrape of high heels. I find myself getting increasingly agitated, twitchy and thinking extremely dark thoughts about the wearer. Like you I either have to cross the road or stop and pretend to rummage in my handbag until the offender has passed. It's not that I feel menaced by footsteps behind me, it's the s-o-u-n-d that sets my nerves jangling and jumping in a way that's probably out of proportion to the event. I suppose it's not a true phobia but it's shaping up nicely

That's the one! In my head I'm swinging round and either punching them or shouting at them to shut the *£$%£ up.

Oh!  I can't believe I forgot my strangest one.  I have a small collection of words that I cannot stand; they definitely provoke a disgust response from me and just make me want to crawl out of my own skin.  My poor long-suffering other half knows what they are and is mostly very good at avoiding them.

They've become known as the M word, the T word and the B word.  There are 2-3 new ones developing as well - all synonyms for eating.  Poor boyfriend is going to go spare...

I do worry sometimes... 

I'm glad it's not just me!  I guess I'll see you in the waiting area at the court... (Do courts have waiting areas?)

What are you trying to say?? 

I have a real issue with people behind me. It's worse since being mugged but it's always been there. I suppose it's sort of claustrophobia and I really just can't cope in crowds. It's not just people walking behind me, but it's also if they're sitting behind me too close. Can't stand it.

I actually think I have another problem with being afraid of going without food. This is a bit odd and ultra-irrational but I get really anxious when I'm in a large crowd (already there's a problem) of people waiting to get served. I get anxious that the waiter/waitress will miss me out when taking our order, that my order will be forgotten or that someone else will eat my food. This extends to everyone else so I worry that everyone is getting fed. And then there are the issues with the bill. It's got to the stage where I actually HATE going out for a meal with a party and I avoid it wherever I can.

Not that I'm aware of! I'm one of four children and there were times when money was tight but we never went hungry. Ate an awful lot of potatoes but never went hungry. My parents occasionally went without lunch but we didn't know about it at the time. I didn't really have a healthy relationship with food until I was 18 though. I found eating tedious and was incredibly fussy (my poor mother) but surprisingly, the food in halls changed that. I think it was the vegetables, but also the fact that I'd gone from a situation where I could control what I was eating ('Don't like it') to one where I either ate what I was given or went hungry (and had gone beyond the point of childish stubbornity where I would go without food quite happily).

I do get extremely irrational and almost violent when I get properly hungry though. Shaking hands. People who know me generally ask, if they're phoning around meal times, 'have you eaten yet?' before beginning a conversation; if I haven't, they phone back later. So perhaps it's more to do with my general metabolic reaction to hunger and my fear of crowds?

Ruby, that certainly sounds like a hypo. I have a tube of glucose tablets in my bag for when that happens. A glucose drink is even better, gets straight into the system and stops you killing people!