Imagine your self in line at the DMV or in the middle of a long monotonous lecture in a boring class. They are not very exciting or entertaining predicaments to be trapped in. Instead of allowing yourself to fall asleep, you can try to liven up the situation. A daring way of making time move along more quickly is to create a phobia. You do not have to form a real deep-seated fear, but rather be able to convince those around you that you have a phobia. Creating a believable phobia requires making eye contact with an object, proper breathing, and an overreaction.
To begin, your eyes must become fixated to any object that is within your view and possibly reach. Make sure that your eyes are open. If you cannot see anything, but darkness, your eyes are probably closed. Eye contact can be made by staring at the object of your pseudo-phobia. Open your eyes as wide as you physically can. This may hurt, but entertainment can come at a heavy price. Without blinking, begin the next step.
Now, you must learn the correct breathing technique. Use your mouth to breathe because it allows for a larger intake of air and it produces more of an audible sound than your nose would make. Speed up your breathing to how you usually breathe after a brisk jog. Also, take deeper breaths. Exaggerate your breathing by moving your chest or stomach in and out in rhythm with your breathing. By now, your breathing should be loud enough for people 10 feet away to hear. As people start to gather around you, the final step can be employed.
Lastly, you must top off your phobia with a well-acted overreaction. Screaming will be the method of overreacting you can use. To scream, you have to inhale deeply into your mouth. As you push air from your lungs through your vocal chords, your throat muscles should contract to produce a loud, high-pitched scream. In screaming with so much energy, you may have accidentally soiled yourself. This is good to illustrate to others how scared you are, but the excretion of bodily fluids is not encouraged for health issues. If you have not soiled yourself, that is good and you should keep screaming until someone asks you what is wrong. Simply reply, “I got scared.”
If you have completed all of these steps properly, then congratulations. Everyone in your vicinity should believe that you have a phobia of a random object. You could not have possibly portrayed a good pseudo-phobia without staring at the object, mastering breathing techniques, and creating a scene. You can even use these steps to entertain a party. Hopefully, no one will perceive you to be mentally ill.