Okay, I’m writing part three of five in a massive rush. I’ve had such a crazy busy week and I only have about thirty minutes to dedicate to writing this post. I wasn’t expecting my posts to be as popular as they have been, but I’m really flattered nonetheless. Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, here’s story three.
I’m sure everyone relates to this phenomenon: it’s when you stub your toe and then all of a sudden you hit your toe multiple times in the next couple of days. Or, when you buy a car and then all of a sudden everyone has the exact same car as you. I’ve been experiencing this phenomenon for years, but for me, it’s been about going to the dentist. People seemed to love feeding into my dental anxiety by always mentioning the dentist to me. For years people would casually drop in conversation something like “Oh yeah I’m getting Invisalign tomorrow, how cool!” as if it was exciting and not genuinely terrifying. I’d flinch every time.
People talking about going to the dentist made me remember all my dental experiences. Every time a dentist was mentioned I would have waves of suppressed memories of dental equipment, numbing and that super clean smell flood back into my memory. People didn’t seem to realise how greatly it impacted me, or if they did, they definitely didn’t care.
I dealt with this phenomenon throughout my teens and into early adulthood. I’m hoping that now that I’m no longer afraid of dentists I won’t be so impacted by people mentioning them. Maybe the next time someone says “I’m going to a Bayside dentist” I’ll be like “Yeah that’s awesome!”, rather than wanting to vomit in my mouth.
I guess only time will tell. It’s only been a couple of weeks since I stopped being afraid of the dentist, and no one has mentioned a dentist since. Not that I know of, at least.