Worst Christmas Present Ever Contest!

That is the most unusual phobia.

If it doesn't make you too twitchy to discuss it, what qualities about paper do you find frightening? Do you have any idea how/when this came about?

I'm just curious. I find this fascinating.

Guess I won't be sending you a Christmas card......
(sorry, couldn't help it)

I HATE cardboard and newspapers the most, it's a texture thing I guess? It just got worse overtime I find myself rubbing my hands if I have to touch it. I get asked how do you touch money and stuff like that all the time.( I just use credit or old bills hate new crisp ones) I don't mind wax coated paper as much. I told the psychologist during my eval and he said "Okaaaay and long as you can live with it I'm fine not marking it down"

I would think that the shredder could be very cathartic. Get a pair of those grabber tongs and feed that evil paper into the shredder while cackling evilly. "Take THAT crinkly demon! Now you are confetti!"

Perhaps he thought it would be therapeutic? lol

Just wondering, do you know what is causing that fear?

I really don't know.  it's irrational I know but I manage (with help from my family) plus I am using the paper shedder as a foot rest as I type this

Well at least you are getting some use out of it. ;-)

My worst gift ever turned out to be the best .... we belong to a cooperativa .. a group of friends who have a club called Oldies Keeping the Flame Going ... For our secret Santa we were to buy a gift within a certain price range and all we had to do was to label it 'male' 'female' or 'unisex' ... At the end of our night of fun we all put all the gifts out on a table and we all get to chose a gift .. except the one we bought of course ... and I was just eyeballing this lovely wrapped gift labeled 'unisex' ...so I made a beeline for that one...

Once everyone has a gift we all get to open up the gift and show what we got ... well I open up my gift and it is a roll of toilet paper ... so I am holding the roll just staring at it wondering how am I going to lift this and show it and embarrass the person who bought it in? I really did not care to get a good gift or not .. I give myself enough gifts to really not be perturbed ... then I noticed a bit of red ribbon inside the roll ... I stuck my finger and pulled the ribbon and out comes a nicely rolled $100 bill ... woot woot .. how cool was that? Someone could not figure out what to get and came up with that as a gift prank ... and I LOVED IT ... 

The worse gift turned out to be an awesome one after all.

Wow Marti, form worst to first there! :-)

 My dad was Air Force and we'd return to Ohio from wherever we were stationed for Christmas most years.  We'd all gather in my grandparent's living room to open presents: my mom, dad and sister, my aunt, uncle, boy & girl cousins (both much older than I) and grandpa & grandma.

The Christmas after I got sideswiped at age 9 by the overly aggressive puberty fairy, we were all happily opening gifts.  I opened one of mine that was beautifully wrapped and just the right size for a nice shirt or perhaps 2 of my gift of choice, books.

Rather it was my first training bra and some girlie underwear.  Mortified, I jammed the lid back on the box and tucked it discreetly under the other gifts. 

I had forgotten that part of the 'ritual' was each person displaying the gifts they got and saying a big thank you.  I'm a desparately shy individual who, especially at that age, never wanted to acknowledge that there were body parts under clothing.  So I continued to hide the gift and just showed off the others.  When asked "Didn't you get something else?!?"  I turned scarlet and stammered a thank you.

At which point I was reminded to show it off--much to the delight of my teenage male cousin who chortled with glee about the training bra.

Compared to other stories, it really isn't that horrible a gift but gawd it was embarrassing!!