I have come across this interesting interview on YouTube from This Morning, back in 2012, where therapists work with a young father to help him get over his immense button phobia.
"They make me feel sick. Just the thought of them. This phobia is really affecting my life. I just can't stand them... they make me feel weird. It's all I think about. I think it's silly! It obviously really affects me but I know it's silly. It affects the type I job I have, where I live, how I live, everything. I'd like to work in an office and earn a decent wage, but then I'd have to wear a shirt and I can't.
If I've got my t-shirt over my mouth and my nose then I can breathe when I'm around buttons. It's just the way it is. Little everyday things can be so stressful at times. If my daughter has a cardigan on I can't touch her. If the Speakman's can fix me, that would mean the world to me. I was about 5 when I realised I first had the phobia. I couldn't have them in my eye-line. I kept it to myself.
I tried to explain to my mum when I was 10 and she shrugged it off. Nobody would really listen or understand. I was in a caravan with my family when I was 9 or 10 and my nana had a shirt with them on - I couldn't finish my Rice Krispies and was being shouted at for not eating my breakfast. But I couldn't. I call them Henry's, rather than buttons, because the word makes me sick. I'm a barman and if someone comes in wearing buttons I won't look at them, I'll look away and wipe my mouth. I have a ritual I go through where I cough and wipe my mouth. I have a feeling of contamination when I see or hear buttons."
Something I found the most interesting from this video though, was the couple at the end who were completely covered in buttons! Philip Schofield referred to them as a Pearly King and Queen... I will need to enquire further into this as it seems fascinating and like such a great find! What is a Pearly King and Queen? What do they do? Why are they covered entirely in buttons!!?
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