I am terrified of being attacked by something --especially a shark – in any body of water. If I cannot see or touch the bottom, I cannot be in the body of water alone. When I was a kid, it was even worse. I couldn’t stand being in a pool alone. I was also afraid that a shark would swim up the drain and get me while I was in the tub.
I attribute this fear to 2 things. I saw JAWS when I was about 7 years old. This made me absolutely terrified of large bodies of water. I then saw some of the Land Shark skits on Saturday Night Live at about the same age. This led me to beleive that sharks could appear and attack at any time.
This is me too. I will not wear ties, turtlenecks, scarves or necklaces. All me other shirts get the neck hole stretched way out before I wear them. And God help you if you try to touch my throat.
Tractor-trailor trucks-those huge things…! They’re so big and unwieldy, I HATE them…>i’m constantly afraid when I’m on the interstate, or at the busstop.
I refuse to be in the same room as a blackboard in case someone decides to scratch it with their fingernails. That sound resonates in my head as background noise most of the time, but sometimes it flairs up and I have to actively push it back into the recesses again. I can’t watch that scene in “Jaws” where Quint gets everyone’s attention by doing it, it’s just too much. I’m not crazy, am I?
To those of you who are disturbed by mirrors, there’s a story that explains things in detail. “The Unpleasant Profession of Jonathan Hoag”, by Robert Heinlein, anthologized in the collection of the same name.
Don’t read it. Really. It’ll creep you out but good. Heebie-freaking-jeebies. Don’t. I told you so.
Me, I have no irrational fears. Okay, one.
Cars with one headlight.
I have no idea how it started, but if I’m out driving or walking and I see one of these modern Cyclopses, I get nervous as hell, and hyper-alert. Like they’re going to pounce on me or something. Just scary, is all.
I don’t know where it comes from. I’ve never lived anywhere near the ocean. But I was watching this discovery channel documentary on waves that can reach 4 miles high or more, and I was shaking. I actually walked out of Deep Impact because I couldn’t take it.
Tornados. I’ve never seen one for real in my life. I don’t live anywhere near a tornado zone, so I have no idea why I’m deathly afraid of them and have nightmares about them almost every second day.
Lots of deep holes really close together [kinda like honeycomb…y’know, lots of holes close together]…this makes me want to vomit, and just thinking about it scares the crap out of me shudders. I really can’t explain it.
Anything touching my neck. I can’t even touch my own neck, I shudder just imagining it. I have no idea where I got this fear from.
Cells. I’m deathly afraid of cells. Any type of cell, doesn’t matter, but I’m scared of them. And to know that my body is made up of them is just nightmarish.
I know it’s stupid, but I am terrified of being crapped on by birds flying overhead. Not that this has ever actually happened to me.
Walking at the beach, under bridges, or whatever where these vermin live causes my heart to race, my pace to quicken, my breath to shorten, and generally get an uneasy feeling.
Other than this one minor issue, I have no other real fears.
Yes, you are, but I am too. I’m terrified of supernovas. I blame it on a disturbing Discovery Channel program I saw when I was 8 or 9. The sun was going to *explode? *Scared the absolute *shit * out of me! And my parents weren’t exactly reassuring–my mom said “Hey, look on the bright side: in 5 billion years, you’ll be dead and won’t have to worry about it!” THIS is the bright side?!
It seems like I share a few more weird fears, too:
*crossing railroad tracks. hate it. riding a train isn’t that bad, but driving or walking across tracks terrifies me. Even if I can’t see or hear a train, I always get this uneasy feeling that one is hiding behind a bush or something to get me.
*I’m scared of stuff touching my neck, unless I put it there, carefully. I can’t sleep comfortably unless I have a shield of pillows or covers over my neck. However, I always feel like turtlenecks are going to choke me, and necklaces give me the heebiejeebies.
*Crunchy Frog, I hate being tickled, too! Even if someone just acts like they’re going to tickle me, I curl up, screech, and throw things at them.
these are mine:
*I can’t sleep in the same room with a computer that’s turned on–unless someone is working at it. I always feel like it’s plotting something, or the mouse is going to attack me in my sleep.
*It scares me when I’m up late and I look out a pitch-black window and I see a light. It can be a reflection, it can be a headlight, it can be anything. Just don’t like it.
*If I’m alone in a bed, I can’t go to sleep facing the wall, unless I make a wall of pillows. I don’t like sleeping in a bed that doesn’t have a side touching a wall, and if I have my back to a window (open or closed), the curtains must be closed.
*I’m terrified of getting stuff in my eyes. Even getting water in them upsets me. I can’t wear contacts, I freak out when I get an eyelash in my eye, and the thought of people who can touch their own eyeball just creeps me out!
*I can’t go to sleep if dolls or stuffed animals are “looking” at me. I have to turn them over and/or stuff them under something.
ok, I think I’ve shared enough of my paranoia for now.
oh, yeah, as if I hadn’t just displayed my insanity, Frumious Bandersnatch’s post reminded me of one more:
I’m nervous around birds. I’m nervous about birds. Not terrified, not even really afraid, except for vultures shudder. Just nervous. Even domesticated birds. Even farm animals like chickens and ducks. They just make me uneasy.
You just made me snort water out my nose. Thanks a lot.
When I was a kid, the movie SWAMP THING made me scared to drink apple juice. You see, Alec Holland had been holding a beaker full of this yellow colored super plant fluid. Then a bunch of terrorists attacked and Alec got coated with the stuff, fell in the swamp and turned into the Swamp Thing. They were serving apple juice at dinner that night, my brain made the connection, and I couldn’t bring myself to touch the stuff for years. I got over it though, now I don’t drink apple juice because it sucks.
I also have a slight paranoia that someday I’ll crack an egg into a frying pan and a half born chicken will come out. Not only would it be completely disgusting, but the sizzling it’s going to do when it hits that pan. . .
Guinastasia, I am exactly the same about shipwrecks! Sometimes we vacation on the NC Outer Banks and take ferries between islands. The ferry that goes from Ocracoke Island passes over two shipwrecks, and even though I can’t see them, I get cold sweats until I’m sure we’re miles from the wreck sites. Just the thought of passing over them really CREEPS me OUT!
Other irrational fears of mine:
Elevators in tall buildings - I’m afraid that they won’t take me to the floor I need, or will shoot up to the top really fast. Extra fear points for glass elevators.
Sort of like sambeam, I can’t sleep anywhere with the curtains open, even if it’s in a second story or higher room where casual passers-by can’t look in.
Likewise, if there’s even a tiny gap between the head of my bed and the wall, I just know a cold, skeletal hand is going to reach up and grab my head as I sleep.
I don’t own firearms because I’m convinced that I’ll shoot myself in my sleep, despite having absolutely NO history (or reports from bedmates) of doing anything in my sleep besides lying fairly still and sometimes saying “hmm!” as if listening to someone talking to me.
Driving past really large buildings that are right next to the highway. For example, that big church (I think it’s a church) alongside northbound I-95 just below Downtown Richmond, that stonking great U-Haul building by westbound I-40 in Knoxville.
I know this doesn’t quite fit the OP, since they do sting, but I’m not afraid of any other animal. I have no fear of bees, even largish swarms, I’ve kept pet spiders, pick up scorpions by the tale, and generally like all forms of creepy-crawlies. But let a wasp buzz within 20 feet of me and you can see the whites of my eyes all the way around the iris, I’ll tense up and get ready to run if it comes near me, and will ask that someone gets rid of it (preferably by letting it outside, but I’ll kill one if I have to). I think it’s because I’ve been stung by scorpions and bees, bitten by tarantulas, brown recluses, and savannah monitor lizards, but I’ve never been stung by a wasp.
I can’t sleep on my back. I am afraid a baker with a puffy mustache with come out of the ceiling and drop a pie on my face. I found out about a year ago that the little baker man looks like a cartoon baker from a commercial I must have seen as a child while living in Chicago.
Also, I have an irrational fear of Drano. I am always afraid I might accidentally drink it. Not that it might spill and get onto something like my toothbrush, or that it might splash into my glass. No. I am worried that if it is left out on a counter I might accidentally walk over to it, open it, and chug the bottle down. All by accident! And by the time I realize what I am doing it would be too late!
I always thought being afraid of clowns was perfectly rational. Clowns - you never know what they might do, because you can’t see their faces for all the scary clown makeup. Think John Wayne Gacey. See? Rational fear.
I have a fear of cows moving in fields. Cows are big, scary animals, and they can move fast. I saw a cow chasing a school bus once, and it gave me nightmares for weeks.
I don’t like clothing to touch my neck, but it’s not really a fear; it just makes me gag.
My irrational fear is of going to the mailbox. I don’t want the stuff that’s in it. I don’t want to go to it, open it up, take the stuff out, thumb through it, open the letters or whatever, and take appropriate action. I would save up for months and then go collect everything at once, which was depressing. Now I live with someone who gets the mail for me and just drops mine on my bed. It’s a huge relief not to have to deal with the mailbox.
Plus there might be a spider in there.
Knees and kneecaps. Elbows, too, but not as much. I hate, Hate, HATE the idea of anyone touching my knee, or even coming close to it. The mere thought of knee surgery or anything like that gives me the shivers and I tense up so much (which is what I’m doing rightnow). I don’t even like to hear about people talking about anything happening to their knees - even razor nicks from shaving creep me out if they’re close enough to the knee. My BF can’t even put his hand on my knee (like if we’re sitting side0by side or something) and I dislike putting my hand on his.
Also, bellybuttons. I suck in my stomach just thinking about them. I don’t like being touched anywhere NEAR my navel, or touching anyone else too close to theirs. I’m afraid that it’s a big hole, and my hand (or something else) could go right in and be stuck inside me. Or something will just come out…oh help!
I had that fear of getting stuff in my eyes too… I wanted contacts really badly, but the idea of putting them in my eyes took years to get over…
I finally did, and have been wearing contacts for about 15 years now, but still am not that comfortable with other eyeball stuff (lol)
When I first got them it could take me up to half an hour per contact just to get em into my eyes… Needed to calm myself down, and try to forget what I was doing…
At this point I think I can put em in in my sleep, so I think I’ve overcome my fear…
But I do still have this strange fear of getting some horrible chemical in my eyes and having to use one of those eye wash stations you always see in stores like Home Depot… The idea of having to wash my eyes out with water for 10 or 15 minutes just sends shivers up my spine…
Walking in front of big trucks/lorries. Even if the engine is off. Something about that monstrous cab section looming over me, with all those exhaust pipes sticking up… I’ll walk around the long way, if I can.
Someone mentioned birds flying overhead, that’s another one of mine. I live in a city plagued by shite hawks (a.k.a. seagulls) and I swear, if there is one in the sky it WILL fly directly above me. Never fails. I shudder with paranoia every time I step outside. They’re everywhere.
Shipwrecks and maritime disaster movies are also scary, but for a perfectly rational reason – Mr Nim is a marine engineer. He also used to be a submariner in the Royal Navy and things like submarine movies and the Kursk are terribly upsetting to me.
