Hard to explain, but I’ll give an example. One day when I was 6 or 7, I decided to eat some cereal (Froot Loops, but the generic brand) I put the cereal in the bowl and poured the milk in, and I saw all these little itty-bitty bugs with one white stripe crawl out of it, there were at least fifty of them. With this, I screamed loudly enough to wake up my entire building and ran. To this day (7 years later), I never eat Froot Loops, or the generic brand, or any cereal that remotely resembles an “O” shape, including Alpha-Bits. (Yes, I realize that not all of the Alpha-Bits are “O” shaped, but you never know.)
Another example:
I went to bed, about… 4 years ago, and had a dream that the song Cat’s in the Cradle was playing on my car radio while we were driving. About 2 or so minutes in, the car did a horrible skid and went into oncoming traffic. The entire car was wrecked and everybody in the car died. So now, when I am in the car and Cat’s in the Cradle plays, I very nervously turn it off.
So, now you know I have two horrible fears or Froot Loops and *Cat’s in the Cradle *. That song is one I will never listen to again. Period.
I got sick after eating clam strips one night. It took me six years to go back to that restaurant, though I ordered something different that time. I will certainly never eat clam strips again from anywhere again.
After enduring a relationship that had gone to hell to the point of making me feel suicidal, I refused to drive on the road where my ex-girlfriend lived. It was at least five or six years after I finally broke away from that bitch before I could drive that road again without the horrible memories resurfacing so vividly.
I once had a dream that one of my superiors at work embarrassed me horribly at a company party, and to this day I can’t bring myself to speak to him at company parties IRL. He probably thinks I’m a mental case, but I’ll take that over public humiliation.
I once ate clam chowder when I was sick. I stopped eating it for about 3 years. I don’t know why, but at that particular time it was horribly disgusting.
There are places that I won’t ever go to again without feeling the way dwc1970 described. Just driving by one particular place makes me feel so disgustingly angry and hurt, and it’s a shame because there were so many good times there and it used to make me so happy, but now that I know HE still hangs out there, makes me want to ram into it with my car.
There was also a time when I was just learning to drive, and I was practicing in my mothers 5 speed car, and it was going horribly. I could not get the hang of the clutch, and when I finally got the hang of it, I took the car out on my own to pick up my boyfriend. Flash forward to him teasing me SO BAD about my driving, and me pulling over to the side and making him drive the rest of the way home. I was mortified, and did not touch a 5 speed car for 5 years, and then to my horror, the brakes busted in my car, and the only free loner I could drive was my friends 1984 Rabbit and it was, you guessed it. A 5 speed. It took me a week to get comfortable, but after a year of driving that thing it SURE felt good to get back into my automatic.
I am not a heavy sleeper, but if I just wake-up, then go back to sleep, I will not remember what happened while I was awake. I have VERY realistic dreams. If I dream I am watching the news, and they have one of those scroll things, there will be words on there. If I dream I am reading a book, I will read words in that book, not just the vague sense of reading, but actuall words.
Anyway, one night it was hot, so I left my window open. I woke up to strange sounds coming from my window. I slightly lift my head and see this hand from a white guy in my curtain. I say something, not scream, but calmly say something that I cannot remember. Then I go back to sleep. When the morning comes, I go to close the window, I see the screen torn on the floor, with footprints that lead to my window.
Now, I will never sleep with the window open. Every night, I check all the windows in my house to make sure they’re closed tight.
I think I was about five when I dreamed that someone or something completely terrifying was chasing me up the stairs of my home. It’s taken me ten years to be able to walk, not run, up stairs at night.
I once jumped off a bridge and broke my ankle. I never jumped off a bridge again.
Which makes it tough to surprise trolls.