I hate rollercoasters to, and any ride at a carnival because those rides are taken apart and put together again many times in a month. They could always get something wrong, and have.
I’m also terribly shy (either shy or anti-social, haven’t decided) and get to the point where I hate talking over the phone and make my parents order pizza. But then, I think that’s because I can never understand the pizza guy’s Ebonics.
I’m afraid of the dark. Really. Because I hate not knowing what’s there. I have to see everything. Plus, I’m a jumpy person and having four cats do things to your room in the dark (like knock water glasses over, or mess with the cords behind the TV) can irk anyone.
Afraid of riding horses, even the ponies at fairs. Always afraid they’ll buck me off.
And needles. I have the biggest fear of them. A couple of months ago, I was forced to get my tetnus shot or else I’d be expelled from school. I try to avoid shots at all costs but this was one thing I could not avoid. Well, when I got it, I whined and moaned, but it didn’t hurt at all. Doesn’t mean I’m still not afraid. But the last time I had gotten a test before that was ten years ago, when I was eight.
(Looks through phobias) Man, I’m a wuss. It’s a surprise I get out of bed in the morning.
You and me both. One of my earliest memories is hiding in the hallway outside my preschool classroom because we were having a party and there were balloons. I was also, as a child, unable to stay in the kitchen while using the toaster. It always startled me when it popped up. I would put the toast in, go into another room and wait, and then go back into the kitchen when I knew it was safe. I don’t like jack-in-the-boxes (or is that jacks-in-the-box?) either.
I have managed to conquer my fear of spiders to the extent that I can squish them myself, but only with a large object that keeps my hands fully clear. I can’t use a tissue or something, where I might actually feel the spider! My bare hand? Never!
Clowns are another issue. While I don’t run away screaming, they do give me the creeps in a serious way. Something about adults hiding behind costumes and makeup so they can terrorize small children…
Finally, my kids seem to keep bringing home key chains and other toys that are just the heads of various cartoon or storybook characters. I find these disembodied heads to be very disturbing.
I don’t like making phone calls, unless it’s to my family or a very close friend. I’ll do it when I have to, but it always gives me that clenched-stomach panicky feeling.
I don’t like passing through those electronic gates at libraries and stores either, the ones that set off an alarm if you’re carrying merchandise that still has the tag on. Don’t know why it’s such a big deal – after all, I KNOW I haven’t stolen anything – it just makes me nervous for some reason.
Alright - someone mentioned earlier the fear of thunder & lightning. I’m still afriad of thunderstorms…and I live in the Midwest!! I have gotten better, but if there’s a doozy of a storm, I cower under my covers, jump at every sound or flash and half the time I end up calling my mother…and I’m in my 20s!! It’s pathetic, really.
I’m also terrified of plane take-offs. I love flying. I don’t mind the landings. Whoo-boy though, those take-offs do me in every time!!
What else scares me…oh yes…complete darkness. If I am alone, anywhere, and it’s really dark, I panic. I now live in an apartment, but I used to live in a big ole house with a couple of guys. When they were home, I was fine. If I was alone, though, I had a difficult time even going to bed. I would quickly turn off the lights and RUN upstairs, slam my door and leap into my bed.
In all reality, I’m just a scaredy-cat when I’m by my lonesome. I’ll do new things and try lots of thrilling adventures…as long as I’m with someone else…
Walking out of the basement (where the computer is) late at night, having all turned-off lights behind me. Scary.
Clowns. I hate those fuckers. I left the circus a few years back because I thought one was staring at me. Creepy freaks. In Baltimore, on Eastern Ave by the BCPL, there is this life-size mechanical clown that waves. Eeeeek!! I hate it. I will go out of my way to avoid that thing.
That’s about it. Oh! Walking in the woods at night. Uh-uh, not doing that. No way Jose.
I don’t know if you would consider this a fear as much as something I really really really really really really really really don’t like. I am very ticklish. My sister and mother like to torment me by wiggling their fingers at me as if they are going to tickle me. They don’t actually have to touch me, cuz as they get closer, I shrink and squirm and curl up in a ball and start laughing before the actual tickling ever begins. Honesty laughed her ass off the first time she learned about this. She gave me a hug and her fingertips brushed across my ribs in a somewhat ticklish way. I froze up and pinned my elbows to my sides. I didn’t want to lift my arms and hug her back because I was afraid she was going to tickle me.
If I was ever to get into a fist fight, the other guy could end it by tickling me. I’d rather have my ass kicked than that.
I too HATE using the telephone, even to people I know well, like my parents. I’m painfully shy, plus I lisp slightly (and was brutally teased over that in Jr. High and High School, which made me VERY self-concious about my voice) so I deeply mistrust the phone, and much prefer real-life where I have to advantage of body-language or e-mail/writing where I have to opportunity to edit my words.
I fear needles, hate getting shots. I think I’d rather die of some horrible disease than get the immunization shot for it.
I dislike having people behind me, especially on stairs. If I’m walking with a group of people I have to be in the back so that I can keep an eye on everyone.
I cannot drive a car. This is maybe more of a real phobia than a mini one. I’m 21 and I’ve never gotten my liscense because I just freak out too much behind the wheel, all those other cars around, and so much could go wrong and little ol’ me in charge of this gigantically destructive machine… shudder I tried driving once last summer, since I hadn’t since I was 16 and I thought maybe I had gotten over this. I drove for maybe 5 or 10 minutes, only saw one other car (not even on the same road as me) and afterwards had a little hour-long nervous breakdown anyway.
I share Kyla’s fear of going downstairs if I can’t see my feet or the stairs.
spiders; totally irrational primal fear.
walking over those metal grates in sidewalks. I’m always terrified someone forgot to latch it and I’ll tumble waaayy down into the maws of scary machinery.
role-playing; I loathe and despise role-playing stuff in training seminars. My palms sweat, mouth goes dry, heart races–I can speak in front of crowds w/ no problem but role playing shuts off my mind.
Can’t tell ya how many negative points I’ve racked up in seminars when the trainer chirps to me, “Now let’s role play!” My response is a flat, “I don’t role play”, said in the same tones as rejecting a nice mug of used bathwater.
I hate feeling anything against the slight dip at the front of my neck - I instantly feel like I’m going to choke.
This isn’t normally a problem and I can even wear turtlenecks. It’s just when there is pressure directly on that spot, I go nuts. Normally this comes up (blush) in bed when we’re just sort of falling asleep and my girlfriend puts her hand on my chest and her fingertips rest against that area. I don’t yank her hand away but I reach for her hand and hold it and casually lower it a little. The pressure is enough to make me freakout.
I have the phone phobia too, I HATE calling people, 'cept my fiance. And the car one, my mind feels slightly numb when I get behind the wheel and I mixed up the gas pedal and break in drivers ed a few times. I have my lisence, yet I have never driven with it. I also have a phobia about my Father. He scares the hell outta me.
I’m afraid of candiru fishes. Go watch Anaconda and you’ll know why.
I’m afraid of getting some weird disease like Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva (FOP, a genetic defect that makes your flesh turns to bone), Necrotizing Fascitis (flesh-eating bacteria), or Kuru (A.K.A. Laughing Death, a virus eats your brain and causes a kind of industrial-strenght Alzheimer’s).
But my WORST fear is of being buried alive. The simple idea can make my brain shut down in fear.
And above all, I’m afraid of being stranded in some primitive tribe, and being sentenced to death by booga-booga.
Candy coated with a slightly rough texture, especially those mini chocolate robin egg things at Easter. While I can’t see how they would harm me, I shiver when I touch or, if I am near them, think about them. They are very disturbing, I wonder why?
Oooooooooh, (hate the term, but) ME TOO!!!
Role-playing at pre-shift work meetings, during teaching workshops and job orientations just send me into complete physical and emotional stress overdrive. Not a good thing. Anytime I get pulled up in front of an audience when I do not want to (especially theatres with ‘audience participation’ [I didn’t pay $40 plus tip for a dinner show to get dragged up onstage to do the ‘Chicken Dance’ or be part of a comedy skit in front of hundreds of strangers]), I panic and shut down, bringing the whole show to a grinding halt. Criminey, if I wanted to be an actor, I’da gone to drama school (actually, I did want to act, but that’s a whole 'nuther thread).
My phobia (and simultaneously my pet peeve) is those ‘icebreaker’ type ‘games’ they force teenagers to play at large gatherings, meetings, etc. I think the purpose of them is to help shy people meet more people? But they’re always pure torture if you’re not the cheery, “how many people in your team can you fit on a postage stamp sized towel?” type game. They give me the creeps- actually, the people who look like they’re actually enjoying them, and the activity leaders, scare me to death. Especially when you know you’re going to be spending a week, two weeks, four years with these people. Please tell me they don’t make you do these things after you turn 21. Please…
Falling off a cliff.
Getting stuck in a keeper hole (horizontal whirlpool).
Being trapped in a small box.
But that is pretty much due to having fallen off a cliff and a few other things; having been darn near drowned in a keeper hole and stuck in quite a few other non-keepers; and having been trapped in a small box (was frozen into my ski trailer and had to kick my way out).
Wouldn’t say that these are serious phobias, for they do not stop me from doing what I do, but I certainly am uneasy at times due to them.
Oh, and one more – the fear of forgetting a court filing deadline. When I get too stressed at work, I’ll sometimes wake up in the middle of the night convinced that I have some document due the next morning, but not having the foggiest idea what the document or case is. I then say to myself that I am just imagining things, and recognize that this is true, but still I am left with the lingering doubt that maybe this time I really did miss somthing in my tickler.
Anake, Lunatic, I so agree with both of you, needles are instruments of the devil. I had to get my tetanus shot too but the bright people at the doctor’s office gave me my hepatitus shot at the same time. I was okay for a while though I couldn’t stand to watch them poke me with it and it didn’t hurt too much. The second I got into the waiting room again I passed out cold. Same thing happens when they take blood. I get really really woozy and feel like I’ll pass out, I did pass out when I went to the hospital with my cousin. She had Leukemia and she went in for a shot because she’s still recovering from the chemo even though she’s in remission. I was just standing, looking around and when I actually saw them inject her I passed out. That’s how bad I am.
Sorry for posting twice and I hate to say “me too” again but Crunchy Frog, you’re not alone. I hate it being tickled or poked. I don’t laugh, I squeak. A guy at school thinks it’s his mission to make me squeak every time he sees me. I can’t stand it. And my boyfriend thinks my forehead is ticklish. It’s notactually ticklish but I’m so ticklish everywhere else that I just get paranoid.
Sorry, but they still make you do these things long after you turn 21. They fall under the guise of staff orientations and executive retreats. The bad thing is that because it is job related, you have to put a good face on it, which unfortunately encourages them to plan even more of these events. The good thing is that attending enough of them gets you to the point that you no longer care, and simply play along. If you’re not careful, you might even fool yourself into believing that you are having a good time. If you ever get to this point, you know that you have lost all self respect, and might as well go drive a Plymouth.
