When I was really little I had intense fear of leaves. Any kind of leaves. Going to the park was out of the question. My parents think that it’s when I was really little (under six months) my dad got into a horrible car accident with me in it, crawled out from the upside-down car with blood all over his head, pulled me out of the car seat, and passed out on the side of the road after laying me down in a pile of leaves. I was taken away from my parents for three days while the state determined that they were fit parents. They think that scarred me. Personally, I just think leaves were creepy.
They couldn’t take me into Albertsons without me screaming “BIG LEAF!!!” in terror.
Space aliens. I have nightmares about them all the time. This is odd because I don’t believe in them, or at least I don’t believe that they’re visiting us.
I get anxious when flipping through racks of posters in a store. I don’t even like unrolling big posters after I’ve bought them. Don’t ask me how that came about. Fear of the unknown, maybe? It feels like I’m waiting for something horrible to jump out at me.
I used to be terrified of elevators to the point where I refused to use them at all, even if it meant climbing several flights of stairs. Nowadays I can ride most elevators without a problem.
I have a lot of ordinary fears (blood, needles, phones) but as for bizarre ones…
I don’t like when plants are way bigger than they should be. Like, when a plant is a certain size most of the time, and then I see one that’s freakishly large.
Kids who wanted to torment me when I was little would chase me with dandelions with really long stems. Sometimes the stems would be over a foot long. I was terrified of them!
I’m not as scared anymore, but I do still get a serious case of the willies when I see big plants. When I was dogsitting a couple of months ago, I was walking the dogs through the woods and I saw a common plant, but this time it had huge leaves. One of the leaves brushed against me and I got pretty freaked out. I felt like I could feel that leaf on me for the rest of the day!
I have always been afraid of urinals in public bathrooms. I can’t stand the idea of using one; I always go into the stall. I don’t know why, I never had a traumatic urinal event, I just don’t likes them!
I have a fear of ‘Home Invasion’. I hear abut them on the radio, and it freaks me out. Sometimes I’m in bed at night, and the damn cats torture me by making sounds dowstairs that sound like someone is in the house who shouldn’t be.
I’m afraid of rolls of biscuits. You know, those rolls of Pillbury bake-and-eat biscuits? Yeah, those ones.
You have to pull off the wrapper and then tap it against a counter edge or something to get the tube to burst. Every time I have to open a tube of them I wish mightily for a shield of some kind, tapping gingerly and wincing backwards as if the tube is going to explode in a rain of shrapnel.
Just yesterday I was opening a roll of said biscuits and the minute I pulled the outer strip of covering, it exploded in my hand whereupon I promptly shrieked like a little girl and threw the roll into the air. Them things are scary!
I’m afraid of going on vacation. I know where this stems from - my best friend and I went on a vacation to Mexico and her mother died unexpectedly while we were gone. Now whenever I go on vacation (even tho I no longer live with my family), I’m always afraid something bad is going to happen while I’m away.
I have another friend who is deathly afraid of mannequins. Makes shopping very difficult.
I’m freaked out by the thought of being pregnant and delivering a baby. I don’t want kids, but it isn’t the desire not to be a mother that makes me so intensely creeped out. It’s the idea of your body being taken over and then all the horrifying stuff that happens during the birth that really gets to me.
Yep, I share this fear. It’s bad. I won’t swim at night in ANY body of water except a pool. It must be lit but I will only frolic in the shallow end. Being in the deep end makes my feet and legs tingle, my heart pounds, and I start to hyperventilate. I blame Jaws! which I saw when I was four and was instantly damaged for life. I went to a quarry to swim yesterday and had a panic attack about treading past the drop-off into the 80 foot deep section. Oddly, it’s not fear of drowning but a fear of sharks. In a quarry. In Northwest Ohio. :rolleyes:
If the water is murky you will never get me in it over my head. Ain’t gonna happen. And I’m the same way if someone turns off the lights in the pool at night or just mentions a shark, I don’t walk on the water, I walk above it to get the hell out.
Horses. I am fine going to the racetrack (as long as we stay in the grandstand) or even seeing them in a pasture while I’m driving past, but if confronted with a horse in close proximity I get very, very nervous that this giant animal with a tiny little brain is going to bite me or stomp on me out of a fit of skittishness. The idea of climbing on the back of one to ride, well, that’s just pure craziness. Never happen in a million years.
Holy freakin’ cow! My only reoccurring nightmare, one that I’ve had since I was a wee lad and was often a sign that a couple nights in the hospital were imminent (terrible bronchitis as kid) was what I still call the “big-little” dream. Creeps me out just thinking about it. The two things are identical except for size - one big, and one, you guessed it, little. They’d just hang there in the dream, kinda floating side by side, and I’d wake up screaming. I don’t scream now, but just seeing a big and little thing together gets my heart racing and I have to get away from it.
Or, as BoD said, a normal/small thing made to look huge. Giant hands, for instance.
You ever see those wavy guys, like these? I hate those things. Puts me in mind of a soul being endlessly tortured and writhing in agony for eternity and put on display for our amusement. If there was a big one and a little one side-by-side, I’m afraid I’d have to destroy them with malice aforethought.
While I’m coming clean, I have to admit I have also have a clown phobia. Actually, it’s more of a “person in a bizarre costume trying to engage me” phobia. I heartily dislike mascots or costumed entertainers of any kind, though clowns and their frantic hilarity frighten me the most.
Me, too. I was once chastized for my reaction of utter disgust in watching a video on pregnancy and birth. The faces of those around me showed rapt awe while looking at in-utero images of babies while I recoiled from those malformed, monstrous looking things. I thought I was going to vomit at watching the “miracle of birth.” It didn’t seem like a miracle to me-- it seemed like a screaming, bloody nightmare. The newborn infant didn’t make me go “awww!” as it did to the others in the room. Instead, I was repelled by the mucous-covered and horribly frog-like creature.
People looked at me like I was insane when I expressed my opinion that the whole thing was disgusting. I felt kind of ashamed for these feelings for a while, because I had been well-assured that they were “unnatural” for a woman to have, but thanks to the Dope, I now know I’m not alone.
I guess since you shared yours, pbbth, I’ll tell them about the one you know about, (and secretly find ridiculous I’m sure ): Icebergs. Just thinking about them freaks me out. But it’s not the top of them, oh no. It’s what UNDER THE WATER! I once saw a series of photographs that someone had taken from inside of a hollow one, and I almost hyperventilated. Who would even DO that?!? I have the shivers just typing about them. Don’t even get me started on the “inspirational” poster with one on it. (Jeez it was hard to find this without closing my browser automatically, but here is the scariest iceberg ever!
Amputation. I know, nobody would enjoy getting something chopped off. But not everyone counts their fingers (and, when they’re at home, toes) several times over the course of a day to make sure they’re all still there. Add to that the corollary fear of things which cause amputation (knives, car doors, mailboxes that slam closed just a little too quickly for comfort) and of amputees themselves (I feel terrible about this, but I avert my eyes when I see amputees on the street or on television). I think it’s more of an aversion to things which threaten “bodily integrity” as I am also afraid of losing a sense or of getting teeth knocked out.
Also belching. I find it gross, sure, but there’s also this little spike of panic that I can’t trace the source of. Maybe it’s thinking that the person is two steps away from throwing up all over me? Possibly, since I’m not scared of my own oral-gas-expulsions.
Amputation. I know, nobody would enjoy getting something chopped off. But not everyone counts their fingers (and, when they’re at home, toes) several times over the course of a day to make sure they’re all still there. Add to that the corollary fear of things which cause amputation (knives, car doors, mailboxes that slam closed just a little too quickly for comfort) and of amputees themselves (I feel terrible about this, but I avert my eyes when I see amputees on the street or on television). I think it’s more of an aversion to things which threaten “bodily integrity” as I am also afraid of losing a sense or of getting teeth knocked out.
Also belching. I find it gross, sure, but there’s also this little spike of panic that I can’t trace the source of. Maybe it’s thinking that the person is two steps away from throwing up all over me? Possibly, since I’m not scared of my own oral-gas-expulsions.
You can add me to this, too. I know exactly where it came from - when I was very young, some kids in the neighborhood told me if I went in the bathroom and turned around three times chanting, Bloody Mary would appear behind me. I don’t know who Bloody Mary is - I have no idea. Doesn’t matter. I can picture her.
I’ve gotten much better with it, to the point where I have absolutely no problem going to the bathroom in the middle of the night and even glancing in the mirror. I won’t linger, though, and if for some reason I have to I turn on the light.
My SO has the fear of the pillsbury dough rolls. I always open them up for him.
Another slight fear I have is something coming out of the toilet. But I’ve gotten better with this one, too.
After I saw Jaws at age 10 or so, I wouldn’t get into any water deeper than a bathtub for years and years. I remember deciding to give it a try at a pool (during full, bright daylight) once, and having a major freakout and sitting by the edge all afternoon. I think it’s because, in most swimming positions, you can’t see your feet and you can’t see behind you.
I got over that, though; now my Big Fear is birds. Specifically large birds, like geese and peacocks and such. Ducks will freak me out if there are more than about three of them, or if they start crowding me (shudder).
): Icebergs. Just thinking about them freaks me out. But it’s not the top of them, oh no. It’s what UNDER THE WATER! I once saw a series of photographs that someone had taken from inside of a hollow one, and I almost hyperventilated. Who would even DO that?!? I have the shivers just typing about them. Don’t even get me started on the “inspirational” poster with one on it. (Jeez it was hard to find this without closing my browser automatically, but 