I remember coming across the word “shudder” in books when I was a kid (probably Nancy Drew books) and really not having any idea what it meant, but gradually figuring out it meant some sort of physical reaction to fear or gore.
It was quite a long time after that I started experiencing something and finally thought “hey, that must be shuddering!” I might have been as old as early twenties when this started happening.
The best way I can describe it is a nervy feeling that starts in my neck, usually on the sides and then bursts out with tingling that goes into my head and hands, but not my lower body. Sometimes this is strong enough to make my head shake, though I can control that to a large extent.
Sometimes it starts and does not complete, which is annoying, like a sneeze that doesn’t come. Generally I experience it as pleasurable, as there is a sense of release, like a sneeze.
However, this is rarely associated with fear. Usually it seems totally random. It does sometimes happen after a near miss traffic situation or something similar, but it is slightly different then, though I can’t describe how.
“Skin crawling” is also something I never experienced until early adulthood. Sometime when I see, or just hear about, a bad injury the skin on my shins “crawls”. I don’t feel it anywhere else and it only happens in relation to injury, nothing else.
I shudder randomly. My father did, and my son does. It’s rare, I think triggered by some sort of external stimulus, I’ve never figured out exactly what. I suppose it could be a goose walking over my grave, indicating that my final wishes will not be followed. Maybe I should retain an attorney to ensure that my remains are disposed in the manner I’ve requested.
This thread just begs to be moved to the Boo! forum. People, start posting about things that made you shudder, or made your skin crawl and we’ll be in business.
Whenever I get creeped out, my scalp itches. Painfully so. This seems to be a relatively new phenomenon- I don’t recall it happening when I first started to shave my head fifteen years ago.
Closest I came to shuddering was when I caused myself a chainsaw accident. I think it was caused by blood loss and shock setting in. Fortunately, a roll of duct tape and a good hand came to the rescue to resolve the situation quickly.
As far as shudders or chills in any normal situation such as a movie, that won’t happen. In factual threatening life situations I try to maintain the composure of a 747 heavy pilot under stress until the situation has passed.
I get what I call “the chills” (not actually cold, but the feeling the OP describes) sometimes randomly. I’m also likely to get it if someone is standing directly behind me, or (and I don’t think I’ve ever told anyone this) if I read something particularly good that I’ve written (which is really, really rare). I read and watch a lot of scary stuff, and have never gotten it from being scared.
A few times when I’ve seen a really icky injury it makes the skin on my lower legs feel kind of achy and crawly. This seems to happen more in response to paper-cut type injuries, or deep lacerations. Massive blood and gore doesn’t have any effect.