Irrational fears

Got any irrational fears. Mine would be getting stabbed in the eye by a blunt pencil.

Mine is that there’s some fundamental concept which I’ve been completely unaware of for my entire life. Something that everyone knows, and I’ve just somehow managed to be completely oblivious to it.

“Jeez, Lightnin’, of course dogs can do calculus. Where do you think we learned it?”

Waking up alone with locked-in syndrome and finding a mouse nibbling on my toes.

That scene in the movie Kill Bill where Uma gets buried alive in a tight box.

Yeah, that.

There’a one store I go to on occasion. It has a storm drain in the parking area. I’m convinced I’m going to drop my keys through the grate.

But it’s only that one particular storm drain, not the ones in the parking lot of the building where I work, not on the street…

Having a stroke or heart attack when I’m at home alone and have no way of getting to a phone.

That the government is spying on me.

I try to not park near storm sewers because I’m terrified of dropping my keys or phone down the grate.

I’m scared of water where I can’t touch bottom - therefore I always walk on the far side of boardwalks because I’m terrified that some random person will shove me into the water. You should have seen me hugging the buildings in Venice, lol.

I’m wary of garbage disposals even at the best of times, but no way I’m sticking my hand down there. There could be a power surge, and it would suddenly roar to life! Or, I could have one hand in the disposal and have an overwhelming urge to flip the switch with the other. *Shudder *

I’m irrationally afraid of the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor, ON. It goes under the Detroit River, and every time I use the tunnel I’m afraid that some sort of catastrophic flood will occur while I’m in it. Particularly if traffic backs up in the tunnel, which being an international border crossing happens quite frequently.

Consequently, I always always ALWAYS try to take the bridge when I cross the border.

Okay, the first part of that sentence was terrifying enough, but then you had to add the mouse?

I’ve got some bad news, pal…

Anyway, my irrational fear (more like a concern, really) is that I don’t have much to offer in a post-apocalyptic society.

Not just any mouse…a RABID mouse :eek:

This is fairly up there, I don’t even go to the bathroom at night after going to bed without taking my cell phone with me. If I had the money I would get one of those necklace buttons that beep for an ambulance.

Hm, I guess it is irrational, but I tend to keep the drapes closed all the time [we have skylights] because in a ranch house, I hate the idea that someone could be looking in on me at any random time. I even had a flash dream a few days ago about it [one that happens when you are in twilight sleep, and only lasts for a second or so] where someone with one of the old fashioned aluminum flashlights was peering in through venetian blinds at me at night [though it happened at about 1 in the afternoon.] Oddly enough, we don’t have venetian blinds in the bedroom :dubious:

Wow, I’ve come a long way. I can list my irrational fears on one hand now.

  1. The Ben Franklin Bridge collapsing while I’m driving over it (which is usually at least 3x a week.)

  2. Dying and being told by some unforgiving god that I totally fucked up my entire life and will therefore be punished for all eternity.

  3. Being tortured. I don’t think this fear can really be called irrational. Just that I worry about it to a greater extent than is probably warranted.

  4. Burning alive. Ditto.

[QUOTE=Longshanks]
Got any irrational fears. Mine would be getting stabbed in the eye by a blunt pencil.
[/QUOTE]

Aichmophobia

[QUOTE=not what you’d expect]
That scene in the movie Kill Bill where Uma gets buried alive in a tight box.

Yeah, that.
[/QUOTE]

taphophobia

[QUOTE=Shakes]
Having a stroke or heart attack when I’m at home alone and have no way of getting to a phone.
[/QUOTE]

cardiophobia

[QUOTE=AaronX]
That the government is spying on me.
[/QUOTE]

scopophobia

[QUOTE=Soylent Juicy]
I’m scared of water where I can’t touch bottom - therefore I always walk on the far side of boardwalks because I’m terrified that some random person will shove me into the water. You should have seen me hugging the buildings in Venice, lol.
[/QUOTE]

bathophobia

I understand your concern, but how big are your hands? Mine are almost too big to get past the rubber collar; we usually use a huge pair of “tweezers” we bought through a mail-order catalog to get things out. (A flashlight is also usually necessary.) I once had to pull small glass shards out when a glass broke during dishwashing. And I can’t reach the switch with my one hand in there; the switch is too far away on the wall for the other to reach it.

I have the irrational fear of seeing my own reflection in a mirror in a darkened room, especially at night and the less sound there is.

When I was in high school, one room in the science building had a skeleton on a stand. The room was connected by a doorway. One day I happened to be in the other room after school. I noticed the one room was empty, but I didn’t go in, because I didn’t want to be in there alone with the skeleton!

I have this same fear. Fortunately I don’t have a garbage disposal in my home, but when I’m visiting someone who has one, I am extremely wary.

The other day I was watching a T.V. show episode with a guy who got his hand stuck in the disposal. As the paramedics were trying to get it out, he just kept screaming over and over again, “Don’t touch the switch! Don’t touch the switch!”

The square root of 2 scares the shit out of me.

Don’t read Stephen King’s novel Firestarter. Every time I see a disposal, the phrase “sharpened like a living pencil” suddenly springs to mind.