# Is there anything you're so scared of that you can't look at a picture of it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 1, 2009, 7:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965 "2009-02-01T07:41:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/21 "2009-02-01T18:17:03Z")
Animals with congenital deformities. Like the turtles with multiple heads, or the frogs with extra limbs, or the pig and kitten with 1.5 faces. I’d provide links, but then I’d have to look. ---
**Author:** ![pepperlandgirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f17d59/32.png) [@pepperlandgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pepperlandgirl)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/22 "2009-02-01T18:36:49Z")
Snakes. I hate snakes, Jock! I hate them! Seriously, though, I’m so terrified of snakes that pictures of them prompt my “fight or flight” responses, and with snakes, I always go with “flight.” Forget about nature documentaries or movies. If I go my whole life without ever seeing another image of a snake, I’ll be a happy person. ---
**Author:** ![in\_hiding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c5a1d2/32.png) [@in\_hiding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/in_hiding)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/23 "2009-02-01T18:46:23Z")
> [@freckafree](#): > > The lotus boob. (Somebody had to come in here and say it!) A few days ago, I dreamed my left ankle was full of holes like that, insect-larvae included. It didn’t hurt, it wasn’t even threatening in any way. It didn’t really bother me in the dream, and as I woke, i was more confused then freaked out and I soon forgot it, but this thread just reminded me, and now - yeah, I’m a little squicked. Spiders do it for me - some pictures (the big, hairy, things) are evil™. Motion is much worse. This things are just _wrong_. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/24 "2009-02-01T18:49:00Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > That picture doesn’t bother me. Yeah, me either. ---
**Author:** ![HongKongFooey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c4cdca/32.png) [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/25 "2009-02-01T18:50:51Z")
> [@bluecanary](#): > > Edit: I hope that link works - I ain’t clicking on it to make sure! It works…bleah… ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/26 "2009-02-01T19:14:02Z")
Electron micrographs of bugs blown up to ungodly size. What makes it worse, someone at the New York Times science section has an absolute hardon for them. Every so often they plaster one across an entire inside page, where it hits me like a basketball between the eyes. I twitch and gibber for several minutes afterwards. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/27 "2009-02-01T19:29:54Z")
> [@Beware\_of\_Doug](#): > > Electron micrographs of bugs blown up to ungodly size. What makes it worse, someone at the New York Times science section has an absolute hardon for them. Every so often they plaster one across an entire inside page, where it hits me like a basketball between the eyes. I twitch and gibber for several minutes afterwards. You mean the oddly-colored photos of like lice and bedbugs and stuff? Those gross me out too, but they don’t produce the panic and horror that tarantulas and lotus-boob do. There was also another picture that someone posted on another forum recently that freaked me out so badly I don’t even know what it was, because I couldn’t look for more than a split second. It was some kind of . . . thing . . . it looked kind of like a camel spider, but I’m not even sure if it was real. It also looked very alien. It was crawling up the side of a trashcan I think. I had a nightmare that night that it ate my wife and my dog and was lying in bed next to me. ---
**Author:** ![rucciface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ba9def/32.png) [@rucciface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rucciface)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/28 "2009-02-01T19:48:18Z")
Rats. When that Riddex (or whatever) commercial comes on, I can’t change the channel fast enough. And I was reading a magazine at work one day, innocently turned the page, and what was on the next page? Yeah. It shocked me so badly, I lost feeling in my legs. Bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/29 "2009-02-01T20:51:16Z")
Surgery, or anything really gory. I feel like I’m going to vomit if I see it. Anything happening to someone’s eyes. ---
**Author:** ![lorene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/65b543/32.png) [@lorene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lorene)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/30 "2009-02-01T22:26:08Z")
Cockroaches. Not so much scared, but grossed out. Even seeing a picture of one will make me itchy. There used to be an Orkin ad that somehow was able to make it look like there was a cockroach crawling on the outside of one’s TV screen. That sucked. ---
**Author:** ![cruel\_butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@cruel\_butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cruel_butterfly)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/31 "2009-02-01T22:42:27Z")
Photographs of scorpions, especially those that show the slippery throng of newborns piled onto the parent-scorpion’s back. Live birth from an animal that has more than four legs is disturbing on so many levels. Video of scorpions like the episode of Fear Factor where the contestants had to lay in a box while hundreds of black shiny scorpions were poured over them. I think someone actually got stung several times. _shudder_ Drawings and/or tattoos of scorpions. This even applies to those tribalistic, ultra-stylized interpretations. Oddly, my natural fear response when I see them live (which is often since I live in the desert) is to gag uncontrollably. I almost threw up once when I saw one on the ceiling and realized that I must have walked under it 10 times. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/32 "2009-02-01T22:48:17Z")
I never thought I was afraid of scorpions until a few months after I moved to Arizona when I opened my kitchen cabinet and a huge one was staring me in the face. I just about freakin’ panicked. Now pictures of them can disturb a little bit but not nearly as much as a picture of a tarantula. There is a rather disturbing image floating around the internets of a man having missionary-style sex with a giant scorpion that I’d prefer never to see again. It’s not a cartoon or a painting, either. It’s either a photoshop or someone made an incredibly realistic-looking giant scorpion prop. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/33 "2009-02-01T22:51:48Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > Surgery, or anything really gory. I feel like I’m going to vomit if I see it. Seconded! I was channel surfing once and lit on Discovery Channel, during a show about surgery. Some guy’s kneecap was laid open, in glorious color, and I just about lost it. I also hate needles, and won’t, if I can help it, look at pictures or film of injections or transfusions. But I’m functional at least, I still donate blood! I’ve just never, even once, seen the needle in my arm, I always look away or close my eyes. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 1, 2009, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/34 "2009-02-01T23:24:31Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I never thought I was afraid of scorpions until a few months after I moved to Arizona when I opened my kitchen cabinet and a huge one was staring me in the face. I just about freakin’ panicked. Now pictures of them can disturb a little bit but not nearly as much as a picture of a tarantula. There is a rather disturbing image floating around the internets of a man having missionary-style sex with a giant scorpion that I’d prefer never to see again. It’s not a cartoon or a painting, either. It’s either a photoshop or someone made an incredibly realistic-looking giant scorpion prop. Is that one of those don’t have sex without a condom/HIV PSAs? I’ve also seen one of a woman receiving cunnilingus from a spider. ETA: I found them both, but I won’t link to them. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/35 "2009-02-02T00:08:08Z")
Spiders. It’s worse on TV, when they’re moving. The legs all seem to move independently of one another with no specific pattern. It’s _horrible_. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/36 "2009-02-02T00:38:03Z")
> [@Freudian\_Slit](#): > > Is that one of those don’t have sex without a condom/HIV PSAs? I’ve also seen one of a woman receiving cunnilingus from a spider. Ewww, is that really what they’re from? I saw the scorpion one on another message board but I thought someone said it was from some weird movie or something. If the spider one is the one I’m thinking of - is it a lady sitting in a chair with a giant tarantula between her legs? - I saw that in a magazine a few years ago, but I thought they claimed it was from a French . . . furniture ad (?) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/37 "2009-02-02T00:46:55Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Ewww, is that really what they’re from? I saw the scorpion one on another message board but I thought someone said it was from some weird movie or something. > > If the spider one is the one I’m thinking of - is it a lady sitting in a chair with a giant tarantula between her legs? - I saw that in a magazine a few years ago, but I thought they claimed it was from a French . . . furniture ad (?) That’s the one. They have this little HIV symbol underneath. It’s creepy. It would be even creepier for furniture. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/38 "2009-02-02T01:33:59Z")
I don’t like seeing dead people’s guts or other normally internal parts exposed if they died in a bad way. I can usually watch surgery (or simulated) on TV and they can remove parts. I can look at dead people. Watching people get killed, e.g. an execution…difficult, but I can usually do it if the body parts remain “in the bag.” But about a week ago I stumbled across a website that just\_icked\_me\_out. E.g. dead victim was in car accident, intestines on the road. It’s obscene, to me, to show that for “entertainment” value. Also, horseshoe crabs always skeeved me IRL. Just did an image search. Thumbnails came up…yep, even images ick me out. The Michael Dorn klingon thing, with his forehead looking like said crab…I’d rather not look at it. I could if I wanted to. But I don’t want to. ---
**Author:** ![Litoris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9f8e36/32.png) [@Litoris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Litoris)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/39 "2009-02-02T02:06:44Z")
> [@HongKongFooey](#): > > Wow, that would do it. Sounds like you’ve adjusted quite well if you can go spelunking. Yeh, it’s a weird control thing. Spelunking, I know I won’t put myself in a spot I can’t escape – watching other people do escape tricks? Nope, can’t control them, so it makes me start to want to hyperventilate! It’s like if I am in control of the situation, I can handle the tight space – if I am not in control, oh HAYELL NO! ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2009, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965/40 "2009-02-02T02:22:08Z")
> [@pepperlandgirl](#): > > Snakes. I hate snakes, Jock! I hate them! > > Seriously, though, I’m so terrified of snakes that pictures of them prompt my “fight or flight” responses, and with snakes, I always go with “flight.” Forget about nature documentaries or movies. If I go my whole life without ever seeing another image of a snake, I’ll be a happy person. +1. I have gotten better re pics of snakes, but there is something in how they move that just weirds my brain out. Thing about pics is that most pics of snakes show them attacking or squeezing the life out of someone or similar. Ugh. Also, the pic of the guy somewhere in South America (?) that was covered in what looked like feathers, but turned out to be a skin condition, probably fungal in nature. He had lost his kids, his job and the village had kicked him out, then some dermatologist here in the US found out about him and was going down to treat him. I saw the link here on SDMB and regret to this day that I clicked on it. You could barely make out his fingers --he looked draped in feathers and clawlike protrusions. Gah. Trivia: my college roommate was as terrified of whales as I am of snakes. Just showing her a pic of a whale was enough to start her screaming. She said it was something about the sheer size of them. I find that puzzling because I can never get a sense of the size of them in pictures. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-anything-youre-so-scared-of-that-you-cant-look-at-a-picture-of-it/483965.md?page=3)