For a while I had dreams where I was biting down hard and my teeth would break. When I woke up I’d be freaked out that I was minus a few teeth. It’s never been something I was afraid of longer then the first couple seconds after waking up.
The deep water itself doesn’t freak me out (I don’t have any problem on boats, for example), but *what’s on the bottom that I can’t see * is what completely gives me the heeby-jeebies. I mean, who knows what’s on the bottom? The thought of sinking in the water…::shudder::
I’m not to fond of heights either, especially when there’s an edge. (I don’t have any problems in buildings and looking out windows, for example.) This fear is partly because I’m a klutz and can only imagine myself stumbling and tumbling over the edge to my death.
That used to be one of mine, till I moved to New York and had to exit the subway through the revolving doors that look like egg slicers. I got over it to avoid being trampled or pummeled.
I am afraid of the inside of toilet tanks.
I hate the feeling of flour on my hands.
Holy shit. I think you just found the perfect gift for a friend of mine.
Interestingly, I sort of share this one. I love diving and snorkeling, but only in cases where I can see the ocean bottom. If not the ocean bottom, at least some sort of reference point like an anchor chain. I’m not so bad that I start panicking or anything, I just feel intensely uncomfortable.
If I had to guess, I think it has a lot in common with agoraphobia.
And count me as another person who has a bad phobia of stinging insects. Normal bees who just go about their business are generally fine, but yellow jackets, hornets, wasps, etc… Well, I imagine people get very amused seeing me run a few feet to the left apparently randomly while walking around outside.
I swear, they follow me!
Okay, and for the more irrational fear…I absolutely hate the feeling of Nerf foam on my skin. It’s like the tactile equivalent of nails on a chalkboard to me.
Wow. I think you win!
I am irrationally and utterly terrified of mold and spoiled food. I can’t clean out the refrigerator by myself, and right now the knowledge that there might be something bad in there is driving me up the wall. The other day I was desperately hungry and had to check some cucumbers for soft spots… my hands were literally SHAKING as I opened the bag. I am aware this is not rational. I have no explanation for it. Mold is terrifying and evil and wants to hurt me. End.
I have rational fears by the truckload.
My only irrational fear is those uppy-down bridges. The ones that break in the middle to let a tall boat go underneath. I can’t even watch one on TV without breaking into a sweat. I have never seen one IRL, I don’t remember ever hearing of any horrible disaster involving one, but seeing one freaks me right the hell out, to the point I refuse to make any effort what so ever to find out their real name – google might have a picture, don’cha know?
I get a little twitchy even typing about the damn things.
Fish.
I’m not really really scared of them, but just being scared of harmless fish strikes me as irrational. I’m not talking about sharks or barracudas or stuff that can really hurt you - of course those concern me. No, I’m talking about the regular old workaday fishy fish that swim around you when you’re snorkeling or swimming in the ocean. I still like snorkeling, but I do like to have a buddy close by.
I’m also afraid of open ocean when I’m actually in it (as opposed to being on even a small boat - then it’s okay).
Like The Chao Goes Mu, my irrational fear is icebergs, now Ive never seen any in real life but that picture freaks me out and always has.
A friend of mine has an irrational fear of the police - it stems from when she was little her parents would say if your bold the gaurds will take you away. it obviously stuck because the girl hyperventilates any time she sees a gaurd and cannot serve them in the shop where we work!
My sister had a friend whos father used to tell her to run and hide whenever the doorbell rang, he was only joking but the girl has issues answering the door now and shes in her late 20’s!
I didn’t click, so neener-neener. 
Drawbridges? Like on castles? That just ain’t right! The evil 2-sided ones should have a much scarier name, reflecting their evil scariness, instead of quaint bridge-that-turns-into-a-doorness.
As a child I used to be fearful of lifts. It wasn’t claustrophobia it was about that feeeeeeling you get. You know that lurch and then that strange feeling? I couldn’t bear it. It just felt bigger when I was small. I barely even notice it now and I’ll happily use lifts.
These days I hate having the doorbell ring. Doesn’t matter if I know it’s a friend or the postman, my heart still pounds and I go to full alert. Not sure why.
And not a phobia exactly but I can’t bear to get my hands wet in the rain. Other body parts wet in the rain? Fine. Hands wet in other circumstances? Fine. Hands wet in the rain? shudder and hunch inside sleeves
I’m terrified of going up stairs in the dark. Going down them in the dark doesn’t bother me, but for some reason I imagine I’m going to be going up the stairs to my place one of these days and someone is going to pop out at the top and knock me down backwards.
Often times when I imagine this scenario in my mind, the person at the top of the stairs is very, very small, like a particularly sadistic child or maybe a gnome.
I think I’m a sane and rational person aside from this, though.
Needles. If I have to get a shot or have blood drawn (and this usually means there’s a decent chance I will die or be permanently disabled if I don’t), I cry and shake. I’m anxious and upset for several days beforehand, and borderline hysterical for the rest of the day after it happens. I can’t imagine how people who go to get (say) a flu shot on their lunch break do it. I can’t watch someone in a movie or on TV get a shot, either.
I’m terrified of finding out anything that could, possibly, be bad news. Right now, I’m terrified to go and get my mail, because the results of my latest pap smear might be there, and something might be wrong (Nothing ever has been in the past, and there’s no particular reason for me to worry, but since when has that ever stopped an irrational fear?) When I was in school, I was always similarly fearful about getting my grades. I’m afraid when I get bills- what if I’ve charged more on my credit card than I thought I have, and I can’t pay it? I’m always scared when I log into online banking to pay bills, too- what if there’s been some sort of computer problem at the bank, or what if someone has somehow gotten into our checking account and cleaned it out? We’re waiting on a job offer for Mr. Neville to be confirmed, so now I’m afraid to check my e-mail, too- what if that new message I’ve got is from him, saying it’s fallen through? I go to full alert when the phone rings, too…
I can’t do a lot of things if someone’s watching me while I do.
I’m afraid of any high place where I could fall over the edge, or where I could suddenly be seized with an uncontrollable urge to fling myself over the edge. I’m a klutz, too, and maybe that has something to do with it.
Here is a picture of the instrument I was talking about, and that Antigen was nice enough to defend my phobia for. It only* looks * harmless.
I don’t think I really have any irrational fears, but my wife is deathly afraid of earthworms.
I’m afraid of standing next to the ocean and having a huge wave wash ashore, sucking me out to sea.
I really admire the way you think. I don’t have a fear of phones, but if I ever develop one, I’ll know now how to work around it.
I’m deathly afraid of eels. They’re just so … floppy, and they don’t have limbs. That’s just wrong. An eel could come right up to me and flop against me (at which point I would drop dead of fear and grossness).
I’m not, however, afraid of snakes, even though they are floppy and don’t have limbs. They’re supposed to be that way. On the other hand, I am also afraid of things that look like snakes but are actually leg-less lizards. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? Either be a snake or get some legs like a normal lizard, freak. Gah. Maybe I am afraid of taxonomy.
Moving on, I have a phobia about being in a fire and having my contact lenses melt onto my eyeballs. I read about this in the 5th grade in some fire safety booklet that pointed out that a fire can be so hot that contact lenses melt (in other words, it was a booklet for 5th graders so who knows if it is common or even true). I am putting this in the irrational fear category, because it’s beyond the normal “gee, a fire would be scary” thoughts. I don’t sit around thinking about how horrible it would be to be burned (although it would be horrible), I’m stuck on the contact lens issue. Every single time I see a heat source (like turning on a stove burner), I think “wow, I hope this doesn’t start a fire that melts my contact lenses to my eyeballs.”