What are you deathly afraid of, even though you know they’re relatively harmless?
Mine are:
centipedes, silverfish, and any other creepy little things with lots of legs
roller coasters
taking off and landing in airplanes (although I’m fine once I’m up there)
ladders (quiet, you! I could fall off and die and THEN you’d be sorry!)
Ladders, and the outside dark (only when I can hear dogs barking though).
Eternity. I don’t know if this fits here, but every now and again, I think of death and what comes after, and an eternity of nothingness and no conciousness scares the ever living shit out of me. It hit me again at breakfast today, so that’s why it’s still fresh in my mind (I’m not going to sleep well tonight at all).
Rats, mice, and tsunamis. The last one is pretty weird, but I have nightmares about giant waves about once a month–so I have them on my mind more than other people might.
Needles!!!
Elvis got mine. I remember seeing an old sitcom where there was a gag about a character being in heaven, the “Joke” was something like “I’d read all the magazines in the waiting room in the first thousand years.” Damn, that gave me the creeps.
Flying insects. I have a horse and I garden, so this is a big deal. Luckily I live in the north so I only have to fret for 6 months out of the year. The noise of a flying insect will send me into a panic. I have long hair (even though I wear it up for most outdoor activities) and am so afraid something will get stuck in my hair.
Oddly enough, once I know where the insect is (ex. a bumble bee on a flower) I can relax. When I hear something buzzing and am not sure where it is freaks me the most. And sneaky, silent, wasps scare me too.
Heights. I once had to climb a ladder to break into my apartment (long story). I managed to climb the ladder, shaking and sweating all the way up, and then was absolutely frozen for about five minutes when it came time to step off the ladder and onto my balcony. All I could think about was falling ten feet to the either the brick retaining wall or the concrete path below.
Death or at least the pain that ussually comes with it.
Pain in general.
Water, most bugs/spiders and moderate heights (15-100 feet, above that I figure death would be quick if I fell. Although I’m fine on roller coasters and other rides, so maybe I’m not as scared as I might think).
dead0man
Spiders, spiderwebs and all things “wispy.” This includes fake cobwebs, torn toilet paper, stray hairs and badly frayed fabric. Sure, you laugh, but jesus christ, what if it got in my mouth?
Claustrophobia - this is why you don’t put children in the trunk of the car even if they ask…
Ketchup, mustard, mayonniase and anything remotely resembling them. shudder I’ll run away whimpering if you try to get that too close to me!
Grasshoppers.
Glass elevators.
The drains at the bottom of swimming pools.
However, heights, insects, roller coasters, airplanes, ladders, etc are no problem for me.
I am afraid of heights, but I guess so are a lot of people, so that isn’t too weird…but this is:
I am very, very afraid of large aquariums full of mid-size to large fish. (Small aquariums with small-to-medium fish are no problem, I actually sort of like them.) Why? Who knows? I actually have nightmares about being trapped in a small corridor lined on both sides with towering glass aquaria full of big fish. (But I’m not claustrophobic, although I am afraid of the ocean, but not water in general.) Here are some of the insane thoughts I have when confronted with one of those 250-gallon saltwater aquariums:
What if I fell in there?
What if an important personal possesion fell in there, like my car keys or a shoe?
What if I had to stick my hand in there to retrieve said fallen item, and one of those big fish bit me?
Does this make me crazy? I’m afraid of fish, by the way. I could never go to a national aquarium, as I would collapse into a gibbering wreck. Once, I had this job interview in this swanky executive office (why, I don’t know- I was just applying for a lab internship) and this guy had a HUGE glass aquarium with a freaking moray eel in it!!! (Now, I have no problem with eels as long as they are in their natural habitat on the ocean floor, far from me and causing no trouble.) But I kept looking and looking at this eel, just sort of eyeing me with uconcealed malice, and I couldn’t even hold a conversation with the swanky executive. So finally, he notices my staring, and he says “Oh, yes. Marine aquariums are a hobby of mine. Do you like them?” So I basically said to him what I said to you all here. Needless to say, I did not get the job.
Earthquakes (not a fun phobia in LA), insects, and using the phone, especially calling businesses or people I don’t know very well.
Aside from the concept of “eternity” giving me the shivers, I am agorophobic. It is especially bad on a clear night when I’m near a tall building, It seems to draw my eyes up against my will. I’ve fainted when I was by a tall building at night, and am probably the only kid who begged his mom not to take him to Disneyland.
Using my thousandth post the second time around to bare my soul:
Stinging insects. My parents told me I got stung on the eyelid by a bee when I was a little girl. I don’t remember that, but I think that explains a lot of my absolute terror of the little winged beasties. There are a few weeks every year here when the wasps are slowly dying, and get very aggressive - not so much stinging, though they do that too, but crawling over everything, including people, looking for food. Very difficult weeks for me; I spend a lot of time indoors.
Heights. I’m okay as long as I don’t look down. I don’t know when this one started or why. I once had to help my then-three-year-old son across a footbridge over a motorway. The bridge wasn’t very high, maybe five or six meters? But it was made of a mesh sort of steel, so I could see right down to the cars whizzing by under our feet. Flodjunior got frightened of all the noise, and I had to look down at him and encourage him to cross, with my heart pounding the whole way. Fella bilong missus flodnak had gone on ahead and couldn’t hear me calling to him. One of those things I can deal with only because I know it’s my job as a parent, but when the “danger” was over I had a nice little panic attack. (On the way back, after I had told him what happened, the fella carried flodjunior and I closed my eyes and followed the railing.)
Deep water. In fifth grade I went to an afterschool program at the YMCA, led by a sadistic power-happy college student. Once when we had a swim day, he decided that everyone should have to jump off the one meter board at the deep end of the pool. I protested that I couldn’t swim, and he told me I’d learn how very fast. So I obeyed, and thrashed around for what seemed like an eternity before he pulled me out, and then called me a baby for crying. Humiliating, too, because of course all of this happened in full view of the other kids. I told my father about it and that was the last day of the program for my sister and I; Mom and Dad figured it was better for us to come home to an empty house than wait until that bastard killed somebody.
Whoo! Do I have issues or what here…
I love phobia names. So I’m going to hijack this thread and come up with fake names for a few of these.
Rungaphobia = Fear of ladders.
Evernessaphobia = Fear of Eternity
Youregoingtofeelalittleprickaphobia = Fear of needles.
Ninjasectaphobia = Fear of sneaky, silent, wasps.
Condimentaphobia = Fear of ketchup
Telephobia = Fear of the phone.
Spiders.
Injections.
Dentists.
Spiders. Big time.
Deep water also freaks me out, but I can deal with it.