I check the backseat of my car as well, especially when I work late. There are a few creepy characters around my workplace, and I have soft top which is incredibly easy to break into.
Sometimes, when driving home very late at night, I feel like there might be someone/something holding onto the back of my car. I have to tap the brakelight to make sure there’s nothing outside the rear window.
Another backseat checker chiming in. Of course, that never completely gets rid of my nagging fear that maybe there really is somebody back there, but he/she is really skinny and is squeezed under the seat, tensed to leap as soon as I reach a suitably remote area. So when I’m driving at night, I periodically have to flip on the dome light and glance over my shoulder into the backseat.
Then, of course, I have to deal with the fear that while I was looking at the backseat, something horrible landed softly on my hood…
The solution to all of you backseat checker’s fears are to have a car like mine. Fill the backseat up with so much junk related to your hobbies that a cat couldn’t fit there, much less a person.
Mith maybe it’s OCD. Oddly enough it is related to my state of mind. Typically I only do it now when I’m depressed for some reason, or upset. If I’m happy go lucky, I never even think of it. Maybe it’s because it’s a game I can always win. Who knows.
Have to chime in with Sinful on the basement thing, though my irrational fear is that when the lights go off the spiders will come get me.
When I was a kid, roughly 11 or 12 I was detailed to clean out the basement of my Great grandmother’s house. She had a bunch of stuff in the rafters, and when I pulled soemthing down two big spiders fell on my face. I was totally inconsolable.
Well, that was enough to send me foetal.
Spiders - if I see a spider across the room from me, I am convinced it will end up in my hair and then my ears, and perhaps then will crawl across my face and maybe my eyes, at which point my brain would explode with fear and I’d die. So I’ll fixate on the spider and shriek at whoever else is nearby to get rid of it (but not kill it because it’s a living creature and therefore sacred). If no-one else is around, I’ll grab a handy thwacking object (because when it’s between me and the spider, all high-falutin’ ideals go out the window), pull my knees up to my chin and visually track the vile beast until it comes into thwacking distance. If I am unable to thwack it and be sure it’s dead (because there’s no way in hell I’m moving closer to it and it’s slying avoiding me, thereby trying to lull me into a false sense of security), I will sit in the same position for an hour or more having heart palpitations until someone else is able to come save me. I won’t be comfortable in that room alone for up to a week after the spider incident, as they are sneaky lil buggers who can’t be trusted to be truly dead even when thoroughly squished.
Vertigo - the irrational fear that your body will all of a sudden decide to ignore the sensible messages of caution sent to it by your brain, and will take a flying leap over that precipice/barrier/balcony just to see how it feels to fall and go splat. In order to prevent my body from doing this, I will cling onto any handrail provided with both hands and walk crab-wise. If there is no handrail, I will march as if I have blinkers on with my head down, repeating “One, two” along with my steps. Still, this won’t always work and my brain will decide my body’s impulses are too risky, so will send it a shut-down signal. At which point my body will calmly take over and decide to have a nice, quiet lie down, wherever I may be at the time (ladder/busy sidewalk/middle of a road). Vertigo does not only apply to heights; I also get this with large bodies of fast moving water, spiral staircases, escalators, and open-topped vehicles. If my body is physically restrained (rollercoasters, elevators etc) then heights are no problem at all.
There’s much, much more but I’ll be here all afternoon 
Wow.
You know, I’d think all of you folks would run to avoid a thread like this, for fear of reading about some NEW thing you now have to be afraid of. You know, like “Oh NO - I never thought about the friggin’ back seat of the CAR before…”
The only thing like this I have is that one or two times is not enough times to check if the burners on the stove are off. Once I left a burner (an electric one) on low and set a milk crate on it, and it melted the heavy plastic of the milk crate all over the burner. I had to rip it out and replace it. So now I check over and over.
I have an irrational fear of fire - when I was young, I saw someone’s house go up in flames - and they were trapped inside and died. Ever since then, I cannot leave my home without checking the ashtrays, checking the outlets, checking lights, checking appliances, etc. It can take me 10 minutes just to get out the door. And there are some things that I must have unplugged when not in use, even though they aren’t designed that way. Like the coffee maker, the bread maker, the crock pot, etc., etc., etc.
One thing you have to realize about axe murders is that they’re patient. I mean they chose an Axe as thier killing tool. Most sloppy killers just go for an automatic weapon. They’re all flash and no polish, no patience. But an axe murderer, here’s someone that has to get close, someone who has to stealthy, someone who really enjoys his or her work. So it doens’t really matter how long you hesitate at the top of the stairs cause…
Ooops, I’m not helping am I?
Sorry.
Another thing about axe murderers is that they are fairly quick. I mean, they have to chase their prey down with axe after all. That’s good excercise. Why some axe murderers even prefer a good chase. They’ll pop out on the victim, give a blood curdling war cry and then wait a few seconds before…
I’m making things worse again, aren’t I?
Sorry.
Something’s going to grab my feet. Apparently it’s something that doesn’t exist when the lights are on…
I hate those popnfresh bread things too. I hold it out and turn my head so I won’t see exactly when it will happen. Sometimes I get my husband to do it. I hate sudden noises like that.
I’m so embarrassed… me too. Since I was little I absolutely can not have my feet uncovered at night. I’m positive *something * will touch my feet… possibly the same something that lurks behind doors waiting to scare the beejeezus out me.:rolleyes:
This thread is kinda making me feel like a wussy.
I’m brave! I kill bugs and stuff…