Okay folks, I’m hear to ask about your fears, and I’m talking nightmare material here. The stuff that gives you goosebumps. The things, people, or places that keep you awake in the night.
Just to be fair, I’ll start.
Nazi “Angel of Death” Josef Mengele in general is scary as all get out.
Female Genital Mutilation is vomit-inducing.
But the thing that utterly petrifies me? Lobotomies. Just the thought of them is overwhelming. I’d probably die of sheer terror if ever threatened with one.
Spiders! I fear nothing except spiders. A rabid pit bull could be lunging at me and I wouldn’t even flinch, and yet the sight of a daddy long leg sends me into a wild fit of hysterical fear and paranoia.
Heights.
(so-called) Friends tried to teach me how to repel off a water tower. I went up the ladder fine but there was no way in hell I could go over the edge. I just could not do it.
Clowns. I kid you not. I will cross the street to avoid one. I never go to the circus, and when my mother-in-law organized a magic show for the grandkids at our family get-together, I had to be assured that no clowns would be present. Something about their pasty faces and bizarre clothing terrified me even as a child. I knew they were intristically evil even before I saw that documentary Stephen King put together, called * It. *
I got a weird one: ladders. I’ve never fallen off of one, ever, ever, but simply being on a ladder scares me senseless. The wobbling, the height, even a 6 foot stepladder. Now, heights I’m fine with. Ladders, though…
Sort of mentioned already, but any sort of brain damage is terrifying to me. The idea of my intellect being crippled, and knowing it - that’s my idea of hell. I’m even scared of thermometers and lead fishing weights - heavy metal poisoning.
Just thought I’d chime in with… nothing. I have no phobias of any sort. I welcome spiders into my home, I played with snakes as a kid, I calmly squish roaches or other pests, rats or mice just become playthings for the cat. There is nothing in this world that I know of that is intrinsically frightening to me.
I absolutely fear the loss of my senses. I really live my life by my senses, and the loss of one or more scares me to death.
Snails. I can’t explain it. They scare the pants right off me.
Losing my mind. Going demented, insane or just stupid, it doesn’t really matter. Not being smart anymore, that’s horrifying.
As for a more mundane phobia, I’m freaking scared to death of octopuses and squids. You know they’re not really animals, right? They’re alien genetically-engineered monsters, placed in the oceans to guard the gates to the palaces of the Old Ones. DreadCthulhu, back me up here.