I just finished watching Boogeyman (if you haven’t seen it, don’t bother, just my two-penneth) and got to thinking if there was anything that still scared me now that I developed a fear of in my childhood. The only thing I could think of is the fear of being watched from the darkness, I don’t mind the dark but I get very paranoid of being watched if I am in a well-lit area but there are dark areas nearby. A case in point is in my kitchen, when the under-cupboard lights are on at night the kitchen is well-lit but very little light escapes through the window to light the garden. Someone could be stood just a few feet from the window watching me and I couldn’t see them, that frightens me and I have to pull the blinds down.
Does anybody else still have a fear or paranoia that they developed in their childhood?
On occasion, large parking lots still give me the willies. You just never can tell which one of the cars a giant spider is hiding behind, just waiting for the perfect moment to spring out and chow down on you.
Completely ridiculous, but every now and then when I’m lying in bed and I let my feet or legs dangle a little off the bed, I get the uncontrollable fear that something hiding under the bed is going to grab my ankles. So I quickly pull my feet up onto the bed.
Generally I’m not afraid of heights-- I enjoy mountains and airplanes and tall buildings-- but I was scared witless at Toronto’s CN Tower. It has a section of clear plexiglass or something as part of the floor at the observation deck. People were walking on it, kids were jumping on it, teenagers were lying down on it. I couldn’t stick my toe over the edge even though *theoretically * I was completely safe. It’s the only time looking down from a great height freaked me out. I felt like a big baby, but nothing on this earth or above it was going to get me to step on that piece of not-floor!
Movies like Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween (the original, not the shitty remakes), etc.
The effect? I close blinds, curtains and such so I’m not ‘watched’ from people outside; I open doors fully and turn on the light before entering a room; I don’t go down the stairs without lights being on; won’t walk around the house (even 5 feet to my ensuite) without a light on; NO part of the body hanging over the bed. Ever.
Things return to sort of normal a few weeks after watching one of these movies, well except for the limbs over the bed and walking around my house in the dark.
Stop watching the movies you say? No, they’re not real anyway :rolleyes:
Just reading your post made my palms sweat. Heights like this are definitely my fear. I used to work on the 21st floor of a building in Chicago, and when the window washers would dangle outside it would drive me nuts! I couldn’t even stand by the window, which went from the floor to the ceiling.
I second the clowns and the CN Tower Glass Floor and large parking lots and the feet-dangling-over-the-bed.
Also, after watching “The Ring”, I was afraid to be in the living room with all the lights turned off because that’s where our TV is. And whenever I’m alone in the house at night, I jump whenever the phone rings. I also have to reach in, turn the bathroom light on (because the light is right beside the door inside the bathroom) and then go into the bathroom. I am so scared that something’s lurking behind the shower curtain or the door. Even during the day, I do this.
You think that’s bad? My mom pretty much made me watch Carrie because I’d never seen a scary movie and she figured that one was tame enough.
That night, I left my light on dim because I was scared. Right after I closed my eyes, there was a loud crack and a light bulb flew out of the socket and smashed on the floor.
I will never watch that movie again.
As for fears brought along from childhood, I have a hard time climbing stairs that have open spaces at the back of the steps, like fire escapes. I am convinced that my foot will slip through and I’ll fall.
Oh hello, that’s marvelous. I’m going to start being scared of that, because it seems like such a good idea.
Not very often, but every once in a while, if I’m not 100% sure the closet door is all the way shut, I have to get up out of bed and MAKE SURE it’s completely closed. This happens with greater frequency if I am sleeping in a hotel or other unfamiliar place.
When a closet door is cracked open just a little bit. It can be fully opened and dark inside, and it doesn’t bother me. But if it’s cracked open, even with the light on, it gives me the heebie jeebies.
Spiders. Not a single spider, that I can handle. It’s spiders that get me. The very idea of a swarm of spiders freaks me out. Even though I know that spiders don’t travell in swarms. (And don’t anyone try and tell me different!)
Another vote for clowns here, i’m not sure if I.T. was the cause of the fear but it certainly didn’t help. I’m not so hot on porcelain dolls either, the unblinking eyes creep me out, I couldn’t sleep in a room with one.