# What are Doper's greatest fears? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 16, 2013, 11:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557 "2013-02-16T23:45:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![saje](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saje/32/3631_2.png) [@saje](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saje)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/21 "2013-02-18T14:20:53Z")
I don’t fear/worry about much, but the thought of the house on fire with my critters inside can make me panicky. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/22 "2013-02-18T14:54:02Z")
I am not much driven by fear, in reality. Don’t like heights, didn’t mind when I was younger though. I fear the death of my husband, though again, it never crossed my mind when we were younger. In the passing years be have become so fully entwined, and of an age where several people our age have just dropped dead, in some unexpected fashion. It always makes me think, it could be one of us, anytime it seems. But my very biggest fear is that by the time we are old and infirm science will have made yet more strides in elongating life, to where you will have to beg to be allowed to die! A little odd, and unlikely, I know. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/23 "2013-02-18T15:26:02Z")
Whenever I listen to _Cult of Personality_ and it gets to the very end, as it is fading out it has FDR’s “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”. Every. Single. Time. I add, in my best FDR voice, “_and spiders!_”. ---
**Author:** ![ReticulatingSplines](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e274bd/32.png) [@ReticulatingSplines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ReticulatingSplines)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/24 "2013-02-18T15:43:50Z")
I tried to select “cobras” but it is not a poll option. ---
**Author:** ![control-z](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eada6e/32.png) [@control-z](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/control-z)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/25 "2013-02-18T18:01:41Z")
I picked claustrophobia but I’m really not afraid of small spaces, I’m afraid of small spaces with water in them, like an enclosed slide tube at a water park. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/26 "2013-02-18T18:27:54Z")
I picked death of a loved one and my own death, but I should also have picked “other” because my other biggest fear is losing my mental capacity (for example, through some traumatic injury) or becoming physically incapacitated to the point where I’m completely dependent on others. As **monstro** said upthread, I don’t really want to be alive anymore if I’m not able to function mentally or if I’m permanently unable to care for myself. Needles, flying, public speaking–I don’t like any of those things, but they’re nothing for me compared to my big 3. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/27 "2013-02-18T18:43:17Z")
Thunderstorms, motion sickness, flying, spiders. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/28 "2013-02-18T21:41:05Z")
Torture. I worry it about it probably way more than I should. ---
**Author:** ![EmilyG](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emilyg/32/364_2.png) [@EmilyG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EmilyG)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/29 "2013-02-18T21:51:39Z")
> [@Infovore](#): > > I picked death of a loved one and my own death, but I should also have picked “other” because my other biggest fear is losing my mental capacity (for example, through some traumatic injury) or becoming physically incapacitated to the point where I’m completely dependent on others. As **monstro** said upthread, I don’t really want to be alive anymore if I’m not able to function mentally or if I’m permanently unable to care for myself… I should’ve mentioned that too. A huge percentage of my mother’s close relatives are severely mentally screwed up. My mother herself has lost her mind. I worry every day that someday, without warning, I’ll lose my mind - and maybe not even know it. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/30 "2013-02-18T21:56:37Z")
No fear of heights, per se - I love being up on observation decks, in things like the Millennium Wheel, etc. and will press my nose and toes right to the glass. If there’s any remote chance of falling, though - jelly. Can’t stand open ferris wheels, high bridges, open patios on tall buildings, etc. Went on the “California Experience” ride at the park across from Disneyland, where you very realistically soar over film landscapes, and it had me in a white knuckled sweat even though I knew the images and the puffs of breeze were just illusion. ---
**Author:** ![SweetiePotato](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@SweetiePotato](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SweetiePotato)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/31 "2013-02-18T22:11:37Z")
My big fear is rejection: that, at some point, everyone who knows me is going to realize that I’m no great shakes, and just walk away from me. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2013, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/32 "2013-02-18T22:15:14Z")
28 posts before someone said my fear. I’m with **olives** : Torture, my own or torture of a loved one. I’m not really afraid of anything on the list. I guess I have a little claustrophobia issue, but the space has to be coffinlike (I’m looking at you MRI machine) before it kicks in. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/33 "2013-02-19T02:25:46Z")
Death of a Loved One is the only real “fear” I have on the list… But I checked three others, which are “phobias.” Not quite the same. The fear is rational; I know it _will happen._ I dread it, but I know it is absolutely inevitable. It’s awful. Phobias go below the level of rationality. They’re reflexes, like the knee-jerk reflex. I can no more cope with spiders than I can avoid closing my eyes when something is waved right in my face. It’s how my brain is made. Public speaking? I LOVE it! ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/34 "2013-02-19T03:26:37Z")
> [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > Torture. I worry it about it probably way more than I should. I’m not obsessed with torture, but I do fear horrible pain, and probably torture is the worst way to experience it. A few years ago a spelunker got trapped in a cave: he slid headfirst down a tapering 45 degree tunnel and ended up held in place by rock bulges that would have destroyed his rib cage if he was pulled out. This happened half a mile underground in a cave small enough to make rescue impossible. There was a SD thread about it. Darkness and small spaces normally don’t bother me, but that situation combines them with physical pain and makes me shudder. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Bravo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_bravo/32/493_2.png) [@Johnny\_Bravo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Bravo)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/35 "2013-02-19T03:40:44Z")
It’s a little shameful, but I get really freaked out at the thought of having a child with a severe developmental disability. Also pretty much any kind of stinging flying insect will have me flailing about in terror. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/36 "2013-02-19T04:02:14Z")
Heights. I have a disabling fear of heights; I cannot watch any kind of movie whose plot puts people at risk of falling great distances. ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/37 "2013-02-19T04:07:51Z")
Other. I’ve been worried about two different exes stalking me, attacking me, shooting up my house, shooting up my wedding, shooting up my family. There was no reason to worry about it, other than particularly dramatic break-ups, but I did. One of them I still do sometimes. ---
**Author:** ![geneb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a88e4f/32.png) [@geneb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/geneb)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/38 "2013-02-19T17:38:21Z")
Death of a loved one, small spaces, and Heights for me. Oddly, though, I have nothing against heights so long as I am enclosed. I absolutely love flying and looking out of the window, but I need a diaper on ski lifts (which sucks, because I enjoy skiing). Just the thought of a space small enough for me to not be able to turn around makes me want to puke. Normal sized bathroom stalls and cubicles that don’t have an open wall also make me feel ill (always wondered if being frightened of normal bathroom stalls gave me leave to use handicap ones). ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/39 "2013-02-19T17:39:39Z")
I could select some of the above, but my biggest fear is really just chronic pain. The idea of hurting day in and day out, with no relief in site, is nightmarish. ---
**Author:** ![Troppus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a587f6/32.png) [@Troppus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troppus)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2013, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557/40 "2013-02-19T17:47:47Z")
Ohmigod the rickety Lillipution elevator ride to the top of the St. Louis arch damn near killed me though the height didn’t phase me. I’ll jump right in to home built aircraft, but I will never again bend myself double to climb into a vomit soaked, broiling tin box for uncountable minutes with sweaty strangers in order to look at grass and railroad tracks from a great height. Did anyone else notice the vomit cans at the top of the arch yet? Geez if you can’t handle heights don’t do it. The sight of pale, shiny strangers leaning over the open cans and the smell that permeated the tiny, hot room was dreadful. If an amusement ride leads to battlefield levels of horror, maybe a remodel is due. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dopers-greatest-fears/650557.md?page=3)