I’ve been doing some writing prep lately, the old ‘what’s s/he love? what’s s/he want? what’s s/he afraid of?’ thingy and it made me curious.
So, what are you afraid of?
Me: spiders / anything with too many legs (including butterflies), needles, bleeding, large open spaces, especially underwater. I can usually deal with it just fine, except for getting the heebie-jeebies. The last one depends on how stressed I am at the time.
Stairs. Every time I go down a set of stairs I’m afraid I’ll tumble down and break my neck.
Being underwater. I find it very difficult to be calm unless I’m in scuba gear. I’m terrified of getting water up my nose.
Cockroaches! I cannot deal with roaches. They completely freak me out.
Something bad happening to my son.
Wasps. They’re just. . .evil, with their oddly segmented bodies and their habit of laying eggs in other insects. they look like giant weapons, and also like they might crawl under your skin. They make me shudder-shudder-shudder!
Non-lap dogs also put me on edge at first, but after I’m with a specific dog for more than five minutes, I’m pretty much cool.
Minor: cockroaches. I fear no (other) insect, no reptile, no rodent, none of the usual ookie creepy-crawly suspects. But roaches put my completely outside of my own rational mind (I know they can’t hurt me) and into a sort of skin-crawling … not panic, necessarily, but … they give me the heebiest of jeebies, and it increases exponentially the bigger they get. It gives me some amount of sympathy towards people who freak out at rodents, even though I think pet rats are Teh Cute.
Major: Mr. Horsehoe dying. It got a million times worse after I saw “Up.” Lovely as that movie was, I truly wish I hadn’t ever seen it. I can’t get the image from the beginning of the film out of my mind of a sad, lonely, old person sitting next to their partner’s empty chair, because I know that sad, lonely, old person will be me. 
I’m tearing up just typing this. Fuck that movie.
Earthquakes. I shutter to even write that. They are horrible and unpredictable. The two weeks a year I spend in California are completely nerve wracking for me, because I can’t get the image out of my head. There is going to be an earthquake and the house will collapse on top of me. I’ll be buried in the rubble for 4 days and the only thing I’ll have to eat is my own severed leg.
I’m claustrophobic and find that’s triggered by a wide range of circumstances, from being on a crowded subway train to watching a documentary about the ocean bottom (all that…black water…pressing on you…shudder).
The other big thing is insects, primarily cockroaches and centipedes. It’s hard for me to even look at a picture of a centipede without tensing up. But really any insect with a crunchy exoskeleton or with little prickly legs that I could feel on my skin if it landed on me is on notice.
Being burned to death.
This has been done before and I got a lot of shit for my answer, but it is honest.
cows.
Yeah, harmless, dull cows, I don’t know why.
THE BEEEEES!!! THE BEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSS! Just kidding, like the cute little guys.
This thread will prove useful in the future… just in case…
Semi-related to claustrophobia, I don’t like to be confined, especially around the lower half of my body. If some ragamuffin were to hug my leg, it would take a force of will to not kick them off against a wall.
Spiders, heights, the ocean (surprised how many other people have put this, thought it was just me).
At least two B-movie style creatures freak me out to the extent I can’t even look at photos of them:
[ul]
[li]coconut crabs (3ft wide spider-like crabs that can climb walls :eek:)[/li][li]giant woodlouse (if you google “deep sea gigantism”…)[/li][/ul]
Being in a situation where I don’t know what to do.
Needles.
Any gory scenes in movies or on TV, probably even a still image in a book. They make me feel like I’m going to vomit.
Bugs or rodents crawling on me.
Having any kind of major accident (such as a car accident) and having it be my fault.
Snakes. I can’t even look at pictures of snakes. If I’m going to read an article about snakes online, I have to go into the settings on Firefox and turn off images. When I was a kid, my cousin used to get a kick out of chasing me with pictures of snakes.
The last time I saw an actual snake, I almost had a panic attack.
It’s not even that I’m afraid that they’re going to hurt me, it’s that they’re THERE, and I hate them, and they’re freaky and they slither and I don’t think I can type this much longer because I don’t like even talking about them for long!
shudder
The dark. As long as there is even the tiniest sliver of light I can use to orient myself, I’m fine, but in absolute pitch blackness I completely freak out.
Making a mistake.
I get no sympathy for one of my fears - rabbits. And before anyone asks, I was bit by one when I was in 1st grade, five years before I saw The Holy Grail. It took until a couple of years ago that I could pet one without being too nervous to, and now my dad’s bunny has bit me too, so I’m not so keen on petting them again…
I have no fear of spiders, but centipedes and sow bugs freak me out too.
Falling down stairs (since I seem very good at it).
Death/illness/injury of my loved ones.
Yeah. And believe you me, the more I face this fear – and it’s a lot lately – the more it stays the same. Some smart guy said do the thing you fear and the death of fear is certain, but frankly, I haven’t found that to be true. If anything, the opposite.
Also, facing people who are angry/disappointed with me. But pretty much confrontation in any heightened scenario like this. I had a boss/CEO at my last job – general A-hole – who loved to call people into his office to address any miscues and I had enough dandruff to think there was a blizzard in the room. I finally called him a prick on the phone (to put it mildly) and that was the end of it.
And women I was attracted to (before I married).
Most everything, but needles in particular.
I’m afraid to sleep many nights because I’m afraid I won’t wake up.
I have a lot of anxiety triggers.
Dying old, alone, and un-loved in a crappy one room apartment at a ‘Y’ somewhere.
I’m afraid that I’m a fraud.