# What are you afraid of? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 15, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834 "2010-07-15T21:18:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**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:** [July 16, 2010, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/41 "2010-07-16T14:06:37Z")
Oh yeah, and a less obvious one: mold. I have an actual phobia of mold. ---
**Author:** ![BubbaDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bubbadog/32/333_2.png) [@BubbaDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BubbaDog)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/42 "2010-07-16T14:26:09Z")
The threshold of an elevator. As I step over one I’m always afraid the car will drop and slice me in half. Those huge construction cranes. As an engineer I understand that they are essentially very stable when constructed and operated properly, but visually they look like they could topple over at any minute. Falling ---
**Author:** ![AClockworkMelon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aclockworkmelon/32/10803_2.png) [@AClockworkMelon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AClockworkMelon)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/43 "2010-07-16T14:34:55Z")
Nonexistence. It really does keep me up at night every now and then. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/44 "2010-07-16T14:38:09Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Nothing. No really. … . . . . _ **BOO!** _ Did that work? ---
**Author:** ![Pandoranoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce73a5/32.png) [@Pandoranoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pandoranoid)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/45 "2010-07-16T14:53:04Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Nonexistence. It really does keep me up at night every now and then. This. To the extent that I have looked around the inter-webs for support groups. I recently had to be put under for an operation, and was afraid that the sudden, involuntary loss of consciousness would be horrific. Of course, just like any other anesthetized patient, I seemingly woke up a moment later, and felt no time had been lost. It was then that I realized that the crucial ingredient in my fear of death (which I basically believe amounts to non-existence) is the fact that it is forever. Then I began to think about the obvious ‘solution’ to eternal nonexistence–eternal existence. The more I thought about it–what if I never ever ever die, I wake up every day, alive, forevereverever…well, that freaks me the f@ck out, too. So I guess a more accurate answer for me would be: infinity. Infinity scares the poop outta me. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/46 "2010-07-16T14:55:06Z")
Having to identify people I’ve only met once. Because I _can’t_. > [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Dying old, alone, and un-loved in a crappy one room apartment at a ‘Y’ somewhere. This. And I seem to be on that road. Less and less chance of love, and I’m not certain I am capable of being in an equal adult relationship anyways. And yet… sometimes dying seems that it would be such a relief. An end to pain. Suicide has always tempted me. > [@jsgoddess](#): > > I’m afraid that I’m a fraud. This. I’m not afraid of it, exactly; I _know_ that I’m a fraud. I’ve just muddled through all my life, and never found a place where I can really flourish. > [@MikeF](#): > > I can’t believe no one has mentioned what is supposed to be the number one fear - public speaking. Going to prison would be pretty high on my list. These as well. I don’t _like_ pain. I can’t fight and I don’t have the social and diplomatic skills to make my way unscathed through the prison milieu, so I’d pretty much be dead during my first day of prison life. Public speaking? Well, in my experience, being the centre of attention has only meant shame and embarassment. So I don’t really want to go there. ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/47 "2010-07-16T14:57:25Z")
Growing up in SoCal, I used to be afraid of spiders. Now that I live in Florida, when I find a spider in my house I pick it up and put it outside whilst thanking it for not being a palmetto bug (the polite term for a gigantic, flying roach). Even after twenty years here those filthy things make me let out a 1950’s horror movie style scream. I don’t know if I’m actually emetophobic but vomit related things do cause me a larger degree of uneasiness than most, it would seem. Certain large structures / buildings. Tall, cylindrical buildings freak me out in a way that I find hard to describe. Anyone in the Tampa area familiar with “the beer can” on Ashley will know what I’m talking about. I haven’t a clue where it comes from but it runs deep. Also some large statues, especially [this one.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_the_Redeemer_(statue)) I can’t imagine living in a place where I’d have to see that thing looming and staring down at me all the time \, ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/48 "2010-07-16T15:10:07Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Also some large statues, especially [this one.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christ_the_Redeemer_(statue)) I can’t imagine living in a place where I’d have to see that thing looming and staring down at me all the time \, You probably don’t want to visit [Volgograd](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motherland_Calls) then. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/49 "2010-07-16T15:28:22Z")
> [@Antigen](#): > > I’m afraid everyone will discover I don’t really deserve anything I have because I’m a big fake and I’m not as smart as they think. > > Part of my fear of heights is that I’m not sure I won’t fling myself off. I’m not suicidal at all, so I don’t know where that comes from. > > Also afraid of dying. Terrified. I try not to think about it. > [@Mr. Accident](#): > > Hospitals, doctors, and nurses. Just setting foot into a hospital or doctors office will shoot my blood pressure through the roof, and jump my pulse from 70 beats per minute to between 150 and 190. These, too. > [@Sunspace](#): > > Having to identify people I’ve only met once. Because I can’t. This too, although it takes me a lot more than two encounters to remember somebody. I lived in California long enough that I won’t hang a picture with glass over it over a couch or bed. I’m afraid they’ll fall on me and cut me. Not specifically public speaking, but being the center of attention. If I am, I’m constantly thinking “don’t screw up, I’m going to screw this up somehow”. Power tools. I won’t have dangerous power tools in the house. I’m not sure this one is irrational, though, since Mr. Neville and I are probably among the 10 least handy people on the planet. > [@rhubarbin](#): > > like to touch dead things, and have always loved bugs, spiders and snakes even more than other animals and love to touch them too. Aha! Now I know who to call the next time the cats kill a mouse and someone has to dispose of the body! Oh, and can you come and take the flypaper down from our basement sometime? Lots of bugs for you… I suppose you could even touch them, if you were careful not to get your fingers stuck to the flypaper. Seriously, aren’t you afraid of catching some awful disease from touching dead things, especially if you don’t know what they died of? Or touching something like flies, that everybody knows carry all kinds of diseases? ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/50 "2010-07-16T15:54:28Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > You probably don’t want to visit [Volgograd](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Motherland_Calls) then. Holy crap! I’d never heard for that particular piece of . . . art before and when the page first opened I thought “that’s not so bad” until I saw the full picture with the tiny ant people at it’s feet. I’m literally a little woozy after having looked at it :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Alma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecd19e/32.png) [@Alma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alma)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/51 "2010-07-16T15:55:24Z")
Opossums. Opossums, opossums, opossums. They are hideous creatures with terrifying ill will toward everything good and clean. I can’t look up opossums to find out how they might be useful because there will inevitably be pictures and I can’t handle it. I saw a LOLpossum once and it made me squeak in horror. I’ve seen flattened ones on the road and am glad of it. It’s my dad’s fault, once we found a possum in our garage on the wood stack, and he told us to keep far, far away from it because it would try to kill us. I still remember seeing the car lights suddenly showing this hideous beast that hissed at us. _shudder_ And dying by fire. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/52 "2010-07-16T17:53:57Z")
Visibly lower-class young men in large-ish groups. Submachine guns. Fire. ---
**Author:** ![Kaio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c68b51/32.png) [@Kaio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kaio)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/53 "2010-07-16T18:31:37Z")
Mundanely: fear of falling. I confront this on a weekly basis in my aerial circus class. The Big Fears, in rough order from least to worst: [ul] [li]Dying. Mainly because I just can’t wrap my brain around the idea that _nothing at all_ is going on in my consciousness. My brain talks constantly, and I just can’t conceive of there no longer being a ME.[/li][li]Being sexually assaulted. Self-explanatory. Yes, I’d choose death over rape if I have only those two options.[/li][li]Being forgotten. Essentially, never being important enough to anyone that they’ll remember me after I’m dead.[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/54 "2010-07-16T18:36:54Z")
> [@Alma](#): > > Opossums. Opossums, opossums, opossums. They are hideous creatures with terrifying ill will toward everything good and clean. I can’t look up opossums to find out how they might be useful because there will inevitably be pictures and I can’t handle it. Some people like to buy stuff made of opossum fur. Some people like to eat them. Opossums eat insects, roadkill (sometimes becoming roadkill themselves while trying to eat other roadkill) and other carrion, and snakes. I won’t link to Wikipedia here, because it has pictures. Any wild animal in my house or garage is pretty terrifying. I don’t even like it when flies get in. It’s bad enough if it’s a wild animal that just tries to get away from people. If it hissed at me or did anything like that, that’d be even scarier. ---
**Author:** ![Surly\_Chick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/55 "2010-07-16T19:01:10Z")
Anything with more than four legs, **especially** spiders. Hate 'em, hate 'em, hate 'em! I’m also claustrophobic. Not small room claustrophobic but having my arms and legs bound claustrophobic. If I’m in bed under the covers and the dogs lay on either side of my legs on top of the covers, I go nuts. Just thinking about it can make me hyperventilate. And, of course, having my loved ones die. I recently lost my mom and now not a day passes that I don’t fear my dad dying. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/56 "2010-07-16T21:16:29Z")
Losing my independence due to physical or mental incapacity. I know my partner would take care of me, but I hate the thought of putting him through that. And I also fear losing him, in general . . . to disease or an accident. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 4:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/57 "2010-07-17T04:33:30Z")
> [@MikeF](#): > > I can’t believe no one has mentioned what is supposed to be the number one fear - public speaking. I used to be because I’m an introvert, but I’ve had to do it so many times for work that it doesn’t really bother me any more. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/58 "2010-07-17T20:29:45Z")
> [@kayT](#): > > You nailed it,\*\* Count\*\*. Mutual pact? Either one of us ends up in a ‘Y’ we email the other to talk us out of it? ---
**Author:** ![kayT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayt/32/3633_2.png) [@kayT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayT)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/59 "2010-07-17T20:46:46Z")
> [@Count\_Blucher](#): > > Mutual pact? Either one of us ends up in a ‘Y’ we email the other to talk us out of it? You got it! ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834/60 "2010-07-17T20:53:29Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Holy crap! I’d never heard for that particular piece of . . . art before and when the page first opened I thought “that’s not so bad” until I saw the full picture with the tiny ant people at it’s feet. I’m literally a little woozy after having looked at it :eek: > [@](#): > > The statue is currently leaning due to groundwater level changes causing movement of the foundations; the leaning is rapidly getting worse.[1] The statue is not fixed to its foundations and is held in place only by its weight. It has moved by 20 centimetres and is not expected to be able to move much further without collapsing. I bet it doesn’t tell you that in the travel brochure. As to what I’m afraid of, heights with nothing to hold onto. I couldn’t walk to the edge of a cliff face, for example. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-you-afraid-of/546834.md?page=4)