Hmmmph. So there really are people with nothing to fear but fear itself. Go figure.
My brother-in-law was really scared of the character “Grandfather Clock” from the original Captain Kangaroo show from the '60s. I was a little freaked out by the old guy, too.
My wife is really scared of snakes (a common phobia), and my son doesn’t like spiders at all. When he was littler, he used to yell, “Go away!” at them.
But for bizarre phobias, I’d never heard of this one until I read it in the Book of Lists: Seems that comedian Sid Ceasar has a fear of haircuts.
My wife just mentioned that she saw a book in a store: A ten most common phobias pop-up book! Is that cruel, or what?
I’m afraid of looking down from heights in movies.
I’m not afraid of the real thing, but Tom Cruise’s rock climbing in Mission Impossible 2 gave me real panic.
I hid under my jacket for a while, but it took FOREVER to get through the credits, and nearly made me throw up.
I’ve known two people who were scared of nutcrackers. Not the metal vice ones, but the ones that look like soldiers. That cracked me up. These two people didn’t know each other, BTW.
My freind has Mymirphobia, or fear of ants.
mega the roo: I used to be afraid of the white queen too. Of course, that was when I was little, and I grew out of it. If you still freak out now, I feel sorry for you.
That is a good movie, BTW.
Sqrl, were we separated at birth? I have these same fears! (I didn’t really consider them bizarre–I think they are pretty understandable!)
BTW, Koffing, those nutcrackers give me the creeps. I wouldn’t really call it a fear but it is weird.
Alrighty, let’s see…
Fear of heights on television/movies - yup
Fear of what’s lurking beneath the water - yup
Fear of that damned blue eagle from the muppets - yup
Here’s a strange one.I seem to be afraid of driftwood.Sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?Especially since I live five minutes from the beach and have always enjoyed it.Well, this is what happened:
My husband and I went down to the mouth of the river (where it empties into the ocean) one day and took a walk on the beach.It was a cloudy day and the water and sky were nearly the same shade of grey.When we reached the actual river and began going around the curve of beach towards the river proper, there were all these trees in the water, right by the edge.At first you couldn’t see them very well as there was a lot of driftwood piled up right against the shore.But as we got closer, I noticed that some of the trees were moving (shudder).Four or five of these 20-25 foot trunks were slowly rocking around in the waves.I was siezed with the need to get away from them as fast as I could, and nothing my husband could say helped.We actually had to leave the beach,I was so upset.
I still haven’t any idea why that was so distressing for me.Now when I think of it, I just feel silly.
Oh Gawd, I’m SO scared of clowns. I’m terrified of them. I went to the circus a few years ago, and I literally freaked out…like tears, shaking, everything. It was horrible and embarrassing. I mean I was like 15, too old to act like that.
A buddy of mine turned into a pile of jiggling goo every time it was stormy. Thunder and lightening sent this guy over the edge.
My wife is terrified of dentists. Luckily, her dental health is very good.
I used to have a large fear of public speaking. If I wanted to continue my career as a broadcaster, I had to get over that in a hurry. I did…but it was tough.
Regards, Graeme
graeme, your post reminds me of a Seinfeld stand-up thing (that he said before the beginning of the show.)
IIRC, it went like this:
Well, recently I looked at a list of the most common fears of people. Know what the #1 fear people have is? Public speaking. Death was #2! That means, if you’re at a funeral, you’d rather be in the casket than standing up giving the speech!
Roller coasters.
The very first time I ever went on one, I was 30 years old.
I was sure I was going to be thrown to my death.
Then, after I got off, wobbily, we went into the sensurround movie, where the movie was: you guessed it: shot from the vantage point of a camera on a roller coaster!
When I was a Kid I used to be terrified of the Oompa-Loompas from Willy Wonka. Hated them… couldn’t stand them… all freaky looking with that scary ass oompa-loompa song. I think the worst part was when they were rolling away the little fat girl (Violet?) who blew up and tuned blue. Another scary part of the movie for me -although not really a phobia- was when they took that weird boat through the psychadelic tunnel. Now that I’m almost 30 :eek: I think it’s a pretty cool movie… as a matter of fact 10 years ago I would’ve really appreciated that psychadelic tunnel.
Pebs
From the link posted by UncleBeer, my favourite would have to be autophobia - fear of oneself. You could never get away from that one!
Myself, I used to have an irrational fear of the letter ‘R’ on Sesame Street. Not any ‘R’ but this one used to come from a distance getting closer and closer making horrible ‘R’ noises. Yes, I too am a “Sesame Street Victim”.
I remember learning about some psychologist who (back in the days before ethics were invented, obviously) instilled the fear response in a kid by frightening the crap out of the little tyke with a really loud buzzer every time he showed him a white fluffy toy rabbit. It got to the stage where the kid would get hysterical just at the sight of a rabbit. Easter must have been a bitch…
from murano13:
Actually, it’s triskaidekaphobia.
From the Greek words for three (tris) and (kai) ten (deka).
Okay, I’ve never told anyone this before, but; I have for some time, had an irrational fear of opening my front door; seeing an old man dressed as a policeman, stripping his clothes off and playing with my gerbil.
I know its unusual, but who says phobias are rational?
I doubt it’ll ever happen…
One of my friends has an irrational fear of furbys. I mean, those things are creepy, but nothing to be all that afraid of. I think my biggest fear is failure.
Then there’s Aibohphobia - you know, irrational fear of palindromes ?
Worms. I fear worms. Larval forms of lepidopterans. Particularly those of the cutworm nature. I’m creeping out just typing this.
I date this fear from having a nightmare about being covered by cutworms that used to surface in our dichondra lawn after a good soaking. I woke up screaming, Mom came in to comfort me, I fell asleep and promptly had the dream again. So, now I break out in a sweat, get nauseous, get the major heebie-jeebies at the sight of, well, you know.
And where do I work? The Department of Entomology. My office mate learned the hard way to send his packages of worms to his lab instead of parking them in our office.
One of my friends suggested that I look at them as “little bags of leaves.” That helped a bit, if they are far enough away.
pepperlandgirl said:
“And I’m not scared of water, but I am scared of what lurks beneath the waves.”
Why are you afraid of me? All I do down there is take pictures.