I dislike driving over bridges. I clench up when I do. If I get familiar with one, it’s easier, but I still have to consciously think about something else.
Maybe it’s just driving over any kind of steep terrain that I have a problem with. I remember a bus route one year in middle school that took us over this rickety bridge, with the ground just plunging away from you. I had visions of the bridge giving away, smashing us into the tiny river. Or the bus missing the road and falling forwards through all the trees. :eek:
Getting raped, that’s a good one. I guess you have two choices there, either fight until you die, or take it and enjoy it as much as you can… I think making that choice may be a little scarier than the act itself.
In a better world, all rapes would happen by hot people of the opposite sex…
You’re playing a dangerous game with that one. Careful, this is sizing up to be a Pit thread of epic proportions.
Carnies. Circus folk. Smell like cabbage. Very small hands.
Balloons. No really, they just sit there all colorful and thin-skinned, just waiting to POP!!! and scare the shit out of you. I don’t like balloons.
Snakes give me the heebie jeebies.
Losing my eyesight would suck.
This thread.
I don’t mean that as TS’ing or wiseacreage.
I am afraid of fear itself, my own and the fears of others which I almost seem to absorb by osmosis. I wouldn’t ever want anyone to know how afraid I am of even the most basic human interactions. I’m afraid that I will physically harm someone or have them physically harm me, either by accident or on purpose. I am afraid that I will expose my weaknesses around someone who would do me harm. I, too, am afraid that something bad will happen to my son and I am utterly paralyzed by the idea that I might do something to harm him. I am also afraid that he will be like me and I have been stricken to the point of prayer by the fear that he might have some of my more hated attributes (my fears, for example). I am afraid that I am stupid and that no amount of reading or classwork or experience will make me capable of understanding other humans or even the most basic aspects of the physical world I live in. I have fears that I am suffering under any number of delusions and misconceptions; these are reminiscent of those moments when I feel that I suddenly don’t know how to drive a car or that I don’t know how I know that the sum of some two numbers is x. I fear losing my (possibly delusional) ability to discern reality. I am afraid that people dislike me for who I am and that I will never be able to change that. Also, that people who are nice to me or treat me well are actually patronizing or even cruelly misleading me. I am almost terrified by the fact that I do not feel human. The concept of being romantically involved gives me nightmares. When I find myself in the situation where I am expected to perform some simple or basic task while someone else watches I get very fearful and often ‘forget’ how to do it, or make stupid and often disastrous mistakes. I am afraid of emotional, personal and physical confrontation. I am afraid that others will find out how afraid I am.
I am not afraid of spiders and I actually like them quite a lot. I am also finding that I am comforted by the idea of the cosmos being created just now, exactly as it is complete with ‘memories’ and physical conditions that appear to have taken thousands, millions or billions of years to evolve. Likewise, I find the idea of ‘infinity’ comforting and I often lull myself to sleep by imagining that I am floating off into a multi-dimensional ‘forest’ or ‘ocean’ that is vaguely infinite.
Depends what you mean by “scared”. I don’t think I would find being on a boat in a storm terrifying, but I would probably find it extremely unpleasent physically as boats and me don’t get along so well (even though in theory I like the sea). I imagine being involved in a hold-up would be pretty scary but I don’t go around all preoccupied about it. I don’t know if being in some kind of Survivorman scenario is scary. At least not in the same way as being chased by a Kodiak bear is scary.
My friend and his girlfriend exchanged worst fears. Her fear was that he would grow tired of her and one day leave her all alone. He was afraid of bears.
I don’t think she was so afraid of her worst fear after that,
Nothing scares me. With a capital N. The sucking, black abyss; no sight, no sound. Flat Nothing. Scares the piss out of me if I think on it too long. And forget scuba diving. Swimming around with naught but a small (relatively) reserved of air and a mask between you and certain death and god knows what lurking in the black below. Probably Cthulu himself.
Oh and telephones. I don’t know why. But that’s the definition of a phobia, right? Completely irrational.
Not being able to breathe. Either because of running out of air in a tight space, or drowning, or some horrible breath-stealing disease. Yeah, I’m claustrophobic.
I’m afraid of the ocean. Not the playing in the waves on the beach but actually out in open water. It is just so damn big. Out there in the deep waters the sharks are just the krill that the real ocean monsters eat for a snack.
Also I do not want to drown so staying out of the ocean really increases my odds on that one.
I’m not claustrophobic but I am a little leery around water. I’ve found those tubes you slide down at waterparks creep me out, I don’t like being in a dark confined place with water. Without the water I’d be ok, I’ve been caving lots of times crawling through openings on my stomach.
Caught in a riptide with 20 foot waves crashing down on me whilst watching the beach recede kind of freaks me out, and for several months after I get a little anxious about waves. But living in a 1000 miles (1600 kilolitres) from the nearest ocean helps a lot.
Being buried alive–I get short of breath just watching a tv show with someone waking up in a coffin a la Buffy. Everytime I go past a cemetery I wonder how many of the coffins have scratchmarks on the inside of the lid. Brrrrrr! :eek:
Someone else having too much control over my life freaks me out and gives me panic attacks. I think this is a PTSD thing left over from working for scumbags.
Being suddenly attacked–but not physically. If someone comes after me physically I go into an automatic defense/offense mode that doesn’t allow space for fear. Someone suddenly shouting at me and being mad irrationally, though, gives me the willies. I studiously avoid the crazier homeless people for this reason.
Centipedes and millipedes freak me right the fuck out. Those things are NOT from this planet!
I’m leery of big spiders and of being on the edge of heights as well, but these strike me as reasonable fears.
I’m not afraid of spiders (I don’t believe they’re going to attack me or otherwise go out of their way to cause me harm), but I still have an aversion to them. Hard to describe exactly, but it has to do with the tactile sensation I believe I’d feel if one was to crawl on me.
I’m also a little claustrophobic - I don’t mind some enclosed spaces (I could hide in a closet playing hide and go seek), others give me the cold sweats (I had to crawl under our house once to do some repairs and I was flat on my back with the house stretching out on all sides above me. Not good.) No way I’m going in a cave that doesn’t include a stalagtite organ.
Octopuses and squids. Because they’re evil.
Drowning, which ties into the octopuses and squids thing, since what octopuses and squids like to do is grab innocent humans and drag them down beneath the surface.
Seriously, if I were out swimming and encountered an octopus of nontrivial size, I literally believe my heart might stop.
This is my fear. If my husband died first, I really don’t think I could deal with being without him, PLUS taking care of our Autistic son on my own.
OTOH, I fear that if we die together, our estranged relatives will not care for our son properly.
Other than the morbid depressing stuff, I fear alligators and monkeys.
The thought of being arrested for some heinous crime I didn’t do and sitting in jail with nothing to do but worry about what the police are out doing while investigating a crime I didn’t commit perturbs me. What all will an overzealous detective and his assistants do to untimately ruin and unravel every aspect of my life? What kinds of evidence will they try to use against me? What will people say at the trial? How will society view me? Will they believe me if I proclaim my innocence? Sitting there in jail and facing the prospects of spending several agonizing days, weeks, possibly months in court listening to lenghty drawn-out testimonies and confusing arguments between the prosecution and my defense attorney, only for all of this to turn into a guilty verdict that puts me in prison for several years, possibly the rest of my life in prison and all the hell that comes with it-- would only greatly intensify my fears and worries. Being separated from my family and friends, losing just about everything I have taken for granted all my life and likely having to sell all of my possessions to pay for legal fees, thereby having nothing tangible to my name if I should be a free man again-- it’s things like this that make me wonder why there aren’t more suicide attempts in prison.
I also fear that I am going to come down with some crippling, terminal disease that will render the remainder of my life a living hell. The thought of getting cancer scares me. Same goes for Alzheimer’s. Thoughts of other debiliating problems such as blindness, paralysis, loss of a limb, etc. also frighten me.
Worldwide disasters, such as nuclear war, wide-scale terrorist attacks that would make 9/11 look pale in comparison, famine, overpopulation, pollution, and dwindling resources and shortages scare me. As much as I would like to think that we are working on and are prepared for these situations, the cynic in me says that we are ultimately doomed. This is a topic I really would rather not think about.
As for everyday things, bees, wasps, yellowjackets, hornets all terrify me shitless. Spiders freak me out, too, but since they don’t fly and generally don’t persue you or attack en masse, they don’t pose an immediate threat to me. They just look freaky. I hate snakes, too, but I rarely ever see one out in the wild.
DD’s gun fear is one I share. It’s not so much seeing the bullet, it’s looking down the barrel and knowing the assailant is going to pull the trigger. In fact, any near-sudden violent death where you have a few seconds to realize what’s happening is scary. The opening scene of RotK freaks me right out. What was going through Deagol’s mind in those last few moments?
This literally made me laugh out loud. I say that all the time. I bow to you fellow Austin Powers fan.
Anyway, a big fear of mine is dolls. Not the teddybear variety, but the actual “hello I look like a little girl and I’m going to come alive and kill you” variety. There isn’t a one in my house.
And birds. I’d rather not talk about that one.
Don’t go see Resident Evil Extinction then. :eek: