# What scares you the most? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 25, 2013, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836 "2013-06-25T01:22:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 7:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836/41 "2013-06-25T19:57:06Z")
Nothing. Why should I give my power over to anything or anybody else on this score? But I am, I admit, still a bit wigged out by palmetto bugs… ---
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836/42 "2013-06-25T23:26:44Z")
Fear of heights. I can’t walk past a freeway overpass that isn’t fenced. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2013, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836/43 "2013-06-25T23:38:39Z")
More fear of height. I couldn’t watch that moron who just walked on a cable with a 1600 foot drop below him. Can’t stand pictures of high places. Movies featuring high places terrify me. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836/44 "2013-06-26T00:58:00Z")
Related to the losing your mind thing people have mentioned, the return of depression or anxiety, or any new and exciting mental illnesses. That fact that it’s extremely likely to happen at some point doesn’t help. Also, and somewhat related, returning to drinking, or that it will always be such a struggle not to. Been sober for 18 months and the cravings are still just as strong. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836/45 "2013-06-26T01:13:33Z")
I have a fear of public speaking but only the kind where you are expected to stand at a podium and be the center of attention for x number of minutes and deliver a monologue. It is that specific though because I run large meetings most weeks sometimes with VIP’s and I won’t hesitate to speak my mind in those. I refuse to do the presentation style however because I can’t stand people staring at me and my brain doesn’t think in a monologue style. I really don’t like being forced to stand in one place for too long either. It triggers a panic response that I instinctively feel I must do anything to get out of. Jumping off a skyscraper with wires attached, flying a small plane, or playing with a deadly animal doesn’t phase me in the least. I have done all all those I seek that stuff out and don’t even care if I get hurt from it because I like it so much. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836/46 "2013-06-26T01:24:24Z")
> [@Tracijo67](#): > > I have had a few bouts of sleep paralysis. It is absolutely terrifying when it happens. I wake up with a feeling of dread, that there is something wrong, and I try to call to my husband and realize that I cannot move at all. In fact, the only part of my body that works is my eyes and I can turn my head slightly. The first few times it happened to me was horrifying and I was convinced that there was something wrong with me. I was afraid to sleep at night for weeks after each episode. I forgot about that one. That is truly terrifying. I sometimes get sleep paralysis but I also have sleep apnea. I have had both since I was a child. There is nothing more terrifying than waking up only to find that you can’t breath or move at all. It seems like inevitable death every single time. You try to fight your way through it as best you can starting with a single finger and work your way towards more body control and I know in my case at least that I only have about 1 - 2 minutes to do it before I run out of air. It is an exhausting and desperate maneuver. Sometimes you can work your way up from moving the tip of your pinky finger to full arm control fairly quickly and use that to move the rest of your body so that it responds too but sometimes you can’t. Luckily, my body at least has an emergency switch that will kick in at some point when you run out of oxygen. Physical abilities come back online within a few seconds but the panic so extreme that I have often thrown myself off the bed and broken nearby things in the process because it is so uncoordinated. ---
**Author:** ![flatlined](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/eb9ed0/32.png) [@flatlined](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flatlined)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836/47 "2013-06-26T02:03:44Z")
> [@Becky2844](#): > > I won’t walk across grates in sidewalks. I guarantee you if one is ever going to fall in it’s going to be while I’m on it. I walk around them, even if it interrupts the flow of pedestrians. > [@KRC](#): > > I won’t go across grates either… > [@Antigen](#): > > That’s one of mine. If I have to use stairs like that (which are usually metal grates you can see through, making it **worse** ) I hold the railing and go very slowly and deliberately and watch my feet to make sure I put them squarely on the steps and don’t shoot through. You are right, those metal grate stairs are the worse. Both of my irrational fears together. I once measured the how high the missing risers were in a staircase that I had to use all the time, then I had a very understanding friend measure how thick I am. I was able to prove to myself that it would be impossible for me to fall through them. Did that work? Of course not. Then I was afraid that I would start to fall through them and get stuck. :smack: > [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > Me too. But it’s because I’m afraid that I’ll drop my keys or cel phone down it. I hate parking near them for that same reason. One fumble and I’d be screwed. I’m feeling better about the sewer grates, I thought I was all alone in that one, now I learn that I’m in very good company. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836/48 "2013-06-26T02:15:39Z")
I fear bungee jumping but I don’t fear skydiving. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836/49 "2013-06-26T02:39:51Z")
> [@Shakes](#): > > I fear bungee jumping but I don’t fear skydiving. That isn’t really strange at all. Lot’s of people say the same thing. Skydiving is so abstracted and so peaceful that most people aren’t scared in the least after they jump. Bungee jumping is like a thrill ride combined with simulated suicide except you get to live at the end provided equipment saves you. I jumped off the Stratosphere hotel in Las Vegas (855 feet) last January and I can promise you it wasn’t scary in the least except for walking the platform and deciding to jump off and even that wasn’t very hard for me but it was for one of the other people I sponsored (he wasn’t scared after he jumped though because you don’t feel much). I told him that is the one sport you can do just as well at no matter if you are dead, alive, or paralyzed. All you have to is fall and gravity takes care of the rest. That is kind of a hybrid between skydiving and bungee jumping. It is a vertical zip line that doesn’t pop you back up. None of them are that scary once you do them and skydiving is the least even though it is from the highest altitude. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scares-you-the-most/661836.md?page=2)