# When Did I Become Such A Wuss? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 27, 2003, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235 "2003-12-27T07:12:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235/1 "2003-12-27T07:12:02Z")
I was doing some research for a screenplay I’d like to write. Mostly, I was looking for nifty ghost story lore. You know, the local version of the Vanishing Hitchhiker, the Mysterious Bridge Where Spooky Ooky Things Happen, Ghosts, all that kinda stuff. We’re not talking serious scares here, just local versions of the usual stuff. Anyway, I was reading some of these and I eventually caught myself a serious case of the heebie-jeebies. I’m talking goosebumps, the lizard brain going, “Something’s gonna get us!”, the whole nine. And I live in an apartment complex, which doesn’t help things. Thumping on walls, bumps on the stairs, voices all over, I’ve got em all, so at least I can blame it on loud people, but geez, it’s not helping my heebie jeebies. And then I remembered reading a thread on the “mysterious things” that some of us had experienced. I posted in [it](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=228862) myself. And rereading it gave me another dose of the heebie jeebies. But here’s why it bothers me. I’ll read the goriest, scariest books with no problems. Scary movies? Count me in. I love horror flicks. Nothing bothers me. I could shower with ease after I saw _Psycho_ the first time. But reading some ghost stories that are basically urban legends, I’m on full alert. Does this happen to anybody else? Or am I just becoming a total wuss? ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 7:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235/2 "2003-12-27T07:24:31Z")
Perhaps you should keep a fan running or something to blot out some of those bumps in the night. ---
**Author:** ![Tripler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripler/32/21807_2.png) [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235/3 "2003-12-27T07:26:11Z")
Hey, we all get the heebie jeebies on occasion. S’okay. . . Fear not. You ain’t a wimp, nor a wuss. Tripler There are occasions that the fact I’m sometimes wearing a sidearm _totally_ helps in my situations. ---
**Author:** ![xayoz306](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/bc8723/32.png) [@xayoz306](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xayoz306)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235/4 "2003-12-27T08:46:47Z")
I stopped reading some websites at work just because they would give me the willies…and I’m the only person here for up to 8 hours at a time… ---
**Author:** ![Doomtrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/0ea827/32.png) [@Doomtrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doomtrain)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235/5 "2003-12-27T16:45:46Z")
Yea, I gotta make sure to do this kinda thing when it’s light out. And keeping the fan running/music on doesn’t help, then I spend half my time straining to hear the stuff that’s coming to get me. ---
**Author:** ![Loneraven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c0e974/32.png) [@Loneraven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loneraven)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235/6 "2003-12-27T17:45:05Z")
Waah. **GMRyujin** , be glad of that apartment complex. I am a complete wuss, won’t watch horror flicks, won’t read anything by Stephen King, refuse to go on the crappy ghost train at the fair, and I live in the last house on a long, winding road, just next to a small coniferous forest. The wind howls, the trees tap at the windows, owls hoot outside my bedroom door. For all I know there’s a resident bat colony at the end of the garden. It’s not nice. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2003, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235/7 "2003-12-27T19:50:08Z")
Some things just get in your head, you know? I read Stephen King, I watch ghost story movies, none of that stuff bothers me, but when people start talking about their real life ghost stories, the hair on my arms goes up and I get the heebie jeebies. There’s been the odd thing on tv that got to me, too - I think a Buffy episode actually made me jump once. ---
**Author:** ![Phnord\_Prephect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/df705f/32.png) [@Phnord\_Prephect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phnord_Prephect)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235/8 "2003-12-28T16:30:53Z")
Why do these ‘urban legends’ give you the willies? Because things that give people the willies make good urban legends. ---
**Author:** ![Fnoonf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f6c823/32.png) [@Fnoonf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fnoonf)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2003, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/when-did-i-become-such-a-wuss/221235/9 "2003-12-28T19:07:15Z")
This is funny. I’m exactly the same way; made-up horror material in whatever media invariably fails to scare me, but reading urban legends or stories that supposedly really happened can drive me out of my gourd with sheer terror. I think it has something to do with the “unsolved mystery” factor of it; the fact that the scary stuff you’re reading has a supposed basis in reality and no one has ever been able to reconcile it with the natural world or uncover the reasons for its happening. From there it’s not a great leap to thinking: “If it really did happen, what’s to say it couldn’t happen right here, right now?” Cue big ol’ heebie-jeebies, even if you know that there’s a very great chance the story’s either made-up or grossly exaggerated.