# who else is jumpy? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 22, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383 "2006-03-22T01:39:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/1 "2006-03-22T01:39:55Z")
Even watching a normal movie or TV show, a loud noise can make me jump. Sudden noises around the house tend to startle me. I have been known to yell if surprised by someone coming around a corner. I am, in a word, jumpy. Who else is a mite skittish? (And if you are, do you really hate loud noises, or is that just me?) ---
**Author:** ![BlueKangaroo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@BlueKangaroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlueKangaroo)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/2 "2006-03-22T01:41:30Z")
Yep. On both being jumpy and hating loud noises. Let me know if you figure out a cure for the first one, okay? ---
**Author:** ![OtakuLoki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ac8455/32.png) [@OtakuLoki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OtakuLoki)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/3 "2006-03-22T01:57:31Z")
The telephone makes me jump. Even if I’m expecting it to ring. I hate that darned thing. (I think it’s a PTSD from working in a hospital billing office.) ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/4 "2006-03-22T02:31:17Z")
Ooooooooh…me too. I don’t hate loud noises, really. But sudden appearances can make me jump, even when I was expecting them. GT ---
**Author:** ![ErinPuff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dbc845/32.png) [@ErinPuff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ErinPuff)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/5 "2006-03-22T03:04:30Z")
I am. In middle school, people used to run up behind me and scream because it was hilarious to watch me overreact and get all upset. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/6 "2006-03-22T03:27:46Z")
I don’t like loud noises. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/7 "2006-03-22T03:28:15Z")
(Starman) “I look like Scott so you do not be little bit jumpy” (/Starman) 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Anastasaeon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/73ab20/32.png) [@Anastasaeon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anastasaeon)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/8 "2006-03-22T03:49:22Z")
I’m pretty skittish. People who come up behind me and poke me in the sides are lucky to keep their heads. I jump at loud noises. I’m not too bad at drowning out everyday background noises, even if they rise a touch above what I like. I think it’s part of my fear of balloons. (No joke. Scared of 'em.) I hate when anyone holds a balloon, and worse, starts making it twist or squeak, or rubs it against things. Balloons are fine if they are just floating _nicely_, on a _string_. Nobody should be _touching_ them. I can hold a balloon on a string, though it makes me a little bit nervous. I’m most comfortable if I’m the one holding it, and I know it’s not going to pop. I don’t trust anyone else. People don’t take me seriously, and then they pop, I scream, leap fifty feet into the air, then start sobbing. It’s uncontrollable. Balloons: Vaguely menacing threats on a string, whose only reason for existence is waiting for just the right moment to explode, kamikaze-style, for the sole purpose of making me cry. I hate them. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![myskepticsight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/cc9497/32.png) [@myskepticsight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/myskepticsight)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/9 "2006-03-22T03:53:23Z")
The phone makes me jump because I worked at a pizza place for over three years and we didn’t have a designated “phone person” and we were expected to answer it by the second ring. If not, and the managers were busy making pizzas, they yell. angrily. And since I don’t like getting yelled at, I would always jump for the phone when remotely possible. If I run into someone around a corner, etc, I always jump. Freaks me out. ---
**Author:** ![Aserrann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/82dd89/32.png) [@Aserrann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aserrann)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/10 "2006-03-22T03:57:34Z")
I’m jumpy… and hate loud noises… my GF enjoys getting me to watch a movie she knows there are things to startle me… just to see me jump… heh… ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/11 "2006-03-22T04:08:35Z")
I am, but it’s because I’ve been under so much stress for so long, on so many fronts, that my body doesn’t know what to do with itself, now that most of it’s gone. ---
**Author:** ![Revenant\_Threshold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f1d935/32.png) [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/12 "2006-03-22T04:12:29Z")
[QUOTE=ErinPuff] I am. In middle school, people used to run up behind me and scream because it was hilarious to watch me overreact and get all upset. [/QUOTE] Same here. I’m very jumpy, annoyingly. ---
**Author:** ![rwhbyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@rwhbyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rwhbyu)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/13 "2006-03-22T06:06:38Z")
I spent a year in Iraq. Since then I have been REALLY jumpy. My wife and I were walking into Pikes Place Market in Seattle and a car drove over a Cheetos bag, which popped, almost giving me a coronary. Pretty amusing. ---
**Author:** ![Aarinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Aarinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aarinsky)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/14 "2006-03-22T07:13:34Z")
Some noises make me jump. Especially car honking, even when I’m safely on the sidewalk! What annoys me is how many people think that this sort of reaction means you’re hypersensitive or wimpy. On the contrary, it seems like a normal protective reaction to me, to be alert to potential dangers. OK, I admit I am hypersensitive and wimpy, but still… ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/15 "2006-03-22T07:29:16Z")
[QUOTE=Aarinsky] Some noises make me jump. Especially car honking, even when I’m safely on the sidewalk! [/QUOTE] That’s the big one for me. Even if it’s coming at me and it’s honking, even if I’m not in the road and the driver is somebody I know, I jump. ---
**Author:** ![Mellivora\_capensis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mellivora\_capensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mellivora_capensis)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 9:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/16 "2006-03-22T09:10:26Z")
Apparently we are all born with two natural fears, the fear of falling, and the fear of loud noises. (Sorry, no cite available, I read it in a book somewhere). I’m definitely part of the jumpy crowd. It was infinitely worse when I was in the military, and for a number of years thereafter. So bad that I would find myself on the floor when it was a really, really loud bang. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Whifton\_Polekitty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/97f17d/32.png) [@Whifton\_Polekitty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whifton_Polekitty)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/17 "2006-03-22T09:32:01Z")
MOST loud noises don’t alarum me any more than they should. The telephone ringing and the front door being knocked, though… Not only do those scare the ever-lovin _BEJEEZUS_ out of me, I’m instantly filled with the sort of dread usually associated with dentists, long walks to the principal’s office in 3rd grade, and discovering giant spiders in the shower. I suspect the latter might be because I generally don’t like dealing with people. But jeeze, those sounds… ---
**Author:** ![Eureka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/74df32/32.png) [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/18 "2006-03-22T12:59:17Z")
Nope, not jumpy. I do however startle easily. When I startle, I do kind of jump a little. If I am staring at a computer screen, or deeply involved doing dishes or something and someone walks up behind me and speaks to me or touches me, I startle. Loud noises don’t usually bother me, but if I’m focused on something, sometimes anything that gets my attention startles me. ---
**Author:** ![Mellivora\_capensis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8797f3/32.png) [@Mellivora\_capensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mellivora_capensis)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 1:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/19 "2006-03-22T13:47:53Z")
[QUOTE=Eureka] Loud noises don’t usually bother me, but if I’m focused on something, sometimes anything that gets my attention startles me. [/QUOTE] Please promise us that next time you get startled by an idea in the bathtub, you’ll put some clothes on \*before \* you run out the door? 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2006, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383/20 "2006-03-22T13:50:35Z")
I’m not too jumpy. But I do get the “Jimmie Legs” occasionally. Man, I hate that! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/who-else-is-jumpy/349383.md?page=2)