Strange fears...

[Lord Woodlouse]

I get quite dizzy at heights, but I actually kind of enjoy it. My fear of rejection is typically quite paralysing (and it's strange, because I don't really think I'm stereotypically shy). I have healthy fear of death. I behave quite like a frightened little girl around spiders (there was an incident when I was at school where I was flicking through an encyclopedia and came across a big picture of a spider unexpectantly, and literally fell off my chair in shock).

Needles. I inject myself at least four times a day, and as a party strick can stab myself numerous times in the stomach for entertainment.

[Camel]

I get quite dizzy at heights, but I actually kind of enjoy it.

You enjoy fear or being "dizzy". I for one do not enjoy fear or being cross eyed and puking on your shoes. Nevermind how much you might enjoy that.

My fear of rejection is typically quite paralysing (and it's strange, because I don't really think I'm stereotypically shy)

I also dislike rejection (who doesn't) and I was stereotypically shy as a kid. That is not paralyzing to my reaction or attitude to assholes. They will shut the fuck up or deal with the consequences.

Needles. I inject myself at least four times a day, and as a party strick can stab myself numerous times in the stomach for entertainment.

WTF are you talking about!

[WyrdNyrd]

Camel obviously has no experience with diabetes.

[Camel]

Camel obviously has no experience with diabetes.

You will not draw me into another flame exchange Nyrd!
I am familiar with diabetes as most of my family suffers from it. Though, they don't have the "bad" kind. The kind that requires insulin shots. That is all.

[Lord Woodlouse]

I inject insulin. Also I have blood taken off me frequently for check ups.

The poking the needle into my stomach thing is, however, just for larks.

As for feeling dizzy, aye, that's great fun. I used to spin around deliberately as a kid to get dizzy. At great heights it's not so much a fear, as just kinda losing my balance. So long as there's protection to make sure I don't fall off or anything I'm fine, though I'd probably be terrified in a less procted environment.

[WyrdNyrd]

Camel obviously has no experience with diabetes.

You will not draw me into another flame exchange Nyrd!

Not a flame, just a mild ribbing*

*i.e. Good-natured teasing. Dunno if "ribbing" is an expression used by Americans.

[Jack Bauer]

Fear of drowning.

My phobia is justified because I fell into a rushing storm drain a month or two ago. It was around 1 AM and I was helping my friend collect water samples from a local estuary. It had been raining a lot so the water flow from the runoff into the estuary was tremendous (like a river).

As I bent down to scoop up some of the water at the edge, I completely fell in. There was no time for me to scream; my entire body was sucked down in less than 5 seconds. I must have been inside for only about 15 seconds, but those were the most terrifying 15 seconds of my life. It was completely dark and utterly loud.

I went under a road through a pipe that was approximately 25 feet. I washed up on the other side of the shallow end of the estuary. I had lost both a shoe and a sock on one foot, my glasses, and my cell phone. My leg got cut up a little bit too.

If there had been a grate in that pipe or if the drain had led to the ocean, I would have most positively died.

Scary shit indeed.

[WyrdNyrd]

I must have been inside for only about 15 seconds, but those were the most terrifying 15 seconds of my life.

But I guess for you those 15 seconds felt like an eternity.

Many years ago my "friends" conspired to get me to do a bungie jump. I remember that I fell for several minutes before the first bounce. Imagine my surprise when I later watched another jumper at the same site, who fell for all of 2 seconds before the first bounce. Obviously, he was doing something different to me! My jump was definitely much further...

[Jack Bauer]

I must have been inside for only about 15 seconds, but those were the most terrifying 15 seconds of my life.

But I guess for you those 15 seconds felt like an eternity.

What an understatement. The thing that struck me was how completely dark and loud it was. It was literally like being submerged in a rushing river in the dead of night, complete with brances, mud, and debris in the water.

Even if I had tried to scream, it would be to no avail. The water was so loud. In retrospect, my worst fear comes from the thought that I could have easily been stuck inside the pipe.

Granted, I was so utterly stupid to get so close to the entrance of the drain. The little concrete slope leading to the mouth is so deceptively dangerous. The incline was much more than I expected, not to mention it was also very slick.

[Mrs Kendall]

1) This girl is convinced that everything is going to either collapse or cave in on her. She refuses to get into a pool, because she thinks it's leaking (even if it's not) and that the bottom is going to crack, and swallow her up.
She had to move out of the dorms because they were 4 stories tall, and again, she was convinced they were going to collapse. Other than that, she's mentally healthy. What sparks this kind of thinking? By her own admission, she's never had a traumatic experiece with something collapsing before...

I never had a bad experience in a pool but if I get into an in-ground pool I will not go anywhere near the drain because I'm afraid it will have such strong suction and will keep me underwater and I will eventually drown.

2) Fear of driving! Well, she's afraid of a large truck hitting her car and killing her. This is a bit different, though: she saw an accident in which someone was killed. That's fairly understandable, but all-in-all, depending on your driving style, driving is fairly safe.

I have this same fear too! It's more about me being responsible for an accident and killing someone else rather than getting killed myself by some other idiot. This, I think, has a lot to do with my self confidence level which is pretty low.
I'm also afraid of getting my license cause there are tests involved and I've always had a fear of taking tests since my mind goes completely blank no matter how much I know about the subject.
I'm also afraid of cars coming to close to me due to the fact that I've been hit by a car twice in my life. One time when I was 8 and the other when I was 20. When I was 8, I was crossing the street with my bike after looking both ways 3 times. Turns out some idiot came speeding out of a parking lot in his sports car and hit me, threw me to the side of the road. He admitted he was going way too fast and was angry at himself because he hit me.. my dad was driving behind the ambulance and gave the guy a good blast, I got grounded for 3 weeks for going to the store by myself. When I was 20, I was working at an Oil Changers and I was guiding one of the employees in over the hole in the floor so we could get to work on the vehicle and when I made the sign for him to stop his boot slipped (he was wearing new boots that were too big for him ) and he hit the gas instead of the brake, threw me ten feet in the air and I landed on the bumper of the car we had just finished working one. I still get angry about that situation when I see a Jeep Wagoneer since that is the vehicle that threw me ten feet. I don't blame the vehicle I blame the idiot behind the wheel but seeing a Wagoneer just reminds me of his idiocy. Someone owns one just down the road from us so I see it all the time too *grr*

Because of getting hit by a car twice I will freak out very badly at someone if they follow me too closely in a parking lot while I'm walking and it's worse if I'm walking on a sidewalk. If it's a friend who is teasing me I'll get even more mad. But that hasn't happened in a long time.

3) Fear of dogs. Not just rabbid dogs, all dogs. Even something as small as 5lbs. Dog's have been known to kill people, but it's not too common. This one, I suppose, isn't too strange, but I do think it's a bit irrational. This guy is a pretty big guy (6'0", 215lbs), and flees at the first sign of a dog.

I fear dogs too, though this one is slowly going away the more I think about the fact that I agreed that some day my hubby and I are gonna get ourselves a nice large sheepdog.
I fear large dogs only and this one is actually because I was traumatised when I was about 5 or 6. I was chased by a huge Doberman, I ran all the way home with it right on my tail. I did nothing wrong, this dog was just trained to attack, we lived in an area where people didn't care they just trained their dogs to kill if someone stepped foot on their lawn, it was also a time when dogs were lose all the time. Ever since that day I had nightmares of big black dogs biting my feet off while I was sleeping in my top bunk. This caused me to always sleep with my feet very tightly tucked in under my blankets, but I would still have the nightmares. I don't have them as often now but they do come back every once in a while. I'm also afraid of big black dogs cause my aunt and uncle had a Black Lab whom attacked my cousin while they were playing together, put my cousin in the hospital and the dog got put down . Something must have happened to start that attack because that dog was a very friendly happy dog, but we're all in the dark. We can't figure out why the attack happened.
As for small 5 pound dogs, they're just yappy and I don't get worried around them.

4) Then there the usuals - the people who are just plain tired of being afraid of every day stuff: spiders, heights, social situations, etc. You'd actually be surprised at what their reasonings for being afraid of these things differ. Some people are afraid of spiders because of how they move, while others don't want to get bit.

I hate insects who bite, I won't scream or flail around like an idiot if a bee comes by or anything. Bugs just make me uncomfy because when I see them it makes me itchy. I used to have a fear of Earwigs cause i was told as a kid by my mean oldest sister that what they do is they crawl in your ears and eat your brain, but I've since gotten over that cause it was just a stupid joke they played on me.

What are your thoughts and opinions on fears? What fears are justifyable, and what are just plain irrational? I've got a friend who is terrified on clowns, and I have no idea why (it all started when he saw Killer Clowns from Outer Space at a young age). There are other, stranger fears, but I did not recieve their permission to discuss them, or their fears. Perhaps I could illude to it? I suppose I could, but it wouldn't be very respectful.

I don't think anyone can fairly say that fears are irrational or justifyable. Everybody has different fears for some reason or another, if they don't know why it's probably because something happened when they were just too young to remember the incident. We can't say "that doesn't make sense so just stop feeling that way".. feelings come naturally and nobody can stop feelings from happening.. they can supress them and shove them down only to let them all come out at once but we can't just say "you shouldn't feel that way cause it's crazy to be afraid of dogs"...etc...

So yeah, that's my opinion.

Edited for typos and additions/details to my stories that I remembered when I read over them.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Camel obviously has no experience with diabetes.

You will not draw me into another flame exchange Nyrd!
I am familiar with diabetes as most of my family suffers from it. Though, they don't have the "bad" kind. The kind that requires insulin shots. That is all.

Type 2, then? Get some exercise.

[Chardok]

My fears are as follows, and there is no real reason for any of them, that I can think of.

Flight
Of course, you are all well aware of my flight phobia. Just not natural. Too many things doing too much stuff. one thing goes wrong and *poof* that's a Looooong time to think about the rapid deceleration that's coming.

Spiders
They bite. They're ugly. I hate them. One time this huge spider crawled out of my couch onto my arm, and I screamed like a girl, threw it onto the ground and stomped it with my combat boot so many times, that it because part of the carpet.

Wasps
They hurt. They're after me. All wasps I see are trying to sting me. because I killed a nest of them in 1994 with a super soaker filled with Raid+water.

Viruses
Specifically Viral Hemorrhagic fevers. I don't feel I need to justify this. They are scary enough.

Asteroids
I do not understand why we are not devoting more resources to finding/stopping these. it is a mathematical certainty that we will be slammed with a big one. double yoo tee eff? I like Fallout, I just don't want to LIVE it.

Tall buildings (Being inside of)
They move. They're big, they're high up. One thing fails, and *poof* yaaaaaaaaaaaa....splat. I am convinced they are going to collapse. with me in them. Not a 9/11 thing, either.

[Korvan]

My only real irrational fear is corpses. I've never seen an acutal one, but back in school, my biology classroom had an actual human skeleton. Every so often, it would swivel so it looked directly at me. I would be mezmerized by its gaze and I couldn't look away until it swivel away first.

[Mrs Kendall]

Dead bodies are not real fun to look at no but the skeleton is actually a very interesting thing to look at for me. I won't look at a dead body unless it's someone I know who has died and I want to have one last look at them at their wake.

I do understand your fear though. I had that same fear until I was forced to look at my grandfather when he died, mom didn't want me to miss my last chance cause he and I were close, so she came and stood beside me.

[Big Orange]

I disliked small dogs as a child (I always liked big gentle dogs), I am always wary around cats (although I am not fearful of them per se), I fear grave yards, I avoid high spring boards around deep swimming pools at all costs and I never ever liked traditional clowns.

[Zac Naloen]

I have a fear of large dogs. It used to be all dogs, but after spending a large amount of time around small dogs (my sister has one, friends have one) i'm more able to be around them. I won't pet them or play with them however.

If a dog comes up to my waist or higher im extremely uncomfortable, i won't run.. but people have noticed i'm obviously anxious, one went as far as to remove the dog from the room in one social situation.

The reasoning behind this is quite apparent to me i think, when i was roughly 3 i was chased down a cobbled street in spain by an alsation, fell over and cut my leg open down to the bone. I still have the scar from it now. The dog didn't actually attack me, but it probably would have done had my dad not kept pace and hit it with a towel scaring it off (we were on our way to the pool).


I also have a fear of going in the sea. Im an excellent swimmer, having swam since the age of 5. But i have a completely irrational fear of going in the sea, i can trace this back to when i was young and i swear i saw something coming at me in the sea off the coast of tenerife. I got out quick smart, and it was probably my imagination but i don't care. I refuse to go out into sea water when i am unable to move quickly out. Strangely im okay if im on a any sort of boat (even small inflatables)

[Sofia]

I hate sharks. Hate hate hate them. When I was little I went with my friend and her family to see an OmniMax movie about sharks, and it freaked me the fuck out. Something about the sinister almost-smile, the bloody gums and teeth ... Uggggggh.

I don't like bees either, or any loud buzzing insects. The other night there was a june bug in my living room when I was watching TV, and I had to go upstairs without turning the lights off, I was so scared. It's irrational, because I knew it wouldn't bite me, but it was flying all over the place and bumping into things and making a hell of a racket. Just the thought that it could fly into my face or hair made me want to scream.

Oh, and clowns. Some of them have the same sort of sinister smile sharks have, actually.

[FSTargetDrone]

Oh, and clowns. Some of them have the same sort of sinister smile sharks have, actually.

My girlfriend hates, hates clowns too.

I definitely had a fear of heights. Years ago, when I visited Gettysburg on a camping trip, we came across this fire watch/observation tower. I don't remember how tall it was, but it was about the height of a 4- or 5-story building. It had a stairway that wound its way up and around the base of the tower between each of the 4 legs. I still remember the faint feeling I had getting up those stairs, desperately and tightly grapsing on to the hand rail. At the top of this roofed tower was a large, flat floor and you could look out on all 4 sides. I never made it to the edge to look out. I just stayed in the center looking at the floor.

However, the house I grew up in had a large pine tree at the top of the driveway near the house. It was a split-level house with 4 levels, so maybe equivalent to a typical 2- or 3- story building. The tree was taller than the house and I used to climb this tree as far I as I could before the trunk of the tree became too narrow to support my weight. I would sit up there and be able to look out over my house and the neighbors' and it was no problem at all. I never felt dizzy or feared I would fall. That high up, I could even feel the tree swaying back and forth a bit.

When I was in grade school, my class took a trip to NYC, and we went up to one of the observation levels of the World Trade Center. I don't know what floor it was, but it was pretty high up there, and I remember walking right up to the glass and looking down as best I could in an imitation of the scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Ferris and friends do the same thing in the Sears Tower. Again, I had no problem and didn't feel scared. I also took my first plane trip in high school, and for years up until then I insisted I would never get on an airplane. Yet I had a window seat and enjoyed the flight and spent a lot of time looking out the window.

I don't know why I felt so afraid in the fire tower, yet would fearlessly scramble up the tree. I was around the same age in both cases. The difference between the tree and the tower was that while the tower was mostly an open structure, the tree had many thick branches close together (I doubt I could climb the same tree today, being taller and bigger than I was...I don't think I could fit!). So the tree must have seemed more solid to me, closer around me, that even if I fell I could grab (or at least fall on) a lower branch. With the fire tower, if I were to fall somehow, there was nothing below the observation platform. I never once fell out of the tree or came close to falling. Yes, the tower was taller than the tree, and surely safe enough, but I had quite a strong reaction when I went up in it.

[Ace Pace]

I also seem to have an "irrational" fear of dogs as described in the OP. No matter what size the animal is, I can't help but be afraid of it. If the animal is friendly (but not too friendly), I can usually get used to it after a while. It was only this year that I leared where my fear of dogs came from. Apparently, when I was about one year old, my grandmother essentially forced me to spend an lot of time with several dogs which were much larger than me. From what I understand, I was a wreck for several days afterwards, and I still can't help but run away from a dog if it approaches me.

Join the club. I deal with other animals fine(if I'm a little wary around teeth) but any dog except those wooly 'my fur covers my eyes' breeds, I run away. I can survive close contact with dogs if needed, but I'm tense.

It's probebly the most annoying thing to me about myself.

I also have a serious phobia of social flaming. I can deal with being insulted or stuff, but when it's an entire group of people going on about me, I just curl up and whimper. I cannot survive in such enviorments.

[LadyTevar]

When Nitram was little, an agressive dog knocked him down, pinned him, and barked in his face until removed. Any dog now terrifies him, no matter the size, and a barking dog will paralyze him in place.

I have a fear of swimming in running water. Don't like creeks or rivers, and I think it's from a trip to St Augustine when I was small... I got hit by a huge wave and swallowed a lot of seawater. How big was the wave? I was on my dad's shoulders and it *still* damn near drowned me.

[Lazarus]

I have a very deep seated fear of volcanoes for a reason I'm not entirely sure of. It manifested itself when I saw the film of the same name actually, but I'm pretty sure rather than creating a problem it triggered something in my mind. Either way, it frankly screwed me up a bit for a while. I had trouble sleeping, thinking about anything related to the subject made me feel uncomfortable and it made me a more cautious person in general. I've never really gotten over it properly, but I'm now mature enough to know that its not exactly a rational fear.

Spiders on the other hand...
I'm off to New York this summer, so does anyone know whether there are any large/dangerous varieties I should be aware of so I can keep a heavy object of some sort handy?

[Broomstick]

I am familiar with diabetes as most of my family suffers from it. Though, they don't have the "bad" kind. The kind that requires insulin shots. That is all.

All diabetes is bad. If you think otherwise, you're only fooling yourself.

Untreated Type II can maim and kill just as much as Type I

*i.e. Good-natured teasing. Dunno if "ribbing" is an expression used by Americans.

Yes, it is a common expression over here.

Flight
Of course, you are all well aware of my flight phobia. Just not natural. Too many things doing too much stuff. one thing goes wrong and *poof* that's a Looooong time to think about the rapid deceleration that's coming.

You are correct - when something goes wrong time stretches out and you have a loooooooooooooooooooooooong time to consider the hard ground below.

Uh.... not that I have much personal experience with that, of course....

Spiders
They bite. They're ugly. I hate them. One time this huge spider crawled out of my couch onto my arm, and I screamed like a girl, threw it onto the ground and stomped it with my combat boot so many times, that it because part of the carpet.

Yeah. I'm totally like that around spiders, too. Except no one thinks it worth mentioning when I "scream like a girl". For some reason

I'm off to New York this summer, so does anyone know whether there are any large/dangerous varieties I should be aware of so I can keep a heavy object of some sort handy?

Not so much big, but there are two main venomous ones in most of the continental US. There are black widows, which are black and have an orange "hourglass" on them. The bites are seldom fatal to adults (although if you have a sensitivity to spider venom it's a problem) but are painful and can have medical complications. If bit by one do mention it to your doctor/seek medical advice.

The other nasty is the brown recluse. They're brown and, uh, reclusive. Hence the name. Not particuarly big, and in many instances people never see what bit 'em. The problem with these guys is that the venom is toxic to muscle tissue. The bite never heals, may never look worse on the surface - or maybe it does look worse - but underneath terrible things are happening. The results in the worst cases resemble the effects of necrotizing faciitis, but not so fast moving or extensive since it's a chemical reaction and not an infection. Obviously, seek medical attention for this one, too.

The key here is prevention. Both types - black widows and brown recluses - like to hide out in dark, undisturbed corners. So don't go sticking you hands into dark holes and corners without shining a light in there first and checking it out. Neither is as bad as, say, the Sydney funnel web. If you are bitten, don't panic - most folks recover with no lasting ill effects. Just don't neglect the situation, either.

Assuming you stay in NYC, you shouldn't have to worry about things like tarantulas, unless you have friends with weird-ass ideas of "pets".

Fear vs. Phobia
It's important to keep in mind the distinction between a fear - even and intense fear - and a phobia. If you feel fear but can still function, it's a fear, not a phobia. Phobias are disabling fears.

As an example: if you "scream like a girl" when you see a spider, but still have the wherewithall to either locate a suitable bludgeon and smash it into oblivion or find a can of death-to-spiders spray and use it, you have an intense fear. If, upon seeing a spider you "scream like a girl", leap up in a blind panic, bounce off several walls as you attempt to locate and use the nearest doorway, run out into the yard tearing your clothes off because you fear it MIGHT have crawled up your pant leg, then pass out into a heap.... THAT is a phobia.

Not that there's a hard and fast line.

And, of course, some fears are completely rational. I don't have a fear of heights, I have a fear of falling from heights, which is actually a survival trait in most situations. Despite that fear, I am still able to jump down from a moderate height, and once leapt off the roof of a building (it did seem like the better alternative at the time). So, while the fear is real and intense, it doesn't get in the way of my ability to act in an emergency.

When I was a kid I did have a fear/phobia of clowns. Like, full-throated-scream kid of fear. I have to wonder if my poor vision was a factor - I couldn't see normal faces too well, perhaps the clown faces, instead of looking painted, looked horribly deformed. I do remember them looking hideously wrong, a complete and terrifying distortion of the human face. I still dislike clowns intensely these days, but it's nothing like it used to be.

[Durandal]

I fucking hate snakes. I'm scared to death of the things, even the harmless ones. I attribute it to Indiana Jones being my childhood hero and my desire to emulate everything he was. I grew out of everything but the fear of god damn snakes.

Hell if I see a show on TV involving snakes, I'm liable to go to bed fearing that a rattlesnake is under my covers or bed. It makes no sense at all, but the fear is very real.

[Frank Hipper]

All diabetes is bad. If you think otherwise, you're only fooling yourself.

Untreated Type II can maim and kill just as much as Type I.

Not quite.
A Type 2 diabetic can survive for months to years untreated, depending on the individual case, while a person with full-blown Type 1 can survive no more than a couple days without insulin, and that's at the very most.

An untreated Type 2 diabetic is a very sick person facing a highly reduced lifespan and an array of health problems that may lead to death; an untreated Type 1 diabetic is dead the day after tomorrow.

[Aeolus]

I have fear of heights and fear of depths. I don't think it's necessarily strange. Falling to death is one of those things that humans would tend to avoid, methinks, and nobody wants to drown. But that fear of depths has also translated into a fear of small boats - you couldn't get me out on a rowboat if you tried. Ironically enough, my uncle was a small boats expert in the navy, and my dad was a sailor too...!

My girlfriend has that generic fear of insects that seems to be shared by most of the women I've ever known. I find it a bit irrational to scream because of a waterbug.

I have that one. I know a waterbug can't hurt me but if I see one I freak out. I know I am being silly at the time but I just can't control it.