Irrational Fears

[Sarah K]

I don't mean common ones like spiders and snakes, etc. I believe that fear of creatures is biological for survival againat poisonous ones. But I might just be making shit up.

I also don't mean social fears.

Anyway, I was talking with someone about this today, and here are a couple of mine:

1) Airing up tires. I get TERRIBLE anxiety while doing this for fear of them exploding and severely injuring me. I remember a story from when I was young about a man nearly getting decapitated due to a tractor tire exploding.

2) Driving under bridges. Once upon a time, I went to school for NDT which is an engineering offshoot which focuses on testing the integrity of structures without harming them. It uses methods like dye penetrant, ultrasound, x-ray. Anyway, a big part of this is weld inspection and bridge inspection. You watch all of these horrid videos of bridges collapsing to drive home how important the job is. Curiously, I dont get nervous going on/over bridges. Only while driving under them.

[allegro]

I also have a fear of putting air in car tires. Bike tires are okay, though.

I also won't have anything to do with jumping a car battery.

I'm really afraid of electricity. I've been zapped a few times. If I have to change an outlet or a switch, I shut the whole fucking house down (main power). Actually, now I just call a pro and let THEM get electrocuted.

I'm not sure that any of these are "irrational."

[ophelia_]

It's so ridiculous but I have an irrational fear of midgets... to the point where I will cross the street to avoid walking near one. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY AND I KNOW IT'S HORRIBLE! I guess that's why it's called an irrational fear.

I am also shit scared of birds, but that's because they are the devil with wings...

Maybe I'm just scared of things smaller than me.

And if it makes you feel better, I will avoid the crap out of airing up car tyres. I actually just wait to get my car serviced instead of doing it... Fark that shit.

[elevenism]

I don't have this fear anymore, but when i was about 6 years old, i fell off of a 20 foot loft and busted my head on an oak table.
I nearly died, and it deeply changed my personality.

Anyway, for the next 12 years or so, i constantly dreamed of things like being on a ladder and trying to keep from falling off. Or i would dream that there was a tall, tall stack of random bullshit, on which i was perched precariously.

And i had a terrible fear of lowish heights. I would ride roller coasters and such, but i was scared to climb on the house.

[Charmingly Miserable]

I don't have any irrational fear, just psychological fears which probably makes me more fucked up. Then again, perhaps those psychological fears are irrational too.

[Ryan]

I don't know if it's irrational but I don't particularly like the feeling I get when driving over water even if it's a very secure road. Get the idea that I'm going to plummet.

[Sebek]

Whenever I'm walking near a sewer grate or drainage grate I have an irrational fear that my keys are going to somehow end up out of my pocket and fall into it. I know it's completely irrational.

[thelastdisciple]

This is kind of a trifecta of things all in one, it involves heights, suspension bridges (or just extremely long and high ones) and large bodies of water.

I really can't take to crossing suspension bridges whether on foot or by vehicle because for one they tend to be extremely high which i already don't do so well with and with regards to them being over large bodies of water there's the fact that i can't swim and i get freaked out by the vast blue open with no visible land (well this more so depends on location like coastal areas, Golden Gate, Lionsgate, these would make me tremble).. it makes me feel like there's nothing out there, also if i was a passenger in someone's vehicle i would start to feel the effects of not being in control while crossing over and being confined like i was in a submarine or something, i guess that's kind of a claustrophobic thing.

[[parasite]]

my 15 year old daughter is completely terrified of any one dressed up, face covered or not, it seams to be getting worse lately too, last time we were in the m&m store in London and there were 2 people dressed as m&m's and she lost it!

[Halo Infinity]

I'm not exactly sure if these fears count, but I have a fear of driving to the point where it has discouraged me from driving altogether. If I need to do it, I'd try to somehow work my way through it, but with public transportation all over the place, it's easy to dodge driving in my neighborhood. Every place I've worked and gone to school at was a bus ride or train ride away. I know I should let it get to me to the point that I don't drive for the rest of my life, but the fears of having car accidents, and either getting killed or going to prison as a result of it scares me a lot. Getting lost has also been one of my biggest fears of driving too, but that's why I wouldn't go too far if I drove with the exception of having enough practice to be more familiar with further areas.

I also have a fear of plane rides and boat rides to the point where I'd hope not to be in a plane or a boat as much as possible. (And I definitely relate to people's fears of riding in a submarine as well.) I end up wondering if that will be my last moment alive even if nothing happened. It's not to the point where I'm always completely scared though, but I sometimes can't stop thinking about plane crashes and shipwrecks. Having a movie like Cast Away being burned into my brain never helped either.

I could see how these could be normal fears, but the irrational part is how it keeps me wanting to stay at home, or just in my neighborhood as much as possible, while also avoiding driving as much as possible. Getting lost is also another reason why I find traveling to be scary, especially if I were to travel alone, as I have a poor sense of direction when it comes to new places. (At least that's how I see it, as I'm not trying to speak for anybody.)

And while I have gone out at night, I also still have some fears about being out very late. I'm sure it also has a lot to do not just with my personality, but my upbringing as well.

Interestingly enough, it actually does feel a bit good to express it.

[marodi]

Deep fryers. You won't get me anywhere near one. Either I'll get burn or it will catch on fire.

They are plain evil.

[The_Prowler]

I hate being boxed in by people. I feel more comfortable in small, enclosed spaces, but not when it's people instead of walls around me. The general confusion, the noise, everyone having different conversations and doing their own things and being jostled around give me severe anxiety. I get lethargic, defensive, confused, and eventually paranoid/afraid and panicked and have to leave. I even have a hard time in most restaurants because of it. There have been times when I've come close to passing out because of the commotion, and one night after a gig, the DJ started playing drum and bass heavy Hip-Hop at about nine million decibels and the crowd turned into an impenetrable, undulating, shouting wall. In order to make it out the door to go get my cases out of the car to pack up, I had to spend an inconceivably long time squeezing between people who would not move, which ended up with me finally making it to the door and basically being launched out of it and into a table and chair set, knocking half of it over... Everyone who saw it thought I had punched my way out the door like a madman and deliberately kicked everything over before drunkenly staggering off (I was the only sober one there, I was just having a panic attack) and the manager almost banned us because of it until I explained what happened. He actually apologized to me for it and we're cool now.
Concerts, on the other hand, are a different thing for me because everyone's facing the same direction and concentrating on the same thing. Plus the music completely permeates my mind and tunes almost everything else out (unless it's something major. And the music there is obviously something that I like or love enough to pay good money to go see instead of some shit DJ playing mind meltingly loud, repetitive crap that all sounds the same and sounds horrible). Is that weird?

[Lew]

since my imagination was forged by the brothers grimm, i have non stop streams of irrational fears.
they are always almost comically impossible, ridiculously graphic and pretty much physically impossible.
ie: i have a fear of pressure cookers. we have two. the last two times my husband used them the thing "blew" (the popping mechanism is fucked), let out an unholy scream/bang, and a jet of steam shot across the kitchen. missing me, and my up to my nose pounding heart, by half an inch. i SWEAR if i had a suit of fucking armour, a five layered impermeable bubble and a delfection ray, i would STILL goose step around the fucking thing when it is on. ugh.
and ever since i became a mother, oh my fucktardedness, the irrational fears went supersonic. lol. ie: walking the baby in his stroller and along come thoughts like "what if someone pulled a gun on me, from a car?" (this is a tiny town in ontario, canada, btw) and i would seriously spend the whole walk trying to figure out how to handle a carriage, a baby and a gunman...wtf????
these are the more "mellow" ones. the crazier ones would lead to a straight jacket dropping out my ceiling and landing, perfectly done up of course, on me.

[halloween]

Sounds like you need to learn how to "live in the moment"!

[allegro]

sie: i have a fear of pressure cookers.

I think any intelligent person has a healthy fear of pressure cookers, as well they should! Although, the newer fancy models are much more failsafe than the older models. My husband and I love making Indian food in ours, but we made sure we bought one that we were pretty fucking sure wasn't likely to explode. When I was a kid, my stepmother would use a pressure cooker all the time and I remember quite a few Swiss Steak dinners ending up on the ceiling, LOL.

[Sarah K]

Ohhhh... I will also not walk on any grates or manhole covers - or anything similar to those. Because they are obviously going to fall.

[Halo Infinity]

I'm also the same way these days. This also includes sidewalk cellars. I just found this article while typing "sidewalk cellar" at Google. It kind of scares me knowing that I sometimes forget to not step on any of those things, but at least I was lucky enough to not fall into any of them.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5440440.html

[Elke]

People are afraid of spiders because they think small things will move proportionally slowly, and spiders move hella fast.

Also: I'm afraid of opening strange doors, going somewhere I've never been before, speaking to people I don't know, being late returning library books, travelling, using the Phone, being amongst large groups of people, loud sounds and dogs.

[icecream]

Restaurants that start with the letter Z, I don't know why. Senior citizen care homes/old people in general because I always think they are going to die in front of me.

[The_Prowler]

I'm terrified of being in school buildings. Not even colleges, mind you... I'm talking about elementary, middle and high school buildings. The worst years of my life were spent in those buildings (granted, I was home schooled after middle school, but that's because I almost didn't survive it; emotionally or physically), and so there's always a flood of horrible memories whenever I'm in them. There have been times where I was in an elementary or middle school looking around at all the young kids and thinking "I don't trust a single one of you motherfuckers, and I'm watching each and every one of you", just waiting for one of them to attack me. My school PTS is stupidly strong.
I'm fine with kids, that's not the issue. The issue is the damn school buildings and everything about them. Every corner, every locker, every dark space where the hall monitors can't see, the "idiot" desk in either the very front or back of the room (every classroom has one), the stairways, the bathrooms, everything. They're more horrifying to me than any haunted house.

[Sarah K]

"I hope there isn't a mass shooting" is something that I obsess over when I'm in a large crowd. At Pride today, the mayor was a Grand Marshall. There were counterterrorism units and some Secret Service looking motherfucker everywhere.

I also keep having dreams about being in a mass shooting. Except I never get shot. I just have to watch everyone else die.

Fuckin' 'Merica.

[Jinsai]

I also have a fear of putting air in car tires.

Not really irrational fear, unfortunately, according to a friend of mine who worked in an ER. First time I'd ever heard bout it, and now I'm paranoid. I just ask the gas station attendant to do it for me, because they know what they're doing, and I don't need to blow my face off.

[Leviathant]

I've got a great contribution: Moths are probably going to fly into my mouth.

[Ryan]

I've got a great contribution: Moths are probably going to fly into my mouth.

Now I know what to smuggle a jar full of if I ever travel to PA.

[Fixer808]

Now I know what to smuggle a jar full of if I ever travel to PA.

I pictured you saying that with a sort of hissing sound.

[Ryan]

[Big Fat Matt]

I dislike the idea of a straw going up and around one of my top teeth and cutting my gums so much that I refuse to use most straws.

[ambergris]

I also keep having dreams about being in a mass shooting. Except I never get shot. I just have to watch everyone else die.

Because you're the shooter?


Well, I think my greatest fear is getting struck by a lightning. I'm as fascinated as I am scared of them. I count the time span between thunder and lightning to determine if the storm gets closer or moves away. In my chuldhood I was always scared during thunderstorms because our family house didn't have a lightning rod. Now that I live in a big house in the big city I can oftan rationalize my fear away. "I don't live on top, so only the other guys upstairs will be getting hit." "I'm in the middle of the road, but the houses around me are bigger, but let's not risk anything, let's go inside."

[Jinsai]

Well, I think my greatest fear is getting struck by a lightning. I'm as fascinated as I am scared of them.

Again... not irrational! Being hit by lightning is a totally reasonable fear.



The more you know...

"If your hair begins to stand on end, or your skin starts to tingle, a lightning strike is imminent."

Restaurants that start with the letter Z, I don't know why. Senior citizen care homes/old people in general because I always think they are going to die in front of me.

You do not know the glory that is Zankou Chicken.

[theruiner]

Not really irrational fear, unfortunately, according to a friend of mine who worked in an ER. First time I'd ever heard bout it, and now I'm paranoid. I just ask the gas station attendant to do it for me, because they know what they're doing, and I don't need to blow my face off.

I had never heard of this before and now I'm kind of freaked out.