Not really looking for your phobias here, just the things that give you that real fear in the gut. For me it’s deep waters, specifically the ocean. I can’t imagine a scarier situation that being stranded far out to sea in a lifeboat or dingy, with the light fading. The lapping of the current kissing the sides of the dingy, that unknown depth falling away below me, and worst of all, all those horrible nasty things lurking there.
I don't know about inexplicably scared, but... Agree deep waters are pretty bad. It's not our world down there. Rapid waters scare me too: so much power. I'm scared of even briefly losing access to basic things we need to live, like water, food, medicine, and alternating current. The transportation and electrical grid have always seemed fragile to me. Missus is T1D. Other humans don't have morals even when times are good. And who's ever really ready for a natural disaster?
Abandoned underpasses filled with graffiti. Perhaps with flickering lights. I might have indoctrinated myself on American movies but I always feel like a serial killer could jump me any moment.
I've no issues with tunnels. It's the combination of a tunnel, abandonement, a "bad part of town" and the graffiti that gets the hair standing on my back.
Bridges, the really big ones that's over the ocean and/or high up (scared of the ocean and heights.). I can't cross over one without my heart fluttering. It's stupid but when I was a child, I seen Maximum Overdrive and the beginning of the movie scarred me for life. I was in the ocean when I seen a shark and just stayed away since. Always been scared of heights.
Heights. Why do I feel it in my nuts FFS, what's it got to do with them... in a former career I had to "plumb" a new lift shaft - hang a heavy weight on a fishing line from the top all the way to the bottom (where it was damped in a bucket of oil), then clamber down a rickety scaffold and take measurements all the way down to give to the lift engineers to manufacture the working gear. Absolutely bloody terrifying. Especially when one of the scaffold poles slipped a couple of inches... and deep water, yes, agreed. and more shallow water when the weeds start tickling your feet; I hate that. And doing my tax-return even when I know I have nothing to fear... and... and... and...
Yes!! You’re the only other person I’ve heard say this about heights and feeling it in the balls. When I try to describe it to others they just look at me oddly, but you do! It’s like an invisible hand cupping them and gradually squeezing. Mmm, seems it may be more common than I thought:
I've never noticed that particular effect, but I do have a fear of heights. I learned that when I was a baby my mom didn't have a bassinet and kept me wrapped in blankets in a chest of drawers, in the top drawer. Apparently one time she put me in and didn't close the drawer as she usually did, and a moment later the chest tipped forward and fell on the floor. I wonder if this is what caused the fear? (A fear of heights is really a fear of falling).
I hated crossing the Mississippi in the dark. It was like driving across a mile wide bottomless pit. Really freaked my out. Open water scares me too. Especially after the movie Open Water.
I have to take deep slow breaths when I watch something with the ocean in. It's not as bad as it sounds, I just hide it well. It makes me nervous. I remember a while back I was on a bus with friends and we had to cross this bridge over the ocean. I sat back biting into my bottom lip while having a little panic attack that no one noticed. Night time is the worse!
Seems I'm not in the minority with the deep water fear. I am in real life. Not many people share that fear where I live. Another fear I have is being separated from my family in a disaster with no way to communicate with them. My sister and I were at a Pride function a few years ago and a tornado touched down nearby and they were warning us to get to safety. I couldn't find my sister in the commotion and I still have nightmares about that feeling. And the last fear I have is the stress hallucinations I get frequently at night. Dunno the real term for them, but when the walls ooze and I can't tell if the babushka in my chair is real or not even with the light on, well, it's a fun time.
By golly you're right, sir! It was "freedom" day in the UK yesterday -- mask-wearing is no longer compelled by law (although businesses are allowed to insist) -- the day when we find out what everyone's breath smells like and who has let their nasal hair maintenance slip! My excuse is that I was on the road all day (my excuse for not updating my avatar - the nasal hair is pristine!) whip off those masks and breathe, baby!
In my life, there are two biggest fears that drive me into horror since childhood. The first is the fear of snakes and the second is the fear of being buried alive. These fears drive me into horror, even when I just think about them or when I watch films in which there are snakes or in which people are buried alive. I understand that this is fictional and it happens to the characters, but it still scares me a lot.
Public restrooms. And I'm not just talking about how nightmarishly unsanitary many of them are — though that definitely plays a part of it. I'm referring to the entire vulnerable, creepy experience. As far as I'm concerned, public restrooms are virtually a little slice of haunted house in every establishment.
Someone once showed me a tunnel of bank vaults beneath the building in which I worked- long abandoned, one way in, one way out through a sturdy door that locked on the outside. The sight frightened me so badly that I backed away from the door immediately and it took a good deal of resolve not to run the other way without turning my back on the tunnel- a tricky move at best. I'd heard there were old tunnels and rooms beneath the city streets, many which housed speakeasies during Prohibition, most of which were filled in during sewer installation and road repairs over the decades. The idea intrigued me, but this tunnel of vaults- wowser. I just wanted the hell away from there.
The fears of the depths and dark passages are bathophobia and thalassophobia. The terms have some overlap. Right in the pit of my stomach. I have a fear of breaking my collarbone. Not that I'm unafraid of breaking other bones, but that one gives me the screaming heebie-jeebies for some reason.
I hate going underground, whether it's tunnels, mine shafts (I was invited to go down one of those once and DECLINED) or subways. I go on the Glasgow underground when I have to, but that's the one place where I actually had a panic attack once. The damn thing stopped in the middle of the tunnel (and the walls are only about 6 inches from the train) and it SAT for too long. I mean what is it waiting for???? I did panic. It was really hard to keep from embarrassing myself. I managed, but when the thing finally started up, I got off at the next station, even though it wasn't my stop. My legs felt like jelly. It really made me sympathetic to other people who have attacks of fear over various things. I'm not claustrophobic as long as I'm not underground. I can get trapped in an elevator or a closet, no bother. But take me under the surface of the ground ...where I can't see the daylight ...just NO.
