Basically post whatever you fear or are afraid of, or any experience where you were so scared you were like "Ohmyfriggin'godpleasehelp!". I'll start: When it is really late and I'm hungry, I go to the kitchen. Problem is, all of my house is dark except for my room, as everyone's sleeping. You could say I charge from my room into the kitchen and vice versa. :redface:
Thunderstorms turn me into a quivering mass of protoplasm. A way-too-close encounter with a tornado when I was a kid gave me that Clowns terrify the living bleep out of me, and I have no idea way. They just seem sinister. Even mimes make me uncomfortable. On the Fourth of July, I went to a rodeo and had to interview one of the rodeo clowns (and a few other cowboys and cowgirls) -- it was a horrible experience. He saw how upset I was and took off his makeup and put on a pair of jeans and a tshirt to make me more at ease. He was a nice guy, and my mind knows that his putting on his makeup and clown clothes doesn't change him, but I just can't seem to control that visceral reaction.
Centipedes. They make my neocortex shut down and I become one of the ape men in the obelisk scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey. When I lived in Hawai'i as a child, one of the weird things I used to do as a kid was collect gecko eggs with the boy who lived next door and keep them in a terrarium until they hatched. We were looking for eggs one day in a banyon tree, and as I was poking about the holes with a stick, a huge red centipede came out and ran down the trunk. I almost fell out of the tree. Just thinking about it makes my sack shrink up.
Thunderstorms with lightening Tornadoes Volcanoes Bugs Falling from a high place The dark Having someone break in while I'm sleeping. Or bugs crawling in my ears, nose or mouth while sleeping. Clowns (cause their just freaky all the way around.) Getting cut deep enough to have stitches (cause that really sucks.) Rabies (no frothing at the mouth for me.) Robots and Zombies, cause you never know what humans are capable of creating.
I'm afraid of the dark. Yes, at 23 I'll admit it, I'm afraid of the dark. Wait, no, scratch that. It's not the dark I'm afraid of. It's my own imagination. Because every time it's dark, I think of all the things that could possibly be lurking that I can't see. No, it doesn't make sense. But I still sleep with the TV on mute, because I have too much pride to get a nightlight.
Oh, and water I cannot see through. At the beach my cut off point is when I can't see my feet anymore. Murky rivers or lakes get a big red X.
It would be nice if I had easy to avoid fears like snakes or sharks or something. But, no. I fear failure (which leads to not trying more often than not). I fear getting old (which you can't avoid). I fear having another nervous breakdown and that long road to functioning. So for that one... "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."
I'm right there with you, Mal. 23 and terrified of the dark. I could walk into a room that has one entrance and no windows, see that nothing was in there but me, and then have the lights turn off, and I would probably have a panic attack if I was left in there for more than a minute or so. Same here. We went tubing with a friend of ours who was on leave from the army a little bit ago, and while everyone else was having fun, goofing off, I was trying to find a way to sit in my tube without touching the water at all. Not a fun afternoon for me. I'm also scared of: moths, crickets and grasshoppers (any bug that hops/flies around aimlessly, really), other bugs in general, loud noises, making left-hand turns in my car, and a myriad of other things. My old roommate used to make fun of me all the time because I had more irrational fears than anyone he had ever met.
I'm scared of ants. I'm scared of daddy long legs --but not spiders. I'm scared of the ocean. I'm scared of confrontation. I'm really scared of not being good enough or not exceeding expectations. Mostly, I'm afraid of my own imagination (and therefore the dark, which only exaggerates my imagination). I have this awesome habit of coming up with the worst possible scenarios of how I could die not die, but how I could feel the most immense pain and still live --usually in the shower (as in, what if I reach up for my razor, slip, and it cuts my eye open? I can see in my mind how my eye juice would squirt...), or when I'm driving because of the wreck I was in in November.
I've had this dream at least 2 times (that I know of) in which I go to class and the teacher begins passing out papers to everyone. The other kids get their pencils out, clear off their desks--they look prepared. Me, however, I'm totally stymied. And then I realize it's a test, the test. Like a mid-term or final or something. I'm totally unprepared. My heart is racing, I'm trying to figure out what to do, I feel like crying. Well, because of that dream, I now have this fear everyonce in a while when I go into a class that I'll discover there's a test that I've forgotten about. Being unprepared and/or getting an F is a big fear of mine.
I graduated highschool 13 years ago..I still REGULARLY have this dream. Graduation depends on passing this one test and I am not prepared or can't find the classroom. I'm 31 for goodness sake!!! Can I stop having this nightmare now?
Wait...does this mean you know there's a difference between daddy long legs and spiders? I'm not really consistantly scared by any one thing, except the normals like falling backwards and even those don't really have much effect when I'm thinking about them later. Even most nightmares usually end up being action-adventures. One thing that scares me is the idea of being presented with a sadistic choice like you see so often in stories.
Most folks have no idea that they are referring to two completely separate groups of animals: "daddy-longlegs" and "daddy-longlegs spiders". Spiders are in the Order Araneae. The creatures most correctly called daddy-longlegs are in their own separate Order which is Opiliones. Another creature often called daddy-longlegs are actually spiders. These long-legged spiders are in the family Pholcidae. Previously the common name of this family was the cellar spiders but arachnologists have also given them the moniker of "daddy-longlegs spiders" because of the confusion generated by the general public.~info from UCRiverside In other words, there are daddy-long leg spiders and htere are daddy long-legs that are not. Confusing much?
Yeah, it's amazing how language works. Sometimes I'm suprised we're able to function at all. If I remember right there's also a fly called daddy long legs. Usually I just assume people are talking about the harvestman because around here I've never seen anyone use it for an actual spider. I'm not even sure if we have cellar spiders around here. Time for another dose of wikipedia I suppose.
Falling when I'm skiing and mice crawling over me when I sleep. Then when I wake up to a coyote barking in my yard I get scared.
Physical altercations, like fights, getting punched by random a**holes, ect. I've seen enough and been in enough. Win or lose, they hurt and have the potential to get you arrested whether you started it or not. Sharks. Horrible fear and respect of sharks. I love the ocean, though. Looking back at my life on my deathbed and realizing everything I've done is pointless and/or worthless. Having no sense of even the smallest accomplishment when I die. That about sums it up.
I'm afraid of getting sick, staying sick, dying, being deformed, not being loved and being alone. I'm also afraid of failure. Yay for anxiety!
Carmina is, of course, correct, but while we're on the subject, I cant resist. I have to dispell the myth once and for all: Neither the daddy spider or the daddy non-spiders are poisonous. There's this ridiculous myth about them that says daddies have a deadly venom, but they're jaws are too small to bite us with. WRONG. I just dont like things that have so many legs, and daddies do in fact have long legs. Spiders I'm not too worried about because they eat other insects and mosquitoes, and for some reason the ones in my garage make me feel safe. Irrational fears...
I have always had this irrational fear of someone knocking on my bedroom door in the middle of the night. (obviously that would mean there was an intruder) When my husband was in Iraq, I lived alone. One night, I was asleep, and I woke up and there was this vivid image of a young man standing in my bedroom by the door. Now, I would have assumed it was my imagination, however, my dogs hair was standing on end and he was barking at the man. I was so terrified, that when I was screaming, no sound came out. And he just faded away. It was nuts. I spent the next few months sleepless watching the food network while holding a baseball bat. haha
