I think we've had a What are you scared of -thread in the past, but I was wondering, what were the things that scared you as a kid? Things that you have now, possibly, rationalized to something non-scary -- or maybe even still fear a little bit? I remember being really frightened of "sea monsters," basically any creature, big or small, lurking under the surface. I loved, and still love, swimming in lakes and rivers, but as a kid, diving and opening my eyes underwater, facing that muddy murkiness, seeing those little dark nooks and cracks between slabs of rock, or shadows I can't quite explain, really freaked me out (although I still did it time and time again). How about you?
Snakes, but I still don't like them. I am okay with constrictors but it is the sort of venomous, fast striking snakes that freak me out. This seems quite a rational fear though. Irrational fears as a kid were: - Lifts (Elevators). I always felt sure I would get trapped in them or that I would plummet to my doom. Showers where the water pressure was too high. I don't know why. I sort of imagined the shower head coming off and some weird creature coming out the hose.
This reminded me. I was actually really scared of the hole (the drain) at the bottom of a bathtub. Bathtubs are rare were I live, so I had never seen one before me and my family went on a holiday to Greece and the hotel room had a tub. I was, apparently, a pint-sized force to be reckoned with whenever my parents tried to make me take a bath. To be honest, I still don't like those drains, and bath tubs in general. Sitting anywhere near -- even stepping on the drain -- creeps me out, yet the Brits I was working with last autumn were like "god it's been a long day, can't wait to take a hot bath!" Maybe this thread should have an additional sub-title: "Irrational fears."
I grew up with two actual phobias: heights and spiders. I have pretty much conquered my arachnophobia as an adult, because I've become used to killing them, even with my bare hands. I see a spider, and WHAM! I'm all Bruce Lee over that loathsome thing. However, I can't kill heights. I can't roll up a magazine and whap heights into a flat mush. I'm still terrified of heights. The way I explain it to people is by saying that if I were any taller I'd never stand up. I hate horror movies. They get my imagination going way too hard. I'd be lying awake at night after watching a horror movie, and in the dim light of the crescent moon outside, everything I can see in my room turns into monsters. I turn on the light to make them go away. However, I can't sleep with the light on - I like it as dark as I can make it, but the room is full of monsters when it's dark and I've just watched a horror movie. No thank you - no sleep for me that night! I also have a bad case of stage fright. I love singing and playing guitar, and I'm pretty good at it, but no one will ever know because I can't perform in public. I freeze in front of an audience. Maybe, eventually, I'll record some of my songs privately and people will get to know what I actually sound like when I'm in control and in private, but until then, I don't want to play in front of you unless you're a member of my immediate family. Snakes don't bother me at all. Interesting that you mention swimming underwater in lakes and rivers, @KaTrian. I grew up doing that - my family has had a cottage on a lake for as long as I've been alive. Nothing in the lake bothers me and I've spent, cumulatively, many hours under the surface there. I've done scuba diving training in Mexico and Australia and never had a problem on the reefs there, either. But I bet if I ever encountered a Great White shark, I'd get pretty panicky!
Ghosts and other creatures lurking from the dark. I'm still not comfortable with watching horror movies. I love snakes and all the other animals, but I've always been afraid of bugs. Good one
Same here, we've always had a summer cottage somewhere in the sticks, next to a lake, and I grew up in a small town with a river cutting through, so we went swimming a lot. But it's weird how I've never shaken that fear of underwater monsters. It's not so bad I couldn't do it, and I'm morbidly fascinated by the fear I feel whenever I dive and take a look around (not so much nowadays, sadly, 'cause now I know the worst thing to come my way would be a confused pike, but as a kid it was fun). Heights have never bothered me. It's the opposite, really. Whenever I'm on an airplane, my face stays pretty much glued on the window. I especially love take-offs and landings 'cause that's when you can really see and feel it. Flying is in general really fascinating, although back when I had anxiety issues, sitting in that tiny seat, in the small cabin with a bunch of people around me made me twitch and sweat.
Jellyfish was mine. Moving to Australia hen I was 2, all I ever heard of was Box Jellyfish and how dangerous they were. Being young I thought that all jellyfish were Box Jellyfish. It never occurred to me that they were in Queensland and we were in South Australia. Blue Ringed Octopus was my other fear, this was more rational because although very tiny their bite can be fatal. They are a South Australian nasty.
My main two were heights and the dark. My fear of heights wasn't as much a fear of heights as it was a fear of jumping/falling from heights. I spent a lot of time climbing trees as a kid and I was fine going up and I was fine going down even when I glanced down because I could feel the branch beneath me. It was more when it came to sliding down off a branch more than a meter or so from the ground then no, nope I simply couldn't force myself to do it. I was fine with bridges as long as they didn't move and had a rail or were wide enough I could stand a meter or so from the edge. Looking over the edge never paralyzed me but going from a solid platform down to a less solid one was simply impossible for me. I got stuck on a rock climbing wall (it had a shelf at the top to rest on), I was in tears the first time I tried to go abseiling, I used to have problems jumping into pools let alone off jetties or rocks into water. I used to love really steep slides but I had to get someone to push me every time. I loved climbing up things but jumping down was always a problem. I'm a lot better now and can make myself do most of the things listed above but given the choice I still choose to climb down onto something solid. My fear of the dark was based on a recurring dream that sometimes bordered on a nightmare I used to have. The dream was about a pair of invisible wolves. One was my friend and tried to protect me from the other who was evil. Despite being invisible they could see one another. Whenever it was dark I would lie awake thinking about how the good wolf couldn't see the evil wolf and protect me from her. I always loved dogs and didn't mind the thought of wolves but in the dark I was terrified. I was always pretty good with both gory and psychological horror movies but funnily enough anything where a character lost a limb would give me nightmares for weeks.
They are in the northern waters, I am on the south coast, we do have great whites to compensate for their absence however.
Very little to be honest. However, I do have a phobia of vomit that remains with me. I was also scared of vampires, but then again I grew up in the age when vampires were supposed to be scary - not sex-symbols. Also I had a fear of being homeless too, but I'm over that now; I know what it was: middle class fears about losing your station.
This demonic monstrosity from Shining Times Station. Regan from The Exorcist was not as scary as this thing. She was this cool demon girl who could spit what appeared to be acid from her mouth? This thing? It wouldn't surprise me if he were Satan's personal pianist. AWAY WITH THEE! *throws water at it* AWAY!!
I used to be scared to death of the possibility of a house fire. In a way, I still am. I used to think that getting your house burned down (with or without escaping from it first) was just about the worst thing that could happen. I remember having a few actual nightmares concerning house fires, and their blackened aftermath. Actually, as a young adult, I did experience a house fire ...and my reaction was quite strange. I remained perfectly calm, even though I was cut off from escape by smoke and had to open a window and shout for help. And when help came, it was via a ladder and a very nervous volunteer fireman, who didn't want to accept that I was perfectly capable of climbing down a ladder without being carried over the shoulder! Eventually he let me descend, with dignity, on my own, but I was beginning to think the whole building would burn around our ears before he gave in. I felt like the old lady who stands whacking with her cane at the boy scout who is grimly determined to help her across the street, whether she wants to cross the street or not! Fortunately the damage to the apartment was minimal and confined to only part of the living room (it was a rented apartment) so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. And the help arrived really quickly. I don't know what I would have been like had it not. But in a way, it felt weird. Broad daylight, here's me being rescued out a 2nd floor window, folks gathered around, etc, etc. Not at all like my 'nightmares' during childhood. Weird. More embarrassing than frightening, really. And I got a really nice dinner out that evening, courtesy of my boyfriend at the time, who felt I deserved it! The only other thing I'm scared of (or rather repelled by) that I can think of are mud puppies! I got attacked by one as a very young child, and I can still see that horrible face with big side gills erupting out of my pail of dipped smelt, launching straight at my face, hissing like all get-out. Whenever I see pictures of salamanders or mud puppies, I still get this little twinge of ...ack. It made me very nervous about wading and swimming in incredibly muddy water. You never know what's down there! I prefer clean lakes (the Great Lakes) and rivers, thank you very much. I wouldn't want to encounter a Great White Shark or anything else bent on eating me or killing me, but I don't lose sleep over the possibility either.
I don't mind sharks and other carnivorous animals both marine and land-based. I just want them to leave me alone. Stay in your habitat and I'll stay in mine.
I was scared OF horror movies. Not BY horror movies. The fear of being scared stopped me from giving it a go. When I finally braved my first horror movie I realised there was nothing to worry about, and now I write them.
I have some OCD silliness, but aside from those ridiculous quirks (even I think they are, not that it helps) I'm scared of very little. I'm good with creepy crawlies, snakes, rodents, I'm fine in confined spaces, although my bi polar can make me feel a bit agoraphobic when in the depressed phase. I'm fine with blood, vomit, pee and poo. I'm fine with heights, and depths. In fact, my single biggest fear is probably the simple act of crossing a busy road, and that was due to a recurring dream I had as a very young child and the fact I'm easily distracted. Even if I have to walk five miles out of my way, I will ALWAYS use the lights.
What the hell is a... Oh. Nothing of the sort lives here, but if they did we wouldn't call them mud puppies. More like little imps from the depths of hell, come to earth to nibble at your unsuspecting giblets during your morning swim (they probably don't really do that, do they?). Also, I'm glad we don't have these. The very same picture was in the animal encyclopedia I had as a kid. Scared the bejesus out of me, yet at the same time I couldn't tear my eyes off those scary, empty eyes, frozen in an expression of abject pain, their maws hanging open in a vain attempt to scream, but no voice comes out...
As a kid I was always afraid of spiders, roaches, falling, and broken bones. Frankly, these fears are still with me to this day but I'm getting better at controlling them. I learned how to kill a roach Tangled-style. As for spiders and the pain - I'm avoiding both of them to the best of my ability. I blame being afraid of falling on my Mom. I can be a bit of a risk taker and being on top of heights don't bother me, but when someone pushes me, or leaves me on the very edge of something I get dizzy...
