irrational fears

[les12]

I can’t believe I’m about to share this with you all, but since I feel somewhat anonymous, here goes…

Several months ago, while doing a google search for a compatible dog breed, I came across this incredibly disturbing photo. It was this sculpture, I think it’s called “human dog” or something, and it scared the heck out of me!! (if you care to see it, go google it, but please please please do not post a picture of it here or I may have a heart attack haha!!) So anyway, for days after seeing that image it just stayed in my mind!

Recently (a few weeks ago) it popped up again as an ad on a website I was viewing. Oh.my.goodness. The image is so freaky and disturbing and now, I find that I really cannot shake it!! Now, every morning when I take a shower, I have these images of it being in the bathroom when I open the shower curtain! Haha I'll be the first to admit that it is truly the most ridiculous “fear” ever!! When I wash my face I'm afraid that when I open my eyes I’ll see it! If that's not irrational, I don't know what is. I literally laugh at myself each morning because it is so beyond silly but I can’t stop thinking about it! I’d like to just forget about it, but it seems like the most impossible feat. I have to consciously think of something else, but you know when you tell yourself to stop thinking of something, it's the ONLY thing you can think of...

So anyway, now that my embarrassing story is out… fess up! Who else has a ridiculous fear or phobia?? (please disclose so I don’t feel like such a weirdo)

 

[bee*]

tomato ketchup. Cannot stand the thought of it getting on me, will not touch the bottle, just hate it! I don't remember having any bad incidents with it so I'm not sure where my phobia of it came from. DH thinks it's hilarious

 

[studyer83]

I know the pic

I am not afraid of heights, but I am afraid of stopping on bridges. If traffic is slowing down on a bridge, I'll leave tons of space between my car and the car in front of me so I can coast, not stop. But then some jacka@@ will always pull in -- doesn't he know I'm terrified??!!

I also am so squeemish about eyes and I cannot stand getting something in my eye or even the thought of getting something in my eye. People who wear contacts are so often having to put in drops, dig around in their eye for a contact, or whatever it is they are doing. It makes my stomach drop every time.

 

[oddoneout]

I cannot believe I just looked up "human dog"....that'll be sources for nightmares for awhile. I guess my embarrassing fear would be clowns. I'm not "oh my god I have to run away" scared of them I just find them creepy.

 

[packrat]

ack, I saw that thing recently but I can't remember where. I'm full of irrational fears. Seriously.

 

[somethingshiny]

I wouldn't qualify it as a fear exactly, but the OP reminded me of something that happens to me. In the middle of the night when I get up to pee (which happens to be very often right now!) I walk into the darkened bathroom and vividly recall the Candyman thing. Ya know where you look in the mirror of a dark bathroom and say "candyman" 3 or 5 times or something and he comes to get you. I don't think it's going to happen or anything, but it's weird that I always remember it. Of course, I haven't actually tried calling out "candyman".....

 

[sctsbride09]

Cockroaches. I hate even typing it out, haha. They just give me the heebie jeebies.

 

[Amber St. Clare]

Cockroaches. I hate even typing it out, haha. They just give me the heebie jeebies.

OMG--as a former New Yorker I hear ya! If anything {even ants} crawl around me I get up on the couch and yell for Mr. St. Clare. I absolute cannot stand anything that crawls.

 

[Nashville]

Ummm... remember the scene in The Ring when the mom finds her dead daughter in the closet?

Scarred me for LIFE. I'm still wary of opening the closet at night.... 7 years after I saw it.

 

[packrat]

Dude-I check ALL closets in the house before I go to bed. Every night. And every time I get up at night, I brush my hand when I walk past the closet to make sure it's closed, when I leave the room and when I come back..in case anything got out while I was peeing I guess. You know why? Because Stephen King has a short story called The Boogeyman, and he shuffles in the closet and says "So nice, so nice".

Let's not talk about The Ring anymore shall we? I have vivid memories of launching my huge 8 months pregnant body over my sleeping husband b/c I was too terrified to walk about the bed at night.

Missi=issues.

 

[Nashville]

Oh wow, I'm so with you. Stephen King is responsible for like, 90% of my fears in life yet I still read all his books and see all the movies and mini series. Guess I'm a glutton for punishment!

 

[MissMina]

Getting stuck in traffic under an overpass
I am sure it is going to collapse on me at any second.
PTSD from living 30 years in CA

 

[missy]

I am scared of flying but don't feel it is such an irrational fear. I don't like not being in control. I mean, we don't know the shape the specific plane is in that we will be flying and we don't know the mental status of the pilot and copilot and we don't know if the mechanics were doing their jobs when inspecting the plane, etc etc.

I know statistically that flying is safer than driving but when I am driving I know the shape my car is in and I am a good driver and so is my dh and we are both very careful watching other drivers and being defensive so hopefully we will get where we are traveling to safely.

I just don't like the feeling of not being in control when flying. I still fly but fear it and dislike it intensely. And since 9/11 it has only gotten worse since the whole ordeal of getting on the plane is that much more drawn out. Sigh.

I also fear big ugly bugs like cockroaches. If I can kill them I am OK but if they get away I am a total wreck because the thought of the bug loose in my space terrifies me. I keep imagining them crawling up me when I am sleeping.

 

[kenny]

I looked it up and found the artist's website.
Patricia Piccinini.

I think she's very clever to identify and blend key characteristics that keep us feeling it is a hybrid animal.

http://www.patriciapiccinini.net/

 

[beezygal]

worms...

they're disgusting. I always scream when I see them.

 

[elrohwen]

Swimming in the ocean. I'm a good swimmer, but as soon as the boat gets any distance from me I get very anxious and afraid that I'm going to go under a swell or something. I don't know why it makes me so anxious - I only like ocean swimming if it's in a shallow area where I can see the bottom. Give me a lake or a pool and I'm fine.

I also don't like the thought of fish touching me. I'm not really afraid of sharks or anything, just regular fish. My mom thinks this started when I got stung by a jellyfish and I've had a huge phobia of them ever since. If I'm swimming in the ocean and anybody sees a jellyfish, I'm out of the water like a shot.

 

[Nashville]

Swimming in the ocean. I'm a good swimmer, but as soon as the boat gets any distance from me I get very anxious and afraid that I'm going to go under a swell or something. I don't know why it makes me so anxious - I only like ocean swimming if it's in a shallow area where I can see the bottom. Give me a lake or a pool and I'm fine.

I also don't like the thought of fish touching me. I'm not really afraid of sharks or anything, just regular fish. My mom thinks this started when I got stung by a jellyfish and I've had a huge phobia of them ever since. If I'm swimming in the ocean and anybody sees a jellyfish, I'm out of the water like a shot.

I swallowed a jellyfish during a swimming lesson when I was 12 (obviously NOT on purpose). My brothers have never let me live it down.

 

[Cehrabehra]

I thought that pic was adorable in a WEIRD way when I saw it - the little baby butts... anyway you are not alone. I am super tired and can't think of any off the top of my head but I know I have them... the ones I'm thinking of are old though - the one like this for me was the hand hanging out of the bassinet during the "It's Alive" commercials during the mid 70's. I pictured that bassinet for a couple years... it was always small and just kind of hanging out on ledges or whatnot... I was 5.

 

[Brown.Eyed.Girl]

I wouldn't qualify it as a fear exactly, but the OP reminded me of something that happens to me. In the middle of the night when I get up to pee (which happens to be very often right now!) I walk into the darkened bathroom and vividly recall the Candyman thing. Ya know where you look in the mirror of a dark bathroom and say "candyman" 3 or 5 times or something and he comes to get you. I don't think it's going to happen or anything, but it's weird that I always remember it. Of course, I haven't actually tried calling out "candyman".....

Omg yes. Or the Bloody Mary thing. I think of those whenever I go into my dark bathroom. Eep.

I also tend to get influenced by books I read. After reading S.M. Stirling's Change series, I was terrified that the world was going to end because all modern devices stopped working. After 28 Days Later and World War Z, I was terrified of zombie attacks. I have a susceptible mind I think

 

[Hest88]

I have lots of fears (spiders, heights, public speakiing...) but all of those are pretty common. The one I have that I think might qualify is around rodeo clowns. When I was a kid, just before I was supposed to go to bed, I happened to catch the end of some TV movie where a rodeo clown did his job--distracting a rampaging bull from one of the rodeo contestants--and was killed by the bull. After that, when I see rodeo clowns on TV I immediately think back to that movie and get scared again.

 

[Irishgrrrl]

I'm right there with all of you who are deathly afraid of bugs. Especially spiders and those "c" bugs whose name I cannot bring myself to type. The sight of a bug is enough to turn me into a blubbering, whining mess. It drives DH nuts, but he's learned how to manage me when I have one of my "episodes." I do have certain bugs that are "safe" though . . . ladybugs are fine, anything in the butterfly family, praying mantises (or is it manti?) because they're supposedly good luck. I know, I'm an odd one.

 

[missy]

I'm right there with all of you who are deathly afraid of bugs. Especially spiders and those "c" bugs whose name I cannot bring myself to type. The sight of a bug is enough to turn me into a blubbering, whining mess. It drives DH nuts, but he's learned how to manage me when I have one of my "episodes." I do have certain bugs that are "safe" though . . . ladybugs are fine, anything in the butterfly family, praying mantises (or is it manti?) because they're supposedly good luck. I know, I'm an odd one.

Not at all LOL- I'm the same. Ladybugs and praying mantises are OK for me too though I prefer not to be too close to them anyway. And I only like butterflies when they are butterflies but I am terrified of when they caterpillars!

 

[marcy]

I am so claustrophobic I can't stand a thermal blanket on my face that I can see through. I also freak out at miller moths. Hate those stupid things.

 

[Hera]

I cannot look in the mirror at night when I go to the bathroom because that's where scary things pop up in the movies.

I'm scared to drive around cliffs because I think I'm going to drive off the cliff accidentally.

Whenever I'm driving in back of a truck with logs or something, I think they're going to come off and cause me to have a car accident.

 

[allycat0303]

There's a window in the bathroom. After dark, whenever I am in the bathroom, I always look at the window, because I'm CONVINCED I will see a face peering in. It scares me to death.

 

[KimberlyH]

fireworks (loud noises scare me, but i'm terrified by fireworks)
bees

 

[katamari]

tomato ketchup. Cannot stand the thought of it getting on me, will not touch the bottle, just hate it! I don't remember having any bad incidents with it so I'm not sure where my phobia of it came from. DH thinks it's hilarious

Same, but with mayonnaise! And people don't understand it is a fear and not just a dislike.

Also, revolving doors.

 

[Irishgrrrl]

I'm right there with all of you who are deathly afraid of bugs. Especially spiders and those "c" bugs whose name I cannot bring myself to type. The sight of a bug is enough to turn me into a blubbering, whining mess. It drives DH nuts, but he's learned how to manage me when I have one of my "episodes." I do have certain bugs that are "safe" though . . . ladybugs are fine, anything in the butterfly family, praying mantises (or is it manti?) because they're supposedly good luck. I know, I'm an odd one.

Not at all LOL- I'm the same. Ladybugs and praying mantises are OK for me too though I prefer not to be too close to them anyway. And I only like butterflies when they are butterflies but I am terrified of when they caterpillars!

Missy ~ So glad I'm not the only one! LOL! And ditto about the caterpillars! I don't like butterflies unless/until they are actually IN butterfly form, thankyouverymuch!

 

[les12]

Oh man, I'm familiar with a lot of these fears ha.

Hera - The thing about getting hit by something off the truck in front of you.. my sister was on the interstate a few weeks ago and a huge 18 wheeler lost a wheel (although I'm hoping it was just a blowout, not the entire wheel) and it was bouncing toward her head on, bounced over her car and bounced off the car behind her!! She said she didn't know what to do so she *honked* at it! Hahaha! But anyway that was never really a fear of mine until I heard about it happening - yikes!

Allycat - Someone looking through the window is soooo terrifying to think about!! Especially if it's light inside, dark outside so you can't really see. Makes me shiver thinking about it!
My parents live on several wooded acres off of a river road with a levee, hard to explain. But our house had all these floor to ceiling windows without covering, so at night when I had to go upstairs I ran soooo fast because at the bottom of the stairs was our front door with all these windows that looked out into the woods. I have a very colorful imagination and it ran wild thinking of what could be in those woods. Can we say blair witch??

 

[doodle]

I'm terrified of cockroaches to the point of doing a bathroom inspection before I'll use it just to make sure I don't get stuck in the room with one mid-pee or mid-shower. I live in Georgia, so ours are about three inches long and fly at your face, plus they're EVERYWHERE. If it were up to me, DH and I would move out every summer to somewhere cold and only return when roach season's over!

Stephen King also ruined me for life--I can't walk in front of a sewer drain for fear of Tim Curry sucking me in.

I'm petrified of breaking an ankle walking in high heels, so I kind of tip-toe like a moron--because there's no way I'm going to give up high heels. I mean, really, how good do I look wearing them if I'm doing the Fred Flintstone twinkle toes bowling thing?!