Do you have an irrational fear?

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I hate spiders - HATE them - but can't say I'm afraid. I plan to commit something of a spider genocide when I move to the new house, which is covered in them (see other thread)

The only thing that ever scared me, as a kid, was being trapped in space. I'm serious. I say 'as a kid' only because I know, as an adult, that even if I did find myself floating alone in space for some reason, I'd suffocate within seconds and die almost instantly. But I think those rides at Epcot fraeked me out - just the blackness, all the stars, all the silence and the infinite DEPTH of the whole thing - (shiver)

Heights, being buried alive, burglars, bridges...all cake.

You?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Popping baloons and champagne corks being ANYWHERE near me. Balloons give me the fear. Its ridiculous.

Things getting in my ears (water, earplugs, headphones etc) - makes me go into hysterics.

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I am not afraid of things, but ideas maybe.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, that's my one too! Balloons that is. It's really kind of embarassing, I can't stand the though of people squeezing them. Obviously, if people know you have a phobia, they always like to torment you with the thing in question, and that goes double for stupid things like balloons. My mum is also scared of them, so I must have got it from her.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:32 (twenty-one years ago)

or maybe people.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Trayce - my youngest sister (17) has two of those exact same fears. Especially balloons. To this day, she can't be around anyone making balloon animals. Naturally, as a sinsiter older brother, i made it my business to learn as many as I could.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Due to an absurdly tangential connection to a break-up, I refuse to see the movie Super Troopers. I get anxious just thinking about it. I've lied to friends and said I've already seen it just to avoid them campaigning we rent it. I think I'd probably go into a fit if someone tried to make me watch it.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha!

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:38 (twenty-one years ago)

I know! And it's not like anything actually connected to the relationship, even the person, bothers me. For some reason all my insecurities, frustrations and fears have become associated with...Super Troopers.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:40 (twenty-one years ago)

success.

― Harold Media (kenan), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:41 (twenty-one years ago)

the future.

― j.lu (j.lu), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:50 (twenty-one years ago)

Moths and enclosed spaces. These are not related.

― Sexual Air Supply (Autumn Almanac), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:52 (twenty-one years ago)

I get a bit weirded by encloses spaces as well but usually only if there's also crowds involved (see: overcrowded pubs, gigs, that kind of thing).

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, I HATE crowds too - but again, not afraid of them. Like spiders, I just avoid them whenever possible.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:58 (twenty-one years ago)

It used to be spiders, now I think it's getting married at Graceland.

― luna (luna.c), Monday, 23 August 2004 03:59 (twenty-one years ago)

a lot of the fears mentioned here don't sound irrational.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Sobbing women: I'm not sure if I should offer them a kleenex, a hug, or kick em' in the ass.

― jim wentworth (wench), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:01 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm afraid of frogs

― gem (trisk), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Whats rational about being scared of balloons!?

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I hate when women cry, especially when they try to talk through it. It makes me forgive whatever stupid goddam thing they did to make me yell at them in the first place. It's a rotten weakness to have, I admit, but, what can I say? I'm all heart.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:03 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm all heart.

what if it was a lady spider crying? where would your heart be then hey?

― gem (trisk), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:04 (twenty-one years ago)

Whats rational about being scared of balloons!?

I said a lot of these, not all. "balloons" is a keeper.

― CeCe Peniston (Anthony Miccio), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Lady spiders would be destroyed. They could tell me I'm Humble and Some Pig with their webs all they like, and I'd still respond with a blast of Black Flag. They, you know, lay EGGS, dude. Can't have that.

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:09 (twenty-one years ago)

moths and butterflies have always creeped me out. i've always been afraid they would flutter into my face ad their wings would crumble in my eyes. i don't even ahve any idea where this fear came from.

― latebloomer (latebloomer), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:50 (twenty-one years ago)

My god, leave it to ILX to be totally weird! I was going to post something about hearing about this girl who was afraid of omgwouldyoubelieve BALLOONS, and then BAM, first response, "balloons give me the fear."

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:52 (twenty-one years ago)

hey roxy - know any good exterminators round yr way?

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Hm...nope. Never had to use one.

(Are you already here or still on your way, btw?)

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:54 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.beautycafe.com/images/geir.gif

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:56 (twenty-one years ago)

(whoops, that was for "the scream" thread)

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Monday, 23 August 2004 04:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Or for the Rational Fears thread.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 23 August 2004 05:01 (twenty-one years ago)

My girlfriend cannot stand to touch buttons (as long as they are still on the shirt, othersie they're fine) or artifical cleaning sponges.

― the music mole (colin s barrow), Monday, 23 August 2004 05:14 (twenty-one years ago)

roxy - we have to go on this little mini tour first. We'll be there on Sept 1st. I'll email you as soon as we get settled (which is different that being unpacked, which will take months) - psyched to meet ya!

― roger adultery (roger adultery), Monday, 23 August 2004 05:15 (twenty-one years ago)

paper terrifies me.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 23 August 2004 05:16 (twenty-one years ago)

also: the word "about" and the 1982 Denver Broncos.

― oops (Oops), Monday, 23 August 2004 05:17 (twenty-one years ago)

I think I have an unnatural fear of doors, or at the very least the idea that whilst reaching for a door handle, someone will swing the door open in my direction, snapping my wrist

― Gear! (Gear!), Monday, 23 August 2004 05:19 (twenty-one years ago)

At least my balloon fear has a somewhat rational explanation (the popping). Im trying to work out how someone could be afeared of buttons!

― Trayce (trayce), Monday, 23 August 2004 05:20 (twenty-one years ago)

paperwork terrifies me.

― Harold Media (kenan), Monday, 23 August 2004 05:21 (twenty-one years ago)

work terrifies me.

― roxymuzak (roxymuzak), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Airports.

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:30 (twenty-one years ago)

seventy-five pounds of air conditioner ramshackled into window frames , i know seems like a rational fear, but my greek friends at the pizza parlor think its a laugh riot

― kephm (kephm), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:34 (twenty-one years ago)

drugstore germs
dying in my cubicle at 430pm on a friday & having my body dissected by curious office cleaners playing dress up

― kephm (kephm), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

The incredibly shrill camp Tory boy on my corridor at university had this weird phobia about eggs. He would not be in the same room as one. Once, just for a laugh, I left one on the kitchen counter, looking as though it might roll off the edge and smash and he was all "aieee! Get that OUT of here!"

I never understood it.

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Balloons.

(I'm not kidding - Trayce's first post might have been mine. I fucking hate people touching, playing with balloons anywhere near me. IF I manage to get my fingers in my ears when I know they're going to pop one, it's okay, but otherwise I think I'll have a heart attack every time one bursts. It could have something to do with your reflex reactions, i.e. when a balloon pops you CAN'T react rationally as your body goes into fight or flight (or keel over with cardiac infarction) mode before your brain has time to respond.)

― Markelby (Mark C), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Just out of interest, are you okay with fireworks?

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:46 (twenty-one years ago)

snakes (i'm surprised i'm the first to mention them. i thought this was a major phobia) and the US Customs. i can't cross the border now without a full-blown panic attack, i actually need to medicate in order to make it over.

― Anthony (Plato Guy), Monday, 23 August 2004 14:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Birds - clinically known as "ornithophobia", an affliction I share with celebrated author Graham Greene and telelvision personality Bryant Gumble. I've had it as early as I can remember. I'm typically a wreck during visits to America's more pidgeon populated cities. Stragnely, the sight of dead birds freaks me out the same, if not more.
Also, I'm a bit freaked by large spaces. Agoraphobia if you will. Road trips under a big bright blue sky can be unnerving as the high unlikelyhood that gravity will somehow reverse itself, jokingly suggested by Val Kilmer's character in the 1985 motion picture comedy "Real Genius"

― herbert hebert (herbert hebert), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:24 (twenty-one years ago)

people watching me eat. mainly people I don't know but generally I don't like this. sometimes I have to put up with it. I've said this on other ILX irrational fear threads.

― Ronan (Ronan), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:27 (twenty-one years ago)

calling people on the phone
dogs

― sexyDancer, Monday, 23 August 2004 15:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I have an irrational fear that one day the ILX archives will disappear in a sizzle of electricity and smoke. (although maybe I'm more afraid they WON'T disppear someday). One of these mentions the great classic "fear of buttons" that's all the rage these days.

Irrational Disklikes
Hatred of Avocadoes
Irrational Hatreds Inherited from your parents.
irrational hatred of objects
Irrational fear that your house/flat has burned down
Irrational Paranoia!
irrational hatred of drapes

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

flying.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:32 (twenty-one years ago)

calling people on the phone

this is actually a big one for me, and I'm not sure why. I need a new job.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:33 (twenty-one years ago)

You could try being a phone sex operator.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

thanks, Tracer.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:35 (twenty-one years ago)

You could work up to it slowly, you wouldn't have to just jump in. Like, each time you make the sex you could move the phone a little closer to your bed.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Four or five times a day I get a wave of irrational fear that one of my friends or relatives has died. This doesn't help with the fear of making phone calls which I also suffer from, as I think I'm going phone someone's house to be told they're dead.

You know that awful news story that was discussed on here about the guy who accidentally killed his wife with a chainsaw - I spent a few days thinking that was my dad and stepmother, purely because they live in South London and are about the right age. And yet, I haven't phoned him since it happened. Just in case I am right. < /menko>

― Archel (Archel), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:41 (twenty-one years ago)

Calling people on the phone is a big one. In fact, phones in general.

Also, lifts/elevators. I utterly hate them. I'm so glad I don't live in a building with one any more, because they freak me out so much.

― Super-Masonic Black Hole (kate), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

I love them, although i agree that they're kind of strange.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:44 (twenty-one years ago)

Tracer, thanks, I really appreciate my irrational fears being singled out for you jokes. You're a treat.

― hstencil (hstencil), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Hey, any time! (You know it's all love, baby.)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 15:54 (twenty-one years ago)

i have a huge fear of flying, which seems to stem from vertigo that's grown stronger and stronger as i get older.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh well, QMII for you then!

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:22 (twenty-one years ago)

(just don't look down over the side)

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

don't i wish.

it really sucks. the last time i drove in the city i had to go over the williamsburg bridge, which has really low guardrails. i had a classic panic attack, to which my passengers were entirely unsympathetic.

― lauren (laurenp), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

i have an irrational fear of dogs (although part of me, the irrational fearing part, thinks that it's a completely rational fear). i've had it for as long as i can remember and i have great trouble being around them especially if they're not on a lead or are barking. it does affect my life in a lot of ways - i change the routes i'm going to walk home if there's a dog near, a walk in the park is, bien sur, no walk in the park.

i think it's been getting worse recently, maybe moving onto a phobia. i should probably do something about it.

― Robbie Lumsden (Wallace Stevens HQ), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:32 (twenty-one years ago)

I asked a question about boats last week I think it got lost in the void, are there any other transatlantic boats that are cheaper than the QMII?? Tracer, do you know?

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:36 (twenty-one years ago)

No, I don't even know if there are any others at all! But I too, would like an answer to this question.

― Tracer Hand (tracerhand), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:45 (twenty-one years ago)

There should be more boats :(

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 23 August 2004 16:49 (twenty-one years ago)

There should be more PSAs about panic attacks; it's a shame the public isn't more aware of them; it componds the problem.
Glad to see I'm not alone with this telephone thing (listening in).

― sexyDancer, Monday, 23 August 2004 17:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Panic attacks, is it possible to have a fear of panic attacks or just losing control? I sorta have this to a mild degree...I've never had a panic attack only felt anxious, but at the back of my mind I have this real dread of having a panic attack - losing it in public...I won't sit in the middle of the row in a cinema in case I have to get out quickly, I only like empty cinemas or aisle seats, I'll avoid the tube for the most part, sit near to the door in lectures, won't go in lifts or planes...

So, I guess after all this, my major irrantional fear is being put in situations where I'm not in control of the situation and/or trapped. And, it's irrational because there are so many situations and potential events that I have no control over, but I've run a sort of risk analysis and come up with avoidance strategies.

― jel -- (jel), Monday, 23 August 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

seven years pass...

I do.

― "renegade" gnome (remy bean), Thursday, 16 February 2012 00:32 (fourteen years ago)

I am afraid of choking on a cough drop in my car, stopping, and having everybody ignore me because they are in a hurry to get home, and leaving me at the side of the road as I choke to death.

― "renegade" gnome (remy bean), Thursday, 16 February 2012 00:32 (fourteen years ago)

i have an irrational fear of knives, not people attacking me with them but just literally knives (non-serrated) at all times. this makes cooking difficult.

― Thu'um gang (jjjusten), Thursday, 16 February 2012 00:36 (fourteen years ago)

flying. it's bearable but im going on a long-haul flight by myself - never flew alone before - in less than 3 weeks and i know i'll be scared without anyone to talk to.

i have a friend who is scared of sponges, which i thought was bizarre but seems to be p common (e.g. was mentioned upthread).

― zverotic discourse (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 16 February 2012 00:44 (fourteen years ago)

remy bean's fear is pretty elaborate.

― zverotic discourse (jim in glasgow), Thursday, 16 February 2012 00:44 (fourteen years ago)

Since no one's said it yet: losing my penis to a whore with disease.

― cue "White Rabbit" (kenan), Thursday, 16 February 2012 02:44 (fourteen years ago)

being tickled.

― owenf, Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:10 (fourteen years ago)

gonna gitcha

― "renegade" gnome (remy bean), Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:12 (fourteen years ago)

Being dragged onto a dance floor.

― Steamtable Willie (WmC), Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:13 (fourteen years ago)

shudder

― owenf, Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:16 (fourteen years ago)

it's a really shit fear to have too because to most people it's linked to FUN. So when people say 'What are you afraid of' and I say 'being tickled' a lot of the time they actually tickle me and when I punch them in the face the fuckers get all offensive.

― owenf, Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:19 (fourteen years ago)

offended

― owenf, Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:19 (fourteen years ago)

I'm afraid of leaving my closet door open at night

STILL
Like, since I was tiny.

I have tried very hard to sleep with it open but nyyyyyaaaaaaah I always have to close it.

― Janet Snakehole (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:29 (fourteen years ago)

i have an irrational fear of failing on the path to possible success. i think i'm scared of feeling stupid because i like to tell myself i'm smart.

― popcorn (get bent), Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:33 (fourteen years ago)

I am terrified of dying. Sometimes the thought will scare me enought to wake me up out of my sleep

― Janet Snakehole (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:37 (fourteen years ago)

being tickled.

― owenf, Wednesday, February 15, 2012 8:10 PM (36 minutes ago)

WHOLLY RATIONAL

― high five delivery device (Abbbottt), Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:48 (fourteen years ago)

I am afraid of toothpaste and shaving cream.

― high five delivery device (Abbbottt), Thursday, 16 February 2012 03:51 (fourteen years ago)

I'm terrified of dying as well, but I imagine that one's reasonably common. I have to just not think about it because otherwise I work myself up into a complete strop.

― Lindsay NAGL (Trayce), Thursday, 16 February 2012 04:52 (fourteen years ago)

Still embarrassed by my balloon fear too - NYE the guy I was dating brought round some balloons to blow up and play around with, bless him, and it was one of the few times he'd tried something spontaneous and cute and I had to tell him not to bother because they upset me. He thought I was just being a boring shithead, I dont think he understood :(

― Lindsay NAGL (Trayce), Thursday, 16 February 2012 04:53 (fourteen years ago)

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