Confess to an odd fear that you have now or have had in the past (other than clowns)

[Orrex]

For me, it was aliens. Not Giger-type aliens nor the denizens of the Mos Eisley cantina. It was the benevolent Close Encounters-style fuckers that absolutely horrified me. Even ET drove me nearly to catatonia, for pity's sake.

It's been about 25 years since I felt that particular fear in response to aliens like that, but I felt a glimmer of it as I flipped through the channels right now and spotted the spindly alien at the end of Close Encounters doing the sign language thing with the French dude.

FWIW, I'm reasonably sure that I've never been abducted or probed, so those two possibilities are out as likely explanations.


Anyway, what bizarre fears really shake your spine?

[Lethe]

1. Fear of going insane

if you want details read some Poe and Lovecraft

[Orrex]

2. Good one! And much more grounded in reality than mine!

I've read all of Poe and Lovecraft, by the way (except for some of Lovecraft's poems, which are execrable), and they both do an excellent job of evoking that sense of impending madness.

[Withywindle]

53. Fear of premature burial!

And I blame Poe directly for that. I still can't imagine anything worse. :scared:

[WorseBeforeBetter]

3. Other than 'President Sarah Palin'...

I can't think of any. I'm boring. :-(

[Orrex]

5. That's not an odd fear at all!

It would be a world-shattering horror!

[WorseBeforeBetter]

15. Three more days, three more days!

Actually, I thought of something: the crawlspace under my house. Too many creepy-crawly things!

[TZ]

4. Fear of carwashes (drive through)

I don't know why but the big rotating brushes really scared the hell out of me. Even now I sometimes feel a twinge when I go through one. But when I was a kid...I would beg my mother to let me get out of the car and wait...

[Lethe]

6. those are really cool if you are high

like, seriously faded on weed.

it's scary like a rollercoaster

[Nevernose]

23. Yeah, but so are fish tanks and complicated knots

Not to mention:

assertive geese
fire alarms
lawnmowers
baking a turkey (don't ask about that Thanksgiving after I first dropped acid)
casinos
the remake of Willy Wonka

[Lethe]

31. you are scared of all those things?

:smoke:

[Orrex]

7. Wild!

My older son also hates the rotating brushes. He calls them pom-poms and can't articulate why they scare him, but I don't force him to endure the trip through the car wash, either.

Thanks for sharing!

[Dystopian]

48. That's a rational fear.

I will not go through one. Too freakin' freaky...horrifying! :scared:
I think it may be the feeling of being trapped...

My son went through one with his dog...pit bull. He won't do it again...the poor thing went ballistic, bouncing off the doors....and hit the window button...hee hee. My son was pissed. I thought it was a great story.

That's one of my rational fears...I have many:(


peace~

[neebob]

68. Ah, the brushy car wash ...

My son (now 19) was terrified of that, when he was car-seat sized. Whenever I said we were going to wash the car, he had to make sure it was the squirty car wash and not the brushy car wash. I took him through one once, just to show him it was OK, and regretted it.

[Mojambo]

8. Birds in general. Chickens quite specifically. n/t

[Orrex]

9. I had another fear as a child: open steps

Not sure of the formal designation, but it's the style of step with no riser, so that each step is a separate platform. I was terrified that I would fall through, between one step and the next. I would make it about four or five steps up the staircase and then crumble into a ball. Stangely, I never feared falling over the side, under the railing, which was in retrospect a much more likely result.

Eventually the phobia just sort of vanished. Not sure when, but it was before I was eight or nine, I'd guess.

[TZ]

12. YES! I have that one too!

Still do! When I was appartment hunting I would automatically reject the ones that had them. I think it has to do with my utter fear of heights (gosh I'm beginning to sound a bit like a big chicken, eh?)

[Orrex]

16. If you're a big chicken, stay away from Mojambo

[neebob]

62. I did, too, and I still don't like them.

I think it's related to my problem with heights. I have a hard time getting near any kind of overlook, even if there's a sturdy rail.

As a child, I was also afraid of falling through the crack under the elevator door or getting sucked under the escalator at the department store where my grandma worked.

[femmocrat]

99. I am still terrified of open steps!

My knees turn to jello on them. I will do anything to avoid them.

[LeftyMom]

10. Not me, but LeftyKid's terrified of Spiderman. Oh, and the goop inside of pumpkins.

:wtf:

[TZ]

13. The pumpkin gook?

Maybe he thinks its pumpkin guts? My younger sister thought so and hated it too when she was little.....

[LeftyMom]

20. He knows it's just seeds and stuff, but he hates getting messy things on his hands.

Which is definitely abnormal for a seven year old boy.

[rug]

11. Fear of being hacked to death by Japanese soldiers in a cave.

I watched too many WW2 movies growing up.

[Orrex]

14. Very specific! Does it have to be in a cave?

What if they hacked you to death in a peaceful glade?

[rug]

26. It's always a cave, always a cave.

:cry:

[Awsi Dooger]

17. Being shot while swimming

That thought bugged me for years. I swim laps in the pool all the time, at least 50 and up to 200. Maybe 15 years ago I saw a depiction of the FBI shootout in Miami in the '80s, maybe '86. One scene showed the perpetrators stealing a car by going to a remote watering hole and finding a car, then shooting the owner while he was in the water. That scene spooked me to such extreme I kept envisioning someone taking pot shots at me while I was swimming laps. I'd catch myself removing the goggles and looking around.

[Orrex]

18. Very interesting!

And creepily specific. Thanks for sharing!

[Sophree]

64. I have a fear of fish biting my toes

Swimming in lakes, of course, not pools.

I also used to have a strange fear that once I turned off the water after a shower that worms would be in the tub or bottom of the shower. I'd stand on tip-toes, turn off the water and jump out as quickly as I could. Have no idea where that one came from. :blush:

[fizzgig]

19. i went through a phase last year where i was terrified that i was going to electrocute myself

i was just convinced that i was going to zap myself plugging or unplugging something...that was a short-lived but ridiculous fear.

i'm also freaked out by creatures that live in the ocean, it creeps me out just to think about them. the great blue whale hanging from the ceiling at the natural history museum in nyc freaked me the fuck out when i was a kid...it still kinda does

[Lethe]

24. marine mammals are cool

c'mon!

:D

they have songs and stuff

[fizzgig]

34. they really are amazing

but they freak me out

[Orrex]

25. When I first saw an oarfish on tv, I wanted to drain all of the oceans

That electrocution fear is interesting, too. I wonder what caused it?

[fizzgig]

37. i was during a period of time when i was off my meds, seriously

i'm sure that had something to do with it

[TZ]

29. I'm guessing....

That snorkeling is NOT a hobby of yours...;-)

[fizzgig]

38. kinda hard to do in the rockies

:P

[kentauros]

21. I may still have a lingering fear of not returning to my body

during an OBE (out of body experience.) Then again, I haven't had one in a couple of years. Maybe the fear is preventing them ;)

As for aliens of the type you describe, I did have one UFO-type dream where the aliens had landed two tetrahedral-shaped craft in what looked like an excavation or an open-pit mine. Two workers approached, one touched the shimmering all-silver craft and it set up a vibration in his body such that he basically dissolved, screaming. His partner tried to touch his body with a broom handle only for the vibration to travel to him, killing him as well. I was watching the whole thing from on a hilltop nearby with other people I may have known. Since then, I will profess to having some fear of UFOs and their operators, whether we ever see them en masse on this planet or not.

[Orrex]

27. That's a really wild dream!

I seldom experience (or remember) such detail in my dreams. Creepy!

[kentauros]

33. Yes, it disturbed me for some days after.

I know there have been other dreams of UFOs, trying to hide from them. I don't know if that means a fear of abductions or evidence of them or what. I really don't know either way if abductions are real or not, though I don't feel like I have been. Probably just enough fear of the unknown to make it bother me...

[Connonym]

22. Storm drains

whether they're the kind that's built into the curb or the kind that's flat on the ground I don't like to walk near them, never, ever across one. My children are quite cruel and mock me for this fear.

[kentauros]

28. That's understandable

I'm wary of parking near them as I am sometimes prone to dropping my keys...

[Orrex]

30. Is it a fear of falling into them, or a fear that something will reach up and grab you?

I'm not mocking in either case--just exploring!

[Lethe]

32. They all float down here,

:D

[Orrex]

35. I said no clowns!

Can't you count?

[Connonym]

36. either me falling into them or my keys or purse falling into them

but great, now I'm going to be scared of something reaching up out of there...sort of like the mutants in Futurama? Thanks for that :-P

[Orrex]

39. Glad to help you work it out

I was thinking of something with tentacles, but you can fill that dark void beneath your feet with whatever seems most appropriate.

[kentauros]

42. Leela is a mutant

:P

Though, come this Tuesday, she turns into a centauress-mutant :D

[mitchum]

40. When I was a kid an octopus or spider would REALLY freak me out...

but now I find them to be fascinating

[Orrex]

41. Neat!

And a neat evolution of your fear!

[Lethe]

44. both delicious and in the Goonies

?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

43. Basements.

When I was a kid we lived in an old house that had one of those big old octopus-ish furnaces and I was scared to death of it. I absolutely would not go into the basement without my mom, and even then, only with reluctance. That furnace had arms and it was evil and it was gonna get me. I still don't like basements much, even my own.

[Orrex]

46. I used to get freaked out if I was in the basement and the furnace roared to life

This was when I was really young, so I don't remember it too well, but I don't recall being frightened of it while it was dormant...

[pokerfan]

45. Bears

Seriously, I have a healthy respect for the mofos.

[Orrex]

47. Well dammit you'd be a fool not to

Bears are bears, for bog's sake! What do we have? Thumbs? BFD! How the hell did we ever survive?!?

[pokerfan]

49. Well some people have incredible disregard for them

I've seen people feed them for gawd's sake.

[Orrex]

51. I don't even like getting to close to their enclosure at the zoo

No matter how thick the pipe is, I have the sense that the bear could just shoulder it aside, if she cared to try.

Yikes!

[Lil Missy]

50. As an early teen, I feared there was something under my bed, and I jumped in and out of bed quickly.

I would sometimes hear scratching and bumping noises under my bed that would wake me up. Several times during the daylight, I'd check under the bed to figure out what could be making the noise, and couldn't see anything but a few loose springs and loose backing hanging from the box springs.

I was beginning to think I must just be nuts and imagining things.

One day I decided to clean up and throw away a bunch of shit in my room, and I pulled out the two halves of a full length cast I had put under my bed, that had been since removed. (I had a knee surgery for an injury) I don't know why; I just kept the sawed off halves as a souvenir.

I'll be damned if both halves of that cast weren't full of mouse shit! I showed it to my parents and they got some mouse traps to put under my bed. Sure enough, we caught 2 mice!

The little fuckers had been living and roosting in my box springs! Thank god those traps went of when I wasn't in bed, because I'd have had a stroke if I heard them snap while I was sleeping!

Never heard any of those noises again after that. But it took me a while to get over my fear of unknown monsters under my bed.

[Orrex]

52. Awesome story!

I remember being afraid to let my hands or feet dangle over the edge of the bed. The space between the bottom end of the mattress and the foot-board was the most dangerous, of course!

Somehow I think this tied into my alien fear, as though they were going to fly a zillion lightyears and then hide under my bed to get me. Oh, for the rational thought-process of an eight-year-old!


Thanks for sharing!

[Lil Missy]

61. LOL! Yeah, I decided not to mention the hand and feet dangling thing, but I did that too.

It sure did scare the fuckin' wits outta me at the time. I was about 11-12 years old at the time.

Since then, and in all my adult years, I could sleep with arms and legs sticking out everywhere, and could sleep through a bomb being dropped in my yard. I've had big 100 year old trees nearby come up by their roots and drop in my yard during major thunderstorms and tornadoes all around me.

But I didn't even know it had rained until I opened the door to go to work. One time, I had nothing but tree trunks and large branches all over my yard, and roof damage. Didn't hear a damn thing.

[BeachBaby]

54. That my one experience at real true love

has come and gone, never to return or be replicated.

[TZ]

57. I would not consider that odd.

:hug:
(considering in some ways I feel the same)

[Orrex]

60. I don't find that odd either

I suspect that it's a rather painful fear to have to live with.

:hug:

[puerco-bellies]

55. Crossing bridges and freeway overpasses.

This phobia came out of nowhere and lasted several years. Not an easy fear to ignore here in L.A.

[Orrex]

56. What was your fear exactly, if you don't mind me asking? And when did it start?

I've heard that a surprisingly common phobia involves the fear of feeling compelled to jump off of a bridge while crossing it. Is that what you experienced?

[puerco-bellies]

58. I was afraid of the bridge or overpass collapsing.

Mostly I thought that an earthquake happening has I drove over it.

[Orrex]

59. That fear has plenty of real-world precedent, sadly

Pretty terrifying, I'd imagine!

[HopeFor2006]

63. The bridge between Duluth and Superior

When I was a child we drove across the bridge every time we visited my grandparents. I was terrified of it and had nightmares of falling into Lake Superior someday.

[LaStrega]

65. I'm verrrry terrified by helicopters.

When I see one I feel like I'm literally in mortal danger. :scared:

[eppur_se_muova]

81. Did you know the screenwriter of "Blue Thunder" was once chased by a LAPD helicopter?

If not, feel free to add it to your collection of useless information.

[LaStrega]

82. I did not know that. Added thusly. If it were me, I'm sure I'd keel over. n/t

[AccessGranted]

66. Bears

Scared to death of them things.....hope I never see one other than at the zoo.

[AccessGranted]

67. Bears

Scared to death of them things.....hope I never see one other than at the zoo.

[Orrex]

90. There was a discussion of bears upthread. Terrifying creatures!

I don't think that there's anything odd about your fear of them. Unless you live on a tropical island in the south Pacific, in which case your fear is probably unfounded.

[neebob]

69. I was terrified of a Chihuahua named Carol

when I was 3ish. Carol lived next door. She's the first thing I remember being afraid of. I wouldn't go outside if she was in the yard. She barked a lot, and I was sure she'd eat me.

[Orrex]

91. Weird! To me, Chihuahuas and Pomeranians always seem like they're on the verge of exploding.

Did the fear carry over into your later years at all?

[Lucian]

70. Hell no.

Then it can be used against me.

[conscious evolution]

71. Climbing ropes

I had a climbing rope break while climbing a tree when I was a kid.I have never trusted climbing ropes since.I would rather climb without one.

[Orrex]

92. Unusual! But...

Given your experience, I'd say that some concern is entirely justified!

[Patiod]

72. Dead animals, especially birds

And I have a cat.

Not a good combination.

Twice, when my S.O. has been away, she must have feared for my welfare, because she brought me birds.

I had to call my friend, almost crying, asking what I should do - there was a huge dead bird - bigger than the cat herself - between me and the bathroom, and I had to GO. She suggested putting an upside down box over it so I couldn't see it.

[Orrex]

93. Very interesting!

Do you have a similar fear of dead humans? Like, would you be able to attend an open-casket funeral?


Cats are evil, disgusting creatures. Especially the two lazy oafs that live in my house.

[Patiod]

113. God no, I was raised Catholic

Open caskets - wakes, kneelers right next to the casket - the whole works

My mother was traumatized by seeing her dad laid out on their kitchen table (back in the early 1930's) when she was little, but no such thing problem for me.

[Dinger]

73. I Don't Like Being Home Alone

I live in a log home in the woods, but sometimes when I'm home alone (not often) it's spooky as shit here!:scared:

[Orrex]

94. Well, yeah!

Everyone knows that the best chainsaw-wielding psycho-murderers prefer to operate away from big cities. You're in prime territory!


Yikes!

[YellowRubberDuckie]

74. Cornfields.

IF I see one while I'm driving, I gun the engine. I saw CHildren of the Corn about a thousand times as a kid, and once last night, and I'm still freaked. I will probably never go to Nebraska.
Duckie

[Orrex]

96. The movie didn't really freak me out too much, but...

Cornfields--especially late in the season--are very creepy. The wind rustling through the stalks creates the perfect shiver vibe. I find that apple orchards in winter carry a similar vibe--the barren trees look so evil and desperate.

Thanks for sharing!

[undeterred]

75. The presidential election is screwed up and we end up with a lunatic.

Twice.

[Orrex]

97. Twice I can almost handle. But if we go to three or (god forbid) four, I'm outa here!

[fNord]

76. Most of the women that I'm attracted to............................

oh, and catch-22's

[Orrex]

98. That's some catch.

[Rabrrrrrr]

77. Rush Limbaugh in Equus.

[foxfeet]

79. Damn you, now I'll NEVER get that image out of my head.

[Rabrrrrrr]

80. Good. Good!

[Inspired]

78. My odd fear is of too much success.....I know, it's odd.

It's a self defensive mechanism thing, I guess.

[Orrex]

100. I can almost relate to that, strangely enough

Fortunately, it doesn't look like I'm in danger of ever having to confront that fear head-on...

[jpak]

83. I fear McCain is a clown

:evilgrin:

[BlueIris]

84. Being in a boat and sinking. Not out in the ocean, but in a deep, mountain lake.

Like Blue Lake, or Crater Lake here in Oregon. It's left over from childhood. My parents used to take us out on both of those lakes and it occurred to me once that there weren't really any good prospects for rescue if our boat started to sink out there and something turned out to be wrong with our life jackets.

[Orrex]

101. That's creepy and quite elaborate!

Aren't those lakes pretty chilly, too? Wouldn't boost your chances of a speedy rescue, I'd guess!

[Adsos Letter]

85. ...cows...

...and that's all I'm sayin'... :scared:

[SeattleGirl]

86. The witch under the bed, and the werewolf in the closet.

:scared:

[Orrex]

102. But the werewolf under the bed and the witch in the closet don't bother you?

Just want to be sure I've got the facts straight.

:hi:

[Adsos Letter]

87. SeattleGirl's post reminds me...

of a time in my life when I was quite frightened of certain scenes in "Darby O'Gill and the Little People"...

Again...that's all I have to say about that... :scared:

[Orrex]

103. Everything between the opening and closing credits is horrifying

And that's all that I'm saying about it.

[deadparrot]

88. Police composite sketches of criminals.

:scared:

[Orrex]

104. True Fact:

They all look just like DuStrange.

[insanity]

89. Fear of DL Hugley getting a new show

oh shit.

[Orrex]

105. At some point the world will realize that he's not funny in the slightest

Then again, Dennis Miller still sort of has a career...

[femmocrat]

95. Parking garages terrify me.

I'm so afraid of a car coming up the ramp at me. And they are always so poorly lit, dirty, and spooky. I even have dreams about not being able to find the car... being on the wrong floor, etc.
Horrible places.

[Orrex]

107. There's definitely something surreal about them

Every floor looks more or less the same, especially if the floors' numbers are poorly visible or oddly placed. A modern vehicular labyrinth--next time, take a ball of twine!

[ScreamingMeemie]

106. That something terrible would happen to my husband and I would lose him.

I am not really afraid of anything anymore.

[curse10]

108. The Incredible Hulk and Lou Ferrigno

Back when I was wee Mr. Rogers had Lou Ferrigno on the show to explain the whole make-up process so kids wouldn't be freaked out. Didn't work. I was even more horrified and mad at my mom for making me watch. She wouldn't let me leave the couch despite my screaming and crying. And she wonders why I'm going to put her in a home...

[Orrex]

110. That episode aired not too long ago, in fact

Strange, the things that horrify us.

[crim son]

109. Ants.

Also, the elderly. The latter fear has diminished the closer I've come to being elderly, which is good.

[Orrex]

111. If you had an elderly Aunt, I bet she'd totally freak you out

But there definitely is something relentless and methodical about ants that makes you think they're just biding their time until we blow ourselves up...

[crim son]

112. And see, I have no elderly Aunts. No Aunts, in fact.

Whew! :D

And ants are vile, especially where it's warm. It there's a Hell I'm sure the corridors are crunchy with masses of ants. :scared: