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Completely irrational fears thread

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07:26 / 03.12.06

That´s no irrational fear, calgodot. In the last months I had a couple of close encounters with cars, whose drivers don´t care a lot about red or green lights.

One time a car stopped about 50 cm away from me, after almost flying across a large crossroads. And at the time, a lot of cars had green lights but certainly not that one.

10:11 / 03.12.06

I feel uncomfortable when I'm surrounded by a group of trees, forrests just seem really oppressive to me, especially at twilight when the trees start throwing their evil shadows onto me, brrr. I quite like trees individually, one at a time, it just gets bad when they gang up on me.

Oh, and I'm with just nervous about calling people on the phone - I often avoid calling friends because I just know that they probably have something better to do than talking to me.
Apart from all that I'm quite rational though.

lord nuneaton savage

10:25 / 03.12.06

Wooden spoons and any other such rough-textured kitchen utensil.

Seeing my girlfriend (or anyone else) putting them into her mouth to taste something makes me want to faint.

10:34 / 03.12.06

I have an irrational fear of doctors. I don't mind nurses, certain clinics, or even hospitals (weell, not so much), but as soon as the doctor comes in, I start to panic. One time it was very bad. I couldn't breathe. Instead of helping me, the doctor sat down and clicked his pen. He told me that I should go somewhere else without examining me. He was insulted, I think, or else he thought I was just being a nutbar and making it up. I stuttered out, "But I need a diagnosis.". Anyway, it was awful and did nothing to alleviate my fears.

You know, I had to tell this doctor myself, that I was having a panic attack. He looked at me and said, "Well, how am I supposed to know that? I am a doctor, not God." Who said anything about him being a god? I wanted to deck him right there. I felt humiliated.

There is a doctor shortage in Canada. I don't have too many choices. Apparently in my province, 28% of families do not have a family doctor.

I have a rational fear that I will never find a family doctor that I am comfortable with.

20:22 / 03.12.06

I ride trains a lot and for some reason, I always imagine that a horrific trainwreck will ocurr, and I will have picked the worst seat imaginable. Usually I suddenly picture myself flying down the walkway, or busting open my head on the plastic handles on the back of the seat in front of me.

weird huh?

21:16 / 03.12.06

No, I don´t think that´s weird.

In a train you´re at someone else´s mery and if that anonymous person makes a mistake (overlooks a signal, drives to fast, passes out, uses the track switch wrong, etc.), you can all of a sudden get injured or killed.

I recently read, that all our fears are essentially the fear of death. And because our death is something, we can´t get to grips with, our minds find something more concrete and a bit less frightening (because it is less certain) to be afraid of.

For example, you can imagine, that the train accident happens to you, because it is feasible, these things do happen. At the same time, you know, it´s pretty unlikely that it´ll happen and you have a good chance for survival (in relation to crashing with a plane for example). Death on the other hand is inevitable and unimaginable, and we could not function with that fear on our minds. So these "weird" or "twisted" phobias are a good way to relieve some built up pressure.

23:19 / 03.12.06

Dark water, that is, water when it's night. I always imagine huge monsters lurking down there. Even the lake near where I used to live, which is artificial and likely no more that 10' at the deepest. I'm certain there's some giant, coiling sea-snake waiting just beneath the surface and any moment it will come charging up and devour me.

23:29 / 03.12.06

I have a fear of heights, but only over water.

05:48 / 04.12.06

I got the same thing with water. Not to say that I have a rabies-like fear of the stuff generally, but the sea gets me for a number of reasons. The first is just that it's so fucking big. When I'm in a boat I can't help thinking of how far below me the bottom is. Kind of like a fear of heights, I suppose.

The real, serious issue I have with the sea, however, is Killer Whales. I'm not really sure where this one started, but over the years its gone from a being vaguely awed to being utterly terrified. David Attenborough deserves a good deal of the blame, I think.
Anyway, they jump up onto the beach to catch seals just sitting there relaxing. They play with their food, they torture it. They'll eat anything in the sea - they even eat blue whales sometimes; they hunt them in packs over days. Their names in pretty much all the languages in the world are things like death whale, killer whale, demon whale etc.

But what really puts me on edge is the fact that with all their monsterous power, their teamwork, their impressive intellect and their enormous appetites there have never been any recorded attacks by killer whales on humans. What does that say?

06:29 / 04.12.06

with all their monsterous power, their teamwork, their impressive intellect and their enormous appetites there have never been any recorded attacks by killer whales on humans

i'm almost certain this is, like, 4000% untrue. will report back with more info soon. until, then, i'd just like to concur about the dark water. i worked on an island 14 miles off the coast a couple summers ago, and i've gotta say that the ocean at night is fucking terrifying (plus, the fact that this was rhode island made the theoretical likelihood of terrible lovecraftian beasties far more likely, in my mind at least...)

07:06 / 04.12.06

argh argh argh. is anyone else afraid of cotton wool?

any kind of cotton on teeth. When I had teeth out and any dentistry work, the nightmare for me is biting on cotton wool, even writing about it is making me shudder.

07:14 / 04.12.06

I have the same problem with styrofoam.
Of course, I never bit on it. But especially that sqeaky noise it makes is almost as bad as nails scratching over a blackboard.

07:26 / 04.12.06

with all their monsterous power, their teamwork, their impressive intellect and their enormous appetites there have never been any recorded attacks by killer whales on humans

i'm almost certain this is, like, 4000% untrue. will report back with more info soon.

There was one just the other day at Sea World, which, not that anyone cares, is like fifteen minutes drive from my new apartment.

----

As far as my irrational fears, the one I get the most grief about is my fear of getting seeds stuck between my teeth. I refuse to eat strawberries or anything with poppy seeds because the seeds are just so terrifyingly small.

07:44 / 04.12.06

any kind of cotton on teeth. When I had teeth out and any dentistry work, the nightmare for me is biting on cotton wool, even writing about it is making me shudder.

yep! argh, its horrible. last time i went to the dentist to get work done, he used this big plastic sail inside my mouth which, according to him was much more painful than urgh argh cotton wool - yeah right!!!

09:52 / 04.12.06

Wearekeeping, can you please please please change your name to something shorter.

Plz.

12:44 / 04.12.06

Toenails.
Cant touch my own.
Wont let anyone touch mine.
Hate cutting my toenails, but hate long ones.
Cant. Discuss. Anymore. Too creepy.

20:09 / 04.12.06

Wearekeeping, can you please please please change your name to something shorter.

no. sorry!

20:37 / 04.12.06

Why not?

20:53 / 04.12.06

doesitmakefindingallyourpostseasierbecauseitbreaksthelineandgivesyousomethingtolookfor?
because there are easier ways, y'know.
like ctrl+f.
or looking for the edit post tag.

21:18 / 04.12.06

Wearekeeping...It would be good if you could, because currently you are throwing every single thread you post in out of kilter. I mean you could just ignore that, but sooner or later I think you'll start to feel like no-one's really engaging with you and maybe you'll wonder why, and probably that will be entirely because your name is bodging up the whole site and it's annoying everyone.

Like a nagnail.

Can't you just add a few spaces? Please?

21:26 / 04.12.06

in the interests of fairness, i should probably mention that i was told similar things when i began barbelithing regarding my lack of proper punctuation.
it hasnt seemed to be a problem all that often, at least not as much folks seemed to think it would.

it does look kinda lame, but i'm not about to pretend folks havent said exactly the same to me about capitals and paragraphs, etc.

02:07 / 05.12.06

There was one just the other day at Sea World, which, not that anyone cares, is like fifteen minutes drive from my new apartment.

Ahh, sorry - I should have been more clear. Actually, this is all the more terrifying. What happens is sometimes Killer Whales get irritable with their trainers, and they demonstrate this by stopping the trainer getting to the side, or by holding them under the water, or by waiting until they're climbing out and then pulling them back in again.
The thing is that a Killer Whale could bite you in two with ridiculous ease. But they don't... they just let you know that they could. Like sometimes a killer whale will come and bash somebody off of their surfboard, just for a laugh. But if they ever fuck anybody up properly, they make damn sure they don't get caught.

All Acting Regiment

13:27 / 05.12.06

Ditto the Killer Whales thing- it's the eyes.

When I'm out and about and a cat comes and says hello to me I'm terrified they'll follow me and get lost or run over.

ORA ORA ORA ORAAAA!!

07:28 / 22.12.06

Static electric shocks. To my eyes.

I work in a place where I am zapped at least 15 times per day, which is mildly stressful at the best of times, but for some reason I have recently become fixated on the idea that I will be zapped in the eye. It will hurt.

09:08 / 22.12.06

To add to Yr own joy's irrational fear:

An Antarctic(? memory hazy, approximation called for) expedition once noticed their shadaows on the ice were strange, and large. After a while the 'shadows' that were in fact killer whales trailing them, broke through the ice. They ate the horses and left the people.

And you think yr safe on land? Naw. They roll up the beach and they eat you. Only when no ones looking, mind.

I have an irrational fear of letters from universities.
Roehampton just wanted to say hello, and they know I exist now they got my ucas form. Great.

15:22 / 27.12.06

My parents and my son just left for my parents place. They take him over there sometimes. I fear something is going to happen to my son and/or my parents. The roads are not very good, and my mother is in a bad mood. Maybe it is just the impact of the bird dying in my hands, but this has to be an irrational fear. It is, right? I can hardly wait till they call me and let me know they are okay. Sometimes, it is good to be wrong. I feel so helpless.

All Acting Regiment

16:30 / 27.12.06

It's a perfectly reasonable thing to be concerned about, but don't worry about it unnecesarily. We hear so much about bad things because they happen so rarely.

18:18 / 27.12.06

I have a big fear of my genital member touching porcelain of any kind, in any situation.

Also, big terror at locking myself out of my apartment, losing the gas cap or oil cap to my truck.

Can't drink the bottom of any can or bottle. Any water left in a bottle in my truck seems poison to me after 24 hours.

I can only wash dishes or hand clean anything right before i take a shower.

Dying by being suffocated by a snake, or dragged underwater by a giant crocodile, would probably be the worst way to go. Burning alive would also suck pretty bad.

Killer whales are, in fact, quite scary. And they can be mean, I would have difficulty trusting one even if they acted nice for a while. Anything that would drown a baby blue whale just to eat it's jawbone, is a pretty cold being.

Cold, like porcelain.

19:18 / 27.12.06

There's something crawling up the back of your chair.

It's legs are huge.

One of them can almost touch your neck.

Don't look.

19:25 / 27.12.06

Y'big meanie.

16:42 / 10.03.07

Do crows really attack people? I passed a big crowd of them today and actually crossed the street to avoid them. They looked so menacing with their cawing and beady little eyes. Am I just submitting to vicious anti-crow propaganda?

16:48 / 10.03.07

I walked past a lot of crows today. I wasn't attacked and neither was anyone else.

16:55 / 10.03.07

I walked past a lot of crows today. I wasn't attacked and neither was anyone else.

So far the statistics are on our side then.

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