What terrifies you? [Archive] - Giant in the Playground Forums

2010-09-02, 01:27 AM

Large birds
Death
Youtube Commenters
Disease
Loud sudden noise
People who dislike black jellybeans
Hiccups
Twilight
Anime Conventions
DVDs/CDs being left out of their cases
The high pitched screech babies make
Emoticons that look like :3
The undead
More undead
My first grade teacher
Drunk people
Public toilets
Accidentally eating raw chicken
Even more undead
That Bono will track me down for all the comments I've left on various forums about him
That Lars Ulrich will track me down etc.
That George Lucas will " "
Salt water
Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory
Led Zeppelin fans
The cut scenes from "Faces of Evil" and "Wand of Gamelon"
My evil alter ego or "Anti-X2"
Public speaking
Bad improvised rap
The woman who always stares at me at the local library
People who can't use chopsticks (they'll put an eye out)
Twilight haters
Twilight fans
Dentists
That corn will be stuck between my teeth for all eternity
My 11th grade English teacher
People who challenge me to staring contests
Bad handshakes
Sirens
Really dumb lists :smalleek:
People who say "Kawaii"
Getting lost in a supermarket or mall
Breaking down in a car a long way from home
Having to use a second hand toothbrush
People who say "lol" and "brb" in real life (or IRL)
Being in a car with someone with all the driving skills of a clam
Heights
Coconut cake
The next door neighbours (both sides*)
My sister on a bad day
Bagpipes
That one day I will snap and kill everyone I know before turning the gun on myself
Falling down the stairs
A shower with no hot water
Bugs flying up my nose

Some are more potent than others of course. :smallbiggrin:

*I'm serious. One side are a bunch of loud, violent tempered, beer swilling frat guys and the other are a large, strange family who use home schooling and stare at me when I take the trash out

Gullara

2010-09-02, 01:30 AM

*snipped*

Some are more potent than others of course. :smallbiggrin:

*I'm serious. One side are a bunch of loud, violent tempered, beer swilling frat guys and the other are a large, strange family who use home schooling and stare at me when I take the trash out

:eek:

I like number 35:smalltongue:

Ponderthought

2010-09-02, 01:35 AM

Good, good... *takes notes, promises to return with some horror fiction*

By the way, large birds? Birds are awesome.

RabbitHoleLost

2010-09-02, 01:37 AM

Good, good... *takes notes, promises to return with some horror fiction*

By the way, large birds? Birds are awesome.

Hitchcock disagrees with you.

Ponderthought

2010-09-02, 01:39 AM

Hitchcock disagrees with you.

I would cite that specific example as a support for my birds are awesome case.

Gullara

2010-09-02, 01:40 AM

If you can believe it, moths. They don't really scare me, but they freak me out. Ask anybody in my family. I'm sure that if they had to list their fears one would be the sight of me killing a moth.

2010-09-02, 01:40 AM

Good, good... *takes notes, promises to return with some horror fiction*

Your welcome. I have provided with enough to write several books, spinoff short stories, movie adaptations and the spinoff comics from the movie adaptation. We'll split the profits 40/60.

RabbitHoleLost

2010-09-02, 01:43 AM

I would cite that specific example as a support for my birds are awesome case.

If by awesome, you mean the traditional connotation of terrifying, yes.

factotum

2010-09-02, 01:45 AM

Not much, is the quick answer! The last movie that genuinely scared me was Poltergeist, but I was only about 13 when I saw it. As far as books are concerned, I actually find Victorian short stories to be scarier than modern horror by a long chalk--the one I always found most chilling was "The Haunted and the Haunters". I don't recall ever being totally terrified from anything in real life, oddly.

Ponderthought

2010-09-02, 01:45 AM

Your welcome. I have provided with enough to write several books, spinoff short stories, movie adaptations and the spinoff comics from the movie adaptation. We'll split the profits 40/60.

Why did that feel like a challenge to write short stories about each and every thing on your list?

Perhaps im slightly mad.

Gullara

2010-09-02, 01:46 AM

Why did that feel like a challenge to write short stories about each and every thing on your list?

Perhaps im slightly mad.

We all already knew you were mad, but this mad? I don't know.

2010-09-02, 01:47 AM

Why did that feel like a challenge to write short stories about each and every thing on your list?

Perhaps im slightly mad.

If you do it you will earn my neverending respect and admiration and I shall shower you with praise at every single possible chance.

I would love to read a horror story about people who say "Kawaii"

Ponderthought

2010-09-02, 01:50 AM

I would love to read a horror story about people who say "Kawaii"

The truly horrifying thing is, I actually have an idea forming for that.

I just might write it. Because I finally have time.

So much time!

2010-09-02, 01:51 AM

The truly horrifying thing is, I actually have an idea forming for that.

I believe you mean "the truly AWESOME thing".

Gullara

2010-09-02, 01:53 AM

I believe you mean "the truly AWESOME thing".

I'd say horrifying:smallbiggrin:

Worira

2010-09-02, 01:53 AM

The Japanese words for cute (kawaii) and scary (kowai) are very similar.

2010-09-02, 02:00 AM

I can see it now! A thread in the Arts & Crafts section entitled "What Scares X2: An Anthology" and people would come from 'cross the forum to scream at the things that keep me up at night and I would lord over them with newly acquired celebrity status and crush them 'neath my feet all the while laughing maniacally...

Don't... don't pay much attention to the above paragraph, I sure didn't. All I'm saying is that I think it's a funny idea.

Ponderthought

2010-09-02, 02:01 AM

I have successfully included No.'s 41, 45, and alittle light Eye Scream, in the first paragraph. I think this thread is paying off.

ghost_warlock

2010-09-02, 02:19 AM

Years ago I was visiting the Omaha zoo and went into the aviary. Some sort of black bird flew by close enough that it sliced my arm open with the tip of one of its wings.

The Succubus

2010-09-02, 02:29 AM

Remmirath

2010-09-02, 02:39 AM

Dogs, diseases, death (how many people don't, at least to some extent, I wonder?), elephants, monkeys, apes, driving on the freeway, freak accidents concerning pretty much anything, people who shout loud things in the street, people who try to talk to you in the street, people who get too close to you, maybe people in general, losing my mind, air travel (due to perceived likelyhood of accidents/death), my neigbours who used to beat on the wall at odd hours of the morning and talk in hushed voices behind their house (and who the police have seemingly investigated no less than three times), armed robberies, being in the wrong place at the wrong time and being killed for it, being mauled by a wild animal in a remote location.

I think that's about it. Oh, for some reason the combination of dead trees and standing bodies of water in remote areas terrifies me. That one puzzles me more than the rest. :smallconfused:

Coincidentally, my new horror movie is going to feature a shark with hypodermic needles for teeth who watches people from outside windows while they sleep.

And the needles are filled with tiny spiders that he injects into your blood.

I don't think I would be able to stop laughing if I watched that. I'm sure it'd be horrifying to people afraid of those things, though. :smallamused:

thubby

2010-09-02, 04:03 AM

the one thing that really, genuinely terrifies me is the idea of losing my mind.

AslanCross

2010-09-02, 04:11 AM

Static electricity. I have very few phobias, but static electricity is the most enduring one. I never consciously touch the metal bars on glass doors.

Kobold-Bard

2010-09-02, 04:17 AM

Dying. Absolutely scarred pantsless by the idea that everything I've experienced and the memories I've accumulated getting wiped out, just like that <snaps fingers>

That and dogs, but that's because one of the little ****s bit me as a kid.

ghost_warlock

2010-09-02, 04:32 AM

the one thing that really, genuinely terrifies me is the idea of losing my mind.

I find mine is usually the second-to-last place I look. Always check that one last place, just to make sure the lemmings remember last quarter's toothpaste.

The Succubus

2010-09-02, 04:38 AM

I find mine is usually the second-to-last place I look. Always check that one last place, just to make sure the lemmings remember last quarter's toothpaste.

Oh, feel free to add ghost_warlock to my list now.

Lioness

2010-09-02, 05:52 AM

Needles, and similar pointy objects (also static electricity)

Can reduce me to a horrible quivering mess in seconds.

druid91

2010-09-02, 06:10 AM

ghost_warlock

2010-09-02, 08:03 AM

Green shadows, fortunately I have never seen this outside the creepy swamp in my dream world, So I think I'm safe.
And if not it obviously means my dreams have invaded reality, which isn't good news for anybody.

I can say, with fair confidence, better yours than mine.

For instance, you know how there's those fast zombie dogs in Resident Evil? Well, in my dreams, the zombies aren't dogs, they're invisible tigers.

And, also, there's angry ex-girlfriends. All of them.

Syka

2010-09-02, 08:14 AM

Bugs. All bugs. Including butterflies.

I'm fine if they are Over There but if they venture Here, I freak. I handle them much better outdoors than indoors. I can't even kill them. The thought of even TOUCHING a bug is paralyzing to me. I can barely look at pictures. I can tolerate some bugs better than others (I can do pictures of butterflies and pill bugs; not silverfish, roaches, centi/millipedes, beetles, etc). But in person, I freeze. It's pretty bad, actually. Especially since I live in Florida.

It's a serious phobia, though. Like end of the world will occur if I touch them type of phobia. I get ill if I look at some pictures too long. I broke down crying in the break room after the front register where I work was over run by a myriad of termites when I was up there. I'm still not sure how I managed to keep it together while I'd been up there/

There are other things, but that is the most immediate deal.

Ignition

2010-09-02, 08:35 AM

Fear Itself :smallbiggrin:

I tend to over-analyze my fears, and in so doing, overcome them. That said, I also have an over-active imagination when I can't see anything quite with my glasses off, so when I'm drifting off to sleep I get gripped by paranoia from all the horror stories I've read. So you could say I'm afraid of the dark, from the perspective of "it obfuscates my ability to analyze my surroundings".

DMGreg

2010-09-02, 08:42 AM

It used to be being utterly alone forever, disconnected from all contact with any other being. The classic 'alone on a desert island' scenario, but I'm also religious so my terrifying case would also include being somehow mentally impaired from prayer and meditation.

But then I read this on a Something Awful takedown of D&D and roleplaying books in general:

"Waking up and your skin is clear and you can see all of your organs and stuff and then you look closer at your stomach and there is a little baby man inside it and he's smiling back at you."

*shiver*

http://www.somethingawful.com/d/dungeons-and-dragons/wtf-warhammer-40k.php?page=11

Asta Kask

2010-09-02, 08:48 AM

heightszombiesspidersdeath(notminebutpeopleIlove)p ublicembarassament

Phaedra

2010-09-02, 08:59 AM

Clowns.

Also, things with more than eight legs - centipedes, millipedes and the like. I look a bit askance at woodlice and I know they're harmless. But what do they need all those legs for, hmmm?

RebelRogue

2010-09-02, 10:01 AM

I have an irrational fear of giant hogweeds. There's just something about those plants that creep me out.

druid91

2010-09-02, 10:03 AM

I can say, with fair confidence, better yours than mine.

For instance, you know how there's those fast zombie dogs in Resident Evil? Well, in my dreams, the zombies aren't dogs, they're invisible tigers.

And, also, there's angry ex-girlfriends. All of them.

Sharks, that come out of any large flat surface. And can swim through air, and don't die from air drowning.

Besides the creatures from my dreams wouldn't be the problem, it would be me becoming uber-superman and running around leaping into the upper atmosphere.

Klose_the_Sith

2010-09-02, 10:04 AM

The thought of being tangled in barbed/razor wire. Shuddershuddershuddershudder :smalleek:

Nameless

2010-09-02, 10:09 AM

http://www.highroad.org/ranch%20images/Insects/cranefly-hand.jpg

banjo1985

2010-09-02, 10:11 AM

The nighmare I had last night terrified me, not least because it's the only one that's stayed vivid in my mind even now nearly 12 hours after waking.

I'm in an old gothic mansion, I go upstairs to a closed scarlet door. I listen, and hear a wet thumping sound from the room beyond. I don't know why I'm there, what I'm looking for, anything. But I open the door, to find an old wooden table in the middle of a barren room, with a stout wide tungsten spike rammed intoit from the underside, so that it sticks out a good nine inches from the table surface. There's a young woman I don't recognise in a blue dress, staring into the middle distance as she repeatedly rams her right temple hard onto the spike, again and again and again. There's loads of blood, but she doesn't seem to mind...then I woke up.

...Am I disturbed? :smalleek:
Bloody terriefied me either way.

druid91

2010-09-02, 10:13 AM

The thought of being tangled in barbed/razor wire. Shuddershuddershuddershudder :smalleek:

Oww.. that would hurt.

pendell

2010-09-02, 10:18 AM

Three things terrify me.

1) Failure.

Every day I attempt the impossible , tackling software projects with tools I've never used before , in an environment I've never done before, with not enough time and not enough money. I get called in when the company's in trouble and heroics are needed.

One day it won't be enough. And I wake up and wonder: Is today the day I let everyone down? Have I finally met the foe I can't beat?

Of course I get up and of course I tackle it and, by the grace of God , mostly I succeed. But you can't sit down at a dice table forever. Roll long enough and natural 1 WILL come up.

2) Old age.
Every day I look in the mirror and see my body age. Every day I'm just a little slower, just a little fatter, have to work out just a little harder to maintain the pace. I look at my bank balance, and realize that .. though I'm in good shape now ... when I'm forced to retire I'll probably be living on cat food. And retirement -- unable to work -- could last a long, long time. Who hires a man in his sixties any more? And if I'm very unlucky, I could live for 30 years without being able to work.

3) Other humans.
I have never watched a horror movie. But one time I walked through the video rental store and looked at the movies on sale. Slashers. Monsters. Things that stalk you in the night with chainsaws.

I didn't find these things scary. I laughed. Why? Because I'd just read through a photo essay on the killing fields in Cambodia. Miles and miles of fields covered in skulls. And that wasn't a movie.

I sneer at vampires or werewolves or zombies. I live in a world populated by creatures that built gas chambers at Auschwitz, that went mad with machetes in Ruanda, that destroyed Srebenica. In many of these places, your friend and neighbor of twenty or thirty years, whom you've nodded to and spoken politely with every day, is the next day leading a mob to burn down your house and murder your family, because you're eyes are the wrong color or you go to the wrong place of worship or somebody did something hundreds of years ago , something you weren't even alive for. Decades went by and none of it mattered ... until, suddenly, one day, the world went mad and suddenly it DID.

I live in a world populated by these creatures. They have killed more humans than any other predator in the history of the universe, in ways most cruel and most devious and with the greatest ingenuity science and technology can muster.

Those creatures are humans.

And they are not fairy tales.

Horrified of vampires? THEY should be horrified of US. We are far more ruthless, vicious, and dangerous than any fictional creature. It's not even important that they can't be killed. If they can't be killed but they CAN be hurt ... that opens up a whole RANGE of possibilities of pain and terror. They can't be killed? They'll soon wish they could. Once they've been shut up in a laboratory and we conduct even a tenth of the experiments we conduct on chimpanzees, they will beg and beg for death that will never come.

After all, We do that to our fellow human beings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731#Vivisection). You think we'll show more mercy to monsters?

Respectfully,

Brian P.

Asta Kask

2010-09-02, 10:19 AM

My mom had a nightmare as a child... she was walking through a wintery landscape, clad only in a nightgown. For some reason she wasnt' freezing, and the moon was full overhead so she could see clearly. It was completely silent - her feet breaking the snow crust was the only sound.

Then she looked back and saw a completely black cat following her. For some reason that scared her, so she picked up the pace. But still, no matter how quickly she walked... and then ran... the cat would still be a bit closer every time she looked back. Then she started running and fell... and woke up.

banjo1985

2010-09-02, 10:22 AM

^^ I could have done without following that link to sate my curiousity....*gulps*

We are such wonderful organisms aren't we? :smallfrown:

Marillion

2010-09-02, 10:25 AM

Cicadas. Possibly the most harmless creature on the planet (I don't think they even have mouths) but I can't stand them. Just...*shudder*

Other than that, complete helplessness. Like in, say, sleep paralysis. Being completely aware of what's happening and being completely powerless to stop it. I mean, if I'm mobile and there's a monster stalking me, I can at least make it regret picking a fight with me. But if I'm paralyzed but awake, I won't even be able to scream as it slowly devours me.

That also applies to more mundane situations.

Ego Slayer

2010-09-02, 10:53 AM

Being alive, and sudden death (like a car accident)? :smallconfused:

And putting off a friend/someone I care about enough that they stop talking to me. Wish I wasn't so bitchy sometimes. :smallfrown:

golentan

2010-09-02, 10:57 AM

devinkowalczyk

2010-09-02, 11:03 AM

Death
something about not knowing what happens freezes me in my tracks.
I want to know what is on the other side but am Afraid!

ghost_warlock

2010-09-02, 11:07 AM

My tendency to lose myself in anger or despair.

That, and bleeding out through a tube/needle. I'm not afraid of bleeding to death (more so than any other death, which concerns but doesn't scare me), and I'm not afraid of needles, but for some reason the combination really gets under my skin.

Yeah, although I generally have no problem with needles, having blood drawn always makes me go into shock. Which, honestly, wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the nausea. :smallsigh:

Castaras

2010-09-02, 11:08 AM

I have an irrational fear of giant hogweeds. There's just something about those plants that creep me out.

Obligatory Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTuJQL8GBqY).

I always say it in these threads, I have Trypanophobia (fear of injections). Also don't like butterflies, moths, wasps, and hornets.

Marillion

2010-09-02, 11:15 AM

I must wonder, do we have anyone who suffers from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?

golentan

2010-09-02, 11:23 AM

I must wonder, do we have anyone who suffers from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?

I don't know, but that word is terrifyingly long. :smalltongue:Yes, I know what it means.

onthetown

2010-09-02, 11:34 AM

June bugs. They freak the hell out of me.

Octopus Jack

2010-09-02, 11:41 AM

http://www.highroad.org/ranch%20images/Insects/cranefly-hand.jpg

Aww It's so cute, I want one! :smallbiggrin:

As for my fears: I'm not actually sure, I tend to get terrified of something then forget what it was. Then it will repeat for something else. Sometimes I remember the things and get terrified again especially when more than one comes back at the same time.

MountainKing

2010-09-02, 11:43 AM

Loved ones in pain or danger, and bees. Effing bees. Anyone remember the scene from Beverly Hills Ninja where Chris Farley screams "I may not be the great white ninja! I may not be one with the universe! BUT NOBODY MESSES WITH MY BROTHER!" and then flips out with all kinds of weapons and ninja moves and it's hilarious because it's Chris Farley, and let's face it, he was a big dude? That part?

Yeah, get a bee within ten feet of me. It's like that, except with more panic, less grace, and no weapons. :smallannoyed:

Telonius

2010-09-02, 11:45 AM

A blank page.

SaintRidley

2010-09-02, 11:55 AM

Spiders and eternity. An eternity with spiders would be the absolute worst thing ever.

Groundhog

2010-09-02, 12:09 PM

Smoke alarms, mind control, being useless. Loud noises make me go into major fight-or-flight mode, so I guess my body is scared of them, anyway.

RebelRogue

2010-09-02, 12:09 PM

Obligatory Link (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTuJQL8GBqY)
Incidentally, I also happen to love old school prog/Genesis- Ironic, I guess :smallbiggrin:

Ignition

2010-09-02, 12:24 PM

Yeah, get a bee within ten feet of me.

I have a friend of a friend who once got stung in the eye by a bee while cleaning up a camp site. Not around the eye. He was stung directly in the eyeball.

Good luck sleeping tonight :smallbiggrin:

Asta Kask

2010-09-02, 12:42 PM

Aww It's so cute, I want one! :smallbiggrin:

Come to Sweden this time of year, go out in the evening and shine a light. You'll be swarmed.

Octopus Jack

2010-09-02, 12:44 PM

Come to Sweden this time of year, go out in the evening and shine a light. You'll be swarmed.

Yays! For some reason I find the idea of being swarmed by large insects really comforting. Is that a good or a bad thing?

Snares

2010-09-02, 01:22 PM

I must wonder, do we have anyone who suffers from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia?

Whoever coined that term honestly must've been some sort of evil genius. It's amazing. Thankfully, I love long words...

What does terrify me is houses. Specifically empty houses, and dark, empty houses even more so. Well, perhaps not terrify, but they creep me out a LOT.

Ponderthought

2010-09-02, 01:32 PM

he thought of being tangled in barbed/razor wire. Shuddershuddershuddershudder

Dosent hurt that much if you keep calm and dont struggle, so fear not! Brambles on the other hand...

Other than that, complete helplessness. Like in, say, sleep paralysis. Being completely aware of what's happening and being completely powerless to stop it. I mean, if I'm mobile and there's a monster stalking me, I can at least make it regret picking a fight with me. But if I'm paralyzed but awake, I won't even be able to scream as it slowly devours me.

Oh sleep paralysis. Most people who have it often see something sitting on their chest..I on the other hand have been treated to such horrors as having an arc of electricity surging from my ceiling to right in front of my face (I was on my side) like im in a goddamn Bond flick and Dr.No is trying to cut me up with a laser.

Had a nightmare last night where I was frozen in the surface ice of Europa, but fully aware of every second.

Zen Monkey

2010-09-02, 01:54 PM

Immersion therapy helped me get over things when I was younger. Afraid of the dark? Stand in a dark room for a while and realize that nothing is going to happen. The same can be said for most phobias when put in a safe context (i.e. don't go swimming around sharks without a cage, or standing over a cliff without a harness, etc). Also, sometimes you're just forced to face things and get over it. Rodents used to disgust me and then my building had some that tried to move in, so now instead of cringing I'm the one chasing the mouse down the hallway with a shovel (it was the closest 'weapon' in that split second).

The best advice I can give is to assert yourself and conquer it. You'll feel stronger for doing so. For all of my fears, I've either done so or had the scary thing happen to me whether I wanted it or not. Once you survive an encounter with the feared thing, the little fears seem silly and you learn how to handle the big ones.

Asta Kask

2010-09-02, 01:58 PM

Oh sleep paralysis. Most people who have it often see something sitting on their chest...

Hence stories of the old sea hag. Maran, was her Swedish name and nightmare in Swedish is mardröm.

Silly Wizard

2010-09-02, 02:11 PM

Slenderman. No matter how much I know he's fictional, nor how much he just doesn't do crap when he's stalking you, I get creeped out by him. I still can't sleep with my curtains open.

Mauve Shirt

2010-09-02, 02:19 PM

Failure
Change
Bugs crawling on me while I sleep

Deadly

2010-09-02, 02:22 PM

There are plenty of things that scare me... like spiders and strangers lurking in dark places. But what terrifies me is the idea that something could suddenly go wrong inside my brain and send me on a bloody rampage with a chainsaw or something.

You know... you hear these news about normal, friendly people who are well loved by their neighbours and have nice little perfect lives and then, all of a sudden with no warning and for no apparent reason they turn into psychotic lunatics and murder their lovely wife and children before hanging themselves or something.

THAT terrifies me. That and the notion that we may not have any kind of free will after all, that we're just really conscious automatons. Because if that's the case it makes the whole going-crazy thing even worse to contemplate.

Pinnacle

2010-09-02, 02:26 PM

Failure

Aye.
My fear of failure can be crippling, to the point where I often don't do things at all out of the fear that I will do them wrong.

Mary Leathert

2010-09-02, 02:39 PM

I decided not to get philosophical or start analyzing myself with this and just list the more "physical" fears.

-Needles/other sharp, pointy things like fishing hooks. Getting vaccinated still feels uncomfortable on the idea level, and those numbing needles dentists use just make me wish there was a way to numb the mouth without having to resort to pointy things.

-Maggots. Worms are okay, but the idea of actually anything living burying its way into a body is just... ewww.

I probably have more, these two are the more major ones.

thubby

2010-09-02, 02:42 PM

Oh sleep paralysis. Most people who have it often see something sitting on their chest.

ugh, tell me about it.
I've had alma, a few different axe murderers, and most often spiders (i'm arachnophobic) show up in mine.
the worst part is that your brain is still in dream logic mode, so its not like you can just say "oh, im having sleep paralysis, this is kinda interesting"

Gullara

2010-09-02, 02:45 PM

I've got on I never considered before. Rejection. I've never had the guts to put myself out there romantically because of this fear. Its depressing sometimes.

CrimsonAngel

2010-09-02, 03:10 PM

Tall, slender, pale girls with long, greasy black hair and dry, cracked skin with no face. Creepy, eh? Now make her claw her way through the floor boards at night.

I'm also terrified of spiders and being alone in the dark.

Kaelaroth

2010-09-02, 03:12 PM

Painfully shapeshifting.

And homophobic malice.

Oh, and drunken clowns.

thubby

2010-09-02, 03:16 PM

CrimsonAngel

2010-09-02, 03:18 PM

I thought of that before I heard of slender man!

Pyrian

2010-09-02, 03:41 PM

Oh sleep paralysis. Most people who have it often see something sitting on their chest..ugh, tell me about it.
I've had alma...I was all like "Wooo hooo! :smallbiggrin: " at the ending of F.E.A.R. 2. :smallcool: Alma, scary? Nahhh... :smallwink:

JoshuaZ

2010-09-02, 03:43 PM

1. Torture
2. Death. Well, not death so much as ceasing to exist. Sometimes I find this extremely disturbing. The inevitable destruction of my ego sometimes fills with me with almost paralyzing fear.
3. The possibility that in some sense I don't even exist now. That is, maybe there really is some form of deep, irreducible consciousness, and I don't actually have it. Somehow I'm not that disturbed by the idea that every thinking being is essentially a philosophical zombie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophical_zombie) but the idea that there are zombies and non-zombies and that I'm a zombie is deeply frightening.

Asthix

2010-09-02, 03:46 PM

I'm terrified of the prospect that our world will never again be beautiful.

Syka

2010-09-02, 03:46 PM

Oh yeah, Slenderman. I won't think of him for weeks, then one night I'll be coming home and all of a sudden get the creeping heebie jeebies.

Also, aliens. I can watch philosophical shows and shows about conspriacy theories and stuff. Make it about alien abductions and I'm out of there. I couldn't watch Fourth Kind for that reason. The thought of malicious spirits creeps me out, but I'm not terrified.

golentan

2010-09-02, 03:49 PM

I'm terrified of the prospect that our world will never again be beautiful.

It never stopped.

druid91

2010-09-02, 04:53 PM

It never stopped.

Agreed. It became beautiful in a different way.

MountainKing

2010-09-02, 04:53 PM

I have a friend of a friend who once got stung in the eye by a bee while cleaning up a camp site. Not around the eye. He was stung directly in the eyeball.

Good luck sleeping tonight :smallbiggrin:

You're a horribly person; my fear of bees however actually stems from hornets. The original strike was made by one such angry hornet; what angered the Hellbeast, I don't know, but as I was mowing the lawn, I was stung six times on the corner of my eye, directly next to my eyeball. I screamed for a good fifteen minutes.

Now, I hate and fear all of them. :smallannoyed:

druid91

2010-09-02, 04:55 PM

You're a horribly person; my fear of bees however actually stems from hornets. The original strike was made by one such angry hornet; what angered the Hellbeast, I don't know, but as I was mowing the lawn, I was stung six times on the corner of my eye, directly next to my eyeball. I screamed for a good fifteen minutes.

Now, I hate and fear all of them. :smallannoyed:

Which is why insecticide is your friend.:smallbiggrin:

Ponderthought

2010-09-02, 05:09 PM

Hornets are irritating, but still rank lower on the totem pole than the stealthy horror that is the scorpion.

Little bastards are the exact same color as my carpet >>

druid91

2010-09-02, 05:28 PM

Change your carpet?? Set your yard on fire? install a pond that covers the whole thing?No, I'm not serious.

Ponderthought

2010-09-02, 05:30 PM

My war with the scorpion menace has devolved into chemical warfare. But i will have to think about burning the yard..I dont really feel like mowing anymore.

CynicalAvocado

2010-09-02, 08:25 PM

doppelgangers. and grasshoppers

AtlanteanTroll

2010-09-02, 08:39 PM

The moder-You haven't seen anything citizen. Go back to your daily life.

CynicalAvocado

2010-09-02, 08:43 PM

My war with the scorpion menace has devolved into chemical warfare. But i will have to think about burning the yard..I dont really feel like mowing anymore.

you know, you can make them so mad that they accidently sting themselves

Groundhog

2010-09-03, 12:06 AM

The moder-You haven't seen anything citizen. Go back to your daily life.

Yeah, you're-I will go back to my fun.

Ponderthought

2010-09-03, 08:43 AM

Today, shadow people.

Ignition

2010-09-03, 09:13 AM

You're a horribly person

Thank you! :smallbiggrin:

Gothire

2010-09-03, 09:53 AM

Nothing terrifies me. Because nothing is beyond my ability to change.

MountainKing

2010-09-03, 09:55 AM

What about change itself? :smallwink:

Telonius

2010-09-03, 10:00 AM

Hornets are irritating, but still rank lower on the totem pole than the stealthy horror that is the scorpion.

Little bastards are the exact same color as my carpet >>

There's a family story about my great-grandfather. He was in the US Army on a base somewhere in the southwest. While he was asleep, a scorpion crawled into his front pocket, right over his heart. He had to stay absolutely motionless for a few hours before the thing crawled out again. :smalleek:

Nameless

2010-09-03, 10:34 AM

Aww It's so cute, I want one! :smallbiggrin:

Those things were created by Satan to scare me. e_o

The Succubus

2010-09-03, 10:43 AM

Those things were created by Satan to scare me. e_o

My friend had a unique way of dealing with them. He was scared of both them and spiders, so he invested in a high quality hand vacuum with a large bag. Whenever a long legged interloper came in the room, he would vaccum it up. I will never forget the scratchy fighting sounds that came from the bag.

Gullara

2010-09-03, 11:36 AM

My friend had a unique way of dealing with them. He was scared of both them and spiders, so he invested in a high quality hand vacuum with a large bag. Whenever a long legged interloper came in the room, he would vaccum it up. I will never forget the scratchy fighting sounds that came from the bag.

:smallconfused: How did he empty the bag?

waterpenguin43

2010-09-03, 12:26 PM

In a gorny way? If so, being crushed or damage to my wrists/ankles.

Or in a psychological way? If so, losing my sense of identity and individuality...

Asta Kask

2010-09-03, 01:13 PM

Aye.
My fear of failure can be crippling, to the point where I often don't do things at all out of the fear that I will do them wrong.

Been there, done that.

I've got on I never considered before. Rejection. I've never had the guts to put myself out there romantically because of this fear. Its depressing sometimes.

Ah, yes. It gets better as you get older and more bitter.

The Succubus

2010-09-03, 03:00 PM

:smallconfused: How did he empty the bag?

I asked him this very question. His reply:

"In that bag is dozens of angry bugs or, through a process of natural selection, one colossal superbug that has been well fed and is instant death for anything that goes near it. How would *you* like to empty it?"

I didn't empty the bag.

Thajocoth

2010-09-03, 04:28 PM

#1 - Food. Nothing is worse than the fear I get when I see someone pull out a small paper bag or some Tupperware to eat what they thought was a harmless meal... Meanwhile I don't know what odor I'm about to be forced to smell, and whether or not I will have to flee.

#2 - Being forced to be or not be something... Such as getting blacklisted in my industry or drafted into military service.

#3 - Needles. They hurt.

#4 - Death, I guess. I mean, I'd rather not die... I enjoy my life... But if any of the above became unavoidable and constant, I'd welcome death. I've enjoyed my life... No regrets and all that... So it's kinda ok if I die... I'd just prefer not to.

Gullara

2010-09-03, 05:18 PM

Ah, yes. It gets better as you get older and more bitter.

That's a relief. Except for the bitterness maybe. At least I can be a crotchety old man:smalltongue:

Nameless

2010-09-03, 06:43 PM

I asked him this very question. His reply:

"In that bag is dozens of angry bugs or, through a process of natural selection, one colossal superbug that has been well fed and is instant death for anything that goes near it. How would *you* like to empty it?"

I didn't empty the bag.

That sounds epic. :smalltongue:

CynicalAvocado

2010-09-03, 08:48 PM

of course, another thing that scares me is candlejack. seriously he's one sca

Winter_Wolf

2010-09-03, 09:01 PM

Clowns
Marionettes
Dolls with porcelain faces. Especially those hina-matsuri dolls.
Porcelain Noh masks.

I realize now that one of the reasons I found Slender Man creepy was his white (blank) face area. That and the whole creepy stalker thing.

Frikken' sharks with frikken' laser beams on their heads. No, not really.

Ponderthought

2010-09-03, 09:28 PM

I think slendy bothers so many people due to his permanent residence at the bottom of the uncanny valley. So human, yet so..not.

druid91

2010-09-03, 10:07 PM

Lord Raziere

2010-09-04, 01:14 AM

I am terrified of entropy, the concept of all that we know growing colder and colder until its all heatless, reactionless gas in the nothingness where nothing can live eternally rules all, and the light of civilization, thought and life itself will never shine again.

I am terrified of a world devolved into conformity, never to change, no variety or color, just everyone wearing the same mask repeated across the globe, with no freedom or individuals to fight back against the ocean of the group.

Asta Kask

2010-09-04, 01:40 PM

http://www.highroad.org/ranch%20images/Insects/cranefly-hand.jpg

http://www.saburchill.com/images01/250807004.jpg

Quincunx

2010-09-04, 02:07 PM

ghost_warlock

2010-09-04, 03:49 PM

Moral crime--someone suffering a punishment without having committed a crime, and in a desperate attempt to justify it, inventing a crime. "Guilty I am, therefore wicked shall I be" and worse, wicked you in your blameless, blighted life will be.

This pretty much describes my childhood/teenage years.

Being the oldest child can suck pretty hard sometimes.

leper0messiah

2010-09-04, 03:58 PM

nothingness. Like...the idea of nothingness, I remember when I was in elementary school I always thought while in bed "what if there is no afterlife" and that would just creep the **** out of me. But still, pretty profound thoughts for a 2nd grader :smalltongue:

but even now that I'm in highschool it still bugs me if I'm in my room with all the lights off and the doors closed and it's just...pitch black...like darkness doesnt scare me it's the fact that I cant see anything :smalleek:

FuryOfMetal

2010-09-04, 05:35 PM

If you can believe it, moths. They don't really scare me, but they freak me out. Ask anybody in my family. I'm sure that if they had to list their fears one would be the sight of me killing a moth.

Finally somebody else who suffers from the moth hatred! They're just so....wrong!

zeratul

2010-09-04, 06:08 PM

What terrifies me? I'm kinda superstitious, and a lot of the wird supernatural stuff that I'm interested in also freaks me out, I have a bit of a fear of the dark thing going on but its sort of a love hate thing, if im with other people i dont mind it at all, but alone it can freak me out. Spiders are horrible horrible creatures and they should all be destroyed, also centipedes. Other things that scare me are cops, and my own mind.

The thought of being tangled in barbed/razor wire. Shuddershuddershuddershudder :smalleek:

That actually sort of happened to me once, my friends have an odd sense of humour. >_>

druid91

2010-09-04, 06:14 PM

That actually sort of happened to me once, my friends have an odd sense of humour. >_>

Wait, What happened?! I would like to know more please.

Klose_the_Sith

2010-09-04, 06:43 PM

That actually sort of happened to me once, my friends have an odd sense of humour. >_>

One of my old friends made this deal with one of his friends once - "I'll jump crotch first on this barbed wire if you do."

He was still wearing protective gear under his clothes.

His friend was not.

That sort of a sense of humour? :smalleek:

CynicalAvocado

2010-09-04, 06:45 PM

One of my old friends made this deal with one of his friends once - "I'll jump crotch first on this barbed wire if you do."

He was still wearing protective gear under his clothes.

His friend was not.

That sort of a sense of humour? :smalleek:

same thing happened to me, except replace jump crotch first on barbed wire with "lets see who can hold this high tension electric fence longer" guess who wasn't wearing rubber soles?

RebelRogue

2010-09-05, 03:47 AM

Are you guys trying to get a Darwin award or what? :smalleek:

Ricky S

2010-09-05, 08:20 AM

I am not ever scared for myself. Personally I fear nothing and no one.

I fear losing my best friend in the world apart from that nothing (that I can think of at least). This is not to say that I dont dislike the thought of, for example, being tortured. But I dont fear it.

CynicalAvocado

2010-09-06, 12:02 AM

Are you guys trying to get a Darwin award or what? :smalleek:

nope. my attempts at a darwin award was checking to see if my friend had a flat tire. while he was flying down the interstate

Xyk

2010-09-06, 01:17 AM

I've successfully conquered fear. Except of college. The future is pretty scary stuff. :smalleek:

Ghostwheel

2010-09-06, 01:31 AM

In my endless quest to collect as much data about whatever I am writing at any given time, I find myself what haunts other peoples thoughts.

In the interest of fairness, I'll pony up mine. Hostile Architecture. The theoretical rape of physics terrifies my fragile brain.

You find yourself what? Wondering?

golentan

2010-09-06, 01:33 AM

I've successfully conquered fear. Except of college. The future is pretty scary stuff. :smalleek:

Nah, the future isn't scary at all. You already know the last line of the book, which takes all of the suspense out of the rest of it.

Xyk

2010-09-06, 01:41 AM

Nah, the future isn't scary at all. You already know the last line of the book, which takes all of the suspense out of the rest of it.

I don't plan to die. I haven't died yet, odds are I never will. :smalltongue:

But really, the middle part is the most important part of this book.

Demons_eye

2010-09-06, 02:04 AM

My worse fear is that the reality I view now is fake and an illusion. That I will wake up the next day and I wont be Adam McGregor. I'll wake to find I had some weird dream and that I am really Jacob Howard. That everything I am, my hopes, dreams, fears, and hardships, were the imagination of some random person. That when I do wake up, or when Christan smith wakes up after dreaming up Adam, I was nothing and I limited myself to..... this

Ichneumon

2010-09-06, 02:57 AM

Indifference

Coidzor

2010-09-06, 04:42 AM

Well, I'm still afraid of the dark on some level, meaning that I occasionally get my hair standing on end and have to stop myself from entertaining thoughts of horrible monsters/demons/effective zombies getting ahold of me. Especially if it's late, late at night and I'm all by myself in the middle of a wild or rural area.

Also, brain damage and those parasites which induce mind control in other life forms that we also can get but we don't know exactly what effect they have on us... Something about the idea of dying without having my body pass on and the idea of being a prisoner within my own flesh just disgust and terrify me.

Symmys

2010-09-06, 09:28 AM

I fear eye injuries, the possibility of falling (I get queasy when I look over a balcony), and death. Well, not death specifically. I fear whatever comes after- either we come to an end eventually, or we exist forever. I'm not sure which idea scares me more.

max-is-working

2010-09-09, 03:47 AM

1) earthworms
2) slugs

The Succubus

2010-09-09, 05:42 AM

CurlyKitGirl's Doctor Who story (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=9319912&postcount=474)

Lord Loss

2010-09-09, 05:47 AM

Needles, why did it have to be needles. And my school's vaccination day is coming up...

max-is-working

2010-09-09, 11:04 AM

Needles, why did it have to be needles. And my school's vaccination day is coming up...
You're not alone. I recall reading that about 10% of people have trypanophobia. Probably more, but we can't document the rest of the population because they just simply avoid going to the doctor altogether!

Form

2010-09-09, 11:17 AM

http://www.saburchill.com/images01/250807004.jpg

Oh great, creepy crawlies. Wonderful.

I had a millipede crawling over the ceiling right above me once. After I had noticed it and moved from my seat it fell down exactly where I had been sitting. I tend to look up quite often nowadays. :smalleek:

IonDragon

2010-09-09, 11:26 AM

Roland

And Velociraptors.

Finally, that I'll never amount to anything and end up living in a trailerpark like my father 'till I'm 40.

VanBuren

2010-09-09, 02:03 PM

What terrifies me?

More than death, what terrifies me most is the unstoppable flow of time. The thought that I will wither and decay until I finally part with my mortal shell, careening towards an uncertain fate. Is there anything after life? If there is, will it be wonderful or horrible? As if that weren't enough, I'm terrified to know that no matter how much I do, or how much of an impact I make on the history of the world eventually I will be as Ozymandias and the flow of time will render all my efforts insignificant and that eventually there will be nothing to demonstrate that I ever existed in the first place.

Also spiders.

Terumitsu

2010-09-10, 02:20 PM

That which I am most afraid of is forgetting. Just the concept that gathered information makes a mass migration away from your mental grasp. Though, I do not mean forgetting like a normal way, that of discarding old or unnecessary information. I mean that of forced or unnatural degredation such as amnisia or alzheimers. The thought of having one's mind slowly slip away... Bright thoughts going dim and fading to darkness untill all that is left is but a shell of self within the ruins of who we once were. For, really, it is our memories that make us. If we lose those, we lose ourselves.

That is my fear, being a cerebrally inclined individual.

Felixaar

2010-09-10, 07:31 PM

Strange folk coming into my room and watching me while I sleep. Strange folk staring at me through the windows.

Er, yeah.

Sorry about that.

Krüsher

2010-09-10, 11:27 PM

the human centipede freaked the *poop* outta me. Basically any alteration of the looks or mechanics of a human unnerves me. Even if I'm just seeing someone with stubby arms because of a birth defect or something.
*oops! swore the first time

thorgrim29

2010-09-11, 12:15 AM

golentan

2010-09-11, 12:22 AM

Loosing my intelligence or going senile or some such, all the while realizing what I lost, that is honestly the only thing to date that I would consider valid cause for suicide, the nightmare of living every day knowing that I used to be so much more.

It's not as bad as all that. It's scary beforehand, to be sure, and sad afterwards. But being less than you once were is hardly justification for not being. And I resent the implication it is, thoroughly.

IonDragon

2010-09-11, 05:12 AM

Er, yeah.

Sorry about that.

I watched a movie where something like this happened. I don't remember most of the movie, I think it was one of those terrible "SyFy original" productions, but I remember this one scene where the protagonist was waking up sore so she set up a video camera to see if she was tossing and turning and this person crawled out from under her bed and... erm... did things... with her sleeping form...

Though I slept fine, the thought of it is rather unnerving, especially if you are the kind of person to sleep soundly.

Kiero

2010-09-11, 06:05 AM

Being disabled by injury.

Not being around for my daughter when she's growing up.

Asta Kask

2010-09-11, 06:21 AM

Serpentine.

Edit: Clarification - she is one of the most intelligent and well-formulated people around here. I fear her wrath.

max-is-working

2010-09-11, 07:18 AM

Loosing my intelligence or going senile or some such, all the while realizing what I lost

That which I am most afraid of is forgetting. Just the concept that gathered information makes a mass migration away from your mental grasp. Though, I do not mean forgetting like a normal way, that of discarding old or unnecessary information. I mean that of forced or unnatural degredation such as amnisia or alzheimers. The thought of having one's mind slowly slip away... Bright thoughts going dim and fading to darkness untill all that is left is but a shell of self within the ruins of who we once were. For, really, it is our memories that make us. If we lose those, we lose ourselves.
This is terrifying! Terrifying! When I found out that Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer's, I felt numb and cold. I like knowledge; I like learning; as I age I would like to continue retaining all the things I've learned. :-(

drakir_nosslin

2010-09-11, 07:45 AM

Paralysis of some kind, or losing a limb. If I lost a leg I'd probably kill myself. I can't stand the thought of never again be able to move like I do today. I injured my knee a couple of years ago, and before I knew it was going to be ok again I was absolutely terrified. I couldn't sleep, I hardly ate and I started cry at random. I never want to experience that again.

Also, bugs with too many legs.

Asta Kask

2010-09-11, 08:10 AM

There's some data to suggest that keeping intellectually active may delay the onset Alzheimer's. The catch is that it also seems to hasten the progression of disease. That's not necessary a disadvantage to me; the quicker I progress to the stage where I don't give a damn, the better.

Arachu

2010-09-11, 08:21 AM

Entropy.

Rotting alive, starving, bleeding out, and the all-time worst of being dismembered and deprived of my senses.

To name a few facets.

Also, eye gouging. I like seeing way too much...

Klose_the_Sith

2010-09-11, 09:36 AM

Though I slept fine, the thought of it is rather unnerving, especially if you are the kind of person to sleep soundly.

I slept through a heater being turned up way too much and wound up with an enormous heat-blister which will almost definitely get infected.

That sort of soundly? :smallsigh:

Concrete

2010-09-13, 08:53 AM

Locked-In-Syndrome (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome)
Imagine being completely paralyzed, only able to move your eyes, ad in some cases, not even that.
And through this, your mind is completely intact...
The scariest part?
No cure.
You can only lie there until you die.

Setra

2010-09-13, 11:35 AM

Terrifies me... hm

From high to low..

Oblivion, beyond anything. And anything that would lead to it, slow and horrific being more terrifying of course.

Any disease or condition that would affect memory. My past makes me who I am, without my memory I am no longer myself, and would in essence... no longer exist.

Any disease or condition where I am permanently disabled, the post above being probably the worst of which. However losing my eyesight, or hearing, or my arms... or something that would cause me to live in agony til I die..

Anything below the above doesn't truly 'terrify' me... well anything I haven't thought of.

EndlessWrath

2010-09-15, 01:56 AM

Oblivion, beyond anything. And anything that would lead to it, slow and horrific being more terrifying of course.

Yes..Oblivion. Thats my first. I wouldn't mind dying..so long as theres something after it. Doesn't matter what. I'm just afraid of becoming nothing. My thoughts to just... cease. Stop existing. Yes.. thats something I'm afraid of.

I'm also afraid of losing the ones I love most. Or worse... causing their demise or absence..

I'm also afraid of spiders. I'm not sure why. I just have extreme arachnophobia. No justification, its just an irrational fear. Doesn't matter the size or type. I can't stand them. I really just freeze up when i see one.
-Wrath

SDF

2010-09-15, 02:10 AM

Yes..Oblivion. Thats my first. I wouldn't mind dying..so long as theres something after it. Doesn't matter what. I'm just afraid of becoming nothing. My thoughts to just... cease. Stop existing. Yes.. thats something I'm afraid of.

Strange, I'm more worried about forever.

Xefas

2010-09-15, 02:21 AM

Spiders.

Sure, death, and oblivion, and being buried alive, and drowning, and all that stuff is scary. But those things are relatively unlikely to happen (except the death one, but that's 100% certainty so why bother worrying about that?).

Spiders are everywhere. They are likely to happen, but not a certainty. They are malicious engines of horror and violence that exist solely to spread misery and pestilential woe upon the world.

I do not believe in the existence of Evil. But I believe in the existence of Spiders, and that's close enough.

Setra

2010-09-15, 09:23 AM

I'm also afraid of spiders. I'm not sure why. I just have extreme arachnophobia. No justification, its just an irrational fear. Doesn't matter the size or type. I can't stand them. I really just freeze up when i see one.
-Wrath
If the fear weren't irrational, it wouldn't be a phobia.

I'm phobic of bees myself. I talk to myself saying "These things won't hurt me, I know this, this is logical" but the second one flies anywhere close to me my brain freezes up and I run off. I wouldn't call that being terrified, though... I suppose that's just semantics. I don't feel 'terror' so much as my brain just tells me to run away.

Klose_the_Sith

2010-09-15, 09:29 AM

Currently the knowledge that even after I finish the assignment I'm doing right now, I have to do another one tomorrow night seems pretty scary, but maybe that's just me ...

Pinnacle

2010-09-15, 11:54 AM

Personally I fear nothing and no one.

Oh, that's a good one. I am absolutely terrified of nothing.

I'm phobic of bees myself. I talk to myself saying "These things won't hurt me, I know this, this is logical" but the second one flies anywhere close to me my brain freezes up and I run off. I wouldn't call that being terrified, though... I suppose that's just semantics. I don't feel 'terror' so much as my brain just tells me to run away.

That's pretty normal, isn't it? We know they can hurt us, and are more likely to than other things that can, even if they won't hurt us all that much.

I used to be afraid of bees and other stinging insects, until the day I got stung for the first time. Also the second and third time. It really wasn't that bad, and I stopped making a point of avoiding them.

Oddly, I don't think I've ever been stung by a bee I was aware of. Only ever out of the blue. So I'm really not that concerned about avoiding a bee flying around anymore.
The other people around me, though! "There's a bee! Watch out for the bee! Get rid of the bee! Don't let it sting me! It's going to sting me! It's going to sting you! Are there more of them!?"

The day I really became afraid of bees was the day my mother got stung for the first time. Afraid my grandmother would, she swatted at the bees, hoping to scare them away or at least have them sting herself instead of her mother.
After being stung, she immediately wanted to go home from the park and sat there crying with ice packs for a few hours.
This caused me to assume it was much worse than I later discovered it to be. My mother is tough, and I knew this; she also likes to play up the poor widdle victim who wants pity, but as a child I wasn't really aware of that part yet.
(That was still so very, very, very over the top that I think she might have a mild bee sting allergy or something. One that I apparently do not share.)

Dairun Cates

2010-09-15, 12:06 PM

The terrifying and crushing feeling that I might never get a job in the field I spent 7 years studying in for a Graduate degree; effectively meaning that I wasted 7 years of my life on dreaming instead of becoming a practical member of society. On top of that, there's the frightening thought that I may just not be good at the things I love to do and no amount of work is ever going to make me good enough at it. What's worse is the fact that giving up wouldn't be in my nature. So, all of this adds up to a continuing and lingering threat that I'll also waste my life chasing an impossible dream and never find the time for love, a family, or contentment which may lead to the very frightening thought that I'll die alone.

Basically, it all boils down to a fear of the uncertain. It often feels like I've wasted years of my life, not on doing nothing, but doing too much of something and just hurrying myself to my grave.

Of course, it doesn't keep me from working every day, but I'd be lying if it didn't come up.

Asta Kask

2010-09-15, 12:47 PM

If the fear weren't irrational, it wouldn't be a phobia.

I'm phobic of bees myself. I talk to myself saying "These things won't hurt me, I know this, this is logical" but the second one flies anywhere close to me my brain freezes up and I run off. I wouldn't call that being terrified, though... I suppose that's just semantics. I don't feel 'terror' so much as my brain just tells me to run away.

You may not want to read this. (http://www.mywesttexas.com/top_stories/article_0e86b8d2-c025-11df-aa38-001cc4c002e0.html)

Setra

2010-09-15, 06:03 PM

That's pretty normal, isn't it? We know they can hurt us, and are more likely to than other things that can, even if they won't hurt us all that much.

I used to be afraid of bees and other stinging insects, until the day I got stung for the first time. Also the second and third time. It really wasn't that bad, and I stopped making a point of avoiding them.

Oddly, I don't think I've ever been stung by a bee I was aware of. Only ever out of the blue. So I'm really not that concerned about avoiding a bee flying around anymore.
The other people around me, though! "There's a bee! Watch out for the bee! Get rid of the bee! Don't let it sting me! It's going to sting me! It's going to sting you! Are there more of them!?"

The day I really became afraid of bees was the day my mother got stung for the first time. Afraid my grandmother would, she swatted at the bees, hoping to scare them away or at least have them sting herself instead of her mother.
After being stung, she immediately wanted to go home from the park and sat there crying with ice packs for a few hours.
This caused me to assume it was much worse than I later discovered it to be. My mother is tough, and I knew this; she also likes to play up the poor widdle victim who wants pity, but as a child I wasn't really aware of that part yet.
(That was still so very, very, very over the top that I think she might have a mild bee sting allergy or something. One that I apparently do not share.)
I've been stung by bees before, and I know they don't hurt. However, have fun telling me not to be afraid of them in their presence, which overrides my brain and makes me run away, regardless of what I'm doing (Like say, a job interview)

I think part of it may be due to this one time at a summer camp where a kid I knew threw a rock at a hornet's nest... never saw him again.

You may not want to read this. (http://www.mywesttexas.com/top_stories/article_0e86b8d2-c025-11df-aa38-001cc4c002e0.html)
No, no I do not

Vaynor

2010-09-15, 06:07 PM

That which I cannot comprehend.

And bees. Bees are scary.

TSGames

2010-09-15, 10:55 PM

I fear only the unknown unknowns. It's hard not to stay up at night and think about it, even knowing that thinking about it is pointless.

Zain

2010-09-15, 11:00 PM

Horses, for some reason, the big guys terrify me:smalleek:

Recaiden

2010-09-15, 11:26 PM

Honestly, while there are a lot of things that can scare me a little, only [forum unfriendly topic] really terrifies me.

And sometimes the idea of living and dying all alone gets to me. But I'm usually alright with it.

Ponderthought

2010-09-15, 11:37 PM

Horses, for some reason, the big guys terrify me

Horses are strange beasts. They smell strange to me, and I smell far to much of canine for them to be comfortable around me.

Like mules though. Probably due to personality similarities.

IonDragon

2010-09-16, 03:43 AM

And bees. Bees are scary.

This is a line from Squee by Johnen Vasquez.

2010-09-16, 04:19 AM

I have successfully included No.'s 41, 45, and alittle light Eye Scream, in the first paragraph. I think this thread is paying off.

Just wanted a little update on that. How's it going?

Ponderthought

2010-09-16, 11:45 PM

Just wanted a little update on that. How's it going?

Ah hell, you remembered. it's sitting in a word document somewhere..Ive got at touch of the add..and bourbon..so it hasnt really gone anywhere. I'll get to it eventually though.

Kneenibble

2010-09-17, 01:42 AM

Poverty scares me. A life without jewels and fine clothes and an abundance of good food and beautiful things. It terrifies me deep down. This is why I have a neurotically intense relationship with homeless people.

And the fact that it terrifies me so much terrifies me.

AtopTheMountain

2010-09-18, 09:20 PM

I have major problems/paranoias about things touching my eyes (Eye scream!). Unfortunately, I now have to get glasses, which means annual eye appointments with eyedrops. Eyedrops! *shudder* And I'll pretty much never be able to get contacts, because of the aforemetioned phobia.

Also, flying bugs, especially bees/wasps and dragonflies. YES I KNOW THEY'RE HARMLESS. I DON'T CARE. Also also, anything that sucks my blood. Especially ticks. Also also also, spiders, centipedes, and scorpions. Actually, just say all bugs.

Ponderthought

2010-09-18, 09:38 PM

AKAAATT

2010-09-18, 10:26 PM

I'm scared of anything that I can't punch.....so mostly metaphysical ideas and the like are my ultimate nightmare.....ya know cause you can't hit the damn things......though the philosophy major spouting out that cr@p on the other hand is plenty hittable........

Cealocanth

2010-09-18, 10:43 PM

Complete uncertainty to the actions that need to be taken at a future time.

When there's no way to plan, at all, no way to know what's the right thing to do, and complete void as to the predictions of future events, I usually find myself too scared to go through with it. It's the complete lack of controll that can terrify someone used to plans, predictions, and controll of their actions.

Octopus Jack

2010-09-19, 06:05 PM

Here is something new for me which only started happening to me a few days ago. I now get very uneasy when I go into the busy parts of town especially on my own. Not terrified just abit shaken and I'm not sure why. Yesterday I cut through a series of back allys to get home instead of walking along the more traveled streets.

Not really something that terrifies me but it's a fear like thing though I'm not sure what I'd actually call it.

TSGames

2010-09-19, 06:57 PM

Not really something that terrifies me but it's a fear like thing though I'm not sure what I'd actually call it.

Is it kinda like that feeling at the back of your mind, like someone/something is watching you?

nihilism

2010-09-19, 10:24 PM

last night during an mtg game i suggested to my guests that we go for a walk in the nearby woods. In the pitch black woods i made a point of ramping up the fear a little intending to suddenly switch off my flashlight unfortunately one of my friends suddenly started dashing back legitimately scared, which of course scared the $&*% out of the rest of us. on the way back we were discussing movies and tv episodes which had frightened us in the past and just as my friend was mentioning the dr. who episode "silence in the library" (contextually relevant) the street light directly above us suddenly went out.

certainly an interesting experience. i now know what one of my friends hidden phobia is.

factotum

2010-09-20, 01:25 AM

Unfortunately, I now have to get glasses, which means annual eye appointments with eyedrops. Eyedrops! *shudder*

I've worn glasses for 30 years and I've never had to have annual eye-drops. In the last few years they've started doing a test for glaucoma as part of the eye test, which involves blasting air into your eye, though.

Octopus Jack

2010-09-20, 10:59 AM

Is it kinda like that feeling at the back of your mind, like someone/something is watching you?

Yeah kinda, I'm not entirely sure how to describe it but that fits better than anything I can come up with.

Quincunx

2010-09-21, 06:36 AM

Eyedrops are easy to handle even then; have the eyedrops squeezed onto your shut eyelids, then open your eyes. Eyedrops trickle down and meet surface without setting off panicked something-touched-my-eye reaction.

prufock

2010-09-21, 06:47 AM

My biggest fear is that everything will work out all right in the end.

AtopTheMountain

2010-09-21, 06:06 PM

I've worn glasses for 30 years and I've never had to have annual eye-drops. In the last few years they've started doing a test for glaucoma as part of the eye test, which involves blasting air into your eye, though.

I could be wrong on the drops, I don't know. The glaucoma thing is almost as bad, though.

Arachu

2010-09-23, 05:31 AM

Ponderthought

2010-09-23, 12:27 PM

Vorpalbob

2010-09-23, 12:50 PM

The only thing that really scares me is being unable to move. I always wear rock climbing pants (look relatively formal while still allowing full range of movement) and I avoid enclosed spaces unless I know I can fit.

The only other thing that freaks me out is being unarmed. As a person whose upper body strength leaves much to be desired, I find that I am unable to feel comfortable in public without my knife concealed on my belt or a stout stick close at hand. This is allayed somewhat when I hang out with my friends who are on the rugby team :smallbiggrin:

Beyond those two, I would describe myself as being cautious of things like heights, unidentified insects, and the dark.

Christopher K.

2010-09-23, 01:02 PM

I'm scared of the idea of not being right all the time. :smalleek:

Also, insects with stingers. I got stung in the palm by a bee one time when I was 4, and ever since I've just tried to steer clear of anything that could sting me if I bugged it. (pun intended :smalltongue: )

evisiron

2010-09-23, 01:23 PM

Customs and Immigration on the US border.

Got interrogated last time mixed with the knowledge that with a word they could have me deported back home and make it much harder to get back in. And they know the power they have, and in the past have seemed to relish fear it caused.

Kind of worried its becoming an irrational phobia. I am about to fly back to the states, and looking over the relevant visa stuff I got the sort of back-of-the-subconscious terror that spikes if you look over the edge of a cliff.

Asthix

2010-09-23, 03:21 PM

A while back, some of my cousins and I went spelunking in an old house.

Everything was falling apart. Two of us were beset upon by ticks, most of the basement was barricaded for reasons I don't care to speculate, and I found empty shotgun shells in the middle of an otherwise-empty room.

There was a room in the basement. Dorian compared it to the room in Saw.

And out of all of that, the last part sent us sprinting out.

Houses are evil things. Snuck into and abandoned house once. Lots of pictures of dead Victorian folk on the walls. Left.

Ok story time! Long ago I and my friends snuck into the site of the Great mill explosion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mill_City_Museum) on our riverfront. Though empty, the building was frozen in time, including the central warehouse that had exploded. It still had a massive amount of wreckage in it, most of which was suspended over our heads. It was surreal walking under it, but as crazy as it may sound there was a feeling of stability when walking under that blasted, 100 year old plus wreckage.

One of us found a stairway leading down to a large basement underneath the central warehouse. The doors at the bottom were wide open and our flashlights, even the floodlamp we had were swallowed up by the vast expanse of inky basement. No matter which way we pointed them no details were revealed to us which was freaky, but in a tantalizing way that made us want to explore anyway.

"I know." One of our friends said. He went and got a piece of iron bar scrap, wrapped a t-shirt from his backpack around it and doused it with lighter fluid. (Yeah, he was very prepared) It glowed brightly when he lit it on fire and made an effective torch but alas, it failed to reveal any details of the basement either, so vast was it!

We moved away from the door into the room and very soon we were surrounded by darkness on all sides. It suddenly seemed as if it was pressing on us and we agreed to turn back. It was then we saw the following sign on the doors we had come through, which the focused beams of our flashlights had failed to reveal:

WARNING! Absolutely NO flammable objects in this room for ANY REASON! EXTREME DANGER!

That was the fastest I have ever run to get away from something in my life.

EDIT: I could go on and on about that one trek through there. The intrigue of the catacombs underneath the complex, the hallway that was so warped by age it looked like an MC Escher drawing. great stuff.

2010-09-26, 06:43 AM

Turns out I'm also afraid of my sister. I don't know if I put that on the first list. Man, I'm 6' 6" she's about 5' 11" skinny as a toothpick and I'm scared to death of her.

Gadora

2010-09-26, 08:08 AM

I'm terrified of having nothing to hold my attention. If my mind wanders, I've got a strong chance of reliving some unpleasant memories. It's why I always have a book or two handy.

ninjalemur

2010-09-27, 11:46 PM

My greatest fear would have to be the fear of failure. I have nightmares about failing and/or letting people down.

Arachu

2010-09-29, 07:50 PM

@Gadora: I carry four to five for the same reason. :roach:

On that tangent, I rarely dream, and when I do (usually on a calm day, I note) it's just confusing symbolism and nonsense.

My nightmares, however... Well, reading Lovecraft reminds me of nightmares I had as a child. And every year they become more horrible. In fact, I read Lovecraft and watch Saw in order to distract myself from myself these days.

They're not all bad, though. A year ago I had this dream in which the flesh on various parts of my body evaporated like water. I could see my muscles, my organs and my skeleton (tinged oddly slate-grey) in perfect detail. No pain, no fear, just profound observation.

Yeah, that was a good one :smallbiggrin: