Irrational Phobias and Justified Fears

[Christopher K.]

Hey folks,
As I sit here violently twisting the toe of my shoe on a dead wasp, I got morbidly curious: what sort of fears do you have?

On my own part, I swear my fear of stinging insects is justified - when I was extremely little, I got stung right in the palm by an unprovoked bee, and any critter with a stinger seems to sense my unease around them - I swear stinging insects chase me if I'm watching them! The most extreme example of this was while I was on vacation with family in Colorado in high school - I kept feeling my phone vibrate against my leg, checking it, and seeing no texts. Hmm, strange.. Then finally, one time the buzzing continued while I was holding the phone, and I felt movement against the skin on my leg. It was a very confused wasp, way too close to my boxers for comfort, and I still have trouble figuring out how I didn't get stung on this misadventure. To this day, I'll still try to tuck the cuffs of my jeans into my socks if there are a lot of bees or wasps around. The funniest part about this fear, though, is that it only applies to stinging bugs - I'm perfectly comfortable around cicadas, mantises, and all manner of bugs who won't sting.

As for irrational fears, I'm way too nervous around horses. Don't ask me why, but they leave me uneasy (not as scared as stinging insects but still!).

[Trekkin]

Probably my most irrational phobia is that of watching live performances of any kind. Buskers, orchestras, and especially any kind of theater just make me uneasy and afraid to the point of being physically nauseous in some cases. Even LARPs rub me the wrong way.

I have no idea why. I guess it might be related to my dislike of being served or waited on, but being entertained live is inexplicably so much worse.

[Sajiri]

Phones. Phones, microphones, radios, anything you have to talk into. I have no idea why, when I was younger I had no issues with it, but sometime around when I turned 18 I developed this sudden aversion to anything where I have to speak to someone but can't see them. Especially if other people can hear me during it. This caused a whole lot of issues at an old job of mine where they introduced radios as a safety measure, and anytime my supervisor started saying my name on the radio I'd break into a cold sweat and start panicking. I can think of some reasons why I feel this way about them, but it's kinda depressing stuff so I wont go into it.

I get better with it now, after my last job where my boss was really patient with me and just gradually worked up my phone duties while letting me make the phone calls in his office at first where nobody was around to hear me. I also started getting on discord a lot with my gamer buddies to try to get used to it more as well. Still hate it, but I can do it without falling apart these days.

I also hate toads and roaches. I am fine with all sorts of creepy crawly insects or animals, it's just those two things. I mean I live in Australia and used to work in a zoo, spiders, snakes, etc, none of them bother me. But I will not walk outside at night in summer without someone walking directly in front of me to first scare off any cane toads, and if I'm just sitting there and spot a roach running by I'm out of the building until someone kills it and disposes of the disgusting little insect corpse.

[Starwulf]

Irrational: Spiders. I hate them so much. Big ones, tiny ones, absurdly big ones that have had their fangs removed, doesn't matter one bit, I'm still terrified of them. Beyond that, even though I've never done it, I don't think I could swim in a spot that has a large hole underneath it that you can't see the bottom of it whatsoever. Lakes and ponds are fine, and so would the ocean. For me, it's those places you see in pictures of these big circular bodies of water, and the middle of it is just this deep, dark blue because there's a hole that goes down hundreds of feet. My imagination would never let me handle that, LOL.

Justified fears: Heights, but only in a specific set of circumstances. Driving up mountains that have sheer drop-offs to the side that you can clearly see, and only a guard rail is stopping you from going over, and I'm driving next to it. I never used to be that way, it's something that's developed over the last few years or so. It's justified because I fell off a 40 ft cliff, crushed 3 of my verterbrae, so I just consider it an extension of that.

[Lacco]

Spiders and heights, for a long time.

One day I was sitting on a roof with my father, while he was fixing the shingles and noticed a large - huge - spider walking up my leg. I tried to shed it, but as I fumbled around, I almost fell from the roof. I was around 8 or 10 y/o at that time, made a significant impact.

I'm getting better at it - as a father/husband I am in charge of spider elimination and I again enjoy sitting on the railings... :smallbiggrin:

[Honest Tiefling]

Deep water. I'm not hydrophobic, I just don't like being in water deep enough to drown in. I nearly drowned twice as a child, so it's not a huge mystery where that one came from. Oddly, I'm fine with bugs and other creepy crawlies to the point of trying to save them and put them outside as opposing to flailing around and killing them that I see from other people. Other then spiders. We're cool, you can hang out in my space.

I don't need you anyway Ocean, you're full of fish poop.

[Mikemical]

Irrational: I would sometimes imagine an aquatic predator(shark, piranhas, crocodile, aligator, anaconda, etc) somehow sneaking into the swimming pool I was in and chasing me when I practiced olympic swimming. On the plus side, I used to get very good records because I was swimming for my life.

Justified: Car accidents. I've been in a couple minor crashes myself and came out unscathed, but I lost two of my cousins in a car accident each(and they were siblings). I love driving, but I always do it safely: No speeding(unless I have the road for myself), seatbelt on, lights on high when it's raining and not passing the 80Km/h mark, keeping a 3 car distance between me and the car before me to be able to come to full stop if something happens or at least avoid them; don't care if someone passes me on the highway, it won't be me they'll have to cut out of some mangled metal carcass and put in a close-lid casket.

Both Irrational and Justified: Heights. I get vertigo when I stand too close to the edge of a building or cliff, and if I have to look down, I'll lie down on the ground and poke my head out to avoid a strong wind blowing me over the edge despite that I weight 95Kg. Also because when I'm looking down, there's a little something in the back of my head that tells me I should jump, even when I'm fully aware the fall would kill me. I fear one day I'm gonna give in, so I try to avoid going up the roof of buildings or hiking.

[Zalakoth]

Irrational yet Justified:

Being anywhere near dogs that aren't teacup/toy sized dogs, especially ones that are jumpy. Irrational because through the protection of a screen I think dogs are adorable, however justified because I had a traumatic accident in which I was bitten on the face by a rottweiler...

[Lord Joeltion]

Completely irrational: The sky night. I love stargazing, mind you. I'm a big fan of astronomy. But for some reason, all my brain cells start screaming DANGER whenever I look at the stars directly above my head in the open. Maybe it's the fact that I know too well the Outer Space is the the ultimate vacuum cleaner, but I even start feeling vertigo (yeah, I feel my body is getting pulled towards the sky) if I stare for too long. Vertigo sensation still happens on a bright day if there are no clouds where I can "hang on" my sight too. I can lessen the vertigo if I lay on my back, because at least I know I won't start feeling dizzy. The odd fact is that being in the fields or in the city does not affect this irrational fear; and I have no problem at all looking at the sky dome closer to the horizon, or if the moon is within sight. I just can't stand looking at the sky directly above me, for some reason. I hope it's not Cthuluh calling me :(

Justified: Big bugs. And I mean bigger than my fist (which is pretty big). Also probably related to my science knowledge. I mean, big critters are mostly from tropical climates, and most of them are either poisonous or more aggressive than their lesser counterparts. It's not as much as a phobia as it is I just don't want them to get closer to me. Another thing is that I don't like crushing bugs because it feels icky and I have moral issues when taking the life of something I won't eat. :smallfrown:


Both Irrational and Justified: Heights. I get vertigo when I stand too close to the edge of a building or cliff, and if I have to look down, I'll lie down on the ground and poke my head out to avoid a strong wind blowing me over the edge despite that I weight 95Kg. Also because when I'm looking down, there's a little something in the back of my head that tells me I should jump, even when I'm fully aware the fall would kill me. I fear one day I'm gonna give in, so I try to avoid going up the roof of buildings or hiking.

Hey, I thought I was the only one having that nasty person urging me to try and see how dying from a fall would be! Maybe it has to do with dreaming about flying, although I'm 99.9% positive it won't be anything like those dreams :smalltongue:

[solidork]

I've got it bad for heights. I get vertigo standing on a chair. Our cafeteria at work has three levels, and if I sit at the top level and I can freak myself out by looking at how close I am to the ceiling compared to how close the lowest level is to the ceiling. I can be six feet away from the completely normal railing, sitting in a chair and my brain will still be like "!!!".

[FinnLassie]

I've got it bad for heights. I get vertigo standing on a chair. Our cafeteria at work has three levels, and if I sit at the top level and I can freak myself out by looking at how close I am to the ceiling compared to how close the lowest level is to the ceiling. I can be six feet away from the completely normal railing, sitting in a chair and my brain will still be like "!!!".

Yo, same thing here! The level of my fear of heights also really depends on how anxious I'm feeling in general - when at a place of height, fear of it and anxiety sort of just keep on feeding each other.


Another phobia of mine relates to peach and nectar fruit stones. Had some creepy crawlies emerge into my mouth some years back from one, which likely explains this... Now I avoid them at all costs.

[Jackalias]

I'm scared of heights and bugs, although I don't suppose those would count as irrational.

What would however is my intense disgust of cereal, I can't go near it without feeling anxiety and nausea.

[AuthorGirl]

Heights . . . not an irrational fear. What's irrational is that, whenever I'm on a high natural formation, I want to jump off. No terror until I notice what I'm thinking. Ladders and stairs will freak me out if I'm on, say, the third rung/step.

The desire to jump is likely related to, as a small child, being absolutely convinced that I'd figured out how to step onto the air and not fall down. Because I don't want it for the danger - that aspect makes me feel panicky - I want it for the moment at the top of the jump when gravity lets go. I want to hang in midair for as long as I can. I want to hug the sky. This from the girl who can't climb spindly-looking stairs without breaking out in a cold sweat.

So yeah. There's something I'd like to understand about myself.

[2D8HP]

Heights . . . not an irrational fear. What's irrational is that, whenever I'm on a high natural formation, I want to jump off. No terror until I notice what I'm thinking....


Perhaps you may explore:

http://sanfranciscohanggliding.com/

http://www.bhgc.org/

[AuthorGirl]

Perhaps you may explore:

http://sanfranciscohanggliding.com/

http://www.bhgc.org/

Haha I just might, at that. (I do, however, find it amusing that I said I wanted to jump off a cliff and you proceeded to tell me how.)