What’s Your Most Bizarre Fear?

Soxyp
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 07:22 am: [report]

I’m actually scared of fish

frostie
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 07:36 am: [report]

I have a huge problem with narrow flights of stairs or stairs without handrails. Unless there’s something I can grab on to or they’re really wide steps I just can’t bring myself to climb them because I feel like I’m going to go tumbling down and break my neck. I had a huge problem with this when I visited some ruins in Italy, I ended up climbing a lot of stairs on my hands and knees.

n75nva
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 07:49 am: [report]

I’m afraid of Kites. Just when they are in flight or there is a possibility that they could become in-flight.

Joey Daytona
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 07:50 am: [report]

I’ll avoid full elevators, hate strangers just rubbing up against ya!
I did know a woman who was afreaid of wet wood, hated the feel of it and could not look at it. We had to remove the wooden spoon from the kitchen sink so she could come into the kitchen w/o a panic attack… sad to be a victim of irrational fears, but it could be worse I suppose.

Emi
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 07:50 am: [report]

I’m scared of dead bugs. If they’re alive I can pick them up with no problems, but if it’s dead I don’t want to be in the same room.

Christinaval
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 07:59 am: [report]

I’m afraid of any and ALL primates. Chimps, gorillas, baboons…all monkeys. I find them evil. Even those small ones that people have as pets…NOOOOO!!!! They are freakishly human-ish and I HATE THAT. Also start to panic attack over wasps. I HATE WASPS. ALSO EVIL.

xifeng882
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 07:59 am: [report]

Vacuum cleaners. I have this weird paranoia that they’ll slip out of my hand and somehow suck out my eyeball. Obviously I have a really strange imagination. I still use them, I just don’t like it

Lexington
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:04 am: [report]

I avoid full elevators too- plus subways. Due to a really #&@$% experience, I tend to be slightly claustrophobic. Too many people up close to me and I start with the panic attacks.

Penelope09
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:09 am: [report]

Catsup. When I was in preschool I thought it was blood. Never quite got over that.

Penelope09
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:10 am: [report]

p.s. a guy once poked my cervix while he was fingering me. I got a cut from his nail and was bleeding for a week (so two weeks that month).

whatshesays
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:11 am: [report]

Kidnapping. When I was little, I had recurring kidnapping nightmares and spent a lot of time coming up with ways to evade my imaginary captors.

bumbler
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:17 am: [report]

My husband wanted to go to a Megadeth concert once so I went with.  Standing there surrounded by sweaty big guys all roughly 5-6 inches taller than me on a muggy Florida night I really started to feel they were breathing all the oxygen.  Don’t know why but I started hyperventilating and had to go sit on the sidelines for the rest of the concert.  Now anytime I’m surrounded by large men in an enclosed space I once again feel like no oxygen is drifting down to me.

ootie
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:19 am: [report]

I actually used to be terrified of fireworks.  When I was a little kid, I loved them, until I found out that a kid at the fireworks show had died when one didn’t go off and fell down on him.  I was known as being brave, so I didn’t want to admit my fear and would still go with my family, but the entire time I was freaking out, squeezing my eyes shut, and praying that it would be over. Then one year, I passed out.  After that, I stayed away for awhile, but I went back a few years ago and discovered that my fear is finally gone.

dutchelmdisease
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:22 am: [report]

Mollusks. All of them. I had to do a report on them in my freshman year of high school, and I’ve been terrified ever since.

impoddity
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:38 am: [report]

Mayonnaise.  The smell and the taste make me nauseous, I can’t have it touch my skin, and even looking at it makes me queasy.  But I love tuna fish with mayo mixed in.  I just have to have moral support when dipping the spoon into the jar.  :shudders and runs to wash hands:

40yrolddad
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:41 am: [report]

not as bad as it used to be but I don’t like being around electric pumps (fear of electrocution).  the funny part is I’m not afraid of electricity per se (I’ve installed countless switches/dimmers/outlets & even a generator bypass panel in our current house), just pumps (or anything that brings fluids & current in close proximity like tankless waterheater).  when I was a kid I was terrified of pool filters (I still don’t like being around the big public pool sized ones)...

absoluttres11
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:45 am: [report]

I’m also afraid of fish. Dead, they’re fine… but alive in any form they freak me out. I am scared of seeing or touching them while swimming in any body of water.

Rose
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:53 am: [report]

I’m afraid of taxidermy-stuffed animals (not the plush kind).  I can’t endure those creey things, keep thinking they’re going to move. I’d rather die than go through a museum of Natural History - the lights are low and they’re on all sides of you.  I have no idea why. Not a vegan and I love living animals.

brandyalexander
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:57 am: [report]

Sloths, clowns, eyeballs popping out.

elizabethmarley
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:02 am: [report]

I don’t know if I’d call these fears per se…but purple makes me kind of nervous. Also, wet cat food. But that’s because my real fear is ending up really poor in a run down house and the only food I can afford is cat food, and I have to ration it out between me and the cat.

So, yeah. Wet cat food freaks me out.

hlnbabe
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:02 am: [report]

Amputations. My mom worked in a hospital and going to visit her one day with my dad, a woman with no hands in the elevator. She told me I was cute (undeniably true haha! jk) and did a mock cheek pinch with one of her wrist nubs. I was four, 20 years later and I still can’t handle missing limbs. Stupidly I told a guy I was dating once and he’d torment me by rubbing his elbow on my face.

Rose
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:24 am: [report]

@hlnbabe - that guy you were dating was a real winner, eh? Gotta respect the phobias, or they just get worse.

GreenAura
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:28 am: [report]

Chalk…. I cannot be anywhere near it. I start to get nauseous and grind my teeth.  I hate the sound it makes when writing on a chalkboard or sidewalk and I also get freaked out by the dust left over on your hands.  Just thinking about it is making me grind my teeth.  Thank goodness they started using whiteboards by the time I got into high school and college. 

My second biggest “fear” is medicine.  Thank gosh I never get sick.  I don’t even take anything for menstrual cramps.  I usually have to feel like I’m gonna die before I can take anything.  It’s probably been a good 3 years since I’ve even taken an aspirin.

pinkwhiskey
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:29 am: [report]

Butterflies and moths, Ladybugs, caterpillars, all bugs/insects really. But the butterfly/moth thing is the worst. I start to hyperventilate and my skin crawls. I have literally been crouched on the floor with my arms over my head begging for somebody to get the moth out. I’m itching now just thinking about it!

heythere
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:32 am: [report]

I have a HUGE fear of sharks. When I was little and we went swimming in our pool, my sister decided to go “Jaws” on me and bit my butt cheek under water! she bit it so hard I had purple teeth marks for 2 weeks! Ever since, I am soooo paranoid when i am in ocean water, I am always looking around and watching my back, just incase.

CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:35 am: [report]

@heythere: Me too. I have a terrible fear of swimming in the dark for fear of being attacked by a shark, even in a pool.

lawyrgrl
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:40 am: [report]

Choking.  When I was about 7 my mother got chicken lodged in her throat in a fastfood restaurant.  Rather than stay at the table and potentially get help, she rushed out of the restaurant and was stumbling around in the parking lot coughing and pawing at her throat.  The restaurant had large glass windows so I had a perfect view of it all.  I was certain that she was going to die and that I was going to be left there all alone with no way to get home.

She eventually cleared it herself and came back in nearly hysterical.  Unfortunately that was very characteristic of her behavior.  However, to this day if anyone so much as coughs while eating or if something goes down my throat funny I feel a pang of great fear.  I will even avoid eating things like grapes or hard candy if I am alone - just in case.

lea322
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:47 am: [report]

Inflated things. A balloon popped in my face on two different occasions when I was little, and now I just get so nervous around anything inflated.

I also get really uncomfortable when I see those nylon tubes that they blow air up into at car dealerships and other such places so it looks like a tube person with arms just flailing around. Does anyone know what I’m talking about? I’m always scared it’s going to wave itself right out in front of my car and cause me to crash.

And spiders! *shudder* They have an unnecessary number of legs!

Humble Bee
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:58 am: [report]

@heythere and CheeeEEEEse, that’s the best part about swimming in the ocean! that your sharing the water with sharks and all kinds of sea life. Kind of like heights, you so high up that you might fall, to me it’s an amazing feeling, like a rush of blood to the head.
Oh yeah, I hate rats! but who doesn’t? they are dirty rodents that get fed to snakes. bleh.

effing hickster
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 10:09 am: [report]

Being crushed by the morbidly obese. No, not just overweight people, and no, I’m not afraid of obese people themselves. Only afraid of having to sit in a space with them that was not designed for the both of us, like a seat on the bus, train, or airplane.

I think it has something to do with the fact that I was very small as a child.

hlnbabe
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 10:16 am: [report]

@Rose: Total winner. Haha.

JackieO
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 10:45 am: [report]

Wet hair on dry skin scares the bejesus out of me… and so do bellybuttons. YUK!

JackieO
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 10:46 am: [report]

Oh yeah and the king from those burger king commercials.

CuteinOhio
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 11:09 am: [report]

@Pinkwhiskey:  Me too!  I once went with my boyfriend to an indoor greenhouse filled with butterflies flying around everywhere loose and I almost passed out-  I just couldn’t move!  It was funny because he was in heaven and I really almost peed my pants.

EmmayElle
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 11:12 am: [report]

It’s not really a phobia but I get anxious when I’m in big crowds with lots of noise. I also HATE HATE HATE public bathrooms and try to avoid them at all costs. If I can’t hold it in a second longer I don’t touch anything in there. I don’t sit on the toilet seat (obvs) I lock and unlock the stall with my elbow. I flush the toilet with my foot. I use paper towels to touch the soap dispenser and faucet and I use my elbow to open the bathroom door. I don’t have OCD or anything and I don’t get anxious about using public restrooms, I just really hate using them. It’s not a crippling fear or anything but it makes using public restrooms exhausting.

Lilypie
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 11:15 am: [report]

Helium-filled balloons.  Put one on a string and hand it to me and I can hardly breathe from the panic.  I’ve cut my palm with my fingernails holding balloons because I freak out they are going to fly away.  My nightmare job would be being the balloon seller at Disneyland.

alleigh25
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 11:16 am: [report]

Anything to do with eyes…like poking someone’s eye out, or eye surgery…that sort of thing. I can watch any other kind of surgery (thank you, Discovery Health channel), but I can’t look at eye surgery at all, and even just THINKING about eyes being poked out…shudder.
But that’s mainly because I’m effectively blind in one eye, and I’ve always been afraid of something happening to the other one.

I’m also afraid of bees (and bugs in general, to an extent). When I was little, even though I knew perfectly well they wouldn’t, I was TERRIFIED that the dead bees I saw lying on the floor in front of the window in the attic would come back to life and all sting me. At that point in time, I’d never been stung by a bee before (even now, I only have once, when I was 7), so I think I probably thought it would hurt more than it did, especially considering I’ve always had a really low pain tolerance.

MarieMacCee
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 11:23 am: [report]

I too am terrified of sharks-I think they’re right behind me at the beach, in the pool, in the shower, under my bed, and swimming in the carpet at my heels at night. This doesn’t stop me from watching shark week religiously every year even though it paralyzes me because I think that knowing my enemy will help me defeat it. And every year I sleep on the couch because I am too scared to walk to my bed at night.

My friends think I’m insane….and I don’t think I can deny it.

Sofjna
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 11:54 am: [report]

@PinkWhiskey: Yay, I’m not the only person who hates butterflys.  People don’t understand how I could hate butterflys, but I think they’re just whored up moths.

@ElizabethMarley: as for fear of purple, where I work the employee bathroom is painted this weird really dark purple color, and for the longest time I wouldn’t go in there because the color really freaked me out for some reason.

Also, there was a similar article about this about a month ago.  Are the Frisky staff really that forgetful?

LaRosa
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 12:08 pm: [report]

Loud noises, and people yelling at me from cars.

theattack
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 01:14 pm: [report]

COCKROACHES. I have a panic attack when I see them or think about them for any amount of time. My worst nightmares are them crawling on me. Also, if I see a whole lot of bugs in one place (This summer I happened to see an infestation of ants while working at Girl Scout camp), I automatically stop seeing whatever is actually there and only see cockroaches everywhere, so I also have a panic attack over that.
MANNEQUINS. They are so scary. I hate stores that have them everywhere. I won’t buy clothes on display near mannequins. That marketing tactic does the opposite for me.
and POPPING BALLOONS. I hate balloons. They’re really cool when they’re nice, healthy, full balloons. But I’m always afraid they’ll randomly pop. I remember having Field Day in elementary school where we played games like three legged races and tug of war, and also one where we had to pop balloons, and we were REQUIRED to participate. Worst experience of my life.

mayorbubbles
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 01:56 pm: [report]

i hate needles, butterflies, dragonflies, spiders, deep water, things with multiple holes (ever since i got that email about the worm eggs in the bra thing) thank god snopes disproved it but it still gives me the heebie jeebies. i can’t think of anything else.

overmyhead
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 02:30 pm: [report]

I’m also afraid of things with multiple holes! I thought I was the only one! I think it’s tied to my fear of bugs and internal parasites. I’ve found my biggest and strangest fear is mold and spoiled food. I will make everyone in my apartment smell my milk if I think it even hints at being spoiled and then still refuse to use it.

msu.umich
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 02:33 pm: [report]

@mayorbubbles & overmyhead - holes are my biggest and most intense phobia.  its worse than a phobia, its more like instant and uncontrollable revulsion.  Mine started when I saw a midwife toad in action (do NOT google it if you value your sanity), and it was in full effect when I saw that awful bra pic too.  Its called trypophobia.

CJ1432
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 07:56 pm: [report]

I’m deathly afraid of spiders, I can’t even look at one on TV or in a magazine with out freaking out.

I do have some friends with interesting fears.  One is afraid of goats, he got attacked by one at a petting zoo as a kid.  Another friend of mine is afraid of cotton balls.  My brother is afraid of those silver fish bugs with a hundred legs.  He’s afraid they will crawl in his ears when his sleeping.  He slept in his car until he could get an exterminator out to his house when he had some.

redcow11
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 08:05 pm: [report]

I’m afraid of snakes biting my butt when I’m on the toilet. I never sit with it fully covering the toilet seat so any snakes can get out of the toilet and not have to bite me in order to escape. And I don’t even live in India or anything!

Emily-#2
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:01 pm: [report]

I could just copy/paste pinkwhiskey’s reply!  And mine too was after doing a project about them in high school! And I also hate anything touching my neck in between my collar bones, even shirt collars, I just feel like something is choking me!

PotteryGirl
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:07 pm: [report]

I’m very allergic to peanuts (anaphylaxis allergic, I have to have epipens stashed everywhere) but I don’t have the airborne component. HOWEVER, being around people eating peanuts sets off a completely unreasonable panic attack.

I’m so continually afraid of having my very tiny dog either getting lost or taken by hawks.  I think I hover too much.

AngrySalad
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:19 pm: [report]

@PotteryGirl:
Your fear of losing your small dog to a bird of prey isn’t a phobia it’s very rational. My folks live in the country and the eagles WILL go for a dog or cat. Very scary!

As for me I have a fear of my teeth falling out. Dunno why but a few times a month I’ll dream about it. Oh and I have a daily nightmare about getting laid off… It starts when I show up to work and people are in meetings. Ugh make it stop!

PotteryGirl
wrote on September 22 2009 @ 09:21 pm: [report]

@AngrySalad - thanks.  Sometimes, I think I’m being so over protective of my baby (i.e. dog). 

And with the news and everything we hear daily, I don’t think your dreams are anything but a reflection of what you are seeing and hearing.

stringbeans
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 01:48 am: [report]

@effing hickster, definately agree with the obese people on planes. imagine being a tiny 10 year old girl travelling by herself finding out that the person i was to sit next to, had booked two seats…and needed mine as well. must sit in aisle seat everytime now.

but i also have an irrational fear of silverfish. i dont mind bugs, i used to pick up cockaroaches and put them on my brother, but silverfish seriously freak me out. shaking, sweating, no idea why either.

mmkw
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 03:24 am: [report]

My most panic inducing fear is during the spring and summer, after a heavy rainfall, when all the earth worms crawl out onto the sidewalk. It’s not the worms themselves (I worked in a prairie one summer and became very familiar with worms), but the knowledge that I’m stepping on them that freaks me out. I just CANNOT walk on sidewalks where there are worms on it.
Once I was walking from my dorm to my friends dorm and I legitimately had a panic attack on the 1.5 block walk because EVERY step I took, there was a fat, shiny earthworm crawling across my path.

moonblossom
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 11:50 am: [report]

I’m scared of looking into dark cars. When I was a kid I had a dream that I walked by a parked car in the dark and there was a glowing skeleton hand on the steering wheel. Since then I have been really scared of looking into dark cars.

amylou
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 12:23 pm: [report]

i’m afraid of choking while driving, bc wtf do you do then???

writergirl
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 01:02 pm: [report]

@CheeeEEEEse and Heythere—I am petrified of sharks too!  But, I’ll go in clear water—Florida, Hawaii, the Carribbean—no problem, just a slight trepidation. For years, I’ve avoiding going in beyond calf-deep water in NJ because I was afraid of not being able to see what was out there. Finally, FINALLY last year, I was able to swim in the Atlantic for the first time in years.  But I had to seriously phsyche myself up to do it.  Samething this year.

I am also deathly afraid of matches.  When I was two, in an effort to make sure I didn’t play with matches, my father lit one, blew it out, then touched my skin with it.  I don’t remember the incident, but I remember being told about it.  I never touched them, and to this day, can’t light them or lighters.

lawyrgrl
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 01:31 pm: [report]

@amylou Hadn’t thought of that.  Great….. 

neongh0st
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 03:03 pm: [report]

Doorknobs. Especially doorknobs leading into dark rooms. The way light reflects off of round doorknobs looks like an eye, and it always makes me think just a little bit that I’m being watched, that I’m not safe. No idea what set that off.

mayorbubbles
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 06:50 pm: [report]

@msu.umich

I just tried to google trypophobia to read about it and wonderful google puts pictures up at the top. -.- I spazzed.

Thanks google.

effing hickster
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 07:07 pm: [report]

EmmayElle, alleigh25, writergirl: I’ve lived your nightmares.

EmmayElle, whatever you do, don’t go to an eastern European restroom. Most of Asia is pretty much out, too.

Alleigh25, try getting stung by a whole hive of bees in Florida. Happened when I was 11, and I couldn’t sit right for three days (no bathrooms in the wild, you guess the rest).

writergirl, strangely enough, my experience wasn’t a shark, but a Man O’ War jellyfish. Again, in Florida.

writergirl
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 07:11 pm: [report]

but that’s just it…I’ve never had an experience with sharks…I’m just naturally petrified.  Same with snakes. I check the toilet every time before I sit.

I think it is termed and innate, irrational fear…?

OutOfLine
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 08:00 pm: [report]

Why is /b/ in my Frisky?  And why is it so obvious?  Rules one and two, idiot.

PotteryGirl
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 08:36 pm: [report]

Oh, fun.  A troll!  And one that is an idiot.  Good times.

_jsw_
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 09:09 pm: [report]

I too fear sharks. I never used to, but one day, on vacation in North Padre Island, I had swum out a bit and felt this odd urge to turn around immediately. It was an powerful feeling. Anyway, I turned in the water and kicked out to start swimming back. My foot hit a shark in the side, hard. At the time, I wasn’t sure what it was, but I freaked out and swum as fast as I ever have in my life. When I got back to shore, I realized it had to have been a shark. The skin was rough in the way a shark’s is. It was a big, solid object. It wasn’t a person - I was out far and it… it was solid. Had I not moved abruptly, as I had, for no real reason… I likely would have been bitten The week after I left, a 13-year-old girl lost an arm there. On that same beach.

So now? Now I fear sharks. I figure I already had my good luck time. Next time, not so much.

CheeeeEEEEse
wrote on September 23 2009 @ 09:14 pm: [report]

/b/ is in your frisky because 1 article made page 2 of reddit today. Sorry ladies, thats what you get for breaking some hard s*it on a Turner network.

Tamara
wrote on September 27 2009 @ 03:28 am: [report]

Birds, I have Anatidaephobia lol and Tarman from Return of the Living Dead. I’ve started to conquer said fears, lol.

DancingGeek
wrote on September 28 2009 @ 06:13 pm: [report]

I’m terribly claustrophobic and crowds freak me out. I get panicky if I can’t easily move through the aisles at the grocery store.

silverspooner
wrote on September 29 2009 @ 07:10 am: [report]

i’m literally petrified of velour or any similar fabric. it sounds ridiculous but it really makes me nervous. christmas is one of the most traumatizing times of the year and don’t even get me started with those stupid jewerly box lined with velour.

alleigh25
wrote on September 29 2009 @ 12:54 pm: [report]

@effing hickster
Um. Just um. Really no more can be said. That is horrible…

Steph9668
wrote on September 29 2009 @ 01:26 pm: [report]

I’m afraid of my imagination really… When I imagine being dead, the world continuing, what it will become and it’s eventual end I have fairly severe panic attacks. Not really sure why since I’ll be dead and won’t care… but it’s the only thing that really frightens me anymore. Airplanes used to do it but not so much now.

Oh and geckos kinda scare me too. I used to get them in my house… they are fast and very good at hiding. Not my kind of roommate.

Innamorata
wrote on October 16 2009 @ 09:05 pm: [report]

I am terrified of dark water…who knows what’s in there (pools, lakes, ocean, etc).  I watched one too many episodes of “Are You Afraid of the Dark” when I was little, which only made that fear worse with episodes of evil spirits drowning people in dark water. 

Also snakes; I can’t look at pictures of them in books, forget about being anywhere near there in person.

WinterRaine
wrote on October 31 2009 @ 12:45 am: [report]

I’m deathly afraid of:

-being buried alive (In a coffin with velvet, screaming & scratching away, and nobody can hear you…)

-suffocation by plastic (after watching “Stir of Echoes” I’m terrified.)

-sharks (watched way too many shark movies)

-drowning (I can swim…but I like to breathe)

-spiders (hate the feel of them crawling on me!)

-pain (one of the reasons why I’m scared of sex)

-blood (can’t watch gory movies.  Ever.)

-the paranormal (like all those ghost shows…A Haunting)

-the dark (I still sleep with the closet light on)

-germs (I cover my nose when someone sneezes or wash my hands. A lot.)

-driving (way too many crazy drivers and I freak out easily)

-heights (like going up a ladder or the top floor of a skyscraper…)