Everyone is afraid of something. There are common fears, i.e. sharks and poisonous spiders and motherfucking sharks, and there are the less common fears that lay in wait in our subconscious and come out only in dreams. From the most hypochondriac shivering nerd to the toughest modern-day bar viking, everyone has one random irrational fear that will rarely be encountered in real life, but will gently caress them up nonetheless.

My neck feels very vulnerable...it's like I have a constant fear of it being slit or punctured. I went out to see Sweeny todd without knowing what it was about and I basically closed my eyes throughout half the movie cause I was getting more and more squeamish to the point of walking out of the theater.


So RPG-D, what are your ridiculous, illogical, and rarely encountered fears?

It's not as rarely encountered as you might think, but I am horrified of people in full costumes. Mascots are probably the worst, because it's really only bad with the full on masks. I don't even mind it as much if it's just a face mask (although I am bothered) but if they're in a full body costume, I freak out. Like, I've actually cried before.

My friend was our school mascot too so people would always talk him into coming over to me at football games and stuff to give me hugs- it's bad news bears, and can invoke a full-on panic attack.

Cynophobia. I guess that isn't too obscure, though. If I see a dog I lock down and become rigid, and if it's running/dashing/charging at me all my joints loosen and I end up running off. It's always a fight or fly response. Apparently, while at the fair around the age of two or so I was bit by a puppet dog at some carnival. Yes, a puppet. I sure don't remember it, but according to my mother this is what triggered the entire thing. Now I not only fear but I despise dogs.

And then I've got the more recently acquired hydrophobia. I used to be fine with water, like any person until about five years ago. My father builds and sails/paddles/rows boats of all kinds. That three years ago I went on some kayaking charade with him. And then I capsized. Sure, I was trained for this. What I should have done was unfasten the water skirt so I could get out the cockpit, but when confronted with surprise and water up my nose I couldn't remember the entire procedure. I ended up flailing, trying to resituate the kayak on the surface. Didn't work out well. After a minute or two my father managed to pull me back up. Ever since then I've hated boats and feared water. Yup.

As you can imagine I hate beaches. Water, dogs, cigarette butts and sticky-fingered children- it's terrifying.

Spiders and insects. I have a terrible fear of them both and I seriously cannot get over them. Whenever I see them I just freaked out. Like today I could not get in my car for like five minutes because I was trying to get rid of this spider that was next to the driver's door. It was horrible.

I have a fear of knives. Apparently it's obscure so they put it under Aichmophobia, which is the fear of needles. I have no problem with needles, just knives.

Heights. I can barely walk on the second floor of the mall, and when I do, my hands get all sweaty and I stay thisclose to the store windows.

Death. Not so much being dead, but how I'm going to die. I'm praying for old age, but you never know. Could be a car accident, drive-by shooting, in this crazy world, anything's possible.

The world coming to an end. With all the thunderstorms and lightning in the Northeast, USA, that's all my older sis has been saying. "The world's coming to an end, the world's coming to an end." Shut up you fool! Hah, we drove by some obscure church last night and on the sign, it said, "How will it all end?" That was the sermon for this morning's mass.

Peanut butter getting stuck to the roof of my mouth. I swear I'm not making this up. A few eyars ago a heard about it and thought it was a total joke, but then I started thinking about it and, well, peanut butter is very sticky.

Anyway, I can't eat peanut butter anymore. I start gagging from even thinking about it and get chills up and down my spine.

Needles- not tattoo needles, but into a vein needles- induce panic attakcs and fainting. For bloodwork, and the only IV I've had, I have to be restrained.

I am noticeably uncomfortable around knives, and will not handle broken glass, razorblades or steel wool o.O . Being forced to generally leads to hyperventilating and panic.

I'm also afraid of heights, and panic at eyedrops (though I can touch my eye, so I don't know why eyedrops induce panic attacks).

snakes....I fear them so much I barely go outside of my home. The are so..Well they freak me out. I am always checking the sinks and bath tubs for snakes coming up through them, Though I knew better. It still scares me to death!!!

*shivers and thenr uns away screaming*

I .. have to check behind the shower curtain, half the time when in the bathroom.

( I blame the horror movies. )

I'm also afraid of escalators .. because I'm afraid of falling. Not so much going up them, but down them? Ugh. I can do it, but it takes forever in a day for me to get mentally prepared. When I went to NYC? I almost died.

Graveyards. They scare the living crap out of me, because I'm convinced that I see things moving out of the corner of my eyes. I blame zombie movies.

Small, dark spaces. Not exactly claustrophobia...small places, I can deal with, dark places I can deal with, put them together and I will shake like a leaf in a hurricane. I think that comes from a fear of being buried alive, which might be why I'm so freaked out by graveyards, other than the dead-coming-to-life-to-eat-me, thing. To that effect, I carry a lighter around with me, so I can always make light...which has convinced my mother that I'm either a smoker, or hooked on crack, because I leave spoons in my pockets sometimes. ^_^

Oh! And I'm really scared of loosing my voice. No idea why, but I have something like chronic tonsilitus, which comes back a couple of times every six months. Every time it happens, I get really freaked out and panic. Of course, nobody is actually aware of this, they just think I'm moody because I'm sick not that I won't talk to them because I'm scared that it'll be the last thing I say and it will be angry.

I really loathe shredders, of all kinds, but particularly the triangular metal kinds you find in kitchens. If I must eat food prepared with them I cannot see the food being prepared. I don't quite know why, I think it might be a fear of cuts, particularly fingers getting cut, or shredded.

I'm uncomfortable when other people handle knives. And I cannot take anyone holding knives against bodyparts. Sharp objects in general makes me uncomfortable in the hands of others.

Heights scare me, and I refuse to walk up spiral stairs with those horrible metal steps with square holes. And I dislike spiral staircases, and steep staircases in general. I hate glass floors, and generally airy places above the second or third floor. Glass elevators are just about my worst nightmare; the last time I ventured into one I stood shaking in a corner. Heights is just not for me.

Oh, and I dislike scars. I can bare looking at them, but I will not touch them. And I cannot watch someone poke a needle through the top-most layer of skin on their finger.

Having to create small flames, like with matches or Bunsen burners. It's not that I'm afraid of burning the house or chem lab down, rather that I'm afraid of burning myself. If people do it for me, I'm fine; I just get anxious having control over it, because I'm afraid I'll mess up and hurt myself. Even toasting marshmallows over a fire makes me nervous, thuogh that I will do... since I'm far enough away from it, lol. I don't get nervous around fireplaces or anything like that, though.

I'm also afraid of being kidnapped. I get really paranoid in parking lots and such at night.

To be honest, none of my fears are really obscure. The only one that's serious enough to mention is extreme darkness--in other words, a situation where I cannot see anything. Simply because I become, for a few moments, totally unaware of my environment.

Though, watching horror movies has affected how I react to fear. Whereas I once would simply not enter a dark place, I've now chosen to act in a tactical manner and ignore my fear. I know well that my eyesight will most certainly adjust to a dark place after a few moments, at which point I will be just fine.

Actually no, I have another fear, and it's the only one that I have trouble reacting to. The fear of fearing. You know, like the one guy's quote--you have nothing to fear but fear itself.

I often fear being afraid more than I fear the actual object that I'd be afraid of.

Like, I am afraid that I will be afraid.

As in I'm afraid that I will start to behave irrationally in a situation where I should not.

CLOWNS. THEY CREEP THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF ME! I blame Stephen King and his film/movie. Now every time I see a clown, I have to put a GOOD amount of distance between them. There's just something about a middle-aged man dressed up in flamboyant clothes and make-up that doesn't feel right.

Then I'm petrified of drowning...I refuse to go out into any body of water where I can't touch the bottom and have the water be below my shoulders and see the bottom. I won't go into any sort of small boat like a kayak or a canoe even with a life jacket. It's probably the most difficult one for people to understand...especially when I didn't go on my senior trip because they went white water rafting.

Anything sitting to close to my neck, whether it be turtlenecks, Button down blouses, a choker. I always feel like I am choking, all my shirts have to be well away from my neck.

Then of course there is the dark, I can go for walks out in the dark, and be perfectly fine with it, but I can't be in a dark house or bedroom with out panicking..

and spiders and snakes. Then send me screaming and shaking. I have trouble even looking at them unless they are in some really thick glass cases and even then I get the shakes..

On occasion, driving scares the ever loving out of me. I think it migth have something to do with the responsibility you have for your passengers.

And this one, this one is just weird. I have a real fear of calendars. Not like, "oh a calendar! Fleee!", more like, if I look at one, I start feeling really panicky. Weirdness abounds.