I’ve never been scared of heights. I’m not really scared of spiders or cockroaches or insects. I’m scared of something a bit more pragmatic, but I feel like it’s sort of a genuine phobia. I’m really scared of breaking my neck!
I know that sounds silly. Everyone is scared of breaking their neck. It’s not an irrational fear, but it is a little debilitating. I’m a little afraid of the ocean because I’m worried about sandbanks and hitting my head on them! I’m afraid of doing certain things face first for this reason.
Anyway — that’s what I’m afraid of. Today’s Off Topic is about fears. What are you scared of?
Comments
114 responses to “Off Topic: What Are You Scared Of?”
Lizards.
This might make me an Ashley Williams style space racist, but I found talking to Wrex genuinely uncomfortable at first in Mass Effect. D:
I’ve got more pragmatic fears too, but I keeps them to my neurotic self. XD
So the TV series V (either version) is all your nightmares made visible and visceral?
Death
Being an adult
Girls
Hard work
Public performances
Failure
Fear
I am a rational person, and I know it’s entirely irrational, but god. damn. BEES.
I fear bees because if they sting me I swell up, my throat closes and I die. People laugh at me for violently flinching when a bee gets close to me, and that makes me angry, because they would violently flinch too if the equivalent of a knife-weilding psychopath was lunging at them with a dagger pointed at their jugular.
Same here 😀
See, I’m not even allergic and they still give me a lashing of terror.
I like bee’s, I think they’re cute. What I don’t like is wasps. I HATE wasps!
See I think wasps are cute too, if they were the size of a cat I’d have one as a pet and train it to sit on my shoulder. Presumably you’d have to remove or blunt the sting but that shouldn’t be hard on a wasp the size of a cat.
You specist!
Bees and Wasps freak the shit out of me. I will literally run away from them. I’m fairly allergic – not life-threatening but I swell up like crazy – and that probably feeds into it.
And you’re coming to Japan with those giant ass hornets?
I don’t have any intention of visiting a giant hornet nest or anything.
I never had any problems with bees, until one stung me near my eye: I woke up to find this thing crawling on my face, tried to shoo it but it held on, tried to pull it off and it stung me – at which point I realised it wasn’t “just a fly”. Spent the rest of the week seeing the world without the benefit of depth perception.
death
Spiders, insects and other such creepy crawly things freak me out.
Tomatoes.
Eggplant.
Pineapple.
Most other things I can deal with, but these foods are unnatural, and want to kill me.
You want unnatural? Tomato and Eggplant belong to the same family. And one of the other food crops in that family is the Potato.
KILL IT WITH FIRE
*not potatoes of course – they’re the chicken of the vegetable world.
Are you allergic to asprin?
No, I have texture issues with all three of these foods. I can eat tomato paste, tomato sauce, hell, even drink tomato juice. But raw tomato is vile. Pineapple is the same. Pineapple flavored stuff is OK, pineapple juice is pretty good, but actual pineapple is awful.
Although eggplant is just wholly strange and unusual on all fronts.
Ah. See, if you have problems with some of the main active stuff in asprin (salicylic acid), then things like tomatoes and pineapples do quite literally try to kill you when you eat them.
Yeah, ‘killing me’ might be an exaggeration. I just really dislike them. Interesting facts though, I did not know that!
Heights, I guess. I don’t experience vertigo, but even climbing a small ladder is nervewracking for me if it’s not completely 100% stable. I don’t think it’s so much the height, but the instability and the paranoia that I will fall and get hurt is paralyzing.
i’m not scared of heights in real life but i get vertigo when i climb shit in games. it’s fucking wierd.
Losing loved ones.
Bees.
Can’t stand them. I’ll jump out of a moving car to get away from one. Heights, snakes, spiders, public speaking, death…all that stuff I’m fine with.
It’s just the goddamn bees.
commitment…and horses 😛
I’m guessing you don’t dream about marrying Sarah Jessica Parker then?
On the contrary. All the time. The fear of commitment and horses is just too crushing…. ;p
Wasps more so than bees for me, as wasps will sting you just for being alive, whereas bees will generally only sting you if you’re a threat, as they can only sting once before their bum falls off.
As a child who was fascinated by insects, I was stung many times by wasps. They’re angry, vengeful little bastards, they hurt more than bees, and they’ll keep stinging you just because they can.
Failure. And it leads to way too much procrastination.
Ducks and being strangled
what if ducks had thumbs and could strangle you O_O
God that’s terrifying, although I don’t think they’d have the wing strength to strangle … so there’s a small relief. Although they would if they could.
Then, at the end of the world, ducks began to lift, bro, and thus were able to strangle and overthrow their human oppressors.
http://www.reddit.com/r/birdswitharms
Well ducks are birds and have hollow bones so chances are that your throat would break their thumbs before they could strangle you
definitely don’t want to google ducks without beaks then, some freaky pictures there
I’m worried that things seem to be getting worse, and that all the great minds seem to be gone… and that no one seems to be interested in fixing the problems we’re facing.
That and aneurysms.
Spiders man.
And Dark Souls.
Wasps, they are creepy as hell, some can manipulate other insects minds with pheramones or by directly boring into their heads others can alter the genetic structure of plants, there’s even a species that has a zinc plated stinger in a sheathe and can use it like a pneumatic drill and bore into solid wood. *shudders*
Totally fine with pretty much any other type of insect or arachnid.
Oh I also fear Hard Drive Failures, they are the blurst
Edit: Also there are those pycho Japanese wasps that are huge and their sting melts human flesh, people have needed to use dental records to identify corpses that have been swarmed by them.
I’ve got ophidiophobia
Fear of snakes. Save someone else a google 😉
Snakes! Why’d it have to be snakes!
poor snakes, they’re nice, i worked in the bush for years and encountered hundreds 99% of them are terrified of people.
People! Why’d it have to be people!
was that the scene where snake indy opens the thing full of humans?
I feel the same way about spiders. People see a huntsman and lose their minds, then move heaven and earth to ensure it is obliterated. Most of the time the little guy is just minding his own business, and wants nothing more than to avoid you.
^ This. The truth is Huntsmen actually fear humans and will only bite under extreme circumstance. If they can, they flee instead.
we have a spider catching container next to our door permenantly so I can relocate the little guys when they get stuck in our house.
Nice.
i’m having a baby in three (or so) weeks and i’m fucking terrified that i may drop it.
It’s okay, they are made of rubber…
hmmm…
You can actually mould a baby like clay for the first few days so if it turns out to be ugly just give it a bit of a gentle push here and there and it might end up prettier. Or you could give it horns, that’d be badass.
Congrats, man!
ta
I think every mother to be has that fear.
But have faith. As long as you have support around you and confidence in yourself, it will be fine and you will have one of the greatest gifts of all.
Change. I’ve worked the same job in the same factory for 13 years because I’m too scared to get out there and look for something different.
Also… I wouldn’t call it a fear but butterflies freak the hell out of me. When they’re close you never know when they’re just gonna BAM!!! Fly right in to your face!
Being buried alive.
and grizzly bears.
This. The worst thing is, you could take some immortal/invincible superhero and so long as they don’t have super-strength, you can find some way to bind them, then just wrap them up in a steel coffin and sink them into the ocean for until the end of days.
If you ever get an option for a superpower, don’t just go for immortality/invincibility – you need the strength.
being buried alive *by* grizzly bears?
buried alive with a grizzly?
Buried alive with Justin Beiber?
Buried alive with Justin Beiber in a grizzly bear suit?
Being buried alive INSIDE a bear, whilst listening to Justin Bieber?
Being buried alive inside Justin Beiber?
I would rather drown… 😐
Moths. ew.
Failure
heights
depression
The dark!
I’ve never liked scary games for a reason, you never know what lurking in the darkness and it scares the hell out of me. I hear one little movement in the dark and I loose my shit. “This includes in real life aswell”. It may be due to all the nightmares I had when I didn’t have a lamp or light on when I slept.
Failure. Money issues. Being dumped. Vegetative states.
Not death, oddly.
I need sleep. Read that last one as “Vegemite slates.”
Not exactly sure what it is in slate form but you must really hate the taste of vegemite.
Cockroaches and government tyranny.
Same thing, no?
Ew, I just pictured Tony Abbott in a dress…then I realised you said ‘tyranny’ and not ‘tranny’
My mistake.
^^ i changed my fear to Abbot in a dress. lol
AAAAAAGH!
*Runs and leaves a hole the size and shape of myself in the wall*
GIMMEOUTGIMMEOUTgimmeoutgimmeout………!!!!!!
That’s a better mental image than him in Speedo’s.
You just made me think of a world where the cockroaches have taken over and rule the world in an iron grip of tyranny. Not sure if it’d actually be worse the then current system.
I used to be terrified of someone stabbing me in the back while I enter our house via the sliding door. That time-frame where I’m completely exposed was gut-wrenching. It wasn’t irrational at the time though. I was only 12 and we lived on a farm. We also had a stalker that kind of tormented us for around a year. Never caught. Once you wake up with your bed covered in glass it kind of changes your perception of “safe as houses”. I’m not as worried now that I’m an adult but every now and then I might enjoy a moment of sheer terror. It’s fun and keeps you on your toes! *sobs*
Damn, man. I hope the karma train reaching this clown and flattens him.
Yeah, it was pretty bad. It became normal after a while. I’d stay home every Thursday (I think) night and everyone else went out bowling. I’d stay home to tape The Flash of all things. Taking the ads out as you do. Without fail the power would be cut halfway through and I’d have to go outside to put the fuse back in knowing that there’s a dude out there, somewhere. Then I had to go back inside through that sliding door. ack. no good. Usually I’d call a friend and talk to them for a few hours… “Hang on a sec, I heard something. Gunna go check it out”. My friend thinks I’m dead if I’m not back quickly.
I can’t think of anything I’m actually “afraid of” in the traditional sense like heights, spiders, clowns, jews or whatever, but:
1. Being a cripple or a vegetable. As a skydiver, I had to make it very clear to all of my family and close friends that if I’m ever in that situation and they are able to end it for me, I want it to be done.
2. Children. I simply just don’t like the damned things. I never want them, and I don’t really want them around me either. Fortunately my girlfriend has no parental dreams, because that’d be enough to break up over.
3. Not really “scared of”, but “unnerved by: Religious people.
4. Not really “scared of”, but “unnerved by: People who try and tell other people how to live their lives. These can be individuals, governments, or whatever. If someone is doing something that doesn’t affect life, liberty or property of another, you have no god damned business telling them they shouldn’t do it, ESPECIALLY in the privacy of his or her own home and/or to his/her own body.
3 & 4 seem very much the same.
Frequently, yes
Am afraid we won’t have a barrier reef in a few years.
Debt.
Bogans.
Brain damage.
Is that a story pitch for some small town Australian heist movie?
“Awright Barry, Gazza, Trev, Mick, after the fuckup at the dog track we’re in the hole for 50 grand and the mob are after us, here’s the plan; we’re gonna knock over the Tumbarumba Westpac!”
i’d watch that
Well spiders so thanks for the image, that looks like a terror from my nightmares somehow run through the lens of Far Cry Blood Dragon. I imagine because dreams are weird.
Beyond that, I’ve got strong claustrophobia, very mild agoraphobia (more uncomfortable than scared) & whatever the correct name for a fear of crowds is.
My biggest fear is the thought of looking into a mirror and seeing some little possessed demon girl standing behind me. Seriously, I think about that every time I close my eyes to wash my face.
My biggest more tangible fears are Needles (I f***ing hate Needles!!!) and walking through spiderwebs. I will be out of my clothes and jumping around like a spastic in less than a second if I walk through a spiderweb.
My youngest son is deathly afraid of bears……..which is a fortunate fear to have in Australia……. Me personally am scared of just about everything, fortunately I’m man enough to keep it under my hat so don’t tell anyone.
Falling from a great heigh (like out of a plane)
Having my arms constrained so that I can’t move them at all
Not so much a fear but balloons make my shoulders tense up, gives me cramps if i’m around them for too long.
Heights, which is a rational fear. But it’s crippling after like 4 metres off the ground.
Spiders, for one (Huntsmans, it’s just the fact that they move so quickly and are really good at hiding in cracks and in places where they can drop on you, like the bathroom roof, plus they’re bigger than what I’m comfortable killing)
Some years ago, it was dogs (after my then-15 year old cousin was attacked by a German Shepherd), but I since outgrew that.
But also, shit at the end of long, dark corridors, or something like a creepy child in a white dress glowing in the middle of a hallway. Watched a demo for an in-development game that promised to work out what you’re afraid of, based on how you play, and provide you with more or less of that. During the demo, the player turns around and there is a large, floating white face immediately behind the player. Wasn’t expecting that at all, and it gave me a bit of a jump.
Depression – had it for 10 years, enough is enough.
Divorce – getting one in a few months 🙁
Also heights.
Hang in there buddy. Can’t relate to divorce, but 10 years of depression I can relate to.
And while it’s a relatively meaningless thing for me to say, you’re not alone!
I don’t know what yours is like, but I find the “trick” to getting by (while trying to treat it ideally) is to find something to get up for in the morning, no matter how meaningless that thing is.
Animal heads on human bodies.
Rollercoasters.
Sharks. (and yet I STILL oppose the WA shark cull)
As long as you stay out of the water and sharks don’t learn how to come onto land, there’s no reason you two can’t co-exist harmoniously 😛
The number one thing that scares me the most is dying. My whole family are church goers, but I’m not, I think that it’s completely irrational to believe in a God or creator. So if there is no Heaven/Hell or any sort of afterlife, then it’s just lights out, game over. That terrifies the absolute shit out of me
As bizarre as it sounds, not dying. I want my life lived as though I could die any time to actually mean something.
Bees, wasps and spiders, especially spiders. Bitten twice by white tails, second time had me in the ER.
Spiders.
Heights, but only if there’s no ledge up higher than waist height, or if the ground is not stable.
The sea. More specifically, being far from shore in a deep water body.
Public speaking, although that one is usually overcome quite easily with a scripted speech and a few drinks prior.
Spiders, from childhood trauma. Being bound and People following me.
The last one is when your driving along and a car seems to be following you, not when your on say a highway doing 100, but when your not on a main road and it seems they are following you.
Same as when your in a shop and somebody seems to be following you. This doesn’t count if the person following you is a friend.
And no it’s not store detectives.
Spiders, intimacy, losing control, dogs, kids, and getting stuck in small spaces and slowly dying without people hearing my desperate screams for help. Of course, that last one is a lot more irrational and less likely to actually be a problem than the others.
I’m scared of people I’ve never met – well not “scared” but I get extremely anxious ESPECIALLY when it’s a planned meeting, and if it’s an on the spot kinda meeting I’m hopeless with socialising. So tell me – why am I working in retail?!?
Also afraid of snakes.
I used to have dreams when I was a child about having to do a task that was impossible in magnitude, for instance, having to live out the entire lives of every person that has ever existed and all that ever will. Also, I think having my neck slit would be the worst death possible. Slow, painful, I can imagine exactly what the blade in my flesh would feel like *shudder*
Waking up in a different life; the current one only being a dream. All the people who I know and love just being part of my own imagination.
Also, moths. I don’t know why, I just hate how unpredictably they fly.
Julia Gillard in the nude
Mine is an unusual phobia, I’m not really scared of much, but the idea of getting stuck somewhere I cannot move, even just having a limb stuck and unable to free or move it terrifies me, even just thinking about it kinda freaks me out