What are your irrational fears?
Awhile ago we had a discussion on what our pet peeves and quirks are, so I'd like to take a dive into the deep recesses our minds and see if there is a general consensus on something, or some things, that make us want to flail viciously while screaming "Stopitstopitstopit!"
Off the top of my head I have three, but I'm sure the talks to follow will spark the dark parts of my brain that have locked themselves away:
1.) First it would be just sitting here being watched without knowing it. Or, even worse, being part of an experiment on human behavior that is just so far beyond my scope of understanding that I'm not even aware of it. I think about that a lot especially when bored in class observing the other students, and it always freaks me out. I had a lot of thoughts like this when I was younger too as I was playing with friends on a playground while the parents watched. I'd imagine them secretly writing things down on a clipboard as I swung on the monkey bars, and lots of times I'd stay up at night, waiting for my parents to finally come in and say, "Well, test subject 23A, we're all done with you. Down into this disposal tube you go! Bye-bye!"
2.) Mirrors. Yes, mirrors. Screw them. I'm afraid of seeing my own skull in the reflection. I'm afraid of seeing a tall shadowed figure, hunched over with his arm around me, sporting a pale grin knowing that I can't do anything about it. I'm afraid of seeing my reflection move the arm opposite to the one I'm moving, and then wink at me as I start trembling in the growing pool of sweat. Of my own fear, anything that goes against all sane reason should begin with my reflection at the moment I least expect. Shortly after I'm in a padded room.
3.) I often suspect people of being mind readers and wonder constantly (possibly several times per hour if I'm in a stressed mood) whether someone nearby can hear my thoughts. The idea occurs to me most often if I'm thinking something that I'd be ashamed to make public, like a really awful mental comment about how someone looks or how stupid I think they are. Sadly this mostly happens while in the mall or in one of the entry-level classes where a lot of the less capable students haven't filtered out of the system.
"Good lord," I say to myself, "she's dumber than a bag of hammers." And then I immediately think, "Oh sh*t, what if she can read minds? No way; somebody that dumb would have killed herself already if she knew how much people hated her. OH sh*t I DID IT AGAIN. Listen, stupid girl or whatever, if you can read minds: I'm sorry I thought those mean things about you. Don't kill yourself, it's not your fault you look like that. You're probably a lot smarter than you seem. I mean... sh*t."
"I recommend against throwing your kids when you're high, regardless of how high you are. You should, however, be very drunk." ~ The Fly
Xbox Live: Vrikk GWJ
Hold on, hold on! Let me get pen .... OK, go!
Yeah, it's scary. I'm staring into the abyss right now, and it's staring into me, which I think is kind of a dick move on the abyss's part. - Nyles
I have done the mind reading one more than once.
Also if I am in a crowd some times I'll pick some one out if I am bored and mentally shout to them and see if they jump or something.
Its crazy I know but I am sure everyone has tried to move stuff with there mind or read someone else's. And if you haven't how do you know you can't?
Revolving doors.
JUST PUZZLED YOUR ASS UP, SON! -Mr Crinkle
Steam Community: McChuck XBL: GWJ McChuck
The sound of a strong wind outside unnerves me a bit. Although there's no reason to worry generally, I think I just have a fear of the house getting damaged. Rain, thunder whatever no problem, but the howling of a strong wind really gets me uneasy. I hate going to bed during a strong wind storm because I usually get horrible sleep.
Rational? Irrational? I dunno.
I also would probably die on contact if I ever was plunked down in the middle of the ocean. The thought of what is probably swimming under me would be too much.
Xbox Live: Irongut | Playstation ID: Irongut_GWJ
I'm afraid that if I breath in powder that's used for making Tang, Koolaid, whatever, that the powder will combine with the moisture in my lungs and I will drown in juice from the inside out.
I'm talking, like, just the powder that wafts into the air when you open the packet. I put my shirt over my mouth when I make instant tea.
*edit* I also can't stand glitter to be on me because I'm afraid it will absorb into my blood stream.
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Spiders. Not a fan. But it's one of those fears that I can kind of ignore if the situation calls for it, like if I don't have time to deal with being afraid of spiders, or if I can't be arsed.
Like once I got out of bed in college, still half asleep, went to the bathroom, and while I was taking a leak I noticed a tiny spider bungie-ing down from my HAIR. Ordinarily that'd be a pretty significant problem for me, but I was really tired so I just squished it, wiped it off on some TP, finished up and went back to bed.
Also in my new condo there seemed to be a spider nest that hatched somewhere so I was actually getting two or three teeny tiny spiders on my computer ever day (I think they were coming from the vent above it). Well I can't exactly run away screaming from my COMPUTER. So I squished the ones I could find. A couple survived and I still find little cobwebs everywhere and now and then a little house spider, but I actually don't mind those too much. They never leave their webs and they're really timid, so it's just pest control.
Every now and then I'll find a common house centipede trundling around too, and they're also completely benign creatures that don't scare me so much as startle me since they're so bizarre looking and fast.
It's nice that all the critters living with me are totally harmless to humans and are effective at pest control. It'd just be nicer not to have a goddamn ecosystem in my living room.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
BF2142 Stats
Oh I forgot.
I fear getting banned from GWJ.
Xbox Live: Irongut | Playstation ID: Irongut_GWJ
Two things for me:
1) Being anywhere near a snake, without at least an inch of plexiglass, or some sort of wall separating us. Even then, if I sit stare at it long enough, I start imagining the snake shooting beams out of its eyes that can melt glass.
2) The world's beer supply disappearing. Don't laugh, It could happen. I fear this even more than snakes.
LiquidMantis wrote:
I worry that we'll all simultaneously run out of electricity, in one big "Day the Earth Stood Still" moment.
XboxLive: Fly GWJ | PSN: The _Fly
A game designer wrote:
I hate 'falling', don't mind heights though. My former position was as an acoustic operator on board of our ex-navy Orions (Auroras for Canadians).
Loved that job, especially the low parts (50ft).
Up and down the whole thing. But hate jumping of something higher then 7 feet.....
Oh, going all the way in the Eiffel tower... not funny...
Being on top walking around, awesome view and loved it!
'Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.'
Benjamin Franklin
Your second I have had some of my most extremely frightening experiences with; and this is why mushrooms are bad.
Many other fears come to mind, not sure yet if they are irrational or not. I will not delve further.
"Sometimes I always feel like somebody's watching me, can I get some privacy oh oh oh"
Your friendly neighbourhood hair splitting singularity.
I'm arachnophobic, but I was bitten by a brown recluse as a small child so that's probably more of a rational fear than I realize.
My big irrational fear is the constant fear of losing my job, going into financial ruin, and ending up homeless and dying slowly, miserably, and lonely.
Paper cuts on my eyeballs.
Gah! Add a third to my list!
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Don't worry, that'll only happen if you're lazy and deserve it.
This is a thread for irrational fears.
NOTE: This is not a doodle bug.
BF2142 Stats
Ah, hell.
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Clear glass table tops.
XBox Live: MaxShrek .... Steam ID: MaxShrek
Blogging Pencil ...
That I'll have to go back to high school and retake some class. I've graduated from college and yet just last night I had a nightmare about being called back to high school. I have this nightmare about once a month, sometimes it's grade school and once it was even kindergarten.
Oh and that one day I'll be discovered as a fraud. No matter how many positive grades or work evaluations I get, I still think in my head, "haha, I tricked you into thinking I'm a good worker/student!" Everyday I wait for an email from my boss telling me that he reviewed all my code and that it was all horrible and didn't work.
I also have the fear of being fired from GWJ. I even thought up the scenario of how crushed I would be and how I'd wander the world an empty man.
Certis wrote:
XBL: elliottxW
Thats mine too.... I thought I was the only one.
Plus that sound effect of paper on skin. *shudder*
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Don't worry Elliotx, it's not like you are the world's top detective trying to solve an unsolvable mass murderer case. What more information do you possibly need for your daily life?
"I recommend against throwing your kids when you're high, regardless of how high you are. You should, however, be very drunk." ~ The Fly
Xbox Live: Vrikk GWJ
TF2 Spies;
after a couple of months with that game, I feel paranoid on all servers on any type of game. The other day I was playing CS:S and a teammates runs towards me and I shot him.
The entire server laughed when I explained I needed to check if he was in disguise.
Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/Hobbes2099
I have an irrational fear of being eaten alive. Especially whole. It schkeeves me out a bit when I eat shrimp. The Tom Petty video where the girl turns into a cake and gets feasted upon disquiets me some. Also, when I was in the Air Force I would give any running jet engine a very wide berth.
Luckily bears and wolf packs are not are not a real concern in Southwestern Connecticut nowadays.
Just yesterday my mind wandered to the place where feeling pain after death was a possibility. Certainly irrational and quickly dismissed. I reassured myself that when electrical activity in the brain stops it would be impossible to feel anything. Unfortunately I was left with a very real feeling of dread and desperation regarding my own mortality and there not being an afterlife. Today it's gone though.
I wish it were time for Cheers. But it's not. It's time for vengeance!
Credit card debt and Space death (the worst kind of death).
I'm an Uncle!!! -8/20/07
I buy even though I have 2 of them. I likey the Snakey. - Scrub, I'll leave it to you to guess what this is about
ICO: General Fancypants
Steam: Grenn[GWJ]
WoW: Goquelyrslf
Murky water...I hate swimming in lakes where I can't see the bottom. It's not entirely irrational though, since as a kid I saw many of these and these infesting the same waters in which my friends and siblings blithely splashed around. I never minded trying to catch (former picture) or kill (latter picture) these things--I have vivid memories of those rare moments when I'd realize that my trot line hadn't gotten stuck underneath a sunken log, and that the enormous weight and slowly muddying water was from a big-ass prehistoric-looking reptile. But I stayed in the damn boat.
"Come, amigo, throw away your mind." --Malcolm Lowry, Under the Volcano
My fear is Chiggie.
Wait, that's not irrational.
Fedaykin98 wrote:
Bridges! Frigging Bridges! Especially long ones or ones where the road is metal grating not actually solid. Oh crap, I'm sweating just describing them. The stupid part is that I know most of them are sound. I have done the physics calcs on the them and even built a laser measurement test system for them for the Ontario govenment but they still weird me out for no sane reason.
My wife found a TV show on History Channel showing a bridge in California around 1940-something? that was dancing all over the place. I couldn't change the channel fast enough.
This is supposed to be about fear, not disgust and disdain.
Aw, I made myself sad.
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The only thing I can think of is the fear that everybody being nice to me is just acting and thinking "what a jerk!" on the inside. I sometimes get that feeling with my friends, with strangers and even with my family. That amounts to a fear of dying alone and unnoticed, I think.
That's it, I don't have any other fears, as far as I can tell.
"I'd take the awe of understanding over the awe of ignorance any day." ~ Douglas Adams
Being alone, cockroaches, windmills, benzodiazepines mostly. I used to worry myself sick because I believed I had a terminal illness. Sometimes I worry about being shot even though I live in a really safe town. Oh, and the last one is really bad. I constantly worry that people don't like me.
Last.fm
There's a time for mixed believing
Those last two are completely absurd! I think it would take more than a bullet to stop your rage at being attacked, WHICH, is one of the reasons why everyone loves you.
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