"Too" afraid of danger

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Yep. I'm scared of doing even minor dangerous things like climbing a fence and climbing a tree. I don't have fear of heights just scared of anything dangerous.

A screwed and poor sense of danger seem to apply to me more than sensitivity and being more wary towards risk and danger...

Still I think this aspect of me is very dysregulated.

It's not that I'm stupid or lacking common sense for not having enough sense of danger; I'm not fearless.

Though most of my fears and worries are from other people's fears and worries than my own fears and worries...
To a point that it annoys me.

It's like I only sense fear more frequently whenever I start caring too much about people on a basis that I hate making other people worry or react.

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I'm very scared of danger. I've never got my driver's license because of my fear of danger. I'm missing out on a lot. I could be driving a Volkswagen if I wasn't this scared of danger.

I'm certainly risk-averse most of the time, and I see myself as having the coping strategy of defensive pessimism - carefully analysing the dangers of an endeavour and putting a lot of effort into reducing those dangers, rather than doing this "I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." So I tend to arrange my life to be very safe, to the best of my ability. The things I do usually work quite well, because I anticipate the risk of failure and harm to myself, and pre-empt it. As such, I don't get into much danger of a life-threatening or livelihood-threatening nature.

I think it's something that's got "worse" over my life, if it can be rightly called worse. I used to be rather more gung-ho and "foolish," which I gather is common in younger people. Older people are more vulnerable so I suppose they have to play a more defensive game. My music used to take more risks, but I soon became defensive in my strategies with writing, arranging, and recording it, so that while I achieve results that have few obvious technical flaws, it often lacks warmth and freshness, and a big criticism I have about it is that it's just too bloody safe and that therefore it's not really art.

When risk is forced onto me, I worry a lot. If my partner is late home I can't relax till I know she's safe. If I have a health problem that might turn out to be something life-threatening or permanently debilitating, I worry a lot. My mother was much the same. She would get very angry with me if I arrived home late, and would yell at me that she was sick of having to worry. She was visibly afraid when she discovered a slightly leaky tap just before we had to go out, I guess because she couldn't prove that the house wouldn't be flooded when we got home. I don't know how she thought that could happen if we just left the plug out. I'm similarly very prone to anxiety but I think I'm more rational about it, just disproportionately anxious about relatively small risks - but those risks have to be real before I get scared. Rather than reach for psych meds or psychiatric help, I just calmly render my life very safe, and as long as it is very safe I don't worry.

OTOH I sometimes find myself breaking out of the pattern. I suppose I just get sick of being so boringly safe, sick of spending hours making sure my boat is unsinkable. Sometimes I think "is it really the end of the world if I make a mistake?" and I decide to take reasonable risks. I find it exciting to be a bit brave and bold.

I am very risk-averse and afraid. When I was a kid I was unable to do simple things like most gymnastics or diving into a pool even just from the edge of the pool. I couldn't physically bring myself to do those things, even though I tried to. I'm still unable to do them but they are no longer a part of my life as an adult so it doesn't come up.

I do it, but I am very uncomfortable and fearful riding in a car, especially on the freeway. Riding in a car is actually relatively dangerous but people tend not to be afraid of it because of the familiarity. Planes are much less dangerous but people are more likely to fear them.

I'm afraid of using power tools. I'm afraid of turning on my heater because the last time I used it it made a smoky smell that set off the smoke alarm. When I was little I was afraid of turning on the light switch because of the electricity. I didn't specifically think I would get shocked, I just thought electricity was scary.

When I was about 10 I was asked to light a candle in front of a figure of a saint at Catholic school and I was too afraid to light the match and I started crying.

So yes, I think I am definitely overly afraid.

I'm not afraid of dying, which I would welcome, I am afraid of pain and of the fear that would kick in in the moment that something bad is about to happen. A serious car accident would be terrifying even though I wouldn't care if I died. I would care about the painful injuries and the feeling of being terrified.

But unlike ToughDiamond, I don't do anything to mitigate the danger by making sure things are safe, partly because I am not handy and wouldn't be able to.