Do you have irrational fears?

Post Reply New Topic

Do/did you have any irrational fears? When I was in primary school I used to have a bunch of fears of diseases that could get me - tetanus, rabies, blindness, being poisoned and generally all those health problems that might demand a medical surgery.

After reading Jules Verne's "L'éternel Adam", I was afraid all the land mass might sink into the sea.

Oh soo many. Many.

My biggest one is easy to avoid. Being on a ship on the open ocean

No... all my fears are well-founded in solid logic and empirical inquiry!

After all, if I go swimming in the ocean, knowing what I do about riptides, sleeper waves, and shark activity in the Atlantic in <3 feet of water, there's a very good chance that I may come to some sort of harm.... and when you factor in how scallop boat dredging has changed tidal patterns.... my original calculations may be now obsolete or fundamentally flawed in some significant way, rendering me helpless in the face of a sudden tidal surge...

Plus, knowing my limitations with regard to my presence of mind and easy distractability, I may not notice I'm in trouble (being pulled out to sea) till it's too late to get back to shore by myself... and then I'd have to endure the unspeakable humiliation of needing to ask for help.. possibly missing the clues and cues of the lifeguards who come to my rescue and making a complete and total ass of myself as crowds on the beach watch, laugh & point. How mortifying! Truly, the ocean is a fear-inspiring place for me, not to mention the drama of walking down the beach surrounded by partially clad, overly social strangers...

But why let that stop me from visiting my favorite place -- the ocean?

I have always been terrified of putting my face in water, but I love to swim, and the ocean is the one place I can actually relax -- when I'm not obsessing about tides and shark attacks and getting into some sort of altercation/social distress at the beach, that is!

I fear blood. I'm more afraid of seeing someone else bleed than myself. I remember I was visiting dad in the hospital and the nurse came in and took some blood. She wanted me to stand there and keep pressure on his arm. The thought of blood suddenly gushing from his arm made me sick and I could feel how pale my face was. There was another time when my step-dad was drunk and cut his thumb trying to open a bottle of champagne. I come home and he had 4 towels soaked in blood and had blood all over the bathroom, it looked like a crime scene. I tried to call an ambulance but he wouldn't let me. I was so overwhelmed by all that blood that I couldn't even argue with him.

Sometimes I think all my fears are irrational.

I have an "irrational" fear of the ocean, and what lives in it.

Also, needles, or ever needing surgery. Or losing consciousness.

Mine are talking to people,meeting people, and school.

If one knows that people in the audience will not literally bite one's head off when speaking, then extreme stage fright could be considered an irrational fear.

So yes.

I watched "Escape from LA" and developed an irrational fear of hedgeclippers.

When I was younger I had a fear of letter bombs, I never opened any post that came.
I guess that was irrational because there was no one likely to target a 5-12 year old child, but at the same time it was around the time when the IRA were active so there was reason.

I also have a fear of teeth which is irrational in the sense that teeth can't hurt you, but I had some nasty experiences which makes it more rational.

edit- Actually I used to be scared of the deep end of the swimming pool because of sharks.
Actually sharks full stop have always been a fear of mine.

Well, fear of the open ocean and it's denizens seems a common one here. I remember as a child, seeing a cartoon on television in which the villian loosed a bunch of sharks to chase the hero(s), by pressing a button which opened a grated cage in the side of an undersea rock. For years I was afraid to go anywhere near the drain grate in a swimming pool.

And because of my Aspergian grace I made myself sick all one summer worrying about the next grade, convinced I would be forced to participate in jumping jacks in gym. (couldn't do them and stay in rythm with the rest of the group to save my life).

As a child I had a phobia about fire. I used to have nightmares about the house burning down and was too scared to hold a sparkler on bonfire night. I would get very anxious when we had an open fire at home, particularly if everyone else went momentarily out of the room. I am much better now, but I still dont like it much (although this is to the level of being sensible about it rather than oversensitive).

I was also scared of dogs as a child, but this was more logical as the next door neighbor had a huge dog that used to jump up at me.

After I tried to kill myself when I was depressed at 17 I became very scared of dying, to the extent of it keeping me awake at night. This lasted for years, but seems to have gone with my second serious depression (12 years later) when I again thought about dying and it didnt seem such a bad idea. Even though my fear of death has become more rational now (as with fire) just thinking about the universe going on for ever in space and time and my complete unimportance in it is enough to create a lot of existential angst. But I think this is quite normal.

Being screamed at by evangelical preachers, because I am liberal and could be classified as a hippie/hipster based on my interests and beliefs. (plus I don't agree with evangelical ideologies--this is why I prefer mainline Protestantism--Lutherans, Episcopalians, etc.)

I fear being harassed by the police for the same reason.