Irrational Fears

[Barrington Boots]

Anyone got anything they're needlessly terrified of? I am really scared of sharks for absolutely no reason, to the extent that walking through Birmingham this morning I was given a start by an electronic billboard switching to a poster for The Meg (the shark film obviously, not the Megazine)

I've never had a bad experience with a shark but I can't even bring myself to get in the sea just in case.

[The Legendary Shark]

I'm afraid of fear, and not just my own.

[JohnW]

Small dogs.
Big dogs scare me for perfectly sensible reasons: they are carnivores of unpredictable temper and they have sets of big sharp teeth roughly on a level with my groin. But it's the little feckers at ankle level that unnerve me for some unfathomable reason, no matter how well-behaved they might be.

As for sharks, the paperback of Jaws was everywhere when I was small and when well-meaning people were trying to introduce me to salt water. I'm not afraid of sharks per se, but deep water you can keep. I'm fine with heights, but depths give me the heebie-jeebies if I contemplate them too long.

Dark rooms used to freak me out when I was small too, but I grew out of that one. Big, old, and ugly as I am, I reckon I'm the most dangerous thing in any given dark room, and if woken in the night, I'm sour-tempered enough to give even The Thing That Waits For You On The Landing a run for its money.


(And for the love of God, Sharky, could you please give the disturbing AI avatars a rest and go back to that nice animation that Carlos drew for you?)

[The Legendary Shark]

(And for the love of God, Sharky, could you please give the disturbing AI avatars a rest and go back to that nice animation that Carlos drew for you?)

Hell no! I made hundreds of the things and I don't intend to waste a single one of them.

[JohnW]

Anyone got anything they're needlessly terrified of?

And now, rereading your post, I see I've given the wrong answer. I was talking about phobias when you were talking about terror.
The correct answer is mortality – the inevitable end for me and everyone I care for.
The how, the when, and the what order just don't bear thinking about, so I don't on the whole.

So rather than drag the thread into such gloomy regions, I instead invite you all to contemplate spiders of grotesque size and malevolent intelligence. You never know – there might be one waiting for you in one of the kitchen cupboards.

Hell no! I made hundreds of the things and I don't intend to waste a single one of them.

Damn. That's what I was afraid of.

[Barrington Boots]

I don't think mortality is a needless terror. It's entirely justified.

As an adult you kinda know everyone you love is going to die, but I can pinpoint the first time it started happening as a point my world changed forever.

That is gloomy though, I was hoping for something more like "I've a mortal fear of macrame" or something

[The Legendary Shark]

Last time I was in hospital, having stents fitted, I micro-died three times. It was dead easy. Now, after that practice run, I'm not afraid of death at all. I don't want to die, obviously (things to do!), but it's gonna happen sooner or later so why worry?

[JohnW]

But what if your death involves macramé?
And spiders?

[Jim_Campbell]

Anyone got anything they're needlessly terrified of? I am really scared of sharks for absolutely no reason, to the extent that walking through Birmingham this morning I was given a start by an electronic billboard switching to a poster for The Meg (the shark film obviously, not the Megazine)

With you exactly on this. Weirdly, I can't work out precisely what collection of visual cues triggers the response. For example, the CGI sharks in Deep Blue Sea — I can watch that without any real issues. Clearly, in the process of designing the creatures, someone decided to make them more scary than real sharks and, in doing so, managed eliminate whatever-it-is that sets off my response. Bruce, in Finding Nemo, however, retains enough of whatever-it-is to trigger at least a low-level shudder despite being in no way an attempt to render a realistic shark.

Very odd...

[Woolly]

There's nothing irrational about being scared of sharks.

Spiders though.... just the thought of them puts me in panic mode, and I have to go around checking there's not one in the room with me. I *definitely* cannot visit Australia. Ever.

[JohnW]

There's nothing irrational about being scared of sharks.

In Birmingham?

[Jim_Campbell]

There's nothing irrational about being scared of sharks.

Not actual sharks, no... but to be literally terrfied of pictures/video when, rationally, I know there is no way that I can be harmed...

[Tjm86]

There's nothing irrational about being scared of sharks.

In Birmingham?

Yes.

[JohnW]

I once developed a morbid fear of telephones. This had a perfectly reasonable origin, in that I had a stressful job and demanding clients, but it took years of happy unemployment before I stopped flinching every time I heard a particular ring tone. At its worst, this aversion could actually cause a sort of paralysis whereby it took an effort of will to pick up the receiver.

Not as good as sharks in the English midlands, I'll admit.

[Barrington Boots]

It's got more canals than venice, Birmingham. Just much crappier canals.