(no subject)

[nny]

The electricity in my road has just crashed out twice in a row, which was fun and had me vaguely panicking about what the hell one does to amuse oneself when there is no internet. *grins*

Actually, though, my first impulse was extreme paranoia. My reaction to a lot of things is paranoia - being alone in the house, planes going overhead, getting trapped in a train tunnel, fireworks. I think this particular one was triggered by all the SG:A I've been watching, and the damned nukes, and the damned EMPs. I am very very scared at the thought of nuclear war; not so much the thought of the blast itself, but the thought of slow death afterwards. My dreams always involve being close enough to see the mushroom cloud, waiting to die.

Possibly I should find out more about them, possibly that would mean they scared me less. Dunno how likely that is.

Other things that scare me... hmm. I am freaked out by vaseline and toesocks and rubber band balls, but that's not fear that's an extreme of ooky. I'm scared by noises I can't identify when it's dark. I'm generally not scared by things I can see, but 'oohsomethingbad'scoming' music in films makes me hide behind cushions and yelp and pull my feet up onto the sofa. (It can't get you if your feet are off the floor.) I don't think I've come across a book that's really freaked me out since Z for Zachariah which I read a long long time ago, which possibly explains more than it doesn't, but that's the reason for this post - if the internet crashes out again I'm grabbing a candle and reading The Woman In Black by Susan Hill, which a lot of people has told me is reeeeally scaaaaary. :D The students studying it have to write a ghost/suspense/scary story of their own, which kinda made me blink because I couldn't think of a way to fictionalise my fears - in a different medium, perhaps, but not so much in a short story.

ETA: I forgot to mention! I'm scared of the doctors, at the moment. I'm scared that they're going to find out what it is and say oh, well, you should have come in two/three years ago when you started feeling icky, you fool! Now it's far far too advanced and I'm afraid all we can do is watch you die horribly. :D! Somehow this translates in my head to 'I should never go see doctors' instead of the more sensible 'I should find out what is wrong so they can treat it before my abdomen falls off.'

ETA more: Um. so I'm also afraid of opening doors. I'm scared of calling 'round the houses of people who have flatmates I don't know, I'm scared of opening shop doors when I'm not entirely sure whether or not they're open, I'm scared of walking into pubs. Automatic doors make my life so much easier. ¬_¬

So what scares you? You're absolutely welcome to go for the anonymous option; I'm genuinely interested.

Comments

[ms-ntropy.livejournal.com]

Earthworms. Petrified of earthworms. They're like, the most harmless creatures EVER and I can't stand them. Them or anything like them. NO invertebrates unless they come with an exoskeleton.

[sophistry]

Scuttly things. I love the taste of prawn, lobster, crab, what-have-you. But if they're served Mediterranean-style, with, uh. Everything still attached? I have to leave the table. No exaggeration. I will have a very small freak-out, and then I will leave the table until they are gone.

Balloons popping. My mum's on holiday, so about a week ago, Dad took us out for dinner, rather than cook. We went to TGIFriday's, so there was the requisite amount of random paraphernalia on the walls, including an honest-to-god FARM PITCHFORK, right by the booth where a toddler of indeterminate sex was celebrating its birthday. BALLOONS. ENTHUSIASTIC KIDS WAVING BALLOONS. PITCHFORKS. I seriously could not carry on a conversation for the entire evening, and by the time we left, I was a nervous wreck.

Elevator/bus/train/general sliding-type doors. Fine with them under almost any circumstances, except when I am last on or off, and you know the doors are about to start closing any second. One situation I have absolutely no compuction in using elbows and heels to get myself out of. Born of a trip to Paris with my grandmother at the tender age of... I dunno. Seven? We were the last to get on a crowded bus, and because she is short and I was even shorter, I can only assume the conducteur didn't see us, since he closed the doors on my ankle - with the rest of me outside the bus, mind - and started to drive away.

[sophistry]

...Wow, I'm a freak.

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

Well, enclosed spaces.

Seaweed. Like, swimming above it in water only about a meter high in places, I had the only panic attack I have ever experienced.

Um. Talking to people I don't know, either face to face or on the phone. Or pinging. That's plain old cowardice, I think, mind you.

Oh, and mimes. Fuckers. *twitch*

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

Eeesh, I used to hate balloons popping, too. I forced myself to accepting it, but I still get twitchy where they're about. *Commiserates*

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Learn The Words.

*solemn*

XD

And I can understand the talking/pinging thing, but I don't count it as a fear because I'm getting a lot better at coping with it over time. :)

[villainny.livejournal.com]

*affectionate*

Yes. Yes, you are.

(That last one is totally understandable, though, 'cos holy shit.)

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Seriously? Hunh.

[sophistry]

One of my best childhood friends' favourite party games was sitting on balloons until they burst. People would have, like. Races.

I loved their birthday parties.

o______________o

[ms-ntropy.livejournal.com]

It's what kept me from studying archeology.

[sophistry]

And these are just the more comical and long-standing of my fears, as opposed to my recent general paranoia about everything ever.

But.

al;sdkfja;sldkfj scuttly things.

D:

[rowanberries.livejournal.com]

*Shudder*

Apparently there was a childhood event that explained the balloon phobia. But I don't remember it, so obviously it wasn't that bad.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I used to have this fear too. I was terrified of a winnie the pooh tape I had where the bees popped his balloon.

I got over it. :D

[ms-ntropy.livejournal.com]

Was once bitten by the door of a once-freight elevator. Concussed my head, and bent my glasses to the point where they scratched my face leaving me bleeding.

I staggered back to my desk, didn't notice the blood, and went on this mad search for needle nose pliars.

Freaked the rest of my office right the hell out.
Heh, good times.

[agarfuith.livejournal.com]

I've read Z for Zacharia as well for school and it really is quite frightening.

[sophistry]

...Well now I'm reassured.

:O

[bloodylovecraft.livejournal.com]

Potato bugs. Oh god.lskdfjdslk

Also, that door thing? I'm not so much afraid of opening doors as I am of opening them incorrectly. I'm not all that bright, you see. For instance, I was opening the door to this tiny restaurant I frequent and as I had just pulled the door towards me a couple inches a voice in my head shouted, "PUSH. You PUSH the door." This is obviously not the case, but when your voice shouts instructions, one has a tendency to follow them. So my arm jerked forward and the door SLAMMED against the metal doorframe. Every single person inside the restaurant (the front was all glass) turned to look. I smiled and went home.

So. I hope I haven't added anything more to your door issues, but that's mine.

[ms-ntropy.livejournal.com]

In the elevator's defense it didn't see me. I darted out in front of its doors.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Isn't it? *shudders* I think it was the walking out into the endless Idon'tknowwhat at the end that freaked me out. The unknown is a terrifying thing, sometimes.

And your icon rocks. :D

[villainny.livejournal.com]

Okay, having googled? Yeah. Yeah, they's ugly.

(And I'm glad having a weird thing about doors ain't just me. :D)

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

Doctors, mostly. All doctors want to molest your childhood. They have timemachines. Also hospitals, especially if someone has stolen my clothes. Um, not being able to LEAVE, whether I'm physically trapped or just had my shoes nicked by nurses or whatever.

[batyatoon]

I'm not afraid of most bugs unless they catch me by surprise, and even then I can usually regain my composure pretty quickly.

Cockroaches, though, especially large ones, trip the AUGH KILL IT KILL IT KILL IT reaction. Sometimes inconveniently coupled with the AUGH GET AWAY GET AWAY reaction, which means I can't go near the damn thing.

A particularly large roach once reduced me to cringing and whimpering like River Tam fresh out of the cryobox, by doing nothing more than standing on the side of a desk and stretching out its neck.
I just. Its neck. All ... craning. Like it was LOOKING AT ME AUGH MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOOOOOP.

[villainny.livejournal.com]

*giggles*

I was so excited to see a dead roach in America. I was like... dude! I'm in the US! They have big bugs here!

XD

[villainny.livejournal.com]

I promise never to steal your shoes.

[apiphile.livejournal.com]

Pfft, if I want to leave that badly I'll go barefoot.

[schiarire.livejournal.com]

Schizophrenia. It's in my family.

[silveraspen]

Ticks. Due to childhood experience of AUGH, which involved my head, a tick, two days' time, and a cigarette for purposes of removal. As a result, it's now the closest thing to an actual phobia that I have. When last I visited Minnesota, I practically bathed in insect repellent before a group of us went hiking -- which only served to keep the little buggers from biting, but they were still crawling about on socks and jacket edges, etc.

I managed to keep from a screaming fit by the thinnest of margins, but it was nearer than I like to recall. I haven't been back to MN since. I would NEVER live there.

Secondary would be leeches, although I think I am slightly less AUGH about them-- but once I was wading in a creek, saw one move for my foot, and damn near levitated out of the water. Seriously-- I went straight up three feet and then was on shore, and I don't remember the in-between.

[agarfuith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, and the dude also was totally freaky!
Thanks, it's from the aesthetic icons com.

[wanttobeatree.livejournal.com]

Wasps. Just... argharghargh. I rather cunningly decided to do my A level art project on fear of all things this year, which means I get to spend my days studying them in intense detail. And that's just pictures, and it makes me shudder just thinking about it. Actual real live wasps make me full-body flinch at best, or run away crying at worst.

Also, open doors! Or doors with glass in when it's dark on one side and light on the other. I was convinced as a child that if a mass murderer broke into my house and couldn't see through my door, he'd leave me be, and it's stuck with me over the years.

[shati.livejournal.com]

Insects, insects, insects. Well, not just insects. Arthropods. Spiders, bees, wasps, centipedes, roaches, and to lesser degrees beetles and mosquitos and ticks and all. Even the shapes of them horrify me, and I can't count the number of nightmares I've had about bees and spiders.

Hospitals and doctors. So scary. I know they do good but my lizard brain DOES NOT AGREE.

Telephones. They is skerry.

Being buried alive, ever since I saw part of some made-for-TV movie in high school. Just. Oh god. OH GOD. The idea of it doesn't bother me. But if I start to think about it . . . panic.

Mental illness. Insanity. Like, the having thereof. Doesn't stop me from joking about it, and I don't mind jokes about me being insane. But.

Man, mine are all so grandiose. Other things freak me out/disturb me/cause me to panic, like finding out we have a test in five minutes that I haven't studied for when I know nothing about the subject, but the ones I've listed are more interesting. And less specific than "being attacked by 500-lb llama," which I feel would unnerve most people.

[mickat24.livejournal.com]

Cancer. Having studied it in university, and knowing how slow and painful and hopeless a death it causes, it's probably my biggest fear.

Second only, maybe, to death itself. That scares me silly. It's the whole idea of going to sleep and... what? WHAT THEN?! Yes, I'm religious and believe in some sort of afterlife, but that doesn't mean my brain can wrap itself around the concept, and it freaks the hell out of me.

The cockroaches are seconded (thirded?). They completely freak me out, though I'm not scared of them, per se.

I also have this irrational fear of walking by cats on the sidewalk. I feel like they're going to jump at me. I have never experience this, or anything like it, but there it is.

Work. I am scared of being forced to work 8 (or more) hours a day at a job that makes me want to kill myself. This from never yet having a job that I've actually liked.

I'm sure there are more...

[villainny.livejournal.com]

The work thing, yes. YES YES. I was absolutely terrified of having to work day in, day out for the rest of my life, terrified that I'd have nothing to look forward to, y'know? But then I unexpectedly ran across something I absolutely adore, so don't give up on it. ;)

[kenovay.livejournal.com]

I do the feet thing as well! And OMG, walking into pubs is terrifying.

Apart from that: I am very, very easily scared by books and films and TV. Really, ridiculously so. I can only just barely watch CSI. Christ, I jumped in my seat watching the Scooby-Doo film. Don't even talk to me about Supernatural, because they're so pretty and I want to be able to watch them but I caaaaan't. *sob*

Scared of rejection. Not in a friendship sense, because if people don't want me as a friend I find it very easy to think, "Eh, fuck off then." But in terms of relationships, OMG. Scared of the future, occasionally. Terrified, flat-out terrified, of growing old ungracefully, mainly because I think it's possible and I think it would be the most miserable thing in the world. Scared of death, scared of the day my parents die.

Scared of living, but a sight more scared of not doing so.

[mickat24.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's exactly it. Absolutely terrified that I'll have nothing to look forward to except coming home in the evening. I'm glad to hear that there is, indeed, hope. I'm doing my best to avoid working at all cost, though. :)