Poll: What scares you the most? (Trigger warning)

[BigDaddyWiz]

Bills, Something expensive breaking in the house (i.e. plumbing), Taxes, Credit Card Debt, My car breaking down...

[TigerLily]

I selected 'the dark' and 'other' because my fear is kind of a combination thing. I'm afraid of noises that I hear when it's dark and I'm alone in the house. I'm also afraid of the dark when I go out to the toilet in the middle of the night. This is because my real fear is that someone might have broken into the house. I'm just really paranoid about that. I have no idea how I would react if it did happen.

[QueenBex]

I'm afraid of noises that I hear when it's dark and I'm alone in the house.

Ditto, though I would add seeing dark shapes and figures in the shadows and extra dark spots. When I was younger I always saw a woman stood in the corner of my bedroom.
For the most part I'm alright in the dark, mainly the shapes and shadows and unknowing that scares me, the fear of attack while I'm in bed....

Anyways, dark, clowns (I can't even joke about that). And crowds. I'm getting better in normal everyday crowds, but event crowds freak me out, fear of being crushed, robbed, getting lost. Also I fear the speed and easiness in which the mood a crowd like that can change. I also like my own personal space, so the idea of sweaty strangers rubbing against me on all sides doesn't appeal to me. :p


I like the fact that if we were on a sprite stitch gathering and somehow found ourselves in a cemetery in one of those tombs full of evil spirits surrounded by corpses being attacked on all sides by mummies, witches and vampires and we need to get out before a tsunami crashed down on us, we'd be fine with it

[stitchingmama]

Just last night I asked my husband if he would kill me during a zombie apocalypse to put me out of my misery. He said yes since he thinks I'd be a liability.

So for other I choose worms, you know the parasites that live in your stomach or lungs or brain or bum. There's this parasite I learned about in school that you breathe the eggs into your lungs, it molts twice, then you cough it up, swallow your sputum & then it lives in your stomach. I also once saw a picture, in school, of a toddler with worms coming out of his bum that were as big as his body. Lice, scabies, stds, etc don't bother me but I do wash my hands after helping you with "worm medicine".

[Batboard]

Aliens........Im almost 29 and still scared of them. Ever seen Fire in the Sky, saw that at like 7 yrs old. Messed me up since then....... and I hate snakes. eeegghhhhh

[scarletstitcher]

My fear is random and specific. Like I am absolutely terrified of open windows at night. As soon as the sun starts to go down all the windows in my house have to be closed and the blinds pulled down. I'm just so scared that one day I won't close them and I'll walk into a room and there will just be a face staring back at me. Does that count as the dark? Because it's really not the dark that scares me, it's the demon face I always expect to pop up.

[Yurtle]

Spiders, clowns and dolls.

I blame my cousins for the clowns and dolls. Too many horror movies when I was way too young. There are some things that are just too ingrained to get over!

[RMDC]

I could have selected plenty from the list, but as I've gotten older most of them have become less frightening. I picked three that haven't gotten better or have gotten worse as I've aged.

Heights: one of my early childhood nightmares involved being launched to an enormous height, then dropping rapidly to the ground. You know how things get distorted and frenetic when you fall in Mirror's Edge? My head does that to me when I'm near a drop of more than fifteen feet.

Fire: my house burned down when I was about three, but it took me a long time to realize how flipped out fire makes me. My partner's family frequently makes bonfires during summer and fall to get rid of cleared brush. I went for years not really understanding why I would get panic attacks every time someone suggested a fire, because the attacks didn't happen right away and so weren't directly connected to fire in my conscious mind.

Other - sharps: Knives, swords, needles, claws, stingers, fletchette weapons, fragmentation grenades, piercing gazes. It's one thing if I'm the one cutting onions for dinner or clearing kudzu with a machete, but I can't stand being within arm's reach of someone else with a sharp object. Needles are the worst, but that's tied up in situational trauma, not just visceral phobia.

Wind turbines. Stupidest fear ever, but they really make me uncomfortable and when I'm really close to one I panic.

I totally get it! They're slender and tall. Occupies the "fall up into the sky" part of my brain (also the "massive, fast-moving object smacks into you" region). I can't look around when I'm driving in certain parts of the country because I'll get vertigo looking at wind turbines on ridge tops.

Also I fear the speed and easiness in which the mood a crowd like that can change.

Seconded. That's the source of my minor agoraphobia. People are creepy and unpredictable on a good day, but put them in a large group and I want out.

My fear is random and specific. Like I am absolutely terrified of open windows at night. As soon as the sun starts to go down all the windows in my house have to be closed and the blinds pulled down. I'm just so scared that one day I won't close them and I'll walk into a room and there will just be a face staring back at me. Does that count as the dark? Because it's really not the dark that scares me, it's the demon face I always expect to pop up.

I once read a scary story as a kid...

Spoiler

... about someone who was working on a jigsaw puzzle. As he completed more and more of the puzzle, he realized it depicted the window in his own bedroom. He wigged out but felt compelled to finish it to see what was going on. The window was the last portion. Something was at the window in the puzzle, but it was indistinct. Finally, the last piece made it clear: a twisted, demonic face hovered at the pane in the puzzle, When he looked up, the same face was - naturally - staring back at him through his own window.

Signs was a pretty scary movie for me when it came out because of the excellent (read: eek eek) use of restricted viewing planes, like hallways, windows, mirrors, the space beneath doorways, and so on. That's the stuff I hate. Manomanoman.

[Kareesh]

Other - sharps: Knives, swords, needles, claws, stingers, fletchette weapons, fragmentation grenades, piercing gazes. It's one thing if I'm the one cutting onions for dinner or clearing kudzu with a machete, but I can't stand being within arm's reach of someone else with a sharp object.

I totally get this. I've gotten a lot better about it as I've become more comfortable with handling knives, but it still freaks me out when my husband plays with throwing knives and the like. My kendo instructor had me hold an authentic WWII era katana, and I was okay with holding it, but then he told me to take a couple of swings with it. I totally thought I was going to hit and kill someone. Eeh....

[Remy]

I find this poll ironic as I used to collect people's fears as a form of therapy for myself so I'd feel normal. I chose other as most of my fears have been down graded from phobia to uncomfortable or morbid curiosity ie spiders, heights, sharks, crowds. But the three that are still full blown phobias that make me lose my *bleep* are:

1. being touched. I'm a very affectionate person and will be the first to give a hug to someone in need but if someone I don't know or trust touches me if even to pat my shoulder I end up finding a dark place to have a panic attack.

2. being unarmed. I've purposely learned how to turn anything into a weapon. A broom handle can be a very effective bow staff btw.

3. children crying. My own and all my godchildren, nephews etc don't trigger this but neighbor's kids do. This one kills me as I adore kids and am normally called 'the candy lady' and often get mobbed for treats and homemade toys.