What is your greatest irrational fear?

Spiders, but that’s a no brainer.

El Chupacabra

I do this all the time. Who knows, maybe the person sitting next to me on the bus has a bowstaff in his knapsack.

The world is going to end in my lifetime and I haven’t done all the things I should do before I die because I’m such a wuss.

Going to jail. I’ll never do anything jail-worthy, but I fear I could not handle that environment without going 100% mental.

Land sharks, they’re lurking…

My boring regular-old-phobia: Fear of Heights. My really stupid laying-in-bed-worrying-phobia: That I’ll have a ruptured aneurysm in my sleep.

When I was younger, the bathroom (especially at someone else’s house) seemed like a scary place. I always had to look behind the shower curtain, and frequently worried about a snake (cobra?) coming up out of the toilet & biting me on the ass!

Oh great. Now I have to worry about cobras in the toilet! Thanks, Auggie.

@peedub: I keep thinking that a shark will jump out of nowhere and maul me to death when I’m swimming in the sea. Even when there’s a shark net around the beach.

@augustian: I have a deathly fear of heights. I can’t even look down a three storey building without feeling slightly woozy. When I’m leaning on a handrail on a balcony I keep thinking that the rail will pop out and I’ll end up as part of the pavement.

I have a fear of brown recluse spiders crawling into by clothes that are hanging in the closet.

(shudder!)

My wife’s first cousin ran away with her first husband last year. They were married in a “hippie’ ceremony in 1967 and it lasted only a couple of weeks. She then married a small-time mafioso and then married a decent guy who raised her kids, put them through college, supported her.
And then this boyfriend from 40 years ago shows up and they are living in a shack on Barbados.

so I look at my wife and wonder if this is a genetic problem and I now remember to bring flowers home every Friday night… for no reason..but just in case

SRM

Spiders and bees and centipedes and silverfish. Eeeek

off topic…I now want to be a toilet living cobra so I can bite Auglan’s and Chuck’s butts

I used to be afraid of air travel and now I do it nearly weekly. I used to be afraid of crossing long bridges, but I cross some of the longest and highest regularly. My fear now is that my furnace is going to all of the sudden start pumping carbon monoxide into my house. I’ve had it checked. It’s fine. I have carbon monoxide detectors all over. I still hate something I can’t see or smell that can kill me. Weird.

I can supply a cobra, sue, if you can take over it’s mind. :D

Complete and total arachnophobia, bu that fear seems rational. In addition to that I have pot-luck-o-phobia. I won’t eat anything if I don’t know who made it; so pot-lucks, bake sales, bazaars, etc. are a no go. To answer your next question, yes, I do eat in restaurants all the time (where I know nothing of the preparer)...hence the fear being…irrational.

General Anesthesia. And I don’t know how to begin getting over it. It’s not the kind of thing I can do a little of each day.

This may sound ridiculous to some, but I am terrified that I am going to slip on ice, break my hip and die. That’s what happens when you plop a California girl in The Cornfield.

Oh and I live near China, in a country but not a country that gets most of it’s food supplies and general stuff from China (who isn’t nowadays?) and I always get freaked out when some food scandal goes on. It scares me that I might be ingesting some crazy bad industrial chemicals.

Every time my wife leaves my side I fear it will be the last time I see her. When she’s out she texts me every few hours to let me know how she’s doing. I always apologize to her for being such a freak, but she always says it’s why she loves me.

That and bees, or really any stinging, flying, insect. <<shudder>>

@Mr. M…I am soooo with you on the general anesthetic. Although, I don’t think it is an irrational fear. It’s pretty rational to be fearful of someone who is going to pump you with drugs and then monitor your well-being while another person cust into your body.

@delirium: I can control a cobra’s mind, I think.

also relieved that your answer to this question was not Glass Dildos

A sharp-edged cymbal from a drum-kit hitting my eye or neck…..

I honestly don’t know when I first developed the fear, but I’ve had it since I was a kid and every so often I just cringe at the thought of it happening (and no, I don’t play the drums)

I’m terrified of needles. Always have been. Oddly enough, going to the dentist doesn’t bother me at all, but just the thought of getting a regular shot just drives me round the bend. I refuse to get a flu shot. I know I should, but I just can’t do it.

I fear being thought to be in a coma (paralyzed, unresponsive) but actually being awake. The thought of endless hours and days of just lying there, left alone, bored out of my mind, frightens me.
Someone might leave a TV on in my room all day, on the Shopping Channel, and I’d be powerless to tell them to change the channel !

That does sound like hell!!!

Shark coming out of the pool drain…...

I have this weird fear of semi trucks. I had to get over it once I started driving on the highway regularly, but I used to cry if I was walking and one passed me. I got very shaking when passing one on the highway. Now I just kinda lean my body and floor it. :)
I’m still afraid of the dark too… and my covers will shield me from any monsters hiding in the closet.

Holes. One hole is okay. Cluster of holes freaks me out. This probably doesn’t make much sense, but I can’t think of a better way to explain it. Someone once sent me this horrible horrible horrible forward where it showed women’s breasts being full of clusters of holes. yech. that really ruined my day. i still get goosebumps just thinking about it! i believe iwamoto and allie have seen that email for those interested.

who gets afraid of holes anyway??? now that’s irrational.

Definitely spiders

Devi: me tooooooo. Oh god. **shudder**

We men have just the opposite response to holes.
Sorry. How tactless of me.

Omg Devi! I know EXACTLY what you mean, I get freaked out about that too!

@AC, it might be tactless, but it’s funny.

@cheeb/delirium – wow, every time I tell anyone about this, they look at me like I am nuts! Yay for solidarity. Glad I have company now =)

And AC’s tactless response just kidding chuckie :P reminded me that for the holes to freak me out, the diameter of the hole matters. And in the cluster, all holes must be approximately the same diameter. And really big holes are not scary.

PnL, Delirium, & Cheeb are weird.

I have a horrific fear of falling off ladders. That means that putting up christmas lights is a mind-numbing episode of terror.
My house has 20 foot eaves.

Knotmyday: Hang a wreath on the door and call it a day!! ;)

I like the lights; hence the conflict. I shan’t give in to my fear.

I applaud your tenacity, Knot!

The character from Child’s Play, Chucky/ie. My uncle had (has.. actually) a doll of him and used to play mean jokes on me and make the doll pop out from around corners at night. Even though I know he isn’t real that doll creeps me out.

OMG! Your Uncle is evil!!!

I am TERRIFIED of SPIDERS. it matters not how BIG or small. If I’m in my shower & I feel something (usually my own hair) slide down my legs, I’m slapping at my legs or whatever body part I’ve been through therapy. Even tried to desensitize this fear. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN…. I believe I know the source or reason behind it. BTW, HI EVERYONE!!!!! I’m back!

Knotmyday,
I wish I had your strength….

@sccrowell: Glad to see you’re back!

Thanks sc, but so far it’s taken me almost two weeks, and I’m a wreck every time I try. Next year I’ll rent a lift, because oddly enough, being on one of those doesn’t scare me; just ladders. Hence, completely irrational.

Ps, hope you and Whatthe are well!

@PnL: Thanks to you, I comPELETELY have that phobia. I think they’re disgusting, little holes. DISGUSTING.

delirium – Cheeb found out that the phobia has a name – Trypophobia

Apparently it’s not as uncommon as we thought.

Holy crap!

Oh my god. I hate that photo. That was a MEAN picture. Bad link! Bad!
It’s just cruel to post an example without a warning!

OH GOD THE LOTUS POD.

ohhhhhhhhhhh sorrrrry! i know exactly what you mean. andrew sent me to a picture yesterday and i saw it without realizing that it was an example of trypophobia. i had trouble calming down for 5 minutes….i figured the link to it would be enough warning, but you are right, i should have put about 20 warnings before! :(

ps – yes. lotus pod. and ant hills. and boiling rice.

And pores, and beehives (especially beehives with the larvae in the holes).

AH! LARVAE!

You should see what anemia looks like on a skeleton. Yiiiikes. Its tons of tiny holes that collect around the edges of the bone.

Do you find this scary?

scariest movie title ever.

I don’t even have to open that link, it’s for that Disney movie Holes right?

Oh yea, I really really hate clowns. It sounds cruel, but I wouldn’t hesitate for a second to nuke all the clowns in the world.

I fear that I’ll wake up one day and Fluther won’t be there!

@loser: Bite your tongue! Now I’m gonna’ worry about that!

As of today, my greatest irrational fear is that I’ll never get all my Christmas shopping done in time!

bythebay – that doesn’t sound irrational though :)

PnL – You are so right!

I no longer fear spiders, as I learned that they aren’t the thing to fear. One of my irrational fears is going to prison. Not that I do anything worthy of it, but the whole concept of being locked up with muscle-bound maniacs bugs me. I have several irrational fears. One that really bugs me is that when I die, and they cremate my body, I am somehow still alive, but unable to move or call out, when they stuff me in that furnace. Yikes! some of my irrational fears are too embarrassing to share.

Being alone on an island with Danny Bonaduce.

@Mr_M – oh god, that would be horrible, I’m going to have nightmares about that now, lol. Poor Adam Corolla had to work with him for a year, I was so happy when Adam kicked him off the morning show.

cockroaches.

Recurring nightmare: weapon jamming when facing a screaming horde of (whatever).