What is the most embarrassing thing that has ever genuinely scared you?

Toast.

I’ve made millions of pieces of toast yet every single time, I jump like a squirrel on crack.

@gemiwing That is hilarious! I’ve never met a toastophobic person before.

I have a tea kettle that when it starts to boil and steam it REALLY sounds like a car’s horn and as it builds up and builds up it sounds like its getting closer and closer. Scared the shit out of me the first time I made tea, thought someone was getting ready to crash into my house.

Well, when I was little, my dad had this metal letter-holder in the shape of a dog and it scared me. I wouldn’t go into his room because I knew it was in there and I couldn’t describe what it was, so I drove my mom nuts with her trying to figure what it was in my dad’s room that I was afraid of.

It was just the creepy-looking eyes that it had that I think scared me.

As a little kid, three main things scared me (in movies and such): fire, creepy faces, and screams.

@wtfrickinfrack several years ago was playing golf on a very hot day! Going down number 10 felt real dizzy….and was walking to the green and passed out! This guy that has played with our group for 30 years and was in his 70’s (age) then…and still a good golfer! But, anyway, how shall i say this…he has a wicked looking face! He got a towel and iced it down and put it on my face…when my eyes opened and he was in my face rubbing the towel over my face…and when i saw him, I said, “oh my God, I’ve gone to Hell!”

anyway, we got a huge laugh out of it…he probably would have said the same thing about me…you know we golfers are very honest people!

I have always been deathly afraid of Narwhals. I am serious, for those who think I am just joking. I have dreams where I am floating in freezing cold water surrounded by them 0_0

Also, llamas are pretty weird too.

A few years ago I went to go see the remake of The Hills Have Eyes with some friends. The movie is ridiculous. But cheap scares always get me. At one point I was almost crying. The only thing that got me through the movie was an almost cult-like rallying of other patrons. They started banding together and chanting for various characters to die. I was embarassed to admit how scared I was, especially when everyone else found the movie to be so campy.

@gemiwing lmao!!!!!!!!!!!!

My dad had a rubber Alfred E. Neuman mask when I was little. Somehow it melted a little bit and the facial features were slightly deformed. If I saw it today I would probably laugh, but at the time it was the scariest thing I had ever seen. I couldn’t be in the same room as my dad when he was wearing it.

Cruelela Devil from 101 dalmatians.

So freaking scary…

The exorsist.

sex

In 1998 i worked for some months as a volunteer in the same place i work now again.
End of December 2004 or 2005 i read an announcement in the newspaper which stated that a colleague of mine had passed away.
It was the colleague that i liked most.
He was around 67 years old about and a real good guy, who taught me useful things about how to work with wood and tools and things.
So, December 31st i lent my father’s car and went to the funeral (a cremation to be precise).
When i came in the funeral centre i saw all of my colleagues and, to my astonishment, also my dead colleague.
Alive.
I put he wrong name to the right guy or vise versa.
Everybody was quite surprised to see me there and asked me whether i knew the deceased, since he was a member of the board whom i probably never had seen before.
I lied that, yes, i knew him.
After the ‘speeches’ and the music that was played for him we were lead passed the coffin to say our goodbeys and i was hoping that there was a picture of the guy on it, but no, there wasn’t.
Untill this day i don’t know who the man was or what he looked like.
After the service, when we gave our condoleances to the grieving family i had a chat with the guy who i initially thought had died.
One of the most strange experiencse in my life.
I never told my colleague that i thought he was dead though.

one time my brother chased me around the house with a leaf that i thought was a caterpillar. I HAVE A HORRIBLE FEAR OF CATERPILLARS. so i think really, this is not that embarrassing, but the fact that it was only a leaf in the end turned out to be a “oh….” lol.

@rebbel…lol wow thats a good one.

Ever since I was little I’ve been terrified of chickens. I’m afraid they will just come peck me for no reason and then poop on me. Just thinking about them gives me goosebumps. I don’t like being called a chicken when I tell someone my phobias.
I’m not embarassed to say I am deathly afraid of clowns too because I know I’m not the only one.

@slick44 oh my gosh…wish i had never seen that movie! was very young then…scared the Hell out of me!

@BoBo1946…lol it still scares me.lol

When I was little, my Bubbe gave me this Bubbe Doll…it was just a doll but I was terrified of it! It was so freaking ugly and creepy that I kept it in a corner in my closet and eventually got rid of it. I would still be scared if it today if I hadn’t gotten rid of it!

@Fly i can so understand that. one time my grandma gave my mom this doll she was gonna get rid of and my mom had it sitting in some corner. i cannot express in numbers how many times i avoided going downstairs because it was dark out due to this doll, and also how many times i sprinted through the room it was in. i hate dolls.

We gave my younger son the blue Wild Thing when he was two and barely talking. He flung it across the room. We thought that was hilarious and kept giving it back to him. Years later, he told us he had been terrifed of it!

For me it was being detained as a shopliftng suspect. This is ironic because I am an attorney and as I have noted elsewhere on fluther.com – today actually – I know a lot about shoplifting law. I was innocent, but there were some circumstances that justifiably made the loss prevention lady who detained me think that I probably had stolen something. When it happened my mind reeled and all I could think of was, “Oh DARN (or something like that), how could this happen to ME!?!?”. I know all the rules both for shoplifter and loss prevention employee. I know what one should and should not do on both sides of the question. Nevertheless, I found myself saying the typical lame statement, something like, “I don’t understand. This must be a mistake, etc.” and arguing about goig back to the loss prevention office Well, the loss prevention woman wasn’t interested and after politely asking me to go with her and finding me reluctant to do so, she took me by the arm (and yes, she was within her rights to do so) and led me away. Fortunately that actually helped settle me down and I had the sense not to resist. It all got cleared up in the loss prevention office with review of the surveillance video and I was released without any charges and even with an apology. While it lasted though I was scared absolutely . . . well, embellishment isn’t really needed. Looking back on it I can laugh, but at the time I was close to tears.

I am phobic of asphyxiation . I would think that nobody likes that but I am phobic of it.

I was probably about 10 years old when I had dived to the bottom of a pool and was swimming around. I came up under a raft that was in the pool… a large one. I was needing to breathe already and was not able to immediately see the edge. I pounded on the raft from below hoping someone would feel it, eventually managed to get to the edge of the raft.

Ever since then I have had a huge problem with asphyxiation. I can hold my breath for long periods of time and sink in water to the point where I can easily sit on the bottom of a swimming pool. I have no problem with this as long as I have a clear shot to the surface.

Ever since the event I described, when playing with other children in a pool, if I was pulled under in the play, they got more than they expected.

I also had a fear of dolls kept around my house. Man those things were creepy. They were always the homemade ones too, my grandma would make them from time to time out of socks, old childrens dresses, and string. The thing I remember most is those eyes, those creepy blue eyes, staring out from the dark corner…
@semblance have you ever seen the Boondocks episode with the lawyer that was afraid of anal rape? lol exact same situation…just with anal rape, not shoplifting…

@WolfFang I’m not familar with the show. It sounds too rough for me. Shoplifting detention was bad enough.

Clowns terrify me. And when I was a child,some friends of my parents lived down state from us, so we would stay at their house for the night when we went that way. They had a piece of petrified wood on their hearth. It was sawed off so they stood it on end and the other end looked like three fingers. I was petrified and they always had me sleep on the couch in the same room with that thing.

As a child, I seemed to thrive on situations like this. I had a serious dislike for authority figures (school administrators, security guards, store detectives, etc). It had become almost like a sort of extreme sport to me, scary at the time, but addictive. I would intentionally act in a suspicious manner while actually doing nothing wrong, then I would be totally uncooperative, rude and abusive when confronted. Provoke an overreaction and then watch them squirm as lawyers tag-team on them. Typical thrill-seeking by a spoiled brat. Our familys lawyers found it amusing (and profitable) though.

When I was a kid, my grandma lived about two hours from us and we’d often drive down to spend the weekend at her apartment. She had (still has, actually) a lot of knick-knacks that my brother and I were fascinated with, plus cool furniture like a coffee table with legs carved to look like lion paws or something. We loved those things.

However, she also had these huge, creepy metal masks hanging on the wall at the top of her stairway. They were supposed to look like African tribal masks, I think. I hated going upstairs and feeling like those masks were watching me. They had scary expressions, and I can still clearly picture how, as I climbed the stairs, the masks would gradually come into view. The closer I got to the top of the stairs, the more scared I’d get.

The worst part came at bedtime. From the bed in the spare room, I had a direct view of the masks out in the hallway. Whenever I had to sleep there, I was torn between sleeping with the door open and the masks looking at me, which was terrifying, or sleeping with the door closed in pitch blackness, which was also terrifying. I’d usually try to compromise by rolling onto my side so I couldn’t see the masks, but then I’d worry that they’d move. I’d have to roll back over to keep an eye on them. If I opted for the closed door, I’d imagine all sorts of things creeping out from under the bed. It was a no-win situation, but I never admitted to anyone that the masks scared me.

My grandma still has those masks, but now they hang on the main bedroom wall of her apartment. When I see them, they aren’t nearly as big as I always remember them and don’t seem so hostile. They are actually kind of cool, and not the thing you expect to find in a little 93 year old lady’s apartment.

Now my daughter is scared of them and always opts to sleep on the pull-out sofa rather than on the extra bed in my grandma’s room when we visit!

One day I woke up and looked in the mirror. I had a large protruding fleshy mole on my upper chest. It was the size of a squished pea! I thought it sprung up overnight this means I don’t have much time left to live! I was horrified. So I just barely touched it and it was firm and I was sure it was some sort of serious melanoma. Then it fell off. It was a dirty clump of adhesive from who-knows-where! Phew!!! lol

I just remembered another thing that gave me the willies as a boy.

It was around when we came to America, so about 7.

I was playing with a spider, letting it crawl between my hands. It attached a thread to my hand and lowered itself to the floor.

I do not know what, specifically, was so upsetting about this but the I had a problem with the thread.

I had a problem with spiderwebs for years after this.

The little blue devil in my grandmother’s step-on trash can [who wanted the wrappers from the blue devil logoed Underwood devilled ham.

@Arisztid I think spiders are alien! The don’t seem like anything else.

@Arisztid I was so afraid of spiders i was even afraid of the picture of one in the dictionary. And you PLAYED with them!!!!

I’ve been terrified of spiders since I was a kid, but a lot of people are so it doesn’t embarrass me. Unless I think a spider is on my arm, shriek, jump around in a panic, and then realize it was a bit of lint or something harmless like an ant. Then I feel like an idiot. It’s something about the way they move that completely freaks me out. Can’t even talk about it…ugh.

Flowers scare me, don’t ask me why.
Also I freak out whenever I hold lettuce.

My own reflection!

Yep, I have this big window in my living room and at night it reflects.

I can’t tell you how many times I am walking by and catch a glimpse of ‘someone at the window’.

Startles me and pisses me off every time! haha

@Michael_Huntington Lettuce??? why? the feel?

@anartist Yes, exactly

@Michael_Huntington

Um…I am speechless! What wonderous phobias there are! lololol

I have these shoes which I love to wear, but they are a little tricky to walk in and I’m always ‘falling off’ them. I’ll be strolling along, minding my own business, when suddenly my shoe gives way and I lurch off to the side, arms flailing. It always scares the be-jingles out of me, even though it’s happened countless times, and I look like a proper idiot. Very embarrassing.

@jeanmay

lol

I know JUST what you mean! haha

When I was a child I used to get freaked out at shadows on the wall. Often they took the form of witches or creepy men.

I would see one and freeze hoping it would go away… laying in bed as still as physically possible hoping it wouldn’t see me and get me.

Heart beating wildly, I would eventually race over to the light switch… exposing that the scary figure was actually a coat hanging or something similar.

What an idiot! LOL

Watching “Dawn of the Dead”. I had nightmares for farking years after that and still went along to see all the sequels and stuff. Aside from that, being a kid and remembering my first constipation, I was truly afraid to poop.

Adults in mascot costumes, i.e. Chuck E. Cheese. I will still hide behind my mother.

@py_sue

Hahaha…well thats not as bad as being afraid of flowers & lettuce.

Driving on the highway was pretty scary. Only did it once, drivers ed. age 16. I never bothered to get a license after that.

I scared myself with my own hand once, it fell asleep and I saw this strange hand moving behind my husbands head….I near had a stroke.

Well, to be honest, I saw Edward Scissorshands when I was young. Apparently I missed the subtle bleeding heart part of Edward and instead was just terrified someone with scissors for hands was going to kill me. Because people really sometimes opt for scissors instead of fingers or say, pirate hooks. Yeaaaaa…

@Joodie

haha…my daughter is 22, that was one of her fav. movies, but she probably 8 or 9 when she saw it.

Her big thing was watching Stephen Kings ‘It’ when she was 4 with her older cousins…she hates clowns to this day!

Our neighbor’s little 8 year-old boy. He’s a vicious little ankle-biter with a big potty mouth. Yes, he’s only a child, but he scares the hell out of me. When he visits us, I have to make sure everything that’s breakable is hidden, and guard my shins and kneecaps!! I’m not kidding——the little kid’s a monster. :(

Popping the lever on a grenade. I never trusted that it would not go off on the spot. Never told a soul till now.

@josie

Jesus dude! Well..be thankful you lived to tell the tale! Aaaah…crazy…bad, bad, bad…

@josie Geezus. You have to deal with real grenades, and I? Little freckled faced ones. Lol.

When I was a kid if I heard the sound of the street cleaner coming up the street I was terrified and would hide in a closet. I didn’t know what it was or why it was so terrible. By the time I was old enough to understand it was a big noisy vehicle being driven by a regular guy I could see it and make the sound connection and I just wasn’t afraid anymore.
My guess these days is that my fear was derived from my mom’s panic to run out and move the car.

I lost my car when it was right in front of me AND had my business magnets on it. I had bought a new car. About a month later I went to a business meeting. Coming out of the meeting, I had forgot that I was not driving the old car. I was standing three feet away from it and with absolute terror, freaked out to my best friend about not seeing my car. She pointed out most disrespectfully that it was right in front of my face. :-D

hearing someone come on the porch at night. Don’t know why.

When my son was around 10 or 11 years old pulled a really good prank on me, and it Scared The Shit Outta Me!! Not many people know about it because after it was done I as soooo embarassed by being scared.
I had been up real late one nite and he got me up real early that morning calling at me that there was something wrong with his arm. I walked out of the bedroom,mind you still half asleep and he was laying on the couch with his left arm laying beside him,he told me he his arm hurt really bad, I told him to let me see it and he said he couldnt move it,so I leaned down to take it in my hand to check it out (his hand and wrist) and as I did I touched it and it was really cold,and I grabbed it and was like “Jared WHAT did you do to your arm” at the exact time I pulled it up and it come off into my hand. I almost SHIT Myself,it was all at once the being half asleep,his hand being really cold and it just slidding off him into my hand. Then just before I had a STROKE ! I realized it was a fake hand. I was soooo pissed off,embarassed and mind you Heart Beating 90 mph. He started laughing and I started hitting him with it,I chased him all the way into his room,me mad/shaking form the initial shock and totally embarassed that I had not only fell for the trick but FREAKED OUT !!! ( I wasnt hitting him hard enought to hurt him,the hand was plastic and the arm part soft cloth,BUT I DID WANT TO BEAT HIM TO DEATH WITH IT !!!! LOL ) When he come out of his room about ½ hour later,still laughing,and I was still trying to stop shaking,he tell’s me “mom, Michael told me to do it to you” (Michael was his stepdad at the time ) I called Michael up at work and started to tell him what Jared (my son ) had done and Michael started to laugh,he said he had told Jared to pull a prank on me with it but didnt know it would have been,in his word, soooo funny…. I havent told really anyone about that,I was so embarassed to have reacted that crazy,and fall for something sooooo stupid. But I did..Ya know,I still owe my son one for that !!! LOL

@nana1968 Good story :D