Your worst fears...

[mijan]

So I've been stuck on an odd train of thought lately... phobias.  Why am I mentally stuck on phobias right now?  Well, I've been wrestling with my own lately.  Severely.  Because I'm probably going to have to face up to it again very soon, and I don't know if I can handle it.

What is it that causes a perfectly rational, normally brave, confident person, who doesn't have any normal fears (heights, guns, bombs, snakes, rats, serial killers, clowns under the bed), to turn into a shaking, crying, screaming, frantic panic over some minor thing?  Or is it just me?  I think I surprised a couple of people the other day when I expressed my own phobia.  I guess they thought nothing scared me.  So, I got to wondering, what are other people scared of?

I don't mean normal fears, or things that make you a bit uncomfortable.  You might be a bit scared of heights, and you might not want to jump off the high-dive at the local swimming pool, but you don't collapse into hysterics because you need to climb a three-step ladder, so it's not a debilitating phobia.  See what I mean? Picture Bart Simpson: "Can't sleep. Clowns will eat me. Can't sleep, clowns will kill me." Or something like that.

I've turned off ISP logging.  Feel free to post anonymously if you don't want people to know what personally scares the shit out of you, or if you want the liberating experience of "coming out of the closet" with your phobia, you can post while logged in.  I'd really like to know what scares people, and how they cope with it.  So, let the group-therapy session begin...

~P

Comments

Re: Phobias

[sgt-majorette.livejournal.com]

Are you a city-bred person? Roses were my exception -- I've always rather liked them. Tulips are okay as long as they're closed. I finally came up with the explanation that I don't like flowers with their genitalia showing. All those fuzzy, creepy stamens and pistils...

I used to be afraid of undecorated Christmas trees in the dark. My brother always used to put the tree on my bed before my dad came home from work to put it up. I was afraid of peaches and tomatoes for a long time after I saw them growing. Weeds, prairies, all that vegetation used to make me wake up screaming. But I cannot get over my terror of sunflowers.