What Are You Afraid Of? «123...Next Go

fruitsbasket101

I have a fear called megalophobia which is the fear of large objects. It can be different for everyone but mine is specifically geared towards statues/paintings that portray a human or animal lager than they actually are in real life. I'm also not a fan of big cities because all the tall buildings make me feel super uncomfortable and a little claustrophobic. Anyone else have an uncommon fear?

Nushnushganay

It's not uncommon but I have trouble with claustrophobia. But a weird thing that happens is, it manifests sitting in a booth, like at an eatery, and the longer the booth, the worse it is. A 2-person booth, fine. 4 -person, okay if it's roomy but I have to sit on the outside. Longer booths, I feel the urge to hyperventilate just trying to sit at them. Also happens to a lesser degree in crowds at street festivals, or anywhere where I have to weave through people. Makes me just want to get out.

LittleGoose

> @fruitsbasket101 said:
> I have a fear called megalophobia which is the fear of large objects. It can be different for everyone but mine is specifically geared towards statues/paintings that portray a human or animal lager than they actually are in real life. I'm also not a fan of big cities because all the tall buildings make me feel super uncomfortable and a little claustrophobic. Anyone else have an uncommon fear?

I'm very sorry to hear about your fear. That can't be easy to live or deal with :( But I understand how big that must be to you.

I have a fear, I'm not sure how common it is but mine is Emetophobia (fear of sickness/vomiting) which effects me pretty much daily. I'm afraid to go out, socialize with people and wash my hands way way too much!

Shadow_Assassin

I have a fear of most of moths, exactly the shape of most of moth wings when motionless(I don't afraid mulberry silkworm moths because they have kinda different shape and usually monotonous color), it's born or I don't remember how it start. It's the only thing I feel really scared in terms of sensuality, I even be mistaken for daredevil by some people.
I've searched in the internet, it's not uncommon but for different reasons. I only seen a person said he/she also afraid the shape of moth wings when motionless and don't know why, he/she said he/she won't afraid if put moth wings like dragonflies. There's also a comment said "yes the wings shape so creepy". IMO it may similar to the uncanny valley because it have an "uncanny difference" from other insects, plus the color as a cautionary color, make them more creepy.

And this thread remind me a primary to high school classmate, she has a extremely fear of spiders. Because when when she was very young a big spider with black and yellow stripes(probably wasp spider) fell on her head.

If really uncommon, one of my middle school classmate afraid of tortoise, another afraid of telephone poles and street light poles. One of my teacher afraid of cats.

Summerjase

I'm not sure how uncommon is, but boats and deep water. I can't even fathom the thought of being in a boat. It doesn't matter if it's a huge cruise ship or tiny canoe, they all give me super bad anxiety. So does deep (natural) water, but to a lesser extent. I can stand to stand in like, knee deep water, but any deeper than that and I start panicking. Or like swampy water; that has super tall grass all around it, with super murky water. Pools generally don't scare me, but huge lakes and oceans do.

Sigzy05

spiders

nerdfashion

I have a fear of seafood. Don't ask.

5782341b77vl

Heights
Spiders
Crowds
Meeting new people (though it might be more due to my autism, than a "fear" )

(I know there's a lot more than that, but I don't want to get in to it)

Cutie_Pie3074

Sedatephobia- Fear of silence or being unable to speak
Severe Misophonia- Not a fear, a human instinct that makes certain noises scare you (I cry anytime I hear/see anything repetitive)
Phonophobia - Fear of quiet noises/ (Once again) repetitive noises
Algophobia- Irrational fear of pain
Mysophobia- Fear or germs
Emetophobia- Fear of sickness
Monophobia- Fear of being alone
Cleithrophobia- Fear of being trapped
Claustrophobia- Fear of small spaces
Catagelophobia– Fear of being ridiculed


I could go on, but that would fill an entire forum page, most of my fears come from ptsd from being hospitalized often

Nushnushganay

@Shadow_Assassin arachnophobia (the fear of spiders) may be more genetically driven than acquired or due to experiences. As with snakes, people either have an innate revulsion to them, or they don't.

I had long suspected this, as spiders and/or snakes are two creatures who pose a threat to humans most areas of the globe, and we don't generally see them as food, so the potential danger of them isn't tempered with a risk/reward system for hunting them.
Children with no prior history of contact, can even show fear reactions to images of one, the other, both, or neither, depending on whether they inherited fear of one, the other, both, or neither.

Genetic memory and genetic influences on behavior are far deeper and more prevalent in humans than we ever used to suspect, when we tried to explain everything as based on life experiences, and believed babies were born a blank slate. Not so.

Kelvin

Just listing a few I can think of as of now:

1. Zombie apocalypse
2. Dreams where you keep falling, especially those that involve plunging elevators.
3. Deep waters, deep caves, dams. <— recently discovered fear
4. I'm also trypophobic (afraid of tiny, cluster of irregular, moving pores).
5. Pennywise the clown.
6. Having to re-download unsupported mods despite EA not fixing game bugs.

Idontrcall

I developed an irrational fear of flying at a late age. I believe it's more not being in control of the situation and putting my faith in the pilots. The fear is mostly for mechanical failure. Strange, if I fly solo, I'm fine. It manifests itself when I'm flying with someone I love and I know I won't be able to protect them, too.

That trypophobic thingy -- I'm not really that but it grosses me out, lol.

Cutie_Pie3074

Idontrcall wrote: »

That trypophobic thingy -- I'm not really that but it grosses me out, lol.

Im honestly the same way with holes, at this point I am lead to believe it is just instinct, though it may be worse for others

Shadow_Assassin

@Nushnushganay IMO if someone afraid of something only because of the potentially dangerous isn't "phobia", just "fear"(I generally call this type of "fears in terms of rationality"). Some fear because of instincts are not really "phobia", for example, uncanny valley, and some people say they have trypohobia when see the pictures such as dense wormholes, but most of them not afraid of rice, so they actually haven't trypohobia(BTW "disgusting" and "afraid" are different)

My classmate said that she was not so afraid of spiders before then. I don’t know how it used to be, but now she is very afraid of the pictures of spiders. My dad is kinda afraid of snake looks, even though he knows how to deal with them. My mom is not only afraid of the looks of snakes but also of their danger. I'm just afraid of the danger of the snake, if it's determined that a snake is not dangerous, I'm not afraid at all.
I've been afraid of heights since one day I start feel dizzy when looking down from a height, but I was not afraid of heights before it, so I don't think I actually have acrophobia.

Acquired experience definitely causes phobia, there are too many examples like this. I once seen in Internet, a guy who afraid of chickens said when he was very young, he was peeing in the grass and pecked by a chicken. A person who afraid of butterflies said when he/she was very young, he / she saw "a butterfly has four pairs of wings and has a weird shape" (actually they were mating but he/she didn't understand at the time), and after a while it "turned into two", although he/she knows that they were mating when he/she grows up.

annaliese39

Public speaking, germs, and I have this weird thing about eyes. I won't even wear contacts because I can't bear the thought of touching my eye.

fruitsbasket101

@Nushnushganay Huh I never thought of the booth thing for people with claustrophobia but I can see that.

@LittleGoose It's ok most of the time. I luckily live in a place where I don't come in to contact with things that cause my fear too often. In my life I can only remember four times where its really been a problem for me. Once on a playground when I was little with a mural of past presidents faces, once in middle school with a similar mural in one of the halls that I could never bring myself to go down and, to this day, have no idea what my middle school library looked like, once when I went to a big city for an anime convention, and once just recently where I past a neighbor's house on the way home and they had a giant blow up reindeer that was almost as big as their house on the front lawn. Also I get you with the vomit thing. Can't see anyone do that with feeling sick myself.

@Shadow_Assassin Not a fan of bugs in general. I've gotten over it for the most part now but don't really like them.

@Summerjase Deep water is one i've been seeing a lot lately. Seeing as we know more about whats in space than our own oceans, it is something I can see being a fear of some people.

@Sigzy05 , @5782341b77vl I am right there with you on the spider thing. They have way too many legs for my liking.

@Idontrcall, @Cutie_Pie3074 My brother has trypophobia. Its really weird cause one of his favorite flowers is a lotus but he can't stand the seed pods because of all the holes.

Nushnushganay

@Shadow_Assassin I get the distinction between a rational fear, and a phobia, and it was the gut-level, systemic built-in fear response, rather than the healthy caution, that I was talking about in the widespread (and likely genetic) phenomenon of arachnophobia and whatever they call a similar phobia of snakes. Having a healthy respect for, and caution near, a potentially harmful animal is not the phobia. But in the case of spiders and snakes, the actual phobia is widespread enough across the world, to merit study.

So that's what I mean by the phobia, that is not tied to some traumatic experience, but is genetic in origin. It's a rational enough phobia from an evolutionary populations point of view, but in the individual affected, it presents not as some rational caution around something that can harm, and they are just as afraid of harmless specimens as the deadly ones, if they have the same shape or general appearance that triggers the response.

5782341b77vl

Also, lately I've been kinda more "creeped out" by clowns. I'm not sure if it's because of Pennywise (from IT) or the whole "Killer Clowns" type of cults that have been popping up lately!

In either case I don't like clowns, don't want to be near clowns, or even look at pictures of clowns! To make matters worse, my mom has a clown shaped tea pot and little clown cups! I'm hoping she doesn't pass it down to me, or it's just going to rot in an attic or basement - once I get settled in a place.

Anyone else afraid of those clowns?

RumellKhan1

Death

orangehippogriff

Not being good enough. My family dying. A serial killer breaking into my house and killing me. Global warming. Global pandemics. Crustaceans/Sea Creatures. Death. Mean people. Getting pregnant. Getting pregnant and having a severely deformed child. Scales. Trying on clothes in stores. People judging what I say on the internet. My dog dying. Being homeless. Knives. Guns. Snakes and spiders. An asteroid hitting the planet. My father. Hurting people's feelings. My computer breaking and not being able to play sims. School. Grades. Work. Having to make money. Human stupidity. Being a burden. Airplanes. Traveling in general. I could go on.

Things I'm not afraid of:
Ghosts. Large dogs.

Kingacica15

I am afraid of wasting my life away locked in my room doing useless stuff and not experiencing the joys of life, especially during my teens.

RumellKhan1

I also have phobia of travelling.

Shadow_Assassin

Idontrcall wrote: »

I developed an irrational fear of flying at a late age. I believe it's more not being in control of the situation and putting my faith in the pilots. The fear is mostly for mechanical failure.

I'm almost but i may be more rational. I'm "better safe than sorry", although it generally very safe, it can be very dangerous and Intractable if something goes wrong. I once have a dangerous experience that might make me on the news if I handle it wrong when teenage, afterward I gradually become "better safe than sorry"

RumellKhan1

I also have phobia of dead animals. It's just creepy.

Nushnushganay

Kingacica15 wrote: »

I am afraid of wasting my life away locked in my room doing useless stuff and not experiencing the joys of life, especially during my teens.

Your head is screwed on right! Rage, rage against the dying of the light! Suck the marrow fully from the bones of life!

Nushnushganay

Anyone who has ever watched someone die in a hospital, ought rightly to fear that, and fight for home hospice services and right-to-die legislation. So that's one of my fears: dying in a hospital, unguarded by someone who loves me, against the callous cruelty of institutional apathy that barely distinguishes the dying (who can still feel!) from the dead.