Things that are not inherently scary that scare you

The basement of the house I grew up in. Thar be monsters ones the staircase!

^Ones = under

Underwater cliffs scare me, OP. There was one in that shark movie 47 Meters Down. To me, that was more terrifying than the sharks.

Cluttered houses, especially that of old people, where the decor hasn’t changed in decades.

Thinking about the Titanic (and other ships) at the bottom of the ocean just after sinking.

Weird, I know.

My face.

r4 understands me!

And yes, the idea of going to the (eg) site of the Titanic wreck site scares me too.

We have a small window in the back of the house that does’t have blings or a curtain over it because of it’s odd shape and placement. At night, when I go to the kitchen, I always avoid looking at it because I’m afraid that I’ll see someone watching me. One time I looked asnd there was a black stray cat on the ledge peeping in and mewing. Scared the hell out of me. Fuck that stupid window!

[quote]The basement of the house I grew up in. Thar be monsters ones the staircase!

R1: Gaston Bachelard and others agree. The attic is the place of rationality; the basement is where Fear dwells.

[quote]Verticality is ensured by the polarity of cellar and attic, the marks of which are so deep that, in a way, they open up two very different perspectives for a phenomenology of the imagination. Indeed, it is possible, almost without commentary, to oppose the rationality of the roof to the irrationality of the cellar. A roof tells its raison d'etre right away: it gives mankind shelter from the rain and sun he fears. Geographers are constantly reminding us that, in every country, the slope of the roofs is one of the surest indications of the climate. We "understand" the slant of a roof. Even a dreamer dreams rationally; for him, a pointed roof averts rain clouds. Up near the roof all our thoughts are clear. In the attic it is a pleasure to see the bare rafters of the strong framework. Here we participate in the carpenter's solid geometry.

[quote]As for the cellar, we shall no doubt find uses for it... It will be rationalized and its conveniences enumerated. But it is first and foremost the dark entity of the house, the one that partakes of subterranean forces. When we dream there, we are in harmony with the irrationality of the depths.

The underside of ships.

OP, I don’t like to think about abandoned hospitals, either.

R7, I would have gone right and taken that baby in. And then I would put up a valance over that window!

The cat panicked when we brought him in so we just feed him on the back porch. I think he belongs to someone in the neighborhood. Anyway, he’s a sweet kitty that I’ve dubbed Nightshade r10.

Baby corn. I avert my eyes when strolling down the pickle aisle at the Safeway.

No Oh Mary! yet? Here you all go. Oh Mary!

Water under buildings on piers.

Wearing contact lenses. The thought of anything touching my eyes freaks me out.

The bottom of ponds, lakes even the ocean. I can't stand swimming in either of those environments. I always think something lurks under the surface that will grab me by the ankle etc. I'd rather swim in a urine soaked swimming pool.

[quote]Cluttered houses, especially that of old people, where the decor hasn’t changed in decades.'

Agreed, R4. I love things but only as many as fit reasonably in the space available, leaving lots of breathing space between things to permit free and easy navigation, and horizontal surfaces where you could set a drink easily without having to rearrange the whole house like a Chinese sliding tile puzzle. Furnishing a room or a house is not like filling a glass of water; the first is done way before things get anywhere near the cornice/rim. Crowded and chaotic houses are a just itchy, even in the rare instance of being filled with brilliant things.

Much worse, though, are the places where time has stopped because you can't unclutter sadness. The moment you realize that you're in a house where time stands still, each piece starts to overwhelm with its sad stories: the smell of embedded dust and sunfading that years ago fried all of the upholstery and fabrics; the giant former ashtray in the center of the coffee table now a cemetery of dead TV remotes going back to the 70s; a basket of magazines older that what you would find an auto-mechanic's shop; the Bicentennial-era "Early American" spinning wheel planter in a corner with a plastic pothos getting on to fifty years old; or the "gay tchotchkes" of a good two decades spent bartending at the Parliament House in Orlando three decades ago. When people stop caring about anything (I don't mean just silly trends) and you see it in every object in their house, it's very fucking sad.

unclean bottoms

Monkeys! I KNOW it is irrational, I don't meet monkeys during the course of my life...but if I am traveling and see a monkey (last one chained in a yard in front of a small shop, wearing a diaper) I cross the street to not walk past it. MOST people who meet a monkey have a terrible story to tell! Youtube is full of monkey attack videos! I hate closeups of monkeys and their teeth in movies. I have not gone to Thailand because of monkeys!

Even before coronavirus I was scared of social interaction in the sense of saying the wrong thing and being perceived as an aloof jerk.

I live on the shore of Lake Michigan. I'll go into the water until I can't see my feet (maybe up to my knees). Once I can't see my feet, I'm terrified. I don't know if it's seeing my feet or feeling the bottom under my feet. I'm afraid of falling off a sandbar. I understand the poster above who said he'd rather swim in a urine-soaked pool than a natural body of water.

OP, great question! And some really interesting answers. The scary window person and the basement people...whew!

r21 another fear of mine related to the Great Lakes is sea lampreys ... shudder

R23 Oh yeah! The lake is full of eels -- of course, in the much deeper parts -- but the idea of them makes me shudder. Also, sturgeon that can take a shark-like bite out of you.

Even now, as an eldergay who has seen enough, a group of young men congregating on a street corner or walking towards me gets my anxiety up to 1,000. They aren't going to do anything, and don't, yet I feel I'll be attacked for being gay even though they have absolutely no idea that I am.

[quote] R14: Water under buildings on piers.

Interesting. That’s such a specific fear.

I worked for two years in a building built on a pier on Boston Harbour. The company also used that building as a computer center. Can you imagine! They could have been completely wiped out in a big storm. Even I figured that out, and before the Fukushima accident drove it home.

A full length mirror.

R25 I have same fear but not because of my gayness. It's just a generalized fear of 3 or more teenagers together. I don't care if it's boys, girls, or mixed. Also, I don't care their color. If it's me on the street, alone, and I see them walking towards me -- I'm terrified until they pass.

centipedes

Boston replaced one of its bridges over a tidal marsh near where I once worked. They replaced the bridge with an identical design. They drove many new piles into the soil, and they really pounded them into the soil for weeks.. The new bridge is beautiful.

The next year, an adjacent building, built on a pier, just collapsed. It started sinking one day, and by the second day, it was completely falling apart. I don’t know how that ended but it was obvious to me that the city inadvertently caused this by the pile Installation.

People with bad plastic surgery. Which means most of them. They look deformed and as a boy people missing limbs or who had a withered arm scared the hell out of me.

Trolls

Lying on my back and looking up into the sky I have a fear of falling up into space. I know there is gravity that keeps me down but still that fear comes over me.

Daddy's hands.

[quote]A full length mirror.

R27 I don't know if you're kidding or not, but since this lockdown I can't look in the mirror except to shave and even then I keep my eyes close to the target. I'm alone and afraid of what is happening to my face and body.

[quote]Lying on my back and looking up into the sky I have a fear of falling up into space.

R33 I've had this fear since I was a child. As an adult, I would try it and the same fear came over me. Haven't done this in years -- I need to try again this summer and see if the same 'pull into space' exists for me. I also remember having to leave a planetarium visit as a high schooler for the same reason.

I think the free-falling feeling is related to not having a solid grip on the ground. This is why I hate things like roller coasters and even flying on a plane.

R37 / R33 Your comment about not having a solid grip on the ground really hits home. I'm also R21. You've hit on something very primal.

[R27] I don't know if you're kidding or not, but since this lockdown I can't look in the mirror except to shave and even then I keep my eyes close to the target. I'm alone and afraid of what is happening to my face and body.

R35 - My comment was pure banter. For DL shits and giggles.

But seriously, there is a reason why you’re feeling, and looking the way you describe as a result of the lockdown. Try and retrace your life back to pre-lock down, and get back into that groove. Eat well, get some exercise, enough sleep, and think good thoughts. This too shall pass, and you definitely don’t want to try and regroup yourself into normalcy all at once when things calm down. Do it now. Maintain yourself. Good luck my dear.

r 27

Water holes

R7, you will love this story my mother tells. Back when she was a teenager and living with her mother, she was on the phone in their kitchen and being night she couldn't see outside with the kitchen light on but anyone outside could see in clearly. Anyway, she was talking and looking out the window and after about 10 minutes she realized that the odd "blob/shadow thing" she'd been absently gazing at was a man standing outside the house staring in at her and had been the whole time. He must have seen recognition in her face because he took off. Ever since then where ever she lived curtains went up first thing. She passed that along to me. Blinds and curtains up before anything else.

I spent a weekend in the Appalachians in an old 200 year old farmhouse with no window coverings. Fucking creepy as shit.

R40 What the fuck is that?

Inanimate Catholic statues of St. Paul. I was an altar boy and I swear that motherfucker would move on its own at the church I served.

Churches especially cathedrals are creepy as hell R43. When I was in Europe and touring all those ghastly cathedrals I got majorly creeped out by the idea of walking over all those people buried under the floor. I kept thinking one of those tiles would cave in and I'd be dumped on a pile of mouldering cadavers.

Corn worms. I'm not even going to post a picture.

It's not PC to say it, but people with deformities. Like all of the Zika babies from a few years ago.

I have this weird thing about high places, like the top of the Empire State Building. No matter how far I am from the edge, I am terrified I'll be caught by some vortex or wind current and sucked over the side. But also, I can't help thinking about jumping over. (I believe the ESB had a high fence around the perimeter last time I was there -- 25+ years ago -- and no one could jump or be sucked over the edge, but it grips me with terror every time.

Jerusalem cricket. Aka Potato bugs. So vile and hideous with their bulging eyes, mandible and exoskeleton. Not going to post one.

Also, stairs with open slats, and / or open or clear, sides. Wrought iron stairs are the worst. Or 60s cement or stone slab stairs with metal sides. Nope.

That Twilight Zone episode with William Shatner on the plane, where he opens the window shade, and the scary monster is at the window looking in, it traumatized me. I had that fear, as also related above by others, of a monster or someone looking in a window at night. As I write this, I realize that at 60, I don’t really have this fear anymore, though. Phew!

The TZ movie remake had a a far scarier looking monster.

The childhood fear of something living in the closet or under the bed was epitomized in this Tales from the Darkside episode,

When vinyl LPs were around in my childhood I had this sensation that made it impossible for me to flip through a stack of them that were in upright displays. Same for CDs. It just grated on my nerves. I would have to slide one up to look at it. I don't know what that was about.

Yeah the gremlin in the original Twilight Zone wore a silly fur suit.

I've outgrown my childhood fears of witches, demons, and ghouls, but I get a strange sort of vertigo if I look up at the ceiling of a building and it's much higher than your usual house or apartment. In a theater, cathedral, etc. it makes me feel like I'm going to start floating up to the ceiling and not be able to get down. Whenever people say they'd love to have the ability to fly, I think they're insane. It terrifies me.

And yes, I hate heights in general. I'm usually fine in a plane once they've taken off and leveled everything off, especially if I've taken a Xanax with a glass or two of wine.

Prosthetics. I’m 34 but I saw the movie The Fugitive in 1993, in which the plot involved a prosthetic arm-wearing killer and the scene in which Harrison Ford visited a prosthetics wing of a Chicago hospital gave me nightmares.

Just my luck, in 1993 my mom star muted dating a man who lost his hand and wore a prosthetic glove. We moved in his house in 1994 and he would always leave it out. I’d go downstairs and freak out seeing this realistic hand just sitting on a counter or chair. It really scared the shit out of me!

Barbra Streisand movies

Birds and dead fish

Going over bridges over water - at night.

Eating milk with dinner.

R47 - same here. Get the ‘want to fall forwards’ thing if near an edge.

Also, as a kid, playing hide and seek on a friend’s farm I jumped into a grain silo and began to sink into the grain and towards the small hole at the bottom. Weirdly, I had the presence of mind to spread my weight and crawl on my belly slowly up to the top. Years later I was in a farm and at a walkway above huge silos. It was all I could do not to jump in. Overwhelming urge. Really disturbing.

Not too keen on slugs either. A little soft, sticky bag of guts. Nice.

The Sagamore Bridge to Cape Cod.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.

The Sunshine Skyway (St. Petersburg, FL)

The catwalk around the flight deck of an aircraft carrier.

Obviously, looking down at water is an issue for me.

cemetaries

My own lack of discipline.

Heights don't scare me, the thought of falling is disturbing but doesn't scare me, what scares me is seeing someone or something else fall. Has to be from a significant height though. Gives me that awful stomach-dropping deathly pale feeling, every time.

stairs

Submarines just barely breaking the surface of the ocean.

Salad bars.

Acrophobia makes sense if you can fall to your death. However, even if I am inside or there is a high fence etc, I am still terrified and get dizzy. This for any height above 12 feet.

R66 I think those have gone the way of the dodo, never to return.

IRS

Butterflies.

Opening canned biscuits.

Walking over a bridge. I'm always afraid someone will run up to me and toss me off.

Balconies. Again, a fear of falling off the balcony or being pushed off.

R71 YES! Opening any of those canned thingies where you have to press a knife or a spoon on the seam. I scream like a little girl when they pop open.

[quote] Baby corn. I avert my eyes when strolling down the pickle aisle at the Safeway.

UGH! I know how you feel!

Bureaucrats.

OP - the hellish pit of the ocean is INHERENTLY scary.

[quote] Just my luck, in 1993 my mom star muted dating a man who lost his hand and wore a prosthetic glove.

I [italic]hate[/italic] it when my mom star mutes dating!

For you R16.

R48, I have never heard of those things before.

I googled and they are terrrifying.

R41 ME TOO!! I will never understand why people don't put up blinds and curtains. People ARE looking into your house at night.

[quote]Just my luck, in 1993 my mom star muted dating a man who lost his hand and wore a prosthetic glove.

R54 / R76 God, I love it when typos fuck up a post...BUT the 'prosthetic glove' is all R54. Did he have a real hand or a prosthetic hand under that thing?

R77 That's me!

R48 Open staircases, yep. Forgot about that fear.

This lot..

Many of you are lexis challenged. Jared and Ivanka define INHERENTLY scary.

R83 Honest to God -- that picture is frightening!

R83, that pic looks like a movie poster for a horror flick about things living in the attic.

Suburban sprawl. The worst are the DC suburbs. Just a never ending highway marked with ugly beige houses. Depressing, hideous, and soulless.

Large groups of teenagers.

Loose large dogs, with their owners making no attempt to control them.

Escalators .

I have a very common fear of heights, but my more unique quirk is being disgusted by, and unable to eat off of, dishes and mugs that have a crack or chip in them. I also really get grossed out by dishes that have pattens on them, especially the older type where they are obviously pained on top of a base glazed layer and have begun to wear away from years of use -- I've had these dish phobias since I was around 4 or 5.

camel spiders

tonsil stones

the eight eyes of a spider

Bridges over rivers right where the river goes into the ocean. They terrify me, and have since I was old enough to remember riding in a car.

Skyscrapers, I find being high up in a skyscraper or multi-story building deeply unsettling.

Perhaps it's because I grew up in earthquake country and have been through a bunch of quakes. I just can't accept that huge buildings are completely safe.

R90 That sounds like a very specific area. How many rivers go directly into an ocean? I'm curious...

R87 Escalaors! OMG, yes. I still feel my balls shrink when I take that first step. Stepping off is even worse....

^There is a very big drawbridge in Jacksonville over the St. John River (I think it is), right where the river goes into the Atlantic. To me, it's terrifying to even look at it, much less drive over it. I think the bridge that is there now is a replacement of the one I first experienced in the '60s.

The Indian River goes directly into the Atlantic via the Sebastian Inlet in Brevard County Florida.

^^escalators...sorry

Santa Claus. My parents had to drag me onto Santa's lap. I'd get panic attacks as an adult just walking passed one of those "Santa's Village" things in the mall. Oh God.

Overpasses. Recently, I've started having panic attacks while driving on Houston overpasses. There's one that I have to take a lot that is 100 feet high and some poor slob hit the side retaining wall and upon exiting his vehicle and disoriented he accidentally fell off the overpass to the road below, all in front of his horrified spouse. Another guy was standing outside his disabled vehicle and was thrown off when some dumb bitch texting ran into the back of his car. If I'm driving and stare off into the distance I start hyperventilating. I have to absolutely only focus on the what's right in front of me and even then I start freaking out.

R95 So where is the bridge?

The old bridge in Charleston that crossed the northern river used to scare the shit out of me. They have replaced it and both the north and south river bridges are not as scary to me somehow; they are huge wide structures and have safety walls so you can't see off of them so easilly -R90.

R57 Are you my sister? That is exactly her irrational fear.

Calling in an order for takeout.

Katharine Hepburn always fills me with unease, and sometimes she's horrifying.

"I'm always afraid someone will run up to me and toss me off."

You should be so lucky, R71.

R65, yes for submarines in the water. Also big battleships or tankers when they are not loaded down into the water - they stick up so high out of the water it looks as if they could easily just fall over sideways. It's stomach-churning to look at them.

Fast food strips in downtrodden towns.

R98 Overpasses. In downtown Milwaukee, we have cloverleafs that are three deep. Scare the shit out of me. Also, a high four-lane bridge over the lake that has been crumbling for years. Ugh.

Poo

r102 yes, me too, 55 years old and I hate to do that. No idea why, I’m otherwise comfortable using the phone.

my arm or leg off the side of the bed or outside the covers

walking under ladders

"a high four-lane bridge over the lake that has been crumbling for years" is INHERENTLY scary.

Yes to bridges - all bridges!!

Clowns. Especially not in the circus, and the worst is when they are out in broad daylight,e.g. driving around on a freeway. In a pink car.

"Clowns on a freeway in a pink car" are INHERENTLY scary.

Failed shopping malls.

Gee, how strange. I've never heard of anyone being spooked by an innocent abandoned mall.

There's a name for it.

They're creepy even from the outside. I'm sure not going in.

R118 What am I looking at?

Anyone remember this? My fear.

[quote]Fifteen years have passed since South Padre Island's Queen Isabella Memorial Causeway collapsed on the night of Sept. 15, 2001, killing eight people when they plunged from the roadway 80-feet below into the bay. Witnesses watched as two 80-foot slabs of the causeway plummeted into the Laguna Madre Bay.

I'm okay with most bridges. There's a really, really high one in my city of Portland, OR (i,.e. the Fremont Bridge), and going over that one freaks me out a bit.

Raccoons creep me out a lot with their unsettling little hands (it looks like they have opposable thumbs, but they don't really)

Sphynx cats, which have no hair

Things that are not inherently scary that scare you.

Horrified by the 50% of DLers who do not understand this simple sentence.

r40 = Andy Cohen's hole

Fearing the Mid-Atlantic Ridge is very prudent. Don't you know who lives there ?

It's Godzilla waking up.

Standing anywhere near the edge of a subway or train platform. Must be as far as reasonably possible away, and won't approach until that subway or train is good and stopped. I think this came from reading Stephen King's Dark Tower series too young, there's a serial killer in the 2nd or 3rd novel whose method, among others, is pushing people in front of cars and such, there was a very vivid description of one of the main characters falling victim to it.

R123 I agree. Posters aren't following the OP's description of not 'inherent' fears. No insects or abnormal heights. I get it but many of the posters include other fears that hit the target.

Thanks r123 and r128

I think this is akin to a certain experience I've had in nightmares ... innocuous, everyday things become ominous in dream logic

This is more of a fear from childhood, but the lane lines in swimming pools used to terrify me.

I didn't mind looking at them from above water, but if I opened my eyes underwater, they were so static and unyielding ... something about that scared me.

R127: That is smart! You never know the mental state of the stranger behind you or if someone will bump into you. I always shake my head at the people who need to stand on the edge of the platform and lean over to see down the tunnel. Fuck that, I will see the train when it pulls into the station and walk forward when it stops in front of me. My back is against the wall or a pillar until then.

Subway shops.

Ice skates. I use knives and scissors without problems. But the thought of being around or in ice skates when they are use--revolting.

wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets. they’ve always terrified me.

R118 - Hyperdontia? Reminds me of the news story about some kid that had multiple sets of teeth growing in his jaw. From the outside he just looked like he had swollen cheeks...but OMG the X-rays....

Agree with R48 about Jerusalem Crickets. Big ugly bugs with huge mandibles. When I lived in Southern California they were all over the place. I have yet to see one in Arizona, but we have something much bigger - the Palo Verde Root Borer. I'd post an image but I can't bear the sight. Sort of like a giant cockroach - body four inches in length, with long antennae. Even the larva grubs are huge.

I love this thread. Thank you to everyone NOT posting pix of terrible physical scary things. The descriptions are more than enough!

Love you, R11. Can you TNR him?

R17 your post was beautifully articulated. I read it a few times. You really got to the heart of what unnerves me about homes where “time stands still.” Glad to know I’m not the only one who is affected by that.

Aggressive hymens.

OP, look up Jacob’s Well.

When online satellite maps became more prevalent, if I had to zoom in to something and inadvertently zoomed towards deep water, my heart would start racing. Wait...that still happens. *shudders*

Those Shriner’s Hospital commercials.

I am afraid r140!!

I just Googled Challenger Deep

WHY DO I DO THIS TO MYSELF!!!

Marshalls Clearance

Lol r144

Disney characters, mascots, etc., in full body costumes where you can’t see the face of the person inside. Even as an adult, I don’t want one of those coming near me and I think it’s all about the mystery of the person hidden inside that makes me uncomfortable.

r146 funny you mention that.

I had the exact same fear as a child, but it sometimes extended to smaller changes in appearance. I remember being terrified when my first grade teacher removed her glasses to clean them: it felt like without them, she was another person.

As an adult, I have a similar fear of impostors. I've had a few people in my life lie about major portions of their history, and in one case actually conceal their real identity. It freaked me out a lot.

I think the two fears are related.

R141 did not get his adowable blanket.

Looking at satellite images of the ocean on google maps (usually looking at land but water is adjacent). The real depth and darkness of the water freaks me out and makes me feel sick inside for some reason. Even happens when I see Lake Tahoe from a satellite pic. Seems like fear of deep water is common in DL.

Keith Morrison's voice on Dateline.

Caves - I was in Hawaii and was standing in front of a large cave in a tourist area I couldn't enter the cave and join the rest of the tour. Shows on TV where they go into a cave with small opening or an underwater cave will trigger me and make me sweat and want to run out of the room.

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Thanks R77. Lol. That’s exactly how I would react. 😂

R147 “I've had a few people in my life lie about major portions of their history, and in one case actually conceal their real identity.”

Okay details please.

r154 I suspect they both had variations of pseudologia fantastica (fascinating phenomenon -- Google). One clearly had factitious disorder as well and lied about having cancer, epilepsy, and various other ailments -- all for sympathy. She also claimed to have survived childhood abuse, which may or may not have been true. When you find out someone has lied about things like that, let me tell you, you feel utterly shit on. I tried to help this person and found my sympathy and compassion had been completely wasted.

In the second case, a guy I worked with (this was in my early 20s, in retail) lied about his entire life. He claimed he had been born in Armenia and adopted by an American family. He claimed his father was a Harvard-trained corporate lawyer. He claimed he had been present during the Columbine massacre and hid in a science lab.

You would think that at some point I would have caught on, and maybe I had a bit of a crush on him that blinded me. But then I realized he was from a very pedestrian middle class family, and basically nothing he said about himself had been true. He had in effect created an entirely new identity for himself. It was very odd and very unsettling -- I had become relatively close to him over the course of a year. I became close to someone who, to me, didn't even exist.

Cats like to have alternative homes...in case things go bad.

R155 those are simple cases of pathological lying. I worked with a woman who invented an entire family of all sons along with a wealthy husband how adored her despite us questioning her rather drab and outdated appearance. Came to find out she was separated, her husband did have a decent IT job but far from wealthy, she was living with some old lady relative because he kicked her out for drug use. She was going to nasty motels and smoking meth or crack. Her whole life was fiction.

It could be pseudologia fantastica, r157, and in both of my cases I suspect it was. They weren't drug addicts or con artists. Their lying served no purpose beyond the inherent pleasure or satisfaction it brought them -- it was basically lying without external rewards, other than perhaps sympathy.

Also, the first case was a pretty clear cut instance of factitious disorder (and not, for example, malingering).

I fear quicksand, and I know it’s from old TV shows I saw as a kid.

Wind turbines.

I was just about to post that, [R160]. The tall white ones at Altamont Pass or the gray ones on warehouse rooftops? I think they're both creepy.

Slugs and Mediterranean Geckos freak me out when I find them in the yard or god forbid the house. I can handle removing insects or other creatures but not those.

Gene Hackman. He's fucking terrifying, even now that he's old.

Just my opinion, knowing a person with pseudologia fantastica is INHERENTLY scary.

Quicksand is scary. This is a thread about things that are NOT inherently scary. Caves and Cheryl's pussy are SCARY.

R149 Yes! Even from the safety of your laptop or tablet, it feels as though the water is pulling you in and enveloping you. As a child, I had a book about size comparisons (heh) and one was a small boat followed by a large ocean liner. I had to skip over those two pages because the ocean liner was massive and it caused great anxiety in me. And it was a drawing, not even a photo.

r164 I agree. I used that example to link it to my earlier childhood fear of people in costumes

when swimming in the ocean or lake and suddenly it gets cold, which means the bottom is very very deep. happened to me as a child and teenager. now I don't even dare to do again. I'm 30 now and think about the weird shit that can sting, bite, or take you under.

What can take you under in a lake?

OK I answered my own question.

Ahem.

R169 In Lake Michigan: Lamprey and sturgeon. You don't have to be in a major lake to lose a limb. Smaller bodies of water, like a park pond, have turtles that can bite off a hand or foot. Any large park that rents boats in the summer...they have signs posted about not trailing your hands or feet in the water. As stupid kids, we caught a huge snapper on the end of our oar and dragged him back to the dock only to have the 'boat rental guy' force us to release him. He swam out - with the oar in his mouth - for quite a ways until he finally released the oar. By then we were so pissed, we let the boat-rental-guy go out and claim it. Fuck him. That turtle was as big as a serving platter and full of hate. I have no idea what we thought we were going to do with him but we were all hard wood at the time.

There have been cases of sharks swimming inland into lakes and rivers killing people. They are mainly bullsharks, who can be quite aggressive. I think in the early 1900's there was a lot of hysteria in or around Erie when swimmers were going missing or being killed. They think it was a bullshark but no one back then really understood sharks.

I grew up swimming in Adirondack, Catskills, and Connecticut lakes and never heard of anyone getting bit by turtle though we gossiped it could happen. They were coming for our DICKS and were warned not to skinny dip.

OMG what do I read these threads. And I swim every summer now in lakes.

r175 I spent my summers in Northern Ontario and was always terrified of muskie!

But I do love this video:

r176 should read "I spent my summers in Northern Ontario during childhood"

Cantilevered anything. Obviously, it is structurally sound, or it would not be permitted. But.

I stayed at in the presidential suite at the Hyatt Regency Sarasota one week. The first morning, room service set up an extravagant breakfast on the balcony, which was a cantilevered slab. Just hanging out over nothing. But other slab balcony. I could think of nothing of pancaking slabs as I plummeted down.

I also hate uncovered windows after dark. I avoid looking towards them because I'm scared of seeing something out there looking back at me.

Sometimes I'm a bit uncomfortable with mirrors because I'm scared of seeing something other than my face looking back. I don't know if it's from a movie or a nightmare but I have this image of someone looking at the mirror and seeing the reflection of his face but with all black eyes grinning back at him.

R179 I also hate uncovered windows after dark. I avoid looking towards them because I'm scared of seeing something out there looking back at me.

this one also gets me.

R147, I was interested to read your comment about how your teacher frightened you when she took her glasses off. I've heard of this before... are you one of those people who has a very poor, or non-existent visual imagination? It would seem that this fear is relatively common in people whose mind's eye is blind.

There is speculation that the fear is due to the person's inability to maintain, in working memory, a visual reference to the other. So when the visual representation changes suddenly, the brain really does go through a split-second panic phase because it is unable to reconcile the two images as being representative of the same person. Then the rational mind kicks in with "Of *course* it's the same person, you fool," but the lingering fear remains.

Funny things, brains.

r181 fascinating! I have a very vivid visual imagination, however.

I can't explain it, but I think it may be related to being adopted. I was adopted at three days old (and pretty much always knew I was adopted). I wonder if some deep part of my psyche considered my adopted parents interlopers, false parents, and so I feared any person who misrepresented themselves. And for whatever reason, I considered even subtle changes to one's appearance as an attempt to deceive me.

That is my best theory, but it's probably wrong.

It’s a good theory! I’m sure that something that simple must have several potential origins.

Now if I could just understand why I’m mortally afraid of being brutally assaulted by a giant white rabbit and then covered in jelly...

I’m with you, R178!

Watching fictional exorcism movies and hearing the possessed person speak in Latin or Aramaic. I know it's simply another language, but I always find it the most unsettling part of such films.

just for you, r178.

When I was about 10 years old, I was running on a series of interconnected docks at a yacht club, and slipped right down in between the cracks between two into the ocean- and almost drowned. I remember flailing against the sides and slippery eel grass and algae covered bottom of the floating docks, it was disgusting and I couldn’t get any hold or footing. Thank God someone saw me and pulled me out.

The greenish boat bottoms and all the dreck growing on the sides of piers is disgusting.

Wow - lots of mental illness in this thread. And R43: Refer to him by his proper name Saul of Tarsus.

Not everything needs to be pathologized r188

Whale eyes. Goopy and too enormous for my liking.

Wall mounted pencil sharpeners like this one. I was always afraid I’d somehow end up with my finger in the sharpener and it would sharpen my fingernail.

That never happened, but I did scrape my knuckles on the wall a few times when I cranked the handle too fast.

Whales. Even ‘cute’ beluga ones scared the crap out of me.

I agree about submarines. Like whales, something so big hovering under the water’s surface freaks me out.

Footage of ships sinking, especially that moment the last visible part slips beneath the water.

"Madonna Nude," by Lee Friedlander.

Having my hose cut and drifting off into space, like the scene in 2001.

R194 - That's exactly what I thought of watching from my 25th street rooftop as the second tower listed and sank below the other buildings on 9/11.

R179 if it’s dark outside and you’re in a room with light (even minimal) you won’t see anyone standing outside looking in.

Whatever you’d see in that window would be a reflection of someone inside with you.

[quote]Thinking about the Titanic (and other ships) at the bottom of the ocean just after sinking.

Anytime I drive at night next to water and it's totally dark, I think about the Titanic and all of the people just waiting in that blackness for help and knowing so many others had perished. Shivers down my spine.

R191 I thought that about the pencil sharpener sharpening my nail too as a kid. I got over it though when I realized it would in actuality mangle my finger. I think I was about 30.

[quote]I have no idea what we thought we were going to do with him but we were all hard wood at the time.

How has TIA! not been here yet to ask, "Pics, please!"

Telegrams!

Viacom's "V of Doom" is unsettling to many people, as is...

....the Screen Gems logo.

YouTube comment: [quote]The thing that is all evil. That logo TERRIFIED me and many others

The Asteroid Belt. What happened to the planet?? 😳

G.

For crissakes you dimwits. Footage of ships sinking under the waves, or shipwrecks at the bottom of the sea, are scary as fuck. That is INHERENTLY scary.

What is it you don't get about the thread topic?

Watching the collapse of the WTC is inherently scary. You twats! You are supposed to be scared. There is nothing uncanny about being scared when watching the WTC pancake.

Rosalind Russell as a nun

My parents took my twin brother and me to see “The Trouble with Angels” at a drive-in when we were three. We both shrieked in terror and we had to leave early.

To be fair, we HAD just come from a circus where we were terrified of the clowns.

We were easily frightened.

That stop-motion Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon terrified me when I was little.

I've never seen more than 5 minutes of it. I can feel my chest tightening as I think about it. Ridiculous but very real.

Traffic lights on a busy highway when I am a pedestrian. I live near one and not all the cars stop when the lights tell them too so sometimes my life is in danger.

[quote] I also hate uncovered windows after dark. I avoid looking towards them because I'm scared of seeing something out there looking back at me.

That's silly. What's the worst that could happen ?

Columbariums give me the chills. I plan on being cremated, but my ashes are not going in a creepy columbarium.

R198 You're not helping.

[r213] Please read [r207]

This is going to sound weird, but I don't like taking baths. Seeing my body/legs naked and lying under a tap make me feel very uncomfortable and vulnerable. It reminds me of bodies laying down on slabs in the dissection lab when I was a student.

Somehow nakedness is associated with death and sickness in my head, so I can be uncomfortable with naked people. It's okay if they're standing up or sitting down, but if they're lying down I might get randomly freaked out. I once shook awake someone who was just resting for a bit because of that. But partially undressed people are fine and very sexy.

OP again.

I'm realizing I had a lot of these strange fears during my childhood.

Another one I just remembered: one Thanksgiving my extended family stayed in a ski lodge. I was about seven. Our own cabin was furnished with a couple of large black faux-leather chairs on wheels. And something about their appearance freaked me out.

R216 I hope you're referring to med school (bodies on dissecting tables), but I also fear you are now a doctor.

Dear r215, bite me. Go nanny another thread. Hope you wind up in a super creepy spot for eternity. Love, r213.

Lakes. They have a creepy, sad quality, something between malaise and real danger. I don't like them.

I prefer my bodies of water moving for the most part. The few lakes that didn't strike me as sad/scary had a longer, narrow form and an irregular shape that made them more picturesque and they had some significant architectural features, not just some tatty lake cottages. Lake Como is an obvious example that fits the bill for me, but even then a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there (well, maybe a month.)

Watching a TV show or movie and a character is about to be humiliated. I have to leave the room or change the channel. I know that it's all pretend, but I can't take it.

The wind terrified me and my sister growing up. I've grown out of it and I hope she had also.

Posting on Datalounge the first time. No kidding! I had been coming here for years before I finally got up the courage to post, and my heart was beating so fast! That's probably related to some social anxieties though.

Marshmallow...absolutely sleeve me out. It's not the taste. It's the texture.

Being in a room full of little people...I've tried turning it into a sexual fantasy, but it won't work

bridges, especially really long ones.

R221 - You mean like Carrie and the bucket of blood scene?

[R226] Well, not quite that bad! Just a reluctance to speak up during meetings or spend time with large groups.

r227 I have a similar fear of Q&As after talks (in real life). I never ask a question myself, but I am utterly mortified someone is going to embarrass themselves in some way.

If I can, I try to escape before the questions come.

Talking in public. Honestly I'd rather go bungee jumping.

The leaves of some trees used to scare me. Also plants in general gave me the creeps.

Portable heaters, with their red glowing wires, scared me as a kid. Even the ones built into walls and ceilings. We had a fan/heater in our bathroom ceiling and I was afraid to walk under it if it was on. Even today I don't like portable heaters if I see the red glow.

As a kid, I would not eat Muenster cheese, because it was made by the Munsters.

To this day, I won't use stevia, because it is made by Stevie Nicks, who is a witch.

R181 and R200 I had that irrational fear that my finger might end up in the pencil sharpener too. Also, the garbage disposal. Ever since reading Firestarter and that terrible scene where the doctor commits suicide by jamming his arm into the garbage disposal...shudder.

R231 - as a kid we had a kerosene heater and it always made a big woosh when lit. The cat used to love to sit right in front it, hogging the warmth. But I never liked to get too close in case it blew up.

Screen Gems and Viacom are creepy - but the Mark VII sweaty Hammer Man really scared the crap out of me as a kid.

R208 - I didn't say the watching the collapse of tower two was "scary," it was obviously much more than that; but that as it was happening I thought it looked just like all those images sinking ocean liners. But thanks for monitoring the thread. R197

Driving through tunnels. Grew up in Pittsburgh, lots of tunnels. And bridges. I am regressed to scaredy cat child driving through tunnels and on long bridges.

I know it’s totally logical to be afraid of the devastation a nuclear bomb can make. But, I cannot see a picture/footage of a mushroom cloud without my heart racing and feeling woozy. Again, we should be afraid of nuclear war— totally normal and healthy, but I know most people can see a picture of a detonation without nearly fainting.

For a while I was scared a hand would come out of commode and grab me by my mussy while I was doing my thing.

You need a new thread, OP. No one is remotely paying attention to what you actually asked in the OP.

r238 I have a similar fear. I once watched footage of a hydrogen bomb test on YouTube.

It's probably the scariest thing I've ever seen

I'm afraid I'll get slapped for providing my important service as thread monitor.

Speaking of which R241 that makeshift abandoned town with the mannequins they tested the bomb in is creepy as fuck.

R243 the atom bomb test with live pigs was worse. The sounds they made when the bomb went off....

Eww, R244, had no idea. Poor piggies....did they die right away or just radiation?

[quote]the Mark VII sweaty Hammer. Man really scared the crap out of me as a kid.

R235 I had to leave the room before that came on screen, it terrified me so much! And even in the other room I'd put my hands over my ears so I couldn't hear the pounding.

R240 Get a grip. Start your own fucking thread if you don't like this one. Over 200 responders are sharing and enjoying it.

Hot Nazis scare me. Now who would be scared of a Nazi?

I'm afraid when I see trucks driving erratically. Did you ever in all you life hear of such a fear?

I'm scared of the rattlesnakes nesting under my deck. Silly of me, I know.

I'm kind of amused at the directions this thread has taken

OP, there are some truly obscure fears on here. They seem so specific until other posters recognize them and build on them. Who cares if some responders don't understand the 'inherent' part of your question. It's still a great thread.

This type of potato peeler. They made me afraid that I’d peel the skin off my hands.

I have peeled nail polish off with one of those and it made my blood run cold R253!!

The lighting, music, and physical look of movies and television shows that were filmed from the 1980s to circa 1997. The lighting looks wrong and off. The sound seems wrong. Everything just seems disturbing and strange. It has some sort of uncanny valley affect to me. For what it's worth I enjoy film from the early 1960s to late 1970s and find the cinematography and music very pleasing. But I can rarely watch films from 1980s to 90s, particularly the 80s.

I have often thought the same, R255. It's as though the films were being played and seen in an underwater cinema sometimes.

Here's a short thread from Reddit that offers some explanations of poor quality 1980s-1990s films.

sitting right next to strangers watching a movie in a theatre.. but I guess now that'll be a thing of the past.

It scares me how easily friends of the administration were able to get so much cash while millions of struggling families still haven’t received a dime.

The hedge funds had time to take the money and return it already. Can’t they used some of the money that was returned in shame (once the public caught light) to give to some struggling people?

Scary indeed!

R256 interesting. I had often wondered about that weird , faded quality to movies of that era

I have a few that other people have mentioned.

The one about deformities - they bring out an involuntary shudder in me, almost a spasm. It feels like something very weirdly primal. Hard to articulate the feeling.

Terror of being pushed under a subway train. I always hate standing near the edge of a platform. I always stay pinned to the wall. And I’m also terrified of seeing someone else fall / jump / get pushed in front of one too. As a kid once I saw some teenagers sitting on the edge of a platform dangling their legs over the side as a train came towards them, it really freaked me out, I almost had a fit begging my parents to do something about it. I was once assaulted as a kid (not sexually) a random guy just attacked me and that’s made me incredibly jumpy ever since, always worried people are coming up behind me to do me hard, but i guess that’s very understandable in the circumstances.

Anything touching me in the sea / fresh water. I have a bit of a phobia for fish. Those awful salons that were around about 10 years ago where lots of little fish were meant to nibble your dead skin off or something. I can’t think of anything worse. I have so many nightmares about eels and fish and stuff. I can’t even look at picture of fish, and those municipal ponds around fountains that have those gross koi carp in them…I can’t go near them.

The texture of dry cotton wool.

Multiple images in videos like this bit from Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

[quote]That stop-motion Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer cartoon terrified me when I was little.

That Christmas special also creeped me out- the elf, especially.

Stop motion in general scared me

This thread is better than a trip to a psychologist's office. Thank you, OP!

You're welcome r263!

R261 - it was the little chips of teeth in their triangular stop-motion mouthes that always unnerved me.

I'm terrified by the aspirations of the average Datalounger.

Going to sleep with any of my limbs hanging off the side of the bed.

The Boogey Man will chop them off.

R47 I've had that same fear since childhood and have recently read that it may be caused by obsessive compulsive disorder, which I have always had. It's a thinking disorder and the brain reacts in the opposite way as it should, making you feel an irrational urge to jump.

Geckos. My fear of those creepy lizards makes me think a hundred times before visiting any countries with hot climates.

R24 Sturgeon cannot bite people. They don't have teeth and are not aggressive.

Balconies from very tall apt buildings & hotels; I fear I’m going to spontaneously lose control of myself and jump over.

I’m a generally a very happy person & not suicidal. Why do I fear that I will do something as stupid as jump over? I don’t think I fear heights because I love tall buildings with floor to ceiling windows, airplanes (because I know I’m safe).

The seemingly irrational, but common urge to leap—half of respondents felt it in one survey—can be so disturbing that ruminators from Jean-Paul Sartre (in Being and Nothingness) to anonymous contributors in lengthy Reddit sub-threads have agonized about it. While the French philosopher saw a moment of Existentialist truth about the human freedom to choose to live or die, ramp_tram called it “F***king stupid” when he had to plaster himself to the far wall of a 14th-floor hotel atrium away from the balcony railing because “I was deathly afraid of somehow jumping off by accident.”

r272 there is a scene related to this phenomenon in the film The Vanishing (at least the original version; never saw the American remake).

The Pink Moon we experienced recently had me a bit freaked. It appeared as the setting sun when it's low in the horizon, only closer to the earth and brighter and larger. I'm sure many found ot beautiful, yet my brain perceived it as ominous, and unnatural. If this Pink Moon has been around before in the past fifty-one years, I had conveniently missed it.

R271 Same, but I also have the urge/fear of chucking out my phone or wallet from high places and bridges.

R102 and R109, I find a lot of my fellow GenXers have what I call "phone fear." I have it too and no real idea why, I talked to friends on the phone all the time in high school, but by college I hated calling for delivery or to make a customer service call, or having to make calls for school, anything like that. Being able to do online delivery orders has been a huge relief.

[quote]OMG what do I read these threads. And I swim every summer now in lakes.

I like how the guy who wrote this ^^^ gibberish is calling others "dimwits" and "twats."

With you OP, On a flight to Japan, the crew woke passengers up for a breakfast, and to prepare for descent. As I opened my eyes, the first thing I saw on the satellite map was the Mariana Trench. I’m an experienced flyer with little fear of flight, but to be confronted with the reality of how FAR above any solid ground the plane was, upon awakening, was unnerving to be sure.

When the Marine Band strikes up "Hail To The Chief ."

Many of the things in this thread being described as not inherently scary are in fact inherently scary.

A very related fear of mine: underwater volcanoes at ocean ridges.

r280 I don't think, realistically, one should be afraid of something so far removed as very deep ocean spaces or their corresponding volcanoes. It's kind of a moot fear -- never gonna see it in real life. And yet it terrifies me.

First, I don’t find heights, floor-to-ceiling windows, bridges (Pulaski Skyway, anyone?), lakes, or bugs to be “not inherently scary.”

[quote]Suburban sprawl. The worst are the DC suburbs. Just a never ending highway marked with ugly beige houses. Depressing, hideous, and soulless.

r87 Pittsburgh has a Rockville Pike equivalent, McKnight Road. It’s north of the city, like Rockville Pike, and leads to the same ugly beigeness, and the concomitant stores and restaurants of the chain variety. There’s always a moment when I forget I’m not in Montgomery County.

[quote] I have a very common fear of heights, but my more unique quirk is being disgusted by, and unable to eat off of, dishes and mugs that have a crack or chip in them.

I don’t want to—and have enough of everything that I don’t have to—eat from anything crazed, chipped, or cracked. It’s germy, and out it goes. But then I experience guilt that goes along the lines of “Would my uncle have minded chipped china if it meant he got to eat another meal in Dachau?” I have that issue around throwing out food, too, so I don’t overshop. I'm something of a compulsive non-overshopper, going to the store every two or three days rather than once a week.

[quote] Calling in an order for takeout.

Same here, r102 r109. I have never liked that, either. Equally unpleasant, and I had to do this last night, is using a fast-food drive-up window. I’ve been doing that during the corona, and I hate, hate, hate it. I literally had to scream my order last night at the Taco Bell loudspeaker last night.

[quote] Standing anywhere near the edge of a subway or train platform.

Very inherently scary. The 72nd Street IRT stop always terrified me. What if it suddenly got more than halfway full (as it usually did)? When I moved to 69th Street and could use the 66th Street stop instead, I was in heaven.

r154, I am not r147, but I once had a guy tell me he was going to die of leukemia in less than a year, so would I please not break up with him?

I don’t think anyone has mentioned this, but on a detective / cop show, I get terrified when both detectives go into some room that the bad guy could come up behind them and lock them into. I want to scream at them “No. One of you stay outside. Just in case.”

[quote] Driving through tunnels. Grew up in Pittsburgh, lots of tunnels. And bridges. I am regressed to scaredy cat child driving through tunnels and on long bridges.

Be very glad you didn’t grow up in North or Central Jersey. The Lincoln Tunnel and the Pulaski Skyway made me hate driving permanently. Plus Jersey barriers.

Geez. Now we have posters policing this thread to find a universal definition of "inherently scary"?

I think we've hit peak isolation.

R282 Great post. You put a lot of effort into commenting on other threads and adding some original thoughts. Thanks.

To those afraid of deformities ... when I was about seven, my mom and I went into a Macy's. The sales clerk who checked us out had a hook for a hand.

It terrified me.. I even remember the item that the hooked had touched -- a comforter in one of those zippered heavy plastic bags -- and became afraid of that bag in the closet by extension.

Fidgets!!

And Artie chokes.

The thought of skinned knees. Watching actors fall on concrete on TV or in the movies gives me the willies.

As a kid, I found Charlie Chaplin terrifying.

R276: I have zero problem like yours. Me I realize how easy it would be to scam people.

I have always had a weird fear of driving over hills. My heart will start racing, I'm emarrassed to say. Also, making left turns against oncoming traffic, lol. I always tell people I'll just make a few right turns and we'll get there fine anyway.

OP here.

I finally looked at pictures from Challenger Deep, Earth's lowest point -- about 6.7 miles below sea level. 35,000+ feet. For perspective, the Titanic wreck is at about 12,500 feet.

There are videos of it, but that's more than I can bear.

It's actually possible to visit Challenger Deep! I didn't know.

You know, the idea of going to space is scary but intriguing to me. I could see myself doing it (if only to orbit the Earth - but a moon landing could be fun too!)

There is absolutely nothing intriguing about free falling to the deepest point in the sea. The thought of something going wrong ...... NO.

[quote]R53 ... if I look up at the ceiling of a building and it's much higher than your usual house or apartment (in a theater, cathedral, etc.) it makes me feel like I'm going to start floating up to the ceiling and not be able to get down.

That’s because it really can happen.

Has happened, in fact.

A bunch of things..

Pangolins and armadilloes, because they look like giant insects

Things with nodules or raised holes

I can't let myself get too near the edge of a bridge or a cliff near the ocean, because it attracts me too much and I feel I might jump

Slugs

Something touching me in a lake or the ocean

Seeing someone with very bad psoriasis or acne

Fear of seeing dark, large bodies of water here. Google satellite photos have changed! If you zoom out on google maps with the satellite view, all of the big bodies of water are fake--it's reflecting the topography of the trough/ocean floor, not the actual satellite photos of the water. Still creepy, though. But I did find myself both relieved and disappointed to see it. Also, sad to see how much the Aral Sea has disappeared since the 1960s....but the darker parts of the water still look creepy!

Roaches

I don't mind spiders, oddball bugs, etc. but - ewww - roaches - freak me the hell out.

The Daily Fail ran an article on "5 Grim Ways To Die." Of course, "Falling to the bottom of the Mariana Trench" was one of them:

[quote]The Mariana Trench, the deepest known part of the Earth's oceans, lies between Japan to the north and Australia to the south and features depths in excess of 36,000 feet. 'If you sank to the bottom of the Mariana trench you would drown before you reached a crushing depth', said Dr Doherty. Humans are mostly water, which is incompressible. This means that you would retain your basic human shape. 'The air pockets inside you, namely in your nasal cavity, throat and chest, would be a problem. Those would collapse inward, which would fatal', said Dr Doherty. Your shrivelled body would not float to the surface as you would not have any air. 'You would likely stay at the bottom to be consumed by the Bone-eating snot flower, which usually eats whale bones but would probably make an exception in this case', said Dr Doherty.

Op That is disturbing.

Inspired by the Troy house thread, I will add living in a house with many empty rooms. It just creeps me out, rooms just sitting there furnished but empty.

The look of early 70s movies scare me because it reminds me of The Exorcist (1973)

r275 Yes! I sometimes have to grab my things tightly when walking over a bridge . to make sure I don't throw them into the water. Of coursre that too is uncomfortable because I am the danger after all.

I also once had the fear I might push a friend on the rails in front of an incoming train. I was slowly walking backwards from her and the rails feeling utterly creeped out.

Obviously juming and running into traffic urges….

I guess I'm more afraid of myself than others...

I have a strange fear of moths (not butterflies), although I know they're mostly harmless.

I don't know where this fear comes from, or how it all started but I can't stand staring at lighthouse lights. Image below sort of captures type of thing I hate. I also discovered I am terrified of being in caves.

The working class. Terrifying.

Mirrors in the dark. The dark specifically? No. Just add mirrors...and it's terrifying.

Praying mantises

r305 I once had a Chinese roommate who refused to have a mirror in his bedroom ... it's apparently some kind of omen

Long two lane bridges. I've only developed this fear in the last few years and I don't know where it comes from.

I get that, r308. Don't know why either.

When I was twelve I was scared to eat meat, especially steak. It repulsed me and I was obsessed with the idea it would give me tapeworms. I still rarely eat beef or pork except if it’s ground up.

R308, I share this fear, and I know where it comes from - from having been driven across the Lake Ponchartrain Causeway (your pic) as a very small child. It subsequently led to vivid nightmares about bridges, which I occasionally still have.

R266, somehow your pic reminded me of this:

I found out a couple nights ago that my dog fears the same things that, deep down, terrify me. When I take him out at night, we both stand there gazing off to the pitch black at the end of our street. Then in the side yard there’s an absolutely dark area between the giant burning bush euonymous and the neighbor’s board fence. It just seems creepy and the dog seems to thnk so too.

r313 you're completely right.

I have a very irrational fear of dragonflies. When I take my dog out on a (row) boat, she completely freaks out when she sees one (like me .... MARY!!!!). I know she picked it up from me.

Another example: several years ago, a guy showed up very early to start some remodeling work (like 6AM!). I obviously wasn't expecting him so early, and half-asleep put on a jacket to take the dog out. When I opened the front door, he was getting ready to knock. I jumped and probably screamed a little, before realizing who he was.

Well, my dog -- who is typically friendly (or at least aloof) with strangers -- started growling and half-barking. (She's a shiba inu.) I've never seen her react that way toward anyone -- I am convinced it's because she sensed my initial fear.

R314

Sorry r314 i stuck my neck out and typed number in to see what you said. I put you on ignore trying to ww you drunk one time and i never have gotten you back. I’ll try again.