Fear, what are you afraid of?

[SWM]

a couple of days ago as i was drifting of to sleep, my girlfriend came rushing in to the bedroom all flustered with her toothbrush in her mouth garbling something about the bathroom.

when i went to see, i found there was a spider in the sink which she had not noticed until she went to spit her toothpaste out. this was a fair size spider for England, we dont have the monsterous creatures that other parts of the world have for spiders, but it was enough to scare my girl into not using the sink for a while. later i went and flicked the spider into the bath thinking that i will move it soon as i get a chance. the spider stayed there for a few days until i eventually moved it this morning.

so all this has got me thinking about fear and phobias. fear will stop people from doing things they really want to do, perhaps routine things, or ambitions or plans that cannot be acted on because of fears. yet when we overcome our fears and face upto challenges that is when we feel the greatest success.

so i was wondering a what other people fear and what it prevents them from doing.

or if you have any stories about being afraid.

[ellion]

I am afraid of being alone.

I had a lonely childhood and as a teenager I never felt like I fitted in, when I grew up and became more confident about myself I started to make friends and go out with girls. When I think about how awful it felt to be alone I never want to feel like that again. This fear does not prevent me from living my life fully but it does mean that I value all my relationships and only when I feel those relationhsips are threatend do I feel the panic and confusion that this fear provokes in me.

Sad arent I?

[jasonxxx102]

I am very afraid of Poisinous Spiders, and Scorpions. I would hate to be stung by one of them I get scared seeing them on TV

[daftcow]

i am afraid of being alone.

i had a lonely childhood and as a teenager i never felt like i fitted in, when i grew up and became more confident about myself i started to make friends and go out with girls. when i think about how awful it felt to be alone i never want to feel like that again. this fear does not prevent me from living my life fully but it does mean that i value all my relationships and only when i feel those relationhsips are threatend do i feel the panic and confusion that this fear provokes in me.

sad arent i?

I feel the same as you. I didnt have many friends growing up, I never fitted in at school. Im terrified of losing friends so when I think Ive annoyed them I feel sick and panic and I sweat till I find out what theyve got to say.

[illini1]

I'm afraid of being afraid.

(Kidding)

Snakes are the absolute worst for me. Spiders are a close second.

[daftcow]

I'm afraid of being afraid.

(Kidding)

Snakes are the absolute worst for me. Spiders are a close second.

Ahhh snakes. I cant even look at a snake on tv or in a book without wanting to throw up. They terrify me.

[Turion]

it is funny to think how humans have so much power, self control and awareness and yet get frightened by smaller, weaker creatures.

one thing that totally freaks me out, is wasps.

[ichkoguy]

Phobias depend upon the individual. Recently here in my locality there have been series of killing about 10 people in one month of time. All of them have been murdered in the same way. The police had no clue about the killings and this incident happened in my own locality. So please became afraid and have decided that a psycho is doing such things. So we do not mostly come out alone during the night time. I personally do not go out. Like this, phobias differ from each and it may also be due to the circumstances.

[cognitive]

I used to be afraid of dogs because one has bitten me when I was a very charming and clever little girl , while in my neighbors yard where I have gone to boast about finishing the school year first in
my classroom .
Since then I have been afraid of dogs AND  of being the first  in school 
Several years ago I have adopted a little dog , a dalmatian , whom I loved very much after he started to kiss me on the cheeks first thing in the morning .
I gave him away to some relatives though cos I couldn't take care of him any longer .Don't ask me why .
Anyway, now I am not afraid anymore of dogs , this is the point .

[SWM]

"a fear of finishing first in school" lmao.

me too, thats exactly why i avoid doing my assignments.

[Patrickmeister]

My greatest fear is the injustice of the world, how, as perfect as the world seems, it tends to betray people at the least convenient times.

[grasshopper]

Generally, fears grow and multiply in direct proportion to the number of traumatic incidents one has witnessed or experienced.  Combat veterans fight the urge to dive for cover every time a car backfires within earshot, abused chilldren often grow into distrustful and wary adults, and a cowering house pet is almost certainly one that has been mistreated in the past.

Personally, I live in a hot climate, and having been held at gunpoint here by robbers dressed in three-piece suits, alarms go off in my mind whenever I see a man or men dressed that way despite the heat. Also, having once been the quarry in a high speed vehicular chase by car-jackers,  I get very nervous if I notice the same vehicle in my rearview mirror for too long, or if  the driver of the car directly in front of me seems to be paying too much attention to his rearview mirror. 

The line between irrational fears and a healthy survival instinct can become blurred, yet I would still rather anticipate the worst, and have it not happen, than live under a blissful but false sense of security which is liable to shatter in the face of omnipresent perils that can materialize in a heartbeat.

[Vortex]

it is funny to think how humans have so much power, self control and awareness and yet get frightened by smaller, weaker creatures.

Heh, don't underestimate the threat. Some of the most dangerous things out there are small and not irrational at all to fear them. Which brings me to some of my fears....

Insects: I dont like the thought of insects being on me. I remember having to crawl under a trailer at work to fix it's ductwork. I could see al the webbing and had to get through them. In the SW USA we have brown recluse spiders which are extremely dangerous and very small, as well as black widows. Only reason i agreed was because it was cold and they are very inactive during those times. Regardless, afterwards I informed them I would never do that again under any circumstances.

A friend of mine had an earache and when he went to the doctor he discovered a cockroach had crawled inside when it was young, ate earwax to survive and had grown so large they had to take it out in peices.... YIKES! You would think he would've noticed a sensation when it was moving around all that time but he said he never did.

Parasites: I've read up on parasite and they really bother me. It's amazing the variety and their unusal life cycles. Some of the most fascinating and scary are those that can alter the mind of their host to do certain things. Take the fluke for instance (can't recall the exact variety). An infected ant will be influenced to crawl to the top of a blade of grass in the morning (unual for an ant) and then the parasite will cause the ant to latch on with its mandables. This is so a bird will eat it furthering its life cycle. IF the ant doesnt get eaten the parasite will release its control allowing the ant to go about its normal survival routine til the next morning where this is repeated. Tell me that isnt bizarre.

I wonder how long til a parasite develops methods of influencing a human host? Hope i'm not freaking anyone out

Ps- what's up with this forum? Once the message gets to the bottom of the default box it keeps bumping back up and you cant see what you're typing. Prolly not an issue for those that are typists but i am still a chicken peck typist

[Patrickmeister]

its not probably a forum-issue, it is most likely a computer issue on your part...

[SWM]

the problem with the message box is most likely caused by your browser.

in firefox when you get to the end of the message box the box tracks your typing and you can scroll back through.

in google chrome you can do the same but you can also stretch the box to make it as big as you need.

[Vortex]

Ah thanks, make sense as I am having some minor issues in other things on this system

[Sasha]

I'm afraid of getting old.

[Vortex]

Ya know, getting old isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I'm almost 50, not exactly old but I thought it was when I was younger. Main thing is lower energy levels and the body isn't quite as durable as when younger. It doesn't repair as quickly. Not sure how it'll be at 60 - 70 but i'm not as worried about it as i use to be. On the up side, you do gain more wisdom.