Irrational fears

[chris128]

I hate spiders. I dont mind any other type of creepy crawly - just spiders I am absolutely sh*t scared of its so annoying because its not as if I am scared they are going to hurt me or anything, they just freak me out. I just spent over 15 minutes trying to work up the courage to walk past one that was sat in my door way and in the end I resorted to throwing things at it until it ran behind a box and now I'm constantly looking at the box in case it runs out again. It does my head in being this bothered about a tiny harmless thing but there's absolutely nothing I can do to stop myself being scared of them!

So... what irrational fears do you guys have?

[Shaggy Hiker]

I've always found the square root of two to be fearsome.

[dee-u]

I hate heights, I once went to this very tall building and I thought it was moving. I love spiders though, those ones found in the farm, we let them fight each other on a stick.

[si_the_geek]

I remember someone being extremely scared of being the third person to have their cigarette lit, because they had heard at some point that it was very bad luck - even tho they didn't know why.

In a way there was truth in it, which is why the saying got started, but it certainly isn't rational to be scared of it these days... early in the first world war a large amount of soldiers killed by sniper fire were the third (or fourth, etc) to have their cigarette lit - because the sniper would see a flash as the first was lit (and get ready to fire roughly in that direction), as the second was lit they would get a reasonable aim, and as the third was being lit they would be able to take the shot.

[chris128]

ha thats quite interesting, and yet more proof that smoking kills

[Shaggy Hiker]

Apparently a third-hand smoke is even worse than second-hand smoke.

[JuggaloBrotha]

I'm not a fan of heights. I once went on this sky ride thing in Australia where it takes you up a mountain (about 20 feet above the trees, which are 50 ft tall trees). Yea, needed a xanax afterwords to calm down again. Not a pleasant experience.

[chris128]

Yeah but being scared of heights isnt really irrational - its scary being up high because you know there is a chance (albeit a very small chance in most cases) that you could fall and die. I didnt think I was that bothered about heights until the other day at work I had to climb up this ladder... now the ladder wasnt really that high, probably about 1 story of a building, but it was a vertical ladder rather than one at an angle leaning against something. It was scary as hell by the time I got near the top and coming down was even worse!

[JuggaloBrotha]

We've got a 200foot and a 150foot elevator leg (for lifting corn & beans) and all they have is the vertical ladder with the fall cage. Yea, I don't plan to ever go up one of those, I'll go up maybe 20 feet but that's it.

[techgnome]

I've got burned out bulbs and smoke detectors missing because I can't get more than 3 feet off the gournd to fix them. I've been in this house 12 years.... never cleaned out the gutters. I onces visited the John Handcock building in Chicago. The 96th floor is the observation level, even with all the glass and rails, I couldn't get myself to go up to the windows to look out. There's a fine line between a healthy fear of heights and an irrational... Mine definitely falls into irrational.

-tg

[MartinLiss]

Many years ago I was out hiking with my kids at, I believe, Yosemite and we came to this place where we had to walk on a short, open grate, bridge to cross over the top of a waterfall. My kids happily walked right across but I couldn't do it. Really embarrassing.

[EntityX]

Being scared of spiders isn't completely irrational because some spiders are poisonous. Black Widow bites will almost never kill an adult though they can kill small children and they could make you very sick for a time. There are other spiders whose bite will kill an adult so it isn't completely irrational. I'm not too much scared of spiders but the really big ones tend to get me more. I saw a rather large tarantula a couple years back when I was taking a walk near my desert home. Not something I would be comfortable having crawl around on me.

Back when I was building my home in the 90s I put my garage up first which is separate from my dome home. I was taking a nap in my garage during the day lying on top of my sleeping bag. When I woke up there was a snake right next to me. I don't think it was poisonous but it was of a good size and gave me a good waking up shock.

[TheBigB]

Well in Europe there is a very slight chance of finding such spiders.

[MartinLiss]

Well in Europe there is a very slight chance of finding such spiders.

Don't be so sure.

[chris128]

Yeah but not really in the UK as its too damp and cold for most of them. Anyway like I said I'm not scared of them because I think they will hurt me, I'm just scared of them... for no real reason! I dont mind really small ones but any that are bigger than a pound coin I cant even look at without feeling very uncomfortable and scared. Like I cant even stand watching them on TV or seeing pictures of them.

[MartinLiss]

I've got a movie for you to watch. It's from the 50's (?) and it's called Them. It's about giant spiders so big they can crush people.

[chris128]

haha I think I'll pass on that one Surprisingly I've never watched Arachnophobia either :P

[Shaggy Hiker]

Spiders that large are impossible, but if they did exist, they would be highly valuable. I remember hearing a talk by somebody who pointed out that the only known substance strong enough to form the exoskeleton of such an insect (or arachnid, in this case) would be diamond. Exoskeletons are effective when the volume of the animal is very small, but once volume starts getting large enough, the exoskeleton is no longer an effective support structure, since the mass is roughly increasing by the cube of the length of the animal.

[MartinLiss]

I guess this goes under the category of why would anyone do that?

[baja_yu]

I guess this goes under the category of why would anyone do that?

I had six at one point, now I just have one. They're as good a pet as any.

[penagate]

I have a phobia of making telephone calls, but I don't mind receiving them.

[whythetorment]

I have a phobia of making telephone calls, but I don't mind receiving them.

Same here. I hate it when someone asks me to make a phone call. I would rather send them a text message, or avoid making a phone call all together. Or I'll get someone else to phone the person for me

[dbasnett]

Yeah but being scared of heights isnt really irrational - its scary being up high because you know there is a chance (albeit a very small chance in most cases) that you could fall and die. I didnt think I was that bothered about heights until the other day at work I had to climb up this ladder... now the ladder wasnt really that high, probably about 1 story of a building, but it was a vertical ladder rather than one at an angle leaning against something. It was scary as hell by the time I got near the top and coming down was even worse!

I was never afraid of heights until I took a fall from a two story building. Since then I can't even watch the look over the edge scenes in movies / tv.

Isn't fear often a learned behavior?

[abhijit]

I was never afraid of heights until I took a fall from a two story building. Since then I can't even watch the look over the edge scenes in movies / tv.

Isn't fear often a learned behavior?

I used to be fearful of heights, till I started hiking at the age of 12.
There are some beautiful views out there and most of them can only be seen from the top of a mountain. The desire to see the view overrides my fear of heights. Once I have seen the view, I am usually shaking with fear for while, wondering "Did I really do that?". I have been on a more than few rock-climbing outings and they were all exciting.

[MartinLiss]

I'm afraid of heights but my wife and I recently went to Costa Rica and while there we did a series of 10(?) zip lines above the cloud forest. Let me tell you it was pretty scarry stepping off of the platforms to start each run.

[FunkyDexter]

I have quite a bad fear of heights which is part of why I took up rock climbing (nice to hear you're a fellow climber Abhijit). I wanted to face the fear in the hopes that I'd overcome it. The funny thing is, I'm now pretty comfortable climbing because I'm roped in but I still get jittery walking along high paths. We were climbing up near Snowdon (not on the actual mountain but some of the crags that surround it) a month or so back and climb was fine. But when I got to the top and had to walk back down the paths I had to crawl on my hands and knees at times because I just couldn't bring myself to stand up. Meanwhile all my mates were blithely skipping along and making me look stupid. And some of them were GIRLS! Oh, the humiliation.

Oh, does a fear of rejection count?

[abhijit]

If you walk erect, you'll never fall. Do not slouch your shoulders or bend. that's a trick I learned from the tribal people.

[Shaggy Hiker]

If you walk erect, you'll never fall. Do not slouch your shoulders or bend. that's a trick I learned from the tribal people.

...of Pennsylvania??? I think those are called the Amish.

[abhijit]

...of Pennsylvania??? I think those are called the Amish.

I was referring to Sahaydri

[demotivater]

I have a fear of clowns and midgets. Midget clowns are half as tall and twice as bad. However, neither fear is irrational, totally makes sense.

[minitech]

I'm afraid of other people.


...



No, actually I'm just afraid of bugs landing on me. Whenever I'm outdoors, I'll be randomly swatting my arms and legs. Especially in slightly windy weather.

[oceanebelle]

I have a fear of Dolls.

I don't mind seeing them in scary movies but I can't be alone in a room with one of them specially the big bright eyes variety with mobile lids...

I don't understand how people find them so cute. I just think they are a menace to society and should be burned! Burned!