Is there something completely “normal” and everyday that gives you the chills for no apparent reason?

[Dontate]

Whenever I hear the jingle from an ice cream van I get that horrible swoosh of anxiety but I just got a particularly bad one!

I was upstairs, with all the windows open, when I heard a jingle which sounded extraordinarily loud and sort of echoey. It really sent shivers down my spine and made me feel very on edge.

Is there anything relatively “everyday” which sets you off?

Egg yolk!!

Large pieces of meat uncooked or cooked. Dan Walker just tweeted a video of a huge brisket and the weird fatty matter and flesh when it's carved open, I just cannot deal with it and the vision of it literally won't get out of my head, it's making me cringe now so badly writing about it.

Dolls and clowns really give me the creeps!

Anybody swinging too high on a swing. I get panicky and have to turn away

Hand driers that just dribble out warm air. Give me the really strong whooshy ones any time.

Wind turbines. It's something about the size versus speed of the blades turning.

Hot water bottles. That thick rubber bleurgh.

Also those Annie first aid dolls. I don’t mind the creepy doll but that horrid rubber face….

Anchors. The bigger they are the scarier- I hate it when they are used as decoration in harbours etc.

Flour or very fine sand - the feeling of it on my skin is intolerable.

@Keepyourdistance000

That terrifying bridge over the Thames which has the railway line running next to it - Jubilee Bridge I think...had a terrible panic attack on it when DH and I had to walk over it.

Hungerford Bridge? Between Waterloo East and Charing Cross.

Toilets with overhead cisterns. Pure dread. Worse the taller they are, worse still if there is a row of them. I am not sure why but I am so scared of them. I have nightmares about them.

There's something about the sky when it is about to rain. If I am outside I can smell the rain, the sky is grey and it all feels very oppressive. My chest feels heavy and It makes me feel so anxious. No idea why. I'm fine inside or at night it's just outside during the day.

Eggs, especially if poached I can't look at them

Ketchup

Certain foods touching other foods, especially runny food touching chips e.g. beans on chips, curry touching chips which is why I never used to go in the staff canteen where I used to work as I couldn't look at people eating touching foods

Not sure how to describe it exactly but things in deep, dark water. Like when snorkelling off a jetty on holiday, there were these huge chains coming off the jetty which disappeared into the deep and made clanking noises, and they proper shit me up.

Maybe it has something to do with when I was little our local swimming pool had a wave machine in the deep end. You couldn't see it, just a big dark hole with bars across it. That had a similar effect on me. I was convinced that a shark lived in there. I've since found out that a lot of people independently had the same fear.

Any quiet repetitive beep (eg distant truck reversing, that sort of thing - or sometimes on telly) - I immediately think it's the 'warning' beeps from my DC's breathing monitor and the panic kicks in.

Mickey Rourke (pre plastic surgery) and Morten Harket make my blood run cold. I get a REALLY bad vibe looking at them, it's deeply disturbing

@Gingernaut

Walking down a street with no shops, houses, little street furniture, trees or shelter.

Think industrial estates, business parks and commercial city centres of endless office blocks.

Even in the middle of the day, these places seem soulless, inhospitable and bleak.

Agree!

22:33squashyhat

Keepyourdistance000

That terrifying bridge over the Thames which has the railway line running next to it - Jubilee Bridge I think...had a terrible panic attack on it when DH and I had to walk over it.

Hungerford Bridge? Between Waterloo East and Charing Cross.

Yes, that's the one!

@Physnicall

Starlings. Their feathers 😳

Had one stuck in my kitchen last week 😭😭😭😭

I was reading this whole thread thinking how same I was not to have any of these weird phobias.

Then I saw someone said cats.

I fucking hate cats.

We used to have a large atlas, Readers Digest, I think, that had a couple of pages with the Solar System at the beginning. Looking at the planets against the vast black background used to completely freak me out. I once looked at the moon through binoculars and got the shakes and had to hold onto something. Also, vast expanses of sea on the atlas pages with maps of countries. If I zoom out on Google Maps to see expanses of sea, I get the same queasy, slightly panicky feeling. I think it's the vastness.

That, and people rubbing their eyebrows in the wrong direction (i.e., against the direction of hair growth).

People who lick yogurt pot lids 😫

Bouncy castles, I almost have a panic attack when I see one.

Still escalators gives me the creeps.

Having a hot drink in a glass mug. Just something so wrong about it.
Also drinking a cold drink from any kind of mug. Maybe I just don’t like mugs.

I also hate the feeling of food on my hands, like for example scraping a plate and some catches on my fingers, it makes me want to vom

Someone saying 'you're doing really well'. Has some sinister connotations for me and it fills me with dread.

Wet rooms make me want to heave

And public swimming pools