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?

When forks get tangled together in the drawer. Actually, when any other cutlery gets stuck in the prongs of a fork, or of someone puts their knife into the prongs of their fork when they've finished eating.

When I was a child we had a dishwasher with a basket for cutlery, and I was happy to unload everything apart from that, because of the tangled forks! When we got our current dishwasher, I insisted we had one with a cutlery tray, where nothing can get tangled.

Also, as per a PP, tourniquets. Even the word makes me shudder. I was terrified of blood tests because of them - needles don't bother me but the thought of that strap around my arm... How I got through having 2 DC and multiple blood tests I'll never know, but it's sort of reduced the fear a bit.

Walking on a wooden bridge and seeing the sea (like on a pier) or river through the slats - nopety nope.

Plasters. On fingers, on the floor, stuck to shoes, on the side of the bath, in the bathroom bin. Just no. And I cannot stand rag rugs because they look like a collection of coloured plasters.

Cats: don't trust them not to attack me, and if you pick one up they're so bony and bendy shiver> very very sorry to all cat lovers, I'm sure all your pets are lovely, cats just give me the willies.

I love travelling but the idea of going to a country with a different alphabet makes me nervous, which is absolutely insane because I can't read Icelandic any easier than I can Thai just because the letters in the alphabet.
The names John and James they make my teeth itch.
Organised fun the whole "I can't hear you" or "how are you doing Inverness" thing god that makes me irrationally annoyed and I don't enjoy the show!

The big very old fashioned vacuum cleaners - skinny, but then bag inflates when you turn it on, and the bottom of it like a hammer head shark. LOUD roaring bloody thing.

My nan had a dark red one when i was a kid and i was fucking terrified of it. You don't see them any more. Thank god!

Knives scratching on Denby style pottery.
Microfibre cloths that “click” onto my rough hands.
The fear of swishing around in dirty dishwater and getting cut by a random sharp knife.

Cleft chins. They give me the heebie jeebies.

Going to the theatre I love watching a show but have a ridiculous fear of being pulled up on stage. I blame panto for it as I used to be terrified they would speak to me as a child.

Theme park/ funfair rides. I feel an intense panic even if someone asks me to go on a kids ride. I’ve been known to lose the plot when people try to drag me onto one.

Ooh anther one or two I have, when I press on the scourer too strong and it feels funny on my fingers!

I cut my nail too short so it was fleshy and my dog stabbed her claw into it, the biggest fear to make me go cold and it actually happened

Writing with a pencil.

The sound of milk floats when they start back up again.

This thread is making me feel much more normal, thanks @Dontate

Furniture that looks like it might scuttle across the floor when you're not watching. Door handles that look alive (some mixer taps fall into that category too - DH knows to steer me carefully around DIY shops!)

Brown Austin Allegros.

Oh and polystyrene! The sound it makes when it's being removed from or put back into a cardboard box, omfg. Evil stuff.

@bringincrazyback

The National Anthem. embarrassed The drum roll at the beginning makes me go all cold inside and I have no idea why.

I can trace it back to when I was about 10 (back in the days when the TV had 'closedown', lol) and feeling really anxious, on the odd occasions I was allowed to stay up that late, that I had to get out of the room before the programmes ended and the National Anthem started up. But I've no idea why it scared me then either.

Also when I was about that age, newsreaders' facial expressions as they delivered the news (really steely and grim, not fairly relaxed like they are now) used to scare me, and occasionally something will trigger that feeling in me even now. Last night I watched something that recapped on Princess Diana's death, and Dermot Murnaghan's face as he announced it gave me a split-second flashback to that feeling.

I feel the same! It makes me think of the death March only it’s ten times worse.

I don't like floor to ceiling glass walls. I once had to give a presentation on the 20th floor of Centrepoint and it terrified me. Even though I was about 4 metres away from the glass wall, I had to take my high heels off in case I tripped and fell into the window and out of the building.

Completely irrational.

Long nails on myself. I can't bear them when they get too long, I feel really uncomfortable and have to cut them asap. Unfortunately my nails grow really fast, too.

I don't mind them on other people, though.

The mention of ice cream vans reminds me that I always feeling uncomfortable hearing 'Greensleeves'! I can't think of any bad association though.

Cling film.
Dolphins

Balloons - I think this stems from birthday parties as a child when you never knew when somebody was going to suddenly pop one.

Sandpaper and other rough textures.

As a child - drive through car washes. They petrified me. It's he way the rollers cover up the windows and it gets dark inside the car. And the way the water covers the windows used to make me worry the car might fill with water.

Listening to the phone ring, especially on the other end of the line while I wait for someone to pick up. Makes me anxious.

Cannot walk through a field of cows or horses on my own (fine if I’m with others who are confident, have never been kicked/bitten/trampled etc).

Thinking about seals if I’m sea swimming on my own. I have to not let myself.

Empty hospital corridors.
Little doors in attic rooms to access the rest of the loft space.

Coat hangers - the wire ones. Hate them.

Dontate
I’ve just remembered as well that, when I was a small child, the village my grandma lived in still used the old air raid siren. I’m not sure what for (this was the early 70’s so not used for actual air raids). I can vividly remember the feeling that hearing that siren gave meseries

Was there a quarry near the village? Our quarries use this - you get immune to them after a while.

The sound of clicky stilettos or high heels on a hard floor amplifying as they come closer and closer makes me panicky and anxious.

I also went through a stage where I got rid of all my horror books, like Stephen King books. They suddenly felt like an ominous presence in my flat.
I also wouldn't be comfortable with paintings of people because of the eyes.

Theme tune to Casualty