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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

What is your most irrational fear?

183 replies

Frosty66612 · 12/05/2018 09:23

And could you deal with it if you absolutely had to? Mine is spiders and I have had full blown panic attacks over them before. There was a huge wolf spider in my living room earlier and I had to deal with it as my young niece was terrified and crying. Psyching myself up to put a bowl over it was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. Haha reading that back sounds barmy but it’s amazing how much a true phobia can affect you. My OH’s is heights and he said if it was a life or death situation and he had to jump out of a plane or do a bungee jump he’d rather just die

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SerenDippitty · 12/05/2018 09:30

Swimming out of my depth, whether in a pool or the sea.

Mammyloveswine · 12/05/2018 09:34

Omg whats a wolf spider??

Mine is burning to death or being in one of those traps from 'saw'. Not entirely irrational apart from how unlikely both are to really happen, but the burning one just terrifies me! I think about it when in the car or especially when in a plane after watching "final destination". I think about how much you would "know" if in a plane crash whereby the plane explodes or a car suddenly bursts into flames... it really disturbs me!

We flew over the alps about a week after the pilot crashed that plane and all I could think about was those poor passengers and what they must have been thinking. Just horrific.

user1497991628 · 12/05/2018 09:34

Getting into my car at night and someone being in the back seat.....

jaseyraex · 12/05/2018 09:35

Mines is also spiders and I can't really deal with them if I come across one. At the very most I can place a cup or bowl over them if they're not too big and leave it there until DH gets home to put it outside, the thought of sliding something underneath it just gives me the fear. I've really really tried to do it myself but they send me in to full blown anxiety attacks which I know is ridiculous. We've got one of those spider catcher stick things too but I can't use it, I always have visions of me missing the spider and it climbing up the stick on to me! I did the arachnophobia course at Edinburgh zoo last year but it didn't help at all. It actually really gets me down because I don't want to pass the irrational fear on to the kids.

Idontbelieveinthemoon · 12/05/2018 09:36

I honestly don't think I'm afraid of much. I do occasionally panic when the DCs are elsewhere about what might happen, but spiders, flying and other irrational fears don't bother me.

I never watch horror films, though, so maybe I've just never filled my own head with scary stuff so have only kittens, mittens and cocktails inside my brain.

Original poster
Frosty66612 · 12/05/2018 09:38

@jasey I have a spider catcher too and will never use it. I’ve watched my OH use it and he was struggling to get the spider as it was running around fast. I’m also terrified it will run up the stick towards me. It’s such a horrible phobia to have as ones like flying etc can be controlled to a certain degree by just not going on a plane, but with spiders you never know when you might see one at any moment.
I also have a phobia of flying and have warched too many episodes of air crash investigation (I don’t know why I do it to myself but I have a morbid fascination). It must be the most terrifying experience ever to know that the plane you’re on is definitely going to crash

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Barbaro · 12/05/2018 09:42

Being sick, like vomiting. I can't handle it, I was sick quite a lot as a kid and just gained a fear over it.

Mammyloveswine · 12/05/2018 09:43

I held a tarantula skin once and almost had a heart attack... I did hold the actual tarantula too but it was more "animal like" and didnt "scurry" around! Don't like spiders but am better since having DC!

Canwejustrelaxnow · 12/05/2018 09:45

Anaphylactic shock. I think I'm going to have one maybe hourly. I have to tell myself it's just anxiety.

MyDobermanIsABeaut1 · 12/05/2018 09:45

Moths and butterflies, I am absolutely terrified of them. I have had panic attacks, thrown up, hid in rooms in the house until DH is home to remove any from the house. Luckily DD1 is tall enough now to be able to catch them for me and pop them outside.

Right now I am gearing myself up for a day out in the countryside with my friend and trying to be calm about butterflies that I know I will encounter.

TerfsUp · 12/05/2018 09:48

I am afraid the bottom will fall out of a crowded bus and I will be dragged along the road, screaming, while all of my skin is scraped and burnt off.

Original poster
Frosty66612 · 12/05/2018 09:48

@mydoberman I went inside a butterfly house at the zoo once and my OH thought I was insane with how much I was panicking. I like to look at them from afar but having the big ones flying around next to my face was giving me major fear. I think I’m just terrified of all insects in general

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Pleasedontdrawonyoursister · 12/05/2018 09:49

Balloons, I’m terrified! People think it’s hilarious but it’s really not. I took my daughter to a party recently and we had to leave after 10 mins as I was in tears (there were bloody hundreds)!

WakeUpSlow · 12/05/2018 09:51

I'm scared of heights but have worked around that in the past and coped when I've needed to.

Really terrified of a big lorry or vehicle falling over sideways and squishing me after I heard about that happening to someone. I still walk and drive but pretty much hold my breath when anything bigger than a van goes past. Not really sure what to do about that one.

User12879923378 · 12/05/2018 09:51

These threads always introduce me to new and exciting phobias that I hadn't thought of before Grin

Spiders and daddy-long-legses are mine. Am very aware that I got it from my mum so really try to sit on it around my daughter but it's hard. (Not sure why I didn't inherit Dad's complete indifference to them.)

userabcname · 12/05/2018 09:52

Snakes! I frequently have nightmares about them. I thought it was a totally irrational phobia, as obviously in the UK snakes are hardly a day-to-day issue, but then my mum told me when I was little and we lived abroad that there were snakes nesting under our stairs! So now I wonder if I encountered them as a tot, hence my fear now!

Mammyloveswine · 12/05/2018 09:52

Omg Terfsup I was once walking over a huge famous bridge and then panicked that it would collapse beneath me and i (along with the double pram) would fall.into the river below. I then started panicking about the weight of the pram and if I'd able to save either of my boys (baby and toddler). Was just awful... I practically ran across that bridge!

MissionItsPossible · 12/05/2018 09:53

Space. I have recurring nightmares where I'm somewhere and all of a sudden I'm pulled into the air and everything becomes smaller until i can see the whole country and then the seas and other countries until finally I can see the whole earth and i'm all alone and it's silent and dark. I blame Google Earth for that one because someone did exactly that from my house clicking the 'zoom out' option and I don't think i had that nightmare before that (though i had the irrational fear of Space from when I was a child). That skydive that astronaut did from Space made me feel a bit sick watching it but I had to because I didn't possibly believe it to be as it was reported.

purplelila2 · 12/05/2018 09:54

moths, dentists and dying🙁

MissionItsPossible · 12/05/2018 09:55

Can someone please tell me what a wolf spider is WITHOUT pictures or a video?

Mammyloveswine · 12/05/2018 09:56

I also don't like the idea of being in space... or in the depths of the ocean.

God I sound like a right wuss! I also "hold the bags and coats" at theme parks... hate that churned up tummy feeling on rollercoasters! Probably why the thought of being in a rocket to.space fills me with dread...

vampirethriller · 12/05/2018 09:58

Something collapsing on me. I can't go under the bed for example, don't like tunnels. The tube is ok as long as I don't think about what's over me, except at night when I'd rather get the bus because I don't like going down there when its dark.

TerfsUp · 12/05/2018 09:58

Mammyloveswine, thank goodness I am not the only one with a weird irrational fear of something collapsing due to weight! Glad to hear you and yours got across the bridge without incident.

These threads always introduce me to new and exciting phobias that I hadn't thought of before

I love that comment.

Original poster
Frosty66612 · 12/05/2018 09:59

@mission they are the really big black spiders you get in this country. Think they are the biggest ones we have in the UK. This one was the size of the palm of my hand and moved really fast. I was drenched in sweat and if my niece hadn’t been there i’d Have been hysterically crying

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Original poster
Frosty66612 · 12/05/2018 10:01

@vampire I once had to go caving as a child as part of a school adventure week. we had to crawl through tunnels in the caves in the dark that I could only just fit into (as a skinny 9 year old) and I have never felt so claustrophobic in my life with someone in front of me and behind me. NEVER AGAIN

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