What is your most irrational fear?

[Frosty66612]

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

Mice

I am getting better but they still terrify me. Not so much the animals themselves (which I can objectively see are sort of cute) just the fear of one running around in my space. I get terrified that one will run over my feet or come into my bed while I’m sleeping.

When I saw one in my flat last year I had my first ever proper, full-on panic attack. I’ve never experienced anything like it. We went out on a late-night search for mouse traps and when we were walking back to the flat I started shaking so badly that I couldn’t even walk. I nearly collapsed. It was awful.

I did see one again a few months later and that time I managed to stay a bit calmer but it was a huge effort! It gave me hope that maybe I can get it under control, though.

Although I’ve freaked myself out typing this and had to leave the living room (which is where they occasionally appear) and put slippers on my bare feet

Being buried alive, in a coffin, so far underground nobody can hear me scream.shock

Me too. I've told DH that if I die he has to double/triple check I'm actually dead before they bury me.

I honestly don't mean any offence to anyone by this one but it's terrifying for me...Mine is dwarves... absolutely terrified of them.. have been know to cry when I've been in the same room as them... my whole body rattles with fear... can't explain why or how I have that fear..

It's spiders for me too.
I can't cope with them without having palpitations, dizziness and severe physical weakness. That's for small ones. A big one would probably kill me and I'm not sure I'm kidding at all.

Bravado in front of others took hold of me once and I minutely stroked a tarantula my nephew had. The memory makes me nauseous.

I had to sleep in a bedroom over the room where it lived in a small tank and I was freaking out all night that it was going to escape and "come get me".

My future DH took me to see Arachnophobia at the cinema when we were dating. I ended up in his lap. I have a strong memory of being sat next to a big butch cool black guy on the other side who was shaking with laughter at me, mucho embarrassing.

Unfortunately for me, we have recently moved to a flat with a lovely tree touching the kitchen wall. Unfortunately on a sunny morning you can see the lovely tree glistening with great quantities of spider silk.
Oh dear, you can guess what happens more often now. Big black stumpy demonic looking jumpy fuckers they are too......shudder.
I have toyed with the idea of secretly poisoning said lovely tree but I can't bring myself to harm it.

Swimming pool cubicles. I'll happily take public nudity over changing in a cubicle. The trend for "changing villages" over male/ female changing rooms is a problem.

I think it's a form of claustrophobia. The space is disproportionately narrow, and unlike using a toilet, there's a lot more movement and space required. They are normally dingy and shaddowy with either ducts or some pointless rackingy thing overhead. It feels like the scene in Star Wars when they go down the rubbish chute into the crusher and the walls close in. Added to that there's the sensory overload of loud echoing tiles and the humidity and it's just too much.

Not quite sure how DS and I will manage in 6 months when he can no longer use communal female spaces. His head is permanently full of Lego and if I let him into the men's I'll never see him again. The "family cubicles" are still hideously claustrophic and I can't phyisically put myself into them with two DCs to get as far as shutting the door. If they're not supervised closely they'll happily keep their pants around their knees indefinitely while they yack on about Lego.

However I'll happily save spiders from arachnaphobes

All my fears are totally rational.

Having a cardiac arrest. Which is sort of rational in that it’s a real thing which happens to people but irrational at the same time in that I’m very fit, young and no heart problems so likelihood of it happening is low. Having seen it happen to someone on TV once it scares the hell out of me.

when pregnant i had nightmares about the kinder egg from the old advert. It would chase me with a knife in its hand shouting "Kinder kinder" and eventually cut me open and steal my baby. . this went on for MONTHS. i eventually went into labour and needed an emergency c section.

this is the guy from the advert (its also on youtube). horrific.

Crabs (beach type) and Dragon Flies.

Mirrors and reflective surfaces at night. I think that it's either going to show someone behind me, who isn't there. Or I will be facing the opposite way in the mirror, that's if I have a reflection.

Open blinds/Curtains, there is going to be a face looking in.

Like a pp, I imagine the accidents that I could have when on a train platform/escalator/balcony.

Crocodiles. Given they're prehistoric murder monsters though I feel this is entirely rational. I lived in North London for a while and was suitably horrified to discover that the council had granted a license to someone in Broxbourne to keep six in their back garden. I had many horrifying thoughts on this but mainly Broxbourne is near the River Lea and the type of person who seeks the company of nature's human munch monsters is likely also to be the kind of person who maybe doesn't see the value of paperwork.

Unregistered crocodiles roaming our streets. The dystopian future that at least will put Brexit in some kind of perspective.

Oh god Ethel, crocodiles are absolutely fucking terrifying. Are there seriously some living in a garden in North London? 😱

Mine is that an aeroplane will fall out of the sky and crash right outside my house.

I'm too scared to look under the water with goggles on when in a swimming pool incase I see a shark. I am 33 years old.

I used to have full on panic attacks if people tried to take my photo. The last day of high school was exhausting as I was crying all day, hyper ventilating and generally being a mess. I’m a lot better now!

Still not great with flying winged things, such as moths, wasps, birds etc.

Clusters. I honestly thought I was just very weird until I discovered the phobia actually has a name.

Oh god spiders - I cannot deal with them and unfortunately have passed on my dear to my children. I am terrified one will bite me or the children

frieda I just went looking for the article online and have horrifying updates on this. Some guy in Essex had one in his house. There were four in a SPARE BEDROOM in Croydon. Apparently there's been rumours of a croc in the River Lea for years!!!

I'm taking heart that these people have been caught and arrested and that someone is keeping an eye on these things. But ffs, the spare room? scrubs brain furiously and barricades bedroom door

Another one for balloons. Hate watching them being blown up. I don't mind helium balloons, but any balloons near children who squash, squeeze and poke them then I turn into a quivering wreck. I can't stand the thought of them popping. If they do, it makes me want to cry because of the noise

Wind turbines. Big groups of them in the sea and country side. They look terrifying.

My auntie is absolutely petrified of buttons. She can't even say the word. She has to check all the bedding she buys has the poppers on and if she knows you've touched one she'll make you wash your hands.

Polystyrene. Particularly the small balls you get in beanbags. I remember when I was in nursery and I unzipped a beanbag only to be faced with this horrifying pile of tiny white balls! I also accidentally cut my own beanbag when I was a child and everyday one little ball would creep out of the smallish hole that I'd made and I absolutely refused to touch it.

If stuff gets delivered packaged in polystyrene I have to get someone else to take it out for me. I can't stand the stuff. The colour, the way it goes everywhere and picks up static, and just the way it looks when its clustered together :s sometimes I have nightmares of drowning in polystyrene balls and having to die with them all stuck in my throat and urrgh.

Wind turbines and large rotating amusement rides mildly freak me out. Also noisy flashy amusement rides at night. Christmas lights in the dark freak me out a little bit too. I try to avoid balloons in case they pop near me.

Ultimately though, I'm irrationally terrified of my partner dying.

Snakes, only I live in a country that does not actually have snakes and I'm still paranoid.

Heights. My legs stop working and I panic. I once got some cheap tickets to a play. We didn't know where we were sitting until we got there. We were the highest tier, right at the front. I couldn't even make it to the seats. I started crying. There were 2 usherettes. The younger one didn't take it too seriously saying I'd be OK. The older one took pity on me and allowed us to stand at the back of the tier below. Which was ok. A lot of people don't realise how crippling and uncontrollable a fear of heights can be. I've had strangers laugh at me as I've been clinging to the far wall when I've been walking somewhere high. It's mostly manageable as I just don't go to high places. But it can be a bit awkward when someone else books tickets to something and they get high up seats. And then they have to try to change it to stall seats because my anxiety goes theough the roof at the mere thought of it.

I'm not scared of spiders. Although when I've met one that was the size of my hand it gave me pause for thought and I needed to evict it. I am usually the spider evicter amongst my friends.
I happily coexist with spiders. In fact I credit the few daddy long legs that were living on my bedroom ceiling last summer, for not getting bitten by a mosquito. I usually sleep with my window open in summer.
In my home I see a spider and leave it alone. Although if my arachnaphobic friend comes to visit I'll have to have a spider clearout. It's a phobia for her. And I know how crippling phobias are.

Spdrs - can't even think the word. To the extent I can't even think about going on a course to get over it. Or to Australia. Bizarrely - Daddy-Long-Legs don't bother me in the slightest.

dry docks , or locks and the way that big ships loom out of water in harbours ( not yachts etc - I mean proper big ships ) , especially when they are rusty - also those cooling tower things ( there are some on the M6 I think ) Gas container towers - also the insides of power stations or those clanky lifts with mechanisms / metal grill doors.

Snakes & crocodiles - normal poison / danger stuff aside - fine with both - by which I mean yes I wouldn't cuddle one but normal immediate danger aside - wouldn't bother me.

A fear and an irrational fear are different.

Monty27 - absolutely.

There are things which I know I should be rationally fearful of - e.g. a crocodile in a certain situation but I won't get clammy palms or feel sick , and give me a cricket bat I will try to deal with it as best I can ( in self defence only )

Spiders - no no - I know 90% of them or more can't harm me . But it is an irrational fear - you are right. Can't even bear a photograph of one. Also container ships in a harbour or other stuff. I think a phobia is when all rational thought just leaves you and you have no control over that. DH hates snakes with a vengeance - not sure he is phobic but will avoid if he can. I quite like them - they are quite elegant I think. But then they have no legs so how bad can they be. Bizarrely I don't mind crabs or lobsters. As you say @Monty27 it's irrational. I know that . I just can't help it. & given where I live I am not sure I have the willingness to go on a course or similar to get over it.