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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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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

OP posts:

thefairyfellersmasterstroke · 14/05/2018 22:57

Might be a little idiosyncratic, but I've always had an irrational fear of dropping my car keys down a drain. I also have a fear of arriving at my car, discovering I've left my keys behind, and having to go back for them. So I get my keys out before I leave wherever it is, then I walk along clutching them in a white-knuckled grip in case I drop them down a drain on the way.

I always breath a sigh of relief when I reach my car and unlock the door, and tell myself I'm a twat, until the next time and it begins all over again...

AornisHades · 14/05/2018 23:04

Lana at least you did it! I would have to have got a cab (obviously via the nearest road bridge).

LelouchviBritanniacommandsyou · 14/05/2018 23:10

Probably my most irrational fear is going over the sea on Google Earth . I start feeling panicky and have to scroll back over land. The most ridiculous part is that when I'm on a plane literally flying over the sea I feel fine! Obviously I'm glad of that since it'd make flying difficult otherwise, but why am I afraid of it on a computer screen and not in real life? So strange.

I also have a few others already mentioned like daddy-long-legs (as a young child I picked them up no problem and now I'm terrified!), sharks in the swimming pool etc. I'm prone to catastrophising as well though that's a bit more under control now.

It's really hard with irrational fears since you know it's irrational, but that doesn't make it feel any less real. My brain is also pretty adept at coming up with ways my fears aren't totally irrational and so theoretically possible. So helpful

Goldrill · 14/05/2018 23:23

Swimming over deep water. Looking up through deep water - like at an aquarium where they have viewing windows low down.

I swim about 5k most weeks. I am also originally an aquatic ecologist - if anyone knows what's lurking in the depths of a lake it's me, and I definitely know it's all harmless. Totally bloody irrational, but I keep my eyes closed in the water when I swim in a lake.

BasiliskStare · 15/05/2018 02:16

I get the deep water thing - I once watched a documentary where astronauts ( proper ones - not the recent reality type show) trained in huge deep , sort of like a cooling tower but full of water type thing. Oh I can't even think about it without clammy palms. Holding a tarantula , well let us not go there , even typing that has made me feel anxious. I am sure they are lovely and gorgeous creatures but no no . There is no place on this earth for a spider that big.

Actually the anaesthetic not working but being immobilised - yes I do get that , but to me that is a rational fear , not irrational. Wet plates , I personally do not understand that one so much but fair play - some of my fears others would find laughable.

Big container ships in docks / harbours with barnacles and rust and huge overarching bows - No no no - that is just awful. Horrid.

& for any botanists / biologists - would the world's eco system really go to pot if we totally got rid of spiders? - well I am guessing - more flies. Otherwise I vote we do it. With flamethrowers if necessary.

Bexter801 · 15/05/2018 02:50

Trapped in a house fire....choking to death. Rodents of any form. Falling!...steps,high heels,snow,ice...anything that could make me fall.

WilyMinx · 15/05/2018 02:59

Also, house spiders but I think that's rational
Why is that rational?

Because they are absolutely terrifying!! The way they look, move, bite. Eurgh!

BasiliskStare · 15/05/2018 03:54

@wilyminx - Any spider of whatever sort should be destroyed or shot into space. There is no place on earth for spiders. I am sure someone will tell me what place they have in our eco system. I am not listening. They must go and colonise another planet and leave us alone - all of them, big ones, little ones, house ones - they just have too many legs and it aint right. Also they have a curious way of being able to scuttle or creep - Oh - even typing this has made me anxious. No - spiders - fuck off the the far side of fuck & when you get there fuck off some more .

My mother lived in Australia for a while and once drew the curtains to reveal a massive spider which had been lurking in the folds. And it was massive. I think that cured her of her fear. I personally wish to live a life where I never ever come into contact with a spider. Yes I could get some therapy or go on a course , but they are just evil things which have no place on our planet. And that is my judgment It is ( and there is a difference between a phobia and a fear ) no coincidence I will never go to Australia - beautiful county , fabulous cities - all is great - but they have spiders there don't they . Not doing it . ( So that really is a phobia isn't it - all of that loveliness but will not go because of that ) - Can't even look at a photograph of one. In fact at school , I once got a detention because some girl thought it would be funny to open a biology text book at a picture with one and shove it in front of me. Some screaming later - I got a detention - she got a laugh.

I once shrieked and ran out of a shop to the consternation of others because one of those furry scarves with bits dangling off had fallen onto the floor and it looked like a huge spider.

How silly - and yet how real

Basilisk ( aka phobics R Us )

BasiliskStare · 15/05/2018 04:05

& yet wind turbines look to me like mechanical angels and rather pretty

Oh how funny

SerenDippitty · 15/05/2018 12:50

I get the pylons thing, they look like they are marching across the landscape while turbines just stand there waving their arms around.

bumblenbean · 15/05/2018 12:54

Ooh some of these are horrid! The being dragged under a bus one especially 🙈
Mine are mostly related to health - getting all sorts of hideous diseases or a terrible accident befalling me or my family. Paralysis. Locked in syndrome. CJD. Things that some poor souls have to deal with every day. DH or DS Dying.

Also, I’ve never flown a kite but would be too scared to do so as have irrational and ridiculous image of being pulled up into the sky by it and into oblivion. I get a similar feeling when lying on the grass staring straight up at the sky ...

Growingboys · 15/05/2018 13:02

So many things.

Running someone over. As I drive I just imagine what if and if horrifies me.

The lift I'm in suddenly plummeting to the floor - when I get in lifts I plan how I will brace.

Flying - just like a PP I imagine what it's like to be in a plane hurtling towards the mountains. Hideous.

All my children being in a car crash and me being left alive without them.

Bearhunter09 · 15/05/2018 13:24

Anyone touching my neck! Swear blind I was strangled in past life

Gromance02 · 15/05/2018 13:50

Confined spaces. Can't get in a lift - people at work say 'but it is only a few floors'...doesn't make any difference whether it is 1 floor or 100. If it gets stuck, I'm fucked.

I once nearly lost a job as I refused to get into a big container type of thing that held our archived documents. I would rather have lost the job than get into a container that I could potentially get trapped in.

I always remind myself of my own fear before mocking anyone else's and remember that their fear is as real as my own is to me.

TerfsUp · 15/05/2018 15:28

Being locked in a sauna / steam room.

Idrinkandiknowstuff · 15/05/2018 15:35

Big machine like planes, cruise ships, wind turbines etc. I worry I’ll be dragged into the mechanism somehow and but chopped to pieces like mince, or crushed under them.

LakieLady · 15/05/2018 16:29

I'm bird phobic. I love to watch them from a window, but if they fly towards it I have to run away.

I have to cross the street if there are pigeons scoffing food someone's dropped, I once had to get a security guard to chase a seagull from the roof of my car in a supermarket car park, I fainted in a gloomy junk shop when a macaw on a perch squawked and flapped about 2' away from me (because the shop was very dark, I hadn't noticed the flappy fucker) and when I had a cat that brought in live starlings I had to get a neighbour (and on one occasion, some policemen who happened to be along my road) to remove them before I can go in.

I had to have CBT some years ago, because it had got so bad that I thought I was going to have to give up driving. If a bird flew towards my windscreen, it was virtually impossible for me to resist the urge to duck and cover my face with my arms. It's much more manageable now, a little blackcap flew into our sitting room the other day and I quite calmly walked into the kitchen and shut the door behind me, while telling (not asking!) DP to deal with it.

Oddly, I've never been scared of ducks or chickens. They just don't freak me out for some reason.

I'm also quite scared of heights, despite having been fearless as a child and young adult. I stay a long way from any cliff edges and couldn't stay somewhere like the Shard, where you're up high and the walls are entirely made of glass.

I think being scared of heights is pretty rational though, all things considered.

NymanPerkins · 15/05/2018 17:02

Not a phobia, but I absolutely must unlock the toilet door before flushing. It’s the loud noise in an enclosed space. Also can’t use a lift.

LightDrizzle · 15/05/2018 17:32

Dying from choking on something. I’ve had two horrible experiences of choking badly, once on very thick phlegm, and once on a bit of chillie that went down the wrong way.
It was so terrifying. I worry one day it’ll happen again and I actually choke, or that it happens at the end-stage of an illness like MND or cancer because of inability to swallow and protect my airway. 🙁

PumpkinPie2016 · 15/05/2018 17:50

Spiders - I can't put a glass/bowl over I hoover them or use a spider catcher - that's how petrified I am! The logical part of my brain knows it's irrational but I can't overcome it.

Feather sisters - links to the spider thing. I hate it when they are full of cobwebs and have visions of spiders hiding in them!

Balloons is another - I cringe at kids parties when they have them.

PumpkinPie2016 · 15/05/2018 17:52

Feather dusters NOT sisters!

Original poster

Frosty66612 · 15/05/2018 18:24

@pumpkin I always get terrified of hoovering spiders up after I did it once years ago and when I emptied it out a couple of weeks later the beast was still alive and crawling about. Thankfully my DP was there at the time and was able to dispose of it outside

OP posts:

Guna100 · 15/05/2018 18:25

That i’ll die young in a car accident.....or more terrifyingly, that my DD will die before me

Atthebottomofthesea · 15/05/2018 18:35

fairy I have a thing with car keys and drains too.

Level crossings, fear a train will come through, fear that I will break down on the crossing, fear i will be trapped. I had an escape plan when the children were little. I have to do one on a regular occurrence, scares me. Even worse is when people drive on before the otherside is clear.

Original poster

Frosty66612 · 16/05/2018 22:27

JUst had my DP dispose of not one but THREE spiders from my living room just now. I was having a complete melt down in the bathroom while he dealt with them. Really wish I wasn’t so afraid of them as it can be debilitating

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