To ask what scares you /freaks you out that you would not consider common? Mine is a children’s book!

[elm26]

My 3 year old is obsessed with “We’re Going On A Bear Hunt” after having it read to her at preschool, she knows all of the words and we bought it as one of her gifts for her birthday.

We read a book every night at bed, whenever she reaches for this it gives me such bad goosebumps!

I don’t know if it’s the way it’s written, the pictures, I genuinely feel panic when they’re trying to get away from the bear and he’s in the background of the pictures and then at their front door and they’ve forgotten to lock it. I absolutely detest it 🥴 it gives me the right creeps!

This is baring in mind that all I read myself is psychological thrillers and I’ve watched so much true crime I could probably commit the perfect murder 😂 why do I have such a panicky/spooked response to a children’s book fgs!

Moths petrify me, even tiny ones, they always seem to flap near my face too. (Strangely I’m fine with butterflies)

Deep seas and oceans, well any body of water that I wouldn’t be able to touch the bottom of. I’d never go on a cruise, a tiny ship in a massive deep ocean - shudder. I even panicked going to and from the Isle of Wight via ferry and hovercraft!

Space, the more I think about planets, stars, galaxies the more I realise just how tiny we are - no, just no!

People on stilts with trousers on top at parades etc 🤢

Me - swimming pool drains and the horrible, horrible slopes that go to the deep end.

The Tripods

The Box of Delights.

My son - submechaniphobia so things half in and out of water e.g fence posts in a flooded fields, ship propellers and, worst of all, buoys!

I've always loved rather creepy books and TV since childhood ...

The Groke and the Hattifatteners from the Moomin books ❣️

The Owl Service and the other Alan Garner books yes please

Susan Cooper's The Dark Is Rising book series

The TV series Children of the Stones and Marianne Dreams

70s Dr Who - green maggots, sea devils, daemons ...

But I did get obsessions with odd things as a child including:

Appendicitis - an article about Donny Osmond being prayed over by his family instead of instant ambulance freaked me out. So every little twinge I got I was convinced it was my turn.

Volcanos - John Noakes' fault, after he climbed one on Blue Peter I believed each distant noise (especially trains) was a volcano starting under the house.

And one night of terror when staying at my grandparents - I watched an edition of the Nationwide magazine programme where they did a story about some antique bowl that was supposed to be haunted by a strange monstrous creature. That night I did not sleep a wink and I still remember the terror of knowing it was In. My. Room.

There were several deaths over the years (going way back) to do with swimming pool grates, you may have heard about these stories but not remember them. They were tragic.

There’s a picture of Brunel standing next to a length of giant chain. I mean it is massive, it makes me feel physically sick. The size of the chain just seems to mess with my head. I also have the same reaction to pictures of The Kelpies.

I’m scared of peas. Like I am afraid of them and they make me really really uncomfortable.

Yes, once people at school found out fish Friday was hell on earth.

No, I don’t know why. There was no horrific pea related event that I remember.

When I was 13 I read a book called "Don't look behind you" (Lois Duncan), which is about a teenager and her family who have to go in to Witness Protection.

I remember that while reading the book, I felt so upset for this poor girl, having to leave behind her friends, her boyfriend and even her favourite sport. There's a bit later in the book where the family are found by the bad guy who's looking for them, and it's the first time a book had made me jump, I vividly remember being properly scared and couldn't sleep that night until I'd finished the book so I knew the family would be ok.

I kept the book, along with a few other childhood favourites, and recently we were having a clear out and I found it. I had a properly visceral reaction to it, I could feel my heart rate increase and I felt prickles on my scalp, it was bizarre! I haven't read that book in more than 30 years, but I felt like there was something stopping me from giving it to the charity shop, like it needed to stay with me so that the family were safe, really odd!

Birds, butterflies/moths and egg shell.

My parents let me watch the film “The Birds” (Alfred Hitchcock I believe) when I was young. I’m not sure how young but I don’t remember the film at all. Apparently my bird phobia started after that. They were usually the most sensible of parents so I can’t imagine what they were thinking.

The idea if going to one of those butterfly houses makes me feel physically sick. When I was a first year student we stayed in haunted old halls of residence with one shared bathroom for eight people. There were moths everywhere. One morning I went to the bathroom wearing only my towel and when I returned to my room, the others had taped moths all over my bedroom door. I couldn’t get back into the room. Eventually they removed them but I’ve never quite got over it.

I would never eat anything “egg” out of the house and if I’m making eggs myself they need to be forensically examined prior to cooking. Even a tiny bit of shell on the edge of my plate makes me gag and renders the whole meal inedible.

Yes, I’m very odd!

I don’t really have any but my friend was terrified of the driverless taxis when we visited Los Angeles. We were both keen to try them but once we were inside and she could see the steering wheel moving on its own she freaked out. They are covered in sensors and she also didn’t like that on the screens inside it shows you what the car “sees.” So like when a person with two dogs crossed in front of us the screen showed a little animated person with two dogs. I tried to point out that of course it knows what’s around it or it wouldn’t be out on the road but she was nearly hyperventilating by the end.

Oh, and she didn’t like that the car spoke to me by name either. 🤣 I really enjoyed it and had wanted to try Amazon’s driverless taxis too (we did the Waymo ones, which I think are Google) but obviously gave it a miss after her reaction!

Anything I have to walk on that's going downwards - stairs, steps, ramps, pavements going downhill....
Even a single step down off a kerb has had me teetering on the edge for an embarrassingly long time. I once had to ring my husband to come and get me from the opposite side of a carpark because I couldn't get off the kerb. It's ridiculous and I can think of no traumatic event that might explain it.

Same for me, I couldn’t watch the rest of the series and it gave me nightmares for quite a while after.

Don’t remember anything else being scary.

Bagpuss had an eery melancholy, as did Puff the Magic dragon and the Rupert character Raggerty is cute IMO!

fingerprints🤮🤮🤮(on the finger)
mayonnaise (weirdly i love salad cream)
the bit in the witches where the witch puts erica in the painting (the bit where the grand high witch takes her mask off never bothered me)

There's a village in a deep valley near where I live in Canada that freaks me out. It just has a very oppressive, creepy feeling about it. It's a bit of a ghost town now, with hardly any residents but a century ago it had 5,000 people and an iron foundry, but it all burnt down. As far as I know, there was not any huge disaster or loss of life. It just gives me the creeps.

What the hell is even that?!?? 😭😱😨

Book. Beatrix Potter.
Tom Kitten and the roly poly pudding. Rats capture him and try to turn him into a kind of cat sausage roll.
Live rats would be my room 101.
(Dead ones I'm getting used to feeding to DD's snake!)

I find any show or performance with the appearance of being for children but where the humour is actually for adults totally creepy and repulsive, I feel physically ill.

The blob fish, but specifically when it’s out of water and it looks like a hideous, gelatinous old grumpy man with a great big nose and swollen pouty fillered lips.
whenever I see the photo, it makes my tummy churn. It’s honestly one of the most grotesque looking things ever. So many beautiful creatures on planet earth…. and they ended up looking like a tumour, post removal surgery.
Poor guys 😭

Another one is prank or talent shows. Where the prank is humiliating, or they’re not actually that talented. The thought of everyone looking at them, judging them, the awkwardness of it all. So uncomfortable. Second hand embarrassment could end me, I’m pretty sure of it. It definitely makes me want to throw up.

Like this maybe?

Did you ever watch Animal Kwackers?? They really scared the hell out of me!

I got married in Jamaica!!! Went on the little boat down the black river… there’s theses tree things that grow on the banks (cannot remember the name of them). I thought I was seeing things at one point but I could see black and red things the size of a dinner plate moving about. They were some kind of crab!! I was almost sobbing for the whole boat trip with my eyes closed!! We did the waterfall trip one day and I didn’t want to climb up the actual fall so I took the path. Looked up and between every tree were huge webs with some kind of giant orb looking colourful spiders in the middle of them, just chilling whilst people were walking below them. I had Arachnophobia vibes from them… jungle type area with massive spiders!! I was paranoid one would dangle down! But I’d take that over the crabs without a doubt

I'm in YVR and that's how I feel about Princeton. Like there's something heavy there.

I think the book is a bit crap, to be honest. The first time I read it I thought it described some really irresponsible parenting, but I've come to believe it describes an afternoon of pretend play in the house. So no real bear, but still crap.

What creeps me out is footballs being hit by tennis racquets ? Anyone else? It is the size anomaly. Makes me feel panicky. I'd love to know why.

I can totally relate to the person who said that they were freaked out by the Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly. I was too. The way it ended with 'she's dead of course'.

This has also brought back a memory of another song about a grandfather clock which stopped when its 90-year-old owner died. I couldn't bear it as a young child as it really made me aware of my own mortality.

And there was a song which was played on the radio a lot, called 'Grocer Jack'. I had to go out the room when it came on because I knew he would die.