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!

No, I think it's called Sensory String? They've been around for years but only recently that I've seen them as fidget toys which means they're in the school I work in and are something of a trial, the hideous bastards.

I’m absolutely petrified of butterflies and big moths. I’ve even locked myself out of the house with my toddler daughter inside because of a butterfly! I had to go and get an off duty police officer who lived locally to climb in an upstairs window for me and get rid of the butterfly! Luckily my daughter was fine. My husband thinks it’s hilarious but I can’t even stand them fluttering outside.

Probably not that uncommon but clowns for me with the hideous makeup, especially overexaggerated smiles. Also realistic dolls with glass eyes. There was a programme in the 80s called Maelstrom where there was a house with a room full of these dolls and a woman kept returning there, every time the dolls would have moved a little bit. Sometimes one would shed a tear.

In a similar vein furries or any adults dressed in animal costumes.

If I'm walking on the pavement and hear a motorbike coming on the road, it takes everything in me not to throw myself behind a car to hide from it

Well it's all very well checking the pool before you get in but what if they rock up while you're in there?

I was unfortunately 😔

I have this too. Mine started when I saw “Watcher in the Woods” as a kid (80s Disney film). Do not watch this!! Don’t even google it!

I really don’t like the dentist chair when it flips back, or being in the car in a queue of traffic on a steep hill facing up it, or watching any tv footage or dramas where astronauts are sat at the top of the rocket facing upwards, it makes me feel slightly panicky.

Spongy bread. Like if a bit of bread is left on a plate that goes into the sink and then it sits in the water and gets all spongy. Touching it makes me gag 🤢

I think lakes especially fishing ones. I’m a 70s and 80s kid and we had public information films including one about deep water. Also but quite common level crossings.

I cannot look at images of the Elephant Man or John Hurt in the makeup he wore for the film role. Friends will warn me when the film or a documentary is on TV. Even the sight of his name(s) upsets me. It’s fucking weird and I’m sure it says something about me, though I don’t want to know what. I had nightmares for years after I saw the film and read a biography with photographs. Apparently it’s a very sad drama but to me it’s a hellish gothic horror.

Now I’ve written all that I need to go do a sitcom mind cleanse 😩

Also I won’t be returning to this thread in case some sadistic bastard thinks it’s funny to post a picture

Ooh yes, I have a recurring dream of being stuck in traffic on a steep hill and it freaks me out when I have it. I've had it since childhood and I'm almost 40.

Sometimes, we reach the top and there's just a big canyon there, and we're forced to drive into it.

I'm not sure why, because I can't remember ever really being stuck in traffic on a steep hill ever really. I suppose I must have been once as a child and it just stuck in my brain

I have an ongoing fear of strange things like the unexplained, and i had a horrible dream around aged 5. In the dream, I was extremely frightened going into my parents' bedroom as I knew there was a horrible shadowy figure sitting on the opposite side of the bed, facing away. When the silhouette turned around, it had all black with no other colours, except for white eyes that had no pupils.😳😱 I think, having researched it, that my dream was about a shadow person.

It absolutely terrified me, and even now 40 years later, I can still remember the dream in vivid detail.

Another thing is when I was staying at my DH's flat, in his double bed, and I couldn't sleep. I remember when I turned over that I saw a figure (ghost?) of some young woman, laying there under the duvet, asleep. She was wearing what looked like a head dress of a 1920s flapper girl, so why on earth I saw her in my DH's bed (he was sleeping on the sofa) , goodness only knows! It frightened me so much. I sat bolt upright and stared at her for a minute. As she didn't disappear, I did the obvious (childish!) thing, and hid under the duvet 😅🤣 She was gone after that.

I'm pretty certain it wasn't a dream or hallucination, but I'm sure some would say it was.

I'm freaked out by the dancing orange yeti on the cbeebies show 'Playtime Towers'. It's like Cousin It with sunglasses on and it has a deep synthetic voice-disguiser voice that some part of my brain associates with supernatural baddies in 80s films. It's surrounded by small children and there's something about the lighting etc that makes it look like a scene from a horror where they've cut to a tv studio! The rest of the programme isn't for me either really, the bit that's set in a lift seems to take forever and makes me claustrophobic.

Me too! The black rabbit in the sky even now creeps me out to think about it.

it’s very weird but as a kid I had an old hand me down copy of a Wacaday annual. There was a page of ghost stories with illustrations and there was one of a ghost man sat in bed with his head kind of hanging off and it scared me so much I could never look at the page, always had to skip it. Even now the thought of it feels weird and I’m sure it’s a perfectly fine illustration for an 80s kids book 😂

I can't even look at photos of baked beans 🤢

I'm the same with celery, even typing the word gives me the heebie jeebies 🤮

People wearing full coverage face masks scares the hell out of me. We went to a Samhain festival a few years ago and I had a panic attack and had to leave.

Live turkeys

Oh yes,I remember another. The Roald Dahl book, The Witches, with that terrible and horrible picture of the Grand High Witch... I literally just let go of the book in horror as a child when I first saw it. 👀 I'd be scared again if I saw it now too 😳 😫

Me too!!!! Couldn’t sleep for weeks. The bit where his head kind of pokes out? and the bit where Vigo possesses Ray. Awful!!!

I said that as well. It's so horrifically sad but the black and white 1980's film really scared me. I suppose it was meant to.

You can acknowledge a cinematic masterpiece whilst still being affected by it. I have seen other documentaries about John Merrick since that were more balanced but they only upset me more, quite frankly.

Yeah I first became aware of the ‘elephant man’ when I was about 15 and was so terrified I just wanted to stand with my back to the wall forever so nothing could get behind me.

Now I’m more mature of course and have a better understanding of John Merrick’s humanity, but still have quite a visceral reaction to severe facial differences. My daughter has inherited it.

The thing that still completely freaks me out is snails. Disgusting vile antennae and slimy greyness. Can’t put the rubbish out if there’s a snail on the bin lid.

Me too!

Luckily my aunt and uncles pool was covered, I can’t think what it’s called so have attached a picture from google so it would be unlikely but we were still told to check before jumping in regardless!

The book or the actual place?