Fears?

[rachaelersk]

my fears are sharks from watching jaws as a child and birds/feathers which i have no idea where or when this fear came about. Got me thinking what do other ABers fear and how did they come about. My daughter is only just one and she screams and hides everytime she sees this programme with a face that appears on the side of the house.... whats that all about??

[trionam]

My two are very boring two of the most well known,Spiders and Flying,I'd be interested to know if anyone can explain where our fears come from cause I really don't know, the spider thing is probably no big mystery but my fear of flying has only come about in recent years when I was younger it didnt bother me at all now I find it extremely distressing and work myself into a terrible state days before I have to fly somewhere is it possible to inherit a fear? as my father was extactly the same.

[barender]

trionam - I'm the same as you. Spiders (yes, of course it's a common phobia) and the flying bit exactly the same. Loved it when I was younger, but now get really nervous about it. Why? I don't know. Perhaps one's feeling of self-preservation is subconsciously deeper when you're that bit older.

People say that parents can influence fears ie. if one of your parents is frightened of something, they pass this feeling on to you by example. However, when I was a small child, I used to take all sorts of insects etc.. into the house from the garden (we lived in the country) and ask my mother what they were. She was terrified of all of them and would answer 'yes dear, it's a ....(whatever it was) - please take it back into the garden immediately!' But no other insects bother me - just the spiders.

[butter1]

I have a fear of going to the cinema.  I can't go and watch a horror film as I feel like I'm trapped and can't get out if I had to.  My boyfriend took my to watch Sin City the other week and I felt very uncomfortable for the first 30 mins....cold sweats etc... I think if it wasn't in black and white I would have pass out.  I faint at the sight of blood and gore but the strange this is a can watch a horror film in the comfort of my own home....if its too bloody, I sometimes have to turn it off or walk out the room if I'm with my boyfriend.  I'm getting better as I get older....I used to pass out if I just scratched myself when i was younger.  I feel foolish when it happens and I dread to think what I will be like when I have kids.  I can't even walk into a hospital without feeling faint.

[amarillis]

I have an insane fear of marionnette puppets, the ones with the strings on their arms and legs. I have no rational explanation of why, but every time I see one it just freaks me out a lot. I also hate birds - my dad kept birds in averies when I was growing up, so I'm not sure if it started then, but every time a bird flies near me I am eyeing it nervously.

[smudge]

I am terrified of spiders, but even more so Bats!

I remember on holiday in Guernsey, coming out of a restaurant & there were hundreds of the blighters flying overhead - in the moon light. I ran all the way back to the Hotel, heart pounding & with my cardigan over my head! My husband & friends thought it was most amusing!

[boobesque]

i have a terrible fear of balloons, i even tried to get out of a moving car when my brother found one and chucked it at me, they make me feel physically sick and when in a maccy ds with my bf someone offered my little boy a balloon and i practically screamed, my poor bf had to explain my 'weird' phobia!

The only explanation my mum has is that my grandad burst a balloon in my face when i was 6 months old, but its not the bursting that bothers me!!

[trionam]

Barender I know what you mean about the whole self preservation thing,My father said that when me and my sister were younger he couldnt bear the thought of being on plane because he wasnt in control off the situation should anythying happen,though we all know its much more likely to have an accident in a car he said it was the fact on not being in control in the plane that made him fear it so much. I've obviously taken that on board.

[luckystrike]

I'm with you on the flying thing - I never once thought about it until I was about 21, and since then I think about flying for days before, particularly the outward bound flight.  Once we're up and away, I'm not too bothered, but it is the build up.

Funny enough it has been subsiding recently, as I'm beginning to realise how silly it is.  I would take at least 14 or 16 flights per year, however I still get no pleasure out of flying.

I don't really like spiders, but I'm not scared of them.

I also have a 'fear' of disorganisation!

[Guinevere]

Spiders.  Obviously.  And I'm always the one that finds them.  They have it in for me.
Also Clowns.  I think this comes from watching a James Bond film when I was younger (Octopussy I think) with the clowns running through the woods at the beginning. Although I probably still wouldn't have liked them.

Can't bear people dressed up in big animail suits (like at Disneyland) This stems from one treading on me when I was little.  It's not just animals though - a new pizza restaurant opened in our town and there was a guy dressed as a huge slice of pizza handing out leaflets.  I had to cross to the other side of the road.  Boyfriend thought this very amusing!

Finally (I sound like a very angsty person- I'm not really) I really don't like big crowds and being unable to move in them.  I get very panicky and have to get away. It doesn't help that I am on the short side and therefore at armpit level! Going on the tube is a nightmare if it's busy!  We went into central London for the Millenium (not a wise idea) and afterwards Waterloo Station was filled with the world and his wife.  I was in the middle of a huge crowd but could not get out.  Women in front of me turned round and told me to stop pushing - but it was the 2000 people behind me!  Felt crushed and result was I start having a big old panic attack and crying.  Crowds around me back away, thinking I am mad.  Perfect way to get through a crowd, but not an experience I would like to repeat!  Feel a bit panicky even remembering it!

[lilyfrog]

I have a complete fear of vomit and vomiting. I panic if I dont know where a bathroom is just incase I feel sick. I cant sit near people asleep on the bus at night incase they are drunk and therefor sick. My husband was once sick on my bear foot and I sat with it running under cold water and in floods of tears for hours. I cant see it, I cant hear it, I cant be near anyone who has been sick.

I am never sick, I wont let my self.

Horrible

[kazzee69]

Mine is very normal.. Spiders! I had a dream the other night that I was surrounded by tarantulas... I woke up really scared and was checking the bed and everything. My other biggest phobia is ghosts. I am terrified of seeing something. We had something spooky happen at our house recently.. we could hear knocking on one of the upstairs doors and banging.. it was horrible. I spent four nights at my mums after that.

[Biggsy]

My phobia is dentists I have had for as long as i can remember. My mum used  to have to drag me in and hold me down. I still have a phobia of the dentist now and havent been since i was 13.

[spudqueen]

Flying doesn't bother me, it's the open sea. I can go to the Isle of Wight but that's because I can still see land, I feel sick to the bottom of my stomach just thinking about being on a ship where I can't see land. I also don't like being out of my depth in the sea, though the deep end of a swimming pool doesn't bother me.

Like Guinever I don't like being in a hugh crowd, though that's only since Hillsborough.

I also don't like anything to do with 'eyes', if anyone ever tries to say how they injured their eye, or describe an operation on it it makes me feel sick.

[Kishimo]

I hate, like Guinevere, people in stupid animal suits.  I don't know why, they just freak me out.  I hate those people who walk around fetes and shopping centres on stilts, too.

I also have a fear of staring at mirrors for a long time - the longer I have to look the worse it gets, and looking into them at night is horrible too.  It probably comes from all those horror films where someone looks at the mirror and there's something behind them/their face has changed etc.

[fibifooz]

My 2 phobias are birds and Swimming. I hate the "fluttering" of birds, and I hate water in my ears. As I am learning to swim I am finding it very hard going. Don't know if I'll make it. Hope to get over the fear as I'd love to swim in the pool with my husband when we go abroad.

[smudge]

fibifooz - I was also terrified of swimming! All my bro's & sis's could swim & tried to teach me, but I wouldn't let go of their hands!

That is until at 28 years of age, I went swimming with a friend & went in the 'baby' pool. There was no pressure on me & I knew I couldn't drown in 3 foot of water! After an hour of practising, I lifted up both feet & swam a width! I was squealing with excitement that at last I'd done it! Soon after that, I progressed to diving in at the deep end & haven't look back - I'm having a great time.

Now, the sea is a different kettle of fish, especially after watching Jaws!

Good luck with your swimming & hope you have a great time abroad!

[dmsjps]

Mine's quite a common one: I can't stand heights. If I go up a ladder to decorate, the higher I get, the more I bend my knees. It's stupid but I can't help it. So I end up doing the bottom half of the walls and my husband does the top. If we go somewhere to look at a 'scene', it's usually high up and I feel like I'm going to fall over the railings. I can't look over the side because I really feel like I'm tipping over. When we go shopping, if we park in the car park on the other side of the river from the shopping centre, we have to walk over a bridge that swings in the wind and I can do it, but I feel like I'm going to fall all the time. If my children run to the sides and start looking over I'm almost crying. They think it's funny, but it's not.

 

There are lots of winding roads with sheer drops where we live and I hate driving on them in case I go too near the edge and go over. I don't think that's an irrational thought either because there are loads of patched up bits where people have gone through.