irrational/unexplained fears?

cameragirl21 wrote: when i say irrational fears, i don't mean that you are irrational to be afraid but rather fears that have no explanation...for instance, i am afraid of heights but i've never had a reason to be in that i've never fallen from a high height or anything like that, i have no idea why i'm afraid of heights. a good friend of mine is afraid of the deep ocean, she's not afraid of drowning per se and she can swim, she's just afraid of the power of the ocean. my godson's mom is afraid of balloons but i'm not even going to post that one because she's the only person i know who's afraid of balloons. just curious what all our phobias are.

luvbug00 replied: hights and confined spaces freak me out. hights will send me into a full fledge crying panic attack. Flying requires a fair amount of liquor for me and a xanex or 2.

PrairieMom replied: I had to null vote. I am afraid of All of the above! I am scared of EVERYTHING!

cameragirl21 replied:
LOL! Tara, you really are hilarious! it didn't occur to me to put all of the above as a choice, maybe i should have.

cameragirl21 replied:
in your case, Nadia, there may be an explanation. if i recall correctly you were taken here from Guatemala when you were a year old, so you were taken from your country, from your familiar surroundings and from whomever took care of you from birth to the time you were brought here. obviously you don't remember the flight but it could have been traumatic for you and perhaps that is how it registered with you--a fear of heights and flying.

KnBmommie replied: I am horribly and terribly afraid of Clowns! I have been my whole life, at least as far back as I can remember. My mom also told me when Iwas very small I would go into hysterics whenever I saw a clown!
I have full blown panic attacks just typing this is giving me the creeps, actually.

stella6979 replied: I'm terrified of the dark! If I can't see anything, I honestly start to panic.

cameragirl21 replied:
so do you sleep with some light on?
i'm just the opposite, i LOVE the dark and at night nearly always have candles burning and lights off. i prefer to go jogging and power walking at night, in fact, i can always run further and faster if i do it at night, which btw i realize is dangerous.
also, sometime back i tried that electronic muscle stimulation, where they stimulate your muscles to contract the same way they would if you were lifting weights and was supposed to (yeah, right, don't waste your money like i did) take the place of weight lifting and i went to a professional place where they hook you up to the machine for a half hour and i ALWAYS wanted the lights off in the room, and since it had no windows, it was completely dark.
lol, i am just a mistress of the dark.

stella6979 replied:
Oh yes, I always have a little light on. What's funny is, I do love nightime and actually prefer it, but if I'm in my house and the power shuts off, you better watch it, cause I'm flying around like a crazy person looking for the flashlights.

gr33n3y3z replied: confined spaces

cameragirl21 replied:
oh God, if you lived here in Florida you'd freak. first of all, during the summers we have a stormy season and the power can go out at anytime. also, during the hurricanes, the power goes out and you hear the wind screaming and all kinds of sh*t falling hard on your roof, etc.
that's an interesting fear, i bet there is a reason for it...my friend would never put her baby to bed in the dark if he was awake because she felt that he'd be upset that his mother was leaving him in the dark and always left the lights on unless he was already asleep. i hope you don't take this as my saying anything bad about your parents because i certainly don't mean it that way because most people DO put their babies to bed in the dark, awake or not but i wonder if maybe you were scared by something as a baby when you were in the dark and perhaps now it's expressed as this extreme fear of darkness.

stella6979 replied:
Ya, I live right outside Detroit, and even though we don't get many crazy storms here, we do lose our power quite often.
I'm really not sure where it could have stemmed from, but I do know that it's something I've always been afraid of. As a kid, I would scream for my Mom not to leave me alone, but she always did
I'm sure being a huge fan of horror movies doesn't help much either, cause when the lights are out, I'm just waiting for some crazed lunatic to come jumping out and have his way with me.

amynicole21 replied: I chose clowns, but I really needed to be able to pick multiple items on this one. The biggies for me are deep water, clowns, realistic looking dolls with glass eyes and creepy crawly or buzzing insects. Ack!

cameragirl21 replied:
so does this mean you don't swim in the ocean? or do you swim but just stay where you can touch? i'm not afraid of deep water but i do fear sharks, even though i'm absolutely fascinated by sharks and want to go on a shark dive, swim on a great white's back, etc. i think i'm ok with the sharks if i expect them coming and am not alone but i do fear they'll come out of nowhere. beyond that, i have no water fears, i'm actually quite drawn to water.
i know a lot of people are afraid of clowns and dolls with eyes that open and shut, many a b grade horror movie was made about these sorts of fears. so does this mean that you won't hire a clown at your kids' bday parties and won't buy them dolls with eyes like that? not knocking it, just curious how deep the fear goes.

cameragirl21 replied:
awwww, she should have left you a night light. see, the downside for those of us who were born in the 70s and raised in the 80s is that our parents didn't have the benefit of message boards and other measures and did not think much of our fears. when i was scared my parents also figured i should just get over it and that fears are just normal in children. problem is, these sorts of decisions can lead to lifelong fears which IMO are just limitations on our lives. the upside is i'm sure you'll never leave your daughter alone in the dark if she's scared...each generation seems to learn from the mistakes of the previous generation.
i btw love horror movies too but they don't really scare me to where i'm afraid to sleep at night except Blair Witch Project because i heard ghosts opening and closing my door for a while after that one and c'mon, doors do not open and close by themselves and there was no wind or anyone else there and the door made a lot of noise when it opened and closed, like someone was slamming it to get my attention, which i did not appreciate.

stella6979 replied:
Ya, they never really did comfort me when it came to being afraid, it was always...."there's nothing to be scared of". Ya right, tell that to a 5 year old who KNOWS that there's something living under her bed.
If I had heard what you heard, I don't know what I would've done. I probably would've just curled up in a ball and wet myself. LOL!

CantWait replied: My biggest fear is deep water. I was pushed into a pool when I was younger before I knew how to swim.

luvbug00 replied: Jenn I wan't afraid of hights and flying until i was in 6th or 7th grade. it was really wierd. I don't know if i had any tramtic experience as a child i should ask my mom.

Maddie&EthansMom replied: Water. It's not that I don't like to get in the water. I just don't like pictures of water nor do I like to look at a pool when no one is swimming. I hate empty pools...whether that means minus the people or a drained pool. Small rivers and streams don't bother me as much. I actually find them tranquil. Choppy lakes totally freak me out. Lakes with a lot of 'trees' growing in them freak me out. And yet waves don't bother me. The ocean doesn't bother me at all. It could be the noise factor...who knows.

Bridges freak me out. Pictures of bridges, driving over bridges, etc. Again, a bridge over a stream or small river doesn't bother me.

I can't explain this. Maybe you can shed some light on it for me.

stella6979 replied:
My Mom is terrified of bridges too. We always take the tunnel when travelling to Canada.

amynicole21 replied:
Oh no, I don't swim in natural bodies of water - only swimming pools. I am afraid of sharks too, but also whatever else is swimming around down there. And there will never be a clown in my home - ever. The girls have received one or two life-like dolls as gifts, but I try to get rid of them or hide them at the bottom of the toy box as soon as possible

Cece00 replied: I dont have any irrational fears. I am afraid of some things, for example, snakes.

But I dont consider those irrational, because I think 'irrational' fears are fears of something you dont have any reason to be scared of...like a bunny. Or a balloon. Or a clown. Stuff like that.

I think its perfectly rational to be afraid of something like a snake because you know a snake can hurt you, or even kill you. Its rational to be afraid of heights because you know if you fall, you can get hurt.

stella6979 replied:
LOL! I only swim in pools too. Who knows what's lurking around in those bodies of water and I sure as heck don't want to be the one who finds out. I've seen WAY too many specials about the Lochness Monster.

MoonMama replied: SPIDERS!!!

lgood22573 replied: I have emetophobia (fear of vomiting). I have had this fear since I was about 5 or 6 and have gone through bouts of therapy a couple of times for it.

DansMom replied: Caterpillars and anything grub-like or larval, also slugs... but not spiders, not snakes, and not earthworms. Go figure.

Nina J replied: Slugs and snails.

I'm also scared of demonic things, like being possessed and stuff It's kind of dumb, it started when I first attempted to watch the Exorcist and really culminated when I watched the Exorcism of Emily Rose. I don't even believe in demons or the devil or anything..but demonic stuff scares me

grapfruit replied: I'm afraid of clowns. I have no clue why, but I think it's something to do w/the makeup. It's like they're hiding their true intentions...That's the only way I can explain it.

Other then that, I get nervous in storms, b/c of tornados. I'm not "afraid" of them, infact they fasinate me. But I dream about them a lot so now they freak me out a little.

And ghosts both creep me out and fastinate me at the same time. They make me scared but excited at the same time...

paradisemommy replied: ventriloquist dolls (thanks to that movie Magic), a china doll (due to a scary childhood story) and those face masks freak me out to..the ones that some people put on their walls for decoration..bleck..

i have a fear of drowning but not so much water..i used to always dream when i was younger that my best friend was holding my head under the water and wouldn't let me up. i've been tossed around by waves too many times than i would care to admit but i got certified to scuba dive - just to see if i could do it, and i can swim...i'll swim in the open water but i'm afraid of sharks too..

MotherForever2043 replied: HEIGHTS!!!!

DillsMommy replied: I am terrified of tornadoes. I have no idea why, I've never been in one or even seen one other than on the t.v. But I'm so scared. Any time there is a warning I'm the first one in the basement. And I also dont like deep water. If i can't touch the bottom, then im not swimming in it.

mom2my2cuties replied:
I take it you guys don't take many trips to Lake Lavon

My big fears are the dark - I am a big weanie with this one, and I know the reason for it. Next would be heights (flying included) I am not so thrilled with the idea of defying one of the greatest forces known to man. (Gravity). And water would top both of those. My brothers used to grab me as a small child (1-2) and just throw me in the water, I never did learn to swim because of this fear. I am also aboslutely terrifed of enclosed spaces. I WILL NOT WILL NOT WILL NOT get into an MRI machine, Elevators are pushing it, the larger ones are fine, but the really small ones I don't care much for.

redchief replied: No irrational fears here. If there was one that was close I'd guess it would be deep water, but I don't find a healthy fear of that to be irrational. It's not like I wouldn't venture into deep water or anything like that... Simply that the thought of dying in deep, cold, dark water seems to me to be a very lonely way to go.

zdk753 replied: I'm afraid of deep water & flying.

mckayleesmom replied: I have a fear of riding in cars....When I was little I would hold my breath in cars.....It has subsided some as I have gotten older.....but it has progressed into a different fear.....Its my kids riding in cars without me in the car....Mckaylee will be 4 in April and she has seriously probably ridden in a car without me maybe 5 times and I can name them....Russell 2 times. Russell only 2 times I can recall. I think that in my head....I think that they can't get into an accident if Im present...

1. Dh couldn't pick me up from work one night when she was 5 months old...My friend who was watching her had to drive up and pick her up.

2. Dh took her to work with him.

3. Dh took her and her cousin Desi to see CARS.

4. A couple months ago when they went to pick out a bird while I got a massage...which I can tell you I was not relaxed during. Russell was also present.

5. Me and dh went somewhere and his sister and mom were watching the kids....When we got back...we found out they all went to Walmart. Russell and Mckaylee went too.

How sad is that?

cameragirl21 replied:
you had mentioned this before, Brianne, and i recall telling that it's probably a fear of not being in control--i remember when i was a teenage babysitter i drove the two little girls i babysat for around to ballet, the park, the mall, mcd's, etc and i recall their mom once telling me that she gives up control of her kids when she allows me to drive them around and i found it odd because i kind of figured that she gave up control of her kids the minute she left them with a babysitter or anyone else.
i didn't realize though that you had a childhood fear of cars...is it possible you were in a car crash as a baby?
i'm a firm believer in irrational fears being rooted in something, guess i'm a Freudian afterall.