Unreasonable Fears
 

All my life I've been afraid of alligators and crocodiles--I have nightmares about being eaten by one of the beasts--which seems inordinately weird considering the first time I ever saw a real 'gator was four years ago when I went on a swamp-tour in New Orleans (those suckers are HARD to see out in the wild--we passed a nine-footer and I didn't see it until they pointed it out) and that I live in southwest Ohio--not exactly a bastion of Alligator activity.

What is your Unreasonable Fear?

Unreasonable fear is my main unreasonable fear. Before medication, I suffered from panic and anxiety illness and had irrational fear in movies, restaurants, and concerts. Situations which were both semi-social and where I would be "locked in" for a period of time. Panic attacks are like a cycle of unreasonable fear, where you start to fear the onset of fear itself. It's due to a certain sort of brain laziness where you fail to move on - like being stuck thinking of one particular song, you can't distract yourself from the anxiety.

Mine is also fear. I have believed since an early age that one day I will be faced with something so terrifying that my mind will simply snap. I've no idea why this should worry me - if it happens (and I doubt it's medically possible) I won't know anything about it anyway.

Apart from that I have morbid fantasies about falling over and smashing my cheekbone, or being stabbed/ punctured in the cheek or throat. I will sometimes cross the road to avoid walking next to railings in the fear that I will somehow get impaled on them. I consider those fears unlikely, but not unreasonable.

I'm afraid of growing up, getting out of college and truly be in the 'real' world. I still haven't fully caught up to all of the stuff that has happened to me in the last 2 years and I don't know what I'm going to do or where I go from here (i.e. getting married, having a kid, getting divorced, and now having custody so I've got to be responsible for another person) I guess you could call that a fear of the unknown, not wanting to break out of my shell, etc... School prepairs you for a career... I don't think there is anything that truly prepairs you for life.

I don't get panic attacks like that, but if I sense that I might be getting a little sick, like if my stomach feels a little funny, I start to do exactly the thing you describe where I focus on it so much that a tiny little blip of a sensation in the background becomes a tidal wave of nausea.

As far as fear goes, I don't like heights that much, but that's not irrational. It's a sound instinct. I hate climbing up on my roof to repair a loose shingle or something. Get all tense and weak at the same time. We have a spiral staircase at work with glass railings that reaches from the 5th floor to the 11th floor. Every once in a while I'll look over the railing down those six stories and give myself an enormous adrenaline rush and get a little weak in the knees.

Undertoad, that describes my experience of panic attacks also. Not something I've had for a fair while, but it does leave one with a sense of unease at experiencing fear.

Sundae girl: shiiiit. you too? I totally related to that post.

I'm afraid of heights...and not in a funny way at all. I used to literally swing through the trees like a monkey when I was a child, but now I find a flight of stairs vertigo worthy some days.

I'm not sure where this fear has come from, especially as it's a fairly recent development for me.

there are some that would tell you that your irrational fear is very rational, but stems from a death or injury form a past life. bri, maybe you were eaten by an croc in a past life? sg, maybe you got stabbed in the face?


i fear eye injury and being burried alive.

....or maybe it's a premonition. Maybe Bri, you really are going to get eaten by crocodiles one day.

lol...that's just nasty Dana

*grins* oops.

Falling. I'm fine with heights, but this often gets confounded with the fear of falling. I had a major freakout going up the elevator at the CN Tower but was fine once I was on top and realized that I wasn't falling off that sucker no how. Had a great time then.

EDIT TO ADD: Of course, I think this is a perfectly reasonable fear. Falling sucks.

When I head off to work in the morning, I get a little anxious about being in a wreck and dying on the side of the road while my loved ones are still sleeping. The thought of them waking up to bad news like that really frightens me and I drive very carefully.

For me, dunno if it's the height or the fear of the sudden stop after the falling, but heights make me a-scared.

And bugs. DON'T. LIKE. BUGS.

I don't think I am unreasonably afraid of anything. I'm afraid of the unknown, is that unreasonable? I'm afraid of creepy old men who sing songs about my ta-ta's because they can't take their eyes off of them. I'm afraid of being attacked while I am alone and in the dark. Unreasonable? Maybe to some.
I think that is all.