What Scares You?

What are some things that really frighten you? Naturally, we all have a fear of death, so let's just skip that one.


Put simply, what frightens me the most is the unknown.
To ellaborate a bit, this can be anything from unexplained phenomena, to secrets the governments keep, to things we don't understand.

Beyond that, I really don't frighten easily. To most people's surprise, I am always happily the first to walk around in haunted houses very excitedly and will ride only the biggest and most insane roller coasters. I've investigated the paranormal and have been to some pretty freaky places and caught some fairly spooky evidence, but always want to go back for more. I do dislike bugs, particularly spiders, but I'm not going to panic if I see one. I'm not scared by snakes or rats or bats or any of those types of critters though. It's somewhat hard for me to distinguish what really scares me.


I wonder what scares other FoGers?

Growing up.

I have always had this fear that I would grow old and forget how to dream and be a kid.

I wouldn't say I'm scared of spiders (Unless they are really big ass spiders staring me down from the cieling or something like that) but when one crawls on me without my knowing, and I suddenly see it, I freak.

Quaker Smash the little spider into oblivion.

And I guess Paranormal stuff is included in there as well. I wouldn't scream, but don't be surprised to see me freeze.

I don't like ghosts, and ghost busters block my calls.

Death. I'm scared of losing everyone around me and the idea that even I will one day too die as well.

I also have nightmares about all of my teeth falling out.

I'm an older sister and have been for most of my life. I've always been a bit of a home-body, so when I was living with my parents, I got to play a convenient babysitter. Normal sibling rivalry aside, I developed a bit of "second mommy" syndrome with my 4 younger siblings and I adore those children almost as much as life itself.

I guess one of the biggest things that scares me is the thought of something bad happening to them. Before I got married and still living with my folks, I remember having difficulty allowing anyone to take the kids out for fun times without me coming along, always thinking that something would happen when I wasn't there to stop it. In public with them, the middle child, Ben, is very spacey and would often trail behind, leaving me frantically counting heads - I remember semi-jokingly saying I wanted leashes for all of them, even the oldest, or maybe a shepherd's crook, lol. Out in public without them was even worse; if there were any children in the crowds, constantly seeing my siblings out of the corner of my eye or hearing their voices in the voices of stranger's children.

Even now that I'm moved out and not with them all the time, I suffer an occasional sense of panic while watching Law&Order:SVU and thinking about the monsters and dangers that face them out there.

Understandably, another thing that scares me is the thought that when the time comes, I will end up being a neurotic mother, lol.

Also, big spiders, moths, and bees/wasps/stinging, flying insects. I have an extreme fear of bees and wasps even though I've never been stung. I hear conflicting reports that it's not that bad and that it's the worse experience ever, but it's the unknown of it that gets me the worst. If I can SEE them, then I feel a very pressing need to high-tail it out of there. And a buzzing noise in the house is cause to hide under the bed. They're so...threatening with that aggressively curious and swaying flight pattern and they always seem to want to come at my face. People say sit still and don't move and they'll grow bored and leave you - in my experience, this is not the case; how freaking long am I suppose to wait???? 8[

But then again, in my experience, after the 10 second mark, I'm running and waving my arms, screaming my head off. Wasps tend to swarm if they feel threatened, but...you can't get me if I'm not sitting still! We have a big window in the living room that I leave the curtains open during the summer and occasionally, like birds, wasps and bees will fly into it with a loud "Thunk!" I count those as attempts on my life by the Vespa Assassins Guild. Because, you know...between me and the stinging flying insects of the world...it's personal. I once considered moving to Antarctica to avoid them...but then I changed my mind. ♪ And all I want for Christmas is a bee keeper's suit...♫

My own imagination that only further fuels the primordial fears deeply ingrained in humans from our primitive roots in evolution.

Immortality; my natural habit of being reclusive and having (to this day) suffered from depression that comes and goes without any warning (kind of like being bipolar, in a way) would make immortality hell.

Being paralyzed. Won't go into the full details, but the only nightmare I've ever had (most of my dreams could be considered nightmares for the majority of people) was where I ended up feeling like I was stuck in a sort of electrically charged prism, feeling as if my body was suffering from spasms but I couldn't move, couldn't will myself to do anything. Staring at my wall through transparent eyelids and seeing in an odd bluish form of night vision. When I actually woke up I was laying in the exact position I had been in the dream.

And, finally, fear itself. Especially the fear in others, more so when it is people I actually care about. Could quote a song by Dark Tranquillity on that, but I won’t.

Anyway, there are likely more but… those are the main ones I can think of. And the first one covers a lot anyway. lol

Student loans. They're absolutely terrifying.

My #1 greatest fear is losing my son...which leads to another long list of fears, all of which boil down to this main one.

Not living a well lived life.

Most of my fears involve other people.

I suppose I'd be scared of a lot of things... I just haven't come across them, so I don't know.

Oh, got one: not the fear of death, but the fear of going out of existence. It's impossible to imagine if you really think hard about it. Good news is, I won't have to find out.

Of course, "finding out" would be "not finding out," 'cause you wouldn't be around to know you're gone. Which, really, is the problem with trying to think too hard about stuff like that. xD

So I guess the fear turns into: fear of the certainty of going out of existence. Not a happy thought, on so many levels.

Icy freeways.

Cthulhu

...Spiders. Meh. I actually wasn't afraid of spiders when I was younger. But then one day I started to wonder why everyone else jumped when they crawled around, why I wasn't 'normal' since it seemed normal to be afraid of them. I decided to see if I could make myself be afraid of them. ...It worked. Over time. And now whenever I see one, I freak out, though I've been slowly weaning myself off the fear. These days, I just tense up and grab something to kill it with. ...Unless it's late at night, or I'm just waking up. Then I panic.

I used to be afraid of a lot of other things. There was a period of time when I couldn't go to sleep without going through a ritual of keeping myself awake, just to convince myself that there was no carbon monoxide leak in the house. Around that same time, when I wasn't worrying about the carbon monoxide, I was packing a bag with all of my treasured possessions in case the house caught on fire. ...I didn't sleep much during that phase. Thank goodness I got over it. The same goes for a period of my childhood where I would look around, and all I could see was ways that I would end up dying. Like there'd be a car coming and I'd start worrying as to whether it would veer off and hit me. Or I'd get on a plane and worry that it would crash. Yeah. That period of time wasn't fun either, but I outgrew it.

Now it's just me and my non-tangible fears. XD Yay.

Disappointment. Specifically, disappointing those close to me. But it feels like it's more complicated than that; I've never really tried to explain it out loud... I like to think of myself as an independent, strong-minded person when it comes to doing what I want. If I don't want to do something, I don't do it. I have no problem disappointing someone by telling them "no, I won't go on that ride with you" or anything like that. But when it comes to true disappointment, letting my friends or family down, I get pretty freaked out. It's more that I become extremely upset with myself, but my nerves become stretched enough for me to consider it close to fear whenever I think I've done something to make someone else upset/angry/anything like that. This feeling causes me to draw away from the person I feel that I've done wrong to in order to "give them space", which in turn usually just makes things worse and makes me freak out even more.

Which is wonderful when combined with my other fear of being alone. Insignificant. Not needed. I think it ties in with the first fear a lot of the time, like if I disappoint someone or make them upset, they'll leave me. But as much as I am perfectly alright with being by myself and doing things alone, but...I don't know. I get upset and paranoid when I realize that I haven't hung out with someone for a long time, like I begin to worry that maybe I don't mean as much to that person as they do to me, like they don't actually like to hang out with me. It's usually an irrational case of nerves and I can usually convince myself that I'm just being stupid, but the feeling is often around.

Oh, and I'm afraid of the people I care about dying or getting hurt while I'm away at school. Like last year, my aunt wasn't doing so well, and I was terrified that she would pass away while I was eight hours away at college. And irrationally, there's always a constant worry in the back of my mind that something will happen to my grandma while I'm not home. I try not to think about it too often.

Cthulu is the only thing to fear.... But in all reality, this:

Bird of Hermes wrote:Growing up.

I have always had this fear that I would grow old and forget how to dream and be a kid.

Squall Reyes wrote:Not living a well lived life.

This is an excellent way to put in words my biggest fear. I hate the idea of growing up. I don't want to be a stuffy adult who doesn't have fun or live or enjoy life or ask 'why' or wonder or... jesus... Everything about 'adult' is the opposite of what I want. I'm terrified to not live the way I want to and experience and see and do and enjoy. It's hard to put this into exact words that describe it in full, but Squall and Bird of Hermes hit the nail on the head. That's what it boils down to in the end.

As for tangible fears: fire. I'm terribly afraid of it. I will literally sprint away from it and shake and cower and all that. It's horrifying. I hate fireworks unless they're like a mile away from me. Ugh.

I have very severe arachnophobia. Spiders scare me senseless. Snakes too.

Not being able to die. Being paralyzed would suck. Losing control over myself. Student loans suck too.

Ryona already mentioned losing my son, so I will go with a more personal one.

My greatest fear is being wrong; no, I don't have such an inflated sense of self that I believe it is impossible for me to be wrong on any issue. In fact, I recognize that I am quite unobservant and lacking some degrees of common sense. However, I am certain about one thing, and that is what is going to happen to me after I die.

Life is hard, and for me I am still in the beginning of it (unless something unfortunate happens). I don't want to have to continue this any longer than necessary. I used to think immortality was an awesome idea. Not so. When I die, I want that to be the sweet bliss of permanent release. No afterlife. I want to cease to exist. Not very romantic, I know. Ryona doesn't much agree with me. As much as I want my son to grow up to be something great, and as much as I want to see it happen, I don't want to be stuck up in some cloud without being able to help him get through his problems. If I can't be there to help him through it, just let me go...

So, ultimately, my fear is that I am, and have been since birth (essentially), wrong about religion. What if I don't cease to exist? I don't want to meet God (in whatever form he may or may not exist in). I don't want to go to heaven. I don't want to reincarnate and come back to do this again (even though I wouldn't realize it). I just want to...disappear. Fade away. My legacy is my son, if I am lucky my writing, and that is all this world needs of me, in this life or the next.

I have a fear of demonic possession and being forgotten. If one day I woke up and no one knew who I was, I'd freak out. That would be the worst day of my life. I have no Idea what I'd do

That's the tricky thing about religion: you don't want to be mistaken.
I get afraid of that myself, sometimes. That's why I'm all up on truth.
Just go with the best truth you can find, and don't stop looking for it. You'll do alright.

One of the hardest things humans face, I think, is conforming to something when they realize it's true. There are a lot of obstacles, especially if the truth is inconvenient.
Anyway, not to rant or preach, just my brief thoughts on that.

Other than death and the unknown, I'd say spiders.

Spiders and earthquakes most definitely.... I really shouldn't be living in So. Cal.... but like I will forever say. I am institutionalized. u_u

....As a fellow So. Caler. Well former So Caler. How the hell have you survived so long being afraid of earthquakes?! I usually look up and if it's anything less than a 4 pointer I go back to sleep.

I wouldn't say I'm scared of wasps as much as just annoyed by them. They seem to have me targeted for destruction. I've seen 4/5 of them totally by pass Manda and her family and come straight for me. And no just like buzz around me, oh no. Full out if they get close they sting. Or bite or whatever the hell they do. It's crazy.

Oh it's worse than that. I live near a train so when it goes by for a minute I have an internal panic thinking it might be an earthquake but it takes me a while to realize it's a train. Usually a earthquake itself will terrify me for a bit and keep me still for minutes on end trying to hope I didn't just feel one (thanks to the train) but when they go on for longer than a few seconds I start to really scream and panic. Otherwise though I'm extremely thankful that it's only been a few little shakes.... nothing extremely paralyzing just yet.

I swear So. Cal keeps me here with all the opportunities to do stuff. You name it, chances are it's within an hour drive. Without that variety I'd likely be bored as hell.

I'm also absolutely terrified of pregnancy. Like any fear it's not gonna keep me from it if a child is wanted in the future, but the idea of being pregnant and all the stuff pregnant women have to go through truly terrifies me. It's one of the few things I'm surprised I haven't had a nightmare about.

I'm so scared of heights. And also I’m afraid of Thunder and Lightning.

I'm Afraid of the dark, i blame horror movies

Apocalypses. Just the end of humanity in general from outside forces in general.

Cases in point are "The Mist", by Stephen King, "Cell," again by Stephen King, and "Rot and Ruin", by someone else I can't remember. There was another Stephen King one, but I can't remember what it was called. Anyway, the thing that keeps me up at night is the total inability to decide what to do in the event of the uprising of some nasty threat to humanity which nobody could possibly ever survive.

Option one: Kill self. But, what's the point? I'd just die in a more horrible way later. But, to give up hope is bad, even if it's impossible...

Option two: Die in some horrible apocalyptic way. That's me right there, dying to alert you to NOT enter that big old room that has the fluffy things in it, because they're poisonous and petting them causes pain. But, then that's like suicide...

Option three: Huddle in the fetal position and wait for the dream to end. Also me, the one who refuses to believe that the Zombie Apocalypse could finally have come.

I lay awake at night shuddering about this and imagining things happen to me and even to people I don't know, who if I ever meet in real life I will hug them and cry at them.

I used to be afraid of the dark, but now I am actually a little more suspicious of the daytime. Because just because you can see doesn't mean that nothing is going to happen. Sight is overrated, really, and a lot of the fiercest predators are day hunters.

Number One Fear Of All Time :: Losing my family in any way. If it wasn't for CJ and Chody, I wouldn't be who I was today nor would I probably even be alive. I was severly depressed before I found out I was pregnant and even worse so after because I thought Chody wouldn't stay. Of course, he did and because of that, I've become stronger than I've ever been.


Number Two :: The Dark. I have a HIGHLY active imagination and shadows/dark places scare the living shit out of me. I can't sleep without the door open enough to let light from the kitchen appliances into my room. >_>;;

Number Three :: Heights. Just no. NO!

Number Four :: Losing my mother. While this should be higher on the list, her attitude lately has dropped it down. She has broken me in more ways than she knows but I'm still fearful of losing her to her depression and her addictions. ( she claims she isn't addicted to her pain medication for her fibromyalgia but we all know she is... that and she can't seem to live without weed. )

I used to be afraid of the dark. Or rather, going into rooms that were still dark. The ol' imagination would come up with stuff that might jump out. Long since defeated with cold, wonderful logic. ^^

I am only scared when I have good reason to be; when I have lost all faith and all connection with Him who comforts me.

Fate Foretold wrote:I really don't frighten easily. To most people's surprise, I am always happily the first to walk around in haunted houses very excitedly and will ride only the biggest and most insane roller coasters.

lol that's totally you. Just on a whim you'd be up for sky diving or bungee jumping, no problem.

Sighlent wrote:I also have nightmares about all of my teeth falling out.

Ooo yeah, those dreams always freak me out too. I know Fate has some teeth fears!

Lyonesse wrote:Student loans. They're absolutely terrifying.

That's a good one. I try not to think about them, but they have added up to be quite a large amount.


Well aside from the big stuff like death, I'm afraid of small spaces. If anyone ever asked me to go to caves or something, I'm not into that lol. Being stuck in a small space freaks me out. I even shudder when someone is trapped in a movie or something.