Flights of Fantasy discussion

Inspired by the current conversation in the "Horror" thread....

What is your real life fear or phobia?

I'll name one of mine.... cockroaches! No joke! Those nasty things both gross and freak me out!!

I have a big problem with driving in the snow. It terrifies me and that's even in a state with great snow clean up. One time last year during a bad snow storm I cried the entire way to work. I need to move to Arizona.

These fucking things....

Praying Mantises?

You know, I don't think I've ever actually seen one in real life?

Felina wrote: "I have a big problem with driving in the snow. It terrifies me and that's even in a state with great snow clean up. One time last year during a bad snow storm I cried the entire way to work. I need..."

I feel your pain! I don't do highways! I don't even like being a passenger on the highway, but that's unavoidable.

Aliens invading earth, War of the Worlds style. Seriously, I have nightmares about it. (and yes I believe in aliens!)

I also hate praying mantises. There was a GIANT one in my bedroom one time and I made my hubby come home from work to kill it. They fly!! ahhhhh!

I love driving in good weather. It's so relaxing. The boy lives about 35 minutes north of me so I really enjoy putting on an audiobook or podcast and driving up there. But now that it's snowing...F that.

I don't love bugs either but since I've lived alone my fear of them has decreased. The key is to kill them before you really think about it. If I think about it I lose my nerve.

Felina wrote: "I don't love bugs either but since I've lived alone my fear of them has decreased. The key is to kill them before you really think about it. If I think about it I lose my nerve."

Roaches are evil creatures out to take over the world! They fear nothing and will even run (or fly) after you. I don't trust anything that can live outside during nuclear fallout.

Becca - I feel the same way about zombies. I have nightmares about it though they don't really 'scare' scare me. It's like a quiet subconscious thing. I feel like if I looked out the window and saw zombies chasing down people my fear would be to great and I'd just go insane instantly.

I'm another one in the bug phobia camp. I was absolutely fine with bugs as a kid, until I had a horrifying (to a child, anyway) incident involving a swarm of ants and unguarded candy. I have had a terrible phobia ever since. My parents tried sending me to a Harley Street hypnotherapist when I was a teenager, which did little but convince me that hypnotherapy is hokey.

I've learnt to control it a bit as an adult, in that I will now ask someone who isn't afraid of them to put the offending bug out of the window rather than screaming like a little girl and running out of the room, but wasps remain my weakness. I was on a date at the zoo once when a wasp turned up by my elbow, and by the time my boyfriend figured out what I was screaming about, I'd sprinted off past a lot of baffled penguins.

Bugs in general don't bug me (intended pun) much. But those damn praying manti, ugh. They're so creepy with those big eyes and skinny legs. When I lived in Arizona and Texas we had the things, and I was much more comfortable with black widows.

I'm super claustrophobic. People can just talk about being trapped in small space and I get anxious.

And it's not just small spaces, it's anywhere I could be trapped. For instance, boats and airplanes make me feel anxious because I'm trapped in a limited space and can't leave it if I wanted to. Cruise's terrify me. And just thinking about people who get in little space ships and go to outer space? It hurt to even type that. Outer space makes me more anxious than anything else.. All of that nothing.. Forever nothing.. It's so big it gets small again in my head.

Yep... Weirdo.

I'm actually fairly claustrophobic too. Not as much as what you described, but close.

I hate being trapped in by people too, which relates to it. Small places where the exit is blocked by mass of bodies? Yeah.

Or trapped in a small space with a praying mantis....

I think my fear stems from the fact that I had a cruel older brother growing up. He used to hold me under the water in the pool (yep, underwater is a enclosed space). Hold pillows over my face. Lock me in rooms. Folded me into the couch bed once and left me there. Locked me in a tent and left me there... Etc. Small spaces can bite me!

Yeah, I'm sure that nudged it along.

I don't know what my problem is. Heh..

Well for praying mantises... (mantis's? mantisii?) They're just fricken creepy. Too many joints or something. And as for small spaces... You're just one of the smart ones.

Haha...thanks for the verification.

and the creepy-fuck description. *shiver*

I'm afraid of the ocean. Like terrified. I hate the water. I won't go on a boat. Can't go on bridges. I even hate aquariums and large fish tanks. And fish larger than me freak me out. Especially whales. They just give me the heebee jeebees. Like they're something out of Lovecraft's Old Gods or something. The worst part? I live in a beach city. And I hate the beach.

I'm afraid of space too, actually. Its just so... big. You know? Adams was right on that. Its so big... and forever... they say the human mind cannot grasp the concept of eternity. And its like that for me too. Yep. I totally get it.

I hate the thought of deep water.. Like the deepest part of oceans. All of those weird scary predator glowing fish. Submarines, OMG. Scarier than outer space and space ships. I don't know how all of those people do it.

Oh yes, submarines. I got wigged out a little when I read Hunt for Red October....

For me its....spiders!!! Ugh! I will run away to the next town if I could to get away from one of these buggers.....and of course the bigger the worse I get!!!

(This doesn't make sense when one of my favorite genres of movies....if it is a genre....are movies with spiders. From little ones to giant ones...I love Arachnaphobia, Kingdom of the Spiders, Eight Legged Freaks, Tarantula, etc! Weird, huh???)

Hmmm, mine are bugs, rodents and birds. As Colleen and Becky know I don't do well sitting in a park full of pigeons. :/



Felina wrote: "I don't love bugs either but since I've lived alone my fear of them has decreased. The key is to kill them before you really think about it. If I think about it I lose my nerve."

This is true. I live by myself too so I'm forced to kill them myself. I repeat my motto 'if you don't pay rent you can't live here' and then I slam the bug with my super handy bug stick. Having a long enough stick is key too. Then you just have to deal with cleanup.

Not having a book to read when I find myself with an hour to kill is my primary phobia these days.

One of my earliest memories is having a walking stick crawling in my neck when I was playing with my G.I. Joes out in the yard.

For me it's spiders and snakes. Ugh! *shudder*

My family owns a lot of land in the country - its where my mom lives now, in fact. When I was in HS I was out in the field with my Poppa and I saw a snake. !!! My Poppa laughed at me so hard he fell off his tractor. He said I would run 3 steps and then jump and I did it all the way home. All I know was I remembered someone told me that snakes are faster than we can run. So Jumping, I guess.

Dawn wrote: "I hate the thought of deep water.. Like the deepest part of oceans. All of those weird scary predator glowing fish. Submarines, OMG. Scarier than outer space and space ships. I don't know how all o..."

God Yes! Fish with teeth are just wrong. Wrong! (okay - I just learned that all fish have teeth. But still-)

In On a Pale Horse (I think it's this one) the Praying mantis is evil and is a Preying Mantis. Because things associated with the devil don't pray, they prey.

MrsJoseph (taking back my data & giving GR the middle finger) wrote: "In On a Pale Horse (I think it's this one) the Praying mantis is evil and is a Preying Mantis. Because things associated with the devil don't pray, they prey."

Oh fuck. Someone recently recommended that to me too. I won't scare me reading it, but might cause fucked up dreams. lol

Chris wrote: "Oh fuck. Someone recently recommended that to me too. I won't scare me reading it, but might cause fucked up dreams. lol "

It's pretty good, esp for the time frame it was written. It's an interesting plot idea and that one is one of the best in the series. It's before Anthony started smelling himself (but I still have a soft spot for him :)

Dawn, your phobias aren't really all that odd. I actually share a couple of them. The vastness of the universe and deep oceans freak me out... but I'm fascinated by them at the same time. I can watch shows about these things, but if I start to THINK about them, I kind of have a bit of a panic attack and have to consciously think about other things.

Enclosed spaces don't bother me much, but heights do, to a point. Like I can fly with no problem, but if I see those pictures of people standing right up at the edge of a cliff or on some precarious rock, I get freaked out. I can't think about heights without getting dizzy and freaking out.

I also don't like spiders or bugs, especially centipedes. *shudder*



Fuckin... ugh.

Centipedes!!! I didn't know the name of them because I never saw them before until I moved to Shelton. But, they are the reason why I use a bug stick. Those mofos are disgusting!

I'm actually pretty claustrophobic as well. It's another one that I've got better control of as I got older, in that I can actually get on a lift now without freaking out a little, but you would still have to drug and hogtie me to get me anywhere near a cave.

Dawn wrote: "I hate the thought of deep water.. Like the deepest part of oceans. All of those weird scary predator glowing fish. Submarines, OMG. Scarier than outer space and space ships. I don't know how all o..."

Deep water is really fucking creepy. It's so alien. It's actually pretty much the only thing I can't watch on TV, I have to look away when the water starts getting dark. I can watch Arachnaphobia no problem, but not that.

I was playing a video game with a friend a while back and we had to swim through some water, and it suddenly turned pitch black so we couldn't even see each other when we were right next to each other. Even though it was just a game I went ice cold. He wanted to go on. Me?

I am also not a fan of the ocean or space. I get creeped out in lakes as well sometimes. I prefer tight spaces. As least everything is easily accounted for. I can see all the happenings.

And animals the size of whales make me very uncomfortable.

Fire. I have pretty interesting case of pyrophobia. It's my anxiety focus. When I'm stressed or anxious about other things, it gets funneled into worrying about / being hypervigilant about fire. Because of this, I can't use a gas stove, or fireplace, and I have to work really hard not to freak out over the fact that I live in a house with a gas furnace. I only dry my clothes on the low heat setting.

Can't stand the smell of toast because to me it's just burning bread. To make it worse, I'm one of those people who gets migraines with phantom smells, so sometimes I smell smoke from fires that don't exist.

So yeah, fire.

I used to be really freaked out by spiders. Like "scream and run away" freaked out. But, one day I decided that spiders were interesting and started to get to know them, and everything reversed. (Knowledge is power, I guess.) Now, if one of those big freaky garden spiders takes up residence on the back porch, I name her and let my roommate and our two employees (I manage my roommate's company) know not to break her web. If it's a kind of spider I'm not familiar with, I find out as much as I can, then bore the boys with the details.

I don't have a space issue...that much. But sometimes hubby freaks me out by reminding me that...

We're on a rock, spinning millions of miles a minute, hurtling through space.


WTF.

Christa wrote: "Fire. I have pretty interesting case of pyrophobia. It's my anxiety focus. When I'm stressed or anxious about other things, it gets funneled into worrying about / being hypervigilant
about fire. Be..."

Congrats on getting over spiders! That's great! That doesn't work for me, though. I am fascinated by them and love reading about them....from a distance! lol

Titiana, the hell is that thing running past in that picture???? That is weird....and creepy! lol

LOL It's an octopus... They have incredible camouflage, including behaving like other types of animals.

It looks like he's running.....do octopus run????? lol

Lol. When I was younger (though older than I should've been) I played video games with my aunt. And whenever I knew something scary was coming (spiders usually) I'd toss the controller her way. She was my spider exterminator in Resident Evil. But we're both afraid of water. There was one game with a puzzle underwater that I needed help on. Yeah. That was "fun".

I have trouble with swimming in video games. I remember playing Sonic and Mario 64 and getting really anxious during the underwater parts. It was horrible!

Kathy wrote: "It looks like he's running.....do octopus run????? lol"

They do when they are pretending not to be an octopus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eS-USr...

That video was fascinating! Weird, but fascinating! Thanks.

I don't really fear water or the ocean per se, I'm more fearful of that fact that I am not a very strong swimmer. I can swim with my head under the water...but I do not know how to float nor how to take breaths while swimming (if that makes sense). I also don't like things obstructing my mouth or nose while I swim as I automatically start to hyperventilate (so snorkeling and scuba diving are no).

I've never really contemplated "Space". I wonder what I would do if I ever had an opportunity to travel in "Outer Space".

Bsides roaches and driving on the highway, my "only" other fear is open heights. I can ride an elevator or fly in a plane, but make me climb up a set of bleachers and I panic. I had a chance to climb to the top of the Statue of Liberty, but they could not get me to go outside (on the crown I think) to save my life.
I hate balconies, ladders, anything that combines both up and open at the same time. I also need a railing. I hate steps without rails. I end up looking like a toddler as I very slowly navigate my way down.

@Titana - That octo-nope cracked me up! That was what I was thinking of when I commented in the "Horror" thread. :)

I'm very clumsy when it comes to stairs so I'm generally cautious on them no matter whether I'm going up or down. Apparently my feet just don't have the skill of knowing where they should be when stairs are involved. LOL

Ewww. I don't like open heights either. That glass walkway they have going out over the Grand Canyon gives me the creeps just thinking about it. Fuck no! I have noticed I'm getting worse about heights as I'm getting older. This summer up at Nerdtacular there were gondola rides and something about that just gave me the mega wiggins. I parked it on a bench and waited for everybody to come back down.

I think, in honor of this thread, I'm going to read the MG trilogy School of Fear

School of Fear, Class is Not Dismissed! & The Final Exam

Everyone is afraid of something...

Madeleine Masterson is deathly afraid of bugs, especially spiders.

Theodore Bartholomew is petrified of dying.

Lulu Punchalower is scared of confined spaces.

Garrison Feldman is terrified of deep water.

Series looks like it could be fun - I put it on my may-read list. :>

***

Let's see - I'm afraid of a lot of things.

The usual bugs - especially spiders and centipedes and things. I've gotten marginally better about spiders (I no longer screetch at the top of my lungs), but I still don't like 'em close to me.

Also anything that stings, though I think that's a perfectly rational fear.

I also hate things flying at my face, like the stupid shield bugs that get in. I know they don't sting or anything, but I just hate when they start buzzing around my head.

Also snakes, though I try to get over that one, 'cause I also think snakes are kinda cool.

I'm the same with fire. I'm terrified of being caught in a fire, or my house burning down and the cats being trapped inside - I honestly think death by fire is probably one of my most dreaded ways to die.

But I like fire in other contexts. I miss having a fire place - I love the smell of the wood smoke and the crackling of the fire.

Ditto with storms. I used to be really scared of storms when I was a kid, but now I find them awesome. Loud thunders still gets the lizard part of my brain to react, though, but it's more a thrilling kind of fear.

I'm also scared of the dark. More specifically - things that could be in the dark. There's a part of me that still believes in the monster under the bed and in the closet - and, in fact, I don't like sleeping with Jer's closet open, 'cause the dark, open maw bothers me. (His is the one right across from the bed. I can leave my closet a bit open, 'cause I can't see it - though that used to bother me, too, but I get more worried about shutting a cat in the closet, so I've gotten over it.)

I sort of believe in ghosts and things that go bump in the night. At least a little bit of me does, so, yeah - don't like pitch dark where I can't see. (I used to get scared going past the wood by my house at night, but that was slightly more prosaic fears, like random muggers and or kidnappers or... things... )

Pitch, pitch dark can also set off a bit of a claustrophobic reaction. I took a photography course once, and I hate the part where we had to go into the pitch black room and take our 35mm out of the case and put it into the developing thing.

The first time we did it was the worse, 'cause she brought in half the class and had to go around and 'check' everyone's work by feeling around in the dark. I started to get a bit of a panic attack, but couldn't leave or I'd ruin everyone's film.

And, yeah, enclosed spaces, obviously. I blame my sister for that one.

Um, heights, sort of, but more the falling thing. Like, I'm not bothered by heights that much if I feel secure. I was fine when we went up in a hot air balloon. I was also fine at the Grand Canyon, though I was worried I might not be. But it's not a straight drop there.

But when I was at some cliffs in Ireland, which were a straight drop, and very windy, the only way I would go to the end was to belly crawl up to it. And, even then, I got to where I could *just* look over, and no further.

But this fear kicks in even on stairs. I always hesitate for a second at the top of stairs, to make sure I have my balance and depth perception is good and all. The restaurant where I worked in Ireland had a storage freeze outside, up some stairs that always seemed hazardous to me. We'd have to bring stuff down sometimes. Sometimes in not too great weather. I always got flashes in my head of my broken body at the bottom of the stairs.

I get it at the stairs at work sometimes, too. Thoughts that pop into my head of me falling and breaking my neck and stuff.

Which basically brings me to the encompassing fact that I'm scared of dying. Especially the idea of a painful death. I don't like pain - except that which I inflict on myself (i.e. tattoos and piercings).

And the thought of not being here anymore just depresses the hell out of me. Ditto with those I love. And that' also a bit selfishly because I'm also afraid of being alone - in the more existential sense.

So, yeah...

Oh, but I'm also kinda scared of growing old and being feeble. I see this old guy at the train who can barely walk - and I don't want to be like that.

Worse, I don't want to lose my mental faculties. Alzheimer's is a horrible thought. Worse is the thought of having your mental abilities, but being in some accident that locks you in so you can't talk or express these to other people.

So, I don't want to die and I don't want to grow old.

No wonder why I have a thing for vampire stories. ;)

^
Yep. That about sums it up. Lol.

I do have a big fear of being alone. Not just alone but "Alone".

I definitely empathise with the fears of aloneness, loss of loved ones and ceasing to exist. I have general anxiety disorder and those are all triggers for my panic attacks. And the fear of ending up completely alone has motivated me to make some bad choices in life.

I used to be scared of heights, but now I'm the complete opposite. I love them. Not sure when that happened, but the higher the better. I do get the whole racing heart, adrenal rush thing if I'm in a high place with nothing between me and the fall though, but that's not so much a phobia as survival instinct -- especially because I'm aware that I'm really clumsy.