Worst Fears

[kaellok he/him]

My usual answer to this question is falling!  Not heights. I'm fine with heights.  Give me a good foothold, and I can be 2000 feet up looking over a cliff edge with zero problem.  Stick me three inches up with a not-great foothold, and I'm terrified.  This also translates into flying on a plane.  I've got over 50,000 miles in the sky, and every inch in the air I was 100% sure that everyone was going to die.  The 18 hour flight from Dallas to Germany (and back, and back again, and back again) was a nightmare, especially since there was other flying those days, too.  And I can't sleep on a plane.  I can barely blink.  The plane does not feel like a solid foothold.  I've tried to get better.  I've been rappelling, down small cliffs, large cliffs, and out of a helicopter.  Still 91% as afraid as the very first time (I only broke down in a puddle of tears the once, but realistically I think it's just better self-control.)

 

The single moment of greatest fear that I have ever felt in my life, though, was when I was just chilling, talking to my favorite teacher after an evening school event that I don't recall particularly, when suddenly there was a 3-month old infant in my arms.  I was 17.  I had no idea what to do.  I had no idea what not to do.  It was the teacher's son, and his wife had deposited him there while she went off for a few minutes.  Since then, I've been in fights where I was unarmed and the other guy had a knife, had guns pointed at me, (flown in an airplane), gone through basic training, flown off to fake-war, nearly blown myself up half a dozen times, nearly died in a car accident several times, etc.  And nothing else compares to someone suddenly plopping a baby in my arms in terms of instant fear-generation.  Not by a long shot.

 

I'm also a little bit afraid when people are genuinely nice to me, and happy to see me.  Well, not so much anymore, now it's mostly just confused and bewildered; but there used to be a fair amount of fear going on.  I just didn't know how to react to it, ya know?  I still don't, but I do a better job of pretending I know, rather than freezing in panic.

[Sarcasm she/her]

Losing a limb or a function (blindness)

Unpredictability-This one's rather strange. It's as if I have a fear of not being able to control things. For example, I have a minor fear of drowning, as that represents not being able to control my ability to breath and get something which I need.

Ignorance

My biggest phobia is probably not being good enough or being useless or unwanted. That one's always been a big thing with my parents, who criticize me on everything and make me think I'm not good at anything, and I'm useless and worthless.

Thanks for taking the time to read this, but now I'll have to hunt all of you down when I become an epic. 

[Elsecaller3414 she/her]

I actually have a fear of becoming an Epic, believe it or not.

 

I am also terrified of crowds, and needles, and having anyone touch me unless I am REALLY in the mood, and dogs... The list goes on and on.

 

Oh, and cats are creepy.

[Amrynn he/him]

I can't do water if it's decently deep or murky I visibly freak out and get OUT even if I can see the bottom. 10 feet is about my limit. Also, if I see needles, I get shaky and nervous.

[Elsecaller3414 she/her]

Not numbered because they are all pretty much the same, but

-Roads

-Dead spiders

-Crowds

 

People give me funny looks, but I am working on getting better about these... I hope.

[Burnt Spaghetti she/her]

Heights: Cannot stand on glass, Cannot climb even step ladders without being stressed (yet am perfectly comfortable climbing a tree...) Even the balcony of a 2 story house freaks me out- I cannot bring myself to go within a metre of the rail. I don't even like stairs that spiral down- must hug the wall and take deeeeep breaths. Yet... When I do rock climbing, I am terrified until I somehow get to the top (or just half way up the wall) and let go of the wall and dangle freely by the harness. For some weird reason just hanging there is enjoyable. I guess at that point there's nothing you can do about the height :/ 

 

Seaweed: When you're swimming in the ocean and you feel something wrap around your ankle it is the scariest moment ever. I get anxious if seaweed gets too close to me and will avoid it as much as possible. I am thoroughly paranoid of seaweed (refuse to eat it too, but that's cause I don't like the taste)

Edited October 31, 2015 by Burnt Spaghetti

[Guest]

I actually really love heights. They are my absolute favorite. I do some arborist work occasionally, so it's somewhat of a requirement. Imagine being at the top of a very tall tree. You have boot spurs in the tree, and one lanyard connecting your midsection to the tree. You are leaning backwards on the lanyard and trusting that your boot spurs won't slide out. In both of your hands you are holding a running chainsaw. You use that chainsaw to cut a giant tree limb off, and it happens to be rigged to the very tree you are in, so as it falls, the tree sways back and forth. You are still holding the chainsaw. Yeah that's me. I've also been known to get as close as I possibly can to cliffs, just to see over...end rant.

 

So I'm going to echo two people here:

 

1. Having an uneventful life. Something about dying and nobody knowing who I am terrifies me. I don't really know how to describe it other than that. It's different from Fatebreaker in that I don't particularly care about having adventure. I just want to be famous, in a good way. Like being a statesman rather than any old politician. Being an excellent doctor. Idk, but I have a lot of ambition, and I guess what really scares me is having all that ambition my whole life, and still failing to make anything out of it.

 

2. Failure, which is common, it seems. Mine, specifically, is failing someone else that I've made a commitment to.

 

3. Phobia: Any kind of hook-ring closing device. I always get this image of the hook stabbing my eye out. I'm shivering just writing this.

4. Phobia: Macaroni and cheese: I barfed eight times the next day, last time I had mac and cheese, so now whenever I see it, I have a visceral nauseous reaction. Can't even think about it.

[+Slowswift]

4. Phobia: Macaroni and cheese: I barfed eight times the next day, last time I had mac and cheese, so now whenever I see it, I have a visceral nauseous reaction. Can't even think about it.

For the longest time, I hated cheese for this exact reason. Edited November 11, 2015 by Slowswift