# Are you creeped out by something benign..something like clowns? Teletubbies?



## caudor (Oct 13, 2004)

My daughter is afraid of clowns (that's not, however, where I got the idea for my avatar).  I think she has found them to be creepy since watching the movie "IT".  

About the only thing that is normally associated with happy thoughts that creeps me out is teletubbies.  Have you looked closely at one of them?  Jeez, they _are_ creepy. 

So what person, place, or thing--that is normally considered to be benign--creeps you out (or someone you know)?


----------



## Black Omega (Oct 13, 2004)

You think clowns are benign???    

The painted smiles...the demonic eyes...*shiver*

Now I won't be able to sleep...


----------



## Three_Haligonians (Oct 13, 2004)

Alright, this will sound really funny but....plumbing...seriously scares the hell out of me.  Anytime the toilet breaks, I can't even bring myself to see if there is anything wrong.  Even as a kid, the sight of a toilet with the lid missing off the top scared me to death.

Weird, eh?

T from Three Haligonians


----------



## TracerBullet42 (Oct 13, 2004)

Dolls creep me out, man...I'm always expecting them to turn their heads and say something...

They freak me out, man...(shudder)

And for those of you in the NW Suburbs of Chicago...have you ever really looked at those snowmen outside of the Santa's Village theme park?  They're awful creepy too...

(Calm blue ocean...calm blue ocean...calm blue ocean...)


----------



## TracerBullet42 (Oct 13, 2004)

Three_Haligonians said:
			
		

> Alright, this will sound really funny but....plumbing...seriously scares the hell out of me.  Anytime the toilet breaks, I can't even bring myself to see if there is anything wrong.  Even as a kid, the sight of a toilet with the lid missing off the top scared me to death.
> 
> Weird, eh?



Yeah, that is weird.


----------



## John Q. Mayhem (Oct 13, 2004)

Bees/wasps/etc. and deep water.


----------



## Darth Shoju (Oct 13, 2004)

I'm afraid of deep water, but I suppose that isn't really benign. I was watching t.v. the other day (some reality home improvement show) and there was a woman who's afraid of goldfish. :\

 There's a woman I work with who's scared of balloons.


----------



## Vorith (Oct 13, 2004)

Yeah amish people scare me...alot


----------



## ASH (Oct 13, 2004)

I afraid of Bridges that cross water. I always have visions of the bridge breaking and crashing and me falling to my death. The Booh Baah's creep me out alot. They are alot like the teletubbies, but they dont really talk, they just jiggle and move there big creepy eyes.

My son is afraid of anamotronic animals, and characters. Like if santa is a singing machine, it terrifys him. 
I have a friend that is afraid of refrigerators.


----------



## derelictjay (Oct 13, 2004)

What creeps me out. Necklaces, collared shirts, ties, and anything else that goes around my neck. They irk me, grate against me, and I'm always uncomfortable when wearing them. This probably came from a fight I got into when I was five or six, this guy had me in a choke hold and I couldn't get out, and I came very close to passing out. Man I think thats the cause.

By the by, I never lost a fight since, and I've never, ever, put myself in that situation again.


----------



## Algolei (Oct 13, 2004)

Seaweed.  Freaks me right the heck out.  I don't even know the proper name for it--it's not seaweed when it's in a freshwater lake, is it?


----------



## Cthulhu's Librarian (Oct 13, 2004)

Needles and surgery. I hate getting shots, and watching someone else get a shot makes me sick to my stomach. Especially if it's on TV. I can watch the bloodiest, sickest, most violent horror movie, but turn on ER and I have to leave the room. It hink it's the depiction of something that is true to life vs. over the top gore.


----------



## Piratecat (Oct 13, 2004)

Nope, it's river weed, but it's still something slimy grasping your ankle. I used to be bothered by that, too.

Clowns. Ugh. Shudder. Can't stand those creepy bastards.


----------



## Wystan (Oct 13, 2004)

I know of a person that has a fear of Ketchup.....I however suffer from the fear of crowds when I am alone and the fear of things on my neck, however for the second one I will tend to try to stay calm and explain to the person that is doing the touching or placing of things on my neck.


----------



## Torm (Oct 13, 2004)

Henry and I had a mutual friend who was afraid of clowns - but he had a pretty definable reason. When he was little he had stuck something metal into an electrical outlet, and while he was taking the jolt he ended up looking straight at a clown doll in the room with him.

He also (said he) couldn't turn left while under a shower - only right. _None_ of us knew what was up with _that_.


----------



## BOZ (Oct 13, 2004)

teletubbies, yes, definitely.


----------



## The_Universe (Oct 13, 2004)

I had a friend who was afraid of spoons.  Terrified.  He was afraid that, while gesticulating, someone was going to accidently get the spoon _in_ his eye-socket, _behind_ his eye, _and scoop it out_.  

Weird guy.


----------



## Piratecat (Oct 13, 2004)

The_Universe said:
			
		

> I had a friend who was afraid of spoons.  Terrified.  He was afraid that, while gesticulating, someone was going to accidently get the spoon _in_ his eye-socket, _behind_ his eye, _and scoop it out_.




Him too? And you thought this eyepatch was for show. . .


----------



## devilbat (Oct 13, 2004)

I'm a little freaked out by clowns, but what really scares me are people on stilts.  My wife laughs her butt off whenever some guy on stilts walks by at a circus or carnival, and I take off at a run.

Now that I think about it.  I'm pretty nervous around all carnie folk in general.


----------



## Darth K'Trava (Oct 13, 2004)

Obviously, Torm isn't creeped out by anything..... being a god and all.....   

As for me, I hate needles (as do a friend of mine), stuff tight around my neck, teletubbies, barney the evil demonic dinosaur, bees and hornets (need to fireball a nest in a tree in the front yard!), heights (especially when being picked up unawares- same friend has the same fear).

::shudders::


----------



## ASH (Oct 13, 2004)

I forgot to mention my obsessive fear of Bee's, Wasp's and Hornets...I see them and run, dash, and skidattle the other direction.. I actually thing they may be hunting me.


----------



## Three_Haligonians (Oct 13, 2004)

Horses.  Especially Clysdales.  Their great big hooves can crush your head.  J here says that means I want to marry my father and kill my mother.  T here reckons it has something to do with the original meaning of the term "nightmare".  Whatever the case, I didn't actually realize I was scared of horses until I realized all my most scary dreams were about them.

R from Three Haligonians


----------



## Ferret (Oct 13, 2004)

I can't think of anything benign (or otherwise) that scares me. Apart from maybe suffocation, but that isn't benign.

Seaweed and the usual freaks me but I'm not scared of them.


----------



## Knight Otu (Oct 13, 2004)

The_Universe said:
			
		

> I had a friend who was afraid of spoons. Terrified. He was afraid that, while gesticulating, someone was going to accidently get the spoon _in_ his eye-socket, _behind_ his eye, _and scoop it out_.



 Thank you for *that *mental picture, as impropable as it is. *shudder*

 I can't stand anything touching or otherwise happening my eyes - especially my oculist . The mere thought of something happening to my eyes... *shudder*


----------



## BOZ (Oct 14, 2004)

the goggles, they do nothing!


----------



## Ranger REG (Oct 14, 2004)

The_Universe said:
			
		

> I had a friend who was afraid of spoons.  Terrified.  He was afraid that, while gesticulating, someone was going to accidently get the spoon _in_ his eye-socket, _behind_ his eye, _and scoop it out_.
> 
> Weird guy.



So, he gesticulates with a fork?


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Oct 14, 2004)

I know this is really weird:

So-- you know when you breathe when it's cold outside and you can see your breath?  ... that is wet stuff--moisture-- that comes out of your mouth when you breathe...

This line of logic has caused me to be _terrified_ of standing in large masses of people.  Everyone is breathing... everyone is exhaling their wet stuff... and I'm totally grossed out by the idea of breathing in other people's wet stuff.  *shudder*


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Oct 14, 2004)

Also, I do everything I can do avoid mirrors when I'm by myself... always scared of the creepy guy suddenly appearing behind me.


----------



## Crothian (Oct 14, 2004)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> Also, I do everything I can do avoid mirrors when I'm by myself... always scared of the creepy guy suddenly appearing behind me.




That's just me...sorry.....


----------



## caudor (Oct 14, 2004)

Queen_Dopplepopolis said:
			
		

> Also, I do everything I can do avoid mirrors when I'm by myself... always scared of the creepy guy suddenly appearing behind me.




That's not a creepy guy standing there!  It's a cloooowwwwnnnn!


----------



## der_kluge (Oct 14, 2004)

Sorry, had to.

Do a GIS for "teletubbies".  The first one is a riot.  (not safe for work)


----------



## The_Universe (Oct 14, 2004)

Ranger REG said:
			
		

> So, he gesticulates with a fork?



 Honestly - he was less afraid of forks than he was of spoons.  And knives - he was totally okay with knives.  Just spoons.  

What a nut job.


----------



## caudor (Oct 14, 2004)

die_kluge said:
			
		

> Sorry, had to.
> 
> Do a GIS for "teletubbies".  The first one is a riot.  (not safe for work)




Nooooooooo!!!  OK, I've been humbled. :\   It's the green one that really gets me.


----------



## Queen_Dopplepopolis (Oct 14, 2004)

die_kluge said:
			
		

> Do a GIS for "teletubbies".  The first one is a riot.  (not safe for work)




That's just not right!!!


----------



## rbingham2000 (Oct 14, 2004)

I basically hate any flying critter that has a nasty sting and a good dose of aggressiveness. Especially if it's big. Don't EVEN ask me to clean out a wasp nest -- I ain't looking to be on the receiving end of a pissed-off swarm, thank you very much!


----------



## The Grackle (Oct 14, 2004)

Monarch butterflies.
 
Nightmare inducing.  There's a place in the Yucatan where they gather so thickly it's like a foot-deep carpet of orange wings.  Ugh.


----------



## SpringPlum (Oct 14, 2004)

Knight Otu said:
			
		

> I can't stand anything touching or otherwise happening my eyes - especially my oculist . The mere thought of something happening to my eyes... *shudder*




I'm right there with you on the eyes thing.  I can't even manage eye drops, much less contacts.  I'll be wearing glasses 'til I die.  Lasik eye surgery is _way_ out (as I could afford it).  Blood, guts, and gore in movies don't bother me put if someone gets stabbed in the eye...

In _Minority Report_, there's that scene about him getting his eyes replaced, I didn't know it was coming and *wham!* panic attack city.

Also when I was younger, I couldn't bring myself to swallow pills.  It wasn't until late junior high that I could take two aspirin even with water.  Although that is something I've grown out of.

And I haven't eaten cotton candy since I stayed up til 4am one night watching *Killer Clowns From Outer Space*.


----------



## The Grackle (Oct 14, 2004)

I just discovered a new one today, that really creeped me out.

Girls photo-shopped into armor-wearing elves.


----------



## Algolei (Oct 14, 2004)

One time in high school, somebody flipped a plastic spoon across the cafeteria and it almost hit me in the eye.  I actually caught it between my eyelids, and held it there.  People went nuts, thinking the spoon was actually sticking out of my eyeball!  I just stood there laughing, 'cause I thought it was cool the way I caught it with my eyelids.

That probably messed up a few people, spoon-to-eye-wise.  



			
				Piratecat said:
			
		

> Nope, it's river weed, but it's still something slimy grasping your ankle. I used to be bothered by that, too.



Actually, I'm perfectly fine with slimy things.  I love 'em.  It's just the *shudder* weed part.

There was a dock in Kenora where they cut the weeds for swimming.  I dove down to the bottom, saw these three tiny little bits of weed where they had been cropped--about one centimetre above the mud--and completely freaked out.  I almost walked across the water to get away.  I was so far out of the water, my mother thought I was standing on someone's head!


----------



## BOZ (Oct 14, 2004)

die_kluge said:
			
		

> Do a GIS for "teletubbies".  The first one is a riot.  (not safe for work)




oh my, that is disturbing!      :\


----------



## Greylock (Oct 14, 2004)

To whomever said bridges, I got the same thing when I saw this thread,  after weeding out dentists and adulterers as not being entirely benign.

When I was young I thought my mothers fear of bridges and water was weird. The aquaphobia I didn't get, but the problem with bridges I did end up with.

Causes:

 -The whole San Fran quake thing;
 -_An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge_; [joke]
 -Driving across the unexpectedly looonnggg Tampa Bay Bridge just a few   weeks after it was rammed, fell and many died;
 -Ditto, many drives across the Highway 55 bridge over the Hatchie Bottoms after a collapse, in a fog, in which many people died;
 -The bridge to Key West at night, first time, very tired;

And hands down, the worst bridge experience ever - 

-The old Alton, IL two lane bridge over the Mississippi. 

My first experience with it was an utter shock. It's been replaced, but I never could drive that old bridge without fear of my impending doom, white-knuckled pure fear.


----------



## Torm (Oct 14, 2004)

Darth K'Trava said:
			
		

> Obviously, Torm isn't creeped out by anything..... being a god and all.....



Not so. I get kinda frantic about the people from the video for "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden. They, and the situation described in the song, describe to me an ancient and powerful evil. I think someone in their group was planetouched, and not in a good way, if you get my meaning.

I'm also a little irrational about anything involving nuclear detonations - but that's one case where it may be pretty rational to be a little irrational.


----------



## Torm (Oct 14, 2004)

Greylock said:
			
		

> And hands down, the worst bridge experience ever -
> 
> -The old Alton, IL two lane bridge over the Mississippi.




Oh yeah! I had almost forgotten about that!

Its that one, "special" part of crossing the bridge when you're going at a slight upward angle and become completely convinced the rest of the bridge is NOT there, right?

Used to scare the crud out of me when I was younger, and probably still would if I didn't cross the Mississippi at Wickliffe, KY\Cairo,IL whenever I go now.


----------



## Captain Howdy (Oct 14, 2004)

SpringPlum said:
			
		

> I'm right there with you on the eyes thing.  I can't even manage eye drops, much less contacts.  I'll be wearing glasses 'til I die.  Lasik eye surgery is _way_ out (as I could afford it).  Blood, guts, and gore in movies don't bother me put if someone gets stabbed in the eye...
> 
> In _Minority Report_, there's that scene about him getting his eyes replaced, I didn't know it was coming and *wham!* panic attack city.
> 
> ...




The eye thing creeps out a few of my friends too. We were watching Lucio Fulci's "Zombie", and I knew about the famous eye scene, but none of them did...  
If you have'nt seen the movie, a woman is holding a door shut because there is a zombie trying to get in. The zombie's hands break through and the wood splinters. Then the hands grab the woman and pull her ever so slowly toward the splinters. Well, basically she gets one in the eye, and the camera gets it all from a good angle in close-to-slow motion. They all screamed for a while, I couldn't stop laughing! 
As far as what creeps me out, pretty much just the whole surgery/hospital/injection thing. Gore doesnt bother me, a person on a slab getting their insides picked at by three or four masked men does. Go figure.


----------



## Greylock (Oct 14, 2004)

Torm said:
			
		

> Oh yeah! I had almost forgotten about that!
> 
> Its that one, "special" part of crossing the bridge when you're going at a slight upward angle and become completely convinced the rest of the bridge is NOT there, right?
> 
> Used to scare the crud out of me when I was younger, and probably still would if I didn't cross the Mississippi at Wickliffe, KY\Cairo,IL whenever I go now.




Yep. That and the fact that it was about as stable as an old wooden roller-coaster. And the fact that the danged thing seemed to be about ten feet wide. Oh, is that a semi coming my way? [shudder]

Thanks the skies, they blew that bridge up in '93.


----------



## BOZ (Oct 14, 2004)

hell, i tear up when i watch that scene in Clockwork Orange where he is forced to watch movies - Minority Report just reminded me of that but was worse.


----------



## Ranger REG (Oct 14, 2004)

I don't mean to sound political but I'm creeped out by Al Gore and John Kerry.


----------



## Knoxgamer (Oct 14, 2004)

Greys.  The large black eyed, lanky aliens.  I have a, completely irrational, fear of the image of greys.  I used to have nightmares about them with great frequency.


----------



## Dark Nemesis (Oct 14, 2004)

Balloons scare the hell out of me, particularly if they might pop.  Which made it very distracting at our last game session, when the  DM taped balloons to the ceiling fan to celebrate his son's birthday.

On the bright side, I long ago got over my fear of birthday cake!


----------



## DungeonmasterCal (Oct 14, 2004)

I have a friend who can't watch the opening of TriStar studios movies...the pegasus flying toward her freaks her out.  I also happened to mention I'd be doing a Halloween reading at a local library of Poe's "The Premature Burial".  She begged me to change the subject immediately.

Personally, I'm not a big fan of clowns; they make me pretty uneasy.  I'm not afraid of wasps, etc., just allergic.  I can't swim a lick, so I'm not comfortable in or on water.  But my biggest one is fire.  I don't run shrieking from the room if a candle is lit, and I can even light them myself with no problem.  But if someone tries to bring one near me, or heaven forbid light a match or hold a stick taken from a campfire close to me, they better be ready for a beating of epic proportions.

Having said all this, my players have learned over the years to NEVER reveal to me their fears.  I've had people leave the room when their PC's fell into a pit of snakes, or described spiders crawling in the beard of a dwarven PC.  My sister once fled the room in order to avoid throwing up after I described carrion crawler larvae hatching from a corpse.  Another guy had to walk out for some fresh air after his character stuck his head into a normal wasp nest.

Yeah...I'm proud of those....


----------



## Blue_Kryptonite (Oct 15, 2004)

This is positively Cthuloid.


----------



## Torm (Oct 15, 2004)

Ranger REG said:
			
		

> I don't mean to sound political but I'm creeped out by Al Gore and John Kerry.




That's not political - I _voted_ for Gore, and _I_ think he's creepy. Just not quite as creepy as his opposition was.


----------



## The Grackle (Oct 15, 2004)

Dark Nemesis said:
			
		

> Balloons scare the hell out of me...




You should check out the trailer for Enduring Love.  I'm scared of baloons now.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375735/trailers


----------



## The Sigil (Oct 15, 2004)

Original premise is flawed; Teletubbies are *not* benign; question is invalid. 

Seriously, kids shows that treat kids as slightly less intelligent than rocks (e.g,. Teletubbies, Barney, Boobahs) have creeped me out since I was about 2 months old.  The 5-hour Nickolodeon Pinwheel episodes were particularly freaky.

My wife will kill me for saying this, but she's afraid of opening the biscuits/rolls-in-a-can that Pilsbury sells at the supermarket.  Any time she wants to make them, I have to open them because she freaks when they "pop" open.

--The Sigil


----------



## Darth K'Trava (Oct 15, 2004)

Torm said:
			
		

> Not so. I get kinda frantic about the people from the video for "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden. They, and the situation described in the song, describe to me an ancient and powerful evil. I think someone in their group was planetouched, and not in a good way, if you get my meaning.
> 
> I'm also a little irrational about anything involving nuclear detonations - but that's one case where it may be pretty rational to be a little irrational.




I wouldn't know... I haven't seen the video. 

Books and such about nuclear explosions really scared the   out of me back in high school.


----------



## Darth K'Trava (Oct 15, 2004)

Greylock said:
			
		

> Yep. That and the fact that it was about as stable as an old wooden roller-coaster. And the fact that the danged thing seemed to be about ten feet wide. Oh, is that a semi coming my way? [shudder]
> 
> Thanks the skies, they blew that bridge up in '93.




I hate *any* bridge that shakes when at least one semi rolls over it. Even a five lane bridge... which I think shakes the worst when semis roll over it; probably moreso than narrower bridges in the area.


----------



## Darth K'Trava (Oct 15, 2004)

*Teletubbies*

Frankly, I was laughing like crazy that time at Dragoncon when a bunch of Klingons ganged up on the purple teletubby and "beat" the living   out of him in the middle of the food court.......


----------



## Alhazred (Oct 15, 2004)

can't sleep - the clowns will eat me... can't sleep - the clowns will eat me


----------



## caudor (Oct 15, 2004)

Alhazred said:
			
		

> can't sleep - the clowns will eat me... can't sleep - the clowns will eat me




Oops..sorry, Alhazred.  Here's some soothing poetry to help you sleep   

“Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.”

-Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834)


----------



## cignus_pfaccari (Oct 15, 2004)

Dark Nemesis said:
			
		

> Balloons scare the hell out of me, particularly if they might pop.  Which made it very distracting at our last game session, when the  DM taped balloons to the ceiling fan to celebrate his son's birthday.




One of my best friends is positively phobic about balloons.  I've stopped suggesting we go to Hard Times (small chili chain based out of Alexandria, VA) because they almost always have balloons there.

There isn't any one thing that creeps me out, except...one time, on the History Channel, there was something on biowarfare, and they showed a very, very fast shot of someone with smallpox.  (shudder)

Brad


----------



## GlassJaw (Oct 15, 2004)

> I'm right there with you on the eyes thing. I can't even manage eye drops, much less contacts. I'll be wearing glasses 'til I die. Lasik eye surgery is way out




Yeah, I don't really like eye-related stuff either.  The thing with LASIK though is that you only need to get through 2-3 minutes and then you're done!  I know a few people who have had it done (and my uncle is an optometrist) so I'm really encouraged about getting it done.

I'm actually really afraid of climbing and being on ladders.  I'm not afraid of heights or walking under ladders or ladders themselves, just climbing them.  Doesn't matter how tall the ladder is.  It could be a 4 foot ladder and I still won't feel comfortable on it.


----------



## diaglo (Oct 15, 2004)

wax statues.

i blame B1 In Search of the Unknown for it.


----------



## DungeonmasterCal (Oct 15, 2004)

Yeah, but NOTHING here creeps me out more than this:
http://www.enworld.org/forums/showthread.php?t=103819


----------



## Bloodstone Press (Oct 16, 2004)

Acrophobia is about the only irrational fear I have. I won't go anywhere near a precipice. I'm afraid the vertigo will cause me to lose balance and fall. As long as I don't look down, I'm fine with it. But one look down, and I feel like I'm about to fall.


When I worked in the lab, I used to worry occasionally about losing my mind for a brief moment and drinking a tube of blood. Several of my coworkers also had this fear. I think it was caused by the fact that the act of opening a can or bottle and then drinking from it is a common, familiar action for people. At the lab, we would open the tubes of blood (uncap a container of liquid) and the next habitual thing to do would be to drink it. But then, of course, you would realize that that would be a crazy, stupid, deadly thing to do. So then you just wonder "what the hell is wrong with me! Why do I keep thinking about drinking this blood?"


----------



## haiiro (Oct 16, 2004)

Seaweed in its natural environment, particularly in large clumps, and worse still if I have to interact with it. Outside of the sea, I love the stuff -- sushi, crackers, you name it. Yum. 

Plants with really big leaves -- you know, the cabbage-like ones you see from time to time in the forest -- really creep me out as well.

Put those two together, and I think that may be why I have a soft spot for carnivorous plant monsters in D&D.


----------



## Uzumaki (Oct 16, 2004)

Algolei said:
			
		

> One time in high school, somebody flipped a plastic spoon across the cafeteria and it almost hit me in the eye.  I actually caught it between my eyelids, and held it there.  People went nuts, thinking the spoon was actually sticking out of my eyeball!  I just stood there laughing, 'cause I thought it was cool the way I caught it with my eyelids.




Dude, that is most definitely _not_ cool. I have problems with stuff getting stuck in my eyes. I always very carefully eat those big orange popsicles, because when I get toward the end and the stick starts to show, I'm always expecting someone to shove me in the back of the head and put my eye out on it.

Frying bacon freaks me out. The way it pops on the stove. I'm afraid it will scald me. For that matter, anything that pops and fizzles. Electric candles, old hotel vacancy signs, those, too.

Benign things that I used to be scared of, but have grown out of: 

Stairs. I used to go up them on all fours and down them clinging desperately to the handrail. If there wasn't one, I would scoot down on my butt.

Trains. Steam trains, specifically. I don't think I've ever seen one, but I read a story about a stray dog that got run over by one.

Oh, and also, weird things remind me of the Holocaust and that creeps me out. Like that opening shot in _West Side Story_ where it shows New York, and Yankee Stadium, etc, and then pans over to Harlem, where there are no trees or green things anywhere. I remember I went to a Holocaust museum exhibit once, and they had set up typical Jewish homes. They had menorahs in the windows, lit with those Damn! Electric! Candles! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! That's why I'm scared of them!


----------



## Dakkareth (Oct 17, 2004)

I'm freaked out by most kinds of insects, spiders and whatever else small and non-mammal creeps about. It no true phobia, I'd say, but still ... burn them!


----------



## Gnarlo (Oct 17, 2004)

Watching my own blood be drawn. I can put needles in people all day long, I can cut myself on something and watch myself bleed, but have someone put a nice sterile needle in my arm and start removing blood and I'll pass out in a heartbeat.

I can stand on top of a building or a tall glass elevator and look down at the ants below without a second thought; remove the rail or the glass window and I won't get within 20' of the edge because I _know_ I'm going to be violently hurled out into the air. Had to do some work on the roof of our two story house last weekend, it would take me 10 minutes to climb the ladder and crawl up to where I needed to be, I'd work for 10 minutes until the vertigo got too bad, then 2 minutes to climb back down, 20 minutes on the ground dry heaving, rinse, repeat. Got it done though 

Cannot stand being confined / trapped. Tight spaces aren't a problem, tight spaces I _can't leave_ get me. My idea of hell would be one of those people trapped for days when the elevated freeway collapsed back in the LA earthquake. And I'll never do any crime they could lock me in a cell for, they'd never take me alive 

Can't stand being in water I can't see the bottom of and feel something with my feet... Used to go camping as a kid, and if I was swimming and felt a weed or stump or something in the lake with my feet it was the end of the lake for me that day.

Large insects and bugs. The millipede and big spider crawling out of the log in Fellowship was scarier to me at that moment than the Black Rider was.

I can't stay in a tent at night every since Blair Witch.

There are certain Cthulhu stories that after I read them, for several days I have a very difficult time going outside on a clear, starry, moonless night.


----------



## Algolei (Oct 19, 2004)

Uzumaki said:
			
		

> Dude, that is most definitely _not_ cool. I have problems with stuff getting stuck in my eyes. I always very carefully eat those big orange popsicles, because when I get toward the end and the stick starts to show, I'm always expecting someone to shove me in the back of the head and put my eye out on it.



Ha!  When I was a little kid, my younger brother and I were put out in the backyard in side-by-side tubs of water and given a half a popsicle each.  He decided to play pirates, and wanted to have a swordfight with our popsicle sticks, but I was afraid he would poke me in the eye, so I kept telling him to quit it.  Finally I tried to break his popsicle stick with my own when he thrust it toward my face, but being a clumsy little kid myself, instead I poked him in _*his*_ eye!  My mother had a conniption.  My li'l bro had to wear an eyepatch for a couple of weeks and get goop squirted into his eye several times a day.

During one summer, I took a job painting houses to pay my way through university.  I got paint chips in my eye TWICE!  The first time, I had to see the doctor to get it removed because it went up under my eyelid.  He scratched my cornea getting it out, so I had to wear an eyepatch for a couple of weeks and squirt goop into my eye several times a day.  (Karma, dude!  )  The second time I got a paint chip (in the _other_ eye), I asked my boss to fish it out with a bit of kleenex, but he couldn't.  One look and he freaked out--thought the paint chip was actually lodged right in the flesh of my eyeball.


----------



## DungeonmasterCal (Oct 19, 2004)

Algolei said:
			
		

> Ha!  When I was a little kid, my younger brother and I were put out in the backyard in side-by-side tubs of water and given a half a popsicle each.  He decided to play pirates, and wanted to have a swordfight with our popsicle sticks, but I was afraid he would poke me in the eye, so I kept telling him to quit it.  Finally I tried to break his popsicle stick with my own when he thrust it toward my face, but being a clumsy little kid myself, instead I poked him in _*his*_ eye!  My mother had a conniption.  My li'l bro had to wear an eyepatch for a couple of weeks and get goop squirted into his eye several times a day.
> 
> During one summer, I took a job painting houses to pay my way through university.  I got paint chips in my eye TWICE!  The first time, I had to see the doctor to get it removed because it went up under my eyelid.  He scratched my cornea getting it out, so I had to wear an eyepatch for a couple of weeks and squirt goop into my eye several times a day.  (Karma, dude!  )  The second time I got a paint chip (in the _other_ eye), I asked my boss to fish it out with a bit of kleenex, but he couldn't.  One look and he freaked out--thought the paint chip was actually lodged right in the flesh of my eyeball.





AAAAGGGH!!! AAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!!! AAAAAIIIEEEEEEE!!!!!!  I'll talk!  I'll tell you anything you want to know!! JUST STOP!!!  AAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHH!!!!


----------



## Mercule (Oct 19, 2004)

Not sure if it counts as benign, but I have a morbid unease about losing body parts, which leads to all sorts of weird things.  The eyes, of course, as have been mentioned before.  I can't wield a chainsaw and tend to be skittish around some heavy machinery -- which is really weird for a farm boy.

I've got no idea where it came from, but it's been with me most of my life.  When I was six, I'd break into tears if I saw someone with a prosthetic arm.  To this day, I'm a bit uncomfortable even driving by a prosthetics "store" when I see them.  But I've adjusted well enough to being around amputees -- my uncle lost his leg years ago in a car wreck, but I enjoy getting hanging out with him.

Funny thing is I've got no real fear of death and I'm completely nonplussed by needles.  I've given blood for no better reason than I walked by and saw they had coconut cookies (I love coconut).

Oh, yeah, and Teletubbies and, especially, Boobahs.


----------



## BOZ (Oct 19, 2004)

well, i wouldn't call dismemberment benign...


----------



## Hypersmurf (Oct 19, 2004)

Uzumaki said:
			
		

> Trains. Steam trains, specifically. I don't think I've ever seen one, but I read a story about a stray dog that got run over by one.




Huh.

There was a train station across the road from my high school.

About once every year or two, someone would get hit and killed.

But I have no problem with trains...

-Hyp.


----------



## Mercule (Oct 20, 2004)

BOZ said:
			
		

> well, i wouldn't call dismemberment benign...



I was more thinking the oddball quirks that come of it, in my case.  Amputees are pretty benign.  It's not (usually) like they have leprosy or anything.

It's a stupid reaction on my part.


----------



## Algolei (Oct 21, 2004)

Hypersmurf said:
			
		

> Huh.
> 
> There was a train station across the road from my high school.
> 
> ...



That reminds me--I don't know why--of frozen rivers.  I'm afraid of walking on the ice because people fall through and drown.  It doesn't matter that I know the ice is safe, or that the water is only three feet deep, or that I've experienced swimming in water that cold and it ain't that difficult.

By that definition, I suppose it's an irrational fear then.


----------



## Uzumaki (Oct 21, 2004)

Another eye-related thing that freaks me out:

Car lights that look too much like eyes. I was driving to work yesterday, in the very early morning through the rain, and there was a car in front of me that was staring at me. The light had three parts, divided so they looked similar to a sclera (the white part of an eye), an iris, and a pupil. The sclera part and the pupil were on, so it looked just like a eye. Man, eyeballs must be the most terrifying thing in the world.


----------



## Algolei (Oct 22, 2004)

Hey, cool!  Headlights spook me too, especially when out walking at night.  But they don't frighten me...not really.  I just glare back.  And try to make myself look big.  Raarr!


----------



## caudor (Oct 22, 2004)

Wow, this thread is still rolling along; thanks for all the replies.

I did forget to mention that my daughter is also deathly afraid of June Bugs.  The little critters do have a bad habit of flying up and sticking on people.

One time when we were out on the boat fishing one flew into her hair and either fell or crawled down the back of her collar.  I thought she was going to jump out of the boat!

Also, there was a little kid down that street that actually ate one, and that really grossed her out.


----------



## diaglo (Oct 22, 2004)

Algolei said:
			
		

> Hey, cool!  Headlights spook me too, especially when out walking at night.  But they don't frighten me...not really.  I just glare back.  And try to make myself look big.  Raarr!





my roommate in college would go jogging early in the morning. when he came back i'd wake up from all the noise.

one morning i got up without noise and late for class.

when i got back from class my roommate was passed out on his bunk.

i gave him a hard time about not waking me.

he told me he got run over. so i took him to the student clinic. and later to the hospital for a neck brace and surgery on his leg.   

boy did i feel stupid. now he still won't go jogggin outside. he uses a treadmill instead. i call him a hamster.


----------



## Halivar (Oct 22, 2004)

Public restrooms. 'Nuff said.

 Water fountains. Once when I was five, my mom told me not to use them because someone with AIDS might have used it. This is way back before we knew anything about AIDS and thought you could get by touching people. Even after I knew that was silly, I had this conditioned fear of water fountains (or "bubblers", if you're of the mid-western persuasion). I got over this one about five years ago, but I still don't like them.

 Taking the garbage out at night. Ever since I saw the movie C.H.U.D. as a child, I have had an apoplectic fear of dumpsters at night. My folks used to make me take the garbage out every night after dark, and the dumpsters for our apartment were arranged in a big square. If any Cannabalistic Humanoid Underground Dwellers ever decided to jump out an eat me, I'd be surrounded. I swear, it would take me fifteen minutes of staring at the dumpsters from 50 feet away before I'd gather up the strength to make the mad dash to them, throw up the cover and sling the garbage in, and run as if my life depended on it _because it did and the CHUD's were coming to eat me_ all the way back to the apartment building door. The thirty seconds I would spend at that door, waiting for it to buzz were absolutley the most terrifying moments of my life. I wouldn't look back of course, because I didn't want to see the CHUD's before they ate me. The dread terror of garbage removal persisted until I was 11, but an irrational fear of the night-time dumpsters persists to this day (once last year I caught my self running back to my apartment).


----------



## Aeolius (Oct 22, 2004)

Whenever possible, I tend to avoid locales with tall buildings, parallel parking, and crowds of people. Nothing makes me quite as claustrophobic as being surrounded by a swarm of strange humans.

Other than that I hate needles (I can watch movies where people get their heads ripped off, but show one person getting a shot and I hide behind the sofa) and harbor an irrational dislike for hamsters.


----------



## Knight Otu (Oct 22, 2004)

Gnarlo said:
			
		

> Watching my own blood be drawn.





			
				Aeolius said:
			
		

> Other than that I hate needles



 Heh, I'm a diabetic, annd I inject insuline 4 times a day, 6 times if you count the different types. But when a doctor draws my blood, I look the other way. Can't look. Not as major as the eye thing, but odd enough.


----------



## drnuncheon (Oct 22, 2004)

Halivar said:
			
		

> I had this conditioned fear of water fountains (or "bubblers", if you're of the mid-western persuasion)




Huh?  Only time my wife and I have ever heard 'bubbler' is when we lived in Boston - I went to college in indiana and she grew up in Missouri, and you don't get much more Midwest than that.

Edit: er, to be on topic, the only thing I really get twitchy about are parasites.  Especially intestinal ones.

J


----------



## Brennin Magalus (Oct 22, 2004)

caudor said:
			
		

> My daughter is afraid of clowns (that's not, however, where I got the idea for my avatar).  I think she has found them to be creepy since watching the movie "IT".
> 
> About the only thing that is normally associated with happy thoughts that creeps me out is teletubbies.  Have you looked closely at one of them?  Jeez, they _are_ creepy.
> 
> So what person, place, or thing--that is normally considered to be benign--creeps you out (or someone you know)?




I don't like clowns, which I think stems from watching _Poltergeist_ as a child.


----------



## Andrew D. Gable (Oct 22, 2004)

I dislike many things.  I'm a very neurotic person. 

The most major ones are bats, heights, and cockroaches (I hate the dirty little plague-ridden blighters).


----------



## DungeonmasterCal (Oct 23, 2004)

I work for a major not for profit hunger relief agency here in the states, and we're in the middle of our 60th Anniversary Celebration and Conference on world hunger.  The opening day, I get off the elevator and what do I see?  MIMES!!! I step off the elevator, I'm aware I'm being followed.  I look behind me, and there are a dozen MIMES!!  I'm telling you, it's like my own private screening of HELL!


----------



## Olgar Shiverstone (Oct 23, 2004)

Hmmm ... clowns, check.  Hated them from very small.  Teletubbies ... _the horror!_.  Needles ... don't like 'em, give me the willies.  Magnified pictures of insects make me rub my nose obsessively -- I expect a man-sized insect would scare me into unconsciousness.  Ladders -- for some reason, 6-10 feet off the ground is scary, but I'll happily jump out of a perfectly good airplane.  I don't care for crowds, and always prefer to sit in a public place facing the entrance with my back to a wall (but I'll chalk those up to ingrained paranoia).


----------



## Uzumaki (Oct 23, 2004)

Olgar Shiverstone said:
			
		

> Ladders -- for some reason, 6-10 feet off the ground is scary, but I'll happily jump out of a perfectly good airplane.




Oh, that happens to me, too. I remember I used to get stuck on top of monkey bars when I was little, because I was afraid I'd fall. Yet, I love airplane rides and I'm getting a pilot's license.

Unlikw many of you guys, I like needles. And blood.  I used to donate as often as I could, though mainly because I am a healthy, fit adult (physically, anyway) and blood supplies are always low. Until my doctor told me to knock it off because I was somewhat anaemic.


----------



## Algolei (Oct 24, 2004)

diaglo said:
			
		

> boy did i feel stupid.



Ahh, you get used to it.  



			
				Aeolius said:
			
		

> ...and harbor an irrational dislike for hamsters.



_HEY!!!_ There is nothing--*NOTHING*--irrational about disliking hamsters!!!


----------



## BOZ (Oct 24, 2004)

as long as you don't like hamsters TOO much.


----------



## Onaicul (Oct 25, 2004)

When I was little I had an irrational fear of straws. I couldn't drink out of a straw at all until I was like 8. Other than that nothing too major, needles aren't fun though.

Wait, I remember I used to be paranoid that I'd somehow get a cigarette but on the sidewalk into my shoe, I hate tobacco products.


----------



## BOZ (Oct 25, 2004)

saw poltergiest last night... not as creepy when our 9 year old calls it boring and not in the least bit scary.    of course, this is the same girl whose mother ruined her on Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street and such since she was little...   i didn't think anything could scare her again, until we showed her The Thing that is...


----------



## diaglo (Oct 25, 2004)

BOZ said:
			
		

> saw poltergiest last night... not as creepy when our 9 year old calls it boring and not in the least bit scary.    of course, this is the same girl whose mother ruined her on Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street and such since she was little...   i didn't think anything could scare her again, until we showed her The Thing that is...





Them
Al Hitchock's Birds

or the Blob.

you need the classics.


----------



## Gunslinger (Oct 25, 2004)

I have a fear of heights, but I'm only really scared when there aren't railings (or whatever).  I have no problem with things like flying, but I'm uneasy crossing a bridge (on foot) with no railings that may only be about 20 feet above the water.  Also, there was one time when I rappelled into this cavern (which I was fine with), but I got freaked out when it came time to head back up, because the staircase was made completely of metal, and it was very tall and very rusty.


In addition, I seem to have some sort of fear of choking.  I realized recently that I chew my food much more than is normal, and I have extreme trouble swallowing anything (no matter the size) which I haven't chewed, at least to some degree.  Thus, I cannot take pills without first chewing a bit of food to swallow with the pill.


----------



## BOZ (Oct 25, 2004)

diaglo said:
			
		

> Al Hitchock's Birds




in fact, we did just watch that with her last week.  it was more like "bleh" than scary to her.  i don't think she gets the whole idea of the "set-up to create mood" sort of scary - and without modern CGI effects that she's used to, the birds just looked fake.  i think for her, and a lot of kids today, things need to go BAM BAM BAM right away to catch their attention - i mean, for pete's sake she thought poltergeist was boring!


----------



## Wereserpent (Oct 26, 2004)

Diaglo had to mention the Blob!

Ever since I saw that movie I do not like to put my hand too near drains in sinks, for fear that I will be sucked in by a blob and eaten.


----------



## Darth K'Trava (Oct 26, 2004)

Uzumaki said:
			
		

> Another eye-related thing that freaks me out:
> 
> Car lights that look too much like eyes. I was driving to work yesterday, in the very early morning through the rain, and there was a car in front of me that was staring at me. The light had three parts, divided so they looked similar to a sclera (the white part of an eye), an iris, and a pupil. The sclera part and the pupil were on, so it looked just like a eye. Man, eyeballs must be the most terrifying thing in the world.




Dude, that is just freaky. I hate those too.


----------



## Carbonated Soda (Oct 26, 2004)

I hate crouds, people that stare at my bubbly goodness, don't much care for needles. Though i'm not very good with heights, I also actually use to be agoraphobic ( i think that's how you spell, it's a fear of going outside or wide spaces as far as i know ).


----------



## Naathez (Oct 26, 2004)

I am mildly afraid of dogs.

I'm deathly scared of porcelain dolls. Deathly. To the point of having to ask to remove them from a room in a house I am visiting, or not being able to sit in the same room.

And I am scared to hell, beyond, and a tour of the lower planes to boot, of looking at myself in the mirror when there isn't much light. I'm not afraid that I'll see someone creeping on me...  I'm scared that MY reflection will smile at me and cackle.

OK, you can laugh now... but it's true.

(I freak out for eyeballs too... but that's pretty common.)


----------



## Halivar (Oct 26, 2004)

Galeros said:
			
		

> Diaglo had to mention the Blob!



 At least he didn't mention "Stuff"! Not so much a horror for its suspense as it was a horror that Hollywood could actually _produce_ such stuff (I pun! You see?) using (semi-)big name actors.


----------



## Algolei (Oct 27, 2004)

Naathez said:
			
		

> I'm scared that MY reflection will smile at me and cackle.



Ha ha, that's weird!  I sometimes try to scare my reflection!  I sneak up beside mirrors, then jump out and go "BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH!!!"

I'm fun in public.  It's _fun_ explaining that one:  "One of these days, I'm gonna get that guy!"


----------



## Darth K'Trava (Oct 29, 2004)

Dislike having to call a strange phone number I NEED to call for info about something. I guess it's that talking to a total stranger at the other end thing.....


----------



## Zuoken (Oct 29, 2004)

I have an irrational fear of all reflective surfaces; Catoptrophobia comes the closest, "fear of mirrors".

I don't know why, maybe it was all those horror stories that I read as a little kid.


----------



## BOZ (Nov 1, 2004)

Darth K'Trava said:
			
		

> Dislike having to call a strange phone number I NEED to call for info about something. I guess it's that talking to a total stranger at the other end thing.....




i have that one myself often enough.  the trick is to tell yourself, 9 times out of 10 they don't care about you personally, and are not out to get you, so the quicker you get your business with them done the better.


----------



## Kemrain (Nov 3, 2004)

Cthulhu's Librarian said:
			
		

> Needles and surgery. I hate getting shots, and watching someone else get a shot makes me sick to my stomach. Especially if it's on TV. I can watch the bloodiest, sickest, most violent horror movie, but turn on ER and I have to leave the room. It hink it's the depiction of something that is true to life vs. over the top gore.




I'm there. I often have a strange, tingly, bad sensation in the back of my thighs whenever I see or even hear about a 'real' injury. The thought of a needle slowly thrusting into a vein, makes me feel faint. But, I can talks about and describe disembowlment, eviceration, viviscetion, and a host of other gruesome things without batting an eye. Seeing it, though... Euuugh...

Deep Water freaks me out, and I don't like to swim in places where I can't see the bottom. Love to swim, though. Odd.

Arachnids in particular, but insects too, especially on me, especially on me without my knowing it (butthem finding out). I've taken to asking people just to kill them, and not even tell me about it.

My eyes are important to me, but, I have bad dreams about losing teeth. The thought terrifies me. You'd think, though, that it'd encourage me to brush more than once per day...

Also a little afraid of dogs, and I doubt working at a kennel for a summer helped that.



			
				Darth K'Trava said:
			
		

> Dislike having to call a strange phone number I NEED to call for info about something. I guess it's that talking to a total stranger at the other end thing.....



 This one I empathise with! I've put off important phone calls for months because of an irrational fear of making phone calls to people I don't know. Once I make them, though, I'm generally perfectly fine on the phone. I can recieve calls fine, too.

Off topic: I'm from Massachusetts, and the first time someone asked me where the "Water Fountain" was, I told him 'in the park'. Bubblers, man.  "Bubblah," with the accent.

- Kemrain the Irrational.

Oh, and, after having a dream where my mother, dressed as a clown, tried to staple a clown wig to my head, I've been uneasy around staplers... *I mean clowns*!

Kemrain the Mental...oO(No one must know about my fear of staplers!)


----------



## I'm A Banana (Nov 3, 2004)

Clowns totally freak me out. When I was a kid, a picture of a clown _watched_ me....eeeechh....and chalk me up for blood/injury. I get all weak-limbed about it in general, though true emergency has been able to override it.

Someone I know is really freaked out by butterflies, doctors, and cops, but looooves vampires.


----------



## cignus_pfaccari (Nov 4, 2004)

Kemrain said:
			
		

> I'm there. I often have a strange, tingly, bad sensation in the back of my thighs whenever I see or even hear about a 'real' injury. The thought of a needle slowly thrusting into a vein, makes me feel faint. But, I can talks about and describe disembowlment, eviceration, viviscetion, and a host of other gruesome things without batting an eye. Seeing it, though... Euuugh...




I can't have blood drawn from my left arm.  It goes numb whenever I go to have a needle put in, so it has to go into my right arm.

It goes back to the first time I tried to give blood, in college, and the guy couldn't find the vein.  He tried several times before tossing me out with a very interesting radiation trefoil-shaped bruise in my left elbow.  Next time someone tried to put a needle in my arm, it went numb and I had to have it go in the right arm.

Of course, one wonders why, if it's numb, I don't have the needle put in. Which, now that I think of it, is a very good question.

Brad


----------



## CarlZog (Nov 10, 2004)

Daytime soap operas. I don't mean I just don't like them; They give me the CREEPS.

There something about the studio lighting, the sets, the way the characters look and talk.... It frightens me. I can't be around it at all.

The sound of them on in a house in the middle of the day also conjures up for me the worst kind of slovenly domestic nightmare that I can't run away from fast enough.


----------



## BOZ (Nov 10, 2004)

heheh...


----------

