Redditor An_Anxious_Mess_Idk asked:
"What is one fear you have that would be considered stupid by most people?"
Never See It Coming
"I’m scared that when I’m driving anywhere late at night and the roads are clear I’ll be struck by one of those land speed record vehicles."
"I’d be afraid it would come out of nowhere and I wouldn’t see it coming."
- gameofthrones_addict
"I always had this fear (a vehicle coming out of nowhere) when crossing streets as a kid. Suburban streets, mind you..."
- unknown-permutation
"Yeah pretty much, just middle of nowhere you don’t always see everything…"
"I know it wouldn’t happen. So I know it’s an irrational fear."
- gameofthrones_addict
Detached
"Becoming detached on a space walk and drifting off into the void."
"I am not an astronaut, for clarity."
- LoneKharnivore
GiphyWooly Bully
"Cotton balls."
- DatDude999
"I can't touch cotton wool or anything of that texture. It gives me the chills and the jitters."
"My wife thinks I'm an idiot."
- cloudstrifeuk
"Me too. Everyone always tries messing with me by showing me them or chasing me because I actually run as soon as I see them!"
- AdministrativeCap998
"It's called Sidonglobophobia. The sounds and the static they make when you touch them makes me shake."
- DatDude999
Hiisssss
"Toilet snakes. Thanks, Stephen King."
- Beesareourcousins
"Wife found a 5 foot long black snake in her mom’s washer. She thought it was some sort of gasket that fell in the tub at first….reached for it and it moved."
"Our house is 500 feet away, heard her scream from the front porch."
"Mother-in-law’s house was built 1890 or so. Not very well sealed up anymore."
- tatpig
"Omg. I found a 3-4 foot snake in my hamper once."
"I heard what I THOUGHT was like, a soda bottle slowly letting out fizz, and when I went to investigate, it was A F'KING SNAKE hissing."
"Carried the whole thing, dirty clothes and all, out to the driveway and kicked it over so the snake would slither away."
"I had bombed for spiders the day before. I had opened all the windows and doors for several hours to air the house out. I’m guessing he snuck in then."
"I was ready to burn the place to the ground after that. 😳"
- SamSepiol-ER28_0652
GiphyTake A Seat
"I can't sleep with my desk chair facing my bed."
"I have to get up, turn on a light, face it away from me, and then I can go back to bed."
"I get irrationally afraid that I'm going to turn over or blink and look at it and someone is going to be sitting in it watching me sleep."
"No idea where that fear came from."
- lockehearte
Deep Blue
"Swimming in a lake, or in the ocean without being able to see the bottom."
"I was bit/cut by something once and since then it's a fear I just can't control.
"I will still go and do it though because I hate it when people tell me what to do. Even when that's myself."
- Personality4Hire
"Thank god water shoes were invented or I’d never go in the ocean or lake again."
"I stepped on a horseshoe crab and it freaked me out so bad I can’t go into those bodies of water unless I have shoes on."
- JRich61
"We had a little sand shark swimming by us one trip to the ocean."
"Haven’t been able to get past ankle deep since. It’s been probably closer to 14 years ago now."
- Negative_Shake1478
GiphyReflection
"Fear of mirrors."
"Creepy things they are."
- The_dead_are_rising
"I'm specifically scared of mirrors in the dark, or any reflective surface."
"I'm convinced that if I look at it, I'm gonna see something horrible standing behind me."
- Kotori425
"Same but I’m not scared of seeing something behind me."
"I’m scared of seeing something in it that could possibly reach or step out."
"Mirrors in the dark feel like a door to another dimension to me and I have no idea why."
- christopharo
"My worst nightmare is getting up at night to go to the bathroom, going past my mirror and I'll see myself in the mirror but the me in the mirror does something different than me..."
"It's that bad that I'll walk past my mirror with my eyes closed at night."
- JenJMLC
Unblinking Eyes
"DEAD FISH."
"UGLY MOTHERF'KERS."
"UNBLINKING EYES ALWAYS STARING"
- Flat_Bodybuilder_175
"Hate to break it to you, but fish don’t blink when they’re alive either."
- Itsafinelife
"You're... not wrong. By the law of my own phobia, I now have a fear of living fish too."
- Flat_Bodybuilder_175
"The sharks got your back bro, they wink."
- salinase
discovery eye roll GIF by Shark WeekGiphyMothra Is A Monster
"Moths."
"I get teased all the times about it and my reasons and people try to trick me in to liking them or admitting it's fake.
"Apparently being scared of spiders is ok (I like spiders) but terrified of moths is weird because I like butterflies and 'they are the same thing'."
- kyaria17
That Moth Fear Is Justified
"May 2020, my husband and I took off on a road trip. Everything was mostly shut down but that’s fine, what we like to see and do are outdoor, nature things. We stopped at a state park in Oklahoma that had only partially opened that very day."
"We walked around for a bit, let the dog run around as we were the only ones there. Then I had to pee. Now I’m a chick and 'I’ve got to find somewhere to pee' is pretty much always happening or going to within half an hour."
"The usual state park bathroom places were one hole situations but in little concrete buildings….nice enough, I’ve used way worse."
"When we first opened the door a LOT of moths flew out. I’m not scared of moths but it was a LOT. So we let them fly away and I went in. I’m sitting there beside one of those large toilet roll things….the one foot diameter ones with the black cover and you pull the paper from under."
"Even as I gave the toilet paper a yank, a tiny part of my brain knew what would happen. A truly biblical number of moths burst out from the bottom of the paper roll when I pulled."
"I ran/hobbled with shorts pulled down and toilet paper in hand just screaming out of the bathroom. My husband all but dropped he was laughing so hard. My poor dog was sure I was being attacked and ran into the bathroom barking and growling."
"It was all hilarious in hindsight. But trying to explain to anyone how moths could make me run screaming is difficult to say the least."
- rebel1031
GiphyFor me?
June bugs.
June bugs crawl out of the ground in the summer because they're mini demons emerging from Hell. I cannot be convinced otherwise.
So what's your irrational fear?
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In reality, some fears just stick.
No matter how old you get, or how much math you do to convince your anxiety that it's probably NOT going to happen... some things just stick.
Reddit user iron_horse_ asked:
"What's one thing that still scares the hell out of you no matter how old you get?"
When I was young, my dad's car spun out on an overpass while I was driving with him. I was sitting upfront because there wasn't much of a back seat.
The car came to a stop facing the wall, the windshield framing the long fall that we could have taken. Just a few more inches forward. If he had been going just a little bit faster ...
It's probably not a coincidence that my first actual panic attack happened as I was driving on an overpass on a rainy night.
It just stuck.
Here's what "just stuck" for Reddit.​
The Stairs
michael douglas stairs GIF by JustinGiphy"Walking up the stairs at night when all the lights are off downstairs."
"No matter how hard I resist, I always end up sprinting."
- metee_agar
"For me, I start at normal speed then constantly speed up until I'm going so fast I often fall. It's so stupid."
- PreciousAliyah
"Same! I’m usually the last to go to bed, so I’m the one turning off the lights most nights while everyone else is asleep."
"I imagine my family hears my loud sprinting thuds every night and thinks I’m insane lol"
- largecucumber
Overboard
blue planet oceans GIF by BBC AmericaGiphy"The thought of being dropped in the middle of an ocean."
"I'm terrified of the emptiness - nothing but water stretching into the horizon in every directions. Treading water and wondering if you should even try to swim or give up and let yourself sink into the ocean ... and to God Knows What that lives there."
-jmongevida
"When I was in the Navy, I'd look out at the sea and it wasn't too bad most of the time."
"There are people watching out in every direction all the time, and there's usually someone working topside to keep an eye on you when you fall in."
"But even the THOUGHT of falling overboard at night is terrifying to me."
"It is damn near pitch black, so even the people watching at night won't see you, and you'll just sit there watching the ship's lights fade into the distance, knowing they'll never find you in the dark."
- MS-07B-3
Mirror Mirror
scared looney tunes GIFGiphy"Often times when I'm washing cleanser off of my face, I fear that when I lift my head to look in the mirror, there will be a stranger/monster/axe murderer suddenly standing behind me."
"I've had this paranoid thought since I was around 7 years old."
-juliannedattas
"Same but I’m always scared about me being the monster. Like I look up and instead of my face, there’s some demonic entity🙃 "
-thegirlwhodied_
"I think this is one of the more common ones."
"Any time I shampoo my hair I make sure to rinse really quickly so that the bathroom demon doesn’t have time to show up lol"
- poecilio
"It's odd because looking in mirrors is the only time I can see behind me, but it's also the only time I am scared something will sneak up on me from behind."
"It's completely contradictory to logic. I should feel safer while looking in a mirror."
- snapwillow
Lights In The Dark
Im Watching You GIF by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy FallonGiphy"Small, red lights in the dark."
"My TV has one that’s always on, but not many things do anymore."
"It makes me extremely anxious and on guard. Maybe that I’m being watched? I can’t really explain it and I’ve pondered why get all wigged out for a hot minute."
- SpoolBus6Oh
"They always remind me of eyes in the dark."
"They belong to some strange, terrifying mystical creature that could kill you at any given moment. It watches from the shadows. Waiting. Watching. Always."
- ScaredBlackCat
"For me it's the possibility of the light winking out for a split second, then coming back."
"That tells you that something is moving right there in front of you in the pitch darkness - and the only thing you know about it is that it's there."
- Prudent_Hawk_7476
Sleep Situations
new jersey woman GIFGiphy"I can't sleep with my back to the door. I saw a movie as a kid where a girl was sleeping with her back to the door and someone came in and stabbed her in the back."
"Also, the closet door has to be closed because there are monsters in there at night."
"I will still occasionally jump into bed so the monsters under the bed can't grab me."
"A dark house, I flip on every light as I walk through."
"So I guess this means I'm afraid of the dark? *Sighs*"
"I'm 47. I guess I won't be growing out of it anytime soon."
- r_ylenia
"I have this!"
"I'm so traumatized that I can barely go to the bathroom without getting shivers and adrenaline boosts. Going to sleep is horrible."
"I can only sleep if I face the wall and I have to distract my brain from projecting horror stuff on my retina. I always fail."
"I don't know if I'll grow out of this (I'm a teen.) It's bad. sometimes I even look constantly behind me just to make sure I didn't spawn a demon by breathing or something"
- colorfulblack
"I'm 27 years old and can confirm El Cucuy is DEFINITLEY in the closet."
"Haven't seen it... but I know it's there. Never leave a closet door open at night."
- PancShank94
Spiders
"Spiders. God damn spiders."
"Big ones, small ones, fat ones, skinny ones, all of them. They keep me awake at night thinking about them."
"The idea that there is probably at least one hiding in my room somewhere at this exact moment freaks me the f*ck out."
"I once punched my sister in the face for putting a fake one on me."
"When I was a kid, I was going to take a shower and a daddy long leg came crawling out of the drain hole. I puked from the fear and didn't take another shower from the next 2 months."
"Spiders can all die in a fiery pit. They're all gross and disgusting and I hate them."
- aizen_vx
The Floor Is ... Crabs?
bbc one crab GIF by BBCGiphy"Bathing in lakes and seas."
"Once, as a small kid, I went for a swim in the sea only to discover that the ground was covered in small crabs."
"I'm not talking 50, I'm talking thousands of small crabs that would be everywhere where I put my feet down. I was stepping on them, they were scrambling over my feet. I couldn't touch the bottom without touching a crab."
"Now I hate to go swimming if I cant see the bottom."
- LakeTop7461
3:33
Scared Bruce Campbell GIF by Ash vs Evil DeadGiphy"It's bizarre, but it freaks me out when I randomly wake up at 3:33am or happen to notice the time at 3:33pm."
"I think it was some Exorcist movie when I was a kid. I just look the other way like 'nope not noticing this devil sht!' "
"The funny part is I'm agnostic."
"Mom was catholic, though, and quite nuts so this may have played a role in my legit fear of demons, even if rationally I don't think they're real... Probably."
- Otherwise_Flan_7854
Just Bots
Robots Free Yourself GIF by The Chemical BrothersGiphy"The Dead Internet Theory"
"It's getting scarier and more obvious as we get older."
"The theory is that internet "died" somewhere around late 2016 to early 2017 and is being discreetly replaced by bots designed to selectively challenge or reaffirm your opinions to maximize engagement."
"This is also supported by the spread of link rot and content drift. Read up. It's not as tin-foil-hat at you might be thinking."
"People massively undervalue their intuition these days, and are quick to play the tin-foil-hat card when something like this is brought up."
"If something feels off, it usually is."
- Spxders
Fire
Virtual Reality Fire GIF by The Weather ChannelGiphy"Bushfires. I live in a very bushfire-prone area."
"It was made super clear growing up how awfully terrifying fires are. They kill. It isn't quick and painless. An extremely intense wariness and fear of them has always been deep-rooted in my mind."
"Just the sight of smoke on the horizon makes me nervous. God forbid I see it on a hot and windy day."
"F*ck fires. So much."
- No-Acanthisitta423
Stairs Again
Chris Hemsworth Movie GIF by NETFLIXGiphy"Heights, glass railings, steps/escalators and especially around children."
"As a small child I fell backwards down a escalator and managed to catch myself before a point at which I probably would have died."
"It still scares me today. All I saw was the mall floor and glass railings as I fell."
"My ex husband had a little cousin that died on steps. It really bothered me - he was a gorgeous, happy little kid and I spent so much time around him."
"He happened to fall a day after we spent time with him."
- ChineseChaiTea
Welp ... Reddit has just given me a bunch of new stuff to lose sleep over at night. What about you?
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Who's Watching?
jim carrey what GIFGiphyThat my entire life has been recorded and will be released to the public.
What is Wrong with me?
Unknowingly being severely mentally deficient/ill.
Me too! Sometimes I wonder if I'm developmentally disabled, and everyone around me is just pretending like I'm not.
I have asked this question to a lot of people, about myself. I feel smart, but just different than other people and wonder if they all act like they really like me. I guess I see people treat me differently than I see them treat others. I suspect it's because I'm very personable but could just be my imagination.
A 2 Way Mirror
That time travel will be possible in the future sort of like an exhibit, where people can secretly watch you in a "two way mirror-like" way. When i'm doing weird stuff alone, i always point in a random direction and squint to make the future person think I'm onto them. But then again, they could just be watching me type this comment and know I'm bluffing. commence internal screaming.
never ending door GIFThen you just see a dark hand reach in and then a dark face with deep dark sunken in eyes, with the most about of hatred possible, then it gets down on all fours and open its mouth until there jaw is broken.... then runs at you.
It's 4am and I just woke up, sorry if this is gonna scare you.
Don't Answer
Answering phone calls from unknown number.
I have come to the conclusion that they are 99% advertising campaigns so I simply don't answer. Now I have an irrational fear of losing an important call despite no one would try to contact you only by phone and only once.
Through the Nostrils
Not being able to breathe through my nose.
It's enough to trigger an immediate panic attack especially if I'm asleep.
I even had nose surgery to stop it blocking up, so I wasn't living in a state of high anxiety with panic attacks every night.
Unfortunately the nose surgery recovery went wrong and it got completely blocked for 3 weeks, so now I have a strong fear of hospitals as well.
Inside of Me
Worms.
I'm afraid they'll get inside of me and I'll see them slithering around under my skin.
They're literally my phobia, it was a real struggle last year for my zoology labs, I now know more about worms than I wished.
I have the irrational fear of maggots and worms crawling over me and a few days ago while I was sitting on my couch and got up I literally saw a few maggots crawling where I sat holy crap.
And all of that because my girlfriend cannot stop eating on the couch and gets the food everywhere which attracts these morons.
cat flying GIFIn the Can
Canned drinks.
True stories of bugs and rodents ending up in canned packaging are bad enough, but I'm also afraid that something has crawled into the can after opening it. It's not like we stare at the drink until we're finished with it, and you can't see the contents. Ugh... gives me chills just thinking about it.
From the Back
where is it monday night raw GIF by WWEGiphyWhen I'm reaching my hand into my backpack (or similar items) I think my hand is gonna get bitten by a spider or a raccoon. Think this came from a jump scare in until dawn.
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