Irrational Fears

[Kendhni]

I can understand fear of things like snakes, spiders etc. but the wife of a friend is terrified of the dark ... that I can not understand.
I have stayed in 'the haunted room' of several hotels .. and I have to say not once did I get the willies.

Do you consider such fears as rational or irrational ... or what do you have a fear of?

[Meg 50]

they are irrational, but I understand perfectly.

I can't explain, but I do know how debilitating these things can be.

Even though a person can rationalise the fear, they cannot cope with it when put on the spot

[Dancing Queen]

Other than the obvious 'spiders' or literally anything that moves faster than I do

I have two irrational fears, one is being in the car underneath a bridge, if traffic is at a standstill I have to wait until it starts moving before I will drive on, the other is tunnels especially if they are under water like the Euro tunnel ... a definite no no for me.

Oh and the dentist !!!

[Andrea S]

I am petrified of anything getting close to my face.
I have always had a fear of insects in case I swallowed one and I go into a cold sweat if bats and birds swoop close to my hair.

Like DQ I don't like to be at a standstill under a bridge and I panic in traffic when surrounded by lorries.

Ironically, the traffic fear came many years ago when I was in New York. I was trapped under a bridge following a flash storm which was scary but a few days later we were on Wall Street and I had massive panic attack over the height of the buildings and the fact that I felt they would fall down on to me.

[Holiday Planner]

I have a friend who is terrified of birds. I've been in a large barn like building with her when a robin flew in and settled about 6 feet from her. She was genuinely freaked out, though did her best not to show it.

More understandably, my daughter is frightened of fire ... but to extremes. One bonfire night when she was small, she didn't even want to walk into the field when the bonfire was in the far corner. Even now at 19 years old she won't use matches, and can't understand why anyone would want to light candles in their home.

[sumdumbloke]

I can understand fear of things like snakes, spiders etc. but the wife of a friend is terrified of the dark ... that I can not understand.
I have stayed in 'the haunted room' of several hotels .. and I have to say not once did I get the willies.

Do you consider such fears as rational or irrational ... or what do you have a fear of?

Better luck next time...

[HK phooey]

Clowns, I'd run a mile if I saw one in real life!

[Onelife]

“Graphophobia”

Other than that….

Finding myself in a dark room with Stephen would frighten the Sh*t out of me

Regards

OL

[qbman1]

Clowns, I'd run a mile if I saw one in real life!

Best stay away from LOTP then !

[Gill W]

Clowns, I'd run a mile if I saw one in real life!

Yes, clowns creep me out. They are sinister and nasty

My friend has a lot of fears. She doesn't like heights for one thing. She visited The Shard last month and when she got the viewing platform, she literally had to be peeled off the wall, to approach the windows

She doesn't like flying either. She's tried everything to overcome this, but nothing has worked. She puts it down to the fact that she needs to be in control. She thinks she'd be fine if she could fly the plane!

[Frank Manning]

Other than the obvious 'spiders' or literally anything that moves faster than I do

I have two irrational fears, one is being in the car underneath a bridge, if traffic is at a standstill I have to wait until it starts moving before I will drive on, the other is tunnels especially if they are under water like the Euro tunnel ... a definite no no for me.

Oh and the dentist !!!

I can sympathise with those DQ. Having been through Eurotunnel a few times, and under the Severn by train, it isn't a nice experience. I hated the dentists drill, but it wasn't fear of pain, but fear that the drill bit would fly off and embed itself in me somewhere. A superb Aussie dentist showed me that it is highly unlikely and I have been fine ever since.

Sue is a bit psychic and sees people and senses things in the dark. Some of her short term predictions about people are uncanny. I dont know if my fear of that is rational or not, but she has woken me up in to the night to tell me someone is standing in the room. My first reaction is to get right under the covers pdq.

[emjay45]

they are irrational, but I understand perfectly.

I can't explain, but I do know how debilitating these things can be.

Even though a person can rationalise the fear, they cannot cope with it when put on the spot

I couldn't agree more meg.

[AngieT]

I too had a fear of dentists from the age of 10. This was due to being knocked down on a cobbled street by a german shepherd dog resulting in 2 broken front teeth. I heard the dentist tell my mum that he would wait until I was a few years older before he repaired them as the pain of pulling the roots out would put me off dentists for life. Just hearing about it put me off dentists for life & I stopped going between the ages of 16 & 29. After a terrible toothache I went to our local dental hospital & a wonderful 5th year student took me on as her 'Practical' Final Exam patient. I spent an hour every week for 10 weeks in her chair having lots of treatment done, including my front teeth! Since then my fear of dentists has disappeared !

[Dark Knight]

what is a rational fear and an irrational one
I know the text book definition but surely, what is rational to one, say spiders, is irrational to another , who keeps spiders as pets?

i believe every fear is rational, maybe just not proportional

[Meg 50]

what is a rational fear and an irrational one
I know the text book definition but surely, what is rational to one, say spiders, is irrational to another , who keeps spiders as pets?

i believe every fear is rational, maybe just not proportional

doesn't really matter what it's called - if it starts to affect your quality of life, it's a biggie

[Dark Knight]

if it get to that stage, then yes Meg, it is a major issue.

[GillD46]

they are irrational, but I understand perfectly.

I can't explain, but I do know how debilitating these things can be.

Even though a person can rationalise the fear, they cannot cope with it when put on the spot

I completely agree. You know they are irrational, but no matter what, you have the fear.

I am like that about water. I can swim a little - really a very little and i swim almost vertically - but i can't learn to swim properly because I CAN NOT even consider not being able to put my feet on the bottom, and because i CAN NOT consider putting my face in the water. It's only the last few years I have been able to stand facing the shower!

Ridiculous, but there it is!

[Gill W]

I too had a fear of dentists from the age of 10. This was due to being knocked down on a cobbled street by a german shepherd dog resulting in 2 broken front teeth. I heard the dentist tell my mum that he would wait until I was a few years older before he repaired them as the pain of pulling the roots out would put me off dentists for life. Just hearing about it put me off dentists for life & I stopped going between the ages of 16 & 29. After a terrible toothache I went to our local dental hospital & a wonderful 5th year student took me on as her 'Practical' Final Exam patient. I spent an hour every week for 10 weeks in her chair having lots of treatment done, including my front teeth! Since then my fear of dentists has disappeared !

Actually, my dad had a fear of dentists. He had a tooth out in 1945, and it wouldn't stop bleeding. He had to go to hospital to get it to stop. As a result he didn't go back to a dentist for the rest of his life! He died in 2004, so that was 59 years without going to the dentists

His teeth were actually in good shape.

this fear was not passed to me - I go every six months

[Jan Rosser]

they are irrational, but I understand perfectly.

I can't explain, but I do know how debilitating these things can be.

Even though a person can rationalise the fear, they cannot cope with it when put on the spot

I completely agree. You know they are irrational, but no matter what, you have the fear.

I am like that about water. I can swim a little - really a very little and i swim almost vertically - but i can't learn to swim properly because I CAN NOT even consider not being able to put my feet on the bottom, and because i CAN NOT consider putting my face in the water. It's only the last few years I have been able to stand facing the shower!

Ridiculous, but there it is!

Not ridiculous at all Gill. I was going to post on here my fear of water - I learnt to swim in the outdoor baths whilst in junior school and could get from one side of the pool to the other but never ever went out of my depth and then I got pushed in and went under and lost what little confidence I did have. My husband was a strong swimmer and taught our boys to swim and likewise my four grandchildren have all had proper lessons and swim like fish - no fear at all. This doesn't stop me worrying about them though - I think I worry more about them than I did my own children perhaps because I had control of them.

I'm not a follower of soaps on the tv but last week I turned over the channels and Emmerdale was showing a scene in a flooded cellar and the actors kept diving underwater - I had to turn it over - I was taking deep breaths and drowning - it was awful - I suppose some would class as irrational.

Thank goodness we are made differently.

[Meg 50]

I watched Kilroy several years ago - generally he was a tolerant soul, but he took apart a lady with a phobia - kept telling her to pull herself together "It's irrational..."

I was SO cross. The poor lady had been really brave to go on TV and admit to her problems.... He must have put her back years.



On the other hand, more recently, I watched a chap with a fear of heights try to climb up (the inside) of a bell tower (in Bruges, I think).

He made it, albeit a gibbering heap by the end. I cried with him. The attitudes of the presenter couldn't have been more different to Kilroy's

[gilly88]

escalalaters, (sp?) I can go up, but never down them. I will do all I can to avoid them, seeking out all the lifts, or stairs. I don't know where it came from as I used to live in London and used the ones in the underground until I was 15 years old. but now I freeze and am a gibbering wreck when I try to use them.

[Andrea S]

After reading other peoples fears I have come to the conclusion I must be a nervous wreck.

Nothing alters my lifestyle but the reason I choose cruising with intensive Port itinerary is the fact that I panic at the thought of too much water around me for days on end and like gilly88 I don't use escalators " going down ". I used the underground for many years but I find now that I am more cautious with regard to falling and I find on an escalator that I am gripping onto the rail whilst looking where my feet are going. As everyone knows, the stairs move the rail doesn't. Definitely lift or regular stairs for me.

[oldbluefox]

My sister has a phobia about feathers, either on a bird or off the bird. We can't remember anything which caused the phobia but if anyboady came near her with a feather boa she would be off!!

[RB1961]

My fear is heights. Don't know why. I'm ok on the prom deck but on the top deck I have to hold on to the rail to look over.
Mrs RB however is scared to swim similar to Gill46. Every cruise she says "I'm going to learn to swim" she gets in the pool and won't let go of my hand. She got dunked by her teacher at primary school and lost her confidence and never got it back.
She is also scared of balloons she won't go near them as she thinks they will pop.

RB

[Manoverboard]

I am generally ok-ish with heights even atop the CN Tower in Toronto, until that is I saw the glass floor at which point I crawled very very slowly on my hands and knees to pop the camera over the lip to get a pic of the ' drop ' ... had I viewed the entire scene through the viewfinder of a camcorder there wouldn't have been a problem.