what are you afraid of?

[Garchomp]

interesting! do they make you uncomfortable? is it like an aesthetic/texture thing? my bf doesn't like things that have a bunch of tiny holes in them.

Trypophobia is the fear of small, and/or close holes. I have it as well and it actually sucks. xD Even just glancing at things with that kind of texture/look makes my skin crawl. If I look too long, it'll make me physically ill. I won't feel right for the rest of the day.

[Ice]

I have trypophobia. I physically recoil from any image (even in my own head rip it's kind of one of those shitty you absolutely must not think about it or you will start to think about it and freak out things) that triggers it and my skin feels like something's crawling all over it. Very bad feeling.

More normal things that freak me out are spiders and insects in general (especially segmented ones with HELLA legs, the more legs or eyes something has the more I Nope). Also I am terrified of a slow, oncoming death. Like the ones where it's going to be terrible and you have the time to panic and freak out about it, i.e. being on a plane about to crash or drowning. I haven't had any situations remotely close to such things, thankfully, but the fear is still there.

[kittyray]

Also I am terrified of a slow, oncoming death. Like the ones where it's going to be terrible and you have the time to panic and freak out about it, i.e. being on a plane about to crash or drowning. I haven't had any situations remotely close to such things, thankfully, but the fear is still there.

I have the same fear. Especially getting trapped in a burning structure of some sort.

Similarly, I am terrified of neurodegenerative diseases.

[Buizel]

I'm sure others have said this too, but death is my number one thing. I also think the fear of not knowing what happens after scares me too...I like being myself (to a degree) and I don't know if I still will be myself once I die if that makes sense.

I also am afraid of traditional things like bugs and heights, but I also would hate to be trapped somewhere burning or drowning.

This last one may sound weird, but I also greatly fear the day that any of the pets I own pass away. My last cat, Todo (he used to be on the TCs I attended for CK) passed away in 2015 and I shattered. I honestly saw a new side of myself I didn't know I had. The weeks and days leading up to it (I had him put to sleep), any time I thought about it, I just sobbed uncontrollably. And then when it finally happened, I couldn't operate normally for over a month.

Sorry for rambling, but pet deaths are probably my biggest fear over my own death. I have two lovely cats now, but the same thought is always around.

[Goddammit]

I don't have a vomiting phobia but I am what I call a sympathetic puker. If I hear or see anyone vomiting, I will also vomit and I hate it because I hate throwing up and will avoid it at all costs. I literally leave the room if I'm watching a movie and someone throws up. I know the time stamp in Trick R Treat when the kid starts throwing up so I can leave before that happens even though thats one of my favorite movies.

Actual Fears:
thalassophobia, the fear of deep open water. But I love the ocean. I think it is incredible. I've been several times and will wade in about to my thighs but I wont go farther. Whats lurking in the depths freaks me out. Even looking at pictures of it makes me feel anxious but I do it anyway because the life under the water is fascinating and I like being scared. Murky water in general fucks with me though. Even if I'm in a pool.

spiders, but I'm working on this one! My best friend keeps jumping spiders as pets and shes been working really slowly to help me get over my fear of them but idk. They just freak me out.

Being kidnapped/murdered. I watch a lot of true crime. It's made me hyper aware of my surroundings and people but I seriously have nightmares about this on a weekly basis. Last night I dreamt I had to jump from a moving car and hope I didnt get hit by other cars because someone threw me in their van. Unfun times.

Irrational Fears

(spiders maybe count as irrational)

Baby dolls. I fuckin hate em. Hate em with a passion. My kid has only ever had one, her great grandma bought it for her and it was one of the ones that the eyes open and close when you move it. Thankfully she hated it so it got thrown out. In a dumpster far away from my house.

[My name is Yoshikage Kira]

The only thing I can really say I'm scared of is water
I constantly have nightmares about falling into water. Doesn't matter what kind, pools, large bodies of water, I don't like any of them
I almost drowned as a young child and I guess that fear has stuck around with me ever since.

[rio]

Oh wow, I'm sorry to hear about your phobia, that sounds really difficult.

My fears - tsunamis and death. Like, what happens once we die? I think about how many years of history have passed and how many more will pass and I won't even be here, it really freaks me out.
I'm not religious but sometimes I think life would be easier to handle if you had an answer or a feeling of peace/acceptance for what happens after.

[Crow]

I made a list once after being fascinated by all the different types of fears there are. This is what I ended up with:

1. Lifetime worries/dreads:
a. Being the one that causes someone I love / care about to experience pain (or death)
b. Not standing up for someone in the moment of need
c. Offending someone / making someone quiet / making someone think they are unimportant or their idea is stupid
d. Instant death (not getting to "be there for myself" as I leave this existence)
e. Conflict between friends
f. People I trust turning on me / betrayal by people close to me / unfriending me for reasons I can’t fathom
g. Dying before I accomplish what I want to accomplish (i.e. publish certain books)

2. Jump-scares, things that make your heart flutter negatively:
a. Something appearing out of nowhere
b. Child ghosts
c. Something grabbing me from under my bed
d. A bit of light in a very dark room / place

3. Things you don’t like to think about because you don’t want to happen
a. Getting struck by lightning
b. Amnesia
c. Getting my head bashed in
d. My mother, father, sister, or someone super close to me dying
e. Any of my pets getting hurt or killed
f. Being impaled
g. My eyes getting injured (i.e. stabbed)
h. My neck/throat getting stabbed / slit
i. The feeling of death/dying
j. Losing physical memories (i.e. losing everything I’ve written/saved on computers/online, losing photos, sentimental items, etc)

4. Guttural fears that you can’t totally explain
a. Tornadoes
b. Looking into people’s eyes
c. Falling from tall heights
d. Lions in dreams

5. Little fears you try to avoid in daily life
a. People abandoning me; getting lost; getting left behind; missing out
b. Bugs crawling into my ears
c. Accidentally misplacing an animal (i.e. getting stuck in the drier, fridge; or small animal getting stepped on/squished)
d. Stubbing my fingernails/toenails on doors

6. Fears you can’t explain / irrational fears
a. Shoebill storks + caracals
b. Big trucks going by on a quiet night
c. Something where it’s not supposed to be / out of place

[imacandy]

I can relate so much to this thread, lol

I have an intense mottephobia, the fear of moths & sometimes their relatives, such as butterflies. Anything above 5-6 cm is considered a real threat by my brain, but the bigger ones are able to paralyze me in seconds. I think it's something about their wings and antennae, and weirdly enough I have zero fear of other insects, I even deal fairly ok with cockroaches and have a beetle tattooed lol
I don't recall any traumatic events involving moths in my childhood, I only remember running away from butterflies because the other kids used to say they could get us blind because of some sort of powder they dropped.

As I kid, I was afraid of flowers, all kinds. Couldn't get close to them, but this fear eventually went away.

And my biggest fear is death. Not death exactly, pain and such, but the fear of nothing, of the nonexistence, closing my eyes and ceasing to exist, the eternal oblivion. I think about if very often and it usually leads to panic attacks, looool *cries in anxiety*

[Druid]

I don't think it's ever been phobia level for me (I don't think I have any phobias at all), but I also have a pretty extreme aversion to vomit. It was worse when I was younger, I may or may not have exposure therapy'd my way to a healthier relationship with it when I was figuring out my alcohol limit ages like 17-19 lol. I think I know what event started it too, like beyond the fact that it's just a negative experience. Spoiler for gross:

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Anyway outside of that, biggest current fears:
-Losing someone I love. There are particular loved ones I have particular fears about, but yeah in general the deaths of people I want in my life.

-Currently, covid. It's everywhere, it kind of sort of follows patterns of who recovers but it could hit anyone hard enough to kill them, there are definitely long-term effects but we don't know how they'll progress yet or how common or bad they are, no precautions we can take are 100%, there are people actively ignoring them and spreading it faster basically on purpose, the vaccine is promising but like what if it keeps evolving? We need new flu shots every year and those are just a guess at which strain will be worst, is it gonna be like that? Testing isn't really accessible without symptoms or confirmed contact where I am, so there's the chance that I have it and could pass it to someone while doing groceries or walking my dog. It's justtttttt terrifying.

-Never experiencing things I want to have in my life & consider my main goals/priorities. The big one is falling in love & building a life with someone - like on the one hand I'm fine alone but on the other I do really want that. But it's so like, up to chance? I've only ever been anywhere near "in love" twice, almost 10 years apart. My other much more niche example is getting to a place where I have money and time to have a horse. I grew up riding, it is my favourite thing in the world, I stopped 10 years ago to move to the city for uni and I've just kind of stayed here, with no car & not enough extra money. I'm also already worried that by the time I manage to get back to it my body won't be able to handle it as well, and I'll never be able to like jump as high or be as competitive again.

-Another big one is making the wrong decision (for me) about whether or not to have kids. I've been on the fence for a long time and there are pros and cons to both sides, I just don't wanna be past the point of the decision - either having had them or having not but being objectively too old to start - and regret it.

-And then circling back, another that's less a fear and more an extreme aversion like the vomit one, the general inside of bodies. I don't ever want to think about what's going on in there. I get dizzy looking at those posters at the doctor's office of like, your lungs with or without X disease or whatever, and I once almost fainted reading my MRI report lol. Organs, veins, tissue, cysts, healthy or unhealthy, all of it is gross.