Irrational fears.
We all have them. And if you don’t, don’t fucking tell me you don’t. I would like to continue to believe that all humans harbor at least one irrational fear.
I am terrified of sharks.
When my anxiety is at it’s peak, I am afraid I’m going to get shot. If I am super awesome uber anxious, then nearly every other person on the planet is the potential shooter. The drive in to work is interesting on those days.
I am also afraid to fly. I hate flying. I hate getting on the plane. I hate the way the plane smells. I hate the seat belts. I hate Sky Mall magazine. I hate take offs and I hate landings.
I HATE to fly. It terrifies me.
Actually, the flying part isn’t bad. I always feel a little out of sorts and it’s always too hot on the plane, but it’s not the flying part. It’s the potential for falling out of the sky and crashing that terrifies me.
Every time we reach cruising altitude I start thinking about what a bad idea flying really is. It’s HUGE CHUNK OF METAL! and it’s WAY ABOVE THE GROUND!
It’s all around a terrifyingly bad idea.
I realize I am simplifying the whole flight thing and I will be the first to admit that I know very little about the science of aviation. Even so, it’s still a big chunk of metal in the air.
I’ve decided that as soon as it’s warm out, I am going to slay this fear. I am going to go sky diving.
I am going to willingly get in a rickety ass little plane for the sole purpose of jumping out of it.
I’m very nearly sure I’m not lying about this.
If someone asked me a year ago if I would ever go sky diving, I would have emphatically said that I would never jump out of a plane. I would never get on a small plane for no good reason. It would NEVER happen.
I also would have said that I would never let my gray come in.
Going gray isn’t killing me.
I’m almost positive that jumping out of a plane won’t kill me, either.
My theory is, if I can stop being so afraid of flying, then maybe it will help with some of the lesser fears as well. Is it true that facing fears can help make them go away?
It really has to be sky diving. No way would I ever ever EVER swim with sharks. I also don’t want to get shot at.
What are your irrational fears? I promise I won’t laugh at them. I might talk about them with my sisters, though. I can’t guarantee I won’t.
My brother-in-law went skin-diving with sharks. He said it was the best $500 he ever spent. I wonder what they charge NOW?
Oh fuck that. FUCK swimming with sharks. No way. Maybe very very small sharks. OR PLASTIC FAKE ONES! I would totally swim with plastic fake ones.
There are places in the South Pacific where people feed the sharks every day, and they are so tame because of it that the people feeding them can “pet” them as they swim by. Good on them. I’ll still be waaaaaaay the fuck over here, on dry land.
that just seems crazy. Although, my sister said when she was in TN, there was a person encouraging their kid (probably around 3) to give a bear some food. What the actual fuck? It’s a fucking BEAR.
My problem is that I think all of my fears are rational. This may have something to do with how much time I look up statistics online.
That’s probably the equivalent of me looking up symptoms on WebMD
My biggest irrational fear (which is actually starting to wane…) is my fear of other people vomiting, followed closely by a fear of having to vomit myself (I have blogged about this for YEARS). Here’s what I have learned to help me get over these fears: it’s not the actual event, it’s the thoughts I think about it. And? I can control my thoughts. Sure, it takes time, but, I can. I can. I can!
I’m glad it’s starting to wane! Interesting points. I don’t know if it applies to the flying thing, because seeing planes doesn’t scare me. If I don’t have a flight booked, then I’m fine..it really starts the day before and then throughout the flight. I CAN fly though. I just don’t like it at all.
Ha ha ha, there is no way I could be brave enough to sky dive, so kudos if you conquer that one.
I really hate heights, glass elevators, board walks I can see through, spiral staircases, cable cars ( I saw the movie and that was enough for me), I get claustrophobic in tight spaces and I can’t be anywhere near the edge of a cliff, I have to sit down and hold the floor if I even get within 20 ft of the edge of a long drop . I also have a very real fear of great white sharks. They don’t visit me in my dining area and I show them the same courtesy
I guess my most irrational fear, (or maybe not), is that of people not being who I think they are, disguising some hidden monster, or the truly insane. I sat frozen in terror after watching A Company Of Wolves. That film somehow tapped into some of my worst nightmares, though I have my own theories on where that originates these days.
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Strangely however, I have been on most of the world’s most terrifying roller coasters and love those, though that one at the top of a sky scraper in the US I know I couldn’t do.
Always fancied doing some aerobatics in a fast jet too, I’d love that, always loved to fly, just not in those glass bubble helicopters. Like to have the illusion of floor beneath my feet I guess.
I am not CRAZY about heights, they make me feel funny…but not in a horrible way. I”m not really afraid of them. I like roller coasters as well. I am with you on claustrophobia, although, closed in spaces don’t make me uncomfortable, being in a packed tight crowd however makes me lose my damn mind.
Hmmm…false faces…I can actually see how that would be scary, but for some reason, I don’t have a problem with that one.
Angelle, you legend, you should absolutely go sky-diving! One good reason is that sitting in one of those tiny, little planes where everybody is in the front and they fly like a fucking bumble bee will make your next trip in a huge chunk of metal in the sky just that much more comfortable. Also, jumping out of it will probably feel like a relief. Aaannd, you will be one up in the skills department if you ever have to jump out of said huge chunk of metal. It’s got MUST DO written all over it…but don’t jump over the ocean, I’d hate to hear you overcame your fear of flying only to find out you got eaten by a shark on landing.
all good reasons!
Yeah, other than the shark thing…it would only be worse if the sharks had guns.
I’m with Karen above – and I think my fear works close to the same way she described hers. I am more afraid of seeing/hearing/smelling other people vomiting than I am of vomiting myself (although most of the reason that I am afraid of witnessing other people is fear that they have something contagious that will result in me getting sick – which is weird, because, while it obviously isn’t pleasant, I can kind of take it in stride when I’m sick to my stomach now). On a related note, I have had a life-long fear of plague-like deadly diseases, although this one has decreased for me. Actually, I think the threat of biological warfare after 9/11 and the flu pandemic threats in more recent years have kind of helped with this, because at a certain point, I realized that if The Stand ever happened in real life, I wouldn’t be able to do anything about it, so what was the point of worrying? This realization then led to the moment when I worked in a residential treatment facility and ended up being the ONLY staff member who was able to react rationally when one of the residents had a positive TB skin test. I believe my exact words to the people freaking out were, “He’s not coughing up blood, so I’m pretty sure we’re safe.”
I am NOT happy you have these fears…but it makes me feel better about having fears…
Karen and Natalie, I TOTALLY get it about the fear of vomit. I’ve had a couple of bad experiences (but if you are squeamish, don’t read my “Vomit Game” post). I’m starting to think this fear may be more widespread than I ever imagined!
I have A LOT of irrational fears! Sharks is definitely one of mine… a reason I will not go past waist level when swimming in the ocean. Once when I was a kid on vacation with my parents, they forced me to get into a rinky-dink little row boat in the ocean. I spent the entire ride just about crapping my pants! My other irrational fears include an owl or eagle swooping down and stealing my small dog, someone breaking into my house and murdering me for no apparent reason, being possessed by demons, and a ghost coming out of the attic to… do whatever it is ghosts do that make them so scary. I’m not making these fears up!
waist high is impressive. I stop at mid shin. Fine..I just let the waves hit my feet.
I can see the eagle or owl thing…that could happen. we had a great blue heron eat our koi once…my older son was FURIOUS
I used to have a recurring dream where I was driving or in a car trying to get up onto a bridge or skyway that was really high, like hundreds of feet high, and the ramp just gets steeper and steeper until I’m seriously scared of falling over backwards… It made a job I had in the ’90s driving a 20 foot delivery truck in places like San Francisco, coastal Marin county, and the Berkeley and Oakland hills really interesting sometimes.
Your fear of sharks reminds me of my brother the 6’5″ 230 lb. biker, who once had a job working on a party boat. One day one of the clients caught a 10 foot blue shark, and they gaffed it and hauled it up onto the deck on its back where Captain Sandy stabbed it with a long thin knife right in the right place to make it stop thrashing around and snapping its jaws closed over and over. I asked my brother if he had been scared and he replied “Oh hell no, I was up on top of the cabin…”
hahaha. I don’t blame him. I also might have hid under something.
Odd..I have had a similar anxiety dream…the driving on an incline so steep that you think you’ll fall over backwards. it’s not as common as my water dreams, but I have had that one.
I am terrified of many things.
Possibly Irrational: Flying, the ocean, heights, car crashes, people asking me math questions, being on stage or just being looked at by a lot of people, being trampled and/or crushed or smothered by a large crowd.
Probably Rational: Myself, snakes, strangers.
I would NEVER in a MILLION YEARS jump out of a plane. High five, you crazy fierce thing you.
I haven’t done it yet!
I used to say the same thing. NEVER EVER EVER would I jump out of a plane. But I think I will.
First of all, Michelle — your “I’m very nearly sure I’m not lying about this” made me snort in a very unladylike way as I was laughing. I also decide to do things and I’m “mostly positive” that I’ll really do them.
My biggest irrational fear is of sharks. My dad took me to see Jaws when it came out and it made a HUGE impact on me. I have trouble swimming (even in swimming pools) alone. If other people are with me, I’m much more calm — ’cause I figure they have just as good of a chance of being eaten as I do (so the more, the merrier).
Jaw is what did it for me, too!!!
When I was a little kid, I was fearless in the ocean. I saw Jaws…then Noooooooooooope. Not getting in there.
Oh my goodness, yes. I want to go too. I always ALWAYS think about how stupid it is to be in a big metal tube in the sky about halfway through the flight when there is nothing but ocean beneath me. Truly… every time.
Okay…good…then it’s not just me! It just fundamentally seems very unsound..speaking from the standpoint of having no idea what I’m talking about.
I think a plane will crash on top of me. I am afraid to go into grocery stores – or anyplace crowded, because –SOMEONE MIGHT TALK TO ME! no joke.
I actually do get that. It’s not a fear, but I don’t like to talk to strangers….it makes me very anxious.
Mine is bridges. I hate driving on long bridges. Multiplied by one million when my family is in the car…and the car doors have to be unlocked. And the whole time I’m mentally trying to imagine who I could save first since I’m the only strong swimmer. Irrational. Nightmare.
I love to fly, but I’d rather stab myself in the eye with a fork than skydive.
And I only go about waist deep in the ocean because everyone who lives there seems so MATTER OF FACT about “yeah, sometimes we get sharks”. WHAT???
My anxiety dreams nearly always involve getting submerged in dark green murky water.
and yes, the last time I was really IN the water, I went snorkeling in the Bahamas. I stood on a reef about 30 yards from the shore and listened to two guys animatedly talking about the shark they had just seen. Between me and the beach.
I didn’t see it, but it was a long slow and terrified float back to the beach. I didn’t thrash as I didn’t want to call attention to myself.
I know right? I go see my mom in Florida, and we’re all YAY THE BEACH, and then we get there, and there’s these…helicopters…just off shore, trolling back and forth.
She’s like, “Oh, those are shark patrols.”
Yeah. Pretty much no WAY I’m getting in the ocean, at that point. Also it doesn’t help that it’s like waist deep for about a MILE OUT, so you could technically be just up to your waist, but about 1000 feet out, and I KNOW sharks can totally swim in that depth, faster than me…
eh. Pass the sunscreen and give me my book–I’ll wait til I get back to the lake in Idaho to swim–thanks
I love the beach..I love the ocean. I can just look at the water, though..I don’t have to get in.
If you’re going to jump out of a plane don’t jump tandem if they have staticm lines for students. The chute automatically opens on a static line as soon as you let go of the plane. Tandem jumps are just weird. Fuck that. You can do it,
3You don’t feel like you’re falling. You feel strapped into a big swing seat. Skydive Tecumseh uses radios on your helmet to communicate. One thing they didn’t cover in class was ho to find the airport. Good information to have at 3500 feet. I landed about 25-30 feet from the bullseye.
I don’t know about any special fear. I don’t have room for them because I’m full of anxiety everyday, I’m being treated for it. It’s a known bad idea to sneak up on me and touching me is verboten. I did shake hands with JD though. I thought I’d see if he was all right while we were at Cabela’s. Lunch never materialized as one of his progeny had one of those injuries requiring parental assistance. Good thing he got the call when he did because fifteen minutes after that would’ve found us having placed our orders at one of the restaurants ’round there.
Okay…I did not realize there were choices to make here.
Good to know!
I don’t like to be startled, either. And I have a fairly wide ‘personal space’ area. I’m better at casual touch than I used to be, but I still dread hugging most people (not family)