Wasps are bastards
because when I was very little one flew down my PE top in school and stung me in a very personal place :( and the bitch supply teacher just looked at me and said "well what do you want me to do about it?" I flee with no hesitation when one comes towards me.

Detached hairs - mine or anyone else's... urgh they creep me out, especially if they're wet an they stick to me.

Breaking the false corner of one of my teeth off and having to wait to get it fixed.

Driving tests give me teh major fear too.
( Maladicta, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 23:37, 2 replies)

I'm actually scared of disabled people
but I think I hide it in my own way and no one notices a thing.

Signed,
Jim Davidson
(ratthingbazzterd, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 23:30, Reply)

A really bizarre phobia...
Admittedly i've been cured of this in my advancing years but as a child and teenager I had what can only be described as a wholly irrational fear of pointed lightbulbs.

Yes, you read that correctly. Pointed lightbulbs used to absolutely freak me the fuck out, I can only think it stems back to an incident in my very early childhood. Once a bulb popped in my room and my dad replaced it with a pointed one...I went completely mental and had to be consoled by my mother.

My fiance finds it hilarious that I could be freaked out by something so random - i'm not afraid of them now but I do notice when they're in light fittings...
( naked_ravens A big hammer, WD40 & gaffer tape, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 23:20, Reply)

`They' might get me
Don't know if it's the result of watching too many mafia movies or having read too many political/history textbooks about assasinations, but i can't sit with my back to a door or window. in extreme cases, i've even started to shake if there's no other option. of course, this was even before i started writing stories i'd get death threats over (i'm a journo).
(tuqueboy has been in a medically -induced coma since, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 23:17, Reply)

Baked Beans...
... I effing hate them. I actually feel sick in their presence.

I think it's the bean juice.
(sendmethatway, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 23:11, 1 reply)

this one shapes my life, how did I forget it?
I can't sit with my back to an open room. My back has to be against a wall. I really cannot relax otherwise. I'm always the one sitting on the inside of the table or - better still - in the corner.

I have a friend who also gets scared of having their back to the room. We fight over who gets the seat by the wall. I think it must be a primal fear of some type. That, or I'm secretly a top assassin who must be aware of her surroundings at all times.
( crackhouseceilidhband Fuck off back to Mumsnet, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 22:46, 3 replies)

surinam toads
surinam toads, specifically the females, make me want to claw my own eyes out.
you see, they grow an extra thick layer of skin on their backs when it's time to breed. after they spawn, they swim up under the eggs and then the eggs SINK into her back skin where they incubate and then eventually tiny complete baby surinam toads crawl out of her still living back. and they do it every year. it's unnatural.
I can't even look at dried flower arrangements if they have those lotus flower pods. too much like those alien toads.
just writing this down has made the hair on my neck stand up and i feel anxious.
enjoy!
youtube.com/watch?v=aCayq56wHSA&feature=related
(hearsegirl, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 21:59, 4 replies)

Fontanelle
No, not the Babes in Toyland album, the top of a baby’s head.

For some reason, whenever I see small babies, I’m scared that I’ll poke them in the top of the head where their skull hasn’t closed.

Not deliberately, you understand, I don’t want to hurt them, but supposed my hand slipped? What would I do? What if I fell over with a pen in my hand? It’s so scary. Babies are scary. I like babies but they scare me.

I should probably stop thinking about this. I should definitely stop typing.
(Rakky (forgot her password) The muffin maverick, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 21:40, 6 replies)

I never had that many phobias as a child.
But now I have one: Consciousness during apparent surgical anaesthesia!

Crikey, it's terrifying! I've heard all these stories about people being knocked to sleep by the man in the cartoon bandanna, but they're totally awake and can see/feel everything in the operation. They can hear what the surgeons are saying, but they can't move any muscles due to the relaxant!

I still need an operation or two yet, and this has left me panicky!

Also, I'm scared of walking into a room where somebody's going to be using a cup where if you scratch the bottom, it does THAT FUCKING FREAKY SCRAPING SOUND! It goes right through me!
( Methylene Blue - electrohead, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 21:35, Reply)

Belly buttons
This just used to be because it felt horrible if you stick your finger in, but then I told my sister who asked: "why, because the skins realy thin there so you cold stick your finger right through?". That was horrible and then I watched Land of the Dead with the bit where the zombie rips out someones belly button ring. I now can't even rub the middle of my stomach through my clothes in case I rub my belly button through it.
(Charlietron Still can't think of anything witty to put here, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 21:18, 1 reply)

Spiral staircases.
Walking up them I'm somewhat shaky, but going down them is a killer. I have to walk on the outside and have a handrail to hold on to, and take my time. I think it's because - unlike a normal staircase with switchbacks and a view of the end - you can't see the bottom, and there's a nagging fear that if I fall, I'll just keep falling and falling.

It took me an hour and a half to get from the top of the Monument to the bottom. Blasted friends taking advantage of my drunken state to get me up there, then leaving me.
(jamesthegill opens new tabs with his scroll wheel, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 20:58, Reply)

Otters
or more precisely otters running along on their little legs, with their tails sticking up straight like a bottle brush, squealing like a sick baby, with their sharp little teeth poking out like knives and the droplets of water on their whiskers glinting in the early morning sun.

Luckily I don't see this too often.



Or perhaps I mean stoats.
(Smale is stuffed, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 20:26, Reply)

achilles tendon
the thought of anything other than sock or shoes touching the skinny back bit of the ankle makes me dry boke.


even worse is when they have injuries to the tendon in horror films....


*shudder*
(wilma_wonka, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 20:17, 3 replies)

Plastic Bags
in water. I remember going to Bridlington and Skegness as a child and swimming in the sea and getting a plastic bag caught around my ankle. I freaked out.

Someone this then transfered itself to being terrified of Orange Juice for a while, as I was afraid of there being a plastic bag in the Orange Juice that I would swollow when I drank it. The thought of a cold plastic bag mixed in with Orange juice and getting caught in my throat... geh geeehhhhhhhhhh

My sister is so afraid of lobsters she actually wet herself (aged 18) when in a seafood restaurant in the USA and they sat us next to the lobster tank
(Zapiola zip-zap-zop, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 20:11, Reply)

Personification of Inannimate Objects
I fear when things that are not alive talk to you as though they are. Like when buses say "I am not in service" on them. As though THEY made the decision to not be in service. I woulden't want to get inside an ALIVE bus.

every time I see one I fear it will veer across the road and mow me down on a whim.
(Amos Moses, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 19:45, 1 reply)

Carcrashes + crowds = hj's
I've been in three rather serious carcrashes since I was a child. The last one - about 4 years ago - left me with a rather pecualiar mental brain-poo: Sometimes, when walking down a crowded pedestrian street, (well, this gets a bit technical) one can momentarily find oneself on collision course with people walking in the opposite direction, until one of you change path (or, on some occations: bumps into you and probably steals your money). Well, whenever this 'about to collide'-thing happens to me, my brain freezes, adrenalin jolts through my body and I am stunned ½ a second. Of course, I enjoy this to the fullest extent, since the adrenaline thing turns this flaw into a very cheap extreme sport for broke pansies.
( pallimut Ancient Lurker, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 19:38, 1 reply)

umm...Godzilla?
Whenever I go to the beach, I have this fear that some underwater creature is going to sneak up on me. I usually get this fear when I'm out up to my neck in murky water and no one else is around me.

Sometimes this fear is simply that I'm going to step on something gross and spiny/squishy in the sand.

Other times this fear is that Godzilla will emerge from a large moving lump in the water, a la the 1998 version of Godzilla with Matthew Broderick.
(juliajuliajulia, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 19:36, 2 replies)

Needles in other people
I can not bear seeing other people being punctured by needles, be it for real ( donating blood ) or on film- characters shooting up smack and so on. I have to cover my eyes or somehow not see it until the process has finished, it gives me the willies every time. I think that's why I never became a tattooist. The worst one for me is 'Audition'; oh fuck, that sound she makes after paralysing the protagonist, I'm shuddering now just from the memory. The strange thing is, I have absolutely no problem with it being done to me- I give blood as often as I can, I have tattoos, nay problem.
( uncle bastard is twanging a dan moi, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 19:36, 1 reply)

School Fountains
A similar story to this has already been posted, about a bloke who hates brushing his teeth. This is similar. I hate using school water fountains for two reasons. The first is the thought of, when you are using them, someone knocking you and you smashing your teeth in. The second is the water that comes outta them always makes my teeth ache. It doesn't happen with any other water, only school fountain water. Why the hell is that???
(Mr Idiot Sshhh...my yeast are rising..., Fri 11 Apr 2008, 19:27, Reply)

More in keeping with the spirit of the question unlike my last rant....
when I was very young and was into Rupert the bear, this scary bugger cropped up. I give you

www.freewebs.com/scruffythetramp/raggetyboy.jpg

Raggety.

Bleeding terrified me he did.
(tinypod will never learn. Ever., Fri 11 Apr 2008, 19:26, 3 replies)

Wooden toothpicks
in restaurants. Who wants to sit at a table having a nice meal while the guy (I've never seen a woman use them) at the next table roots around in his molars with small sliver of wood?

I can't bear to see someone pick one up and use it - what if someone else did that and put it back in the wee holder?

God only knows what you could catch!
(TheWeeWitch hasn't been here much recently .., Fri 11 Apr 2008, 19:14, Reply)

Open scissors...
...whose jaws are pointed at me.

No. I don't know why, either.
(Mousy Tongue ...Generally bemused by life..., Fri 11 Apr 2008, 18:52, Reply)

The nose
Pretty much anything to do with the nose. I smashed mine up when I was a nipper by falling face first into a concrete stair at Haymarket Station. (near Edinburgh, if you must know) Have the faintest scar to show for it. (so faint I only noticed it 12 years later)

However, it feels fragile and even a nosebleed will freak me out. The following are therefore ever-so-slightly unbearable:

* People touching my nose (stealing nose, poking, shaking)
* My nose hitting off things (made kissing awkward for a while)
* People who scratch their noses by placing a finger underneath and moving it rapidly back and forth (what the fuck is wrong with you people? WHY DO YOU NOT BLEED?!)
* Nose rings, like bulls have. Just no.
* Aggressive nose picking (normal nose picking is fine... stretching nose with finger is a no!
* People who get things stuck/lost up their noses (instant death, surely?)

*shudder*
( Iki I think my camel is dead., Fri 11 Apr 2008, 18:47, Reply)

Now this is a slightly odd one
I'm a scuba diver. I love it; the humility felt when being underwater combined with the often incredible vistas one is faced with really blow my mind sometimes. From the cold and craggy North Sea, to the clear blue Atlantic in the Florida Keys, it truly is a fantastic experience. I'm also a bit of a fish nut, and find them fascinating to watch (I also keep fish as well, and have done since I was a kid).

So why do I sometimes feel myself going into panic mode when I'm snorkelling?

Case in point: Key Largo, some years back. The hotel we are staying in has its own private beach, with a creek running from the sea and right across the island. When we got there we were informed that we'd JUST missed a manatee swimming up the creek... bastard. Anyway, I gets my mask, fins and snorkel together and head off for a bit of a swim and a gawp at the pretty fishes.

About five minutes in, I realise that I've swum a bit of a distance out - not too far, but a bit further than expected. My mind suddenly clicks into gear with a reminder that one of Florida's native beasties has a large mouth full of pointy sharp teeth, which brings on a wave of irrational discomfort. Better get back to shore, thinks I.

However, in my slightly unfocussed state of mind I found myself not swimming directly back to the beach, but at a slight angle and therefore still away from the shore, and safety. My head is still submerged, and I'm trying to keep my breathing regulated...

When all of a sudden the seabed literally drops away before me, and I'm staring down into what seems like a never ending pit that appears to get dark very, VERY quickly. And swimming around just a few feet below me are the biggest fucking fish I've ever seen (later identified as tarpon)... I looked like something out of a Scooby Doo cartoon as I tried to back-fin furiously, but not splash around too much so as not to attract the alligators...

So, scuba diving, 20 metres under the sea with nothing but some mechanical apparatus that could fail at any given moment keeping me alive alive and surrounded by big fishes (including at one point barracuda) = fine. Snorkelling in a few feet of water and suddenly confronted by a big but placid game fish = shitting my swimming trunks.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Fri 11 Apr 2008, 18:25, 6 replies)

to all the men who are afriad of anal sex...
...just remember that girls don't poo. Scientific fact.




Oh shit...my argument has just been shot dead in the water by two weeks ago's QOTW. In that case...be afraid, be very afraid :(
(Foulkesy123 The one and only..., Fri 11 Apr 2008, 18:08, 2 replies)

Of course I'm scared of spiders! Who wouldn't be with THIS floating around!?!?!?!? http://weirdtales.net/wordpress/2007/10/23/the-year-of-ninja-spiders/
That said, I'm going to describe a more "flannel" type of example. I have this recurring nightmare, you see. Well, when I say recurring, I mean I've had it a couple of times and it stuck.

It's just this: two faces, one after another. The first one is round, unnaturally smooth - like plastic only moist, it's still skin but it's just got that oily texture. It looks the way sour milk smells. The second one is the cardinal opposite, it's wrinkled beyond belief, truly gnarly like an ancient tree or a used handkerchief that's been in your pocket for a decade, except not as dry.

They freak me out like anything.
(Lieutenant Colonel Oblivious brought to you by intravenous sugar, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 18:03, 1 reply)

Scouring pads - the ones made of rough green fabric.
The sound and feel of them set my teeth on edge. Just the thought of that horrible scratchy rasping makes me cringe, the way it goes ccrrrrch ccrrrrch ccrrrrch when rubbed against a metal pan...

AAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH
( The Mock TurtIe ™ --- Thinks you are a cunt, on, Fri 11 Apr 2008, 17:57, Reply)