Childhood Fears

[Doe Johnson]

I once made this post on another forum and found some interesting answers.

So, what were your irrational childhood fears?

Mine...
I had an extreme fear of things in water and in just liquids in general. You know, like you are in a swimming pool and can't see what is right behind you(increased by those markings on the bottom that look like hammerhead sharks), or when you are in a lake with murky water. Mine was so intense I was scared of what was in my drinks. Yes, my DRINKS. How miniature sharks could get into my milk, let alone survive in it, I'll never know, but it was still scary. - I still have a slight case of this fear.

I was afraid of the toilet! Don't you all know a monster lives in the toilet and might eat you if you aren't weary?! It wasn't fooling me! I was always vigilent and on the watch for attack! lol, but really, I had actual nightmares with monsters in the toilet. They are scary things.

Other random fears: Afaid of the dark, hehe, I still sleep with my light on; afraid of eyes whether on people, pictures, or the mirror, once I had a stare down contest with my reflection because I was tired of being terrified of my own eyes; not really much of a fear but I couldn't stand clowns.

Now everybody, list yours!

[Rexman64]

Redeads, the enemies from the Legend of Zelda games. I was horrified of those creatures.

[ChristianKitsune]

hmm interesting topic

a fear that I still possess is that I am afraid of getting some random ailment..a pain in my stomach. "What if I have appendicitis?" or... "I HIT MY HEAD! WHAT IF I HAVE A CONCUSSION!" and I instantly go and see if my eyes dialate properly.

I am also afraid...of driving...yes...driving...I don't know why...

OH..and SPIDERS!! OMGOSH..I see these things..and I Cry..YES I CRY! Scary things they are...

Childhood fears: Dying...always afraid of dying..or my mom dying. I remember calling her. "MOM!? WHy are you not home from the store?!" I called her once..while she was shopping...-.- I think she was at walmart...too...

BIG DOGS that bark! I hated big dogs..and still do...

[PigtailsJazz]

I was deathly afraid of fire when I was a kid. Actually....I'm still kind of afraid of fire.

I was also deathly afraid of throwing up, and actually had panic attacks because of it.

And spiders....I cry as well, ChristianRonin.... ^_^

[Scribs]

I was afraid that someone would throw my cat out of an airplane if I ever took her on a trip.

I was also afraid that the christmas tree would catch fire and burn the house down.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Interesting. For me it was the usual: Dark, Insects, etc.

As of now: Insects >_> I saw a milkweed bug thingy on the floor yesterday. I got my dad to kill it for me

Here's a neat tip for catching bugs for a family member to kill.

One method is to put a plastic cup over it, and get a paper and marker and write "BUG HERE" with an arrow drawn to the cup.

Another method is to grab a bottle of windex (or febreeze or anything) and a sheet of paper towel. Put the paper towel over the insect and spray windex/febreeze over the towel. Then call for help.

[Yumie]

I was afraid of the toilet! Don't you all know a monster lives in the toilet and might eat you if you aren't weary?! It wasn't fooling me! I was always vigilent and on the watch for attack! lol, but really, I had actual nightmares with monsters in the toilet. They are scary things.

Hey, me too! Well, not during the day. But if I had to go to the bathroom at night, I was so scared that if I flushed, all the monsters in the house would hear it and know I was out of bed, and come get me. So, if there was a night that I was feeling especially courageous, I'd open the door of the bathroom, go back to the toilet and put my hand on the trigger, take a deep breath, and get ready to run. Fast. And I would. As soon as I flushed, I'd run as fast as I could and jump into bed. But if I wasn't feeling so brave, I'd just shut the lid and walk away . Something that made this worse was that when I was probably seven or eight, I saw a news report where a woman found a snake that was traveling through her water pipes and coming out through her toilet. So that doubled my fear and made me think that one of those days a snake was going to get me. Yeah. I was stupid.

Another thing-- I was terrified of werewolves. I had a horrifying dream about them once, and I never got over it. And I was convinced that they lived in my closet and under my bed. So when I had to get out of bed in the middle of the night, I'd jump reeeeeeal far away from it, so that no werewolf could reach out and grab me.

[Nate]

I was afraid of the dark. I had to sleep with the closet light on.

I'm the complete opposite now, though. If there's even the slightest bit of light when I try to sleep, I can't sleep at all.

[Syreth]

Ever since I fell down a small mountain I've been afraid of steep slopes. I get all disoriented when I'm walking up a steep trail or something. I used to be afraid of clowns because my brother showed me a movie about killer clowns from outer space. Oh, my dear brother.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

The dark because of evil spirits. Extreme heights also scared me as a child. Spiders too.

[Slater]

I always had this fear that there were evil ninjas on my roof. Don't ask why, I don't know.

[Stephen]

When I was younger, I had quite a fear of height. If I went up on roofs or anything, it would take a while for me to be able to get down...as I would almost freeze up. As I got older, I lost my fear of it...by embracing the rush you get from being scared.

[Slater]

lol, I had that too. Getting up the ladder was always easier than falling down.

[TurkishMonky]

let's see, i've always had a strong fear of needles. my parents say that it's becuase there was one immunization nurse who was horrible when i was like 2.

not afraid of heights (to my parent's dismay sometimes)

i was afraid of the dark, and even today i sleep better in a dimly lit room (although i'm rot really afraid of the dark anymore)

i honestly equated X the owl (fro Mr. Roger's neighborhood) with satan when i was younger....

i think that's it.

[Silvanis]

When I was little I was afraid some monster would come out of the drain of the shower. It was so dark in that drain... and it went down forever... *shudder*

[CHILD OF AVALON]

When I was in second grade we watched Ernist Scared Stupid. And I was terrified of trolls after that. Which is why i like chocolate milk so much.

[shadowblade]

When I was little I was afraid some monster would come out of the drain of the shower. It was so dark in that drain... and it went down forever... *shudder*

I was afraid of that too!

As for my other childhood fears... I was afraid of needles and bugs (I'm still not fond of either). And for some reason I was afraid of clowns and anything that glowed in the dark.
I know my cousin was afraid of the dude on the Quaker Oats box when she was little.

[Lynx]

i was afraid that aliens were going to come and abduct me at night. kept me awake on numerous occasions.

[kryptech]

Like some of you, I was afraid of heights. Mostly that just meant I didn't follow my friends on their (in my opinion) safety-jeopardizing climbing adventures.

And I was a little like Doe Johnson, too. I once swam in a shallow part of a lake where there were old, rotting logs laid out in parellel along the bottom. They gave me the willies! Ever since then I've always been creeped out when there are things submerged underwater, like slime-covered fallen trees, or rusting chains. Auuggg!

Also, I got freaked out by machinery, you know, the old boiler you might find lurking in some dank room in a factory. Especially if the machine still worked. There it would sit, a bulk of heavy metal, surrounded by a tangle of pipes, all held together by rusting bolts and clamps. When you walk by it, you never know when it might suddenly chug into life and catch your arm in a pulley... Actually, http://www.andtherestwillfollow.com/main.php shows a pretty good idea of the kind of machine I'm talking about.

[Radical Dreamer]

Haha, I stopped watching Barney when I was 4 because I had a nightmare about him. He took all these kids outside, and then he like...turned yellow and started glowing and attacking the little kids. XD I was also scared of Lady Elaine from Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood. Oh, and I used to be TERRIFIED of being alone in a "public" place...Like, if my mom had me wait in the car while she walked 5 feet over to the ATM, I used freak out, thinking that someone would come and steal the car with me inside. XD

I had odd fears as a kid...

[dreamhacker]

Well, I have been, and still am, afraid of the dark. If I am in a room with complete darkness I just panic . When outside the fear isn't that great when I'm in open places, somehow...Anyways, I hate it and would really like to get rid of it. It's funny, I have no reason to fear the dark, I know that, but still I fear it. I don't get why I fear something I know I have no reason to fear

Another fear I still have, is that when I'm alone I kinda get afraid of pictures of people (and even one picture of kitties :S). Same goes for dolls and such (especially because of the eyes). When I think of it, it's kinda weird

[Felix]

The only one I can think of, is I was always afraid to touch the window while riding in an airplane because I thought it would shatter and suck me out <.<

[soul alive]

I was the most neurotic child ever, XDXD. For a while, from about 3-6, everything mildly scary terrified the hoopla out of me, mostly stuff on TV/movies.

ET (I still get twitchy when ET trailers play)
Alf
Warf from Star Trek (I'd run screaming out of the room when he came on the TV)
Ursula when she gets all big at the end of Little Mermaid
The flying gorillas from The Wiz
The flying dog-thing from Neverending Story movies
Violet Beauregard when she turns into a blueberry in Willy Wonka

To name a few TV/movie terrors.


Heights scared me as a child. Now, I can handle major heights, but if I go up a ladder or anything from 4-10ish feet tall, I get freaked out.

Bugs have never scared me, unless they surprise me... jump in my face or appear suddenly on me. I once fould a bug with 4 inch long intennas on my leg and screamed bloody murder, scaring my mother. I can handle spiders as long as they aren't on me, spider webs however, yick, still hate those things.

I have a phobia stemming from my childhood of outhouses. Growing up on a ranch, we had one, but the building was creepy and horrifically smelly.

I also have a phobia of swimming in things that I can't see the bottom of. I'll only wade in lakes in the shallows where I can see the bottom. Nothing short of being captured and thrown in will get me to swim, and that hasn't happened yet.

More recently, I have a mouth-germ phobia. I refuse to share drinks or food or chapstick with other people and spaz when people share without permission.

:edit: I was also afraid of the dark, yeah nightlight! And now, I hate any light at all when I sleep.

I also used to be afraid of the basement, since it is unfinished and quite creepy in the dark.

[Slater]

lol Felix, I have a similar fear. I'm afraid of touching anything fragile because I tend to get a bit careless and break stuff

[Doe Johnson]

I'm now reminded of something else that freaked me out. We have a picture in my house of a mailbox with a birdnest in it and a wagon wheel. I've seen it in other places so it must be pretty well known, though I think it is only a Home Interiors piece. Anywho, I always thought the mailbox looked like a monster. I'm not even sure if I realized it was a picture of mailbox when I was younger since I always saw the monster.

I tried a search for it but all I found was this picture, it isn't very clear.

[Syreth]

Ursula when she gets all big at the end of Little Mermaid

I also have a phobia of swimming in things that I can't see the bottom of. I'll only wade in lakes in the shallows where I can see the bottom. Nothing short of being captured and thrown in will get me to swim, and that hasn't happened yet.

I hated the little mermaid because of that. It freaked me out too when I was little. I don't like swimming in the ocean either.

[mitsuki lover]

Clowns.Wasn't anyone else ever afraid of clowns?

[Dante]

I always had a fear of ghosts when I was little, irrational, well you be the judge cause I still am to a certain extent. When I was two or three, one of the earliest memories I have, was waking up one morning and my feat felt like they were burning. Consequently taking a logical step, I went into the bathroom, climbed onto the sink and put my feet under water (hey it seemed logical to me). Looking into the mirror in front of me was a giant single eyeball floating above the toilet (yet surprisingly no toilet fears), I turned around and there was nothing over the toilet, looked at the the mirror and their it was staring at me... terrified to death I made sure not to make any sudden movements and left the room in terror. Telling the event to my mother and sister the next day they tell me to this day that the wierdest part of the story was that my room smelt like smoke that day.

We had other wierd occurances in our house that defied all kinds of sense. A lightbulb was garunteed to burn out every night my father worked graveyards. But the most odd didn't happen until later when I was 8. playing with my action figures on the floor while my mother sat by and watched. I love to make sound effects... and still do. So I of course I was making shooting and explosion sounds. Also note that on this instance we were the only two in the house, my father was at work. Out of the clear blue the power in the whole house went off and on in sinc with one of my shooting sound effects. Looking back at my mother I thought it was funny so, just to test things, I did two of the same sound effects in rapid succession leaving a short break in between them. Upon doing so the electricity also went out in the exact same periods. It was incredibly scary but I wanted to prove the logic of science over mysticism to my mother, so I went to the only place I could go to prove that this was all just a coincidece. Upstairs, where all previous wierd things had taken place. Walking into my room I mocked the possibility of ghosts at the top of my voice... needless to say it wasn't a bright decision, no sooner had I finished my remarks than all the lights in the house went out and stayed out for a good few seconds! Leaving me running and screaming down the stairs in the dark.

So I ask the question, illogical fear or semi-logical fear? Today I can actually sleep upstairs (something I couldn't bring my self to do for about ten years) and I don't feel a drop of fear except at rare occassions at night one or two hours into sleeping when I feel the an overwhelming urge to sleep down stair and leave the room ASAP. But this could just be a lagging memory of fear from my childhood experiences. You be the judge.

Pascal

[Mr. SmartyPants]

I'm now reminded of something else that freaked me out. We have a picture in my house of a mailbox with a birdnest in it and a wagon wheel. I've seen it in other places so it must be pretty well known, though I think it is only a Home Interiors piece. Anywho, I always thought the mailbox looked like a monster. I'm not even sure if I realized it was a picture of mailbox when I was younger since I always saw the monster.

I tried a search for it but all I found was this picture, it isn't very clear.

OH MY GOSH! I see the monster in that! It's like a white-sort of skeleton-ish head...

Some guy in another forum I go to has a collection of some scary events he's had in his life. Read them! They're pretty interesting:
http://www.lanpirates.net/misc/strange_but_true/

[Rogie]

.... Butterflies....

I have this memory of being little at the top of my sliding board and suddenly a bunch of butterflies started fluttering around me and were in my face. So I was always afraid of butterflies after that.

I'm not quite as bad as I used to be, but if a butterfly flies up next to me when I'm not looking, it startles me and I jump away. I guess it's where they're so big and I have that memory.

*shudders* How can people be so still and let them land on their hand sometimes?