h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

What scares you? Are you afraid of dying, of being left alone or of being rejected? Does the thought of bungee-jumping off the Eiffel Tower and spotting a spider on your nose halfway down fill you with terror? Do you imagine sharks and killer jellyfish circling your knees when you paddle on the beach? Can't you bear biting into an apple and finding half a worm again?

Share your fears, both irrational and entirely reasonable.

I get irrationally panicky when my checking account is low.

I have a job, there will come another salary, it's only temporary. But I really freak out, and get very moody, sad, worried about just everything, not only money. My brain tells me I'm no good, people don't like me, I fail at everything.

And then payday comes, I'm not broke, and things go back to normal.

This is a bit reminiscent of The Witches of Eastwick. Isn't this what Jack Nicholson asks, to devastating later effect?

I'm not telling!

Deb

Not dieing, but ending up so debilitated, physically, that one can't even do ordinary day to day things... I hope some of my lifestyle choices eliminate the likelyhood of a drawn out dotage... well a cripled dotage... I'd quite like to be seirously old and wildly excentric and strange... just not like that and restricted to a life sitting in a chair and watching out the window
I'm scared of children too, but they're scared of me, so that kinda balances out
Being alone is scarey... probably even moreso than the first in this post..

"I'd quite like to be seirously old and wildly excentric and strange"

Two down, one to go.

B

Ok... Ok... But, if I'd just said, 'exactly as I am now, only older'.... some people might not have realised...

I've given up trying to be normal... It was too much effort and put my geraniums under great strain...

I'm a bit scared of heights and depths, and have been known to scream when a bungee funfair ride shot up into the air quite close to me once. Well, I wasn't expecting it. I think it's more about loss of control being in the air, rather than the height itself, because I hate being picked up.

My real fear though is trypanophobia, which is a fear of medical needles. *not* needles in general, it's the whole medical issue (I have had 4 tattoos since developing this phobia), and clearly, it's not the pain! I had to have large doses of anti-anxiety medication and a brother taking the piss to get me through the jabs for India, and currently I'm refusing a painkilling injection that could also restore some mobility to my frozen shoulder.

Before that the last time my asthma put me in hospital I had to be physically restrained by 3/4 nurses to get the blood test needle and catheter in, and although I was able to get my son through his early vaccinations I couldn't get him the MMR because he was old enough by then to be 'infected' by my phobia, and my mum refused to take him - I think this was her idea of a cure.

The last time I had an op they weren't able to get the catheter in at all, and so I had the gas mask, which was the loveliest thing in the world!

Sadly they won't knock me out to give me the injection for my shoulder.

And before you say 'nobody likes needles, I just don't look and that gets me over my fear' I have a PHOBIA. Not a FEAR. Sometimes the nurse walking in the room can set me off, no needle needed!

I'm terrified of Mu Beta seducing my mother on Facebook.

It could be worse, she might have been in Hootoo

Discovering I am seriously at fault for something going wrong with consequences and thus loosing respect and trust of those around me. Its kind of silly but I die ibside if I think about it happening.

I'll go with 2legs and dying.

Not death itself, that's inevitable and can be easy.
No, my fear is the process of dying and the thought that Beelzebub has something special awaiting...

SPIDERS the only thing don't fear death you can do nothing about it.

Heights. Spiders can't hurt me, nor can any other insect or monsters under the bed. But if I drop from 50 feet up, without a parachute, I don't think I stand much of a chance and I am quite entitled to feel scared. Where possible I avoid heights.

Funnily enough, I'm OK with flying. There's only a tiny, thick window between me and the drop (which I wouldn't fit through, even if it did break) and I've got a floor to put my feet on.

As Mina says - also depth is scary. No way am I ever going in the Eurotunnel.

"I'm terrified of Mu Beta seducing my mother on Facebook."

I'd be more scared of me doing it in real life if I were you.

B

Awww. waht's wrong with ickle cute spiders? I miss Ziggy my terrantular

Talking of fear of needles, I had one, forever and forever... Until, after a couple of years of near constant having people stick needles into me to take blood, or inject radiation/die when I was having scans and things, one day, I was in the MRI, and having some die injected, and I realised... nothing... just stopped No fear or worry over it whatsoever

Actually, loosing my hearing is another big fear, I forgot about that... for pretty obvious reasons

For years I was afraid of nothing. I was one of those children who, if dared to do something would do it. I'm still alive, remarkably!

Heights. I'm scared of heights these days. Probable age (I'm 42 again (and again, and again...)) and the fact that I fell of a ladder 6 years ago and did a considerable amount of damage (thankfully repaired!).

That said I have never been confronted by a major predator and will not be in the future here in Wales (One cannot have a phobia of sheep though, look you.) and should I ever travel to a country where this might occur it would be in controlled circumstances - oh! Hang on though... - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17967219

t.

I used to have a thing about heights... but only in my dreams really.. they never bothered me too much in reality... Though really steep stairs used to when I was a child... Mind, I used to regularly jump out of the first floor window at my Parents, as it was quicker than walking downstairs to answer the front door... and very silly

I suffer vertigo by proxy. I'm far more scared of seeing someone else near to an edge than I am of being there myself. If it's a child it's even worse. My breathing goes all to pot and I usually have to walk away and pretend it's not happening.

The other one is monsters getting me when I go for a piss in the middle of the night. Not all the time, but sometimes when I'm half asleep I become a child afraid of the dark again and I'm not safe until I get back in my bedroom and under the covers. Then it's OK. I am fifty years old. (Which actually means that the nighttime pisses are increasing inexorably). This whole thing is doubly irrational because 1) There aren't actually any zombies or suchlike and 2) if there were it is highly unlikely that their desire to rend my flesh would be impeded by a duvet.

but, your duvet is like a inpenetrable shield to a zombie! watch out! zombies are real; I've seen all the documentaries about them on the TV

"What scares you? Are you afraid of dying,

Yep

of being left alone or of being rejected?

Yep

Does the thought of bungee-jumping off the Eiffel Tower and spotting a spider on your nose halfway down fill you with terror?

Yep

Do you imagine sharks and killer jellyfish circling your knees when you paddle on the beach?

Yep

Can't you bear biting into an apple and finding half a worm again?

Well, no. I can usually tell if there's a worm in the apple by the tunnel it has burrowed.

I'm afraid of having mymoney run low.

I'm afraid of surprise injections.