What are you afraid of?

I'm a mild-moderate hypochondriac. I spend an inordinate amount of time stressing and worrying that I'm dying of some untreated disease, but not to the point where I have psychosomatic illnesses (in fact I'm pretty robust). Hypochondria actually runs in my family - an aunt and a cousin have it much worse than me - which I try to tell myself whenever I am wigging out.
 
I was raised fundamentalist Baptist and I used to have a severe fear of the apocalypse and/or hell, which has been fading rapidly as I've reexamined my religious upbringing.
 
And this is my weird one, I have a real phobia of ANTS. Regular black ants. I can deal with single ants walking around but when I see a big swarm of them I get short of breath and start to panic. I know it's absurd and they can't hurt me, but as a child I had recurrent nightmares of ants swarming over me and devouring me, for years!
 
 

I have nightmares about sharks. I dream that I go to Hawaii, and the water is filled with them. A big one swam under a dock once, and my legs got weak. I do enjoy documentaries on them and once carried a three foot young one from a tidepool to the ocean when I found it trapped.
 
I've had bad dreams about bears, too.
 
Heights more than anything. []
 
Clowns and dolls are creepy.

1. Losing a close family member or losing Roxie and/or Trixie. 

2. Heights.  On my high school senior trip, we went to New York City.  Well, I knew better than to peer off the side of the Empire State Building that night, but I did it anyway.  I lost control of my legs and collapsed to the ground.  My classmates laughed at me.  []

3. Dying in a fire.  Not that I've had a bad experience with fire, but it stands out as a fear. 

I don't like things over my nose.  My sis and I have the same phobia because our dad would pullt he blankets over us and hold them down.  We felt like we were suffocating. DH knows better than to try to put anything over my nose.  I can very easily toss him off the bed in a panic  and since he weighs well over 200 lbs, you do NOT want to pi$$ me off!

I will kill each and every Black Widow I see.  I am not afraid of them, just hate them since they are poisonous.

The other usuals don't bother me: insects, spiders, snakes, rats, etc.

Moths. They make me a blathering, fetal-position mess. Talk about irrational.

 
I can totally relate, when I was young one flew up my shirt and ever since then I hate them. Just thinking about it is creeping me out.
 
Also I am Claustrophobic...
 
And I have a fear of fire. I think dying in a fire would be the worse way to die ( ok ONE of the worse ways to die)
 
Also I am dealthy afraid of being murdered. I do not know why but I am terrified of it. Whenever I go out at night, even just to my car I think someone is behind me  going to kill me. Maybe in my past life I was murdered...or burned[&:]

Bees, I am completely terrified of bees. There was a bee in my car once, and I thought I was going to have to call in to work and tell them I was going to be late if it didn't get out.
The only other thing I can think of that I am completely terrified of are needles. I am a big baby when it comes to needles. I can handle 1 now without getting totally hysterical most of the time now, but if I have to get a second one, then i'm going to cry. Last time I went to the doctor, I had to get a tetanus shot and tb test. I told the nurse I would definitely panic, I would probably cry, and I might throw up. I panicked and cried, but I didn't puke, I only gagged.

Snakes.  I'm absolutely, irrationally terrified of even a little grass snake and the bugger that was IN my garage, near my FREEZER almost did me in!
 
 
I am afraid of heights and I am claustrophobic, but those I can handle, and those I can MAKE myself deal with.  And I know WHY I'm afraid of those things.  Oldest sis shut me in a steamer trunk as a toddler and Dad sat me on an observation ledge, but never let me go, at LookOut Mountain, also as a toddler.  So, at least I can trace the root of those silly fears.
 
The snakes tho......but, at least I don't run QUITE so fast now when I see them.  Won't be breaking any olympic records this summer.

Falling. Since my job deals with heights, I have to deal with it. If I trust the equipment and who I'm working with, I'm fine. If the equipment is not all that sturdy, I get a anxious but I work through it.
 
Tornados. For the most powerful one on record, see the May 3, 1999 F-5 that hit Oklahoma City. The weather guy abandoned all standard advice and was telling people, "you need to be underground to survive this." Winds of 315 mph or faster within a quarter of a mile, it will pick the road itself off of the earth. Aptly described in the movie "Twister" as the "Finger of God." There are varying degrees of risk in each evasive method of surviving a tornado. The best is to not be in the damage path.
 
Fear of flying, post 9-11. Flying to and from New Jersey in 2005 was a little nerve-wracking. But I calmed myself with the resolution that if a terrorist even scratched his nose the wrong way, I would still walk off the plane but he would leave in a bodybag. That's not bragging, not an exaggeration, that's the fact, Jack. We will land safely and I don't mind sacrificing a terrorist to do so.
 
 

1. flying roaches *shiver*
2. jellyfish
3. my dog running away and getting stolen or hit by a car
4. tornadoes (not hurricanes for some reason)
5. dying
6. my friends, family, or pets dying
7. fair rides[&:] (except the faris wheel (sp?))

I forgot to mention my absolute most irrational fear - I do not like anything around my neck!  Cannot stand turtlenecks or short necklaces - only rarely will I wear a necklace and when I do it has to be long (and strong since I constantly pull at it).  I positively cannot stand someone to put their hands near or around my neck - I almost knocked out a friend in college who came up behind me and put her hands around my neck - she lost her breathe after being body slammed into the wall - entirely unintentional but was automatic response on my part.   Don't know if I was strangled or hanged in a past life! 

Mine:

Sea Creatures: Oh for the love of GOD, anything in live water FREAKS me out. I can look from a distance, but I will NEVER touch a live sea creature or a dead one. NO WAY. I will NEVER swim in live water. NEVER. If I cannot see my feet or if it's not a swimming pool, I won't be in it. My biggest fear of dying is being eaten alive by a shark. Forget that.

Bugs and spiders: I don't fear that bugs will hurt me, I fear that they will TOUCH me. OK, let's just say I dislike anything with an exoskeleton.

Ghosts, spirits, demons, what have you: Ew. I can handle the thought of zombies, serial killers, monsters-whatever. But things like the Exorcist...NO WAY. brrr.

1. Spiders and the BIG bugs.
2. Rodents with the long skinny tails.
3. I have a fear of knives. Not when I am handling them but when someone else is.
4.  This one is weird but I am terrified of being in a car crash. Not a minor accident. I have a premonition that I am going to die in a wreck when I am 34. I have had that premonition for much of my life.

So those are my fears.

--Sara

1. SPIDERS!!! I don't care what size they are
2. tornadoes
3. being raped or having someone break into my house

flying roaches *shiver*
2. jellyfish
3. my dog running away and getting stolen or hit by a car
4. tornadoes (not hurricanes for some reason)
5. dying
6. my friends, family, or pets dying
7. fair rides (except the faris wheel (sp?))

Oh wow thats right I forgot to add that one I am TERRIFIED of Ferris Wheels!!I hate them some friends made me go one last year and I cried the whole time. I thought I was going to fall out...And this was well enclosed one too!

I almost forgot my weirdest phobia (this thread is giving me deja vu by the way) - underwater scenes. Photos and especially movies/tv of underwater... especially deep sea... makes me a little panicky and feel like I can't catch a breath. But oddly I am not afraid of drowning.