The other day after returning from lunch, we were all walking (read: very slowly) back to our offices to resume our normal workday, when somehow (the rabbit trails we chase are impressive), the topic of getting sick came up.
It probably came up because currently there is all manner of viruses floating around and we’re all terrified of being the next victim, but anyway, I readily admitted to the fact that vomiting is one of my biggest fears.
The rule here at LPM is if you are sick: STAY HOME. Thank you very much. We love you, but we don’t love your germs.
I won’t go into detail on here out of respect for the fact that some of you might be catching up on the blog during your lunch break, but needless to say, there is nothing worse in my book than getting a stomach virus that produces this kind of reaction.
Lord help me if I end up being one of those that suffers from you-know-what during pregnancy. Speaking of that, I’m going to start asking the Lord to have a little grace on me in that area when that time comes. I’m believing God.
Anyway, once I admitted to that bizarre fear, she who will remain nameless, admitted another strange fear that may or may not have involved a parking lot.
I let she who will remain nameless expand on that if she wants.
We go so tickled that I immediately thought of how quirky we all were and then I thought of y’all. For some reason I have this feeling that if I asked you what your most bizarre fear was, you would deliver.
So, spill it.
Now, I realize we all have legitimate fears, but if you have something out of this world weird, we want to know.
You are in good company.
Oh, and for the record, the fear of vomiting has a term. (Could this post be any less girly? Laughing. Sorry, y’all. Just being real.)
It’s called Emetophobia.
Boom.
You’re welcome.
Heaters. I’m terrified of heaters. I have this bizarre notion that they will catch fire. Which, my husband assured me could not, would not happen. Until it did. Last year. Perhaps not so irrational :o)
Mice…I can hardly stand to even type that word. It’s the very first thing I think about when going into a new situation where I have to sleep overnight. If I ever saw one in our house I would be out the door to the nearest hotel…but then I would be wondering if there could be any in the hotel room.
I’m dying (laughing, I might add), Lindsee! The tidbit at the end just about sent me to the floor! 🙂 I have a great fear of clowns, actually.
However, I’m also quite terrified of being in an elevator by myself. Actually, there’s a teensy bit of fear when I’m with others, too, but it’s okay. It takes me back to the time when I was five and my brother was seven and we were alone in one. It stopped in the middle somewhere, and we had no idea how to use any emergency buttons. We totally flipped and I’ve been terrified ever since. It’s quite ridiculous! 🙂
In case you were wondering about the little thriller-story, in the end, we were only in there for like three minutes before it started moving again. And look! I lived to tell about it, lol! 🙂
I am terrified of having my head under water! Didn’t want to be baptized because i had to be fully immersed. I told the preacher he better make it quick or he would have a fight on his hands with me kicking and screaming! Also terrified of spiders. I WILL NOT attempt to kill one for fear that if I miss it will attack me! Was at home by myself one time and came across a spider. I knew he had to die but I also knew it would not be me that would help him meet his demise! I called a friend to please come kill the spider. I sat and cried while watching the spider until my friend showed up. Everytime the spider moved, I screamed!
I have a fear of my feet being covered up. All my life (as a child I always slept with my feet out of the covers mid shin down. I have to wear socks in the winter months. My folks always covered them up and out they would come again. Even when I was in a relationship he would cover them up and out they come. I used to sleep walk as a child so I think it has to do with being prepared to get up quickly.
If it is any consolation I don’t vomit either. I just refuse to unless it is one of those viruses that takes control. 🙂
Snakes. Thank God I don’t live where there are very many snakes. I haven’t seen a snake outside in years. If I see a snake in a book or magazine, I have to turn the page fast or cover the picture. If we go to the zoo, I skip the area where they are located. I have no idea why I have this fear.
Passing an 18 wheeler on the interstate makes me nuts! I think it is going to come to my side and run me off the road or crush me. If I am passing near a bridge or narrow area I will speed up, as in massively over the speed limit to get by the truck.
Of course I am more likely to lose control of my car as I am driving over 90 miles an hour, which in all likely hood would cause me to hit something, hurling my car into the air and possibly flipping over and exploding but at least I won’t be run off the road, lol!
You can start laughing now because I gagged just looking up the name of my fear!
Mice! Musophobia. I never like to hear that a snake has been killed because they like them at meal time.
I have scared grown men with my reaction to a mouse in a commercial, my friends know to caution me if one is going to be in a movie.
In inner city Detroit God spared me from ever seeing more than the back legs and enormous tail of a rat. I was laughed at for being more afraid of the rodents than the people.
On the flip side. I have a couple of Christmas ceramics covered with the adorable little creatures.
Bazaar phobia for sure!
Thanks for the giggles.
Flemingos!!! Something about those long skinny legs that scare me. Even seeing lawn flemingos can bring me to tears and send me running.
Crazy, I know, but my fear is of unfinished wood. You know, like wooden spoons, steak knives, etc. It just totally creeps me out!! I usually try not to tell anyone bc everyone that knows thinks I’m nuts. Sometimes I have to bc I can’t use their knives or stir a pot.
I don’t like to drive over bridges. I have five kids and until they were out of car seats, I would panic that I would have to “choose” which one to save if we drove into water. That fear has lessened since they are older, but I still have to calm myself if it is a long bridge. My 4yo son has a huge fear
Y’all are cracking me up and scaring me at the same time! Haha! I’m developing more fears as I’m reading all of yours! Well…this is just crazy, but I HAVE to look under my bed and behind the shower curtain every single night before I go to bed. Not that I’ve been scared before bed and I could be home ALL day or all night and walked in and out of every room, but I still have to do those things before I can crawl in bed and shut my eyes. And I do it when I spend the night somewhere else, too! 😀
E.L.E.V.A.T.O.R.S.!! I try to be reasonable, tell myself that ‘normal’ people ride them every day…but I confess I would rather walk up 10 flights of stairs than get in one … and I have done it on multiple occasions 🙁
I’m with ya girl on the vomiting…I’d rather eat dirt. Sheer terror for me, bats! Have always been terrified of them. To make it worse a few years ago one of those nasty little creatures got into my apartment through one of those window air conditioner units and I awoke to my cat going crazy on my bed at 2am because there was a bat circling above my bed. Still gives me the shivers thinking about it. Eek!
I am afraid of driving over bridges, because I fear that I will just swerve my car and plunge off of the bridge. I’m also completely and utterly freaked out by bees. I run like my hair is on fire every time I see one. I am 52 years old. This needs to stop now.
Jump-starting a dead car battery. With both car hoods up, it’s so noisy. And what if the guys haven’t got the red and black thingys connected the right way? I’m just sure both cars are going to explode!
Yes! Me, too!
Lizards. The little green ones hanging out right above your front door ready to pounce right into your hair as you exit the house. It’s never actually happened to me, but if it does…whoa, buddy. I’m going to flip out. They are the one animal God could not have possibly invented. They’re evil.
People scare me the most. Spiders, rats, mice, cocroaches. No problem. The can’t hurt me like people can.
I totally relate to the fear of throwing your wedding ring or having some impulsive involuntarily thing like that happen!
Every time I see a movie where a person is on a ledge way up high on the outside of a building I get so scared that one day I will have to do that to save my child, however they ended up there. Makes my stomach do flips every time, and then immediately I am filled with such RELIEF that I’m safely on the couch!
I have an absolutely irrational fear of sharks. Nevermind that I live in Arkansas. I don’t even swim in dark pools at night….because of the sharks. And I’m an adult. And a mom. That darn jaws movie…
I am also a product of the jaws era…ruined the beach for me forever! 🙂
As I was reading about others fears…I realized that I have them all!! I don’t like walking on sidewalk grates either! I am afraid I will fall in. And hight’s or a bridge wake me queazy to look down. I don’t like bugs, even the ones that can’t hurt me (like boxelders). They are all over the mid-west and I always think they are on me when I feel anything touch me.
Now the most bazar thing for me is infomercials…It doesn’t matter what it is if I watch it long enough I fall into the need for that item! Sometime I just try this out on myself and others times I just laugh when I catch myself falling for it again.
Funny thing, when I saw the posting I thought to myself “I have no bazar fears”…little did I know!
I’m slightly terrified of elevators, but mostly only if I’m on one alone. I’m claustrophobic and I’m freaked out by the idea of getting stuck on one alone. This is probably due to the fact that this almost happened to me one time on the way to take a final exam. I was basically in panic attack mode.
I tweet Beth this, I have little holes in any public or private toilet, I have this bizarre fear there are hidden cameras in those tiny holes and I put toilet paper in them incase there are cameras in them.. True story very real fear believe me, I am seriously terrified of cameras in holes in bathrooms.
oh and here in Canada we have a nasty bug called June Bug it;s feet are like velcro they all hatch around the same day and for about 3 weeks they are my going out at night torment, hate them as much as holes in toilet walls
Mmmmm… I am convinced that there are AX murderers anywhere in the country. Put me on the west side of Chicago in a not so safe neighborhood and I would be fine. At least if I am going to get murdered, it will be out in the open. Leave me in the woods and I am CONVINCED that I will meet face to face with a man with an ax. K, I might be being slightly dramatic… but it’s nearly 90 % truth…
Also have a fear of Black Widows!! And Hobo spiders. Where I live there are Hobo spiders EVERYWHERE, and these things love my house! I remember putting on a pair of pants and just happened to look down to see a Hobo crawling out of the pant leg as I put them on! And just the other day I was picking up my son’s blanket off the floor and felt something soft under the arch of my foot and it was a Hobo wriggling out from beneath my foot! But seriously, Black Widows…..I will not go near piles of wood! I have two little boys and I am deathly afraid to take them camping or even let them go outside alone (we live in MT) because I’m afraid one of them will stick their hand in a wood pile and get bit by one.
I have a fear, and I’m positive there is no name for it. I love public speaking, but I’m constantly afraid that I’ll get up to give my talk an accidentally start with the Lord’s Prayer. Like the first words out of my mouth will be, “Our Father…” instead of whatever else it is I’m supposed to be talking about.
Well maybe the audience needs to hear a good WORD!!! 😀
I am a Dental Hygienist, I take care of cleaning teeth almost everyday! I push a button and back they go, for their routine cleaning. However, when it is time for my own personal 6 month cleaning,
I have a fear of being out of control! I have to clean and re-clean the chair before I get into it, feel sorry for the friend that is doing my routine cleaning! After, I leave the office, I re-clean my teeth at home! I just have a fear of mouth bacteria! Too much information about some things ( bacteria in the mouth) is not always a good thing! Weird I know, but I just don’t like getting in the dental chair!
Lizards. Not the cute, green Geiko gecko kind, but the hideous grey and pinkish spawn of Satan that live right outside my back door on a summer night (or anytime the weather is 60 or above). I am so terrified of them that I will not let my dog out the back door to go potty after dark because that’s when they come out (see? They’re creatures of darkness. What more proof do I need that they’re evil?) If I open the door and one comes in the house, I literally scream like a little girl and catapult myself onto the nearest piece of furniture — in about 0.5 nanoseconds. My husband says they’re good because they eat bugs, and I say “I don’t have a bug problem – I have a LIZARD problem!!” To me, they are just creepy little snakes with legs, and I cannot fathom why God made them. Ewwwww!
I suffer from the same fear, mostly because of traumatic experiences from when I was little! I was hospitalized when I was 3 or 4 because of it, I could not keep anything down and was severely dehydrated! It’s the one thing I worry most about if I have kids some day!
It’s nice to know I am not alone!!
I have this very irrational fear that at some point in the day, some type of creepy crawly has made it’s way into my bed. If I don’t pull back the covers and check under every pillow before climbing into bed, I feel like things are crawling all over me! If I check first, I fall right asleep!
Scorpions!!!! I am NEVER barefoot unless bathing or swimming because I’m so terrified of stepping on one. I even have nightmares about them. They’re so scary with their pinchers and curly tails. They are so GROSS!!!!
Romans 8:15
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. ❤❤
i was once shackled by fear, PARALYZED from life, but with Jesus I am FREE! We shouldn’t speak our fears, for the enemy uses them against us …..so ladies :
Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
1) I fear the boogie man still living under my bed when my man isnt home. And if he isnt, I still check all my house and run and jump onto my bed to avoid said man’s hand getting me.
2) I fear dying and my bed not being made or dishes in my sink (Note my ridiculousness that it’s not a fear of death. Nor does it keep me from leaving dishes in my sink!)
3) I fear cockroaches. Those things give me the major heebie jeebies. Big brown bugs that can fly are just wrong!
4) I fear driving through mountains, but not roller coasters or skydiving (Could someone please explain that?!)
Bless me.
You’ll probably get over the vomit thing when you have kids. I threw up all through both of my pregnancies and “christened” more restaurant bathrooms than I care to remember. You learn to make adjustments, because let me tell you a lot of things taste better going down than they do coming up. Just sayin’.
Anyway, my bizarre fear isn’t so bizarre because a lot of people have it – insects. Especially roaches and spiders. I usually get my husband to kill them, but if he’s not around I usually overcome for the sake of my children. The last couple of spiders I killed actually crunched under my shoe. I still get the shivers when I think about it.
Interestingly enough I am also an emetophobic. I have not met another soul who has this same fear, although people always tell me how much they also “hate to throw up.” I am like you…I go most of the winter in a state of paranoia just praying (and washing my hands A LOT) that I won’t catch the stomach bug I hear is going around. If I do start to feel sick, I usually end up in a panic attack desperately crying out to God to deliver me. On a good note, I did have morning sickness with my pregnancy but didn’t once throw up. I was just a little nauseated but never enough to get sick. Maybe it was my fear that kept me from being that sick, I don’t know. You’ll appreciate this story – I went into preterm labor with my daughter and had to go to the hospital. They put something in my IV to stop the labor. AFTER it was injected the nurse said, “Oh by the way, this drug makes about 80% of people throw up.” You are probably the only one who can truly understand what this did to me. And I DID throw up but only once and it wasn’t too bad. (Can’t believe I’m saying that.) I haven’t thrown up since…and my daughter is 11. 🙂 Good to know I’m not alone!
i am legitimately afraid of ledges or cliffs. not that i’ll fall, but that i’ll jump! something about being on the edge of something makes me scared and when i’m scared i usually lunge in the direction of my fears!! i threw myself off a cliff into a lake once that ended up being about 70 feet high… gotta keep me on a leash.
i have a FEAR of swallowing a bug in my sleep.i can hardly type it without wanting to gag – but despite our God-given dominion over animals/bugs – if I see a bug in my room before i go to sleep and can not kill it, i will sleep with one of those swine-flu masks on. not kidding. it’s ridiculous, and i know that the wide-spread statistic has now been proven a myth, but it’s still a fear I have yet to conquer.
I have never liked ants. It doesn’t matter whether they are fire ants or their toe bitty kind.
Forty years ago when we moved moved to the Texas Gulf Coast, my fear of ants was so bad that if I found any of them in the house at all, as soon as I finished “removing” them, I had to go take a very long shower.
Needless to say, 40 years down here has changed my attitude towards ants. I still don’t like them, but I no lo ger have to run to the shower
Last one I swear! This is the oddest one…when I’m pregnant and just about the second trimester, and the uterus is right at the belt line of my waist, I hate sitting upright because I imagine my baby having it’s limb caught in that fold!
Ok so… Adding up my list. I’m definitely emitophobic (thanks for the term btw… & a word of encouragement: I’ve had 4 babies and only threw up a couple times with each. None of that everyday horror… Even if it did send me into full on panic attacks for at least 24hrs.. Ha!) anyway. Agoraphobic– which Even my closest friends are surprised to hear!!–yay for Godsstregnthshowing up in my weakness. I’m super afraid of falling.. I avoid the grate things too bcimafraid they’ll buckle &in ill go, I don’t stand in boats bc of thesamething & I was always crazy scared I’d drop 1 of my babies!!– mainly bc I actually tend to drop things. Good grief!!ima mess over here– good thing for the grace & strength ofGod in my life!! .
Irrational fears?
That a rock will fall off the bridge as I drive under it.
That my big strapping teenage boys will fall over the edge, off a bridge, down a mountain. Any time they get close to an edge with a substantial drop, I feel pain where I birthed them.
Vomiting? Pfft. Six months with the first one, 9 months with the second one. My hubby said I could walk by the sink (with disposal) and not even break my stride.
I have a completely irrational fear of birds. I’ve never seen the Hitchcock movie (I think I would hyperventilate right there). I can’t stand it when birds fly around me. I even get a little freaked out when I am driving in my safe car (with the windows up!) and a bunch of birds fly overhead. Ewwww! I have a panic attack when my kids drag me in to those lorikeets exhibits at zoos. I REFUSE to buy the nectar to feed the silly things.
Although I don’t have a specific fear of heights, I share Susie’s fear that our car is going to tip over backwards going up steep hills. When we visit San Francisco, my husband drives, and I close my eyes and pray. Sandy…I also have to know the location of every public restroom and the quickest route to it. My worst irrational fear is not being able to sit in the middle of a row of seats. Church, airplanes, theaters, you name it…I have to be in the aisle seat!
Oh me too with the aisle seats! I go to several concerts or theater shows a year and I try my hardest to be able to pick my seats…..so I can be on the end or as close as possible. Heaven forbid I might have to get up and out of the row to get to the bathroom which I have staked out ahead of time. Oh how ridiculous does that sound!?!
I HATE having the stomach flu, but managed to survive 3 days of it a month or so ago; praise God ! But I also praise God for cheap Pedia lyte !
My worst fear is speaking in front of adults, and yet God called me into being an elementary school teacher; and I love it ! God bless you, Miss Beth, for if you have this fear, I was sure never able to notice it ………
In Christ’s Love, Jennifer
SNAKES!!!!!!!!!!!!
I have a very real but admittedly irrational fear of SNAKES. Doesn’t matter if they are on TV, if I see them I can’t sit still, get chills all over and scream uncontrollably to everyone’s amusement when they move and watch out if they strike….and this is when they are on TV!
I am always afraid a SNAKE is going to be waiting for me when I lift the toilet lid, get in the shower, open a garbage can…I won’t walk through pine straw, help spread pine straw or have anything to do with any outdoor activity that might be snaky. That includes weeding or planting flower beds. And yes, I have had snakes in my flower beds when I’ve been down there on my knees and actually ridden a bicycle over a pile of pine straw and had a snake pop out. Finally, you won’t find me in a lake, pond, river or creek either…..too snaky….
Oh,my – It’s no secret in my community that I am afraid of frogs!! Some people mock me, and my family LOVES to buy me ugly frog-related gifts. One year I even had a bright green birthday cake shaped like a frog. It had big red lips and long eyelashes, and it was U-G-L-Y (but delicious)!
I once broke into my own house in the middle of the night while my two little toddlers were inside because there was a frog on my front doorstep!
I understand. My bff has the same fear. We are in an outdoor drama together (close to a river) and toads are numerous. Some people make fun of her. She knows it’s irrational but she still has it. She really doesn’t like any reptilian creature but she’s trying to work through it.
Okay, here it goes…….
1. Any kind of bug, rodent, spiders, and snakes. If I have to use the restroom at a friends house and they have a septic tank, I will flush the toilet once before I go just in case there is something in there.
2. Bridges, tall ones over water….makes me break out in a sweat. The same thing happens when I go through a tunnel with water over it (There is one near Norfolk).
3. Biggest fear….I wont enter to win a door prize at an event. I’m terrified I will win something and have to walk up in front of people to receive it. Crazy isn’t it!
Oh Sharon! Your third one made me laugh. I’v certainly thought that before!
I’m afraid that a snake will come up from the toilet and bite my bum when I go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. I heard of a snake coming up our of someone’s toilet when I was a child, and i just never forgot it.
i’m with you, beth! i’d rather take a beating!
I really hate those flailing blow up characters outside car dealerships, especially those ones the bend and flail with the wind blowing through them… creep me out !!