Irrational Childhood Fears

CHRISNOIR

Last night, at the grand old age of thirty-two, I finally made it through an episode of the Muppet Show without fleeing in terror. I wasn't a particularly sensitive kid (nor am I a particularly sensitive adult...) but something about it struck fear deep into me.

I dipped my toe in the Henson-esque waters briefly when I was eighteen at a girlfriends house. We were sat in the front room with her parents when the Muppets came on and I swear I flinched. My relief when she suggested we go out was incredible.

What scared you as a kid? Or am I alone in this kind of thing..?

:oops:

Harry B

The theme tune to Dr Who (over that now though )
Spiders (still not over that though )
Girls (definately over that though )

mozzle

Worzel Gummidge..... it used to freak me out when he changed his heads!
The Incredible Hulk.... the whole turning green bit!

Still to this day I cant stand either of these two and I'm now 31 :shock:

popette

mozzle wrote:

Worzel Gummidge..... it used to freak me out when he changed his heads!
The Incredible Hulk.... the whole turning green bit!

Still to this day I cant stand either of these two and I'm now 31 :shock:

definitely the hulk - that was soooooo scary. I once went to the circus and was convinced that david banner was sitting a few rows in front and I crouched and hid throughout the whole show.

a fear that gets worse as I get older is flying - on one occasion when flying alone on business, the flight attendant had to sit next to me and hold my hand :oops: . I was pregnant at the time so couldn't go for my usual pre-flight preparation of getting sloshed.

gkerr4

CHRISNOIR wrote:

Last night, at the grand old age of thirty-two, I finally made it through an episode of the Muppet Show without fleeing in terror. I wasn't a particularly sensitive kid (nor am I a particularly sensitive adult...) but something about it struck fear deep into me.

I dipped my toe in the Henson-esque waters briefly when I was eighteen at a girlfriends house. We were sat in the front room with her parents when the Muppets came on and I swear I flinched. My relief when she suggested we go out was incredible.

What scared you as a kid? Or am I alone in this kind of thing..?

:oops:

have you been to disneyworld florida? - to the MGM studios? - the 3d muppet experience (amazing as it is) is enough to make a whole load of people scared of the muppets.

or it might help you get over your fear?

CHRISNOIR

gkerr4 wrote:

have you been to disneyworld florida? - to the MGM studios? - the 3d muppet experience (amazing as it is) is enough to make a whole load of people scared of the muppets.

or it might help you get over your fear?

I could try and blag a trip on the NHS as 'therapy'...

ChrisLS

...stairs...I still have a recurring dream about stairs with a landing...

stairs feature in ghost stories quite a lot...something spooky about stairs...

richk

Like many (?) I would watch Dr Who from behind the settee.

I vaguely remember watching Salems Lots with my sister (when I was about 16) & it scared the cr@p out of both of us.

graeme_s-2

ChrisLS wrote:

...stairs...I still have a recurring dream about stairs with a landing...

stairs feature in ghost stories quite a lot...something spooky about stairs...

Do you have to live in a bungalow?

Massimo

Clowns scare me sh*tless...

You may see the bright smiley make up and curly wig - all I see are the cold dead eyes of the alcoholic peado...

I'm getting the shakes just typing this

Siechotic

Clowns for me too!

hammerite

A lad I work with a sh!t scared of clowns too, he puts it down to the fact that they're not smiling, but have a smile painted on. Freaks him out.

I liked Dr Who, but was scared of the Daleks. I was really scared of the Hulk, and used to go loopy when Darth Vader came on TV..... I think that was something to do with the heavy breahing and me being an asthmatic

I'm no longer scared of any of those, but am still terrified of spiders!

dennisn

Got to be the basement monster. He usually hid in a small room down there that my
mother stored canned goods in. I knew he was behind that door. I wouldn't go down alone for fear that someone(my brothers) would turn out the lights and that would be
the end of me of course. Some sort of horrible death. Ripped apart, who knew???

Dennis Noward

Stewie Griffin

Catweazle for some reason and the Cybermen from Dr Who left me sleepless as a youngster.

Salems lot as a teenager for me too, I remember the scene with whoever it was scratching at the window. At the first sign of darkness every evening for years I shut my thankfully floating dead person proof curtains. They never got in so it worked obviously.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXL19IPj ... re=related

Poltergeist also as a teenager, I thought I would never sleep again, first time I realised how scary clowns were, and trees, and swimming pools, and tv's, and little sisters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9u3CRa_E3nw

Siechotics Avatar is probably the only thing that scares me nowadays :oops: . Truth be told Horror films dont scare me anymore, Horror books however can still have me pull the (make me invisible to the living dead magic) duvet over my head after I have turned the lights out :roll: .

popette

ahhhhh, just remembered one - SUZI QUATRO!!!!!!!!

jellybellywmb

Cows, can't go near them will walk around fields with them in rather than go through.
Jellyfish.

markos1963

popette wrote:

ahhhhh, just remembered one - SUZI QUATRO!!!!!!!!

:shock:

I was in love with the Suzi Q!!!!

My son when little was absolutly terrified of Churchill(the insurance companies dog, not the wartime PM)

pneumatic

Birds! :shock: :evil:

Still trying to cure myself of the problem with the feathery ones.

Eventually grew out of the fear of talking to the other kind, but these days (with a wife and teenaged daughter) I am slightly anxious about disagreeing with them.

jellybellywmb

Saw a Raven peck a Magpie to death whilst out running the other morning,that was scary

pigeon42

War of the Worlds - the radio series/shows. The music still makes me want to run for the hills, and when my other half's feeling especially mean, he quotes odd lines from it a la Richard Burton :shock:

popette

tizz woz - I was only little but I remember them putting pairs of pants on kids heads and having no-blinking competitions - scary stuff.

SteveR_100Milers

RichK wrote:

Like many (?) I would watch Dr Who from behind the settee.

I vaguely remember watching Salems Lots with my sister (when I was about 16) & it scared the cr@p out of both of us.

What a film! James Stewart is only half pretending, but its a classy film. One of the few that lived up to the TV hype.

Olly Garth

When I was a child after having pulled the chain to flush our upstairs toilet I had to make it down the stairs before it finished flushing. This invloved great timing and athleticism taking steps three at a time.

I don't know what would have happened if I didn't make it because i always reached the bottom in time. How daft is that?

meagain

"What scared you as a kid?"

Getting old - and it was I now know an entirely rational and well-founded fear.

pigeon42

Olly Garth - I can relate to that completely, I also used to do that but slight variation which involved hiding under my Mum's enormous beanbag by the time it finished flushing! :oops:

BeaconRuth

I was scared of getting locked in a pubic toilet cubicle. I think this stemmed from an incident at playgroup where a child got locked into the loo cubicle and had to be rescued by the playgroup staff by breaking the lock. For many many years I always assessed every cubicle I entered for the possibility of escape, should the door lock get stuck.

I didn't used to like crepe bandages much either. It was something about the texture and the sterilised smell. I was given a nurse's outfit when I was about 4 years old and my great aunt, who had a bandage on her knee from an injury, asked me if I could make her better. I was scared of her for years after that.

Ruth

ThatGuyOnABike

escalators and gennerally unstable or moving ground. except those moving carpet things in airports are more of a bizarre thrill. at the top of a ladder i move like i'm a badly made very slow robot and can't bare to speak. not irrational becuase there is a dnger but definatly embarressing.

i like spiders, fan of the hulk and doctor who. when spider trapped in house i make it go on my hand and run outside to blow it off. like the big ones, the designs on their backs are really nice some times.

what is irrational is that i still to this day when alone in the house walk around with a heavy hard cased torch to knock out intruders.

1892

Still scared of highs

Marriage is also high up the list

pedylan

SteveR_100Milers wrote:

RichK wrote:

Like many (?) I would watch Dr Who from behind the settee.

I vaguely remember watching Salems Lots with my sister (when I was about 16) & it scared the cr@p out of both of us.

What a film! James Stewart is only half pretending, but its a classy film. One of the few that lived up to the TV hype.

When still a student I had a job which involved living in a large and fairly remote farmhouse. Only two rooms furnished, a living room and a downstairs room with one bed. I foolishly read the book Salem's Lot whilst there. Halfway through the book I moved the mattress to an upstairs room - none of the rooms on any floor had curtains and the darkness outside was just a bit much........ :oops:

Not Another Hill

My wardrobe door slightly ajar at night time when I was in bed. (still close them now)

Mirrors on wardrobes after watching a creepy B/W film as a kid about a newly married couple's wedding present mirror in which the background changed when only he was in the room. Eventually he was dragged through it and killed by two sinister people. (Got over it now...I just use the mirrrors in department stores on busy Saturday mornings whenever I need to check on my appearance)

DavidBelcher

BeaconRuth wrote:

I didn't used to like crepe bandages much either. It was something about the texture and the sterilised smell. I was given a nurse's outfit when I was about 4 years old and my great aunt, who had a bandage on her knee from an injury, asked me if I could make her better. I was scared of her for years after that.

Ruth

Still on a first aid note, my 12 year old niece refuses to go anywhere near Savlon antiseptic cream on the grounds that it's "poisonous". This is, it seems, entirely my fault as she's obviously heard me reciting fragments of Harry Hill sketches/dialogue down the years (what are the chances of that happening?). :oops:

David