It used to be flying, 9/11 really messed me up. I was finally able to get over it after I had a lengthy layover in Chicago about 5 years ago and spent most of the time watching the sheer number of people walking past me. I thought to myself “this is one airport…in one state…in one country…on one day.” It helped convince my brain that number of accidents you hear about compared to the number of flights is just so astronomically small. I still don’t *love* it, but I can do it.
Look into someone who does sedation dentistry. I have 2 patients that are so phobic I bring in a anesthesiologist to put them out just to get their teeth cleaned. Obviously that can get pricey, but theres also oral sedation that is much cheaper and will work for almost every other phobic patient. A certain mix of pills and you wont care what they are doing.
I’m afraid of sex, which is the only reason I never have any. Because if I wasn’t afraid I would totally be doing sex like all the time.
Fun story to add to this (while I was still deathly afraid to fly): Right around the time my wife and I got married we bought tickets from Cleveland to Fort Myers to go visit her parents. The flight left at 6:30 AM, and at about midnight I started having a massive panic attack. Sweating so much the sheets were soaked, not being able to breathe, puking, the whole 9. I told her I wasn’t flying, I didn’t care what she did. She was PISSED and very reluctantly chose to ride with me rather than flying and meeting me there. By 1 AM we were in the car driving to South Florida. Ended up driving 17 hours one way with gas at $5.00 a gallon and eating the cost of our plane tickets.
Heights. Not like, in planes or buildings. Just being outside and feeling exposed. 20-30 feet on a balcony makes me feel way worse than looking down from an airplane or skyscraper. I get like a physical nope from walking on open grate floors high up. I would never ever in a million fucking lifetimes climb towers for a living for any amount of money. Fuck. That. Literally every other thing in life is whatever and I have no fear of dying or anything so it's strange.
Prob instinct to some extent which is weird how humans have those about like heights and snakes and spiders but not about fucking electrical outlets or bleach. Come on epigenetics get moving on that already.
It's like I'm getting stabbed by tiny needles (prickly feeling I guess) in my abdomen and my balls are going to climb back into my body.
my sister got bit by a fox at the beach one year. i think she had to get the shots and they werent too bad (idk i never asked just made fox jokes all summer instead)
And it's also crazy expensive. I got bit by a dog on a run and I had to move mountains to find both the dog and the shot record after it ran off. Dog was a day or two away from the rabies shot being out of date. You have to get the shot within a few days of the bite and if you don't get it and get rabies you die. So that sucked.
Once or twice a month I'm probably on top of a couple hundred foot tall silo and I hate it more and more each time. There are railings around the top, but I stay like four feet away from the railings at this point. It's definitely the open air/exposed feeling that you mention. I just don't like the idea that if I somehow fell over....splat.
Don't trust myself. One slipe and you're done. I'm not afraid of roller coasters either because you're strapped in and how many people die doing that? Barely anyone. Although as I've gotten older I've gotten much better about it through exposure. Exposure therapy is good for phobias generally tbh https://www.apa.org/ptsd-guideline/patients-and-families/exposure-therapy
It is also apparently a terrible death too, there’s a YouTube video about. Think it takes days and you can’t eat or even drink water
I conquered my fear of dentists a few years back. Needed my wisdom teeth out and was a massive baby about it. Got IV sedation and it was great. I was sore for a few days but I’d stop feeling sore after taking pain meds. Soreness only lasted about a week. I even joined a conference call later that afternoon and was eating pizza that night.
Dog was marauding around on a running/bike path. Owners just let the dog do whateverthefuck. I had to find where the dog lived after it runnoft because animal control was not helpful. They weren't helpful even after I found the dog honestly because the owners lied about having the dog when animal control went to their house. Needless to say I was the worst version of myself to everyone involved until the shit got done. The dog was eventually put down after biting 2 more adults on the same path within the next year.
the only thing I am afraid of is making a bad post, that is why all of mine are extremely high quality
all yall afraid of the dentist why don’t you come over here and I’ll really give you something to be afraid of lol
I worked at a pumpkin farm a few autumns when I was a kid. I tell you what you just can't tell some of the rotten ones so you bend down to pick them up with your 11-year-old hands and it just goes right through into the innards and listen man a guy just doesn't forget that feeling or stank.
I am scared of the dark and heights. Dark, I don’t know why. Probably something from my childhood. I won’t even go into the basement after sunset without my phone or a flashlight. Sleep with a nightlight as well. Heights - went to someplace with a swinging bridge Al near the peak of the mountain. It was windy and extremely foggy. You could see more than 10 feet below the bridge. And the bridge was swinging a good bit because of the wind. Was fucking terrifying. I can’t even watch POV videos of people at tall heights without feeling anxiety.
I feel like a guy on death row waiting to be taken to the chair right now. This shit is wild and so God damned stupid
I went hot air ballooning in CO last month. It was so awesome. I was very surprised at how many people told me how terrified they'd be to do it. Especially after I showed them this picture: Spoiler
Wife: You know, I really want to be cremated after I die. Me: Okay, that sounds reasonable. Wife: It's cause I don't want to be buried alive. Me: Wife: I just have this fear of being buried alive, that's all. Me: So you'd rather be burned to death? Wife: Yep. 100% would. Me: Pray tell why? Wife: It'd be a hell of a lot shorter before I'm dead. Me:
Having kids made me freak out about things that didn't bother me previously, like flying and heights. Flew all the time when I was younger with no problems, even when we had engine trouble coming into Minneapolis back in the 90's. Then, first time I took all my kids on a flight to Hawaii, needed Xanax for the flight. Same thing with heights - back when I was working in a condor basket on the hospital set exterior for T2 in 1991 my boss decided to fuck with me one day and turned off my controls and started bouncing the basket. He thought I'd freak out, but I just held on and rode it out, and after several minutes he got bored and stopped. Swinging bridges, tall ladders, no problem. Then, after kids, I can't climb more than about six feet up a ladder and going up to Glacier Point scares the crap out of me, even though I don't get anywhere near the edge. Spiders have always been a problem with me. I've had dreams of giant plate-sized black widows since I was a kid
For our friends with spider fears (of which I am one), check out this story. Buddy of mine was sleeping and felt something tickling his nose. He batted at it half asleep but missed. A second later it tickled him enough to wake him up. A spider had come down from the ceiling, and when he saw what it was and panicked, it dropped a ton of babies on his face.
Planes are so high up in the air that it doesn’t even register in my brain as a height I should be uneasy with. This is also why I think I’d manage better with skydiving than bungee jumping, though I have zero desire to do either.
Spiders. Little godless killing machines. I also like to terrify myself by swimming out deep into a lake/ocean and opening my eyes underwater and staring straight down while treading water
I'm home, alive. Flight up was smooth sailing aside from mini panic attack at takeoff from RSW to ATL in which I grabbed a grown man's thigh at take off. ATL to OMA was perfect. Hence, I knew trouble would get me on the way back. OMA to MDW was ROUGH. Takeoff was wonky with a random full blast to the engines after a minute that felt very unnatural and had everyone kind of of squemming. Landing at MDW. Well... fuck that. It was cloudy until the absolute very end and we came in hard as a mother and since it's midway we had to stop on a dime. Shit went flying everywhere, some screams were heard. MDW to RSW started off strong as shit. I sat right next to a pilot on his way home. He was the coolest dude ever. He had his iPad up with all of his pilot apps, told me every noise and feeling. It was amazing. What could go wrong, right? Ah, yeah, the guy sitting literally right behind me could have a medical emergency at 40,000 feet. I think I'm just over it. Let this fear win.
I was terrified of getting mine but finally did in July if this year. The buildup is by far the worst. Took a Valium before, threw in the AirPods so I couldn’t hear them pull and it was a peace of cake.
Mice. Dead or alive. When I was a kid there was a field near out house and some kids (my sisters) accidentally lit part of it on fire. There were mice in the field and I have been forever haunted by the sounds of mice burning to death. I run when I see one I literally freeze then run from wherever I am, alive or dead.