I heard this subject discussed on the wireless a couple of weeks back and thought it would be interesting to hear if anyone on here suffered from them.

I got these from the web earlier:

I'm not aware of being someone who suffers such fears but when I was small (about 7 or 8) there were certain songs that I couldn't listen to because the lyrics freaked me out.
Killing Me Softly by Roberta Flack scared me because I couldn't understand how someone could be killed by a song (Jedward aside) and a similar problem with a Helen Reddy track called Angie Baby where some sort of witchcraft resulted in the guy in the song being spun araound and made to dissapear. Proper freaked me out it did.
If I heard either of those songs I had to run out of the room.

Oh, and that chirpee fucking cheep cheep song gave me the willies. Screwy lyrics and the pitch of the singers voice scared me senseless.

Not really irrational (maybe they are a little now that i think about it) but I have to have a light on to even attempt to sleep anymore, I'll spend 10 minutes sitting and wondering if I locked the doors or closed the windows (including car doors/windows), if I pass through the dark hallway in the middle of the night I am always looking over my shoulder and feel panic attacks coming on, I have panic attacks and feel absolutely terrified out of the blue for no reason (like I can be doing dishes or sitting at the computer and one just hits).

When I was a kid I had no fear lol...I was a stupid, stupid kid. My moms favorite example is when I was 3, I ran along the edge of the grand canyon (before they put up guard rails). Although when I was about 12-13, I watched the Exorcist and forever thought someones head was going to start spinning

I have a fear of doing a stay over at someones house that I know they keep a loaded gun within their hands reach when they sleep, my reasoning on this is if I somehow wake them in the middle of the night they may forget I'm a guest for a few seconds before they become fully awake and shoot off some rounds.

Blimey, stars. Panic attacks aren't a good thing to have. Sorry to hear you suffer from them.

I imagine that having to have the light on to sleep would be, for want of a better word, popular. I dread to think what damage it does to the electricity bill. $$

Love the Grand Canyon tale.

Rick wrote:
I think I'd sleep in the car, mate.

hugorune wrote:
It's all in my head, which is what makes it irrational... car is gonna disappear or someone is gonna pop the hood and mess with the engine; someone is gonna come in the house and I wont hear it; someone already is in the house that I don't know about. Lol, it's a good thing I don't have a gun anymore, I'd probably shoot the wall mid-insomniac-panic-episode (warning to Rick, don't ever stay here at night, sleep outside).

Electricity bill doesn't really suffer, we hardly use it during the day so... the light is a relatively new thing, never used to need one.

StarsChildren wrote:
Well that's one sofa I shalln't be crashing out on. Unless they sell bullet proof sleeping bags.

No irrational fears at all really - well, I've become scared of heights, but I think that's quite sensible.

When I was about 4, the Dr Who theme tune filled me with a sense of uncontrollable dread. I can actually remember it. Because I knew nobody in our house would be sympathetic, I used to hide behind the sofa and cry till it had finished.

The Hillman Minx. You don't see them round much nowadays, except for the very rare renovated one, so I'd pretty much forgotten about this until now. But when I was a child there were quite a few Hillman Minxes around and something about them... the pointy bits , that horrible pale blue colour ... made me feel so sick to my stomach I used to think I'd vomit. I couldn't bear to see one.

Don't know why.

cantata wrote:
And that's what makes irrational fears so intriguing.

I heard one from a fella who was scared of the underneath of ships. Anything above water was fine but what was underneath freaked him out. Another was from a guy who had nightmares about a shark attacking him in his bed!

All of this got me thinking about the subject of past life experiences possibly effecting the current incarnation. Maybe the man afraid of the underneath of ships had drowned as the result of an accident involving a ship. Possibly the shark guy was killed by one in a previous life. Hmmm

Obviously, I haven't the foggiest.

I'll admit I spent about 30 seconds wondering why the guy stood outside the door had his fingers poking through.

And I haven't had a drink.

StarsChildren wrote:
*Makes note in dossier*

For a REALLY good night, remember that StarsChildren will be awake all night if the lights are all turned off.

Gilly wrote:
G'day Gilly.

The Dr Who "theme tune" thingy isn't irrational. Being forced to watch Dr Who, the "theme tune" would fill anyone with "uncontrollable dread".

I AM ALL I AM wrote:
I'll also be in a panic most of the night as well and liable to have a complete meltdown... so, can we really call that a "REALLY good night"?

StarsChildren wrote:
G'day StarsChildren.

Clarification <---> A REALLY good night for me.

Apart from that, you'll be too busy to have any meltdown.

I AM ALL I AM wrote:
Hugo my dear boy ... you can add this guy ^ to my list of irrational fears

If you, IAm, are insinuating what I think you are, I believe there be another thread around here more suited for it, minus my participation of course

Right now I have an irrational fear of phone calls, mail, and people knocking on the door. I developed the fears from staying in my house during a dragged out foreclosure process, and I'm out of danger now because I was court ordered to leave 2 years ago - so its an irrational fear. I think what is happening is that a routine was developed inside of me where I would panic even having to look at the mail. So my brain sees mail and my body remembers to panic. I stacked all of my mail on a bookshelf for a year and never even looked at it. True story. When I was vacating my house it was a relief to just grab it all and throw it in the trash.

The strange thing is that the fear has extended to my email which I haven't looked at in almost half a year. I can't go in there.

Nosey, that is just about thee most common response amongst folks dealing with debt issues.
It has become a learned response though and you should confront and gut out that email inbox asap girl!
Take back your life!

Unless you're just a whimpering, wee, woosie, woman of course.
Then you'd best leave it alone until you can persuade some male to go do it for you.

I AM ALL I AM wrote:
I reckon you should shut the fuck up IAAIA, Stars has a genuine fear