Irrational Fears Thread

Strange topic, but maybe you have an odd fear to share.

I’m very safety conscious, but I am even more cautious of garbage disposals.

I have visions of losing my hand in one of those things, grinding away until I can remove a stump. Really vivid visions.

So far, this has not allowed me to get out of doing dishes though.

 

Here's a weird one I was reminded of last weekend. At least since I was a teenager (30-plus years ago), I have been afraid of walking across bridges -- but only ones with automobile traffic that whizzes past. It's not the height above the water or drop from the bridge. I've crossed shaky footbridges over deep gorges with no worries whatsoever.

But put cars near the sidewalk or walkway, as happened last weekend when I visited Deception Pass State Park in Washington state, and my legs literally get wobbly.

 

I’ve been having terrible fears of going to the dentist.

For starters, I have very bad sinuses, which cause congestion in my chest and I have a very bad gag reflex. Occasionally, through my youth and early 20s, I would throw up during my dentist visits when I would either have dental impressions or X-rays when they stuff the film in your mouth.

But the last few times have been even worse. I had wisdom teeth removed. The oral surgeon barely could get the Novocain because how physically small my mouth is. There wasn’t any nitrous oxide, and the Valium that he had me take before the procedure barely touched me. At one point, halfway through pulling the first wisdom tooth, he suggested postponing the surgery and having me get knocked out in the hospital. I’d just started my job a few months before, didn’t want to kill another sick day, and told the guy to just yank them.

Then I went to another dentist to have a crown put in for a molar. No nitrous. The Novocain shots hurt. A piece of the drilled tooth fell in my throat. Dentist tried to pull it out, I started gagging and threw up as the dentist barely got the instrument out in time.

Went to a new dentist. No nitrous. I gagged during the X-rays. Dentist came in to look at me. His instrument touched the back of my tongue, and I started gagging. He gave me time to compose myself, then tried to out the instrument in, and I just couldn’t even open my mouth at that point.

Went to my most recent dentist. He had nitrous oxide. I told him that I was having terrible anxiety to where I was gagging even when I was sitting in the chair. At first, he didn’t want to do the nitrous just for an X-Ray, but after I started gagging from anxiety,
he agreed. The nitrous got me relaxed enough for him to do the procedure. His Novocain shot didn’t hurt. He also recommended I get another tooth removed.

Went to a different oral surgeon for the tooth removal. Threw up in the bathroom before I went in from nerves. Had anxiety sitting in the chair. Oral surgeon hooked a blood pressure thing on me before knocking me out with IV sedation. My BP was something like 175 over 118. They knocked me out, and pulled the tooth.

I have another appointment coming up with the dentist (the one with the nitrous) in September, and I’m already dreading it, even though I know that if he uses the nitrous, I should be OK.

What really gets me is that as a kid and a teen, I had braces twice, and, while it wasn’t a walk in the park, I was pretty good dealing with my regular pediadontists (one died years ago, one didn’t take insurance and was super expensive) and the orthodontist group. Now just the thought of going to a dentist gives me terrible anxiety.

 

My ex has a similar fear of driving on freeway overpasses, worried there will be an earthquake and it will collapse. She doesn't mind bridges over water, because she would fall into the water. Her fear is crashing onto the road below.

 

For a while when I was 12 or 13, I couldn't bring myself to get on an escalator. It just freaked me out for some reason. It passed pretty quickly, thankfully, but I still think about it every time I get on one.

 

Clowns.
Bridges over water (I almost froze at the wheel on the Sunshine Skyway Bridge).
Falling (almost every nightmare I have involves falling)

 

Dropping my keys in a storm drain.
Whether they are in my pocket or on my belt loop, I instinctively cover my keys any time I walk near one.
I've never dropped my keys in a storm drain, and I don't have a similar fear of dropping my wallet or phone.

 

I’m okay with bridges, but hiking to a cliff and looking over (with no overlook handrail, etc.) turns my legs super wobbly.

And some downward views of folks scaling skyscrapers or steelworkers walking on I-beams without any restraints give me much more than a visceral reaction: they make my testicles hurt.

 

I'm afraid of everything.

Is that irrational?

 

I'm afraid I'm starting to get the bridges thing. Maybe it's more of a "I drive my kid to college in NYC" thing (but I love that about her and I don't fear for her safety), but while I really don't ever mind the NC-through-DC-tunnels-through-Baltimore stretch or any part of the NJ Turnpike, the Delaware bridge and Verrazano Bridge have me going middle lane/lower deck every time lately. And I don't like the cars around me.

I hate it, but I know it's real and it freaks me out.

 

My mom was married before she met my dad. Her first husband was killed when he was driving a pan (big piece of earth moving equipment) across a bridge that collapsed under the weight and dropped him into a river.