irrational fears

[shoshntosh]

similar to the greatest fears thread of a couple months back... but this time: COMPLETELY IRRATIONAL FEARS.

i'll start.

i'm sure it's terribly freudian but i have an irrational fear of snakes in toilet bowls. i saw an episode of pet rescue (or something like it) as a child where a snake was found coiled in someone's toilet and i've never been able to shake the image. totally ridiculous i know.

anything more embarrassing than that? come on, make me feel better...

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

I have documented before how I hate worms. I watched the Darwin programme yesterday - I was curious after Keef's reference. Thanks for the warning Keef.

[Azul]

I don't appreciate vast amounts of water

[david_carnell]

Dwarves. Especially those in fancy dress or costumes. Or in groups.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Don't fancy The Hobbit round mine then?

BTW, Mr Lewis, that noted philologist, would have us spell it 'dwarfs'.

[HonaloochieB]

On entering a lift I always worry that it's going to come loose from it's moorings and cut me in half.

Not so irrational really, could happen.

It could of course be my subconscious telling me to use the stairs as I could do with the exercise.

My subconscious is a cheeky bastard like that.

[Tony.London Suburbs]

Even though I have flown scores of times I'm irrationally frightened on being on a Plane as we all know they are the

"safest form of transport".....

[Keef]

On entering a lift I always worry that it's going to come loose from it's moorings and cut me in half.

Me too!!!!!!!!!! I remember an episode of LA Law, where a character turned and walked in to the lift, only to fall straight down the shaft as the lift wasn't there, and I remember a disaster movie (about an earthquake I think) where 2 women were trapped in a lift, eventually one was pulled out, and just as they were trying to get the other girl out, the cable snapped, and she got chopped.

Now everytime I get in to a lift I almost jump through the door!

PGC, I'm sorrt about the worms, I didn't think. Bad Keef!

I'm a bit funny about train platforms too, I stand well back, as I am convinced one day I'll fall or get shoved on to the tracks, and that would really ruin my day!

[HonaloochieB]

So if me and Keef have the same fear and there is solid evidence from trustworthy sources (LA Law and a disaster movie) that this could feasibly happen then I have nothing to worry about as far as my fear being irrational is concerned.

It could happen and in fact probably will.

Thanks for that Keef, I feel much better.

[Brendan]

I have the same thing in lifts, also from a film where someone got cut in half in one. Can?t remember what it was called but it was a horror/thriller type thing where all these people were supposed to have died for some reason but didn?t so death stalked them killing them off one by one.

The image I always get is that I will be walking into a lift and as I?m on the threshold the lift will fall, splitting me in half longways.

[Asset]

slight tangent here but on the lift subject, when I was a kid (7ish) I had reason to be hanging around the LSE and a lad that I knew and I would go into one of the campus buildings which had a lift called a paternoster lift. It was basically a chain of lifts with no doors on a continual loop, at the top and bottom the cubicle moves across to the side to then go down or up. Anyway, at a certain point in the loop two lifts would be adjacent and there was a gap which this lad, as his trick, would scramble through and jump into the adjacent lift. Horrendous visions of how horribly that could have gone wrong!

[Sandperson]

Brendan Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I have the same thing in lifts, also from a film

> where someone got cut in half in one. Can?t

> remember what it was called but it was a

> horror/thriller type thing where all these people

> were supposed to have died for some reason but

> didn?t so death stalked them killing them off one

> by one.

>

> The image I always get is that I will be walking

> into a lift and as I?m on the threshold the lift

> will fall, splitting me in half longways.

It was The Omen II. Great film...

[Keef]

Yep, that's the fear!

I think the film you're thinking of was Final Destination 2, it starts with the main girl having a vision of a massive pile up on a motorway, she then stops everyone from getting on the motorway, thus cheating death. They then get picked off one by one in some great ways (the dude who gets sliced in 3 by the flying wire fence!!!).

One of the better modern "horrors" I thought (in an entertaining way with some very original ways of killing people off). The first one was also good, but they shouldn't have made the third!

[Moos]

Brendan, if the cable snapped as you were getting in, it wouldn't split you in half, it would just fall on your head and probably knock your body into the lift as it fell down the shaft. I suppose there's a chance your feet might be comically left behind.

Hope that helps.

Love

Moos

[Keef]

Sorry, my post was responding to Brendan... Hmm maybe it was Omen 2 now you mention it... Brendan???

RE LA Law, I know it's not a great thing to base a fear on, but we used to watch it every week (I was probably somewhere between 9 and 11), and that image has always stuck in my head.

I stand at our "balcomy" (basically just a door that opens out to nothing, with a railing across a bit above waist height, no actual balcony to step out on to) and smoke every evening, and I am always imagining myself splattered on the ground below. It would be very very difficult to fall over the railing, but if I am close to the edge, I have to hold on to something.

That said, I'm not very good with heights in general, but that's pretty common.

[Asset]

Lifts don't fall down shafts if the cable snaps. As invented by mr Otis there is a mechanism to hold the lift in place if that happens. I know that because I had a fear of that happening and looked it up.

[VeryBerryCherry]

Has anyone seen Ghostship?

It's an awful horror movie, but the opening scene has left me traumatised. There is a party on the deck of a ship and the devil just happened to be present is after a large quota of flesh. They all get killed by large metal rope, but I can't even begin to describe how without wanting to be sick. And as a result I have a phobia of those bouyed ropes in the swimming pools that they use to separate the lane swimmers. It's the same material.

oh, and I think I have Tocophobia.

But I DO NOT think that is irrational in the slightest. :-S

[Moos]

Then you have a Juliet balcony, Keef, which I always think is a nice thing, and v. romantic.

Wasn't there an episode of Friends (oh highbrow me) when Joey's character in his soap is supposed to die by falling into a lift shaft but he doesn't want to lose his cushy soap job, so pretty much has to be pushed in? I reckon you should watch that as therapy to render your fears absurd.

[Keef]

It is romantic Moos, I stand there in my smoking jacket, saying "loud shouting Sydenham chavs, loud shouting Sydenham chavs. Wherefore art though loud shouting Sydenham chavs?"

And they respond every single night!!! Bless them.

[LuvPeckham]

Beetroot

[Keef]

That's a great one!

[cdonline]

Getting a puncture and being ploughed over by the 436 bus.

Have that thought most days.

[HonaloochieB]

I've just used a lift for the first time in years with no fear.

I'm cured.

My thanks to everyone, particularly Keef and Brendan.

It was practically a disability you know.

[Moos]

Keef, that really made me laugh. Now I want to know where you live, so I can stroll up and muse 'what light from yonder window breaks? Oh, it's Keef's fag.'

(I'm such a sap. Just thinking about that play makes me go all misty. Come, gentle night,-give me my Romeo)

On topic, I'm frightened of the dark. It's absolutely ridiculous, and in many ways quite crippling. I have to really force myself to walk into dark places even in my own home.

[ed_pete]

Re: the lift thing. There was a fatal accident a few years back in gym that was based in the same building in which I used to work.

http://www.cityoflondon.police.uk/CityPolice/Media/News/NewsArchive/2003/liftaccidentupdate.htm

So, perhaps not such an irrational fear after all.