What Aren’t You Afraid Of?
Like all animals, humans have instinctive fears — loud noises, heights, Ginni Thomas.
But! Humans have a special capacity to overcome fear through reason and understanding. So let’s talk about fears we overcame.
For example, as a kid I went through lessons at the Y to get past the point where any water deeper than a bathtub was going to kill me/OMG don’t let go of the side of the pool/No way am I putting my head underwater, to being able to float and do very basic swim strokes. I still stink as a swimmer to this day, but I’m comfortable covering 100 yards in a lake or ocean.
What’s a fear you once had that you got over? Climbing a ladder to clean the gutters? Lighting brandy for cherries jubilee? Using a chainsaw? Speaking in public? Clowns?
What worked? Formal lessons? Peer support? Gradual acclimation? Whiskey? Finally reading the damn manual?
funny you mention whiskey
im scared of heights….so i drink before i get on the roof
theres a reason they call it dutch courage!
safety third whoop whoop!
other than that i dont have a great many fears tho….spiders bigger than my hand…and birds bigger than me (fucking ostriches)…bout covers it
oh and canadian geese…evil hissing fuckers….tho im not exactly scared of them…i just know if i ever decide to full on kick one of the hissy bastards ill be the bastard on youtube hurting the poor defenseless little geeses….as edited by some fucker what never met a geese before
they’re kinda like this
but long necked and strike first
Guy earned that bill to the crotch.
I was just learning to surf when Jaws came out & after my much older brother took me to that movie, I was terrified to go back in the water. I don’t know how I got over it, probably just taunting & need to be in the water. After swimming with sharks in French Polynesia I had a different respect for them but not a fear. My biggest lifetime fear was always asking girls out. The fear of rejection would literally make me shiver & overthink every interaction to the point I thought I would have a heart attack.
Statistically, more guys die from rejection every year than shark bites.
wait… source?
i mean shark bites are incredibly rare so duh
but die from rejection…..how do you even prove that?
Probably by a huge margin!!!
i feel like i just walked into a joke and missed it
Statistically, more women die from rejecting guys than from shark bites every year.
Also a true stat!
100%
@Hannibal that is accurate and terrifying.
I was incredibly shy as a child – so my mom thought it would be a good thing for me to take acting lessons and have to perform on stage. Let’s just say it didn’t work and I have severe stage fright on top of being shy – even though I’m not quite as shy as I was.
I think parents forcing kids to do something is not a good idea. Bribery, I’m OK with, though. Kids learning to bargain is a good life skill.
I’m genuinely interested in what exactly it is you mean by “bribery”?
I’m more of a self-dignified guilt-tripper and was wondering if that & bribery fall under the same umbrella.
Pretty much the same as dogs — small consistent treats while learning stuff. That made potty training work for us. But you can’t mess up and give the kid the dog treats by mistake.
you can if they’re the carob stars 😉
I took a drama class in college & our teacher would make us sing by ourselves once a week to get us past our fears. The class was really fun & my classmates were supportive so it helped some of my fears but I still hate public speaking.
i was always a really outgoing kid…..loved to sing
then i got to middle school and started getting beaten up
drew into me shell me
but i have found a light point nowadays
i keep running in to my bullies of yesteryore…and they’ve fucked up even worse than i have
and when they say….we can let bygones be bygones right?
i say fuck you get the fuck out of here…..
ze tables ave turned motherfucker!
yeah i hold grudges
Ladders. I still don’t particularly like them. It’s the coming down part that makes my brain go WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK OH MY GOD I AM GOING TO DIE.
And it’s bad enough that even stepladders where there’s only like 3 rungs freak me out.
Got over it by doing fieldwork where I had to use handmade ladders (someone machete-ed down trees and rope and rigged them up) to crawl in and out of excavation pits and be propped up for taking photos. Just a literal welp better fucking get over it because I have to.
I still hate ladders (including step ladders) but I can deal with them.
Maybe the ladder maker knowing you can kick them in the can if the ladder fails helps create an extra level of trustworthiness in the overall environment.
When I was very little I was afraid of everything. I used to pretend to be sick every morning to try to stay home from school. Being put into situations where I had to face my fears sort of backfired and I stop being afraid of anything, I became totally reckless. When I had a child I realized I had to keep myself alive if only to care for her and learned to reign myself in.
When I was a young child I was afraid of the man who smoked in my pillow…until I realised that the little orange light was on the vaporiser and not in my pillow.
I was also deathly afraid of the dark…until I realised the War on Drugs stoner whose goal it was to get me stoned as fuck for the rest of my life and the dangerous stranger ’bout to climb through my window with a Hamburgler mask on to “say uncle” weren’t exactly as I was taught.
Today, I resent those who care about me…and I fear my inability to change that.
…on a lighter note…I was afraid of spiders until I came to the realisation that they’re just as much, if not more, important as myself.
Yeah I’m not fond of spiders but I’m not afraid of them like when I was a kid.
What got me over that was realizing that Missouri and Arkansas are the 2 worst states for brown recluse spiders and if spiders were out to get me/us/anyone, Missouri and Arkansas would be known for that and not meth and inbreeding.
I was swarmed by bees as a kid so became deathly afraid of them almost to the point of phobia. As an adult, when Mrs Butcher got me into gardening, the bees were really tough to deal with. Eventually, over a number of years, I just got desensitized.
I watched the movie Arachnophobia when I was around 7 (thanks to having older cousins at family gatherings). Living in Seattle (tons of spiders!) with a husband who is unafraid and very gentle with spiders, has mellowed out my adrenaline surges. I don’t even have him remove everyone I spot. If they are not withing arms reach, I leave them be. Except for Giant House Spiders. Those fuckers are big and fast and that combo gets my heart racing every time, so out the window they go. Luckily they stick to my furnace/hot water tank room and I rarely need to go in there.
i have claustrophobia, to the point i will use stairs to avoid vertical coffins whenever possible; avoid parking enclosures/underground if *at all* possible; & avoid vegas & vegas-like crowds – as far as i know, i am beyond hope there.
but when i was 6 or 7 years old, a daddy long legs – huge!! – came out of the faucet into the tub with me. i was done! spiders the world over made a powerful enemy that day… until i watched, in absolute amazement, at 20 years old, as one of those dreaded dads wrapped a gigantic pincer bug in its web, & earned permission as the only spiders allowed to survive in my home.