1) Waking up late on exam day
Nope. No waking up naked in a lecture hall for me. I think this is because I don’t have a fear of being in front of people from many years of performing. However, showing up comically late to important events is a recurring fear of mine.
I mainly fear this because I’ve actually done this on a final exam day during one of my summer courses in college. An exam day I almost did not show up for, because…well, it was the summer.
If you’re wondering what happened, I went from a shiny A in mythology, to scoring a D on that final and brought my overall grade down to a C. Yay me.
2) Falling down stairs and breaking teeth
Hey, look. This post is all about irrational fears. Don’t judge, okay?
I’ve lost track of how many nightmares I have of this scenario. But it always happens like this: I’m walking down a set of narrow stairs, in the dark, and I miss a step. I fall forward, and my teeth land precisely on the edge of a step and I break my eye teeth.
I think this is out of fear that all of my dental surgeries, braces and retainer use will go to waste. Don’t we all end up with fake teeth in the end anyway?
3) Missing the stop
Ok, raise your hands if you’re from New York City and had childhood fears of being stranded on a crowded subway car. If you have never been on a train that empties at the Times Square or Columbus Circle stations, you won’t understand this fear.
Growing up, we constantly had different doctor appointments throughout the city. The subway was the way to go. My mother usually walked at 103mph and it was either keep up or get left behind. In hindsight, I’m sure it had more to do with her always running 30 minutes late, but I digress.
Imagine being only 3.5 feet tall in some of the busiest subway stations in NYC. The trains are packed like sardines (it’s a miracle that there aren’t millions of amputees in the city due to doors chopping off appendages). My mother group manages to escape the packed subway car, and the more I try to “swim” against the current of loading passengers, the deeper I’m carried into the heart of the subway car.
And then, cruelly, the train leaves on an ‘express’ route to Timbuktu.
Gives a literal meaning to “the train left the station.”
4) Lane dividers on highways
This is not limited to highways but it mostly entails high speeds and curves. I-83 through Baltimore and I-95 through Jacksonville, I’m looking at you! Also included: the railings on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge.
Maybe it’s because I used to drive a small SUV (whose center of gravity provided anxiety cheap thrills and I never knew when I’d finally tip the car over going around curves at high speeds) but ever since that Suzuki Vitara, lane dividers have never looked the same.
I suddenly understand my mother’s fear of driving.
5) The Dark
Yep. I’m a 5 year old inside. I swear, if I look closely…like verrrrrry closely, I can see shapes shifting in the dark. One moment it will be something small and round. The next, something feline and sneaky.
There was a whole episode dedicated to The Dark on Dr. Who (my new favorite TV show!). In it, the Doctor claims that all living creatures have a fear of the dark…and then we find out why. Thanks to Dr. Who, now I’ll never get over my fear of the dark!
Chelcey says
I’m with you on the whole being afraid of the dark thing! Ever since I was little I would sleep with the TV on (totally not healthy) and it’s a habit I still can’t seem to kick. Luckily, I’ve found a man who embraces my irrational fears and doesn’t force me to go to sleep in the pitch black darkness. :) Oh, and the biggest one has to be being kidnapped (or young adult napped?) or someone breaking into my house … The struggle is very real over here!
Lisette says
Every time I’m alone and hear something out of place, I always think someone is breaking in to my house…to kidnap me? Haha. I don’t know. Oh, and I forgot…I always wonder what is behind the shower curtain when I’m alone. Totally irrational, but are there clowns in there? :)
Ashley LaMar says
I’m terrified of frogs, any frog, and I mean terrified! Like palm sweating, heart racing, total freak-out fear. It’s insane but I can’t shake it.
Lisette says
Frogs I can deal with…it’s the BUGS I can’t handle! Eeeek!
Lindsay @ The Newlywed Notebook says
Dude, #2 is a totally rational fear! In college one of my girlfriends was completely hammered and tried walking down a flight of stairs. She fell down the entire second half and knocked her front tooth completely out. After searching for it for a half an hour we finally found it. A word of advice: if this does ever happen to you, put your tooth in a glass of milk until you can get to the dentist. That thing will last weeks. ;)
Lisette says
And now I will never take the stairs ever again. I’ll be the jerk that takes the elevator to the 2nd floor while everyone gives them the side eye.
Kenzie Smith says
I recently had a dream that my teeth started falling out they filled my mouth and I had to spit them in my hand to avoid swallowing them. I was panicked when I woke up from that. I also am afraid of the dark, and I am dying to know why all creatures have a fear of the dark!
Lisette says
I also have had that very same dream! I heard that it’s a vanity thing? I don’t know, but I seriously fear mouth rot!
Kenzie Smith says
Something happening to my teeth freaks me out. After that dream I want to run to the dentist immediately ha ha. It very well could be a vanity thing!
Lisette says
Oh, you’ll have to look up Vashta Nerada in the Silence in the Library episode :)
Kenzie Smith says
Looking it up now :D
Jackie says
I don’t like the lane dividers either. Even if I’m the passenger I don’t enjoy it.
Rachel says
Lane dividers really freak me out too, and I don’t think there’s anything irrational about it! It really is an arbitrary yellow line that keeps us from plowing into each other with a ton of steel at 80 mph! I’m that jerk who tells friends who have to take anti-anxiety meds to get on an airplane that they are in so, so much danger just driving home from work.
Lisette says
I love you, jerk and all :) But yes, it is an arbitrary yellow line, but I was referring to the concrete lane dividers. I don’t know what they’re called, so I just referred to them as lane dividers.
Mary Evelyn says
Breaking my teeth!! Yes!! The idea if blood and bones and mouths is just horrifying to me. Also afraid I’ll trip while carrying a pencil and get stabbed in the eye. Eek!
Lisette says
You know, when you mention pencils, I immediately thought of golf pencils and the Dewey Decimal system I used when I was in my elementary school’s library. Did I just date myself? Haha.
Lauren @ My Passion Journey says
I totally related to number one! I actually slept through an exam in college as well. I had never done anything like that before! Fortunately, my teacher let me make it up without penalty. Probably because I showed up at her office with bed head and no make up in a frenzy- I obviously hadn’t blown off the exam.
I do have recurring nightmares though that all of a sudden it’s final exam week and I have an exam in a class that I haven’t attended all semester. Or I have nightmares that I didn’t really graduate and I have to go back and take more classes. Totally irrational fears since I haven’t been in school for years now!
Lisette says
YES! All of this! I’ve also had nightmares where I’ll have a final in a class I didn’t even know I signed up for, or I have to take a class in order to have my college diploma be valid. TOTALLY there with you!
That was nice of your professor! I had one once that let me make up a final paper over the summer. He was a life-saver.
zaby says
you are afraid of the dark? that sucks. my honest fear is waking up late for an exam
Krystal @ Krystal's Korner says
I still get scared of missing my stop on the subway. I’ll never understand how some people can sleep on the train and not miss their stop.
Meghan says
Every single last irrational fear of mine involves the dark and my teeth. Constantly my nightmares are about losing all my teeth or my front teeth or them getting knocked out! You only have one set! I’m more afraid of under the bed in the dark because one time my dad hid under there while I was a kid and reached out and grabbed my leg while I was getting in bed. I’m surprised I didn’t loose all control over my bodily functions in the moment. But it has forever prevented me from walking to my bed after the lights are out. If you ever wanted me to jump hurdles, just turn the light out and tell me I have to jump to my bed.
May says
I’m with you on the ‘afraid of the dark’ thing, I’m pretty sure everyone is to some extent even if they don’t admit it!
This one’s irrational … I’m terrified of Octopus.
And I can’t even tell you why!
May
x
Holly H says
I will never forget my husband pulling my arm to get off the subway at Times Square on the July 4th and trying to hold onto him, not lose my purse AND get off the train at the same time!
Also, the first time I drove over the Bay Bridge, I was freaked out and in awe at the same time. It’s hard not to hit things when you’re looking around at the scenery :-)
Robin says
I can’t stand those little electric shocks that happen when you touch certain things in cold weather. I have a habit of touching door handles with my wrist first, to absorb the shock before it can go to my fingers.
Lisette says
Those ALWAYS happen when I wear Uggs. It’s so freaky!
Susan says
Ha! We have a lot in common. 1. I am a wedding planner. I don’t have exams anymore but I have such a fear of waking up late on one of my clients’ wedding day. 2. Slipping and falling and breaking your teeth. It’s not unheard of… When I was in the 3rd grade I did just this. And my front two teeth are half fake now. I have a terrible fear that one day they will just break again, out of no where. And lastly – the highway and the bridge. I just drove through the traffic and windy I-95 S through Jacksonville this weekend. And I live right near the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, those walls are wayyyy too short.
I am also terrified of lightning and geese. They can both pack quite the punch.
Lisette says
YES those walls are way too short! I have panic attacks driving over that bridge!
Jordan says
I-83 is so windy, it can be quite scary sometimes…and the Bay bridge? I am terrified that there will be an accident any second!
Patrick says
doing a google search of fears and I found this site. OMG I have the same fear of hitting my teeth right on the edge of stairs. Good to know im not alone.