Panphobia

So, you may have already read my post about why I am scared of spiders. While spiders are the only thing that I'm really really scared of (ie. is probably actually a phobia, not just a fear), there are many things in day to day life which also scare me. I will list some of them, in no particular order.

The only thing to fear is fear itself... and everything on this list. And spiders. And clowns.

#1 Graters

I'll be at my friends place, with them cooking dinner. Because I am a super polite guest, I'll offer to help.

When I have to grate stuff at my house, I just get to eat the rest of it. But how am I meant to explain to my friends that I can't grate the last little bit of cheese/carrot because I'm scared that the grater will eat me?
I've never actually cut my finger while grating stuff, but I did manage to cut my fingers while washing one once, which I'm pretty sure is scientific proof that they're evil.

#2 Escalators

Escalators are pretty much death machines. Yet they are EVERYWHERE! Malls, train stations, airports.

Just look! They have scary teeth!

And can you imagine falling down an escalator that is going up? (Click on the picture, it's animated and took me ages so you'd better look at it!)

YOU WILL BE FALLING FOREVER!!!

#3 The hotel where we have church sometimes

This is a place that seems fairly innocent, but when you put everything together it's terrifying.

Fancy lobby where I clearly don't fit in so everyone judges me for not being as fancy as them.

Small elevator that goes very slow, so we're clearly going to run out of air and die.

Very low ceilings, so clearly we're going to run out of air and die.

Oh, and not just any ceilings,

REFLECTIVE CEILINGS!

Oh, and on top of all that

the floor is bouncy.

#4 Heights

I guess this is a pretty common fear, but how many people get scared just standing on a chair? I get so scared standing on a chair (because it's too high), that I shake, which makes the chair shake, which makes me even more scared, which makes me shake more, etc.

#5 Seeing myself in a mirror when it's dark

Getting up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom can be dangerous. I nearly have a heart attack once a fortnight from this.

#6 Foam

Not really sure where this came from, because I used to love doing flips into the foam pit at gymnastics when I was younger. But if I touch foam now, I start to dry retch.

(Also kind of included in this is sandpaper and pumice, but foam is the worst)

#7 Crowds

Crowds make me INCREDIBLY anxious. Supermarkets are the worst though. I normally try to go to the supermarket at night so there won't be many people. And this is me now, with my life semi sorted out. A couple of years ago just going leaving my apartment would make me into a nervous wreck.

I can't think of a funny picture for this one, so I'll just leave it for now, and maybe make one later. Any suggestions?

#8 Large animals

I LOVE animals. But when I get up close to some of them, I suddenly start to imagine the hundreds of different ways they could kill me.

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I was going to try to put the proper phobia names next to everything on the list, but most of them didn't even have names. Although a quick google search tells me that other people are as scared of foam as I am.

Spiders

Saying that I'm scared of spiders is a bit of an understatement. I'm absolutely terrified of them. I'm 22 years old, and they still make me cry.

I'm a biology student, and I had to do one paper all about animals. A part of this was spiders, and I couldn't even go to the classes or labs for it because I knew I wouldn't be able to handle it. I asked the teacher to give me some special notes with pictures removed, but that fell through, so I ended up reading about them on Wikipedia to study for my test. (I don't care what my lecturers say, Wikipedia is a legit source)

So I'm sitting in the library at uni, studying hard on wikipedia. Now look on any random wikipedia page, and you'll see that the pictures are always down the right hand side. Being the innovative genius that I am, I decided to hold up a book along the right hand side of the page to hide any pictures.

So I'm happily studying.... well, not really *happily* studying.

But I'm studying away, minding my own business, when

BOOM SPIDER! AHHHHHHHHHH!

And I burst into tears in the middle of the library.

Another time, sitting at home, flicking through the channels on the giant HD TV.

BOOM SPIDER! AHHHHHHHHHH!

And I vomit.

Another time, checking facebook.

WORRY ABOUT SPIDER! AHHHHHHHHHH!

And I worried so much that I vomited.

At home, find a spider in my room.

Flatmates are all asleep, can't wake them up, sleep on couch.

Another time I'm nearly asleep when..

BOOM SPIDER! AHHHHHHHHHH!

Run to parents, ask them to remove spider.

(not their exact words, but along those lines) So I went and stayed at my boyfriends house for the night..

Now I know that "oh they're harmless, they're more scared of you than you are of them, ect" (which is stupid anyway, I've never seen a spider cry when it sees me) but I DON'T CARE!! If you'd had to endure the trauma that I had when I was a child, you'd be scared of them too!

My sister and I were playing while waiting for my father to finish a bike race. I was young, probably about seven years old. I found a spiders nest in a bush, and thought it was pretty so I wanted to take it home. After an epic struggle, I managed to rip the branch off, and I took home my new treasure.

Yes, I knew it was a spiders nest, yes I knew there were spiders in there, but at that stage I wasn't scared of spiders. Also, I wanted pets.

I have no idea why my parents didn't tell me not to take it. Come to think of it, they probably did and I just didn't listen because I WANTED PET BABY SPIDERS DAMMIT.

Anyway, I left the spiders nest in my room, and pretty much forgot about it.

One day, I found a baby spider.

YAY PET BABY SPIDER!

I soon found more baby spiders.

YAY PET BABY SPIDERS!!

And more

YAY MORE PET BABY SPIDERS!

And more..

BABY SPIDERS!

And more...

SPIDERS?

And more...

MORE SPIDERS?

And more...

OH GOD MAKE IT STOP NO MORE SPIDERS



And more...

NOOOO NO MORE SPIDERS I'M BEGGING YOU PLEASE GO AWAY

And MORE

AND MORE AND MORE AND MORE AND MORE!!!

Spiders everywhere in my room. EVERYWHERE!

So yeah, that's why I'm scared of spiders.

I'm not really sure how to end this post, and it was kind of traumatising so here, look at some ducklings in a cup.