What is your irrational fear?

I don't know if it's physically possible, but I sometimes think what if my office chair breaks and the hydraulic piston shoots through the seat and impales my colon.

Real Final Destination shit right there.

Possible trigger warning...

I read an article a few years ago about this happening in China. There were graphic photos from the ER which I won't discuss here, but If I remember correctly it was a teenager and he actually died because it ruptured an artery in his colon or something like that. Ever since then I've always been ok with spending a little more money for a quality chair. Especially if it's something you're going to use every day.
- You mean you don't trust that highly rated 【QSHASK】Durable Quality Office Chair For Adults, Easy Use In Office Home And Gaming With 3D Foam Cushion Comfortable Seating, Ergonomic Feeling Up&Down Rolling?
  
  It's got so many 5-star reviews, like "Works great;" from Bobson M. in the United States and "Excellent Chairs!!" from K.J Genny in the United States! Ships direct from Guangzhou in 5 business days for a low price of ~~$79.99~~ $65.50!

getting bird shit in my mouth. no, really. I have a recurring (but not frequent) "nightmare" about getting bird shit in my mouth through diverse accidents. there's even an incredibly vivid taste associated with it that I can recall when I'm awake. I'm guessing that toddler me took a gamble for science and wound up scarred for life.

Irrational - being kidnapped and not having access to feminine products. Totally rational & terrifying- clowns.

Why is the last one the rational one while the first one is irrational?
- Lots of people are afraid of clowns and I'm probably not likely to be kidnapped. Hope i didn't just jinx it.
I don't think the first one is irrational
- I thought it was just one of those weird things to worry about until i read this. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2024/mar/05/my-period-has-become-nightmare-life-in-gaza-without-sanitary-products

Needles. I got allergy tested when I was little and they pricked my arms hundreds of times to see what I was allergic to. I was also super young do naturally I wanted to itch it, and they wouldn’t let me. It got to the point where they strapped my arms to the table and all I wanted to do was scratch the areas that they had poked me…

Maybe don’t do that to a five year old.

Yea I don’t like needles

I have the same fear. Watching the news during covid was horrible.
- Nurse here. It's curious. Some people with a fear of needles need to close their eyes to avoid seeing anything like you describe, and some of them HAVE to watch, because, for them, the anticipation and surprise is worse. Humans are weird, but I love you anyway. Also, I'm tired, and I just spent about one, full, uninterrupted minute laughing at your username. Thanks.
Same. And then seeing someone I know with diabetes have to jab every day drove me nuts to think about in a way.
Hey fellow skin prick lemming!

Mine is being stuck in another dimension. When I was a kid I was stuck in a multi layer dream and I think I was like 3 layers in before I was about to give up.

Some examples are movies like Room 1408 or Silent Hill.

I don't think it can happen, but I'm always terrified of it. The closest real life example is disassociation (depersonalization or derealization) fuck that noise.

So like Mario from the Mario movie?
- Yes also that.
3 layer dream?
5 layer dream tree with "fake waking up" thing and sleep paralysis is where it's at
I get stuck in dreams like that semi-regularly. They're kind of traumatizing every time.

I'm irrationally afraid that I'll push too many buttons with my pointer finger and eventually the fat pad will wear away and it'll just be my fingertip bone with skin stretched over it. :(

Sea monsters. Doesn't matter that I'm a middle aged man who has been in dozens of lakes without incident. Every goddamn time there's a constant "hey, something could rise from the depths and eat you right now. You never know!"

They don't want to EAT you or anything, they just like to lightly brush against the side of your foot with a tentacle one time because they're smart and curious, but shy.

Oddly shaped fruits.

I love fruits more than anything else in the world, but I am weirded out by tropical fruits with an odd shape and/or color (dragon fruit for example)

I hear you! Rambutans ( Nephelium Lappaceum) are a no go for me because of the outer texture. Pineapples are Ok
- It looks like a virus, just looking at it gross me out haha.
  
  Pineapple, I love. But we grew up with canned pineapple, so that's why it doesn't weird me out.
Do durians count? Those are amazing once you cut them.
- Durian taste like wet onions with a bit of fruit to me. It's like cilantro I guess, you either love it or hate it.
  
  But durians do count for me.
- This person is telling you lies

Clowns

I know they're just people in makeup, but I always fear them no matter how much I try to reason away the fear

What about mimes?
- Mimes are fine by me, their acts are largely watch only and not as direct.
  
  Besides, the fear definitely rooted from watching IT at about 8 years old

That I can't have any thoughts that a future super intelligence would see as a threat.

Makes me think of https://monk.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Adrian_Monk's_Phobias

Being physically around people.

Same. It's scary, because scientists still don't fully know what they're capable of.
Is this common?

Walking into a public bathroom that uses motion sensors and it's dark when I walk in. Guaranteed comfort, you'd think? Nope, according to my brain, I'm probably going to find a body.

The worst thing about these (apart from all the dead bodies obvs.) is that the timer is never long enough for a decent dump. You're just about ready to start cleanup and all the lights go out!
- It sucked when work switch to motion. Makes it real obvious you were in too long if the light turns on when you walk out of a stall.
  
  (This is a factory, so the first door to the sink section stays proped open)

Getting evicted. I don't do anything wrong or break my lease in my apartment, and have never had a complaint against me but for whatever reason I get super freaked out when someone knocks on my door. Even if it's just a delivery driver.

I remember one time I actually called off sick at work because I saw my landlord on my ring doorbell tape something to my door and I was literally worried sick. Started thinking I had to start looking for another place.

Turns out it was just a notice saying that they were going to give residents a free fire extinguisher in the coming days. All that panic for nothing.

That we* get the government we deserve.

*Global we, not just where you live.

I'm kind of weird. I can't stand the idea of swimming in the deep ocean. It makes me skil crawl and want to run as far away as I can.. despite loving the ocean. Just don't make me swim in deep ocean waters.

I'm not sure if those first two sentences are connected. 😉 Anyway, that fear is called thalassophobia, and is very common.
Yeah. It's so weird imagining that there is so much dark space below oneself, where anything could be lurking.

And stop moving, and you'll sink deep down. No safeguard that stops you at some point. You'll just sink and sink and sink.
That's a perfectly normal and healthy fear, for those mortals who dare display hubris towards the endless sea shall be met with a fate most grim
Not too uncommon.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thalassophobia

My shoelace getting caught in an Escalator.

Is that irrational?
Just ride barefoot.

Easy. Next!

Fear of getting poisoned by someone i dont know

Fear that a car will randomly decide to kill me and start chasing me

Fear of randomly being struck by a lighting strike

Puppets

Get to know EVERYBODY

Kill the car first. Pennsylvania road salt works well.

Make detailed plans to get struck so it doesn't seem random when it happens next week.

??????

NEXT!

Dark indoor spaces

Holes (trypophobia) and sharks in the pool. I used to be on the swim team and loved swimming, but at some point in my teenage years I got this irrational fear that a shark was chasing me in the pool and now I literally can't do laps anymore. It sucks cause I really enjoyed it and I was good at it. Nothing triggered the fear as far as I can remember.

The trypophobia I have many theories but I think it is actually just one of those fears people have sometimes.

Sorry your post reminded me of this
- I'm not clicking that you can't trick me
  
  Edit: I clicked it actually, you got me. It is not a holes trigger so it was ok. Actually looks like a pretty amazingly awful movie and I may just have to watch it.

Bees. I'm not allergic or anything, I just formed an irrational fear of them probably after I was stung on the foot when I was a kid.

Melted ice cream...

That's what milk is though.

They're one and the same with what many may call my childhood fears if by "irrational fear" you mean things I don't hold active trust in, I've had a bad trial by fire with... opens list... snakes, spiders, psych wards, social wrath, and depths (don't count on me to go somewhere I can't touch the bottom of).

Palmetto bugs.

I am so unreasonably terrified of those guys. I have held tarantulas, I love snakes, happy to hold your pet rat or lizard, bees and other insects mostly don't bother me.

But palmetto bugs strike fear into my very soul.

Aliens walking in the distance.

Like if they're running right at you with violence in mind, that is a completely rational fear, no problem.

But if I were standing on my front porch and saw an inhuman alien gray walking down the street, even if it didn't look my way, I would freak the fuck out.

Even the idea, the thought of that happening can make my hair stand on end.

Blowers. It's what I called pool drains (and lights and vents). Still hate them.

And this one is more of a 'it would be terrible and now I can't stop thinking about it' thing, but steep hills, and how awful it'd be to just roll back down them. In a car or on foot. You just suddenly lose control and start plummeting backwards. I got it worst when I was in San Fran.

Showering with the lights off. And having my teeth fallen. I suffer from cavities, I don't even know why I have so many, I brush my teeth twice to thrice a day. :( so I'm seriously scared of ending toothless at some point.

Showering in dim/no light is fucking amazing.

Hot and dark. Mmmm.

Also, I ripped one of my own teeth out at 16. (I congenitally lack 4 permanent ones so the milk teeth they were supposed to replace never fell out. Had the last one taken out at 18.) The crunchies while wiggling the tooth was actually not unpleasant. Nostalgic, it was.

Also, we're doing pretty well for a drug which could regrow teeth, so you can worry less about ending toothless.

https://www.euronews.com/health/2023/08/05/a-drug-that-makes-teeth-regrow-scientists-move-closer-to-clinical-trials
Floss. I have some floss picks near my bed, computer and bathroom. I just idly use the floss picks a couple times throughout the day, usually watching YouTube or something and have only gotten 1 cavity despite going through really bad depression and poor dental hygiene.
- I use floss, too. :( .every morning and night. I still don't know the reason for it. A dentist told me it was just a genetic thing and I should be way more careful than others. Another dentist told me it could probably be anemia. But I've read that bulimia causes cavities (I used to be bulimic for a long period)

Gravity reversal. Like suddenly gravity switches to a universally repellent force and everything on the surface of the Earth starts falling into space (me included). Eventually you'd just "fall" away and the atmosphere too and you'd suffocate.

Holy hell wtf why did you make me think of that?! That's worse than deep water!

Closing logos, some movies, videotape bumpers, network bumpers, and certain movie characters.

Like the signs that say, "closed" or like logos that never are left opened and are a closed loop?
- Logos you see on television and home video. Like maybe this one? Would you be scared?

Needles. Oh, and getting cut on my wrist or Achilles heel.

i mean, that last one did in Achilles, and that dude was basically invincible. On a normal person like you or me, that'd obliterate us in an instant.

I have this irrational fear of anything that makes a fire. Like seriously I'm scared of lighters. Well if that means I will never smoke then I'm fine with that. Secondly, I have this fear of height that makes me kinda scared of ladders. Kind of a pain in the ass when I need to fix stuff around the house. And finally, I have a fear of even the smallest dogs just because I got bit by one this one time on the way home in 7th grade. It's been close to a decade and I still can't really be near a dog. I'm fine with cats tho. I have one and he's my whole world.