Childhood Fears

[Dr Doran]

Okay, I'm gonna pick one from the large bushel basket that was my childhood fear collection.

I used to dream, on a regular basis, that I would come home from probably school, and there'd be a different family living in my house. The place was decorated completely different, and the people that lived there couldnt understand why this little boy (me) was insisting that this is where he lived. They said they had lived there for years! I would go out front to check the address and it was my address. And I always became hysterical to the point that I had to go into my parents bedroom and make sure they were there. After a while, I could do it without waking them up.

That's scary. Was not there a Twilight Zone episode on this theme once?

 

[Spiffy]

Frogs, I've never looked at them in the same way since seeing the 70's movie of the same name. Something didn't quite add up there.

Ick, ick ick! I'm pretty sure my paranoia stems from a Calvin&Hobbes comic where Calvin claims to have a "frog in his throat" to convince his mom to let him skip school. Then a frog literally climbs up his esophagus and fights it's way out of Calvin's mouth. Truly traumatic stuff for a seven-year-old. To this day, every time I see a frog I imagine it (alive) in my mouth and I start gagging.

 

[scottyrocks]

That's scary. Was not there a Twilight Zone episode on this theme once?

There very well may have been. But I was too young to watch that show when I used to have that dream, so I guess its a not-unheard-of childhood fear.

 

[Dr Doran]

There very well may have been. But I was too young to watch that show when I used to have that dream, so I guess its a not-unheard-of childhood fear.

True -- a lot of their episodes were (excellent) illustrations of common fears.

 

[FinalVestige79]

Okay, I'm gonna pick one from the large bushel basket that was my childhood fear collection.

I used to dream, on a regular basis, that I would come home from probably school, and there'd be a different family living in my house. The place was decorated completely different, and the people that lived there couldnt understand why this little boy (me) was insisting that this is where he lived. They said they had lived there for years! I would go out front to check the address and it was my address. And I always became hysterical to the point that I had to go into my parents bedroom and make sure they were there. After a while, I could do it without waking them up.

I had a dream like this last night...first time a few years. I can remember it was my 71st birthday...and I was holding a pocket watch looking out of a window and I was counting the seconds and when that second came something happened like time froze or something and I was entirely alone, my family was gone. And I went around to my old house and it was gone. And when I woke up I could hear someone saying 71 in my head...in not schizo or anything. And when I went back to sleep it continued...it really freaked me out.

 

[QMcK]

I used to get a little creeped out whenever I saw a picture of one of those big, grey submarines (the whole thing, not just the turret sticking out of the water). They just look evil. I just looked up submarine on Google. I'm still a bit creeped out.

I used to be scared (and I still am) of someone breaking into the house. When I was in primary school, those Crime Watch programmes used to really scare me. Because they always involved some really evil *******.

I am still nervous about spiders and insects, but I'm getting better. I have to be, having taken biology at uni last year.

I hate those really tall, glass covered buildings. Especially if they have staircases that let you see all the way to the bottom.

Oh yes, and elevators. Although I used the elevator reasonably regularly last semester. In a library of another university, something went wrong and the door didn't open for a few minutes. I tried the button to talk to someone, but they were on the internet. I complained, and the bloke said they just had someone in to work on it, but I don't think he took me very seriously.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

I think I had some really silly ones.

When I was a kid I was freaked out by.... are you ready for this????

Yes, Mr. Clean! There was some Mr. Clean on the top shelf of the laundry room which I was afraid to go into at night. Sometimes I would turn the container around so that he was facing the wall!

Another one that, for some reason, I also thought scary was....

Why I would consider the G.E. logo scary is still something I've never truly been able to fathom but frightening it was at around age 6 or 7. I remember one night I was watching TV alone and a TV show that was evidentally sponsored by G.E. came on. When the G.E. logo flashed on the screen I ran from the room in terror! lol

Then there's a couple of phobias left over from my childhood that's still with me to this day: mushrooms and cactus. I still get freaked out when I see them growing somewhere. Though, strangely, I do enjoy eating mushrooms. No doubt there's some sort of deep psychological meaning or symbolism to it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

When I was little I was terrified of the Flying Red Horse.

We had a Mobil station at the end of our street, and I'd cover my eyes whenever we passed it. Just look at the evil, sinister look in his eye -- brrrrr.

The "Flying A" logo also gave me the creeps --

I couldn't go past either one of these logos without getting very upset. Other oil company logos, Texaco, Shell, Esso, Gulf, none of those bothered me, but anything winged would terrify me.

I was also afraid of barley, but that's a long story.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

When I was little I was afraid of the world coming to an end. This is when I would go to the Grocery store with my mother & while she was checking out I would read the tabloids proclaiming 12/21/12 as the end of the world. I actually couldn't sleep for several nights in a row. I finally came to the conclusion that is the world is going to end, there is probally nothing that I can do about it so I might as well just enjoy the ride while it lasts...

 

[PrairieSunrise]

I think my biggest childhood fear was the fear of being left behind. Along those lines, being left behind if our house caught on fire was the worst. I have nine siblings and we lived in a huge house, so it would be easy to have missed someone in a panicky situation. I used to strain to identify the sounds I heard in the house until I fell asleep each night!

ETA: I was also terrified of someone being under my bed. Even as far back as a 3 year old, I can remember the sheer terror of that fear, and laying as still as possible in the center of my bed, trying not to move! I seemed to have grown out of that fear and into the fear of being left behind.