Mar 4, 2009
What small fears of yours are all the more dreadful because they’re inevitable?
Some phobias like heights and public speaking are easily avoided. Others—alas—are altogether unavoidable.
Like bats and vomiting.
What are yours?
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© 2012 Abuyo. All rights reserved.
Looking like a moron on the blogs i comment on.
Prostate checks.
Charles Vanderford, prostate checks are only a small fear for you? For me that’s a huge fear!
I am not so certain that public speaking is easily avoidable.
you mentioned mine – vomiting {Emetophobia}
The dentist.
Andre,
I think it’ll become a bigger fear for me as the day approaches.
Bees. More so hornets and wasps. I’ve learned that honey bees and bumble bees are much more calm and really do not want to kill me like hornets and wasps do.
I haven’t vomited in over 20 years. It just never happens to me.
However, that makes me afraid that sometime I’ll need to but won’t know how.
Actually, a rather large fear for me is eternity. I can’t avoid eternity at all, as I am already “trapped” in it. I find comfort knowing that God understand everything it would take to keep me happy and non-bored for a trillion years, but just thinking about doing any collection of things for a trillion years gives me the shakes. I can’t imagine what I would enjoy for that period of time. Or longer. And longer. Etc.
Still, I’d rather be with God for eternity than the other option. No complaints there!
Tornadoes. Especially in Oklahoma. :)
Sharks.
Sharks are unavoidable? Oh, dang! I forgot about land sharks!
Alzheimer’s or dementia
snakes. i feel fainty just typing the word…
roaches. AAAK!
Aging and all its horrible effects on the human body.
Jake-
I went a bit over 20 yrs without vomiting. I thought for sure I could make it the rest of my life…until last year. It’s like riding a bike–you’ll remember.
doing laundry knowing these live in every minnesotan basement:
http://www.richard-seaman.com/Wallpaper/Nature/Horrors/HouseCentipede.jpg
and they love to hide under a clothes pile.
Childbirth.
Yes, emetophobia, the fear of vommiting.
I learned from my daughter’s experience this irrational but real fear has a name.
Sickening, really ;)
I would have to say my most reoccurring phobia/extreme dislike is having spiders or spider-like-sensation-creating bugs crawl on me. The second worst is walking through spider webs in the dark because of the fear that a spider would be crawling on me.
The second is particularly unavoidable when my wife is present because it means I must walk first in known areas of spider web infestation. Oh, the woes of being a manly man afraid of spiders crawling on me!
you got mine too. puking. i despise it. haven’t done it since the 7th grade…. and before that it was like the 3rd grade.
one unfortunate result of this though… is that my mom wouldn’t really let me stay home from school unless i was puking or had a fever. and i never really get fevers either.
so i would feel soooo terrible with a cold or whatnot… but she would make me go to school.
i confess that sometimes i would lie that i had puked…
mice, rats, bats
dentists, doctors, eye doctors
definitely vomiting, or having to help someone who is vomiting, or being awakened in the middle of the night by someone who is vomiting
dementia – - and would it be worse to realize it or not?
Roaches…I get dizzy, can’t breathe, and get frozen with fear. How sad…
The effects of a lifetime of gravity on my body. Not a pretty picture. Aging gracefully? Hah. I don’t want it.
Alzheimers or dementia, I forget which?
Failure
Hands down, bats in my house….and that my husband will be out of town WHEN they get in, because they have and will, undoubtedly continue to do so.
Public bathrooms.
Labor. Got that one coming up in just over a month. The result is wonderful, of course, but the process….
~shudder~.
My word!! You nailed two of my three…the third being SNAKES!! You’ve seen bats first hand and their effect on me!
touching fish and art museums
Talking to people.
soiling my drawers while I’m running
pain
Dogs. After being bitten thrice in childhood, I hardly consider them man’s best friend.
Driving.
I actually hate driving with a vengeance — and it’s something you just HAVE to do in this culture.
Alzheimer’s, divorce, and hitting a pedestrian with my car.
Other people’s feet touching me. My SIL’s is worse – bellybuttons. Apparently she was traumatized by a girl with an “outie” in school.
Moths, crickets, and grasshoppers. I’m okay with spiders, centipedes, and other creepy crawlies — but if it can jump or if it flies erratically, I freak. They’re just really hard to catch/kill/dodge. Bigger chance of physical contact. *shudder*
jglewis,
You really should read Heaven by Randy Alcorn. It helped me and my mother so much when we were thinking the same thing. :)
Bugs. Of any kind. I hate them.
Cleaning.
Meat.
If God is for me then what/whom shall I fear?
I never really understood fear.
Greatest fear is that maybe I’ll forget how much God loves me and how much I need him.
jake- i’m with ya.. i haven’t vomited in over 12 years. it’s weird that i fear something that never happens to me!
Standing at the top of staircases or anywhere near banisters on upper level floors of shopping centers.
My palms are starting to sweat now.
Answering the phone and it being one of my in-laws on the other end. If my husband is at home, I always ask him to answer – just in case.
Dealing with conflict-I’ve always been afraid of that.
Public confrontations
Angry family members
Dental work
Sense of alienation from our Abba Father when I’m not “current” in my relationship with him
Receiving a test back, even if you think you did well.
the part in the movie Independence Day where the alien kills the scientist guy and you KNOW (if you’ve seen the movie a million times like i have) that any second, the alien is going to suddenly mash the dead scientist up against the glass wall.
the suspense is awful. and i scream every. single. time.
p.s. how are bats unavoidable? and heights not?
I laughed audibly when I read that ‘bats and vomiting’ are both frightening and unavoidable.
I like Larry (comment 1′s) answer. On the face it might seem avoidable, just don’t comment, but I’m guessing for the majority of people on here that isn’t an option, it’s a compulsion!
people whispering in my ear.
Papercuts.
[...] downtown. PG stops by a Jesus Worship blog called twenty two words. The question of the day is “What small fears of yours are all the more dreadful because they’re inevitable?” PG wants to answer Jesus, because that is what he feels. He hesitates, because he is on good terms [...]
Bridges.
I had just taken my lifelong fear of crossing bridges to the Lord, saying, I know you don’t want me to live this way, and I’m going to think of you and trust you every time I cross a bridge and just check my fear at the entrance to the bridge. Then we walked into a hotel lobby in Pittsburgh and saw the television coverage of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis. I couldn’t believe it was happening.
Ugh, I HATE vomiting. Unfortunately, I vomit more than anyone I know for someone who doesn’t have cancer or bulimia. My fear, though, is physical pain (which usually causes the vomiting).
I have two. Puking, I hate everything about it. I live in mortal fear of ever being pregnant and having this morning sickness that I have heard so much about.
The other is known as “the irrational fear.” I have a fear of fish (live). Essentially, the fear is being suckled to death. Or, as a dear friend put it, “she has a fear of getting hickeys all over her body.” I will stick with the fish.
Being fired from my job. Talking to my boss. Disappointing anyone.
Roaches paralyze me with fear.
Nosebleeds. I didn’t have one for over ten years and I got them last winter and this winter because of the dry air. I’m afraid to get one in my sleep.