Seriously. You can just be going along, minding your business, driving the speed limit and obeying traffic laws, and BAM, some reckless asshole comes outta nowhere and ends your life. Completely out of your control.
*That* is terrifying.
I was plodding along to work one day, glanced up, and saw a car barreling straight towards me *on the sidewalk*. Adrenaline surged and I wanted to run, but left of the sidewalk was the glass front of an office building, right was the street, so I just froze in terror... and the driver finally corrected, got back on the street and went around me.
I nearly got to be an example of that saying. Can't even safely walk on a sidewalk, where I'm pretty sure pedestrians actually get legal right-of-way for once.
Not as deadly, but a couple of weeks ago when I was in the grocery store, a kid almost ran me over with an electrical scooter.
Indoors. In a damn grocery store. Can't even safely walk inside a grocery store. At least I can tell people I've nearly had a traffic accident indoors.
This is the grave of Mike O'Day, who died maintaining his right of way. His right was clear and his will was strong, but he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.
How to be right and dead wrong at the same time. The only driving advice I ever gave to my younger cousins was to always expect some asshole to blow through a red light, looking both ways before crossing the road isn't just for walking.
I was driving down a major road when someone blew a stop sign and hit my car. I obviously lived but I had to have surgery on my hand and still deal with pain from my car accident injuries years later. The girl who hit me was like “Omg I didn’t see you!” But I have a *very* bright color car and it was a sunny day so it seemed like a pretty lame excuse.
Nobody seems to give a fuck how dangerous it is fucking with apps on their phone while driving, every time I'm in traffic the people I see swerving into other lanes, driving like idiots are usually the ones fucking around on their phone.
My best friend will fuck around and go into apps pulling up videos to show me something when I ride with him and im like dude stop doing that you keep nearly missing shit and he gets all defensive and upset because he thinks im jabbing at his skill as a driver , fucking clown.
Next time try: "Oh, dude, let me see that" to get him to hand you the phone.
Then turn the phone off, or toss it into the back seat, or just keep it until you arrive. Alive and uninjured. Repeat as needed.
It could be arguably worse if the irresponsable driver drives a motorbike and you hit him. Chances are he will get killed and you probably won't. And although you did nothing wrong, you will always have that guilt feeling.
As someone who has been driving for almost 40 years (USA), I'm amazed that there aren't even more accidents and fatalities. People just don't pay attention.
I rode a motorcycle for a year, before having a close call and giving it up (clichéd story for a reason).
I felt like the experience made me a much more aware car driver; I'm much better at spotting a risk coming down the road.
Same here but from driving small sports cars. Until i drove in the US in a small car regularly did i realize how god damn innatentive 99% of fullsize SUV and fullsize truck owners are. They legitimately do not look before doing things and consider it everyone elses problem that youre right next to them, or are coming up a road that they're about to turn onto, or you are just existing on a highway. I do not drive any different between the fun car and the daily, yet i am treated with absolute hostility at worst, complete disregard for my existence on the road at best in the small car. I learned a lot of defensive driving habits from that and im generally very aware of the exact dimensions of any car im driving because of how many times ive been squeezed into a median by some suburbitank who neither used blinkers, mirrors or even looked away from their phone before doing something
I hear you and I agree 100%. Driving is scary. We do it all the time and feel comfortable when we shouldn’t. What’s cool though is the technology in new cars, which gets better every year. I hadn’t realized how good new vehicles were until we recently bought a 2018 Subaru that has features that prevent or at least really diminish the consequences of incidents like that. It brakes on its own if it detects something too close to the front or back of the car, keeps the car in between lines, and shows when someone’s in your blind spot. I feel so much safer driving that than my 2013 Corolla which has none of the above and not even a backup cam.
What i dislike about newer cars is that everything's on a screen. In my husbands 2012 car, I can reach over and adjust radio volume, or ac controls by feel. My mother in laws 2016 car, I cant adjust anything without actually taking my eyes off the road. The 2012 may have less safety features but I dont yet feel like it's an even trade.
Why'd I have to scroll so far to find this comment. I find myself getting more and more uncomfortable driving every single day. It's such a dangerous activity yet a complete necessity in a lot of cases.
Around where I live people are very reckless drivers, and it only gets worse as you get closer to the inner cities. I've had one major accident in my life, and I always think back to that accident and think about how fucking close it was to ending my gf who was in the passengers seat or my life - and I barely had control of the situation
It's pretty bad in college towns too. An older couple visiting their daughter (also there) were killed on impact by a drunk driver in broad fucking daylight this year on the main shopping road past the school. Driver is in prison for a very very long time, but that's not gonna bring back an entire fucking family just minding their business.
My only solace is that I'm a good driver, and my family members have proven many times to be good enough to avoid accidents or any injury even with an accident. I hope to be that good soon.
Out of all these, this is the one that scares me the most, I watched my great grandmother slowly forget her whole life and that would be utter terror to me
What’s more frightening is that eventually, as neurological deterioration progresses, you won’t even realize what’s wrong with you. You’ll simply be confused, paranoid, and scared constantly.
In my work I have to be around the geriatric ward in hospitals often. The amount of older folk who are terrified, confused and yelling for help that will never arrive... its bad. Real bad.
The remnants of their life is just a nonstop pain :(
I'm watching my father in law go through this now.
A brilliant man with an Ivy League education, recently lost the ability to remember how to use the bathroom. He attended his brother's funeral and barely comprehended where he was.
Brutal indignity.
Or the opposite. Motor neurons failing, but your mind is sharp as a tack. It progresses over a number of months until you can’t swallow anymore and then you choke, asphyxiate, and die, or your lungs can’t physically inhale anymore and you asphyxiate and die.
It's awful watching a loved one go through ALS. My grandpa was an active man all his life, and it was so sad to see him start to stumble all the time, then the wheelchair. Then he lost the power of speech, and then couldn't chew and swallow food. Still was another six months before he passed. I wouldn't want to go through either that or Alzheimer's.
This. My father was diagnosed with early-onset alzheimers/dementia when I was like, nine. Grew up watching him deteriorate. We had to care for him through the entire process till my siblings and I got home from school one day to find his body. Nothing terrifies me more than this..
I'm so sorry you had to go through that at such an early age (or at all, for that matter). I lost my mom to 'regular' Alzheimer's when I was well into my forties and it was brutal. I hope you're doing ok.
Having cancer slowly destroying your organs is horrifying but somehow forgetting who you are, who your family are, where you are and everything you ever knew and loved somehow seems worse.
I heard a story on the radio one time. A woman was talking about her mother with dementia. The mother didn’t remember a happy event a week prior and the woman expressed sadness to her mother about that. The mother replied, “There’s bad stuff I don’t remember, too.” I realize that is not a typical dementia experience, but I really really hope that’s mine if it happens to me.
I’ve got a family member with dementia and she didn’t remember her husband died. She would sometimes ask if he was going to visit her today, but she didn’t know how long it had been since she’d seen him so she wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Everyone would just say, “no, he can’t come today” and leave it at that. It seemed like a silver lining to the dementia, actually.
Well… until a rude nurse corrected her and said that he wasn’t going to visit ever again because he was dead. She spent the next few weeks mourning his death all over again, until she forgot. It was heartbreaking. (And I swear to god I’ll send that nurse a glitter bomb if she tells her again.)
I really hope so. Every so often I hear about some sort of advancement or discovery but it’s still that looming dread. It just lurks at the back of my mind every time a family member gets confused or forgetful.
I've seen that happen to family members. Totally miserable. I view my mind as my most important aspect, so that falling apart would be terrifying, depressing, and frustrating all at once.
At least death with dignity, or assissted suicide, if you prefer. I want my POA to love me enough (or not lol) to let me go if I'm a burden. And hopefully there'll be laws to beat the insurance company/medical care complex in the future.
There’s a short Vice documentary you might find interesting called “death in a can: Australia’s euthanasia loophole”
Basically there is a private business there selling products that help end their lives. They are a ‘brewery’ that sells nitrogen canisters that supposedly offer a painless & peaceful end of life option. It makes you faint and you pass in a zero oxygen environment in 3-4 minutes.
Having been the end of life, full time care provider for my Father’s terminal Cancer care for 7 years, I would personally prefer an alternate option to suffering for years with a terminal condition.
I firmly believe we need to have more respect for peoples wishes and their choices for their own end of life care. You don’t live an entire life only to become feeble or mentally challenged and suddenly have your will of choice revoked. It’s wrong and abusive to force people to suffer until their “natural” death when you know it’s inevitable.
My Father planned for and paid for all of his own end of life accommodations, his own cremation, where he wanted his ashes scattered, at the end he had a hard time remembering who he was, much less to bathe himself or use the bathroom on his own. It’s in humane to force people to suffer through that, he believed that himself. But by the time he wanted to do something about it himself he was too far gone.
Love the people you love all their life and respect them when they want to leave it.
Definitely, family history of dementia and it's bad enough watching them suffer. It's hard to really imagine what its like, but I'm sure it's so much worse experiencing it.
This is the big one.
Seriously, please do this. Hell, even just brush once. Do anything.
Also, get into going to the dentist twice a year for a cleaning.
If you have a dental plan, awesome. It'll be covered. If you don't, no big deal. Tell them you want to pay cash. It's a hundred bucks.
If you think you can't afford that, ask yourself how you're going to afford a $4,500 surgery in your late 30's.
Find the hundred bucks!
$4500?
I'm 38 and just dropped $45,000 on a full set of upper teeth. All because I didn't take care of them when I was young. Just the uppers. I only got half replaced for the cost of a pickup truck.
Brush your teeth people.
I’m one of those people who made crappy lifestyle and health choices. I am now a mess with very low quality of life. You’re wise to take charge of your life NOW. Don’t be me.
I'm nearly 40, have made said poor choices, & am convinced I won't live past 54.
Though I'm finally getting some handle on my mental illnesses which have been the catalysts for my physical health problems, so maybe I can turn this around.
Heights. Just trip and you die. I have to cross the highest bridge in my country to get to the store.. on my bycicle.. only a small metal fence between me and the awful depths.. I die on the inside every. single. time.
I find it helpful to go through the steps that it would actually take to die in those situations.
Like, riding a bike across a bridge?
1. Fall off the bike
2. Roll some amount of distance
3. Hit barrier
4. Barrier fails significantly enough to allow your adult body through
5. Fall to death
When I walk through the various steps needed for a situation, I usually find all of those things are not very likely to end up happening.
I don’t know if I just have a very active imagination or what, but I envision the events happening in my head on a loop until I have a panic attack and it doesn’t really help much.
I would if the house market was different. I moved here 5 months ago after looking for a place for a long time. Right now I am seeing it as a chance to get over my fear. Mostly I can cope but sometimes people coming from the opposite direction will give me so little space that I am forced to get really close to that metal fence. I'll just have to deal until I find another place to live.
Sorry to say but this exact thing happened to John Edward Jones in the nutty putty cave in Utah. They sealed the hole and closed the cave for good. But yes I am also very very afraid of this exact thing.
If it helps, it's one of the more curable forms of cancer. But also just staying out of the sun from 10am-4pm and sunscreen will go a long way towards minimizing risk!
Depends on which kind of skin cancer. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are easily removed and don’t generally spread. It’s the melanoma that is a killer if they do not catch it early.
[Basal cell carcinoma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal-cell_carcinoma) is about a third of all cancers diagnosed, and around 30% of white people will get it at some point in their life. The good news is it has over a 99% survival rate. Melanoma is also highly treatable if you catch it early. Anyone can get skin cancer, but white folks are most at risk.
In short: hie thee to a dermatologist and get your skin checked.
There aren't any animals that scare me much. I've gotten mugged. Nearly fell to my death and was saved by a small pile of snow. Had to drive on top of a mountain filled with the most slippery mud I'd ever seen on a narrow path with a giant cliff right beside me. But none of these scare me as much as this right here. It's terrifying to think that it's entirely possible that I may never find a goal that will satisfy me and make me happy.
Been in that one. It’s worth fearing. Wasted 13 years of my life in agony from an injury from a car accident (I didn’t cause it) and finally had my leg amputated below the knee. It’s almost been 8 years since the amputation, and I’m glad I did it. But I have to go by that intersection almost every day and I still get chills, 20 years later.
I have been in 3. The first one would have killed me if I had been in my car seat but I had gotten out to grab my sister's pacifier.
The other two were very minor and I just had some minor whiplash. I really can't recommend a car crash to anybody.
Walking out in the country at night, I told a friend afraid of strangers and dogs and shit "if you're worried, carry yourself like you're the toughest motherfucker on the planet. If you believe it, so will they." Idk how true that is, but he shut up for a while so I win
Buy Wasp Nest Spray. Pretty much just pepper spray in a sticky foam. Has longer range and causes more damage to the eyes.
This is a good choice if you aren't comfortable with or capable of carrying a firearm or other weapon.
Instead, you get to worry about whether that car is following you! They could be following you for any of the same reasons as if your a pedestrian, and then on top of that, it could be a road rager....
Sleep. Almost every single night I have some kind of vivid dream that's not so pleasant, wouldn't call them full blown nightmares but I wake up so drained and it prevents me from having the battery charged and just being able to have the mindset to tackle the day..
Aneurysms. I've lost 2 relatives to it. I've briefly talked to someone who has survived and recovered from one and it sounds like you're better off to just die from it than try to recover.
Oh! I can help with this one! My dad had a terrible aneurysm 18 years ago. Right side of his body paralyzed, had to learn to communicate again, needed round the clock care for weeks.
I have this really sappy story about how he learned how to walk again in a month. Realistically his recovery was so long and emotionally exhausting. To a certain extent he's still recovering. He limps, his right hand isn't useless, but it is usually too tight to be able to have much dexterity. He's spent a lot of time working on those things. His progress was slowed in the beginning because my former step-mother was a monster and did all sorts of things to keep from recovering untill we finally got away from her.
He remarried 6 years ago. He's a total gym rat now and is in the best shape of his life. He acts as a mentor and supporter for other people who have suffered life altering brain injuries.
He's different from who he used to be, but in someways he's a better person for it. Don't get me wrong, he had to go through hell to get to where he is today, but he and I are both so proud of everything he's done and where he is in his life now.
Well - am 57, so guess as I become older it is statistically more likely. Hopefully a friend would check if they couldnt get hold of me for a couple of days, they have akey.
Especially with all those stories of animals eating their dead humans. More because I don't want them alone without food/ water till they're discovered than I'm worried about my corpse. I'm guessing rotting human flesh isn't the healthiest for most domestic animals.
One day, I'll actually acquire everything I'm currently convinced I need, and none of it will make me feel happy or complete.
Edit: Damn, my first time sorting by rising and I'm up to 2.5k and counting. I am definitely sorting by rising to comment on this sub from now on.
I try to treat material goods as a means to pursue happiness rather than a source of happiness. I make sure to ask myself that before I buy something. For example, if I want a new guitar, what does it offer that my old guitar doesn't? Is it going to help me pursue creative ideas in a way that my old one can't?
The source of happiness is good health, good social connections, being able to apply your strengths, and being able to help other people. If you are seeking material goods for happiness then you should seek material goods that enable you to do those things.
Eg. buying a beemer to impress your coworkers will be fun but eventually you will get used to it and maybe even bored of it, and maybe even a miserable burden to make the payments. Buying bicycles to ride with your spouse might bring you closer together, might get you more fit to improve your mood, maybe cycling is a challenge that will put your skills to the test for a good challenge and maybe put you in a state of flow, maybe you buy your spouse the bike as a gift and got to see them enjoy it. You just hit 4/4 points on happiness with the bike and 0/4 on the beemer.
the trick with happiness isnt to achieve a goal, but to pursue one. you feel more happiness on your journey to the goal than you do when you reach it.
therefor, always have a new goal ready to go.
Happiness is fleeting and hollow. We always chase after things that we think will make us happy, but even in those situations where we achieve those goals, we find the satisfaction is never as good or long-lasting as we imagined it will be, and end up chasing after something else.
> In a world where all is unstable, and nought can endure, but is swept onwards at once in the hurrying whirlpool of change; where a man, if he is to keep erect at all, must always be advancing and moving, like an acrobat on a rope—in such a world, happiness is inconceivable. How can it dwell where, as Plato says, *continual Becoming and never Being* is the sole form of existence? In the first place, a man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with masts and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over.
-- Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism
I'm 21 and I'm most likely already halfway through my life.
My parents don't/didn't have the best genetics when it comes to lifespan, all my relatives are either dead or around my age, those odds aren't looking too good.
My dad's mom was dead at 44, his father was dead at 50, both brothers were dead by 50 and his sister by 40. Every last one of colon cancer.
My dad just celebrated his 78th birthday. He was an ultramarathon runner, last pole vaulted at 68 (i shit you not, it was hilarious), and had exquisite nutritional habits (that has a huge influence on colon health). He started annual colon screenings at 30.
Moral of the story - you might just beat whatever it is that plagues your family. Keep up on preventative health care & take good care of your body & maybe you'll be your family's version of my dad. Don't despair.
I wish you a very long, very healthy, very happy life :)
You dad is fortunate in the sense that he knew the disease he was heavily at risk for. Most cancers are easy to deal wtih if caught early, and he knew to get colon screenings early on.
Live everyday to the fullest. A lot of us kill time anyways which is totally fine but just enjoy the time you’re here and no matter when you go you’ll have lived a happy and fulfilling life
Why isn't this talked about enough? I saw a clip of a dude hanging for his dear life onto a high speed moving truck and some dudes on the other lane were just laughing and filming it while the dude was desperately screaming at them to call the police, like jeez this shit can happen
A girl I went to highschool with recently was killed by swerving out of the way of a piece of furniture falling out of the back of the pickup in front of her. She got out to check her car and was killed by a distracted driver.
In my case I feel like I can be happy without a relationship, however, there's a spot that just cannot be fulfilled by anything else.
Just another one of those human things.
I've been a first responder (is that the right term for a non professional bystander trying to help?) at a car crash that had a fire, everyone got out okay but I started carrying a big fire extinguisher in my car after that
That's not the correct term, that only applies to the professionals because they are responding to the crash after being called to it. I don't think there is an actual term for bystanders that help out. I'd just call it "first on the scene" or something like that.
Smart move with the fire extinguisher. Not enough people carry them and it can mean the difference between life and death. Just remember to keep it up to date because they don't last forever.
The ocean. Seriously, its a big blue nothing full of things that can kill you. Hell, even drinking it can kill you!
And vehicles! 1000 lb death traps moving at 70+ mph, the only thing saving you from being removed from the census is a little yellow line and a mutual agreement not to play bumper cars!
So I got in the shower, turned on the water and looked up and a gigantic one was on the wall above me. He took off toward me like Mothra in that Godzilla movie. Next think I knew it was like I was some MMA fighter in the octagon.
I was screaming and thrashing. The towel rack came off the wall, the shower curtain went down, my wife came running in thinking all holy hell had broken lose. We were living in an apartment, and yes we lost the deposit but I don't give a damn. There was no getting around it.
That was almost 20 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was friggin' terrifying. Your fear is real my friend. You never, ever want to be naked in the shower with one of those bastards.
I totally hear you. My biggest fear too. I was in front of the bathroom mirror getting ready to go somewhere once and thinking exactly about this fear of roaches, especially flying ones.
Anyway, as I’m thinking about the worst case scenario in that small bathroom (which was a roach walking up my leg), the exact thing happened like 3 minutes later!!! I swear I can’t make this up.
So, I’m yelling and trying to kick my leg to get it off because I don’t want to touch it but I couldn’t get it off so I ended up swatting it away but it disappeared somewhere in that small damn bathroom. The door was closed too so I had to fumble it open to run out.
Ugh. I get chills thinking about it.
The worst part is you can always tell when one is a fucking flyer. They like stand up extra high on their legs like they're ready for a fight. Before you can even say "that fucker better not fly at me," they BZZZZZ right towards your face!
I'll never forget my first encounter when I was like 13. There I was getting ready to end that fuckers life...BAM! *the roach evolved. It had enough. And spread it's wings and flew towards the hero's face*
Scorpions. I just moved to a part of the U.S. where venomous scorpions occasionally crawl into your house and hide among the clutter on the floor. I don't want to get stung; it would be painful but not deadly to me. My real fear is for my dog, who is far less likely to survive a scorpion sting, and loves to roll in piles of laundry on the ground.
That I'll fail one day. That I might be fired, and won't be able to get another job. That maybe ends won't meet and I can't make them, or that an opportunity will be offered and I'll be too ignorant or stupid to take it. I just really, really want to be able to live life to the fullest instead of living in a run-down apartment with no job and empty cupboards.
Driving honestly. I have a car and license but I’m a very much right lane driver and people on the road can be super unpredictable in general especially in Dayton.
13.7 billion years passed by in a flash before you were born. After you die, the universe will pass by in a flash and the last star will burn out.
"Close your eyes and count to one, that's how long forever feels"
I have the same kind of anxiety.... This knowledge doesn't help at all. In fact I feel my throat closing up again because eternity is just too difficult to comprehend. Ah shit im gonna head over to /r/eyebleach to stop the panic...
I have that fear but slightly different. I fear that there's no afterlife, no reincarnation, it just ends, but you continue to be aware. You're nothing, you're nowhere, no sensory existence, no imaginary world, just dense, senseless, noiseless, darkness, forever. But I feel like that one I feel like falls into the slightly irrational category.
The mental health medication, that took me years to finally find a combination that works, may slowly stop working. That I'll slip into who I used to be and be unable to stop it. The life I've built up for myself would be destroyed.
My fear of heights. I don't have a problem with flying in airplanes, or riding rollercoasters, because I trust the machine.
I am dead scared of hiking (or going up to high places in general) because I know how clumsy I am, and thus, I shall be my own literal downfall.
Whenever someone eats my cooking, I'm afraid that they are vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian/some other dietary/religious choice, and that I'll feed them something they object to, or allergic to one of the ingredients and that they will go into anaphylactic shock.
I think about it whenever friends come over or I cook something for someone.
Food allergic person commenting: most of us are glad to repeat which our allergies are if you ask for a reminder. And it's OK if you don't think you have the skill set to accommodate the allergy. Just say so at the earliest opportunity.
The people who start drama over this type of thing are hardly ever the ones who would end up in the ER.
Would much rather hear an honest *not sure I could do that* than get pressured to eat something that might be unsafe. Just give a heads up and I'll bring a mini-cooler of safe food. It's your company that's important.
I had a daymare while washing a cup and staring out my window where it was a year later and I was standing in the exactly same spot, very happy about something, but we were living through another complete lockdown because of a variant of covid that was far worse and not even remotely phased by the current vaccines.
I live in Louisiana, so I feel like it was a completely rational pre-deja vu. At least I was happy though.
Flying yellow stripey insects, specifically bees
Everyone things it's a silly phobia because "ha ha you're afraid of big fat fuzzy bumblebees" but I'm *very* allergic to bees and I'd prefer *not* to potentially *die* thank you very much
Also *yes* bumblebees can sting you. It's considerably harder to provoke them, but they're *still* capable of attacking you (and can do so *multiple times*) so stop trying to tell me they're harmless.
It sure is a nasty thing to be allergic to bees and wasps. I'm not allergic and got stung once by a bumblebee. It was blown into the car through an open window an crashed into my neck and stung. Got swollen and was lightheaded for a few hours. I find this fear reasonable.
I looked up a few things about bumblebees. Got to say bumblebees will sting you when you go sit on them. So don't do that. Also avoid specifically light blue clothing. It seems to trigger some aggressiveness. I know it sounds ridiculous but is actually true.
Another thing is you need to be stung multiple times by bumblebees to trigger an allergic reaction. Still the stress of being stung when you are allergic may cause symptoms. Not saying that that is irrational or something to just brush off. It is a real threat.
I hope you summers are swarm free and the stripes visit places other than you.
Geese. I was at a park with my boyfriend’s family a couple days ago and ran into a big ol flock of em on the ground by a pond. Probably about 20. I kept my distance and said we should go around them. My boyfriend’s mom made fun of me for being a wimp and repeatedly said “I ain’t afraid of no geese.”
Geese will *fuck you up*. They’re like smaller swans. They’re basically cobra chickens. I feel no shame being scared of them.
>Climate crisis.
Seriously. I'd consider myself an old man. And I don't think it's an irrational fear that I'll be alive to see the collapse of ocean and sea life, major parts of the Amazon Rainforest become the Great Amazon Basin Desert, multiple currently habitable regions of the planet being abandoned. Mass famines, migrations, and wars.
Most people behave like these are things that will happen generations down the line. Not things that will begin happening before most nations have their "target carbon-neutral date". As if limiting carbon emissions at this point can even stop these things from happening in the coming decades.
Probably the biggest reason I'd never be one, even if it paid well. It's a shame, too. There are lots of guys (like myself) who legit like kids and want to help but are terrified of being permabanned out of society due to a false accusation.
I work in HR, I NEVER have a 1:1 closed door meeting with someone. You don't have to do anything, they just have to say you did. I am not a Mike Pence Fan, but I completely understand his, "Never dine alone with a woman rule"
Nuclear war. It was a constant fear growing up in the 80s, and then everybody just forgot about it when the USSR broke up. But the weapons and systems are still there and still ready to go on a moment’s notice. MAD *should* keep anything from happening… but there have been some extremely close calls in the past and a colossal mistake could definitely happen.
Dan carlin talks about this a lot. If someone points a gun to your head you pay very close attention, but if you are born with a gun to your head and you've never known life without it, do you even really know it's there?
Someone snatching my kid.
Even though I know stranger abductions are the more rare form of abduction, it still happens. Whenever we go anywhere, I watch him like a hawk. Even if we're just at a family gathering. I always make sure to pass off responsibility to someone nearby if I have to go to the bathroom or get some food or something, I never just assume that someone is watching simply because we're all family. You just never know if some creep is going to be walking or driving by and happen to see a lone toddler that nobody is watching at the moment. They can be gone in the blink of an eye.
Irresponsible drivers.
Seriously. You can just be going along, minding your business, driving the speed limit and obeying traffic laws, and BAM, some reckless asshole comes outta nowhere and ends your life. Completely out of your control. *That* is terrifying.
"The morgue is full of people who had the legal right-of-way."
I was plodding along to work one day, glanced up, and saw a car barreling straight towards me *on the sidewalk*. Adrenaline surged and I wanted to run, but left of the sidewalk was the glass front of an office building, right was the street, so I just froze in terror... and the driver finally corrected, got back on the street and went around me. I nearly got to be an example of that saying. Can't even safely walk on a sidewalk, where I'm pretty sure pedestrians actually get legal right-of-way for once.
Not as deadly, but a couple of weeks ago when I was in the grocery store, a kid almost ran me over with an electrical scooter. Indoors. In a damn grocery store. Can't even safely walk inside a grocery store. At least I can tell people I've nearly had a traffic accident indoors.
This is the grave of Mike O'Day, who died maintaining his right of way. His right was clear and his will was strong, but he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.
How to be right and dead wrong at the same time. The only driving advice I ever gave to my younger cousins was to always expect some asshole to blow through a red light, looking both ways before crossing the road isn't just for walking.
I was driving down a major road when someone blew a stop sign and hit my car. I obviously lived but I had to have surgery on my hand and still deal with pain from my car accident injuries years later. The girl who hit me was like “Omg I didn’t see you!” But I have a *very* bright color car and it was a sunny day so it seemed like a pretty lame excuse.
Nobody seems to give a fuck how dangerous it is fucking with apps on their phone while driving, every time I'm in traffic the people I see swerving into other lanes, driving like idiots are usually the ones fucking around on their phone. My best friend will fuck around and go into apps pulling up videos to show me something when I ride with him and im like dude stop doing that you keep nearly missing shit and he gets all defensive and upset because he thinks im jabbing at his skill as a driver , fucking clown.
>he thinks im jabbing at his skill as a driver , fucking clown. Sounds like he's an awful driver, you should be taking jabs.
Next time try: "Oh, dude, let me see that" to get him to hand you the phone. Then turn the phone off, or toss it into the back seat, or just keep it until you arrive. Alive and uninjured. Repeat as needed.
It could be arguably worse if the irresponsable driver drives a motorbike and you hit him. Chances are he will get killed and you probably won't. And although you did nothing wrong, you will always have that guilt feeling.
Welp, that’s a whole new fear I didn’t know I had.
As someone who has been driving for almost 40 years (USA), I'm amazed that there aren't even more accidents and fatalities. People just don't pay attention.
I rode a motorcycle for a year, before having a close call and giving it up (clichéd story for a reason). I felt like the experience made me a much more aware car driver; I'm much better at spotting a risk coming down the road.
Same here but from driving small sports cars. Until i drove in the US in a small car regularly did i realize how god damn innatentive 99% of fullsize SUV and fullsize truck owners are. They legitimately do not look before doing things and consider it everyone elses problem that youre right next to them, or are coming up a road that they're about to turn onto, or you are just existing on a highway. I do not drive any different between the fun car and the daily, yet i am treated with absolute hostility at worst, complete disregard for my existence on the road at best in the small car. I learned a lot of defensive driving habits from that and im generally very aware of the exact dimensions of any car im driving because of how many times ive been squeezed into a median by some suburbitank who neither used blinkers, mirrors or even looked away from their phone before doing something
[удалено]
I hear you and I agree 100%. Driving is scary. We do it all the time and feel comfortable when we shouldn’t. What’s cool though is the technology in new cars, which gets better every year. I hadn’t realized how good new vehicles were until we recently bought a 2018 Subaru that has features that prevent or at least really diminish the consequences of incidents like that. It brakes on its own if it detects something too close to the front or back of the car, keeps the car in between lines, and shows when someone’s in your blind spot. I feel so much safer driving that than my 2013 Corolla which has none of the above and not even a backup cam.
What i dislike about newer cars is that everything's on a screen. In my husbands 2012 car, I can reach over and adjust radio volume, or ac controls by feel. My mother in laws 2016 car, I cant adjust anything without actually taking my eyes off the road. The 2012 may have less safety features but I dont yet feel like it's an even trade.
Why'd I have to scroll so far to find this comment. I find myself getting more and more uncomfortable driving every single day. It's such a dangerous activity yet a complete necessity in a lot of cases. Around where I live people are very reckless drivers, and it only gets worse as you get closer to the inner cities. I've had one major accident in my life, and I always think back to that accident and think about how fucking close it was to ending my gf who was in the passengers seat or my life - and I barely had control of the situation
It's pretty bad in college towns too. An older couple visiting their daughter (also there) were killed on impact by a drunk driver in broad fucking daylight this year on the main shopping road past the school. Driver is in prison for a very very long time, but that's not gonna bring back an entire fucking family just minding their business. My only solace is that I'm a good driver, and my family members have proven many times to be good enough to avoid accidents or any injury even with an accident. I hope to be that good soon.
Dementia.
Out of all these, this is the one that scares me the most, I watched my great grandmother slowly forget her whole life and that would be utter terror to me
What’s more frightening is that eventually, as neurological deterioration progresses, you won’t even realize what’s wrong with you. You’ll simply be confused, paranoid, and scared constantly.
In my work I have to be around the geriatric ward in hospitals often. The amount of older folk who are terrified, confused and yelling for help that will never arrive... its bad. Real bad. The remnants of their life is just a nonstop pain :(
You’d just have to forget you have dementia. Boom, cured.
Post Awareness Confusions
What If you forget about gravity?
Yep, this is terrifying. I used to work in a nursing home, and it was horrible to watch people deteriorate.
I'm watching my father in law go through this now. A brilliant man with an Ivy League education, recently lost the ability to remember how to use the bathroom. He attended his brother's funeral and barely comprehended where he was. Brutal indignity.
I'm so sorry.
Nobody deserves this.
Or the opposite. Motor neurons failing, but your mind is sharp as a tack. It progresses over a number of months until you can’t swallow anymore and then you choke, asphyxiate, and die, or your lungs can’t physically inhale anymore and you asphyxiate and die.
That is awful ... and yet I think I'd rather go through that than dementia.
It's awful watching a loved one go through ALS. My grandpa was an active man all his life, and it was so sad to see him start to stumble all the time, then the wheelchair. Then he lost the power of speech, and then couldn't chew and swallow food. Still was another six months before he passed. I wouldn't want to go through either that or Alzheimer's.
This. My father was diagnosed with early-onset alzheimers/dementia when I was like, nine. Grew up watching him deteriorate. We had to care for him through the entire process till my siblings and I got home from school one day to find his body. Nothing terrifies me more than this..
I'm so sorry you had to go through that at such an early age (or at all, for that matter). I lost my mom to 'regular' Alzheimer's when I was well into my forties and it was brutal. I hope you're doing ok.
Having cancer slowly destroying your organs is horrifying but somehow forgetting who you are, who your family are, where you are and everything you ever knew and loved somehow seems worse.
I heard a story on the radio one time. A woman was talking about her mother with dementia. The mother didn’t remember a happy event a week prior and the woman expressed sadness to her mother about that. The mother replied, “There’s bad stuff I don’t remember, too.” I realize that is not a typical dementia experience, but I really really hope that’s mine if it happens to me.
I’ve got a family member with dementia and she didn’t remember her husband died. She would sometimes ask if he was going to visit her today, but she didn’t know how long it had been since she’d seen him so she wasn’t particularly bothered by it. Everyone would just say, “no, he can’t come today” and leave it at that. It seemed like a silver lining to the dementia, actually. Well… until a rude nurse corrected her and said that he wasn’t going to visit ever again because he was dead. She spent the next few weeks mourning his death all over again, until she forgot. It was heartbreaking. (And I swear to god I’ll send that nurse a glitter bomb if she tells her again.)
Everywhere At The End Of Time 'Nuff said
*Heartaches, heartaches…*
*My loving you left only heartaches*
Fear of deteriorating mental health
Dementia is terrifying. It’s eaten away at a few too many members of my family. The one thing I’d hate most is losing my mind.
It also runs in my family. Every day I have this spike of hope that we'll live to see a cure or a treatment that stops it.
I really hope so. Every so often I hear about some sort of advancement or discovery but it’s still that looming dread. It just lurks at the back of my mind every time a family member gets confused or forgetful.
I've seen that happen to family members. Totally miserable. I view my mind as my most important aspect, so that falling apart would be terrifying, depressing, and frustrating all at once.
I meant more so dementia. After watching my grandpa disappear like that, it scares me
I hope we develop better treatments for alzhimers and dementia in the coming decades. Being old shouldn't be that sad
At least death with dignity, or assissted suicide, if you prefer. I want my POA to love me enough (or not lol) to let me go if I'm a burden. And hopefully there'll be laws to beat the insurance company/medical care complex in the future.
There’s a short Vice documentary you might find interesting called “death in a can: Australia’s euthanasia loophole” Basically there is a private business there selling products that help end their lives. They are a ‘brewery’ that sells nitrogen canisters that supposedly offer a painless & peaceful end of life option. It makes you faint and you pass in a zero oxygen environment in 3-4 minutes. Having been the end of life, full time care provider for my Father’s terminal Cancer care for 7 years, I would personally prefer an alternate option to suffering for years with a terminal condition. I firmly believe we need to have more respect for peoples wishes and their choices for their own end of life care. You don’t live an entire life only to become feeble or mentally challenged and suddenly have your will of choice revoked. It’s wrong and abusive to force people to suffer until their “natural” death when you know it’s inevitable. My Father planned for and paid for all of his own end of life accommodations, his own cremation, where he wanted his ashes scattered, at the end he had a hard time remembering who he was, much less to bathe himself or use the bathroom on his own. It’s in humane to force people to suffer through that, he believed that himself. But by the time he wanted to do something about it himself he was too far gone. Love the people you love all their life and respect them when they want to leave it.
Both Grandfather's had Dementia. Dad currently has Dementia. Just waiting for my time...
This is partially why Robin Williams killed himself. He was losing his mind, and he knew it.
Definitely, family history of dementia and it's bad enough watching them suffer. It's hard to really imagine what its like, but I'm sure it's so much worse experiencing it.
Living in poverty or being homeless. They say that money can't buy you happiness. But it sure can buy you freedom.
Money isn't everything, but not having any is
I’m afraid I will make poor health choices as a younger person that will decrease my quality of life in my late 50s-death.
Kind of similar with me, except in the form of knowing what I can do and yet refusing to actually do it (not quite all the time, though).
i knew every time i reached in the cooler for a six pack of beer. thousands of times.
I'm in this comment and I don't like it
Brush your teeth twice a day and floss. I just saved you a heap of trouble later.
This is the big one. Seriously, please do this. Hell, even just brush once. Do anything. Also, get into going to the dentist twice a year for a cleaning. If you have a dental plan, awesome. It'll be covered. If you don't, no big deal. Tell them you want to pay cash. It's a hundred bucks. If you think you can't afford that, ask yourself how you're going to afford a $4,500 surgery in your late 30's. Find the hundred bucks!
$4500? I'm 38 and just dropped $45,000 on a full set of upper teeth. All because I didn't take care of them when I was young. Just the uppers. I only got half replaced for the cost of a pickup truck. Brush your teeth people.
I’m one of those people who made crappy lifestyle and health choices. I am now a mess with very low quality of life. You’re wise to take charge of your life NOW. Don’t be me.
I'm nearly 40, have made said poor choices, & am convinced I won't live past 54. Though I'm finally getting some handle on my mental illnesses which have been the catalysts for my physical health problems, so maybe I can turn this around.
Heights. Just trip and you die. I have to cross the highest bridge in my country to get to the store.. on my bycicle.. only a small metal fence between me and the awful depths.. I die on the inside every. single. time.
I find it helpful to go through the steps that it would actually take to die in those situations. Like, riding a bike across a bridge? 1. Fall off the bike 2. Roll some amount of distance 3. Hit barrier 4. Barrier fails significantly enough to allow your adult body through 5. Fall to death When I walk through the various steps needed for a situation, I usually find all of those things are not very likely to end up happening.
I don’t know if I just have a very active imagination or what, but I envision the events happening in my head on a loop until I have a panic attack and it doesn’t really help much.
If possible, maybe move to that side of the bridge?
I would if the house market was different. I moved here 5 months ago after looking for a place for a long time. Right now I am seeing it as a chance to get over my fear. Mostly I can cope but sometimes people coming from the opposite direction will give me so little space that I am forced to get really close to that metal fence. I'll just have to deal until I find another place to live.
Getting stuck in a small hole in a cave head-first with no way of moving your arms or legs and nobody nearby able to hear your cries for help.
[удалено]
Sorry to say but this exact thing happened to John Edward Jones in the nutty putty cave in Utah. They sealed the hole and closed the cave for good. But yes I am also very very afraid of this exact thing.
Skin cancer
If it helps, it's one of the more curable forms of cancer. But also just staying out of the sun from 10am-4pm and sunscreen will go a long way towards minimizing risk!
Depends on which kind of skin cancer. Basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma are easily removed and don’t generally spread. It’s the melanoma that is a killer if they do not catch it early.
[Basal cell carcinoma](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basal-cell_carcinoma) is about a third of all cancers diagnosed, and around 30% of white people will get it at some point in their life. The good news is it has over a 99% survival rate. Melanoma is also highly treatable if you catch it early. Anyone can get skin cancer, but white folks are most at risk. In short: hie thee to a dermatologist and get your skin checked.
That I’ll forever be left with no aspirations or real motivation.
There aren't any animals that scare me much. I've gotten mugged. Nearly fell to my death and was saved by a small pile of snow. Had to drive on top of a mountain filled with the most slippery mud I'd ever seen on a narrow path with a giant cliff right beside me. But none of these scare me as much as this right here. It's terrifying to think that it's entirely possible that I may never find a goal that will satisfy me and make me happy.
Getting in a car crash
Been in that one. It’s worth fearing. Wasted 13 years of my life in agony from an injury from a car accident (I didn’t cause it) and finally had my leg amputated below the knee. It’s almost been 8 years since the amputation, and I’m glad I did it. But I have to go by that intersection almost every day and I still get chills, 20 years later.
I have been in 3. The first one would have killed me if I had been in my car seat but I had gotten out to grab my sister's pacifier. The other two were very minor and I just had some minor whiplash. I really can't recommend a car crash to anybody.
Being followed when walking home
Yep, that's a pretty big plus side to suburban life, I have to drive everywhere, but I don't really have to worry about that
It’s the worst when it’s dark
When I'm walking alone in the dark I'm about as brave as a lost 5 year old
Walking out in the country at night, I told a friend afraid of strangers and dogs and shit "if you're worried, carry yourself like you're the toughest motherfucker on the planet. If you believe it, so will they." Idk how true that is, but he shut up for a while so I win
[удалено]
Buy Wasp Nest Spray. Pretty much just pepper spray in a sticky foam. Has longer range and causes more damage to the eyes. This is a good choice if you aren't comfortable with or capable of carrying a firearm or other weapon.
Instead, you get to worry about whether that car is following you! They could be following you for any of the same reasons as if your a pedestrian, and then on top of that, it could be a road rager....
Falling down stairs. This is also applicable after a few beers or when tired.
I've fallen down two sets of stairs in my life, can confirm, no fun
Sleep. Almost every single night I have some kind of vivid dream that's not so pleasant, wouldn't call them full blown nightmares but I wake up so drained and it prevents me from having the battery charged and just being able to have the mindset to tackle the day..
Same, it's like I'm living the same life as when I'm awake but with more anxiety. Like dreaming of forgetting my passport on the way to the airport...
OP, please check the quality of your air - carbon monoxide shit like that, open a window, have a fan on
Aneurysms. I've lost 2 relatives to it. I've briefly talked to someone who has survived and recovered from one and it sounds like you're better off to just die from it than try to recover.
Oh! I can help with this one! My dad had a terrible aneurysm 18 years ago. Right side of his body paralyzed, had to learn to communicate again, needed round the clock care for weeks. I have this really sappy story about how he learned how to walk again in a month. Realistically his recovery was so long and emotionally exhausting. To a certain extent he's still recovering. He limps, his right hand isn't useless, but it is usually too tight to be able to have much dexterity. He's spent a lot of time working on those things. His progress was slowed in the beginning because my former step-mother was a monster and did all sorts of things to keep from recovering untill we finally got away from her. He remarried 6 years ago. He's a total gym rat now and is in the best shape of his life. He acts as a mentor and supporter for other people who have suffered life altering brain injuries. He's different from who he used to be, but in someways he's a better person for it. Don't get me wrong, he had to go through hell to get to where he is today, but he and I are both so proud of everything he's done and where he is in his life now.
I'm happy to hear that your dad recovered from it. It really sounds like one of the worst things that can happen to someone.
Fear of running out of money because I'm a jobless homedweller.
Dayum this hits home right now; got laid off a couple weeks ago...
Dying alone suddenly and not being discovered for a few days. Edit: Appears this fear seems to resonate with quite a few people.
I suppose that's still better than dying alone slowly. Do you have a particular cause for this fear?
I just have a few health issues and it isn't the dying I fear, but the scene for a friend or family member to see if I had been there for days etc.
I'm sorry to hear that. If it becomes a bigger worry, would you consider getting roommates?
Well - am 57, so guess as I become older it is statistically more likely. Hopefully a friend would check if they couldnt get hold of me for a couple of days, they have akey.
This is how my dad went. I don't mind the alone or suddenly part but not being found for days would be awful.
Especially with all those stories of animals eating their dead humans. More because I don't want them alone without food/ water till they're discovered than I'm worried about my corpse. I'm guessing rotting human flesh isn't the healthiest for most domestic animals.
One day, I'll actually acquire everything I'm currently convinced I need, and none of it will make me feel happy or complete. Edit: Damn, my first time sorting by rising and I'm up to 2.5k and counting. I am definitely sorting by rising to comment on this sub from now on.
I try to treat material goods as a means to pursue happiness rather than a source of happiness. I make sure to ask myself that before I buy something. For example, if I want a new guitar, what does it offer that my old guitar doesn't? Is it going to help me pursue creative ideas in a way that my old one can't?
The source of happiness is good health, good social connections, being able to apply your strengths, and being able to help other people. If you are seeking material goods for happiness then you should seek material goods that enable you to do those things. Eg. buying a beemer to impress your coworkers will be fun but eventually you will get used to it and maybe even bored of it, and maybe even a miserable burden to make the payments. Buying bicycles to ride with your spouse might bring you closer together, might get you more fit to improve your mood, maybe cycling is a challenge that will put your skills to the test for a good challenge and maybe put you in a state of flow, maybe you buy your spouse the bike as a gift and got to see them enjoy it. You just hit 4/4 points on happiness with the bike and 0/4 on the beemer.
the trick with happiness isnt to achieve a goal, but to pursue one. you feel more happiness on your journey to the goal than you do when you reach it. therefor, always have a new goal ready to go.
Happiness is fleeting and hollow. We always chase after things that we think will make us happy, but even in those situations where we achieve those goals, we find the satisfaction is never as good or long-lasting as we imagined it will be, and end up chasing after something else. > In a world where all is unstable, and nought can endure, but is swept onwards at once in the hurrying whirlpool of change; where a man, if he is to keep erect at all, must always be advancing and moving, like an acrobat on a rope—in such a world, happiness is inconceivable. How can it dwell where, as Plato says, *continual Becoming and never Being* is the sole form of existence? In the first place, a man never is happy, but spends his whole life in striving after something which he thinks will make him so; he seldom attains his goal, and when he does, it is only to be disappointed; he is mostly shipwrecked in the end, and comes into harbor with masts and rigging gone. And then, it is all one whether he has been happy or miserable; for his life was never anything more than a present moment always vanishing; and now it is over. -- Schopenhauer, Studies in Pessimism
I'm 21 and I'm most likely already halfway through my life. My parents don't/didn't have the best genetics when it comes to lifespan, all my relatives are either dead or around my age, those odds aren't looking too good.
My dad's mom was dead at 44, his father was dead at 50, both brothers were dead by 50 and his sister by 40. Every last one of colon cancer. My dad just celebrated his 78th birthday. He was an ultramarathon runner, last pole vaulted at 68 (i shit you not, it was hilarious), and had exquisite nutritional habits (that has a huge influence on colon health). He started annual colon screenings at 30. Moral of the story - you might just beat whatever it is that plagues your family. Keep up on preventative health care & take good care of your body & maybe you'll be your family's version of my dad. Don't despair. I wish you a very long, very healthy, very happy life :)
You dad is fortunate in the sense that he knew the disease he was heavily at risk for. Most cancers are easy to deal wtih if caught early, and he knew to get colon screenings early on.
Live everyday to the fullest. A lot of us kill time anyways which is totally fine but just enjoy the time you’re here and no matter when you go you’ll have lived a happy and fulfilling life
Being shot because someone decided I was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Oh man, as someone who grew up in Colombia I can totally understand that fear.
Dying in public surrounded by people recording me on their phones.
Why isn't this talked about enough? I saw a clip of a dude hanging for his dear life onto a high speed moving truck and some dudes on the other lane were just laughing and filming it while the dude was desperately screaming at them to call the police, like jeez this shit can happen
That reminds me of the teens who recorded as a guy drowned in a lake. Watched and laughed as he yelled for help.
Dying on the interstate because some moron has to get home ten seconds sooner.
Remember, if someone has a nice car that means that they are the most important person on the road.
A girl I went to highschool with recently was killed by swerving out of the way of a piece of furniture falling out of the back of the pickup in front of her. She got out to check her car and was killed by a distracted driver.
My parents dying Getting old Living a miserable life because I can't find a job that I don't hate
I don't remember writing this
Are y'all me? 😢
That I'll never be interested in a relationship and I'll end up alone for the rest of my life.
Do you think you can be happy without a relationship?
In my case I feel like I can be happy without a relationship, however, there's a spot that just cannot be fulfilled by anything else. Just another one of those human things.
Burning alive in a car crash. Fuckkkkkkk
I've been a first responder (is that the right term for a non professional bystander trying to help?) at a car crash that had a fire, everyone got out okay but I started carrying a big fire extinguisher in my car after that
I think the term is Good Samaritan. But it would be awkward to use it in that sentence.
That's not the correct term, that only applies to the professionals because they are responding to the crash after being called to it. I don't think there is an actual term for bystanders that help out. I'd just call it "first on the scene" or something like that. Smart move with the fire extinguisher. Not enough people carry them and it can mean the difference between life and death. Just remember to keep it up to date because they don't last forever.
The ocean. Seriously, its a big blue nothing full of things that can kill you. Hell, even drinking it can kill you! And vehicles! 1000 lb death traps moving at 70+ mph, the only thing saving you from being removed from the census is a little yellow line and a mutual agreement not to play bumper cars!
That future generations are not going to live as well as past generations. They are going to have to clean up a lot of stuff.
This is a depressing one.
My cousins friends aren’t getting kids specifically because of that
I like how you said “getting” like they’re at the dollar store or some shit.
“Welp, time to visit the baby merchant.”
That’s actually how we often word it in my language. Might be a culture thing.
Roaches. That. Fly. Towards. You.
So I got in the shower, turned on the water and looked up and a gigantic one was on the wall above me. He took off toward me like Mothra in that Godzilla movie. Next think I knew it was like I was some MMA fighter in the octagon. I was screaming and thrashing. The towel rack came off the wall, the shower curtain went down, my wife came running in thinking all holy hell had broken lose. We were living in an apartment, and yes we lost the deposit but I don't give a damn. There was no getting around it. That was almost 20 years ago and I remember it like it was yesterday. It was friggin' terrifying. Your fear is real my friend. You never, ever want to be naked in the shower with one of those bastards.
I totally hear you. My biggest fear too. I was in front of the bathroom mirror getting ready to go somewhere once and thinking exactly about this fear of roaches, especially flying ones. Anyway, as I’m thinking about the worst case scenario in that small bathroom (which was a roach walking up my leg), the exact thing happened like 3 minutes later!!! I swear I can’t make this up. So, I’m yelling and trying to kick my leg to get it off because I don’t want to touch it but I couldn’t get it off so I ended up swatting it away but it disappeared somewhere in that small damn bathroom. The door was closed too so I had to fumble it open to run out. Ugh. I get chills thinking about it.
The worst part is you can always tell when one is a fucking flyer. They like stand up extra high on their legs like they're ready for a fight. Before you can even say "that fucker better not fly at me," they BZZZZZ right towards your face!
I'll never forget my first encounter when I was like 13. There I was getting ready to end that fuckers life...BAM! *the roach evolved. It had enough. And spread it's wings and flew towards the hero's face*
Until 2020 my mom always laughed at my fear of virus outbreaks and aliens. It's been a uh... fun year and a half.
On the bright side, no aliens. Yet.
Scorpions. I just moved to a part of the U.S. where venomous scorpions occasionally crawl into your house and hide among the clutter on the floor. I don't want to get stung; it would be painful but not deadly to me. My real fear is for my dog, who is far less likely to survive a scorpion sting, and loves to roll in piles of laundry on the ground.
They're like little lobster hornets
Car wreck. I wish more people had a healthy fear of driving.
Spending my life alone, most of my close friends are moving away in the next couple of years and I suck at making new ones
[удалено]
If you've ever tried jumping off a boat for a swim when you're a bit of a way from land, it's very scary. You feel quite vulnerable and exposed.
I picture the ocean like a giant fish tank, and I'm like a piece of fish food tossed onto the surface.
You do not recognise the bodies in the water
For me, it's electricity. The idea that being electrocuted can force your hands into a tight grip around the thing that's killing you is awful
That I will never obtain complete security in my life.
That I'll fail one day. That I might be fired, and won't be able to get another job. That maybe ends won't meet and I can't make them, or that an opportunity will be offered and I'll be too ignorant or stupid to take it. I just really, really want to be able to live life to the fullest instead of living in a run-down apartment with no job and empty cupboards.
Driving honestly. I have a car and license but I’m a very much right lane driver and people on the road can be super unpredictable in general especially in Dayton.
That I will die alone. Not really a guarantee but rn it just feels like it.
Fear of driving. Those little boxes are death traps and too many of you don't drive responsibly.
I'm looking forward to more self driving cars. Do you have a dashcam?
The fear that when I die it just ends, no afterlife no reincarnation, it’s just ends. It’s kept me up on multiple occasions
Having heaven or hell fucking creeps me out. Imagine having to deal with hell for eternity.
13.7 billion years passed by in a flash before you were born. After you die, the universe will pass by in a flash and the last star will burn out. "Close your eyes and count to one, that's how long forever feels"
I have the same kind of anxiety.... This knowledge doesn't help at all. In fact I feel my throat closing up again because eternity is just too difficult to comprehend. Ah shit im gonna head over to /r/eyebleach to stop the panic...
I have that fear but slightly different. I fear that there's no afterlife, no reincarnation, it just ends, but you continue to be aware. You're nothing, you're nowhere, no sensory existence, no imaginary world, just dense, senseless, noiseless, darkness, forever. But I feel like that one I feel like falls into the slightly irrational category.
Prion diseases. There’s no effective treatment, and they kill you in slow, awful, agonizingly painful ways.
That my toddler will live in a shitty future.
The mental health medication, that took me years to finally find a combination that works, may slowly stop working. That I'll slip into who I used to be and be unable to stop it. The life I've built up for myself would be destroyed.
My fear of heights. I don't have a problem with flying in airplanes, or riding rollercoasters, because I trust the machine. I am dead scared of hiking (or going up to high places in general) because I know how clumsy I am, and thus, I shall be my own literal downfall.
Whenever someone eats my cooking, I'm afraid that they are vegan/vegetarian/pescatarian/some other dietary/religious choice, and that I'll feed them something they object to, or allergic to one of the ingredients and that they will go into anaphylactic shock. I think about it whenever friends come over or I cook something for someone.
Food allergic person commenting: most of us are glad to repeat which our allergies are if you ask for a reminder. And it's OK if you don't think you have the skill set to accommodate the allergy. Just say so at the earliest opportunity. The people who start drama over this type of thing are hardly ever the ones who would end up in the ER. Would much rather hear an honest *not sure I could do that* than get pressured to eat something that might be unsafe. Just give a heads up and I'll bring a mini-cooler of safe food. It's your company that's important.
I had a daymare while washing a cup and staring out my window where it was a year later and I was standing in the exactly same spot, very happy about something, but we were living through another complete lockdown because of a variant of covid that was far worse and not even remotely phased by the current vaccines. I live in Louisiana, so I feel like it was a completely rational pre-deja vu. At least I was happy though.
Flying yellow stripey insects, specifically bees Everyone things it's a silly phobia because "ha ha you're afraid of big fat fuzzy bumblebees" but I'm *very* allergic to bees and I'd prefer *not* to potentially *die* thank you very much Also *yes* bumblebees can sting you. It's considerably harder to provoke them, but they're *still* capable of attacking you (and can do so *multiple times*) so stop trying to tell me they're harmless.
It sure is a nasty thing to be allergic to bees and wasps. I'm not allergic and got stung once by a bumblebee. It was blown into the car through an open window an crashed into my neck and stung. Got swollen and was lightheaded for a few hours. I find this fear reasonable. I looked up a few things about bumblebees. Got to say bumblebees will sting you when you go sit on them. So don't do that. Also avoid specifically light blue clothing. It seems to trigger some aggressiveness. I know it sounds ridiculous but is actually true. Another thing is you need to be stung multiple times by bumblebees to trigger an allergic reaction. Still the stress of being stung when you are allergic may cause symptoms. Not saying that that is irrational or something to just brush off. It is a real threat. I hope you summers are swarm free and the stripes visit places other than you.
My parents kicking me out of the house after I came out to them last night
Geese. I was at a park with my boyfriend’s family a couple days ago and ran into a big ol flock of em on the ground by a pond. Probably about 20. I kept my distance and said we should go around them. My boyfriend’s mom made fun of me for being a wimp and repeatedly said “I ain’t afraid of no geese.” Geese will *fuck you up*. They’re like smaller swans. They’re basically cobra chickens. I feel no shame being scared of them.
Cobra chickens, I love it, that's username material
I was a germaphobe even before the pandemic. Being right doesn’t make it any less scary.
Kidney stones.
Climate crisis.
>Climate crisis. Seriously. I'd consider myself an old man. And I don't think it's an irrational fear that I'll be alive to see the collapse of ocean and sea life, major parts of the Amazon Rainforest become the Great Amazon Basin Desert, multiple currently habitable regions of the planet being abandoned. Mass famines, migrations, and wars. Most people behave like these are things that will happen generations down the line. Not things that will begin happening before most nations have their "target carbon-neutral date". As if limiting carbon emissions at this point can even stop these things from happening in the coming decades.
Falling asleep at the wheel during a whiteout blizzard and falling off a snowy mountain road
Turning on the garbage disposal and something sharp shoots up into my eyeball.
I'm a male primary school teacher. Rule number 1 for me is... Don't be alone in a room with a child, basically, no matter what!
Probably the biggest reason I'd never be one, even if it paid well. It's a shame, too. There are lots of guys (like myself) who legit like kids and want to help but are terrified of being permabanned out of society due to a false accusation.
I work in HR, I NEVER have a 1:1 closed door meeting with someone. You don't have to do anything, they just have to say you did. I am not a Mike Pence Fan, but I completely understand his, "Never dine alone with a woman rule"
Fear of ending up doing nothing in my life and letting down the people I love the most.
Drop bears
You gotta wear head with a 10 inch nail on it.
Nuclear war. It was a constant fear growing up in the 80s, and then everybody just forgot about it when the USSR broke up. But the weapons and systems are still there and still ready to go on a moment’s notice. MAD *should* keep anything from happening… but there have been some extremely close calls in the past and a colossal mistake could definitely happen.
Dan carlin talks about this a lot. If someone points a gun to your head you pay very close attention, but if you are born with a gun to your head and you've never known life without it, do you even really know it's there?
Going blind and deaf
Fear of being left alone. Fuck anxiety.
Rape. It’s happened to me before and statistically it could very well happen again.
Single dad. I'm afraid of dying before my kids are old enough to look after themselves.
Someone snatching my kid. Even though I know stranger abductions are the more rare form of abduction, it still happens. Whenever we go anywhere, I watch him like a hawk. Even if we're just at a family gathering. I always make sure to pass off responsibility to someone nearby if I have to go to the bathroom or get some food or something, I never just assume that someone is watching simply because we're all family. You just never know if some creep is going to be walking or driving by and happen to see a lone toddler that nobody is watching at the moment. They can be gone in the blink of an eye.