Topic: Your childhood fears

[Mooning Freddy]

How about we have a little confession thread?
What were your childhood fears, and do you have any phobias now? Can you explain your phobias?

When I was around 10-13 I was kinda scared of skeletons. I know, it's quite an embarressing fear for a pre-teen, but I remember it was only around this age that skeletons started freaking me out. It was enough for me to see what looked like a human skeleton on TV to give me goosebumps. What scared me was the thought that this pile of bones that I see before me was once a living, breathing person and now anything that's left of him or her is a pile of bones. That thought made me shiver and that it fead the phobia.
Overtime I somehow overcame that fear though.

[Shiroi Koumori]

Spiders, after a very terrible incident of an entire nest falling on my head.
Now, whenever I see one, I do what Garfield does. Squash them.

[KaZudra]

Snakes.
Still have a phobia of them today.

[Belmontoya]

Doctors and dentists. ?

[X]

I'm Arachnophobic as well. Although when I was much younger I didn't have that fear. I was able to pick up spiders and handle them. Can't be bothered to do that now! I'm not sure when the fear actually manifested...

[Dracula9]

At some point around my mid-to-late teens I became intensely thalassophobic seemingly overnight--one day I was fine with water and swam like a fish, next day I can't even look at a photo of the Titanic without experiencing a deeply instinctive and primal-feeling fear. To this day I have no idea why, but I haven't been in a pool since I was about fifteen.

I occasionally have an odd fear that the world I see might not be real; not entirely the concept of a Matrix or anything, though. It's more along the lines of "what if I'm severely schizophrenic or in a coma or something and everything I know is actually hallucination or dream?" Wouldn't call it a full-on phobia as it doesn't affect me on a regular or even semi-regular basis, but when it does pop back up it gets pretty intense for a bit.

[Belmontoya]

I occasionally have an odd fear that the world I see might not be real; not entirely the concept of a Matrix or anything, though. It's more along the lines of "what if I'm severely schizophrenic or in a coma or something and everything I know is actually hallucination or dream?" Wouldn't call it a full-on phobia as it doesn't affect me on a regular or even semi-regular basis, but when it does pop back up it gets pretty intense for a bit.

The simulation hypothesis. I think about this a lot too. Really there are 3 variations of it I can think of. 1 we're living inside a man made simulation. 2 we're living inside an alien made simulation. 3 the entire universe is a simulation made by some superior entity.

3 freaks me out the most because it's eerily similar to the religious idea of creationism if you think about it. I grew up Lutheran but as an adult with free will I'm agnostic.

3 feels familiar in an almost comforting way.

Something about the universe and reality as we know it just seems like the highest form of programming. There is some serious merit to the idea. Tyson needs to do a star talk episode about this.

[Dracula9]

No, it's not so much the simulation hypothesis. The simulation hypothesis would be a bit more bearable, because at least then reality is as real as said simulation and everything therein is as "real" as the context makes it. My actions and life within might be simulated, but the simulation is still a definite reality.

However, if my examples were true and I were comatose and dreaming or massively hallucinating, then what I know is not "real" by the standards of the surrounding world, because I'm not seeing it as it is but how my mind creates it.

Basically, the fear is less "The Matrix" and more "A Beautiful Mind."

[Belmontoya]

No, it's not so much the simulation hypothesis. The simulation hypothesis would be a bit more bearable, because at least then reality is as real as said simulation and everything therein is as "real" as the context makes it. My actions and life within might be simulated, but the simulation is still a definite reality.

However, if my examples were true and I were comatose and dreaming or massively hallucinating, then what I know is not "real" by the standards of the surrounding world, because I'm not seeing it as it is but how my mind creates it.

Basically, the fear is less "The Matrix" and more "A Beautiful Mind."

 I gotcha.

If you were comatose then at least your dreams or hallucinations would be based on past perceptions of reality. I mean, they would almost have to be right? In that case you must have a human body that's living, asleep on the other side. That's scary, but it would be proof that you exist and that your true form and reality is something like your dreams. I've never had a dream where I was completely different life form in a different state of reality. Have you? That would be crazy. I think most people dream things that are rooted to reality in some way.

If life as we know it is a simulation, this could all be contrived and not based on anything that's ever really existed. We could be advanced AI programs. Or our true life forms could be something completely alien to what we've come to know. That's pretty fucked up to think about too.

[Dracula9]

Even if I did have dreams entirely based on current reality, it's still the idea of waking up from the "dream" and things aren't remotely the same.

Imagine waking up to find that physically your parents are the same, but their personas are radically different. Now imagine that with friends, jobs, the town you grew up in, the place you live, everything.

Things that are only slightly abnormal are far more terrifying than things grossly abnormal--because the slightly abnormal can be compared to the normal.

It'd be like...almost like a more fucked-up version of "The Truman Show," now that I think about it.

[Belmontoya]

Even if I did have dreams entirely based on current reality, it's still the idea of waking up from the "dream" and things aren't remotely the same.

Imagine waking up to find that physically your parents are the same, but their personas are radically different. Now imagine that with friends, jobs, the town you grew up in, the place you live, everything.

Things that are only slightly abnormal are far more terrifying than things grossly abnormal--because the slightly abnormal can be compared to the normal.

It'd be like...almost like a more fucked-up version of "The Truman Show," now that I think about it.

Ever seen Vanilla Sky?

[Dracula9]

Yep. Another similar premise.

Good flick, too.

[X]

At some point around my mid-to-late teens I became intensely thalassophobic seemingly overnight--one day I was fine with water and swam like a fish, next day I can't even look at a photo of the Titanic without experiencing a deeply instinctive and primal-feeling fear. To this day I have no idea why, but I haven't been in a pool since I was about fifteen.

You may have had a past life on that ship Dracula9. I've got this exact same issue except mine started when I was very young. It was only recently through hypnotic regression that I learned of the cause behind this unknown spark of fear that would shoot up my spine whenever I was confronted with a very deep pool of water. I'm fine on boats, but for the life of me I will never learn to swim. It's just not happening.

[Dracula9]

It's one of the reasons I believe rather heavily in residual memory--in addition to this, I have an intense pull and calling to return "home" whenever I see any wilderness that's cold and hilly and foggy, despite having never been to such a place. There are other factors that line up with the following information, but they're just a series of more minor things.

This and the unexplainably primal fear of deep water lends belief to me that my Viking ancestry plays some part in this, especially considering my being a direct descendant of a particularly legendary Nord who currently has his own TV show.

[zangetsu468]

I think fear of seeing one's loved ones in pain, struggle or dying is always the worst because it evokes helplessness and wishing you could take all of that way from them.

The fear of losing someone and not knowing if you'll ever see people again after they leave is always a tough one.