I like to consider myself a rational, skeptical person, but nobody is perfect. We all have irrational things we do. Some may be as benign as a good luck charm, while others may be a crippling phobia.
What are some of your more irrational beliefs or habits?
Sometimes I feel like knowing a certain belief is irrational makes it even worse. For example, I know I shouldn’t be an arachnophobe, but no amount of logical reasoning will make me quit flailing around even tiny spiders. And since I know I’m succumbing to my emotions, it makes me feel extra stupid. Anyone else feel this way?
I… am kinda afraid of, am kinda disgusted by most insects. They’re so wriggly. D:
I’ve tried very hard over the last 6 months or so to rid myself of my irrational behaviours. I am quite afraid of bees and wasps, but I contend it is not irrational as I was stung 6 times in 2 weeks when I was 10. Still, I’ve managed to stop myself from panicking when they come near me. I’ve had some other nonsensical beliefs that I’ve talked myself into ditching, such as I stopped referring to karma, etc
I have a fear of static electricity, and as a result, I constantly touch doors before I will grab the doorknob or handle. For some reason I feel like if I grab the handle full on, I’m going to get a worse shock and possibly static-electrocute myself.It’s so ingrained that I do it to all kinds of doors, not just metal ones. But because I’m aware I’m doing it, if others are around, I might kick the door instead of touch it, just so it’s not as noticeable.
Gore (not the President). Every time I used to see it, I would have bad zombie nightmares. Watching “Bones” has helped cure me of this, largely. I still refuse to watch gory horror flicks, though.
I have none! And I’m filled with blind fury at the suggestion that I do!
I guess for me it would be dating strippers. I should know better, but I keep doing it.
Santa. :)
Isn’t this an atavistic fear of stinging insects left over from at least our monkey days?
I’m terrified of heights… although this has a rational basis (i.e. standing at the edge of cliffs is generally a bad idea), I am still scared of looking out of windows in tall buildings, riding in cable cars etc. which isn’t rational at all.I am also scared of moths. I’m not entirely sure what the reason for this is, since as far as I am aware they are completely harmless. =S
Ophidiophobia is horrible. Snakes are everywhere, including magazines and ads.
Actually – that’s a good point. I’m sure there are all sorts of little hang ups in our mental lives that are left over from the environment we evolved in but are not completely rational in this one.
Do booze-induced irrational behaviors count?
The atavistic fears that we’re born with have been pretty thoroughly researched.Snakes and spiders, it turns out, scare infants. http://www.livescience.com/ani…
I don’t let the TV volume stay on a prime number. I don’t remember what my reasons for this are. It’s possible the reason is there is no reason for it.
I’m an agoraphobe. I dread when my kids have a recital or event that requires me to be in an audience. And there’s nothing in the world that would make me go into a mall. I rent movies rather than go to a theater. I go to great lengths to avoid crowds.
I’m neurotically claustrophobic. I’ll start to have a panic attack if *television* characters are in small spaces for too long, and I’ll pass out if in a too-small, too-crowded, or too-hot (usually some combination of those) room myself. Except for heat exhaustion, claustrophobia is the only thing to ever make me faint. You can’t talk yourself out of fainting (or a panic attack, for that matter), so I don’t beat myself up over it.
Dice. I obey many dice superstitions.I won’t use, roll, or buy black dice.I won’t roll dice that consistently end up cocked, even if it’s just because of the lay of the table.I pick favourites among my collection. I have a firm belief in lucky dice compared to unlucky ones.
I’m totally disgusted by cockroaches. And I am also extremely afraid of heights, I can’t even look down if I’m on the second floor, even though I know I’m totally safe.
I am scared of sleeping alone in the dark. I can move around in the dark just fine. And if there is anyone else around (like during a sleepover) I can fall asleep okay, but in my room, when there no one else around, I can’t fall asleep without some light or else my mind goes horror movie on me.
I have a completely unreasonable, crippling phobia of Maximillion from the movie Black Hole. I even have a phobia of the movie itself, to the point where I can’t listen to the theme music without my heart trying to claw its way out through my chest. I’ve had people laugh at me for it, claiming it’s impossible to have a phobia of a robot from a movie, but then they usually try to pull up a picture on Google and watch in horror as I bowl over small children in a panic to get away.Disney logo be damned, that movie is TERRIFYING.
I am very interested in phobias. I have two completly irrational ones – heights and needles -, and it is really annoying because it’s not that I’m scared of these things, they just trigger this stupid anxiety even if I do know that I am perfectly safe. I haven’t taken blood in years because I have such major panic attacks – the yelling, flailing around, needing 4 nurses to grab me kind. Once I actually passed out and seized. Being 22, it is more embarrassing than anything else, and I would sure love to have a solution…
Are you a gamer? These seem like typical gamer, especially Role Playing Gamer attitudes. There are also things like not letting other people touch your dice, destroying “bad” dice and going thru rituals before rolling dice. The only one I tend to do is to go through dice if the ones I am rolling tend to come up with unfavorable numbers. I also don’t like dice that tend to “flop” rather than roll or bounce. The new Warhammer Fantasy Battles dice are pretty light and don’t seem to bounce so I’m not sure If I will be keeping them.
Ohyeah, I’m a huge gamer. I don’t mind the other, though I have destroyed unlucky dice.However, I choose to believe my habits are based on observation not backed up by rigorous testing, and that I subconsciously pick dice that perform better than average due to unique imperfections in them.Or I’m a git.
Heights/Falling. It’s not entirely irrational on its own, but when this fear stops me from being able to jump off of a 1 metre height it gets embarrassing. I’m also scared of being alone. I’m paranoid that one day everyone I love will leave and I’ll have nothing. I can’t pinpoint when this started or why, either.
Public speaking. Terrifies me. Even after transferring to a different school, I had to do a lot of sweet-talking to get a credit from the previous to cover a requirement at the new which was a class on public speaking. Luckily, they let it count.
behavioral economists have spent the past several years demonstrating that humans are irrationalhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/F…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P…we’re capable of rational decisions, but the idea that we can somehow purge ourselves of all irrationality is ridiculous, people who have brain defects that limit their emotion are incapable of making decisions almost at all
I have to take a shower every time I poop. I feel incredibly uncomfortable and dirty until I do. It’s impossible for me to have sex in between going number 2 and a shower.
I don’t believe in god although it sure seems to me that traffic lights intentionally turn red when they “see” me coming. It doesn’t seem to happen when my wife is in the car. I am speculating that it is god punishing me for NOT believing in him/her/it.
I won’t leave the computer volume on level 13. I am a terribly nervous driver.
Should the wide variety of irrational behaviors associated with traditional courtship and nontraditional sexual relationships count?
Nettles and jellyfishes! Had some bad experiences with both of them as a child.
I have a veritable mountain of irrational behaviors. I often wonder what array of mental disorders I have that produced them. The recent heat makes this one probably the most relevant: I never go outside without my coat. Ever. I can literally count the times I’ve done this within the past two years on one hand. In a very real way, my sense of modesty has been altered by this behavior.I’ve also saved every bottle cap off of every “pop” bottle I’ve drank from for half a decade now. But that’s TOTALLY got a rational reason! I’m going to stack them up into a huge castle one day, and it’ll be awesome! >.>I also talk to objects. I let them know if they make me happy or sad, and I often apologize to them when I have to throw them out. Honestly, I’m probably a mess of undiagnosed mental issues, but that leads to my next irrational hangup” medicine! I have nothing but the utmost respect for the medical field, but I never, ever take any kind of medication. After having Ritalin force-fed to me for several years as a young child, I decided not to consume any more pills ever, and I haven’t even alleviated a headache with Advil or settled my stomach with Tums since then. I could go on, but you get the idea. I’m a mess. But I function pretty well, and I realize my hangups are irrational, so I tend to let them be.
Man-made heights. Cliffs? I can handle it. Mountains? Canyons? Bring it on. But I’m fair convinced that a building or a ferris wheel or some other thing will fall out from under me. It’s not a petrifying thing that keeps me from functioning or anything, but I get this feeling something might pick me up and fling me over a balcony railing and FSM forbid I feel the floor move. There’s an overpass in town that shakes whenever cars drive under (or over) it. I hate it I hate it I hate it.That and being on the surface of the water. I think it’s from watching this movie. But I can dive with no problems. It’s just when I can’t see under me. CRAZY.
Slugs. They make me gag to look at them, and I’m afraid to walk into a room that they’ve got into. This is all the more disturbing and frustrating since it has developed in only the past few months. I’ve been afraid of heights for my whole life, so I’m ok with it. I’m used to it. Slugs are different, particularly since when I was four I thought they (and any number of other creepy-crawlies) were the coolest things ever invented! Talk about irrational. :/~Lia
Arachnophobia is definitely one of mine. I’m also afraid of needles, even though the level of pain caused by injections/blood drawing is so low on my tolerance scale it doesn’t even really register. I occasionally get… we’ll call it premonitions, to re-check this, or to do some minor task, or make sure I’m home to see a loved-one off on a trip, with an accompanying fear that if I don’t, something terrible will happen. Remembering my childhood habits, I think I had mild undiagnosed OCD (with the classic hand-washing and checking doors/latches-type rituals), and this is likely an artifact from those years.
I don’t like odd numbers.
I hate earwigs. They’re fucking nasty, icky buggars. One crawled up my leg a few nights ago, and I freaked the fuck out. A few other insects bother me, but I like spiders, most beetles, grasshoppers, bees, ants, etc. For some reason, they’re not gross, and I even let them crawl all over me. But earwigs are fucking nasty.
And yes, I know spiders aren’t insects.
I’m mildly aphaphobic– it won’t send me into a panic attack, but being touched by other people makes me uncomfortable. It is completely irrational; I’ve never been abused or anything like that. And I’m fine if I’m the one who initiates the hug, handshake, whatever. Other people just have to ask first.
I use to have several phobias: Insects, Heights, Etc. I even had panic attacks if I had to go into superstores like Costco or Wal-mart. But, a few years a go I had some kind of “Enlightenment” that I am still trying to figure out. All of my phobias have disappeared. I still have normal healthy fears of dangerous things. No I am not a “Woo-Woo” I am skeptic and an atheist.
Ya man earwigs are the most disgusting bugs!
I’m with you. Spiders and many insects (particularly those that sting, or those that are large and/or really “icky”) terrify me. Rationally I know most of these things are harmless but I can’t shake the fear. Just last night in fact, I had a teensy spider on my hand. Even as I flung him off in terror I was telling myself I was being silly but I couldn’t help myself.
Guillotines. They just disturb me. It’s not strictly a phobia, and it definitely has a basis in rationality (who wants their head chopped off?) But what is the likelyhood I’ll ever even see a guillotine, let alone actually be in one? I realized I had this fear when I was watching a tv show that was set during the French Revolution. It showed the guillotine and people lined up for it. There were background noises of the blade falling and the chopping sound and people crying……and I broke down…cried hysterically, couldn’t breath. It took forever to calm down again so I could continue to watch the show. Otherwise I’m a completely rational personal, boringly so.
I have an intense, crippling fear of being in cars. I try to rationalize this by telling myself that cars really -are-dangerous, and no one has respect for the fact that they’re hurtling down the road at 60 m/h in a two-ton hunk of metal filled with flammable liquid, while surrounded by other vehicles with completely unpredictable drivers who may kill me, or I may kill them.See? See? Cars are frightening!Also, volcanoes. Thank you, Fantasia.
I have the same problem with needles – I don’t like even thinking about giving blood, and when I have had blood taken, I cry and shake. And I’m 23! Completely embarrassing.
I’m not happy about the number 13 (or the number after665, but thats more a religious hangup).The stupid one is…I nod to Magpies. There was a period of a few weeks, and it seemed every time I saw a pair of Magpies, I got seriously bad news the same day. Managed to convince myself that I was okay after seeing a pair of Collared Doves (because if Magpies are unlucky, Doves have to be lucky, right? Otherwise, it’s just silly…). Still nod to them to be on the safe side.Got over my arachnophobia without realising, which was a bit odd. Walking around the top floor of a building on campus, saw a sizable spider crouched againt the wall, thought ‘the poor things going to get trodden on’, scooped it up in my hands, walked down3-ish flights of stairs, put it safely outside, then thought about what I’d just done…
Telephones. I absolutely abhor, more than anything else in the world, having to call someone on the telephone if I haven’t successfully called them about 5 or so times in the past. Eventually it wears off with enough phone calls, but the first few times I call a new person, there’s a good 20 minutes of anxiety, partial dialing then hanging up, and so on, before I manage to type in all the digits and let it ring. And if I know they don’t have a cell phone so they won’t know it’s me, I still might hang up before the first ring after successfully dialing.
The volume *must* be an even number. Though a friend of a friend has it worse. Poor sap can’t set the volume to anything that isn’t a prime.Also I panic if I realize that my keys are not in my pocket at any time. This periodically includes times when I am driving down the highway, in spite of knowing that this condition requires my keys to be in the ignition.I also don’t walk funny, which can be problematic when construction crews mark the bricks on my way to work with paint.
Hm…I had a similar reaction to the “Museum of the Inquisition” at a Ren Faire several years ago. I think it was more the terror of what humans are capable of that really freaked me out. The guillotine is a perfect example…how can we kill people more efficiently. I deflect everything with humor, so I’ll quote George Carlin on another horrific human invention:“The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, ‘You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I’m just not close enough to get the job done.’” – George Carlin
Bugs in general. I grew up a fairly outdoorsy kid, but sometime between college and working life, I stayed indoors a whole lot more, and now doing basic yardwork fills me with a whole slew of critter-related issues. I can still function, but it really bugs the crap out of me to see tiny, harmless bugs outside my house, and even worse crawling right through or around screens in the doors and windows. Removing a huge hedge in front of the house involved digging out the roots, setting huge communities of critters on the run…and me doing the ‘no feet on the ground’ dance. *shudder* Rotten nature.
Jen, don’t beat yourself up about arachnophobia. I’ve always been terrified by bees, and I’ve heard a bazillion times “It’s just a bee, it can’t kill you”. Then I was stung and found out that I’m allergic, and yes indeed, they can kill me. To be less glib, we have lots of hard-wired fears (falling from a great height, snakes, etc). Arachnophobia may be a hold-over from evolutionary conditions in which humans were commonly exposed to venomous spiders, and therefore not irrational. While the risk of a healthy adult actually dying from being bitten by a spider is pretty small in the US, your vigilance may spare you being bitten by a brown recluse spider, which I understand are pretty innocuous-looking and can cause considerable damage.
I avoid TV volume of 13 or any multiple thereof. I have absolutely no idea why, and it makes no sense at all considering I have no problem staying on the 13th floor of a hotel or sitting in the 13th row of a plane or anything else to do with that number. Bizarre, huh?
If I forget to do something (or procrastinate), I feel so guilty about having not done it, that I don’t want to do it even more. So shit never gets done.
Interesting, considering Dr. Guillotin was motivated by desire to find a method of execution more humane than those used previously. Deservedly gruesome to us, but in context…. How do you feel about hanging? Burning at the stake? No snarkiness intended. Maybe the portrayal of the horror and brutality of the French Revolution in general is invested in your mind in the specific symbol of the guillotine?
I become absolutely panic-stricken when I see my own blood. Even a small cut or scrape is enough to get my heart pounding, and serious injuries will send me flapping hysterically around a room trying to escape…until I pass out from hyperventilation.Worse yet, I have to have blood drawn every other month to measure medication levels. The staff learned quite quickly not to ask me to look at the vials to confirm they had the correct name on the labels.Other people’s blood doesn’t bother me in the least, however.
If my daughter is quiet for too long, even when asleep, I’m convinced that she’s dead. I have to go check on her and make sure she’s breathing, even though I know perfectly well that she is 99% positively FINE, just asleep. She’s not fragile or anything, but I have a serious fear of her dying for some reason.
That’s more like conditioning than irrational behavior. It happened to me in an apartment complex in Indiana. The static electricity was so bad I lost the ability to just grab the handles. I “discharged” them with a key.
Have you seen the animated movie, Flushed Away? That will either freak you out or cure you I reckon :)
Anthropomorphizing animals. No matter how illogical, I still do it. In fact, I saved a mouse from the jaws of death…of my cat…this very morning.
Anaxagoras is quite correct about the guillotine. It wasn’t to be more efficient but more human. You have a very good point regarding the guillotine. In fact, it really was the most humane method of execution for years. It was much more humane than even a firing squad because guns back then were so notoriously unreliable and the chance for error greater. Hangings could take quite some time depending on whether the neck snapped or not. Etc. Also, the guillotine didn’t come about until the French Rev, well after the Inquisition.
When I was a kind, my mother would move stuff around and not tell me. Now that I’m an adult, anytime I can’t find something, my immediate first reaction is to assume that people I know are hiding it to annoy me. No matter how little sense this makes. Sometimes I wonder if major memories of mine are false, and that major events in my life never actually happened. (They did.)Also, I wonder about the thoughts of animals, even as I logically know that they’re mostly uninteresting crap like “FOOD FOOD HUNGRY NOW WHEN NAP OKAY THEN FOOD.”
I used to have a phobia of needles which was based on a real experience, so not wholly irrational. I needed hospitalisation after a fairly basic operation had complications. This involved a needle in the back of my hand for 4 days to inject drugs in. My whole arm went blue and green and it hurt and was crap, this induced my phobia. The best thing I found was think logically when you’re in a calm mood, learn some calming techniques, then face your fear head-on, but always with the option of bailing.I did this by rationalising that during my experience I was very ill so of course I felt terrible. That wasn’t due to the needle, that was due to my illness. And it wasn’t the needle that caused all that bruising, it was the drugs being injected over and over, and me being ill. Then I learnt about slow breathing, drinking cool water and closing my eyes and imagining myself in a ‘safe place’. Finally I decided to give blood. I went alone, so if I wanted to bail it wouldn’t be embarassing cos I wouldn’t know anyone there. Giving blood is nothing like being injected with something and it really helped. Now I donate regularly and although I do sometimes bruise a little, it is nothing like my hospital experience and I feel like rationality has won the day! Sure I don’t enjoy it, but my heart-rate stays normal and I don’t feel anxious. Now I am hopeful if I ever need hospital treatment involving needles, it won’t have to be a traumatic experience.
The name of earwigs makes my ears itch. How stupid is that? If they were called something else, I would be totally fine with them.
I keep convincing myself I’ll get cancer some time soon and if I do I will certainly die from it. I know that statistically it’s unlikely. I’m 24, never smoked, rarely drink, swim regularly and enjoy vegetables. All 4 of my grandparents lived to at least 89 (one reached 100) and I take care of myself. I should be fine. But a friend of mine was diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer aged 22 and died just turned 24. (For those that don’t know it, 90% of people with this kind of cancer are aged over 55 so he was extremely unlucky). Maybe it’s cos that’s my age now, maybe it’s cos he was statistically unlikely too. But I keep convincing myself it’s pretty likely, even though my health is in no way linked to his. We had no genetic relation and lived in different areas, his untimely death has no influence on my own. It’s stupid. I’m trying to stop it because it’s morbid too.
I too have a fear of cars, although it’s probably not as bad as you. I remember when I first learned to drive, I was completely terrified of everything and some days I would refuse to go out. I still am afraid of driving past about 5:00 PM or so (even though I commuted back from university at odd hours for four years) and I’ll usually avoid running errands until the next day because of it. I’ve also only just gotten rid of my tendency to bolt across streets when I’m crossing them.I also am afraid of planes until I am on them, then they remind me of a bus so I am fine. Oddly enough I’m not afraid of buses, nor trains, but subways freak me out a bit. I strongly prefer to bike (not on the road if I can help it) or walk wherever I go, despite these activities being more dangerous.
I’m afraid of spiders but I get over it by squishing them. I can’t even touch their squashed corprses though. So that’s definitely irrational. I also do have a sentimental attachment to various objects. My wedding ring, souveniers from various holidays etc. I don’t feel particularly bothered by it. Overall I don’t think it’s a bad thing to be ruled by emotions sometimes. After all, emotions evolved as well!
I’ve always been of the mind that recognizing your own shortcomings is the first sign of wisdom. Granted the second sign, much harder to achieve, is overcoming those shortcomings, and that’s not always easy to do. Especially with phobias. Fear is extraordinarily difficult to rationalize away, because even if you look at how tiny a spider is compared to yourself, and how unlikely it is to cause you any harm, it is still an eight-legged possibly-poisonous bugger (Not literally a bug, of course) that you do not want to go near. The trick here is not “overcoming your fears” as in completely abandoning them, but living your life in spite of those fears. Take your fear of arachnids for example. Despite that fear, if you can still look at them from a scientific standpoint *which you may have to one day, as a scientist of biology*, then you have overcome your fear, even if it still persists.
Triskadekaaudiophobia?
I’m having a Knights of the Dinner Table moment. I could shed tears. Real tears.
The bidet is your friend, and uses much less water. Totally agree on the sex thing, though.
Not snakes! I love my brother’s snake! Spiders are fine as long as they don’t drop down right in front me when I am at my computer. One did that once. I screamed. Loudly. In Canada it is unlikely to die from any snake or spider bite (almost none are venomous), so the fear is irrational today.
Desensitization through therapy can help with phobias, so if you really want to get rid of it, get counselling. My personal feeling is that there is nobody who is so well-adjusted that they don’t need therapy. My undergrad was in psych, so I’m a big fan.
I have a couple pretty irrational behaviors. First, I am not generally that claustrophobic, but for some reason when I see someone swimming or scuba diving under water on tv, I get really uncomfortable and feel like my chest is closing up. I literally can’t watch scenes with swimming, especially when people are trapped under water or straining to swim long distances without being able to take a breath. Seriously, my chest feels tight just writing this.Also, I am not afraid of needles or blood, but just the idea of an IV (or any other sort of needle that goes into the vein itself) grosses me out to no end. I could get flu shots all day long, or bandage up other people’s cuts, etc, but I could never give blood bc I get lightheaded and very disturbed whenever a needle has to enter my vein. Shudder.
A nuclear blast suddenly taking me out. Yeah I’m weird, whatever. :-P
With you on this. Used to work in an office with the “Magic Static Carpet!” If you were foolish enough to just grab a door handle dir discharge was strong enough to be heard across the office. We all got into the habit of touching the wooden door before we touched any metal. That usually prevented a painful shock.
I share both of these. I thought I was alone on the moth thing. Odd.Snakes and heights and spiders and wasps all make sense. These things can hurt you, but moths? Were there killer moths back in our dim hominid past? Still wondering~will
The brain is a very strange place. Sometimes things appear, sometimes they disappear. Same has happened to me. Used to have needle issues. Then one day “poof”.
If there’s something really really important that I want to happen, I have this weird feeling that I better not talk about it, because that would “jinx” things and make the opposite come true. I’m not really a pessimist, but I feel like if I talk about the undesired outcome, the desired outcome is more likely to come true. It’s like a weird inverted optimism.
My most irrational belief: Sometimes, shit happens for no reason at all.
Water deeper than 6′ scares the hell out of me. Doubly so if it is the ocean. Don’t know what might be lurking down there D:
bob from the enzyte commercials.oh yeah… also snakes and heights.
Heights, pretty common. And interestingly enough: talking on the phone. I have to know someone really well to call them just to chat. Forget ordering a pizza! I used to work in a call centre, and my hands would be shaking all day, having to talk to all those strangers. At least with heights I have something concete to worry about: falling to my death. What can a phone conversation possibly do to me?
OMG. Ditto! (See my comment below). It helps to write our what you are going to say (even if you’re just ordering a pizza).
I will sometimes talk to myself to try and will something into happening (similar to trying to move the golf ball a few more inches into the hole). I liken this to my old habit of praying, only I know that it doesn’t make a difference. Oh I also talk to people in other cars in the hope that they might hear me (you WILL stop at the stop sign and wait your turn).
I took a turn too fast in a 1997 Saturn something-or-other, which I mistakenly believed to be equipped with anti-lock brakes, in 2005, and wound up walking away from rolling it. Since then, I have been easily unnerved, even terrified, by *other people’s* driving, to the point where (unless I have plenty of air movement on my face and a computer or something to absorb myself in) I usually hover near the point of panic when a passenger on windy roads, especially mountainous ones, and cross into it if the driver seems to be uncautious. O.o
As an addendum, I’m also borderline-phobic of the bee and wasp family, despite having never been stung that I recall (I suspect my paranoia in avoiding them has something to do with this). To my great regret, this phobia extended to the point of unthinkingly spraying a nest of bumblebees that had been built in a crack in the roof of the house I was renting, right above where I had just finished turning and compostifying soil for a vegetable garden. It took me a few days to figure out just how fucking dumb a move that was, and I actually felt sorry for the bees, too :(
Since you’re vigilant, she’s safer than 99% of the children out there.
I do not mind the sight of blood so much, aside from generally rational “messy staining liquid” and “biohazard” issues. However, thinking about severed blood vessels and blood loss, from an anatomical/physiological perspective, is extremely unnerving to me, to the point where reading the Wikipedia article on “hypovolemic shock” puts me on the verge of panic. O.o
Water deeper than 6′ is fine. I avoid natural water, though; I’ve read too much about the things that live in it.
I find it difficult to insult God or Jesus. Not that I have any real reason, but even typing things like “Jesus is an asshole!” is difficult. I can argue all day against religion, but directing vulgarity at God or Jesus is uncomfortable. Fucking Santa. Yeah, that was easy.
That is so not irrational! You are very lucky you weren’t badly injured, and you probably appreciate better than most how often people come closer to disaster than they realize. I speak from experience–I was very badly injured 20 years ago as a passenger, and the collision was the fault of the driver of the car I was in. I have since literally ended up in tears occasionally when in cars with other people driving and they were going too fast, tailgating, etc. They don’t realize how bad the consequences can be.
Oh, and given the focus on irrational fears, I’ll break the mood with some irrational hope:I still occasionally attempt to respond to Craigslist personals x.x
‘missed connection’ or ‘casual encounters’?
Things living under the bed. I am 25, and while the thought doesn’t cross my mind all the time… Once in a while I’ll get this sneaking feeling that something is living under the bed and waiting to drag me off of it and under. Of course the only way to keep this from happening is to hide under the covers.The logic here is if it can’t see you, it can’t grab you…Rationally, I know there’s nothing but some shoes, socks, and dog fur under the bed, but it doesn’t stop my mind from going there. Also… All bugs with the ability to sting, but that’s because I’m allergic to honey bees and have (knock on wood <– hey look, another one) never been stung by anything else.
I still sometimes go like “thank god” or “thank you”, but I realized I haven’t stopped that habbit, so I decided to spice it up and making it seem less like a religious dedication, and more of humor by going like, “thank moses… he gets it the least” and “thank pasta(as in the Flying Spaghetti Monster)”
I think I had that too, when I first became an atheist, but then I thought these people might not even exist, because I was always weighing-out the possibility of an actual after, and how fucked we would all be it were true…So I think you need to stop thinking of prophets and gods as a religious affiliation, and more like “assholes”, indeed, who took advantage of the majority of imbecils, instead of using their intellect to influence literature, or science, with no stake of power involved in it.
Being a passenger is nerve-wracking for me. Most people drive like it’s a video game — and make it worse by being inattentive or just oblivious to changing road and traffic conditions.All modesty aside, I’m an excellent driver. I’ve driven almost every kind of non-CDL vehicle, on every road-type, in every kind of weather and traffic condition. I’ve avoided accidents, or minimized the impacts of the ones I couldn’t avoid, simply by being alert enough to respond quickly to trouble. I can’t ride with someone who doesn’t care about their own life or mine enough to pay attention. And FSM help the one who pulls out a cell phone while I’m in their vehicle!
:shifty:
But the thing is, I’m actually a considerably more…shall we say, “assertive” driver than most of the people I know. It’s the specific condition of not being in control of the car that scares me, I guess. O.o
Actually every single thing that we do is irrational, in the sense that our motivations are not rationally based. There’s ultimately no reason to do anything.
Me too.
Blood doesn’t bother me at all, but saliva squicks me out.
I am afraid of large man-made objects – such as airplanes, large boats, very tall buildings, large bridges. Though I am starting to become desensitized to the bridges, after living on an island for two months.
I would assume irrational fears are an indication of genetic memory. A throwback to a time where we needed a warning system from a very early age to keep us safe. Snakes, spiders, wolves, bears, heights and fire all posed real dangers to protohumans. The fears would have come about by natural selection those who wear afraid, lived; those who were not, became lunch. Eventually after the safety of the human race increased and the threats were no longer prevalent the fears diluted, only appearing randomly. It would be interesting to compare irrational fears between a modern western civilization and a limited contact civilization where snakes and spiders still pose a real threat. For me… anything like a skyscraper towering over my head…. If I’m up top looking down, no problem, down below…ugh!
I can’t say I’m afraid of either, but I do have a strong dislike for moths. They like fly right into my face in the evenings when I’m sitting by my pc and my desklight is on. Highly annoying :(
It bothers me if the television volume isn’t a multiple of five. Even once the numbers disappear it picks at the back of my head until I change it.
I still haven’t been able to say “I am an atheist” out loud. I feel like once I do I’ll have taken an irrevocable step. I know it’s silly; I have no problem thinking it to myself or typing it, but I have not been able to say it out loud yet. I can call myself a secular humanist or a freethinker or a skeptic, but I can’t say atheist.