Probably wasps. 6 on a scale of 10.

When I was a kid three of us were throwing rolled up newspapers at a giant wasp nest. When we finally hit it they came swarming us. Dozens of them latched onto Craig and covered him up. He was on the ground hollering and screaming. I didn't get physically stung. I only had to outrun Craig.

Never thought of it that way.

I am good to go!

My partner can't drive over elevated bridges, and we have a few, two lane, high off the water bridges I love driving over. He becomes distraught.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1610661911.jpg

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1610661982.jpg

When we meet clients here I'll meet him in Virginia and he'll jump in with me. He can manage if he doesn't look out. I never poke fun, his fear is real.

I can't decide if I have every phobia or none at all and just a VERY finely honed sense of self preservation!

Good answer!

I really dont know why it freaks me out so much.... It just sort of happened.. I wasnt molested on a bridge, no alien abduction or rectal probe...

But yeah, If I dont look, I can do it. Went over the Oakland/SF Bay Bridge last year and I had to concentrate on my breathing and staying calm. I had never understood panic attacks up until that point.

Same for me in 2007 at St. Paul's Cathedral. Climbed all the steps to the top. Went out on the little upper observation deck to check out the scenery and it hit me after a minute. I had taken pics, walked around out there then boom. Full panic. Had to face the building as close to the center as possible and hugged it getting to the door.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1610669918.jpg

spiders. I'm sure it came from the huge wood spiders in our cellar when we heated mostly with wood as a kid. They were massive, fast as lightning and could jump. Today, tiny spiders are fine and sort of cute jumping around. But big spiders, whole other thing.

5 years ago or so I had huge orb weavers in my garage. One day I opened the door and wasn't looking and was face to face with a spider whose body as big as a 12mm marble. Scared the f out of me. And they were everywhere. Had a can of spray tack in my hand and covered them in glue.

Heights - 20 feet on a ladder is enough for me
Enclosed spaces - I have had nightmares about being in an enclosed space and not being able to get out. I'm pretty sure I'll die trapped in a flaming car on the side of the interstate.
Snakes - No explanation. It just is.
Ships - Again, I can't explain it. When I'm on one I'm fine, but standing on a dock next to a towering ship gives me the willies.
Water - I don't like being in water over my head, though I make myself do it. Related to ships, one of the most irrationally terrifying moments of my life was skuba diving and looking up and seeing the hull of the boat above me. I was OK as long as I was looking down.
OK - too much sharing going on here.

I've had a similar experience going over the Verrazano Narrows Bridge in bumper to bumper traffic with my family. All of sudden felt heart rate / BP go up, and I couldn't wait to get off that bridge. It looked so high while I was stuck there. I've gone over dozens of other bridges before and since and never had an issue. I go across the Chesapeake Bay bridge a lot, and I never even think about it.

That's almost worth a thread to itself: what bridge freaks you out.

I have Phobophobia... I'm a hot mess.

Snakes, spiders, mice, they all freak me out. Probably has something to do with when I worked in crawlspaces and some of them were so tight you couldn't roll over without being between floor joists.

Saves you money on tolls! I'll bet the Bridge of the Gods over the Columbia isn't one of your regular routes. (I see motorcycles on that bridge! What?!)

Years ago, we used to go to a house in the country owned by my wife's grandmother. It was on 100+ acres. There was a 1/4 mile driveway through the woods from the gate to the house. We'd often go Fri night when I got off work, arrive in the dark and stay the weekend. Certain times of the year, we'd arrive and there would be webs across the tunnel of trees that we drove through from the gate to get to the house. That meant that the webs were 15-20' across, probably 50-100 of them if there were any, and the spiders were big bulbous grayish brown spiders at least 1/2" diameter. Driving down the driveway, you'd hear them thud against the roof of the car as we drove through their web. That was creepy, but not a big deal. What really sucked was then having to get out of the car, that I knew could have been covered in big spiders in complete darkness (before cell phones, so no source of light). I'm not afraid of spiders, but I also don't want them crawling on me without my knowledge (or big ones with my knowledge, but that would be far better than without)

I'm not sure what's worse, thinking you could walk face first into a web with one of these with a 1/2" body and 1" including legs.
https://static.inaturalist.org/photo...872/large.jpeg

Or, when I was in college and would stay with my aunt and uncle who lived opposite orange groves. I might be in the shower and realize one of these 2" bastards was 12" from my head on the wall, or sitting on the couch and have one of these pop out from behind the couch next to me.

https://bugguide.net/images/cache/PK...BQZS5KY05K.jpg

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Interesting subject. I was once told by some uncle that fear of heights is directly related to intelligence. Makes sense, I have very little fear of heights and I'm a bit of a maroon. :)

I have only one full-scale phobia and it's sharks. Back in 1974, or whenever it was, I was 15 and one of my friends thought that it would be funny to drop some acid and go see this new movie, "Jaws." BIG mistake...we heard that there was a mechanical shark and thought that it would be laughably fake or something, I guess. Scarred me for life. I live in Los Angeles and swim at the beach once in a while but it's always there, the thought of being in the water w sharks. :eek:

Other than that, I have a few very minor phobias, almost more like personality quirks. For a long time, I detested going in supermarkets so much that I ate out all meals. I'm talking for decades, either restaurants or quick bite stuff like tacos or a burger. Lots of take-out food brought home. I just really hated going to big supermarkets that much.

It's subsided and during the pandemic in Wisconsin last year, I went to supermarkets all the time and started cooking at home every night. There was no choice because restaurants did not really exist where I was. I even started grocery shopping at Walmart, which has shockingly good groceries and great prices. Could not believe myself.

I also can't valet park my car but I wouldn't call it a phobia. Just OCD.

Height. I can seat in that bubble of a helicopter with no issues, roller coasters, fun stuff. I am like Java, walk up to the edge of a building on a windy day, I can't look down. I feel dizzy and my knees will buckle. The other is tight spaces, not like an elevator or MRI but really tight like a cave where one might be stuck or wedged in there and not get out. I have been under people's homes, tight attics, and have no fear, but getting stuck and not able to move freaks me out in a cave. Gone cave snorkeling in southern Mexico without any problems but didn't get in the really tight and narrow passages.

Roaches freaks me out. Dislike them.

I'm not afraid of Spiders - from my front yard

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Going up a ladder or getting on a roof, no problem. Getting off or coming down, big problem. Probably because I fell off a roof onto a sunroom roof 10’ below and between two skylights coming down a ladder.

Germs. Don’t like them and wash my hands or use sanitizer a lot.

And the big one...panic attacks. I don’t know why, but it started 44 years ago. Got so bad, I couldn’t leave home. Self medicated, but paid the price the next day. Now it’s a daily regimen of a few meds and it’s controlled for the past 35 years. Better living through pharmaceuticals.

Happened to my plumber. One day it just hit him at lunch. He froze and sat there and couldn't move in cold sweat. He's on some meds but I think he's off it now. Happened to my close friend I grew up with. I got a call one day and had to go get him. He stopped in the middle of the fwy and couldn't move sweating like if he just walked out of a shower with cloth on. Luck would have it, traffic was pretty heavy. He couldn't drive his car off to the shoulder. He got back in a couple weeks later and driving was not the same anymore. he ans I used to race down the canyons as kids and was a pretty good driver too. I noticed the death grip on the steering wheel and face full of sweat dripping down his nose when he crosses a bridge or drive up into the hills through those curvy roads. These are the very same roads we raised hell on when we were kids. Yep, Angeles Crest hwy, just right in our back yard. Doc wants to put him on drugs, but he refuses. He's a bit better now then 5 years ago. We are both 54 now. So this happened in his mid 40s also.

I wont drive on the Fremont or Marquam bridges..

I'm not so sure that fear of heights is necessarily a phobia in all cases. I think it's more of a disorientation. I've been on top of Half Dome and looking straight down 4000 feet is just not something we're used to. It gives me the willies if I stand near the edge. But if I were roped in, I could rappel over the edge, no problem. I don't know what to make of that.