Irrational Fears/Obsessions

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Was it due to the noise? That seems to be the most common reason for toilet flush phobia in ASDs. For me I must admit it still happens sometimes but it is more because I fear it might block. Not sure why because it really does not happen very often.

Mostly because i thought it would overflow and drown me.
When I was in 3rd grade on the last day of school, we had some heavy rains move through the area. At roughly 220pm the power went out* and at 230 all the toilets, sinks, floor drains, and urinals began to overflow because the storm drain were backing up. I outgrew this fear by the time is was 13, the furnace thing(see first post) i still get nervous when it runs more than 15 minutes



*I had a mild fear of power outage, one because it could be bad house wiring, or it could mean the toilets overflowing again.

Ick.... I just generally have an issue with "sudden water"* and muddy, icky, dirty wet rooms, including public toilets.

I can understand the furnace thing, I am still quite scared of using the cooker and I still have issues with frying food due to fears of burning stuff or explosions. The frying pan and pressure cooker are more due to noise though.

* basically water that rises or jets out of somewhere unexpectedly.

I still sometimes have recurring nightmares about being in an indoors swimming pool where showers have sensors and come on just from walking past them.

That reminds me of when I was about nine I was lying on the living room floor and my Mum leaned over my head so her face appeared upside down. I was terrified because her face was different and I didn't recognise it.

Also when I was young Mum took me to the doctors and he tried to put a stethescope on my chest. This frightened me so much I screamed and kicked him in the chins.

My sister used to frighten me deliberately. She used to say she was dead and then lie still for ages. I believed she really was dead.

I always used to be frightened of the top of the stairs as a child. I used to get 'stuck' there and had to call for someone to come and get me.

I am occasionally like that. There have been times in my life I would make sure everything was switched off and stuff.

Just a few nights ago a light made a funny noise so I turned it off and unplugged it from the wall.

I also check doors.. I can't remember if I've locked them, I have a bad shrt term memory.

I have a fear of talking on the phone. I never answer the phone at my house unless I'm sure that it's somebody that I know.

I also have a fear that I'm going to wake up in the middle of the Night when the power is out and that the lights in the house won't come on. I also have dreams about it.

CockneyRebel I can identify with that fear! I have always had the fear of losing power and being helpless without it. This winter that fear was realized in the worst way.

We had an ice storm that took out the power for 4 days. It was below zero to boot! It was inky dark and very disorienting. The fact that there was no heat made it even worse. On the third day I had a huge meltdown because I felt totally abandoned for some reason.

The thing that stood out for me was the fact that being in total darkness where even candlelight couldn't penetrate, made me very aware of my helplessness.

I was very scared and mentally overwhelmed.

yea me too..i wouldn't stay around and wait for the flushing cycle to end..sometimes our commode would make a weird noise and it would always freak me and my sister out

I totally don't believe how much I have in common with people here without knowing.

I have a re-occuring dream about that... I'll make a fresh thread about dreams.

Yes I had and still have many.

Fear of dogs or most animals in general because their behavior is so unpredictable, and my family never had pets because my dad was so highly allergic. Also the barking of the dogs scared me.

Fear of noises, definitely-Fire Alarms are the worst, because they're loud, high pitched and unpredictable. Also I can't stand things like vacuum cleaners, door buzzers, really buzzers in general, smoke alarms, and the emergency broadcasting system on TV. Also, kids knew I got scared easily so they would sneak up on me and yell and startle me like crazy and then laugh.

This isn't really a fear, but more of a sensitivity-certain foods with creamy texture, i can't even watch other people eat them or I'll heave and throw up. Examples are PBJ and whipped cream, even mushy bread-just typing them makes me sick. It's a texture thing I have with food.

I'm also chlosterphobic and afraid of heights. But if I go to the top of the Sears Tower I'm pretty much fine because I know I'm inside and safe.

Most of all, I think I fear change and unpredictability. When something happens and I don't see it coming I freak out and probably say what's on my mind without thinking about it first. Oh, I also fear singing-me singing in front of anyone-my friends in the car, my family, anything. If someone wants me to do something like karaoke or sing them a song I might be thinking of I absolutely won't do it. However, I'm working on that fear because I'm preparing for my adult Bat Mitzvah and some of the prayers have to be chanted.

I just thought of this. Most of my fears are irrational. Things that scare most people don't scare me. Some of the most common fears are public speaking, heights, doctors/dentists, flying in airplanes, and being in enclosed places. None of these things scare me. I'm not even really scared of dying. I just don't want to go in a horrible way, so I guess I'm more afraid of pain.

Do any of you find that things that commonly scare other people don't really scare you?

Last edited by Bec on 09 Oct 2005, 8:25 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The only things that really make me uneasy are heights and insects, and neither of those are very powerful fears. One thing that's weird is that physical pain has never scared or bothered me as much as it does other people. I don't understand people that are afraid of needles or knives or stuff along those lines. I can become detached from any pain pretty easily. Sometimes it isn't such a good thing, such as the time I had appendicitis and didn't go to a doctor until a week after my appendix ruptured. I was told that I should have been dead days ago, and I thought it had just been a pulled muscle!

Not really. The things that scare other people (dentists, public speaking, airplanes, etc) still scare me a little bit. As for irrational fears, when I was little I used to be really afraid of loud, prolonged noises, especially if I was in a closed space like a room or car. Things like toilets flushing, loud radios, or vacuum cleaners scared me a lot. They still make me very uncomfortable sometimes.

I'm also really scared of flying, stinging insects. Wasps are the worse, but bees and yellow jackets are pretty bad too. Last summer, cicada killer wasps sprouted up right outside my apartment door (they only come when we get cicadas every 17 years and they only kill cicadas. Still a very bad name. They also look like giant yellow jackets). I had to leave my slidng back door unlocked all the time and use that to enter and leave the apartment all summer.

In my childhood apartment, there was this chandelier. It was a 19th-century replica, shaped like a glass barrel, with wrought iron designs around it. That thing used to scare the daylights out of me. Over time, I stopped fearing it during the day; I was afraid of it at night up until my family moved out of the apartment. They were surprised why I wasn't upset (I wonder why).
I also noticed a lot of posts about furnaces. In that apartment, heating was controlled from the building's boiler room, with hot water being pumped to radiators (which didn't bother me). Fortunately, I never went down there.

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Last edited by Ante on 09 Nov 2005, 3:24 pm, edited 5 times in total.

My policy on furnaces is if i cant hear it then its ok, when i get my own apartment i m going to see where the boier is and see if im within earshot