Ever Heard of Galeophobia?
Hands up if you like wasps? Anyone? I thought as much…
I hate them. I mean I don’t purposely go out of my way to hurt them, but I hate the way they buzz around your head, they way they buzz around your food, and why they insist on hanging around the same place – which is invariably where you need to stand/sit/walk/run/whatever.
The place I work has a wasp problem. A massive one. They never seem too stop coming out of the walls, and they always go for me. They should be dying by now, but they continue to haunt me. I read somewhere once that wasps are more likely to sting you when they are close to death…comforting.
I’m not really afraid of the creatures themselves, they just upset my chi. It’s the fear of the unknown – I’ve never been stung by a wasp/bee/hornet or any other bug. Now I’m not afraid of needles, I’ve got a ton of tattoos, but I have this insane irrational fear of what might happen if one of the little critters gets me.
This got me thinking about what exactly I am scared off. Well I’ll tell you. Sharks. Sharks suck. I really don’t enjoy the fact they have a lot more teeth than the majority of creatures. Ever since I saw Jaws when I was a kid, I was literally afraid to go in to any water, which included swimming, having a bath, and at one point mildly freaking out about putting my hands in a sink full of soapy water.
Have I ever swam near a shark? Have I hell – you won’t get me in the sea. It just won’t happen. I’ve got over the having a bath, and swimming thing, but I still have a check, and can easily freak myself out, and panic. It’s bizarre. I know that Jaws was fake, but I still can’t get it out of my head. It’s a stupid fear. But it’s shared by many people, and it even has a name: galeophobia.
I think fear is with you forever. Many scientists and psychologists believe that if you face your fears, you can conquer them, but I’m afraid to say I ever came face to face with a shark, I would die of fright before it had a chance to bite me. I hate pictures of sharks, movies with sharks – hell even the astonishing Plant Earth series by the BBC had me hiding behind my couch.
Apart from that scary fish, I’m not really scared of much else. Sure I’ll jump out my skin when a spider falls on to my lap, or jump out my skin when I hear a loud bang, but that’s a different type of fear, it’s not the kind of fear that creeps under your flesh and eats away at your courage.
So what scares you?
November 30th, 2008 at 12:18 am
I keep having this horrible thought. I’m deep below water. Everything is almost pitch black. Then suddenly a hugh white shark comes in blazing speed with it’s hugh jaw wide open ready to eat me alive. I really have a problem with sharks. I respect them very much and i don’t want them to be extinct. But i still fear them deeply. My heart races each time a see a photo of a big shark. Especially when they have their big jaw wide open. I will need help to over come this fear someday. But i’m not ready quite yet.