Blog Hop: 3 IRRATIONAL FEARS

This week I'm doing something a little different and participating in the Fresh Face Friday Blog Hop that Casey is hosting over at We Took the Road Less Traveled. Casey gave her readers a writing prompt and this week the prompt is 3 Irrational Fears. So here we go!

1. BEES

Bees don’t just scare me…they send me into a straight panic. My heart starts to race and I tense up. I will run as far as I can if a bee comes near me and even cry possibly. It’s sort of strange. When I was younger, I wasn’t really scared of bees. They didn’t really bother me. I was actually scared of spiders more than anything as a child (I still don’t like them but I tolerate them at least). I don’t know what changed overtime but as I got older, I got more and more terrified of bees. Maybe it's because I'm 27 years old and I haven't ever been stung by a bee. Yes, I’m scared of being stung of course. But there’s also something about the buzzing sound they make that gets my heart racing and the adrenaline pumping. Fight or flight kicks in. I can hear a fly or mosquito buzzing and it will make me uneasy. The buzzing reminds me of a bee. I don't know if I'll ever get over my fear of bees. Maybe someday I will get stung and my fears will completely disappear but until then, I'll keep running away from bees. 

2. THE DENTIST

I know it’s important to have your teeth cleaned and checked regularly by a dentist but I despise going to dental offices and often avoid them, even though I know I shouldn’t. I think it all started when I was a child and had to have a few teeth pulled. The inside of my mouth is small and the dentist needed to make room for more teeth so in order to do that, my teeth were pulled. All I was given was novacaine and despite the medication, it still hurt…even days later. The memories of the dental tools that looked like pliers and other sharp objects that were used still haunt me to this day. I don’t like feeling pain. I mean, who does? And I associate pain when I go to the dentist. I’m a bit ashamed to admit this but I’ve even avoided going to the dentist for a few years. I know, I know. It’s bad. But I’m slowly working on overcoming this fear. I need to keep my teeth strong and healthy and although I don’t think I’ll ever like the dentist, I’m hoping that I will eventually be content with going for regular checkups.

3. CROWDS

Since I’m a self-proclaimed extrovert and enjoy socializing, you’d think that I wouldn’t have a problem with crowds. But you’d be wrong. Standing in a crowd gives me intense anxiety. When I was around 12 years old, I was standing on a crowded city bus in San Francisco. As more people piled onto the bus up front, a crowd of people huddled in the back of the bus, squishing and squeezing me. As these people started pushing up against me, I felt my heart racing and started to tense up. I lost it. I started crying and wait for it…I kicked a random person. On purpose. It was like a reflex I couldn’t control. Sure, I felt bad about it but I think it was my body’s way of trying to tell me “Get the hell out of there!” Shortly after that, I got off the bus. And there have been many other moments where I was placed in a crowd and freaked out, like the numerous rock concerts I attended in high school.  Another instance was when I was at Vans Warped Tour and I was squished and almost even suffocated in a crowd (try taking an elbow to the throat at a crowded concert and not being able to breathe… NOT FUN). Because of these instances, I’ve developed a fear of crowds. I’m generally OK if I’m able to move around a little bit, but if my personal space is invaded and I can barely move in the crowd, WATCH OUT. I will lose it. Most of the time, I can sense when a crowd might get out of control and then I end up leaving. It’s better to remove myself from the situation before I have a melt down, HA!

So there you have it. My three irrational fears. Do you think they are rational or irrational? I've been told both. So, what are YOU afraid of?