35 Responses to “Feeling Fearful”

1. Speaking in front of an audience. :oops: It’s not quite as bad as it used to be (I’ve gotten plenty of practise), but I still don’t do it willingly and soon I hopefully don’t have to do it at all.

   by Minna on November 7th, 2006 at 6:27 am
   
   

2. Drowning. I’m not the world’s best swimmer either, so that’s my biggest fear. Heights make me nervous, flying makes me nervous, but drowning is my biggest fear.

   by Stacy ~ on November 7th, 2006 at 7:20 am
   
   

3. I hate it to fly and I am afraid of drowing.

   I nearly drowned twice and the plane that I had flewn with crashed only a few months later. Also on my first flight ever they stoped the start, because something was wrong with the plane.

   Another fear of mine is that I afraid of taking exams, either written but especially oral. I was happy when I got my degree and I crazy girl just went back to university to get a second degree.

   by Danny on November 7th, 2006 at 7:30 am
   
   

4. Sharks!! I absolutely refuse to swim in the ocean even though I live about 5 minutes away. I love to swim and I’m a good swimmer (ex-lifeguard)..however, I’ll only go swimming in a pool (in Florida).

   by Laurie G on November 7th, 2006 at 7:39 am
   
   

5. Minna - I had a student once who had a horrible time speaking in front of a group. She was a severe case. You could hardly hear her voice and if she had to get up to present something she would actually hyperventilate. Once she had to go bolting from the classroom afterwards (sick). I felt so sorry for her, but there were a few times I had to make her present things (it was a Spanish class, so speaking was a big part:roll:)

   I also had students who (as Danny mentioned) hated exams. I knew that THEY knew the material, but they would bomb their tests. I would call them up afterwards and they could tell me the correct answers without a problem. It was just the test-taking that freaked them out. (And just so you know, I would have them redo the test after I made sure they knew it so they would get credit.:cool:)

   And as for drowning — oh yeah. I can see that fear easily enough. Flying, too. And Laurie — I haven’t swum (swam?) in the ocean since I saw a documentary on sharks on tv. They showed an aerial view of the Florida coast with swimmers out there and there were sharks ALL OVER THE PLACE, right in with the swimmers. No thanks…..

   by Gail Barrett on November 7th, 2006 at 8:36 am
   
   

6. I dont care for heights. But what I really cant stand are snakes. I have to turn away if a snake comes on the screeen or in a magazine photo.

   I remember one in a Black Beauty movie, an Indiana Jones movie - they were all over the place and The Bionic Women was deathy afraid of snakes and one episode she was held hostage in a bldg. and you could hear the hissing - and a voice taunted her - are there really snakes here? Absolutely horrid. The warped mind that came out with snakes on a plane…

   by Pat L on November 7th, 2006 at 8:58 am
   
   

7. Oh, I forgot about heights. I have nightmares sometimes where I have climbed up to a very high place and have to get down, but can’t…. probably some hidden meaning there for me:???:

   When we lived in the Bahamas a friend of my son’s (he was five at the time) ordered a book about snakes through the school’s Scholastic Book sales pamphlet. However, his mother was so terrified of snakes that as soon as it came she confiscated and threw it away. That incident always stuck with me…

   by Gail Barrett on November 7th, 2006 at 9:21 am
   
   

8. Minna, speaking in front of an audience scares me too! I really hated having to talk in front of the class when I was in school! I would rather do anything but that!

   I enjoy reading hard-core thrillers. They don’t scare me!

   by Carol on November 7th, 2006 at 9:57 am
   
   

9. Sharks! I am afraid of shearks as well. Once while snorkeling in Hawaii, I came around a rocky corner and came face to face with a shark. Talk about terrified. I think my heart stopped and my hearing ceased. I felt like I was numb. I stayed absolutley still and it just swam away. Whenever I swim in the ocean now, I’m constantly scanning the water.
   A great thriller I just read was Baited by Crystal Green. The heroine is stranded on an island with several people including a killer. The killer begins picking off victims one by one.

   by Sandra M. on November 7th, 2006 at 10:01 am
   
   

10. When I was younger, I also had the fear of a fire happening in my house while I was sleeping.
    Also, whenever I am canoeing on a lake or stream, I can really freak myself out about what is swimming and living underneath the water! Okay, I know there are no sharks in the Midwest(and they need salt water), logic tells me this but who knows if some crazy person put something wild and exotic into the lake!!!
    And I have only been on a plane twice…so I don’t think about any of those fears until I would have to conquer them again! (Isn’t that called denial..LOL :???:)

    by Kathleen on November 7th, 2006 at 10:29 am
    
    

11. I am afraid of heights, snakes, and drowning. I have a newly acquired fear of escalators. I have a scary time getting on them and it terrifies me when I have to get on one. I fear falling and injurying myself.

    by Crystal B. on November 7th, 2006 at 10:36 am
    
    

12. Gail,

    why couldn’t you have been one of my teacher. I had several professors at university who loved to make me really nervous during exams. My worst exam experience was the oral exam for my master degree, asthma attack included.

    by Danny on November 7th, 2006 at 11:17 am
    
    

13. I have a few fears that make me lie awake at night…suffucation, sometimes I’ll even forget how to breathe, and I’ll have to lie there forcing air in and out of my lungs. Unfortunately, my daughter goes through this too….

    Protecting my daughter from harm…that’s a huge fear for me, that I wont’ be able to.

    Oh I could go on and on….LOL

    by Vivi Anna on November 7th, 2006 at 11:47 am
    
    

14. Oh…don’t get me started. And, it seems like the older I get the more fears I develop.

    I had a cousin who tried to drown me when i was younger - she was just mean…ever since I’ve been afraid of water. My husband and I took a cruise to Alaska for our 25th Anniversary and it was a huge thing for me. I did okay as long as we didn’t get too close to the rails. And, one day he was looking over at the icebergs in the water and his sunglasses fell off. I still get a horrible anxious feeling everytime I think about that.

    Last June (2005) I was rear-ended while stopped at a light. I could see in my mirror the truck bearing down on me and I just knew he wasn’t going to stop. I had my youngest son with me (which scared me even more). Now, when I’m driving and I look in my rear-view mirror, I’m afraid the person behind me isn’t going to stop.

    I’ve had 2 open-heart surgeries and I’ve developed a fear of needles and knifes. I’m so afraid of needles that when I had my hysterectomy a few years ago, I had to have the gas to put me out before they could put the IV needle in. I’m also afraid of having to have another heart operation. And, when it comes to watching scary movies or reading suspense novels, I have a REALLY hard time and almost get sick if knifes are involved.

    I too, could go on and on.

    by Christy on November 7th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
    
    

15. Oh, suffocation. What a horrible thing to think about — a lot like drowning. That has to be the most basic of fears, not being able to breathe. Nightmare material, for sure!!!!

    Danny - I had a student burst into tears once after an exam (high school). I pulled out her exam and we went over it and she knew all the answers, just had gotten herself so worked up over the test that she freaked out. Of course I gave her credit. I felt terrible that my test had caused her such stress.:sad:

    by Gail Barrett on November 7th, 2006 at 12:52 pm
    
    

16. falling is a big one and heights. i was scared reading flowers in the attic but have not read hard core thiller.

    by KIM H on November 7th, 2006 at 12:56 pm
    
    

17. Gail, my experience was pretty much the same. I am happy that I don’t have to do anymore English courses at my new university, because the same professor is now also there. One of the reason why he liked to make me nervous was that I have an American instead of his beloved British accent.

    by Danny on November 7th, 2006 at 2:02 pm
    
    

18. Personal fears abound in me. I am petrified of snakes and mice and scream!!!
    I am afraid of water and don’t know how to swim because of this. I hate heights
    or going on a bridge over a big span of air, LOL. I shake uncontrollably.

    by RobynL on November 7th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
    
    

19. From the time I was a little kid, until I was basically cured of it in 1984, I used to have a severe phobia of thunder and lightning. Yep, a full nasty phobia. Getting rid of that phobia was a great relief.

    Denise A. Agnew

    by Denise A. Agnew on November 7th, 2006 at 2:37 pm
    
    

20. One of my biggest fears used to be of drowning. Now that I have a three year old, my biggest fear is that he will fall in a pool or somewhere and I won’t be able to save him. You can sure bet that I would jump in anyway to try. I’m also going to try and overcome my fear by taking him for swimming lessons when the summer comes.

    by Janet on November 7th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
    
    

21. Well, you guys are reminding me of other fears I have, such as heights. I took my kids on a Ferris Wheel ride once at a state fair (enclosed capsules) and was so afraid I had to keep my eyes closed the whole time. And if I see a picture of those old types with the open seats I just shudder.

    by Gail Barrett on November 7th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
    
    

22. I am not a strong swimmer and drowning is my biggest fear. I’m afraid my car will go off the road into a river and I won’t be able to get out.

    by Estella on November 7th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
    
    

23. In the book Gone by Lisa Gardner, she has a scene where two people are in a basement and the basement is filling up with water and they’re going to drown to death. The scene was written very well and just the idea of being in that situation scared the hell out of me. I can’t swim that well so obviously drowning is a big fear of mine. Another freeky scene is in Tess Gerritsen’s book Life Support. It was about a girl being injected with a medicine that will deform her baby so something can be taken from the baby to help alzheimer patients. (I might be saying that wrong but that’s the best I can remember it) Anyway the girl gives birth to a mutilated fetus that has one eye and is drooling and not even human looking. That scene was so chilling and frightning!

    by Rachael on November 7th, 2006 at 6:05 pm
    
    

24. I think anything being deformed or wrong with a person’s body freeks me out. I find that scarier then some murderers in books. I also get freeked out by murderer’s who chop up their victims or keep their head as a prize. In Hostage by Robert Crais, the bad guy had his mother’s head in his freezer for years. He would prop it on the table and talk to her. That was a freeky scene too! Too bad they didnt put that in the movie when they made it. I really love mysteries and thrillers so I dont mind being frightened. Oh I just thought of another great one. In the book Dead Sleep by Greg Iles, a woman is in a tub of water and she is naked, and being injected with a drug that makes her unable to move or do anything. Just the thought of a paralizing drug freeks me out. That’s a really great book. I’m trying to make my way through Greg Iles’ books. Excellent author!

    by Rachael on November 7th, 2006 at 6:10 pm
    
    

25. Oh my god. A head in a freezer? I don’t even want to think about that…
    Murders in general terrify me, especially serial murders. Rachel - you are a stronger woman than I am! I could never read those books.:shock:

    by Gail Barrett on November 7th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
    
    

26. Fire is definitely at the top of my fear list.

    by Joyce on November 7th, 2006 at 6:42 pm
    
    

27. My greatest fear is that I am going to drown in a car accident.I even keep a special tool with me in the car,at all times,that will break out the windows really easy.My husband got it for me many years ago because of all the nightmares about it happening.I honestly do think that that is how I will die.

    by Connie Muhlnickel on November 7th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
    
    

28. Drowning is my biggest fear. I don’t like spiders or needles either.

    by Marie on November 7th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
    
    

29. My biggest fear is also FIRE! Of being in an auto accident and not being able to get out of the car as it is burning. In real life I came across an auto accident and this happened to the people in the car.The fire was burning and raging so hot no one could get near. We stood by helpless hearing the screams coming from the inside of the car. This is something I will never forget.

    by Nyla Thompson on November 7th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
    
    

30. Hey Gail!
    You asked for the scariest book and scene! LOL

    Look you said this
    ”No, I’m thinking more the heart-spasm, scream-in-the-brain-type fear. The thing that terrifies you, makes you totally panic, turns you into a shuddering mess.”

    So I thought you wanted to know something really scary! LOL I used to be really freeked out easily but I am really getting into the gorey scary books now! Tess Gerritsen is definetely gorey sometimes and I love it. Lisa Gardner too. :)

    by Rachael on November 8th, 2006 at 12:40 am
    
    

31. Ok now for all you weak stomach people, erase head in freezer from your mind….

    Pick up a nice little romance novel and take a deep breath. It wasn’t real. It was just a scene in the book. I still think they should have put it in the movie. Oh and beleive it or not, I can’t watch scary movies. I would probably have freeked out if that was in the movie. I can read the books, but when it comes to the real thing in front of my eyes, I can’t take it!

    by Rachael on November 8th, 2006 at 12:42 am
    
    

32. You guys are great. Rachel, you’re right that it is worse in a movie, but I can’t even take horror in books. That’s probably why I read (and write) romances — much safer and happier, even if there are scary moments. Lisa Gardner, by the way, started off writing Silhouette romances under the name Alicia Scott (I believe, although I could be wrong). I used to read those books. She is a phenomenal writer — excellent, excellent — but I won’t read her scary books.

    Denise - I’d be interested to hear how you cured yourself of your fears. And Connie, I had to laugh at your post. I have an escape ladder under the bed!

    Nyla - What a horrific experience. Oh my God. I feel so awful for those poor people and also for you, having to witness it. I’ve chosen you as my winner today. Maybe my (non tragic) book can help erase some of that pain. Email me with your address: gail@gailbarrett.com.

    And thanks everyone for a great discussion. It was fun! And if I want to write a really scary book, I have lots of great ideas.:twisted:

    by Gail Barrett on November 8th, 2006 at 6:35 am
    
    

33. Big congrats Nyla!

    by Danny on November 8th, 2006 at 12:20 pm
    
    

34. wtg nyla

    by KIM H on November 8th, 2006 at 12:40 pm
    
    

35. Congratulations Nyla!

    by Janet on November 8th, 2006 at 2:04 pm