What things irrationally scared you as a child?

[Mr.Mattress]

Hmmmm... You know? I didn't really fear anything that would be irrational as a Kid, other then disappointing people but that's not irrational.

I was a weird kid, though. Any time it rained, I thought my home town was gonna flood and that I'd be riding my mattress through the water-logged town. I blame Ed, Edd and Eddy for planting that idea into my head.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

Mid/late 90's surrealist CGI. I remember my Dad getting either a VHS or a very early DVD that was basically just a collection of CGI vignettes set to industrial music and it deeply disturbed me. I didn't have a problem with Reboot or the Donkey Kong Coutry cartoon (that is, they didn't scare me. I didn't like them but they didn't scare me) and I loved Beast Wars as a kid but whatever that video was just creeped me the Hell out.

Other than that, I remember always being deeply uncomfortable whenever I was in Churches. I still kinda get that way if I have to be in a house of worship too but that doesn't really happen with me.

Also Gumby. Not gen-1 Gumby either: the Gumby that aired on Cartoon Network that was produced in the early 80's just disturbed me.

 

[King Billi]

Oh so many things...

Sleep paralysis
Being struck by lightning
Being buried alive
Odourless, colourless gas
Deep sea angler fish
Spontaneous combustion

 

[Michel Henzel]

Not really something specific comes to mind, but I do remember I was scared of the concept of "monsters" coming out of the dark corners of your bedroom and attacking you in your bed. I remember that I used to sleep, curled up in a little ball the top end of my bed. As there was a wall there so nothing, in my mind, could crawl up from that end, so it felt more safe. As opposed to the other end where there was open space and it was really dark and could not see anything. I used to lie in such a way that I could still see the ground from the side of the bed (bed had like cupboards underneath it, so nothing could be under the bed).

I think it actually took me quite a while to finally grow out of that.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Sleep paralysis

Oh god I still have that. Your brain is 100% awake, you're aware, but the body is 100% paralyzed. Groaning or moving a hand an inch is an act of Space Marine levels of concentration. That still happens to me once or twice a year.
The worst is when you're face down in a pillow and you think you're suffocating.

Panic + paralysis = a bad start to a Monday.

 

[DeliveryGodNoah_v1legacy]

Being buried alive

I saw Kill Bill once when I was younger. The scene where Beatrix is buried alive scarred me for the longest time. The first time I saw it, I actually walked away from the TV before I saw her escape, and I couldn't stop thinking about it.

I thought about what it would feel like, to be trapped in a tiny box so far underground no one would ever hear you, gasping for air and panicking.

Spoiler: T.M.I.

I felt slightly aroused by the idea too. The same with being tied up.

 

[Wintermute_v1legacy]

Hospitals and boat rides. I always had this feeling doctors could just look at me, see something wrong and keep me in the hospital against my will. And boat rides because I was afraid sharks would attack the boat. In retrospect, I should have been afraid of crocodiles and snakes, since it was a river.

 

[Extra-Ordinary]

Sleep paralysis

Oh god I still have that. Your brain is 100% awake, you're aware, but the body is 100% paralyzed. Groaning or moving a hand an inch is an act of Space Marine levels of concentration. That still happens to me once or twice a year.
The worst is when you're face down in a pillow and you think you're suffocating.

Panic + paralysis = a bad start to a Monday.

I used to get that too. I say "used" I guess I don't know if it'll ever come back but I basically had episodes the same frequency as you so few and far between, I'm lucky.
I'm even luckier since I never had it for very long periods and never had hallucinations. Although there was one time when I was facing the wall and I felt like something was creeping up behind me. I didn't necessarily hear, see, or feel anything, I just felt like I should be facing the other way before something bad happened and it freaked me out somewhat.

Anyway.

Mothman.
The cryptid from Point Pleasant, West Virgina.

Spoiler: This guy

I could have grabbed a less frightening picture but I wanted to illustrate a point.

For those who don't know, Mothman is a cryptozoological creature whose legend centers around sightings of a tall, winged man with red eyes starting in 1966 and ending after a bridge collapse a year later. There's also reports of UFO's and men in black and stories of Native American curses tied to the Mothman as well but that's the short simple version: Freaky winged man with red-eyes.

And that's the thing that freaked me out. I was big into cryptozoology when I was young and I figured a good chunk of the legends like Loch Ness or Bigfoot or Mothman were true, that these creatures were out there somewhere just waiting to be found. And you never know, they might be although the widespread existence of cameras in cell phones sure if making it less likely.

Anyway.

This thing freaking dominated my psyche in my early teens. The thought of a red-eyed winged thing coming for me drove fear through every inch of my young self. I walked to my school bus stop in high school in near-absolute terror every morning for two years. Hey, it was dark, early morning, I was by myself until I got there, partly reasonable for a kid to be afraid but I wasn't afraid of bears or bobcats, I live in a wooded area, they could have been there but oh no, I was scared of MOTHMAN.

Every once in a while, I think about him and still get scared, I'm freaking twenty-two now, still scared by most likely imaginary monsters. I think I just developed so many pathways in my brain that connect Mothman thoughts to my fear center that I just can't help it.

 

[Parasondox]

A giant floor rug of Cliff Richard's face that my mother for some reason hung on the wall.

If you want to know more about this horror story, feel free to.ask here.

 

[Dwarfman]

When I was a kid I had Cynophobia - an unnatural fear of dogs. Even the sight of a miniature fox terrier was enough to make me leap in fear.

I'm an adult now and can rationally deal with the foul beasts, but still I have my moments.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Other Dutch people and probably quite a few Belgians will know what I'm talking about, but the Fata Morgana ride in the Efteling scared the living shit out of me as a kid.

The actually-meant-as-creepy bit in the dark with the snakes and mist and alligators? Oh no that was fine. The big guardian giant you could see coming a mile away? That got me into a fit of terror. Though to be fair, the **** looks like this:

Spoiler

So it's not all that irrational I suppose. And I no I don't know either why his ears look like testicles.

 

[FalloutJack]

Moss.

Lemme explain. As a kid, I watched a movie that was contained...monsters, loud noises, searing death, and a crashing space station.

It was this movie:


Consider moss, for a moment. It looks like a kind of slime or a mold, like something exponentially growing into a monster.

My reaction to lightning, loud alarms, and fire engines is perfectly normal because I have sensitive ears.

This? It's nuts.

 

[Cicada 5]

Bowser's laugh in Super Mario 64.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

These things:

I was too little to see what it looks like on the inside and I wasn't sure what it does but it looked like the scariest thing ever made from my perspective.

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

Funnel webs crawling into my shoes... technically irrational because it's not like it happens a lot ... but still....

Spoiler: brrrh

Always check your shoes if you leave them outside in Australia. Unless you want to lose toes and a good part of your foot.

A fear of funnel webs being everywhere persisted for awhile when one tried to rush me while cleaning up leaf litter. I refused to go outside without footwear. I used to wrap up my shoes in plastic bags, even if inside... after my uncle told me they like to hide in discarded footwear.

But he was always a mongrel like that <.<

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

Irrational... well I dunno. I don't remember. There's works of fiction I remember being scared shitless of, but they were meant to elicit such a reaction. Dogs and bumblebees also. I was afraid to walk past a couple of houses on my way home in elementary school because they had rather loudly barking dogs. I mean, I fucking love dogs now and they were probably just excited, but dogs are way bigger compared to you when you're a kid than when you're a grownup. And one of the houses had two full grown German Shepherds. Those things are scary for a kid, man! They're not the smallest dogs, and the black and brown coloring coupled with their loud barking makes them seem quite ferocious. Not an irrational fear IMO.

I still get kind of jumpy around bumblebees. I've been stung exactly once by one in my life and that was just a couple of years ago, but I still kind of flinch if they get too close. They're big and hairy, and they buzz so loud and low. And every kid is taught to avoid yellow-black things that buzz in the garden. Not an irrational fear either.

But completely irrational fears? Well I guess there was this one time when I woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to go sleep in my parents' bed, but my dumb ass literally couldn't find the door in the dark. I thought the door had somehow disappeared and I would remain in my room forever. It was just a passing feeling and I don't even remember how it ended, but I still remember it.

 

[pookie101]

in the old dr who there was an episode with vampires.. that used to scare the crap out of me

 

[Hawki]

Funnel webs crawling into my shoes... technically irrational because it's not like it happens a lot ... but still....

Mate, as someone who has a large garden, lives on the edge of a park reserve, and has had his share of spiders come into the house over the years, and saw more of his fair share of them this summer, let me tell you, there is nothing irrational about being afraid of funnel webs. Or any spider for that matter.

Least the fuckers are at least eating flies most of the time.

 

[Tsun Tzu]

I've got more than a few.

But here's a couple:

1. My Buddy Doll

Somehow, as a small child, I saw bits and pieces of Chucky on TV. My parents, now knowing I'd experienced that, purchased this...

Spoiler: Thing.

-for me.

Needless to say, I couldn't so much as stay in the room alone with it without almost literally pissing myself. But, still, tried for a couple nights and I swear, I still have memories of catching that fucking thing turning its head to look at me out of the corner of my eye, only to see it quickly change place when I looked directly at it.

2. Foot Hanging off the Bed

I am not afraid to admit that I still feel weirdly uneasy about having my foot dangling off the side.

But, then, I have a cat now, so there's a real possibility that I might get some sharp talons embedded in it before the night's through.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

I had this thing as a kid where I was terrified of black widow spiders magically spawning in my covers when I went to sleep. This may have had something to do with the fact that the covers were tucked in under the mattress and thus had a lot of empty space.

For some reason, I felt safe sleeping on the floor, or using pillows UNDER the covers to blockade half of the covers.

Then one time the covers weren't tucked in and I was like "hey, I can wrap myself in them completely so there's no empty space!" and I never had a problem again.

This is on top of the usual kid stuff like spooky music or laughs or scare chords getting stuck in my head.

EDIT: Oh yeaaaaah, reading more of these made me remember that I used to have a massive fear of vampires as a kid. Like, the dracula "AH! AH! AH! AH! AAAAAH!" laugh kind of vampire. Sesame street count wasn't that bad because he was a goofball, but I was afraid of leaving my room at night in case a vampire was going be outside my door to turn me into one of them, or just kidnap me and use me as a reusable blood bank.

My dreams have always run on video game logic, so it didn't help when I ran into a vampire in my dreams and tried to hit it with a Thundershock or whatever only for them to laugh it off and keep slowly approaching me with that menacing look in their eyes.

It was so bad I couldn't SAY the word vampire because it freaked me out so much. XD