> I recently encountered one of my worst fears, and I reacted pretty badly. The strange part is that I have been in more dangerous situations than that, and have kept a level head. However, in this rather absurd instance, I FREAKED OUT!!!!! It was shameful. The only reason was one detail---it involved a phobia of mine that I usually keep under wraps.
>
> I was wondering, has this happened to anyone? Am I the only one (besides Howard, with his fear of cranes) who has a ridiculous fear, and how do you react when faced with it?
>
> For all the details on my freakout (hehe), go to my website. The link to the story is below.
>
> --Jez"still in fetal position"zika
>

I'm 16, and still scared of the dark. I have to shut my closet door before I can sleep at night. Up until the beginning of this year, it was awful - I was frequently the last person up at my house, and as I shared a room with my sister, I couldn't turn the room light on, or even turn the hall light on, for fear of waking someone up.

At the beginning of this year, I moved into the basement. MUCH nicer, let me tell you. I can turn the light in the main room off from inside my room, so that stays on until my door is shut. I have christmas lights strung up, so I plug those in before I turn the overhead light on. Depending on my state of paranoia that night, I'll either pull the plug on the christmas lights on my way to bed (with large steps, it's 1 step from the overhead lgiht switch to the plug, and then 1 or 2 more to bed) or pull the plug by tugging on the cord once I'm in bed. I'm sure I'll cause a fire someday...

I'm scared of outside dark, too... I've made my best friend walk to my car with me on a couple occasions because it was dark, even though we were in the middle of Montgomery County (read: safe). Okay, it helps that my best friend is a big strong guy, and I get a big hug when he walks to my car with me (well, I get big hugs anyway.... but I get more if he walks with me) and most of you know the situation with my best friend...

When I have to walk between my house and car when it's dark out, I get all scared... last Thursday morning was pretty awful.... 5:40 in the morning *shiver*. Of course, I don't live in the safest area anyway... but it was early, and I was more nervous than I am at night when there ARE people around.

Anyway, I have that same irrational silly fear. I just KNOW that someday, something is going to get me.

Ki"you're not alone"ki