A fear of heights? Ask anyone who's fallen a significant distance whether that one is irrational! Hell, ask anyone who's fallen down the stairs even! That's not irrational, it's completely sensible.
A fear of death? I don't see anything irrational about that one either. We don't know what comes after death, so of course it's scary. Anyone who says otherwise is just lying, or very very good at fooling themselves.
A fear of clowns? Well, I think that one speaks for itself...
But some of us have fears which are a little more unusual than your typical fear of talking in public or dread of the dentist. Take this woman for example. Poor thing, she's been scarred since childhood, terrified of going near a toilet ever since she saw that scene in "Look Who's Talking 2" where the Mr Toilet Man wants the pee pee. I suppose to a four year old it would be a horrifying prospect.
I feel for you, scaredy toilet woman. I have a deep seated phobia that dates back to my childhood too. I'm terrified of execution.
I know, it's kind of a weird one, especially given the fact that I live in a country that doesn't even HAVE execution, but it's true. I've been scared of the idea of execution for years. I can barely get through books that have it in them, and when there's a scene on TV or in a movie I end up huddled at the back of the couch, hugging myself and making weird little keening noises in the back of my throat.
Before you say that death isn't such an uncommon phobia, I should point out that it's not the death part that gets to me. I can watch a movie with someone getting shot no problems at all. But put a blindfold on them and make the shooter an executioner, and I have a melt down.
I always like to joke that maybe it's because I was executed in a past life, but I think the truth is probably much more prosaic than that. Like the poor woman from the article, I too was scarred by television in my youth.
When I was about ten or eleven there was quite the uproar when a couple of Australians were executed in Malaysia for trafficking heroin. Thanks to a combination of a sensitive temperament, an active imagination, and a television station showing rather graphic images (for a ten year old at least), I managed to freak myself the hell out.
And this, my friends, is why I will NEVER travel to Bali.
Of course I've heard of those places where they use fear immersion techniques to help you get over your fears, but I don't think they'd be a good idea for me. If the only way to get over it is to have someone pretend to string me up or shove me in front of a firing squad, I think I'll pass.
But if anyone out there wants to help cure me of my fear of massages, chocolate and Jane Austen flicks, we'll I'm sure we could work something out.
