#275 – You, a Grown Adult, are Afraid of the Dark…

…explain why this is a legitimate concern, so friends won’t laugh at you.

Something about the dark has a way of changing things.  The blacker it is, the more alien the world becomes around you.  Sometimes it can make the world seem to shrink around you, crushing down on you, and other times it can make stretch out to infinity, making you feel lost and alone yet completely at the mercy of whatever is out there.

It’s that unknown factor.  Anything could be in the dark and you wouldn’t know because you can’t see it.  It can be something as simple as an object on the ground we might step on like a child’s toy or it could be someone watching you, waiting for the moment that you’re at your most vulnerable.  And you would never know it was there until it was too late.

Behind the Random: As an agoraphobic, I can understand and relate to a person with a fear of the dark.  I have trouble walking through a wide open field in the dark even more than during the day just because of that mysterious shroud surrounding me.  The shadows will play tricks on my mind, always moving in the corner of my eye and taking on shapes of people or worse then vanishing when I look over.  So to all you Achluophobics out there, I understand you.

#541 – Interview a Person You Think You Know Well…

…Ask questions you’ve never before asked.

My wife is incredibly arachnophobia.  Not in the “Kill it!  Kill it!” sort of way but the run-out-of-the-bathroom-buck-naked-screaming-incoherently kind.  So I don’t normally get to ask her questions about spiders.  This was my chance to do it.

Me: Hey hun.  What’s the biggest spider you ever seen?

Wife: I think the cause of my arachnophobia started when I was 9 years old and I was fishing with grandparents and I was going to the car and felt a tickle on my hand.  And I looked down and there was a spider the size of my palm, not counting the legs.

<hesitates and looks at the wall suddenly, a paranoid look in her eyes>

So I flicked it off and screamed and haven’t been able to look at spiders since.

<pause>

It may have been a dream.

Me: Can you remember the creepiest moment you’ve had with a spider?

Wife: No.

Me: You can’t or you don’t want to?

Wife: Yes.

Me: Would you ever be willing to face your fear of spiders?

Wife: No.  The way I see it is that’s a part of who I am.  It’s a quirk.

Me: A quirk?

Wife: Yeah.

Then she got really quiet on me for a few minutes then asked if we could watch TV.  Having sufficiently creeped my wife out, I decided to end the interview.

Behind the Random: Having been close friends with my wife for 14 years and talking almost daily, it was hard to figure out questions that I’ve never asked her about.  It was a tough exercise, but after stumbling across a simple questions, it inspired the rest of the interview.

This article is paraphrased, but more or less how she answered the questions.

#399 – Approach a Stranger…

…introduce yourself, and ask him or her to tell you something he or she has never told anyone else.  Record your findings.

Have you ever seen someone experience unadulterated fear?  Watch that creeping sensation scurry from the small of their back and up their spine until it insinuates itself within their brain stem and completely overrides every thought, feeling, and instinct they might have?  Their eyes flicker between fight or flight, weighing every option and consequence.  Their skin pales noticeably and the hair on their arms and neck rise like the hackles of a frightened cat.  That bead of cold sweat that forms on their forehead, trickling inexorably down.

Me neither.  However, I have learned that asking complete strangers to divulge their deepest secrets can garner a person some very strange looks indeed as well as an awkward silence or three.

The more you know.

Behind the Random: Surprise, surprise.  I didn’t actually do this challenge because, well, I am not a people person and I definitely give off that impression.  However, I can say with a fair amount of certainty what the outcome would be unless I was able to find a fun-loving, open minded and quick witted individual who was willing to play along.  Unfortunately, those people are hard to stumble on.

#338 – Describe an Experience…

…from the point of view of someone who is phobic about that very experience.  For example, an airplane flight taken by someone terrified of flying, an agoraphobic lost in a pasture, an arachibutyrophobic eating a sandwich.

The one thing that terrifies me beyond all reason is something that I can never say.  It’s too terrible to even think about, twisting my guts like a fork in spaghetti.  Just knowing that it exists makes a cold sweat form on my skin and the hairs on my arm and neck stiffen.

Some people believe that it’s a joke or a hoax, but I assure you that it is a very real fear.  You only have to look at my shaking hands to see the truth with your own eyes.  Oh, how I wish I was faking it.  Then I could turn around and laugh it off and forget this ever happened.  However, I can’t deny it because it’s become a part of who I am.

If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, that’s exactly my point.  I can’t bring myself to say it because it’s part of the problem.  You see, I’m afraid of long words and just looking at some of these lines makes my skin crawl and ice water run through my veins.

So laugh it up, if you want, but I want you to remember me the next time you have to face the thing you’re most afraid of.

Behind the Random: For years, hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia was my favorite fear which is, of course, the fear of long words.  However, today I learned that this isn’t it’s real name but a trussed up one made up for entertainment purposes.  The real name is sesquipedaliophobia, which is still ironic but not as much fun to try to say real fast.