A totally illogical fear you had as a child

Bobblehats

There was a werewolf behind de curtaind

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120159101#Comment_120159101

Easy enough for me as we moved house when I was three... So anything set in the old house was one year, in the new, the nexyt. Then I started school when I was 5... Associations and events

Graces7

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120157372#Comment_120157372

Your mind translating the difficulty your breathing was encountering with the fever! Our minds are amazing

baldbear

Freddie Kruger was going to kill me in my sleep.

And some one was going to come.out of the wardrobe at night and grab me.

Babysitter has us watching nightmare on elm street when we were about 6.

o1s1n

On a similar topic, but did any of you experience 'Alice in Wonderland' syndrome as a kid while having a fever? It's incredibly common.

I actually experience it as an adult if I'm staring at a screen too long, particularly in a dark room. It starts to feel quite small/far away. If it gets really bad it would feel like it's potentially at the end of a corridor.

Freaked me out when I was a kid but I guess I was probably tripping balls with a fever as well hallucinating at the time too!

https://www.reddit.com/r/AIWS/

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120161205#Comment_120161205

I remember experiencing something like that but looking up at the ceiling from bed, during a fever.

Dslatt

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120159101#Comment_120159101

I vividly remember plenty of things from when I was 3 and a few from before that.

o1s1n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120161214#Comment_120161214

Ceiling feel really far away? that would be it alright.

It's an interesting one as it also makes close things seem really really big. Like if I was texting on my phone or looking at text in a book, it looks absolutely massive and detailed - whereas anything not close will be stretched out far away.

Hard to describe but if someone has experienced it they'll know exactly what I mean.

odyssey06

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120161259#Comment_120161259

Yes that's it, it felt like the ceiling was stretched out to further away from me than it was.

boardlady

On the fever thing - I had a particular scenario my mind would concoct whenever I was running a high fever. You know the way cartoonists used to draw the road runner? Or the Tasmanian Dust Devil? Sort of a flurry of spinning ... well i'd see myself lying in my bed and then all of a sudden there would be this flurry of spinning and when the room settled down again, I'd be all tied up in my bed sheets! Except that I wasn't actually and it was all in my mind. This would repeat a couple of times .. Was absolutely terrified of the dark for decades. That's only eased up recently.

20Wheel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120161243#Comment_120161243

Jaysus, fair play.

saabsaab

Scared of the Doctor or Nurse because of the needles.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120161205#Comment_120161205

Yes, I get this and have done very recently due to an infection. Have perceived distortion of areas of my body, seen grotesque images when I close my eyes, auditory distortions, and of course migraine auras. Things occasionally suddenly enlarged in front of me or grow smaller.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120161243#Comment_120161243

I have same vivid memories from very young. One specific one was being up in Dublin Air Traffic Control tower of old, and having sausages almost immediately after. My parents were friends of the Chief ATC Tom Donovan so they brought me up with them once when I was about a year old. Air traffic was occasional then, flying was a very big thing. From age 3/4 I drew pictures of the airplanes at Dublin Airport, and later became a hobby pilot. Will try and dig up a sample picture..

Above is an Aer Lingus Vickers Viscount, refuelling trucks, stairs, baggage trucks etc. it correctly is depicted with 4 engines. Note that I was rather concerned with engineering aspects regarding reinforcing the undercarriage.

Above is a 4 engined Aer Lingus Boeing 707 in flight, black smoke from all jets. In front of it is a Fokker Friendship in KLM colours. I believe Aer Lingus acquired its Fokkers off that airline. Small twin turboprop. Obviously I thought the wings needed support wires. The rounded tail of a Viscount is visible to the right. Rockets were beginning to make the news, so added for good measure.

A KLM Fokker model for comparison 😊

Speaking of airplanes, accidents were quite common in the 60s. Not long before my 10th birthday an Aer Lingus Viscount on a training flight crashed near Ratoath as captain had apparently suffered a heart attack, trainee pilots were lost, running out of fuel and tried landing in a field but stalled. Then on my 10th birthday, 24th March 1971 was the occasion of the Tuskar Rock disaster, involving a Viscount. My father knew the captain and senior air hostess from his business travels. That made an impression on me, so I believed that at least half of Viscount flights actually didn’t make it to their destination. It was quite concerning. Not that I was ever then on a flight, before age 15, way too expensive.

BrianD3

As a 3 year old I was terrified of The Shape - an "entity" from the early 80s TV series Sapphire and Steel. Would lurk in photographs and also burn photographs after trapping people in them

zetecescort

was 5 when this fella turned up in Dublin. Fear may have been planted by my older brother but I was sure he was going to come and reach in the upstairs bedroom window during the night.

https://twitter.com/PhotosOfDublin/status/500728397623201792?s=20&t=9YM0dq5ILGSum7Bw5mz8-g

Mad_maxx

Choking on fish bones

whisky_galore

Guards.

Because my mother used threaten to call them when she ran out of options. Real sh1t parenting as if a kid is in real trouble they wont want to approach a guard.

Pauliedragon

The dentist. I used to sweat with fear when my mother told me I had an an appointment in primary school. The cracking noise of the tooth being pulled out and when the anesthetic wore off the pain was unbearable plus that drill it was nightmare stuff. I used to shudder every day day walking past any dentists surgery.

Archeron

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120159121#Comment_120159121

I didn't know about that, never heard of the piece on it , but funny enough there was talk as a kid of this happening in the area too. One house burned down near me and it was said they had the painting and it survived.

All childhood tales I know, but I've not thought about that painting or those memories since we thankfully got rid of it.

I'm probably showing my age, but in the area I grew up, in dem der days, housefires were frighteningly common. Deep fat friers and pressure cookers were all the rage.

I guess someone latched onto the crying boy story from somewhere and it was a good scary story to tell kids. This would have been late seventies era.

Still can't understand how THAT painting could have become fashionable.

Goldengirl

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120155037#Comment_120155037

Me too. But its to keep vampire insects and dracula away!

I was afraid of dark shapes in the room as well at night.

I would squeeze my eyes shut and say" Now I lay me down to sleep I pray to God my soul to keep " and get even more freaked,at that sentence, with the covers up to my nose.

Never occurred to me to just switch the light on!

DarkJager21

Fire, particularly those fire safety adverts from the 80's/90's. I hid behind the couch when they came on, even now at 38 I can't even watch Searching or Double Bed for example without getting terror sweat all over me.

Oh and also being the last to go up the stairs at night and having to turn the lights off, Freddy Krueger was always just waiting out of sight to sprint up after me 😂

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crying_Boy

Apparently the framed prints had a fire retardant varnish on them and the hanger bit went first, causing picture to land face down on the floor, away from fire damage.

storker

RTE used to have a late-night weekend spooky movie slot called Lights Out. I must have been around 12. One night it was The Masque of the Red Death and I pleaded with my parents to be allowed watch it as I was developing an interest in horror. They warned me it might be too much and so it turned out, not far into the movie, when Vincent Price looks in on the sick woman and her red face looks at the camera and screams. That was the end of that viewing for me and for years afterwards, until well into my teens, I would never lie in bed facing to my left, because I was convinced I would see her face there, staring at me, screaming...

castletownman

This might sound insensitive, but when I was young I used to be afraid of people with intellectual disabilities or an obvious deformity like those undeveloped hands (that you don't see as much nowadays actually)

Where to begin 😏

Apart from the usual childhood type things I had a fear inside of me...it wasn't of anything in particular though.. just fear. I can't articulate it but it was all caught up with being scared of the dark, and something that would take my mam away or take me.

I felt safe in my home but this was something beyond that, something that mam and dad couldn't take away.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120163259#Comment_120163259

I really often wanted to switch the light on, but I knew my parents would not approve as it would disturb my sleep (as if my sleep weren’t disturbed already) and of course wasting electricity was a no-no in meagre times.

I was always afraid of a burglar entering the house, especially as my friend’s mother down the road used to regale us about horrific tales of local burglaries. My Dad always made sure to have the downstairs room doors locked, impeding progress of any potential burglar that might enter. There was always the possibility of the front door but it had a bolt, a double lick and chain. The side landing window was a potential entry point as all a burglar had to do was climb up onto the garage roof. Then there was the more remote possibility of a burglar climbing up the front of the house and breaking into my room 😱 At least my Dad did endure that the landing light was on, so it was apparent that the house wasn’t vacant and might have people still up and about and alert. But every sound scared me and I spent years worrying g about what never actually happened. I think word had got out among the criminal fraternity that the house was impenetrable.

At one point when really young I developed a fear of blocked toilets that filled up to the brim and overflowed. I had seen one in Arnotts, I think it was. I think I thought I might drown in one or I’d be sitting on one and it would just fill with water spontaneously. I didn’t like water to be where it shouldn’t be.

When young I was told to be wary around toilets in parks as bad men hung around them, hiding in the dark and in the bushes. I was fascinated as to what a bad man might look like, in what way they were bad etc. I was warned never ever go near men’s toilets as some bad men stayed in them.

I was kinda skeptical as the men I knew, my father, neighbours etc were normal. I really needed to find out what mysteries lurked within the walls of the “Gents/Fir” and one day at the RDS Spring Show I broke away from my mother and bee-lined in the men’s to see for myself. I went up to the men at the urinals and said “hello, what are you doing?” I probably even asked one was he a “bad man”. My memory is of them getting some start at this two year old blond girl interrupting their flow, so to speak. My mother sent an attendant in after me, he told her she would have to follow in as it would be inappropriate for him to approach me. She didn’t give out, but said I should not disturb men’s privacy again.