Q10. What Scares You?

Everyone has a fear of something. We all have the same natural instinctual fears like drowning or lions mauling you and heights, but we also have subjective fears due to either how we were brought up, experiences or things in our life that cause that fear, like family or goals. These answers touch on all these fears in a unique yet understandable way.

• Ede - 53 - Female - Mother of 3 - Menopausal

  My biggest fear dates back to when I became a single mum and I immediately had a panic that something would happen to me and I would not be alive to bring my boys up.

  I began to pray and ask to stay alive for as long as they are old enough and then I am happy to go whenever. Then I had my daughter and my prayer grew for a longer time. It’s so strange because I am not a religious person, but 21 years later and I am still doing It. The idea petrifies me that I could leave them not being old enough to cope with grief. I absolutely cannot bear the thought of it and has given me several sleepless nights over the years.

• Lola - 15 - Female - Secondary School - Chillaxed

  I am scared of not doing anything interesting in life, like not having stories to tell that are actually worth listening to or not having a moment in life where something unbelievable happens. But I dunno whether everyone gets that, so it might just be that some people get lucky and some don’t.

• Anne - 90 - Female - Widow

  Flying.

  I’ve never been up there and never will. Probably stems from the second world war when I was a small child. My sister, mother and I would be in our air raid shelter in the garden and could hear enemy planes pass over seeking the docks.

• Spitty Micky - 22 - Male - Uni student trying to be better

  Snakes.

  Also losing the ability to communicate what I think. But mainly snakes.

• John Doe - 25 - Male - Father of 3 - Carpenter

  One of my worst fears would be potholing.

  I never liked the thought of it in the first place but then I was given a film by my dad when I was young that made me sure I would never do that ridiculous thing in my life.

• Edward Ricketts - 55 - Male - Father of 2 - Postman - Perplexed

  Apart from death, my answer has to be change. I think that I'm lucky that I have none of the phobias like snakes, spiders or heights(although, in a box a thousand feet up, with lots of snakes and spiders, maybe).

  For most of my life change has not bothered me, but as I have got older a steady life is all that I wanted, and at this time in my life that's what I have. Now I know from experience that change is inevitable and that there is nothing you can do about it, it is out of our hands, and for me, there is nothing I fear more than being helpless and unable to stop what is to come in life. So for now all I can do is live my life and wait for the inevitable, and I hate it. On a lighter note, those national costume dolls that my nan collected gave me many a nightmare, so they come a close second, oh a pierrot clowns, let's not forget those creepy buggers

• Olive - 88 - Female - Mother of 3

  My answer to this month's question is Sharks!

  When I'm abroad in the water it flashes through my mind what if? Scares me even more when I see on the telly a swimmer and the fin of the shark get really close.

• Fred Gee - 55 - Male - Easy

  The sea scares me, don’t like the idea of being on a ship or boat in some raving storm, being smashed by enormous waves, just waiting to sink. Not that it would ever happen as I wouldn’t go on a cruise or a ship for any length of time far out in the ocean. Losing my eyesight also scares me, through accident or illnesses the thought of spending the rest of my life in the dark petrifies me.

• Dalek Bread - 25 - Male - Unusual

  I have always truly feared getting old. It’s not so much age that scares me, it’s more of the fact I have not yet accomplished what I’ve wanted. I fear leaving this world unproductive. I have too many dreams and not achieving any of them will scare me forever. I am also very afraid of dying alone, I need to die knowing I’ve meant something to someone and have lived happily and compassionate. Only then death can have me.

• Vinnie Road - 22 - Male - Failure

  I'm going to keep this short and sweet.

  What I'm not scared of but terrified of is our society, and how social media is developing so quickly that in years to come, the next few generations are going to definitely in my opinion, corrupt the world.

• Bob - 60 - Male - Carefree

  Being locked in a confined space with my sisters’ dog!

Recent additions

• Janet Jackson - 25

  Serial killer documentaries. I cannot watch them, they scare me so much. The fact that this crime happens enough for there to be countless films and programmes about it, is terrifying. The fact that people exist who are capable of this, is terrifying. I cannot imagine being so evil that this thought crosses your mind. But maybe I am lucky that I can’t fathom this. I am blessed with intellect and good morals. Some people aren’t so lucky or good. I cannot enjoy watching these shows knowing that this is real life. Scary stuff. I’ll stick to my comedies and BBC dramas.

• Robert Allen - 81 - Male

  There’d be articles about things like new modern-day phobias, all with fancy Latin names. Like fear of flowers. Fear of the dark. Of heights. Of crossing bridges. Of snakes. Fear of getting old. Fear of clouds. Just any old thing could be frightening. My big fear was that my guitar would go out of tune.

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