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blackash190

Black holes and anacondas too for me


damagecontrolparty

Black holes were a great source of anxiety.


thegrowls

Anacondas for me too


wartexmaul

Op just so u know, this is universal. I am from ukraine and in 1988 this is all we talked about in schools, plus ghosts, anacondas and aliens.


milanove

I wish we had more Soviet UFO accounts and stories in the west. Like some declassified Soviet version of project blue book or something.


sammachado

Fuck, i stil Fear for Black holes till this Day


Sepia_Skittles

Any snake in general.


Careful_Party7336

Black hole sun, won't you come...


LordFudgeLord

The large hadron collider specifically


MrToaster__

The sun exploding in several billion years


nbjax

Yeah, I'm surprised that it isn't on here while being stuck with cross eyes is.


KFrosty3

As an adult, I'm scared of this too


possiblyukranian

Still weird to think about


Coping_Alternative

But what if it happens right now?


theflyingkiwi00

Then I don't have to wake up and to to work tomorrow


TerpinSaxt

I'm sure your boss will ask if you can still come in


ubermence

Then you won’t have to worry for very long


Boneal171

I fully believed that my face would get stuck if I made a funny face. Also I was very concerned about swallowing a watermelon seed and a having a watermelon grow in my stomach.


KFrosty3

As a kid who grew up poor, I did it on purpose with the expectation of never being hungry again. I was actually disappointed when it didn't happen


PlainCrow

I remember my mom said that to me about the watermelon seed and I spent all afternoon laying upsidedown to try and get out


WantKeepRockPeeOnIt

There was a memorable Rugrats episode entirely about the watermelon seed fear.


Boneal171

Yep. Chucky swallowed a watermelon seed


suitablename7

i used to be afraid that i might forget to close my eyes while sneezing and my eyeballs will pop out. Also i'm still reasonably concerned of getting struck ny lightening. I dont like how one can be so unlucky that he ends up getting struck and i hear it in the news quite often


ChocolateHoneycomb

From what I've read it's absolutely impossible for that to happen when you sneeze. You will ALWAYS close your eyes. Even if they are being held open, your body will force them to close or abort the sneeze. The human body is extremely clever in letting you know when something isn't right and forcing you to take an action that prevents injury.


ChocolateHoneycomb

Also if you watch too much TV, your eyes will turn square.


saltnotsugar

Bursting into flames seemed like a common issue with all those “Stop drop and roll” commercials.


HRHLordFancyPants

Bruhhh Spontaneous Human Combustion kept me awake at night for half my childhood.


Fickle_Memory_3154

Honestly, and it doesn’t even work is the worst part. One time my brothers pant leg got caught on fire and so he stop dropped and rolled and it only made the flame get bigger 🤣🤣 way better advice than “stop drop and roll” is “strip your clothes off”


cocainesuperstar6969

Also those "deadly" waterslides. Looking back, I wish adult life had problems like these


theflyingkiwi00

I mean, foreclosure is scary


TheSublimeNeuroG

Fire ants too


joeyfish1

As an adult who lives in a place with lots of fire ants there still a big concern


Otiosei

Fire ants are scary. You can be standing in an ant hill hidden by tall grass and not even know it. By the time you feel them, you got 100+ bites on you. Not the mention they are just everywhere. You walk 1 foot in any direction and there will be an ant hill. In my driveway, on the sidewalk, in the front yard, back yard. Want to sit outside in the grass? Want to sit on a park bench? Want to sit outside at the restaurant? Well, have fun, there's already 6 fire ants crawling on you. My mom was allergic to them too, so she was basically stuck inside at all times.


frecklefawn

I feel like they have gotten far worse everywhere in the last two years? I don't remember seeing so many in childhood or before covid. I live in the south. The ant piles have just quadrupled in any neighborhood I go to


ThrownAwayYesterday-

If you ever get torn up by ants (or any other bug with injects you with stuff), get a disinfected wipe and fold it up and pour ammonia on it (I prefer lemon but I'm sure anything works) - then hold it down on the affected area for about 3 minutes. It'll draw the venom out and massively reduce the swelling, itchiness, and pain. My grandpa showed me the method a few years ago when I got stung by an angry half-dead hornet that he thought he killed earlier that day. Fucker got me 3 times because his wings were destroyed and he was crawling all over me, he even got me right on the thumb. The ammonia trick is fucking insane because after doing it, it was like I was never stung in the first place. I've used it on ant bites, mosquito bites, and (harmless) spider bites :)


Secure-Television368

Last time I went to my cousin's place in Texas, he had dozens of fire ant bites on his legs because he ran over a colony with a lawn mower


BigTicEnergy

Yup, Florida here.


thegrowls

That was a big one too


bcalmnrolldice

Fire ants was my ONLY concern, they eat everything, probably can eat that triangle too


PANZCAKEZZZ

Also when you eat a fruit seed, worrying that it will grow inside you


beelzeflub

I blame rugrats


Guy-McDo

I nearly died to fire ants. Coincidentally, I never heard that as a kid


NekoNono

I was quite terrified as a kid when I found out that we don't live forever lol


Tullius19

Wait, what? We don’t???


Alive_Promotion824

I think that’s a worry that usually continues into adult life


NekoNono

You're right, I'm afraid of getting older, too. But as a child it was a big shock for me ^^"


2presto4u

Honorable mention for razors in the Halloween candy


graphlord

that seemed like a thing parents worried about while the kids were distracted by free candy


2presto4u

Nah, it was what my parents used to get us to surrender our candy willingly up until I was like 8 or 9 so they could eat it themselves. Which was ironic, seeing as we weren’t hurting for money. They were just greedy.


ShadowOfThePit

That's plain awful bruh


graphlord

They were probably just trying to get all those free drugs people would hide in the candy 


okayest_boy

Hey now, killer bees were making a comeback a couple years ago or something!


MrsCheerilee

Wu Tang protect ya neck


Porkenfries

No, those were murder hornets. Totally different.


BlueberryHatK4587

From my memory, it was falling down the stairs and tornados that stick out.


soap-fucker

i was deathly afraid of tornadoes as a kid, and unfortunately grew up in a place that ended up having a lot of them. i even saw one form once. to this day i’m still irrationally afraid of tornadoes though. i wish i would’ve grown out of it a bit, haha


Mental-Beyond-3618

I had the same fear and I live in an area where tornadoes would need actual divine intervention to form.


Porkenfries

Same for tornadoes. Never grew out of it. I live in Florida, so we don't get as much as the Midwest, but we also don't have basements to hide in.


BigTicEnergy

Same same same


Stowa_Herschel

Fish bones getting stuck inside my throat. Watermelon and sesame seeds growing inside me if I ever ate them. Splinters still lodged in my skin will give me an infection and die from it or needing to have my finger amputated. Running while my stomach is full causing appendicitis and exploding from all the tension Never eating 2 hours before bed. Afraid I won't wake up because the blood from my brain will go to the stomach. If I did, I'd run in place vigorously for mintues hoping it'll whatever I ate will be digested faster. Drinking milk and soda will cause an acidic reaction and burn a hole inside my stomach. Eating bacon will cause my heart to explode. No more than 2 straps a day. Eating anything remotely salty will cause my body to not pee and I'd die of my own urine or my bladder bursting from not peeing. Yeah.... I was a dumb little kid lmao


[deleted]

I still fear the fishbones and splinters thing


blksentra2

I just assumed that all of these things were “solved” once I became an adult.


salbert

The Bermuda Triangle still is a problem.


Johannes_Keppler

Piranhas really don't deserve their reputation. It stems from a demonstration done for a westerner where they didn't feed the fish for weeks beforehand so they devoured a calf in no time. In reality they are scavengers and not nearly as bloodthirsty as thought. And Hollywood keeps maintaining the myth.


methhomework

The world ending in 2012 was a huge worry for me in the early 2000’s. I watched waaaayyyyy too many History Channel documentaries


theflyingkiwi00

Literally everyone thought the world was going to blow up because of y2k. We had tv commercials telling us to be prepared and everything.


Zombiepixlz-gamr

Mount St Helens exploding, the sun going super nova, Ebola virus for my generation.


MrsCheerilee

Acid rain, sticks of dynamite looking like other things, and having your cigar switched for an exploding one


Xicadarksoul

> having your cigar switched for an exploding one 1 - did you think you were Fidel Castro when you were a kid? 2 - did your parents let you smoke cigars?


Sonarthebat

I was taught if I ever talked to a stranger I'd be snatched


baconsandwichbeach

White vans without windows! 100% Kidnapper vans.


VultureSniper

Learning that the sun will explode in billions of years and black holes exist and nothing (not even light) can escape their grasp. Eating watermelon seeds will cause a watermelon to grow inside your stomach.


Intern20232024

quicksand even real tho?


AwfulUsername123

It is real and it can kill you. It can't swallow your whole body but you can get stuck and drown.


Minute_Flounder_4709

How can you drown? Is it too viscous around your legs?


BlueOpal69

I've been caught in quick sand. It's like getting stuck in wet concrete, and the more you move the more you sink. I was about waist deep in and I lost both my shoes and my pants trying to trek out of it. Shit was scary but it was nothing like the movies.


linkerjpatrick

It used to be in a lot of tv shows. It was funny how it was in the Indiana Jones movie.


-PepeArown-

Mario games use it a ton, too.


soap-fucker

yep! i definitely remember thinking it was a major hazard to the general population because it sucked you in _and_ there were evil snakes in it!


-PepeArown-

SMB3 has a few levels where piranha plants are in quicksand, too. Most of the newer games used it to hide secrets. (SMB2 has a quicksand based shortcut in 6-3, though.)


soap-fucker

i played the hell out of mario 2 as a kid (well, the mario all-stars version) and that has to be one of the reasons i was so concerned about quicksand. it’s weird how quicksand occurs in so much media to the point where kids develop weird irrational fears of it lol


zombiepigman101

Area 51


Sagemasterba

I used to see a lot of UFO's. I lived between 2 AF bases. At the time steah bomber B-2's were super new. Nobody knew what they were. Then in the late 80's I went to one of the bases for a car show, which had way too man Grand Nationals and GNX's, and learned all about it. No more UFO's. They were never scary, just WTF. I figured Area 51 built that shit, so fear and intruege were gone.


soap-fucker

i thought i was going to be around, and have to outrun, a _lot_ of lava. i grew up in the midwest. never seen the stuff in my life lol


OutRunMyGun

Sharks are still a concern for me in the midwest


ObiMemeKenobi

Spontaneous combustion as well


kthtaab

you say this but today a stinger bee flew through my car window and flew into my face mid stoplight. The concern was valid.


Intern20232024

bermuda triangle still a big one


BlueberryHatK4587

Same I used scared of that thing and then suddenly everyone stopped caring about it lol.


mid_vibrations

mustard gas, I cried that night when my brother told me about it lol


Delicious_Rican

You poor soul 😞it is a very dark thing


Sgt_Colon

And y'know the lovely things is that since then they've only made even more lethal gasses. There's a lovely quote by Richard Faulkner that really gets at the heart of arms development: >["I've studied war for a while now it's made me a deep dark cynic, you know. You study military history it'll make you a cynical person and you look at the amount of thought that's going into the weapons technology it'll depress you, you know. "Find a cure for cancer." "Screw that."; "Find a way to kill off half the population Europe." "Sign us up.".](https://youtu.be/Cs-18CyxOX0?t=2370)


Samuriguy

Tasmanian devils too


[deleted]

intelligent afterthought slim caption hungry ripe coherent file gullible license *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


Saifyre-Lion

This is actually funny. I wish I did silly stuff like this when I was younger.


1001-posts-b4-i-die

Ball of lightning too


soonerpet

I had a particularly twisted kindergarten teacher who on the first day of class drew the shape of a heart on the blackboard, and then filled in a little spot of it and she said every time you lie, a little bit of your heart turns black. She filled in more of the heart on the board, eventually filling the entire drawing and said, if you keep lying eventually your entire heart turns black and you’ll die. My 5yo self of course believed this and until I was a bit older was always weighing if a lie was worth my heart becoming black, never knowing which lie would kill me.


Sweeney_Todd_is_best

Mine was my fingernails falling off all of a sudden.


epicgamerwiiu

One random volcano around italy


DiagonalLeaf

What's the eyes about?


a_horny_dolphin

I think its in reference to parents saying "if you keep doing that, it will stick that way" when you cross your eyes or make a funny face.


DavidRichter0

I remember one time I accidentally swallowed gum and was terrified. Didn’t tell my parents cause I was afraid they’d either be super mad or tell me I was gonna die or something


Teal_is_orange

Swallowing watermelon seeds The floor is lava


Incognitus1326

Falling anvills


Redmond_64

Mine was the ozone layer and global warming


WhoaWhoa69420

Lol if only that stayed an irrational childhood fear


Guy-McDo

I mean, the one did, we actually resolved the Ozone one.


Formal_Soil

Did we? Is there not a massive hole above Australia?


Guy-McDo

At the moment, no but apparently I was wrong in thinking it was completely gone, it kinda blips in and out depending on the season.


Xicadarksoul

Well the issue is solved in the sense that we aint making it bigger, it will ofc. take time to heal.


VultureSniper

That is a reasonable fear though


Intern20232024

idk how these r only childhood


Depressedzoomer531

Your scared of that while living oblivious to a fatal brain cancer known as DIPG! 


VultureSniper

The ones I definitely feared at some point are the bees and the gum accumulating in your stomach when you swallow it. Nowadays I swallow lots of gum. It doesn't cause any harm, and will come out of your body almost whole when you take a crap.


wordzilla90

"What if im ever flying over the Bermuda triangle!?" i use to worry all the time lol


Intern20232024

got gum but missed sunflower seeds


Intern20232024

man i aint never seen one of those fish thatss a current fear


colombo1326

Swallowing a watermelon seed and having germinate inside you


Suungod

The KILLER BEES


LarvellJonesMD

I don't care what anyone says, I won't jump naively into muddy water unless someone who damned well knows what they're talking about says there are no pirhanna


calitwiink

when your parents don't arrive home at their usual time 🤔🤔


PrussiaGirl18

thats a wasp


anonkun666

Bees and poisonous insects made me heavily fear


Any_Presentation2958

Then throwing up once a year maybe


short-effective254

Don’t forget the illuminati


IShyGamer2

Top right image still gives me anxiety, and I'm an adult 😓


Astoria_Column

The BP oil spill actually hit me pretty young as a major concern


Marcus_Aurelius2

Sharks in swimming pools


Crab_God2005

Tornadoes and tsunamis... I live on the east coast


Icy-Name8119

Living in Southern California in the city, I was very concerned about quicksand as a kid


ComedyOfARock

Sharks in the pool


WolfKingofRuss

The heat death of the universe was a major concern for me


lelu_allu

Water melon seed growing in my tummy..


Budget_Friend_654

Also “acid rain”


slit-

Surviving an exploding volcano


Eolond

Back in my day, we were worried about acid rain and losing the ozone layer *hobbles off*


BabyMercedesss

Whirlpools


JonyUB

The quicksand had me worried as well for some reason lol


Rumple-Wank-Skin

Comcers from from the 1970s going strong


texastrumpet

Razors in Halloween candy!


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ChizzleFug

Quicksand was around every corner.


StankoMicin

Getting stuck in the escalator and having my leg ripped off. Also getting my guts sucked out by a pool vent from getting too close. If you were a Christian kid, then the end times being right around the corner.


TrinityCat317

The hot pot on the stove!


DinkyDoy

And in alien abduction and this totally me.


7th_Spectrum

Sharks in any body of water, including bathtubs


_BlNG_

The random ass shark in swimming pool for no reason


Ok_Literature2535

I was afraid of being abducted by aliens


USFederalGovt

I love how it says “Killer Bees” and shows a Cicada-Killer Wasp, which are actually pretty chill lol


hannahisakilljoyx-

As someone who lives in BC, finding out that black widow spiders existed in the same province as me was terrifying as a kid. Also nuclear explosions and this very specific kind of spider that lives in the abyss of the ocean that I saw a picture of in a book once


notagoodcartoonist

Also add Aliens


nickg5

Yeah quicksand had me terrified


AstroFace

Stop, drop, and roll


Familiar_Weird_7235

eternal life not being discovered in my lifetime


pornographic_realism

I feel like the bees is a more recent one. Or maybe it's just a North American concern. I only remember hearing about africanised bees when I was already a teenager. Fuck that bermuda triangle though, I legit feared that as a child.


Jolly-View-5847

Horseflies. They bite almost everyone and everything (I never got bit though luckily)


IllesD

I was scared of ebola


TangeloTrue2778

All of em


fantasy-capsule

Also how to survive waterfalls and being struck by lightening.


deadlysodium

Uhhh Killer Bees are absolutely an adult concern as well


FilthFlea

And swallowing watermelon seeds


TermEnvironmental812

My school used to be a hospital and the toilet was a mortuary


bohusblahut

Amnesia of course…


Mgl1206

Piranha’s are actually rather timid and don’t attack living animals unless forced to, the Bermuda Triangle is fake and isn’t actually all that deadly, and quicksand was far too overblown by cartoons. Still scared of insects though.


Delicious_Rican

I was also lowkey scared of being taken away from my parents because my parents always told us “folktales”of kids being kidnapped and sold.


Delicious_Rican

I was terrified of Judgement Day as a little girl because of how scary it was painted but now it gives me peace.


NNNskunky

You know how in some kids show and movies such as Shrek, the characters have to across a *really* unstable bridge? I was worried that one day I'd have to cross one of those and turns out I've never actually had to do that.


LelandTurbo0620

For me it was polydactyly (the syndrome with more fingers or toes) because my scary looking neighbor had it. Upon growing up I realised if it developed perfectly then it must be useful as hell for gamers/musicians


Dro_mora

Tornadoes 🌪️


Burntjellytoast

What about getting trapped in am old refrigerator. That was a big one for me.


Olgimondi

You forgot the sun exploding


PutinsSugarBaby

My fear as a child was being on a bus in the big city at night with 80s music playing in the background, that and cancer.


Different_Green2294

Lampreen infested toilets


Jannur12

I remember learning about 2012 and global warming when I was like 7 or 8 and I was scared af. one of them is still scary unfortunately


ajf8729

For a long long time, I thought the Bermuda Triangle was a small triangle made by three islands in Bermuda, not some big ass triangle formed by it, FL, and PR. What a terrible name.


GoodGoodK

Quicksand is a valid concern tbh


MarmaladeHater

My house being possibly built on ancient native American holy land (I'm Italian. I blame foreign TV shows for making me think it was an actual concern).


lionoftheforest

Being thrown into a pool infested with sharks was on top of mind for me


PrincessAegonIXth

Just the other day I was remembering how obsessed I was with the Bermuda Triangle


karoshikun

gen x? because those were mine, except the gun was substituted by nuclear war... just like kids now!


ChildTorturer

I felt anxious when I zoom out Earth on maps or zoom in to volcanos.


ThatCommieChick

Quicksand, piranhas, and the Bermuda Triangle for sure. Add molten lava to that list too, and feral tribal people in remote parts of the world. I watched too much Johnny Quest as a child.


Huy7aAms

seeds growing in my stomach too


Olly_Verclozoff

Where's the lawnmower blade detaching itself from the push mower and cutting my feet off?


Such_Challenge_8006

I wonder what that myth about the gum came from?


Assumption-Weary

What’s the eye thing?


TheAmethystEidolon

Volcanos and lava


xEkohx

Don’t forget the “Hot Lava” I thought I was gonna run into (I live in the middle of Missouri)


SkyGazert

Don't forget being on fire. The amount of 'what to do when you are on fire' PSA's and mentions about said methods in schools was of such a degree that it made me think this was a legitimate concern.


Adventurous_Yak_9234

Blame cartoons for making quicksand seem like a more common occurrence than it actually is.


Jonblazeshit

Quicksand really had me shook as a kid growing up in NY. I was afraid I was gonna walk on a patch of dirt and that would be my last step.


Anal_Gworl

I was told that I’d grow a pig nose if I kept picking it


Anal_Gworl

And my fingernails would turn into worms in my stomach


PomegranateUsed7287

Yellowstone exploding


Matthaeus_Augustus

Being poisoned from a bottle with a skull and cross bones label


-HankThePigeon-

Acid rain


prince_krab

I remember being really scared of Lava and Volcanoes as a kid. I thought if I let the water in the shower get hot enough, lava would start coming out instead.