Water snakes are doubly creepy than land ones.

They say 90% of people would rather die than speak in front of a large audience - is this true? Do any of you fear public speaking? As a public speaker, I find this hard to comprehend.

Yeah, my sister can look scary sometimes.

xD

I enjoy speaking in public.

No, not quite right. The thing is they did a poll of people's worst fears, and the one that came out on top by a large margin was the fear of public speaking. In my case, I would rather do public speaking than die (except for some days...), but I fear public speaking more. I'm not afraid to die.

Oh... *coughcough*

*lowers voice to a growl*

I fear nothing. Because I'm Batman.

I only have 2 known phobias. Sorry, you don't get to know. My mom is so worried I'll do something insanely crazy and unsafe... and she's probably right, I'll likely bring about my own death someday by being stupid...
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*Is deathly afraid of speaking in public* One reason I'm afraid to graduate...

I'm pretty afraid of speaking in public, but not so much that I'd rather die (usually ).



Aww! *hugs Millie* I graduated a few days ago and had to give a short speech. I did much better than the last time I gave a speech - my voice shook I think it gets better with practice/exposure, but it takes a lot of guts to do so.

That's comforting except that I haven't had any practice.

You can practice with me Calista. The first time I had to do public speaking I nearly cried... haha... practice really does help.

I love public speaking.

Same. I did four years of high school speech and debate, and another year now at the collegiate level.

Practice on you, Eli? Nuh uh, no way.

No, I can help coach you. And I'm definitely not a very intimidating person.

I think all Christians should work toward overcoming phobias, as fear is not a good thing.

So, Danko, this means you need to make it a point to spend more time around potato mashers.

Oh, joy......

I actually sung a song in class today. It wasn't so bad that I wanted to die, but I was shaking.

My Mother was terrified of spiders for years, and then one day her brother in law prayed for her, and she hasn't been scared of them since that day. She'll pick them up and put them outside now. Sometimes it takes God who can help you overcome everything to help you get past a fear that you have; it can be impossible to try and do it in our own strength.

Yes, everyone should work on their fears.. but.... practice in front of Eli?? That would probably not help.

Milly, I'm one of your biggest fans. And I'm a *goof*...

...on the scale of Galoof.

Yes, I agree...however I think that overcoming fear has many manifestations. One thing, I believe, about real phobias is that they are a physiological disorder, not a rational fear. The fear itself, if God chooses not to heal you, may never go away. The feeling will remain.

However, fear is where courage reigns. Courage is when someone has the strength to do something regardless of feelings.

COURAGE is when Frodo takes the ring into Mordor.

COURAGE is when Danny digs seventeen escape tunnels from Nazi PoW camps.

COURAGE is when Danko...mashes potatoes.

Excellent post. True. Overcoming fear doesn't mean *not fearing*, as much as it means *not letting the fear get to you*.

I wasn't aware I had any 'fans'...

And for those of you unaware of that, the latter part of his statement was a reference to Camille's first published book, Tell a Tale of Royalty in Disguise. Go read it.

*Cough* Sorry. I'm too fond of advertising her masterpiece.

A lovely post, Rwebhu. Very well said.

I still maintain this thread disturbs me slightly.

Spiders scare you?

Huh... interesting.

You like having a phobia?

"Life's no fun without a good scare!" -Nightmare before christmas

Well yes, I know, and it took me a sufficient amount of time before I got used to that, so I imagine I shall grow accustomed to the spider thing, too.

Personally, it's quite thrilling and even more thrilling when you get over them. I do enjoy a good horror movie now and then. Although it's hard to find a decent 'clean' one nowadays... >_>

Sometimes, it's just plain fun to scare people. Sadly, most of my friends are too serious to prank on...

I am terrified, and I mean terrified, of speaking on the phone. I hardly touch the thing.
But I love the dark. I can only sleep in complete darkness.

I don't really enjoy public speaking. I'm okay if I practice my paper quite a lot, though. Practicing lots helps to soothe my nerves.

Brendan's afraid of spiders?? XD *Stows information away to use on him later when he least expects it* I don't like them (the ugly ones anyway x.O the cute little fly catchers are fun!) but I'm not scared of them.

*Laughs* I'll remember that the next time he visits.

That fits me to a T.

It sorta fits me too, though I'm not terrified of them...I just hate them. XD

What?! Doesn't that count?

No.

I think it does, because my hate results in fear. :cooler:



I know!

I must be an introvert, then, because I'm always terrified of calling people.

I believe that fear is the prolude to hate. You begin to cover up those emotions, should you choose to not accept that you are afraid. This would then result in a self-hatred towards your feeling of helplessness, if we were to look upon a more life-threatening kind of fear for instance. Then you'd feel negative emotions toward the cause of your discomfort.

Anywho, that's how my brain processes things. I always thought that fear came before hatred. Although sometimes hatred or distaste can easily exist without fear. That's probably your case Wolfie, but not mine.

I sincerely don't know if there is anything I fear. There are things I dislike or find grueling, there are things that startle me and stimulate my unconscious muscular reflexes, there are even things that can make me scream once in a while, but I don't think I really fear any of them. I should very much like to know what it is I fear though. That way I can be prepared to face it.

I was actually thinking of that today after my last post here.



Interesting thought...how do you determine between something you truly fear and something you're just afraid of? Or, to be more precise, something you truly fear and something you just find unpleasant/startling/dangerous/untrustworthy...

I think a fear would be something I would have real trouble facing rather than just getting up and saying "alright, fine" which is my response to spiders (and yes, we get them the size of mice in our bathtub sometimes), talking to people, getting out of bed in the morning, and swimming under bridges among massive gooey sticks to retrieve my favorite fishing lure. *shrugs* I don't mean to sound like I'm all great because I don't know of a fear, it's something I've been seriously curious about for years.

That's interesting. Let me know if you ever find one...

Well yea. When it comes to things that scare us and things that startle us, there's a difference.

Take friend A for example. He snuck up behind me and startled me by jumping out at me. My reaction: A mix of startled (mostly because friend B freaked out before he jumped at me), embarrassment, and humor.

Here's another example. I watched a video where it says 'look closely and you'll see it'. What did I do? Yea. I got my face as close to the screen looking for something in the shadows when a kid's face popped out of nowhere. My reaction: I laughed even though my heart was pounding like it hadn't in years.

Now, lets get a bit more serious. Okay, let's take an instance when I did something I shouldn't have done, and my mother is seething. These are those times when my heart is pounding for good reason. I did something wrong and I know what could be done. Trust me, I hate being deprived of my laptop.

Now, what's the difference from the first two and the last one? I wasn't scared the first two and I was really scared the last one.

Did that make sense? Pretending to be sophisticated is hard.

That makes sense, thanks! Maybe we should start a thread on defining true fear, I think this could be an interesting discussion!



I know the feeling, but you communicated your point well, I think.