31 of the Wildest Things People Have Done to Avoid Facing Their Fears

‘I ran out of a doctor’s appointment naked’
31 of the Wildest Things People Have Done to Avoid Facing Their Fears

Contrary to that one quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt, there’s a whole lot more to fear than just fear itself. 

Take it from the very crafty Redditor who ventured where only Angus MacGyver — or let’s be real, SNL’s bumbling MacGruber — has before, in jerry-rigging a massive contraption to remove a branch from their roof instead of facing their fear of ladders. “The only way I could think to get it down was to duct-tape two rakes together, end to end, and try to get it with that,” he recalled. 

Their gadget, unfortunately, failed, and the branch is still sitting on his roof. “Probably gave the neighbors a laugh,” he concluded. 

This very grounded man is in good, albeit terrified, company. Other Redditors have divulged the greatest lengths they’ve gone to avoid facing their fears, including one who actually climbed out of a window to avoid walking past a spider.

pcpoobag 8y ago I hate the dentist. I dont know where this fear hatred and loathing came from but from a young age | hated it. The smell in the place. The instruments. Ughhh Anyway so I knew I had a dentist appointment so 10 year old me got out of bed at 5am, put on all the camo clothes I owned, facepaint, camo netting, the works. Went out into the garden and hid in a bush. Appointment was at 10am so I thought if I stayed there till midday the I would have missed it and no chance of
ZackSam 8y ago As a toddler I would always wake up in the middle of the night and see ghosts in the hallway. I have no idea what these were, but I still remember seeing these short, slender, opaque, white figures moving around the hallway. Weird as hell. Anyway, I was freaked out. My solution? Climb out of bed, run past the ghosts down the stairs, through the kitchen, and into the living room where I would hide under the coffee table and call for my parents for an indiscriminate amount of time. This happened a lot. 1.6K Award Share
RenderSettings1 8y ago Edited 8y ago I was afraid of alligators under my bed and I thought they were allergic to milk, so one night I dumped the entire gallon of milk under my bed. The next morning my room smelled like gorilla shit. edit: spell check edit 2: thank you for the gold! 3.9K Award Share ...
 8y ago I don't do ladders, but I'm also really anal about how my house looks. So when a large branch fell on the roof the only way I could think to get it down was to duct-tape two rakes together, end to end, and try to get it with that. It didn't work. Probably gave the neighbors a laugh. The branch is still up there. Award Share 522 ... + 15 more replies
blairetaylor09 8y ago I hated needles and anything to do with them. I was at the doctors and needed to get my blood drawn. My younger sister went first but I decided I wasn't gonna do it. So I hid behind a trash can. I was sixteen. It didn't work Award Share 573 ...
JonesMacGrath 8y ago I didn't eat for six days to avoid going to the store one time. I'm agoraphobic. 359 Award Share ... + 42 more replies
savagealchemist 8y ago I'm afraid of statues. I left Santa Fe a day early because either couldn't handle all the public art. I walked around a corner into a 15 foot tall Aztec warrior and almost had a panic attack. 496 Award Share ...
Dudurin 8y ago Edited 8y ago Travelled for almost a week where I had to drive ~1000km's and had to take 6 ferries to avoid 2 flights. 583 Award Share ...
LucyLooseMay 8y ago Climbed out of my bathroom window in nothing but a towel to avoid the spider hovering above the door 623 Award Share ...
Quality_Controller 8y ago I have an eating disorder. I walked 8.5 miles home in the freezing rain to avoid getting home early and risking eating more that day. 548 Award Share ...
gravitationaltim 8y ago OK, so I get grossed out by dirty plastic, like old toys or plastic mannequins. Like, looking at them makes me gag and I have to look away. No idea where it came from, but it's visceral. So like 8th grade gym everyone in my school has to do mandatory CPR training, with the final being verification by... Ugh... performing CPR on a dummy... Makes me sick just to think about. I was mortified, and I just knew that if I put my lips on that thing | would just vomit. The day before the final I
45MinutesOfRoadHead 8y ago This sounds so stupid, but I am genuinely horrified of the old school ventriloquist dolls(I blame Goosebumps). I started seeing a guy, and when I went to his house first the first time he had one in his room. I ran, and made him put it upstairs. Не didn't realize this was a genuine phobia and thought I just found them creepy, so later on he started chasing me with the doll and I was crying. His roomie realized that I was in full panic and got in the guy's face, while I hyperventilated in the corner.
Laidback36 8y ago I was pretty young and afraid of monsters, but I had woken up really early (3-4 am) and had to pee. So I wrapped myself in my comforter and moved at a snails pace out of my bed and towards the bathroom. By the time I opened the bathroom door it was light out. Kids at those ages are pretty bad at telling time, but i would guess that it took me about 2 hours to move ~25 feet. 337 Award Share ...
 8y ago Skipped school for three weeks straight in middle school to avoid playing Hot Cross Buns on recorder in front of my music class, the teacher still made me play it in front of the class, crying. 83 Award Share ... + 7 more replies
LookAtThisRhino 8y ago I have a fear of mirrors (especially in the dark). It's pretty mild now but when I was younger, if there was a mirror in the room where I was sleeping, I would find ANY possible position to sleep in that would let me avoid any potential eye contact with the mirror. The number of times I woke up with stiff neck or muscle cramps from odd positions... 67 Award Share ... + 18 more replies
_JasonDerulo 8y ago Run out of a doctors appointment naked. | absolutely hate needles. When I was a kid my mom took me to the doctor promising no shots this trip! The doctor comes in and says hello and all that. Не has his back turned to me and I can see him fiddling with something so I ask, is that a needle? And he turns around with a goddamn needle. So I scream bloody murder, jump off the table, and run to the door. As soon as I opened the door I realize I'm in my underwear and stop.
behamut 8y ago Edited 8y ago A girl I know was so afraid of a terrorism attack in her train that she took the bus instead, it made an hour commute into a 3 hour commute. In her mind the bus was safer because there were less people on it and also less immigrants with beards. Edit: some further info, this was a daily event for close to year,ever since the Brussels airport attacks, and it made it so she had to travel 6 hours a day. (including the wait between stops) 151 Award Share ...
DaenerysTargaryen69 8y ago I got a rag stuck on a pipe which I needed, So my friend gave me a ladder to go get it, what he didn't know is I was afraid of heights so instead of climbing the ladder I used the ladder like a stick to try to swing the rag down from the pipe. 129 Award Share ... + 11 more replies
Merry_Pippins 8y ago I'm afraid of dinosaurs, and have vivid nightmares about them. One time I had my coworkers check the stairwell at work (it was an office building downtown in a mid-sized city, we were in the middle of the building, not the top or bottom floors) to make sure they were clear. I got a lot of crap from them about it, but the peace of mind was wonderful. Also, I'm getting better, and I'm not as afraid these days. 82 Award Share ...
Niconini 8y ago I have a phobia of needles. I cannot get myself to get over it. I have done so many things about it but I still want to die whenever I have to get a shot or get bloodwork. Some things that I have done in response to needles: -stopped taking all my medication that made me have to get bloodwork every three months. I have bipolar. This was no bueno. -ran out of the office and away from the nurse who was going to take my blood. Had to get coaxed back in by my mom. -tried
Wallacegreenhouse 8y ago I was terrified of getting my wisdom teeth removed so once my mom and I arrived at the dentist and got out of the car I bolted and ran a few blocks til I got on a bus and went to my buddies house to smoke weed. 6 years later and now I keep some antibiotics on hand incase they get infected (again) -L()/) 44 Award Share ...
EmailThrowaway5 8y ago Ok I had a deathly fear of emails in college...I didn't check my email for 4 years and would just show up in person to do things or contact people. Basically my thought process was: I should check my email, but I might have important emails; major panic attack, don't check email. That cycle went on for 4 years. Probably really really mentally unhealthy. But I forced myself to check it when I applied for jobs, because I had too, no going to their office. If anyone thinks this is not recent, like email was new, nah
 8y ago I've given up vacations, tickets to games and otherwise good times because I'm fucking terrified of driving over big bridges. I live in South Jersey. I miss out on a lot. 36 Award Share ... Workwithmepeople 8y ago The same. Used to live in Western Ky. To get to do anything, you had to cross a big bridge. Missed out using free tickets to see Sir Elton John due to it. 6 Award Share ...
Stuck1nARutt 8y ago I'm terrified of Snakes but I actively go out and search for them in the wild to photograph/observe. So much so that I consider myself an amateur herpetologist and carry a homemade hook for handling them. To this day I haven't encountered any that I've been able to capture and it terrifies me to think what I would do when I do finally get one. All I'd want to do is hold it and manipulate it for photos, but I would most likely be sweating and shaking like nobodies business 34 Award Share ...
Dr_Doorknob 8y ago Not a fear but I really hated carrots was a kid. But my mom told me I need eat carrots so everyday when my grandma feed me before taking me to preschool and I would ask for carrots and ranch with my food. Since I didn't like carrots I would stick the carrots under the couch cushion. It was a foolproof plan, but the problem was I didn't use any of the ranch in my plate, that was suspicious because I specifically asked for ranch with my carrots. In the end I was caught and they never
 8y ago I am terrified of ET. Not all extraterrestrials, just the movie with that god damn monster. Anyway, when I was 12 (now 31), | was terrified to go into my bathroom at night (on the 2nd floor of my house) because I was convinced that ET was going to pop up in the window with his horrible disfigured face and glowing finger. So what does my 12 year old think to do when he has to pee late night? That's right, piss out my window that faces the street. I did this for about a year before
drink30beers 8y ago Young kid, sleeping over at a friends house. We went ding dong ditching people in our mutual neighborhood. Rang the bell at my violin teachers house and hid in the bushes and giggled like little girls. For a minute. Apparently they were having a family event and take ding dong ditching VERY SERIOUSLY. The entire house emptied of about 5-7 people with flashlights and they started combing their property and the road nearby. My friend and I ran the opposite way of his house, knocked on a pastors door and pretended like my friend had sprained his
KaDawnSony 8y ago I always told my boyfriend I puked alot because of acid reflux . . I told this lie so I could poop at his house . I would just loudly cough while I shit. Other times we would be on a drive and I would make him take me home so I could go grab my medication just to take a quick dump. 10 Award Share ... + 2 more replies
MrLakelynator 8y ago Edited 8y ago When I was a kid, I was deathly afraid of jumpscares. Still hate them. But, it got to the point where I would not go into any place even remotely dark in case I got scared by someone. We took a school trip to a museum sorta deal that had a Tactile maze, essentially a maze that took away sight and made you rely on other senses like touch. I had a mental breakdown to avoid going into that maze, sobbed like crazy in front of everyone. Teachers, other students, parents. I didn't care.
Tucker33 8y ago There used to be a vending machine a block away from my house. Every few nights I would walk down and get a mountain dew. One time, I reach in to get my drink and a damn spider was resting on my hand when I pulled it out. I screamed like a girl, threw the drink and ran back home. I refused to use that machine ever again. Because I didn't drive at that time I could either walk a mile to the store for a drink or give in to my laziness and drink water. I
 8y ago I'm so terrified of public speaking that in college I would do anything in my power to avoid it. On the first day of every semester, I would read through every syllabus to check if there would be a presentation. If there was, I would spend hours calculating what the highest possible grade would be if I took a zero for the assignment. Then I would work extra hard on all the other assignments and exams so I could still pass without giving a presentation. This method worked, and I graduated with honors and never gave one

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