Thunder and lightning
My fear of thunder and lightning stems from childhood. Growing up, the early and mid summer season hosted a number of very intense thunder storms. These made me very anxious, I became fearful of getting struck by lightning (even if indoors). To this day, I still have this fear and have a number of "rituals" I do when there is a storm as a way to protect myself. I will write about those rituals after this brief historical prelude. As a child, I quickly began to correlate the color of the clouds with how severe the storm would be. The darker grey (or "purple") the cloud was, the more intense and scarier the storm would be. The louder the thunder, the closer the lightning. Because of this, I developed an intense fear for purple colored clouds due to the impending fear it would soon provide with a severe storm. As a child, I became obsessed with the weather out of fear. I looked at weather reports very frequently and sometimes the color of the clouds were all I could think about. I remember in 5th grade this fear being even more intense, and sometimes I would have "knots" in my stomach due to the fear of storms during school, or on my walk home. This fear was even worse while at school due to my inability to hide in a safer area. When at home during a storm, I would retreat to my basement for a lesser chance of being struck by lightning. I developed a few "coping mechanisms" to help me ignore the storm until it passed. However, my fear is still not gone, though I no longer have a panic attack the moment there is thunder. I have gotten slightly better, but I am still very fearful and overreact compared to the average person.

Purple clouds
Stems from childhood thunderstorms. See "Thunder and lightning" entry for more information about this fear.

Emergancy Alert System
I heard the Emergancy Alert System (ESA) many times during childhood. It also stems from thunderstorms, as they would play this terrifying sound on the radio and TV to alert citizens of a severe storm. The ESA is a terrifying sound followed up by a scary, monotone, robotic text-to-speech voice reading what the impending doom is. I also heard the ESA sound, followed up by the voice which would read about a child getting abducted. The ESA sound alone is scary, but when paired with impending doom, makes it worse. Therefore, I am scared of the ESA.

Unsuspecting explosions
My semi-irrational fears are more recent to adult hood, likely from being exposed to more tanks and thus, opening my mind to possible catastrophes as a results of being next to various types of tanks holding potential exposive substances. For example, I buy CO2 tanks to make my own carbonated beverages at home. However, I am in constant fear that somehow the CO2 tank will randomly explode, shooting thick metal shards at a high velocity at my body, like a bomb. I'm afraid this could happen due to weather conditions such as the tank being in too hot of weather (though not likely, it's an irrational fear), or possibly if the tank is dropped and results in an explosion (as far as I'm aware, tanks have a valve to release any pressure that would come out during a fall). This fear is not limited to CO2 tanks, as I also have this fear with propane tanks and nitrogen tanks. Sometimes I will be at a gas station (I don't drive but sometimes my driver has to top-up her car), and I see these big propane tanks. They will have a warning label on/near the tank warning of combustion (such as smoking too close to the tank) causing an explosion of the massive propane tank. I worry about this and have once witnessed someone smoking about 20 feet from the tank, which made me worry. I do not have a fear of my CRT TVs exploding (technically imploding), likely because I'm familiar with the inner mechanics of CRTs and know how unlikely it is for a CRT to implode. However, I am less knowledgable about tanks and substances, allowing my mind to wander and create fears.

Second story floors breaking from too much weight
Any time I have lived in a space with a second story, I am constantly thinking about how much weight I am putting on the floorboards and the possibility of the floor collapsing due to too much weight. Second story floors may not have as much support compared to ground level floors, meaning we must be conscious as to how much weight we're applying to an area and for how long. For example, I would not put a piece of furniture that weights 300lbs into the middle of a room because the second story floor has less support in the middle than it does right next to the wall. I would also consider not leaving that furniture in that second story for a long period of time over the concern that it may weaken the floorboards and eventually collapse the floor. I understand this may be irrational.

Ground floor gets crushed by second story floor from too much weight
Similar to the above, my fear of two-story buildings remains even on the ground floor. If the second story does in fact have too much weight, the ground floor will be the victim of the crushing, resulting in possible death or great bodily injury to someone on the ground floor. Because of this, if I am on a ground floor with a second story present, I try to align myself where I know there is less furniture on the second story just in case.

Car Crashes
Transportation is something I dislike due to the uncertainty every time you opt to transport. We cannot control other drivers on the road, our fate is in their hands every single time a car passes by. In most scenarios in my life, I am responsible for my fate and can make smart decisions to lessen the chances of death. However, with transporation, this security is completely taken even if the driver driving you is a good driver. The other drivers can hit your car, causing injury or death. This fear is partly why I don't drive - I'm overly cautious to the point where I may be unsafe on the road because I cannot make confident quick-time decisions that other drivers are able to make. I have other reasons to not drive, such as: women shouldn't drive (logically), I have low requirements and therefore cannot justify owning a car and paying registration and insurance, etc.

Brain Eating Amoeba
I have heard of people dying due to swimming in fresh water lakes from a deadly bacteria present in the water. This bacteria will cause a slow and painful death. I refuse to go into fresh water lakes due to the chance of encountering brain eating amoeba. I also do not know how to swim.

I don't have many other fears aside from basic survival instincts that many other humans have.

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