"I Do Not Look Out Of Windows At Night" – 19 Completely Irrational Fears That People Have (2025)

Recently, u/justanotherhustle asked r/AskReddit, "What's a completely irrational fear you have?" And we thought we'd share some of the top responses.

1. "Every time I hear a plane or helicopter flying over I think 'THIS IS IT' and the louder it gets the closer it is to smashing into my house and taking out the entire street. Every damn time. Every day/night at the same time for 10 years. I never learn."

–OatMilk2Sugars

2. "The bridge collapsing under my car. This thought only occurs to me if I have to stop on a bridge, like if traffic is backed up."

–HawaiianShirtsOR

3. "Growing up, I had a fear of popcorn ceilings. I feared one of the pieces would fall into my eyeball. I had this fear for over a decade. Then, the last night I was in my childhood home (we had sold it and were closing on it) it fucking happened. Right into eyeball."

–pbd1996

4. "Someone always being in my backseat when I’m driving."

–jamisonsuxx

5. "Being the only person in a swimming pool... because of sharks."

–JackassWhisperer

6. "Grasshoppers. I think A Bug's Life may have scarred me."

–AnxiousChai

7. "Mirrors at night. If I catch a glimpse of myself in a dark mirror I’m like, 'Well, I just summoned a demon. Guess I’ll die'."

–blushanddagger

8. "Driving with my window open and a bird flying in and it's beak impaling my temple."

–suppsammay

9. "That someday I'll be asked to participate in a trust exercise in which someone closes the door on me while I'm inside an industrial washing machine and then starts the cycle."

–u6crash

10. "I fear that the garbage disposal will turn on when I place my hand to make sure there isn’t anything other than food scraps in the drains. I always use a spoon first to make sure it doesn’t just magically turn on."

–Sunflower_MoonDancer

11. "I don't like walking on the grates over subways. I'm quite sure one will fail and I'll plunge to my death underground, right in front of a sub."

–reesemulligan

12. "Aquariums. Especially being in those underwater tunnels. I have a fear that it’s going to explode while I’m walking under it. I’ve been to the aquarium twice in my life and never again."

–Easy-Guidance-3355

13. "Any couch I don’t know the history of."

–Adventurous-Egg-2089

14. "The front of large ships."

–Substantial-Spend236

15. "That if I look out of a window at night someone will be looking back. I do NOT look out of windows at night."

–Logical-Command

16. "That the chiropractor will just snap my neck and take my belongings."

–AbrocomaLow8481

17. "Being locked in a box and tossed into the ocean."

–Successful-Positive8

18. "That one day while driving, someone will discard their cigarette butt in the lane next to me and it will land on my car and cause my gas tank to catch on fire, and then my whole car will catch on fire and I'll die."

–PaisleyPerkins

19. "I fear that my apartment will be an awful mess when I die."

–TheMermaidHarmony

H/T to u/justanotherhustle and r/AskReddit for sharing!

Any more to add? Let us know in the comments below!