What are you instinctively, automatically intimidated by?

Heights and guns.

I can use my words to deal with everything else.

Beautiful women.
Bugs.
Heights.
Traffic.

I’m a wuss.

Bees, Wasps, Skinheads, Cops.

I’m intimidated by big dogs. I don’t have a phobia though.

Girls I’m attracted to.

Flying commercial and that was way before 9/11.

I’m intimidated by big dogs as well. Always have been. I’m also intimidated by big tough-looking guys and spiders.

idiots in large groups

Grizzly Bears And Pelicans

@Ben_Dover O_o Why pelicans?

Have you ever been close up to one of those puppies?! They are B-I-G! And they can be somewhat territorial (You should them in Florida, all perched in a giant tree which sways in the air from the weight of all those Pelicans)! Those big birdies can be very intimidating!

The mighty cave cricket.

I’m a little claustrophobic!

Whales. Semi trucks. (Both phobias, I just don’t like big things…)
Teachers, but only good ones.
Super confident, good looking, successful women.

Crowds and aggressive geese.

I visited the HMS Queen Mary once. We went down into the engine room. There, sitting in an open bay (or maybe it was covered by glass or something, I dunno), was one of her massive propellers. And below the propeller… nothing. An endless, featureless screaming blue abyss. Nearly scared the crap out of me.
Since then, I’ve decided that I also don’t like ships out of water.

Violence/confrontation.

crazy people with bloody hypodermic needles

Large men when I’m out alone at night. Heights (phobia). Big dogs (and by big, I really mean anything over the size of say, a Chihuahua.)

Latex helium balloons (the mylar ones are okay)—they make me break out in a cold sweat and hperventilate—
Open-backed stairs
The hump-backed camel crickets in Mom’s basement

My MIL and clowns at my front door!

Ventriloquist dolls.

The conceded who paradoxically assume authority. manly men in general trigger the residuals of my childhood inferiority complex, but it passes quickly

I’m intimidated by people who are capable of creating objects of beauty or physical complexity. Perhaps it’s the process by which others create that I find intimidating.

Bugs and big dogs (maybe animals in general). I have yet to be intimidated by a person.

Police, the president of my company and scorpions, not necessarily in that order.

I am intimidated by the idea of having to have an emotional conversation with my husband.

Grizzly bears.

1a) Aggressive, overbearing, controlling people, and especially a boss like that
1b) Mindless mid-level bureaucrats responding in small-minded domineering ways when I do anything not 100% by the book.
2) public speaking
3) crowds
4) spiders
5) heights, as I’ve grown older. Loved them as a child.
6) being alone at end-of-life

Having to make decisions.

Bugs
Guns
Hospitals
Public speaking
Large crowds
Buildings with only 1 exit/entrance

Large gatherings of birds. I always get the feeling they’re getting ready to mass-poop on some poor sucker walking by. As a statue, we’re among the most common victims of such attacks.

I am creeped out by dolls, manicans, ventriliquist dummies, and anything else that looks like it’s human but isn’t. I also don’t like statues of angels, because of an extremely scary episode of Doctor Who.

@OwlofHappiness; Oooh. “Blink”. Scares me every time.

Gun shots. Strange noises in the night (when I’m outside). Rustlings in the woods (when outside). Unknown things crawling on my skin. People sneaking up behind me and suddenly yelling, “Boo!”

Public speaking, when I’m not super-sure what I’m talking about, or if I don’t own what I’m being asked to speak about.

The only thing/person that can still raise a bit of intimidation is my ex-husband of 8 years who is still extremely angry and bitter that I divorced him. The perpetual victim that blames everyone else for the consequences of his own set up.

We rarely have reason to communicate but he still, after all this time, never misses an opportunity to put me down or find a way to try and intimidate me.

I know it’s his wounded pride and his resentment of my happiness, and while there are no longstanding effects I still feel rather sick when I see an email from him. lol

Flying. But flying sober would be agony!

edit: ^ *conceding (got the word half-confused with conceited) People who’s actions are consistently based on outside authorities instead of their own. I’ve suffered too many misunderstandings growing up to have any tolerance for people who don’t perceive the world through their own eyes yet are confident in their actions.

Cops, my 10th grade chem lab teacher, and seals with yellow bow ties

I’m afraid to throw away things in public trash cans. When I do, I always have to check a few times to make sure I didn’t throw away something I didn’t mean to.

I’m intimidated by men in authority. I have to work extra hard and balancing out some sort of relationship with them that ever feels a tiny bit comfortable for me. I think this is why I always end up hating my husbands. (I’ve had three, plus a broken engagement) I have door mat written across my forehead.

Powerful-seeming people. Really aggressive, authoritative, my-way-or-the-highway types. If I walk into a room, and there’s someone with that look of “These people are totally beneath me”, I feel intimidated and uncomfortable. But that’s my problem. I have to learn that people do that as a front most of the time, that I’m not a child anymore, and that I have as much right to take up space or be somewhere or talk to people as anyone else.

Speaking on the phone.

Large crowds of stupid people. They attack logic like an white blood cells on an infection. Especially the ones with painted signs that say “OBAMA IS AN SOCIALIST MUSLIN” 0_o

Personal questions.
Small groups of people (of any age).
Intravenous drugs.

@Coloma I have the same situation except there are no emails. He can’t call anymore since he doesn’t have my number but he did have that same attitude.

Cops, public speaking, talking to strangers, things that go fast (for lack of a better description – I’d rather sew by hand than learn how to use a sewing machine, for example).

large groups of any kind.If I meet a group of friends and they’re more than 4 I’m automatically intimated by them even if they’re my friends.
My young female teachers(under 30)
Toddlers
Singing in front of a public

Cops
Flying, stinging insects
Big dogs
My dad
Any man when I am alone and/or in a strange situation
Cops

@Aster

Lucky girl!

Yep, divorcing a sociopathic narcissist is often the gift that keeps on giving, for a loooong, looong, time. haha

Crowds, speaking to people about anything important, being alone in the dark, talking to boys I fancy.

Angry women.

Men I am not into, hitting on me

@Marva Oh yeah, that too. Especially if they are aggressive about it

The parking lot at Wal Mart.

@hawaii_jake: That tops my answer, how could I forget? I know how I forget, I push the trauma away after each visit and panic attack in the checkout queue.

@Marva – I forgot that one. Me too.

Heights
cockroaches
elevators (I am always afraid it will break)
big white vans (sort of uncertain about them)
tall towers (when I’m under them)
cardboard cutouts of people with eyes (it looks like they are looking at me)
hairy spiders
etc. etc. etc.
I’m a scaredy cat ha ha :)

Traffic circles, even merging when the highway is busy. I would be intimidated by street gangs but they don’t exist in my world, ie my house.

Cutting roast beef with a sharp knife. My husband has to do it for me, ever since I nearly cut my finger off several years back.

bees, wasps, hornets, staplers, dolls with button eyes (totally creepy!!!!), snakes, big crowds, singing and talking in front of crowds, tall dudes in black hoodies, ordering my food at resturaunts ( I let my parents do it ha ha ), strangers offering food to me from resturants, loud noises

@faye -I’m so glad I’m not the only one with traffic circle issues. I have the most horrible time driving through them and don’t even like being a passenger in one.

@tedibear I’ll do my best to find alterate routes!

Beltway driving. I hate it, hate it, hate it. To top it off, the last time I drove on the Washington DC beltway, I got into a bad accident. I wonder if I’ll ever drive it again?

What is a beltway?

@tinyfaery It’s a circular highway/freeway, that goes around a city. The whole thing is one big curve, with concrete barriers and narrow lanes. Ours is this one.

Thanks for the answer. That does seem intimidating. Though I maintain that if I can drive in L.A., I can drive anywhere.

@augustlan AHHHHH THE MEMORIES. MAKE IT STOP, MAKE IT STOP

I don’t think much intimidates me. I don’t hero or celebrity worship and I don’t have many phobias and I avoid situations where my phobias could come up. Sometimes, when I really like someone, being near them can make me fluttery but that’s about it. Oh, and when I start a degree program, I get a bit intimidated at the beginning by my peers but it takes about one class or two before I realize that they’re not at all worth being intimidated about and aren’t as bright as I thought they were.

@tinyfaery I have driven in LA and on the Beltway…. the Beltway was worse. And no, I did not think it was possible, either. But you could probably handle it better than I did.