Poll: I'm too scared to sleep!

[anian]

It's ok to be freaked out, that's what horror stories should do (personally I find the gore and similar has to be used just as a side dish not as the main course of horror). Anybody can give you a surprise scare or grose you out, but to creep you out and make you think about something - that takes skill.
I guess you might consider yourself lucky, if you can still be so disturbed by these stories, that means you still have more than enough imagination.
Btw the slenderman creeped me out as well, there was the story of a woman seeing him walking the hallway and then he/it spots her, but that's mostly cause we have a long hallway in our building that connects few apartments and there's a window in the kitchen which is about 20 inches high and it's placed just high enough so I can see somebody passing by but not enough to see what's happening...if I see a shadow passing on the ceiling, there's no going to sleep for more than a few hours.

First major fright period was after watching Snow white, was scared that the witch will come during the night and cut my head off, so I covered my head with a blanket. Hey, I was like 7, no logic in the world can counteract overactive imagination. Second was the Nightmare on Elm.

 

[Fireandice]

I just had a look at some stuff regarding this slenderman character. CHRIST he is bloddy scary. So much of an enigma around him. you're right about the whole mind-filling-in-the-blanks thing, its super creepy.

and i'm sorry if this just re-exhumes the whole idea from your mind, for anyone easily affected by this concept.

 

[Erana]

I used to have these bouts of completely random and irrational fear-
turns out it was a symptom of a seizure disorder.

At least, that's what the doctors are telling me now.
According to them, I've also had a brain tumor, not had a brain tumor and instead have polycystic ovaries (WTF? Even I could tell I didn't) had a brain tumor agian, and then be none of those and, in fact, be narcoleptic.

Wait, that bit confused me. Are you saying you have had ALL of that happen to you?!

I've been having a lot of weird symptoms for the past few years, and those were the (mis)diagnoses I've been given. Currently, they're explaining them by a seizure disorder that doesn't have any physical spasms or changes in consciousness.
So, yeah. I could be having a seizure at this very moment, if the neurologist is right.

Sounds to me like you have been seeing a psychiatrist or an MD- this sounds like more of a job for a psychologist. I mean, those symptoms sounds a lot like what I get when I am stressed around exam time.

I think I'm going to trust bloodwork and the monitoring they did of my brain.

-Anyway, I'm glad my idea actually works for someone else. Also, I know the feeling of being constantly misdiagnosed. It's a wonder you don't resent psychiatrists after all that, Erana.

Why do people assume I'm talking about psychiatrists? I've been failed by the people with the training to interpret a bunch of scientific evidence that something is physically wrong.

 

[Cody211282]

It's amazing how not scary that was with Lonely Island playing in the background

 

[Cody211282]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

I take it the proper resopnse to this wasnt to lol for a bit like I just did

 

[Soushi]

People with very active imaginations tend to have far more instances of irrational terror.

What i used to to, to deal with the stuff that would enter my head, was to imagine a Liason. Basically the most powerful, yet elegant looking thing you can imagine, mech, human, alien, whatever(i used my imaginary friend from when i was little, but more of an angel kinda form). Whenever something terrifying enters your mind, imagine a white slash mark cutting through it and smashing it. This is your Liason 'taking out the trash'. It sometimes helps to move your eyes with the slash, to better dramatize it. This Liason is all powerful and can destroy anything, even an image of it being destroyed, nothing is beyond its power. This technique, which i developed, has helped both me, and my cousin, overcome night terrors. I haven't used it in years, but it really does help, and i hope it helps you out.

 

[sarahvait]

It happens. I remember playing Fatal Frame for the first time and not being able to sleep that night (that was my first survival horror game, mind you).
I listen to the audio tape version of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book series on youtube sometimes, and I have to open the closet and check inside it and under the bed before I'm willing to go to sleep. And these are stories I first heard as a kid, and they seem to freak me out even more these days! But the guy reading them was really excellent, IMO....

Anyhow, I usually counter that by indulging in something light or funny. I come on here and listen to some Zero Punctations. You could go to Hulu or one of those other TV show streaming sites and watch some cartoons. Watch something laughably bad like those really old Hanna Barbara cartoons. It takes your mind off the scary if the last thing you saw before going to sleep was something that was opposite.

BTW, IT freaked me out as a kid too. It helped later to remind myself, wow, Tim Curry is doing really good as Pennywise the Clown. Maybe picture him in that ridiculous getup from Rocky Horror Picture Show.

 

[Newtilator]

Listening to music or concentrating on a good film/show youve just watched usually helps. Or imagine the hideous monstrosity is your pet. (Havent seen candle cove, no idea if there is one)

 

[Soushi]

Also, I find that bloody Avatar avatar far more distressing than anything mentioned previously.

heh heh, Avatar Avatar...

 

[RickyLill]

well think of it logicaly then, i read up on slenderman and it says that it usualy turns up it forests, fog and along roads so why the hell would it be in your room?

also

grow up

 

[sheogoraththemad]

can you please give me a link to the movie. I want to look at this shit and cant find it anywhere.
EDIT: why do all the strange paranormal things happen in America??

 

[FallenJellyDoughnut]

Slenderman is scary? I was at most, creeped out just slightly from it, but this Candle Cove looks interesting, also, grow some balls.

 

[WestMountain]

You made me look it up and now I'm really scared D:


Guys seriously, do you guys see screaming until 0:38 and then it goes to static?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o2h5ym6ZlVY

 

[Pariah87]

Wtf, I just watched that Candle Cove and laughed my arse off. As for slenderman, again I laugh.

I think I'm too concerned with tangible threats to worry about things seen on TV or made up on the internet. Although when I read about the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs last year it took me a couple of hours to get to sleep, it was the reality of it that sickened me and the video that I found but couldn't bring myself to watch. What's worse is that people could watch the video, then make jokes about it.

I'm gonna have to go with the "grow up" option though. Gang of 10 drunken chavs hanging round outside a co-op, be afraid. Slenderman? Nah.

 

[Ciran]

Well, I never have had that problem exactly, but sometimes something will stick in my mind for whatever reason and I'll keep myself up thinking about it. What I normally do is pick a show that I like but that isn't to mentally stimulating (I mean, it can be intelligent, it just doesn't bring up a lot of philosophical or deep questions) and play it for a few hours. Anime normally works, or a show like Monk or Burn Notice, something of that nature. This normally has the right effect and I'm asleep before I even realize it.

 

[Vagabond_Samurai]

Wtf, I just watched that Candle Cove and laughed my arse off. As for slenderman, again I laugh.

I think I'm too concerned with tangible threats to worry about things seen on TV or made up on the internet. Although when I read about the Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs last year it took me a couple of hours to get to sleep, it was the reality of it that sickened me and the video that I found but couldn't bring myself to watch. What's worse is that people could watch the video, then make jokes about it.

I'm gonna have to go with the "grow up" option though. Gang of 10 drunken chavs hanging round outside a co-op, be afraid. Slenderman? Nah.

Wow...that's a damn shame...people are terrible creatures sometimes.

Back on topic, the method of facing fears has worked for me. I used to be afraid of things like scary movies, the dark, etc when I was younger but I forced myself to work through those fears and now they don't affect me anymore. Nothing to fear but fear itself...though easier said than done.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Right so lately I'e been having a lot of trouble trying to sleep. A couple days ago I read a creepypasta called Candle Cove (if you haven't read it and are easily scared, do NOTlook it up) and, as scared as I was, I stupidly Youtube'd it and watched the video. (again, not advised). And again, in another rousing act of stupidity, I looked up Slenderman and what not. Creepypasta and everything.

And now, I am petrified of my own Goddamn shadow.

I've always been a bit of a fraidy cat. When I was 11, I watched the film adaptation of IT and I was so scared I couldn't sleep for weeks. A couple years before that, I snuck downstairs to watch Nightmare on Elm Street and I woke up with nightmares for months afterwards. But now, a somewhat cynical 19 year old lad is petrified of a story he knows is made up. Thing is, it's started to affect my health. I stay up till all hours awake in bed, jolting at every flipping thing that goes bump in the night. I can't be at my house on my own, even during the day.

Can The Escpaist offer anything that might help ease my touble? I know it sounds so stupid, but I could really do with som advise. I know it's ridiculous, believe me, I keep telling myself the very same thing.

What did you watch on youtube? Was it this marblehornets stuff with a whole bunch of entries spanning months? I'm on entry 22 and this shit is starting to freak me out. If we are talking about the same stuff then if you watched entry 19 and the one video response to it, I can see why you're having trouble sleeping. That is some messed up stuff...
And to all you other fraidy cats out there, have you ever been like this before? Did you find a way to deal with it? And if so, helpa brother out?

EDIT: Crap! Wrong area of discussion, coulda Mod move it for me?

 

[Mozza444]

Hey don't worry, I'm scared of sleep itself, let me explain myself. You know how when you finally get to sleep you've been thinking and suddenly it all fizzes out? For me I always think that that is an experience close to death and considering I think too much that's just a one-way ticket to insomnia.

I actually get like this some nights, death is probobaly my biggest fear.. it seriously scares the shit out of me. Luckily most nights im fine though.
OP: Sorry can't help you, i'm really not that easily scared

 

[SovietSecrets]

No worries man, after reading about Slenderman I was afraid to go to bed and kept looking over my shoulder every few min. I beat it by just laying in bed listening to music, something peaceful works best for me, and eventually I forget and fall asleep.

 

[AngloDoom]

I don't have the mindset to get into books, films, etc, enough to get scared by them. Doesn't mean I'm brave, I'm quite the coward with true danger. However, it's perfectly normal to get scared by things. If it makes you ashamed, try and correct it. If not, then that's fine. Don't let people dictate your very fears.