Haiku Hump Day: Fears and Phobias

With Halloween fast approaching, and horrorthon just around the corner, this week's HHD topic just kind of jumped out at me. In fact, I was almost certain that this topic had been done already, but I scoured the blog and couldn't find it.

Everybody seems to have at least one, and what is comical to one person can be terrifying to another. I want to keep the topic fairly broad, so anything is game, from little things that creep you out all the way to your deepest fear. That said, I couldn't help but convert the official DSM-IV definition of phobia into a haiku:

Criteria for
a clinical phobia
ala DSM

A.
Marked and persistent
fear that is excessive or
unreasonable

B.
Phobic stimulus
invariably provokes
an anxious response

C.
The phobic person
recognizes the fear is
unreasonable

D.
Phobic stimulus
is avoided or endured
with intense distress

E.
Fear and avoidance
interfere with person's life
significantly

It only seems fair to start out the topic by disclosing a couple of my own fears:

I am scared of bees
It's the stinging that does it
Apiphobia

When I was younger
I was really scared of dogs
I've outgrown it now

And would you believe that early on in our relationship, AC took advantage of my confessing these fears to her and made up a story about a horrible half-bee, half-dog creature she called a bee-dog?!?

Anyway, good luck and have fun!