Thread: A phobia of being cremated o.O

Yeah, it's interesting some of the harmless things that some people fear.
Like moths, I used to know a chick in Wilkesboro that was absolutely afraid of moths.

Sounds completely ridiculous on fronts. Even religious ones. I can understand fear of moths, spiders and various creatures, but to fear something that you won't experience out of fear that you will experience it... Too bad people like this won't realize the irrationality of their own fear.

Originally Posted by Black_Eagle

Sounds completely ridiculous on fronts. Even religious ones. I can understand fear of moths, spiders and various creatures, but to fear something that you won't experience out of fear that you will experience it... Too bad people like this won't realize the irrationality of their own fear.

It's not that they don't realize it. It's that they can't help it.
This is kind of like laughing at a kid in a wheelchair...

I don't think it's that odd. I have a phobia of what happens to me after death, only because it's out of my control.

I don't fear spiders because I can walk away from them or squish them if need be. I don't fear heights because I don't have to look over the edge if I don't want to. And I don't fear snakes because they're usually more fearful of me to begin with. But what happens when I'm dead is completely out of my hands. I can only trust that the people around me will carry out my wishes.

I also have a phobia of being cremated, not because I think I'll experience it but because they burn you in a huge commercial oven, amidst the leftover ashes of countless others. Not to mention the fact that they probably won't get all of mine out, leaving particles of my dead body to remain in a firey oven for all eternity. If I'm burned I'd rather do it the old-fashioned way, on a pyre outdoors or something.

But I have a much bigger fear of embalming. I hate the idea of bloating my insides with chemicals and being nailed into a wooden box, then surrounded by concrete in a hole in the ground. Not ever being able to decompose, just rotting in a tomb while it fill up with gases from my rotting corpse....ugh.

I mean, my dead body won't mind, but I don't like thinking about spending an eternity like that. I'd rather decompose properly and be done with it.

Those people with death phobias should just write airtight wills.

Acatalephobic, Me too!!
But the biggest reason I'm so fearful of being embalmed or being cremated is because I watched a 20/20 or Dateline show when I was a young teen about people who were still alive but they pulse was so weak it wasn't registering and they experienced a lot of hell when they came to in the morgue or body bag.
Ever since that show, I've had the phobia. I've told everyone I know when I'm about to die, I hope to know so I can walk out into the wilderness and die on my own. I don't know WHY I'm comfortable being eaten by wild animals (what if I'm not dead but too weak to fight), but it appeals to me MUCH more. I guess, like you said, it may be about control. Being left to the mercy of man is scarier to me than being left to the mercy of nature.

Other than that... when I was a kid/teen/early 20's I used to have a strange phobia about losing my memories. I grew out of that for the most part, but I still can't watch shows like "A Beautiful Mind" without triggering the old emotions.

I also have a phobia about roaches and food. I would strip naked in a room full of strangers if a roach happened to crawl onto my clothes where I could get it off. As for food... I'm afraid it expires and can't bring myself to eat as a normal person does- which is why I usually eat either canned, boxxed or TV meals or eat out.

The food one is the worst, but all of them are minor.

I also carry around babywipes that I soak in rubbing alcohol. A lot of people think I have a germ phobia but I don't. I just hate it when my hands feel dirty. It also gives me something to subtly fidget with (people rarely realize I'm holding one).