@mentor11 OH GOD WHY That is so nasty! I can't imagine! Alright, we're even now!
@FunCartel I hate the thought of being digested, I think about it every time I see a nature documentary where a snake swallows some other creature whole. As for the earwigs... ain't that where ear hair comes from?
Have an awesome day all! I look forward to reading more later! 🤗
@squeakytoy Yes, that scene freaked me out. I place a protective shield over my belly button when cuddling.
Not.
@squeakytoy If my ears grow a mullet that makes me an honorary Canadian right?
@littermate The outhouse concern has haunted me also.
Enjoy your day, @mentor11 ! Hopefully there won't be enough cursed responses to promptly spoil it when you get back, lol
@Mmart You kid, but I wonder how many cuddle buddies would look at it and say, "that's a great idea, I want one too"
@FunCartel Combine the mullet with a plaid jacket and a Budweiser and your citizenship card will arrive by mail in 5-12 business days! Not so bad, eh?
This should come with a trigger warning. 🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴🥴
@Sashamcgee I'm happy to add a trigger warning! I don't want people to end up reading disturbing content they weren't prepared for. Let me update the title.
EDIT: I just added a warning in the title - Is that better?
Four words: Undiagnosed flesh eating bacteria
I am still remembering Jeff Goldblum’s old body parts falling off in The Fly and I associate the bacteria results with that.
Spontaneous human combustion has always interested me. I still can't decide if it's real.
Most people that have “combusted” have been smokers
@FunCartel
Warning: Cursed flesh eating bacteria story in spoiler
I knew a woman who got an infection of flesh eating bacteria on her face, and it ate a hole through her cheek before the doctors were able to stop it. It was scary as hell. I don't want to think about what happens if this goes undiagnosed.
@BuggleBear I just realized I haven't read up much on spontaneous human combustion. Should I? Will I regret it?
It's pretty interesting. Kinda gross, but interesting.
That new enthusiast that just signed up and I have been messenging back and forth and everything is going so swimmingly, what really is ... is the enthusiast is only keeping up her end of the conversation bec she applied for pro and is buttering me up for a pay cuddle
@cuddlerforu24 Aaaaw, I hope that isn't the case! I've got my fingers crossed for you. Hopefully things will progress to a nice enthusiast-enthusiast cuddle session for the two of you.
@littermate @Mmart Would you rather...?
https://www.foxnews.com/us/alaska-woman-outhouse-bear
a snake or a grizzly? 🐍 vs 🐻
Well, bears aren't venomous and they're usually easier to spot than snakes (unless they're hiding in your outdoor privy) , so I'd go bear.
I have several.
As a child, I was gripped with fear and constantly envisioned our car flipping over due to high clearance (in my dad’s Bronco) and/or imbalanced weight (any car). I come from a family of 7 non-petite people and we’d all pile into a tiny 1990 Honda Civic hatchback. Two of us (usually me and brother) sat loose in the back cargo space with no seats, much less seatbelts. The car was always massively overloaded when we all went somewhere together and it literally terrified me, especially if the weight wasn’t evenly distributed, to the point of panic attacks.
Same with semi and camping trailers and boats. Anything that can be loaded unevenly or with too much height and weight and starts leaning in one direction or is so heavily overloaded it’s obvious it may cause tipping problems. It all still freaks me the eff out. Tall and narrow cars, too. Like those Mercedes vans that are like 15’ high and maybe 5’ wide. Hell. To. The. No.
I had an experience of taking the Staten Island ferry when I was about 12 and as we slowly came into port everyone got up and moved to the port side exits and the boat was leaning so far off balance because of all the people’s body weight moving to one side, I almost jumped overboard to get away from it. I thought it was going to capsize. Same with buses. When everyone sits on one side it makes it lean to that side or has too many people it can barely stay on all wheels with turning. I’ll be sweating and literally having a panic attack on the inside and want to jump off at any stop.
My dad was a wild and high-risk driver (excessive speeding, tailgating, passing on double lines and/or very close to head on collisions, rolling through stop signs, reading the newspaper while driving on the freeway and kids in the car) and loved to go off-roading too. Naturally, this involved driving over boulders that would tip the car almost completely over, and driving right to the edge of dirt roads on cliff sides and no guard rails. I would literally be having panic attacks and nervous breakdowns to the point of tears and my dad would just laugh at me and tell me to quit being a scaredy-cat. So I had/have nightmarish visions of our car getting too close to the edge, the road edge crumbling beneath us, and falling off the side of these mountains and rolling all the way down to the bottom of these canyons. Especially when I’d look down and see old, abandoned, rusted-out cars that had done that very thing in years past.
Another was the fear of my childhood house falling off the side of the hill it was built on. Literally there was only about a two foot wide space between the back wall edge of the house and a drop off. Arizona gets some monstrous monsoon rains and our ground is so dry and hard it’s like concrete. Water doesn’t soak in like most places and so it would create flash floods and runoff streams downhill that would erode more and more of the drop-off at the back of the house area. I would have nightmares about the edge of the house finally collapsing over that drop off. Seeing photos and video clips of houses built right on the sides of cliffs freaks me the hell out. Especially all along the west coast where heavy rains turn the earth into sponge and mudslides and these houses’ foundations literally start to fall out from beneath them, falling apart and collapsing off the side of the hill.
I also have a thing about sinkholes. Those freak me the hell out, too. Probably don’t need to expound on that.
And multistory buildings collapsing from too much weight in upper stories and/or not enough support/poor foundations, etc. I live on the second story of a house with a floor that was not built very well with enough support beams. So as I walk around it’s bouncy, makes the walls creak, and the floor is uneven and basically feels like rolling hills under my feet. It’s much sturdier near the walls and slopes toward the center and back up where the support beams are, giving it that rolling hills sensation. I often wake up having nightmares and panic attacks that the floor finally caves under me and I’m falling with all of my stuff into the garage beneath me.
And with that, stands, platforms, arenas, or any kind of thing or building where too many people are at once and it (could) cause(s) it to collapse = massive panic.
Clutter also stresses me out and gives me that overloaded panicky feeling again, especially if I’m above ground level. So this panic happens in my place regularly even though I don’t have that much stuff.
I basically get panicked when I feel trapped in crowded or cluttered areas and will get crushed under any kind of inescapable weight, or am on unsturdy ground or foundations. I’m sure the deeper fears there are obvious.
@squeakytoy 💜💜 you da best
@TheMidnightOwl that's a lot of stuff to deal with. Particularly rough living in a place that doesn't make you feel safe. Big hug going from me to you right now.
@mentor11
edit------ I heard that wasn't actually true BTW.
@CuddleDuncan Aw, thank you. Yes. Growing up in the presence of my parents and most family and peers was absolutely not a safe place. And primed me to struggle with so much anxiety in so many areas. And to need so many hugs, comforting, and safe relationships.
And why the forums can also be so triggering sometimes. My desire to foster safe places for all leads to some accusing me of “finger wagging” when I drop the hammer on those who sometimes make this an unsafe place - even downright hostile - via rude comments, entitlement, arrogance, jokes that not everyone is laughing at, and sexual pressure or worse. But that’s a different topic for a whole different thread.
@squeakytoy 👍
@cuddlerforu24 Yes, the enthusiast in pro clothing occurs all too much. It is one of those practices that makes other pros and enthusiasts look bad.
@TheMidnightOwl
I'm sorry this was such a huge part of your childhood, and it set such a foundation of anxiety! A lot of these are familiar to me - I witnessed a ton of injuries and near-misses growing up because of this kind of reckless behavior. I find my brain always wants to be two steps ahead, trying to think of all the things around me that could kill or injure people. On the plus side, I'm always one of the first people to react in an emergency, but there aren't really any other positives. The stress is mostly for nothing these days. Do you find it's the same for you?
@JasonCuddles Oh god man, that comic is so nasty Why are you this way
@squeakytoy That gif. Lol
Yes. My parents never should have had children. But. With that adversity it has also made me incredibly sharp, aware, sensitive to others’ suffering, intuitive, desire and make choices to protect and keep others safe from harm, and am resilient as hell. Most people have no idea I still suffer with panic attacks around certain things because I present as so calm, cool, collected, and self-controlled.
So, I totally agree. I am the one who is rarely caught completely off guard by emergencies because I’m prepared and anticipating them and even see them occurring before others notice, and usually know what to do when it happens. Sorry that you also had such experiences growing up. It’s not okay.
@valkyrievixen Sheiss, a bear in the outhouse. That would scare the crap out of you.
@squeakytoy You made my point about the bacteria. Are you ever around her after that wondering if she will say something tongue-in-cheek?
@FunCartel I never wondered that, but... (I'm using a double spoiler tag for this one)
... sometimes when she seemed worried, I wondered what was eating away at her