That's not quite what I'm thinking of. Aging is inevitable so I've pretty much accepted it, and the gradual death brought on by old age is a hell of a lot less scary than say, being killed over a period of hours by radiation or some kind of deadly supervirus.

Don't worry about that, your just seeing the FNORDs...


Seriously, you encounter a plastic bag.
On the plastic bag is a BIG 6" by 6" NEON ORANGE SQUARE with a giant BLACK BIOHAZARD SYMBOL in the middle of it. Inside the bag, Is a plain ham and cheese sandwich, which I have made. Almost instinctively, you will want to put this in the garbage, or call the cops.

It's called Mental Conditioning. we have to deal with it from childhood... preschool and elementry school telling us "don't eat this, it's poison" "don't breath this, it's poison" etc. we are bombarded with warning lables with horrible, graphic and detailed consequences of what ignoring the warnings are. I would consider this a good thing because it means people won't do something stupid like drinking formaldehyde... OH WAIT that's the main ingredient of most artificial sweeteners... lol...


It goes from basic mental conditioning, into BRAINWASHING, when simply seeing something, causes anxiety, which is the case for you. Don't feel bad, there's probably hundreds of thousands of people who react that way, In fact, I count on it.


I stole a box of empty, un-opened biohazard bags from a hospital.

I keep my lunch in them. If I have leftovers I use them and put it in the fridge at home...

NOONE TOUCHES THEM.



You can also GET OVER IT pretty easily.

Just get some stickers with bio hazard and radiation and corrosive and all that... And put them on all your stuff. Seriously... you won't think your being poisoned because YOU put it there. because you see it every day, you'll become desensitized to it. the ONLY problem with this, is you'll be totally desensitized to it if you actually NEED it. So if you do this, and your not at home, pay attention if you see these signs, just don't be afraid of them.

Well, I wouldn't be scared if I saw a biohazard sign stapled onto the side of a building in the middle of a populated city- it's easy to see it's fake. But if I'm, say, walking through a hospital, and I see some kind of sealed room with biohazard/radiation warnings on the door, then I'm definitely not going to open the ♥♥♥♥ door because it's probably been put there with good reason. The concept of what I guess would be natural biological attack (since it's not being specifically used as a weapon) doesn't scare me- actually being near somewhere where it could happen does.

I guess it has more to do with location- if I see a biohazard bag full of needles, I won't really care. That's normal- it's not like they're leaking enormous amounts of radiation into the room or that they're going to actually do anything to me- but being in a place I don't know and seeing biohazard/radiation warnings on the walls or something would be a bit nerve-racking, to say the least.

get a cellphone

Get a blue-tooth headset.

Add a little radiation sticker to the headset, and the phone. (because the bluetooth connection does this)

The sticker is on something that really does cause radiation damage, and you own it.

but seriously, if its really not just the signs, but the locations... What if you walked into a hospital, and you got near an X-Ray room, and there where no warnings what so ever. would you start freaking out?

These conditionings are based on the general idea that nobody abuses them.
However, in answer to your above question, I wouldn't freak out - I'd probably just pass by. Some stupid kid, however, might wander in and end up with potentially serious damage.
Also, everything you own emits small amounts of potentially harmful radiation. It's just that that potential is not often realised. Therefore I should put radiation stickers on everything, including the stickers themselves.

Why on earth would you want to mentally condition yourself to ignore biohazard symbols put there for your own safety?

not condition to ignore, Condition to not be terrified of. so instead of "OH MYYYY GOOOOODDDDD" you get "oh, a biohazard, great, get the masks..."

If you freak out over a warning sign you've got other problems methinks.

A warning sign somewhere does not mean there is a threat.

Oh and uh hey guys, light is radiation too, so good luck with that.

@whitty: Yes, but fortunately most of the sun's radiation is blocked by the atmosphere and my thin shell of dead skin. I meant lethal amounts of radiation, eg the equivalent of nuclear fallout. And while the warning sign by itself may not mean a threat, if it's in the right location, there's a high probability of a threat actually existing.

so when your in a situation where you could potentially die, you are under so much stress that you can not function properly, because of fear. its all about pressure, which I'm guessing you don't deal with well. thats... thats a bit more understandable though, and I don't think thats a phobia at all, because there's real danger. sort of like a fear of heights is understandable, from a 3 foot wide scaffold when your 40 floors up... in the wind... in freezing rain... and the winch is broke.

but when have you ever been in a potentially radioactive situation other than maybe X-Rays in a hospital.

This coming from Miles "crippling fear of going to sleep for fear of horrible nightmares plus I also have insomnia and I'm cool because I steal biohazard bags" The Rat.

Just, yeah.

hey, being in a situation where you could die, and being to scared to function, is a very serious problem, and should not be made fun of. Just because I have retarded problems does not mean I don't understand real problems.

The sheer fact that everyone has mentioned a morbid fear of insects is undoubtful proof that the human race is going to react violently (likely to the point of xenocide) to any alien race we encounter.

Speaking of which, with the possible exception of orks, I have xenophobia (fear of aliens).

Fear of Public speaking... and I have a Public speaking class....