Irrational Fear? No.
By Allison Redmond
I would venture to say that everyone has some sort of phobia that they struggle with. The fear of heights, spiders, snakes, or tight spaces are just a few. Some come from traumatic life events, and others can’t be explained. The phobia I struggle with is Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns. I have been terrified of clowns ever since I was a baby.
This fear first developed in my life from a traumatic event when my parents were attending a convention. As part of the convention, a clown troupe was performing and one of the clowns knew my parents. My dad was holding me and the clown came up behind my dad to surprise him. As soon as I saw him I began screaming in horror, and I have never been the same.
This same man came to visit our church in Concordia a few years ago. Thankfully, he was not dressed up as a clown. However, as soon as I saw him, I wasn’t sure who exactly he was, but I knew that I recognized him and had some sort of negative memory associated with him. This was a good sixteen years after the initial incident, but I was still terrified. I began to hyperventilate in the middle of our church fellowship area. Eventually, my dad reintroduced me to him, I calmed down, and I figured out that he is actually a really nice guy.
Some people think that it is funny to tease me about my fear. By this, I mean dressing up as a clown and scaring me, saying, “Hey, Allie! Look at this picture on my phone!” and instead showing me a picture of a clown, or many other creative, horrific ways. IT’S NOT FUNNY. They simply do not understand.
So the moral of the story is that this is actually a serious phobia of mine. If you use this fear against me just to get a good laugh, I will cry. It has happened before. So please, save me the emotional turmoil, and yourself the guilt of making me cry, because it’s not worth it.
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