My Fear of Clowns
August 21st, 2010 | Published in My Life
Before I was 5 years old, I had many nightmares of clowns coming out of my bedroom walls in the dark at night and terrorizing me. A couple of months ago I think I finally figured out what caused these nightmares. I had MANY surgeries before I was 2 years old to correct a number of birth defects including scoliosis and a missing tendon on my left thumb. At the University of Oklahoma Children’s Hospital in Oklahoma City, the waiting are and hallways were all painted with clown murals. I am almost certain that my mind associated the surgeries, and any associated pain, with the clowns painted on the walls of the hospital.
I no longer have any fear of clowns whatsoever, but I had always wondered what made me so scared of clowns coming to get me at night when I was a kid. Needless to say, I tried watching “It” one time when I was a kid and didn’t make it very far into the movie after the first appearance of the clown guy. As a final note, I know that the clowns were on the wall in hopes of comforting the kids, but is causing the kids to associate seeing clowns with being sick really the best thing in the world?