what phobias do you have?

[opebo]

poverty, being broke, dying.

[opebo]

     Not reproducing. No idea what I'm doing on here, then.

How old are you, man?  The world is full of desperate 30-ish women who want to reproduce - shouldn't be hard, since after all you're a relatively well off man, right?

[opebo]

    Not reproducing. No idea what I'm doing on here, then.

    I'm 20, so it's not a particularly urgent matter. As for well off, not so much. My family was well off for generations, but my immediate antecedents were cursed with the economic sense of a small tree rodent. I'll be much better off in 5-10 years than I am now.

You do realize it is extremely abnormal for a young man of 20 to be worried about not reproducing, don't you?  And that most young men of 20 are worried about just the opposite - knocking up one of their conquests.

But aside from that, I thought you were the one supposed to be a physicist or something like that.

[opebo]

    I am an only child,

Lucky!!

Btw, are you of some weird ethnicity or something?  Whoever heard of pressure to reproduce in the 21st century?

[opebo]

    I am an only child,

Lucky!!

Why would you want to be an only child? I'm one, so I'm just curious.

Don't pretend to be simple-minded, Nik.  The bigger inheritance, obviously.  A sibling is the worst thing that can happen to a person.

[opebo]

...And like opebo, I'd very much prefer not to be homeless and starving

In point of fact, this is a very realistic fear - it is quite likely to occur.  Say perhaps a 10% chance.

[opebo]

I also have a strange type of anxiety which prevents me from going to social gatherings that attract mostly for lack of a better word "normal" people,

I think that's more good taste and common sense than a disorder of any kind, BRTD.  I feel that way all the time, but only because for me it is work to attend such gatherings (they are sometimes demanded by my job), and I hate work with an all-consuming passion.  I don't drink and don't mind 'dressing up' somewhat formally, I just prefer to be around decent people - for example those who would not judge me negatively if they knew the 'real me'.  Such people are a rarity.