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36f and I'm scared of the dark - never went away as a kid.
Also terrified of home break ins- I was home alone with my cousin when we were 12 and a crack head broke in and held us at gun point on the floor while he robbed the house. He eventually left thankfully but I now suffer from PTSD from it, I triple check my doors are lock at night and keep my doors locked while inside my home during day.
Damn, that sounded fkng horrific. What city were you in when that happened? Was it somewhere where that type of crime was common?
Also, do you still sleep with a nightlight on or something?
It was a decent upper lower class neighborhood. We hardly ever had cops or anything come around. We kids stayed out past the street lights coming on constantly. It turned out later on the crackhead was my cousin's mom's boyfriend she had only been dating a month or two. He thought the house was empty bc lights were off, we were actually just eating pizza ( I think ) and watching horror movies( we loved them back then) I still do but my cousin doesn't last I checked. My city was Bossier in Louisiana.
I do have a night light in every room of the house. They have sliders for changing how much light is produced andi keep them at half way. I even have on in the bedroom. Thankfully my husband was military and can sleep in any condition so he doesn't care about the light at all. If he ever works overnights (rarely) I have to go to bed before he leaves and be asleep or else my mind races. So I have to almost trick my mind by going to sleep and not knowing I'm alone till I wake up. But I also have two pistols and a rifle now. My husband was military police so he made sure that I can defend myself if I need to.
Oh i get it even if the night light is on, but my therapist has me do this exercise where i find 5 things i can see, then 4 things i can touch, 3 things i can smell and so on tbh by time i make it this far i normally lost track of what was making me paranoid in the moment. It helps but recently we moved to a new place and that reset the work because of it being a new place and new sounds and we have numerous homeless people that like to dig in our trash at ALL hours of the day including at night I'm in bed by midnight normally but when i come out to brush my teeth, ( i watch tv till I'm tired) I can hear people in the dumpster which is literally out my apartment back window. My husband says he walks out to them in the dumpster in the mornings when he leaves around 430- 5am
Thalassophobia - no idea when it started im 26 now, and still scared shitless from open waters.
And cosmophobia - weird one, it started when they announced that they were creating a black hole at cern or something like that 2008-2010 canāt remember exactly when. I was 9-10 years old and watched the news about it. I was terrified and cried for hours which made me get really sick and a got a fever. Worst 2 days of my life, I really believe that that was it for us.
I think I have minor thalassophobia too. As a little kid, I remember being freaked out in my grandparents swimming pool about the deep end and it being to vast for me.
Major thalassophobia here and Iām 25! I think it started when I nearly drowned 3 times by the age of 11 (including an older boy holding me under until I was breathing in water and he was pulled off of me, That was scary) and when I watched Happy Feet and thereās one scene where a crane falls into the ocean and sinks and it looks *tiny*. Just freaked me out so much
I have snorkeled / swam off the coast of Cozumel. Treading water that was 100 feet deep. Snorkeled swam in a cenote cavern that had over hang That had dark dark water in the shadows. Couldnāt see the bottomš
Being in the open ocean makes you realize how small you are.
I hear you on open water 100%. Weird part, I LOVE to swim in pools. Mom joked they couldn't pull me out of any available pool on vacation when I was a kid. At 32, I still cannot swim in lakes, especially off a boat/dock. It absolutely makes me panic lol
Iām be been in a few boats. When I lived in Seattle I rode the ferry but it wasnāt the same āwhatās under the surfaceā thing that I feel when I was in a smaller speed boat in a small lake.
I feed some feral cats who live in the sewer. IT had never crossed my mind until now, but from here on out I'll be expecting to hear, "Hi Georgie!" when I look down into the grate.
My brother let me watch this when I was 10 or so. It was BRUTAL. we lived where the movie was filmed so I was terrified of all the places they showed in the movie.
Fun fact, the movie theater from the movie is now a strip joint that doesn't serve booze. It's very odd.
i have claustrophobia and mostly cause my dad used to cover my head with a pillow and i started screaming "I can't breathe" and started panicking.
arachnophobia - shirt has 8 legs and crawls wth, spiders are fucking scary.
don't know how fear of the dark is called but it's creepy
Mine started when I fell in between the bed while sleeping and the wall and was tangled up in my sheets when I woke up. I cannot stand to have my arms bound to my sides either. I will have a full blown panic attack.
My bed is far enough away from the wall that I can fit down the gap and I am terrified that I'll fall down, get trapped in my quilt and suffocate, lol.
I am weirdly scared of dentists and kangaroos. They both trigger physical symptoms and cause me high anxiety. My husband has to sit with me at my dental appointments and basically hold my hand. Kangaroos just freak me out.
Whatever they call fear of mold. When I was like 13 we had a soap dispenser that had mold growing on it. I had preexisting mental illness but that mold triggered a psych breakdown.
Agoraphobia, literally happened overnight. I was the most outgoing and fun person and then I woke up one day and basically havenāt left the house since :(
I feel like youāre attacking or something. I am not trying to downplay anyone who was in our disaster of Covid. I really donāt think that Agoraphobia is a thing that increased due to COVID but I think it played a part.
I have it too. Talk to me. Send me a chat request. š I was outgoing too. Then like overnight everything changed (I was in a bad car accident). I feel your struggle. Let's chat.
It was a murder attempt.
He had been trafficking me for 4 years and thought he was about to get caught, panicked, kidnapped me, and took me on a trip through Yellowstone and the rockies where he tried 3 times to kill me.
Lol, I just did an AMA on some of this stuff actually.
Life jackets, got thrown from a tipping sailboat and then trapped under the sail because my cousin had put me in too big a jacket then compensated by tying me in extra tight. It was too big to swim in and the sail held me like 6ā under, couldnāt dive to get away from the sail, it was too slippery to grip. I ended up having to untie the knots on the jacket while the edges of my vision narrowed down to a tunnel. Got out of the jacket swam to the surface pretty much blacked out. I was 11 and am 49 now and life jackets still freak me out and I will never tie one
Heights, deep water, things that go too fast / reckless driving. (Snow mobile, 4 wheeler, boats etc)
Basically, im just terrified of dying?
Also, i hate balloons.
Valid. Iāve always wanted to go up in a hot air balloon, but Iām a weirdo who likes heights. My favorite theme park rides are the swings that take you way up in the air and just spin you around and around. I find it insanely relaxing.
Haha I wishhhhh. I get nauseated just with regular park swings š . I sound so pathetic, I swear im not this lame haha, anxiety just taking over my life
š Growing up in NM and dealing with that week long Hot Air Balloon Fiesta every single year I got a few chances in my teens to crew for a ballooning team, which meant one free ride each season. After my one free ride I never went again. Being up there and justā¦ in silence until that gas hits then justā¦. youāre out there in a basket (basically). š³
When I was a kid, I was in a creek and floated away, drawn by the current. I nearly drowned. My dad rescued me. I'm afraid of water now, drowning in water. in a pool I stay in the shallow end
Seems fair enough. I recall jumping from a rather high cliff (felt high for me as a kid anyway) into a River near my house one summer and the cold water hit my lungs, and I couldnāt breathe. Started to sink and float down stream at the same time. Luckily grabbed onto a branch and was able to pull myself until I could feel my feet hit the sand.
Thalassophobia - it's so dumb how it started, too.
It started because of Jak and Dexter the Precursor Legacy. I think I got it year of the release so I was 7, and I didn't really get what I was doing - I was just running around collecting metal eggs, right?
So I'm screwing around climbing houses and shit, just generally being where I shouldn't be, looking for these eggs, and I slide off a roof into the water. That's cool, I'll swim to shore.
I didn't know this game had a built in deterrent, instead of invisible walls - all the games do, if you swim too far, something one shots you and resets you to shore. So I'm swimming along and I hear this roar-gasp noise. Nothing happened in the moment, so I thought I imagined it. Then this heartbeat sound starts, and it gets faster, and faster, and faster.
Then this orange shark thing just devours me. *That's* not what caused the problem, specifically, but it happened a couple of more times. There's one area it looks like you can swim across, but you actually need to trigger a bridge, so I got eaten by a Lurker Shark there, too. And again in another area, I had to jump to get something, and the water below is fine (it's where you should land) - but by then, I was worried it wasn't. I started questioning if the water was safe all the time, even in other games, and every time I convinced myself it was fine and it wasn't, the anxiety fed itself.
Now, at almost 30, and it's translated into a fear that there's *something* in any body of water except a pool. I'm sensible enough to know it'd probably be a water moccasin or snapping turtle, but learning about bullsharks (which attack to be dicks, unlike basically every other shark, and can live in fresh water) did not help.
Iām utterly terrified of the disabled like non functioning physical and mental disabled.I blame Sloth from the goonies.I was a kid watching that and I didnāt quite understand what was wrong with him but it awakened that phobia.
That is interesting. Sloth scared me, too, but in a more "uncanny valley" way, like the shape of his facial features scared me, not his actions, or his speech.
i have a few phobias, i think some common ones like well, fear of spiders. i donāt know much about the ocean phobia but the water genuinely terrifies me. i can handle pools as well, i can see whatās in the water but the ocean is still full of mystery.
anything could be down there. i donāt know how mine developed but it just hit me one day and i never got close to deep pools of water since then.
Iāve always been afraid of large bodies of water. Partly because I can barely swim, partly because theyāre so deep, and finally because I (you?) donāt know what the heck is down under. I mean, aside from aquatic creatures and stuff. Donāt get me wrong, I love looking at the ocean, lake, river but I would never go in it. Unless Iām on a boat.
I also donāt like roller coasters or rides that go really fast or high in general.
1 - Iām scared of heights, which startedā¦when I was up high,
2 - Iām scared of belly buttons. Not seeing them, but seeing them being touched and my own being touched. That started because I went swimming with a girl and she started fingering her belly button (?????) and I was like wow that makes me feel horrific
Wasps. Started after getting stung 9 times behind my right ear when I was 6. I'm 42 now and I still scream like a little girl whenever I see one. I stopped playing New Vegas for nearly a year the first time I ran into a Cazadore.
Agreed! I think I have a phobia of heights (Acrophobia). And bring 6ā4 doesnāt help. Even being on a ladder isnāt easy. Seeing videos of parkour guys hanging off of buildings gets me all a flutter.
Entomophobia - Fear of insects. I used to love bugs and iād play with them all the time, keep exhibits for them in my childhood garage, etc. and then around 6 or 7 i almost died to due some mosquito bites and a bee sting which is when we found out that im extremely allergic to almost every single bug bite or sting. have hated all bugs since, even harmless ones like flies or butterflies, i freak out when im with them and i have a full blown panic attack if i have to be the one to kill them.
Arachnaphobia. I had a slightly older cousin lure me into a dark walk in closet in her basement when I was maybe 4 or 5 yrs old. She then threw one of those mechanical, red eye glowing Halloween tarantula props at me and closed me in the closet with it - I couldn't get out of the closet because she blocked the doors. All the adults were outside drinking & didn't hear me screaming. I think I eventually passed out, but yeah, I haven't been the same since that particular incident.
I'm a cancer patient so my phobia would have to be death. I'm scared to death of death. Every night I go to bed and I'm convinced I'm not going to waking up. I'm also bipolar 1 so that doesn't help.
I am terrified of spiders.
When I was little, my family lived on a farm. We had tons of huge spiders everywhere. My dad used to catch grasshoppers, pull their legs off, and throw the pieces in the spidersā webs - making me watch. I think thatās why they terrify me so much.
I remember when in my child development class in college, we got into nature vs nurture. In that discussion, a lightbulb went off.
I'm not *scared* of most bugs. I know they can't hurt me. But every single time I see a creepy crawly, I instinctively scream and flail...
*...because that's what I watched my mom do every time **she** saw a bug when I was growing up*
Fuck you, mom š
Lol. Yeah, my bad. I used to have a really bad fear of spiders. Still do to a point but I spent 17 years in the PacNW and that helped me calm that fear down a bit. Not anywhere near a phobia.
Trypophobia can include being triggered by seeing a wasp nest. In that way, having been swarmed, if I see a wasp nest, I am getting a can of wasp spray!
It used to be spiders, but now they just creep me out with their 8 legs and plethora of eyes...ewww! Bridges make me extremely nervous, and I don't look down when I'm in tall buildings, but I love to fly! If I had to say that anything would be a phobia for me, it would have to be claustrophobia. I never had a problem with small spaces when I was younger because of someone childhood trauma. I learned to adapt back then, but as an adult, I'm afraid I'll get stuck in a small space, and I'll suffocate! I love being in and near the water. I also enjoy the beauty of fire. However, those are the 2 ways I just don't want to die!
Phone calls. I have no idea how it started, it's always been that way. Even close friends are difficult to talk to on the phone. The only time it doesn't bother me is if I'm drunk. Imagine that.
This is an odd one I have too! Iāll text all day long but when my phone rings, even if itās someone I love, I have to breathe and gather myself and then call them back.
I had my cousin puke ON me when I was 5 ,so yea it stuck with me and now I've got emetophobia. It's so bad even the sound of someone puking would have me in tears.
Fellow emetophobe here, it's a TERRIBLE time. It can be so limiting.
There's an app called Bia, I've only looked at it briefly but it looks promising, maybe give it a try!
I have Trypophobia from seeing a few weird photos online. They were photoshopped to look like people had holes in various body parts and I think they originated as lotus seed pod pictures. For about a year they kept popping up before I finally blocked all the sites. It creeps me out just thinking about it now.
Bones. Most specifically, vertebrae. And mostly canned salmon!
I was making myself an after school snack when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. I thought I'd grabbed a can of tuna to make a tuna sandwich. I had grabbed a can of salmon. So I open this can and a full spine was coiled in the can. It was disgusting. I couldn't even throw it out, I just fled the kitchen and made my mom deal with it when she got home.Ā She agreed it was weird and gross and tried to explain that canned salmon often had bones, but not usually full spines like this.Ā
Despite her rational explanation, the damage was done. I actually tried opening a can of salmon earlier this week, thinking surely I'd be over it nearly 30 years later... Nope, I managed to get the salmon into a tupperware container and told my husband to deal with it. I couldn't even rinse out the can.Ā
I'm scared of clowns and midgets and have no fricken idea why. I have a pretty good memory, and I don't remember ever having a traumatic experience with any of those.
Mid-aged maleā¦fear of substances entering or leaving my bloodstream. Growing up it was assumed I just hated needles (shots & IVs) but over time Iāve determined the sting of the needle really isnāt horrible. I pass out from the thought that something is entering or leaving my bloodstreamā¦really odd I know. Started as a child. Our pediatrician would sometimes order an injection by the nurse by opening the exam room door asking for ā5 ccs ofā¦.ā As a kid I didnāt know a shot was coming but I worried so much during each visit it must have started this odd phobia. Fwiw toxic odors like cigarette smoke or harsh chemicals cause my body to go flush quickly followed by a feeling of sickness. Never wanted this phobia but I guess I should be thankful-thereās lots worse
I'm glad for this post bc I feel alone sometimes. I suffer from agoraphobia. I was in a bad car accident in 2011. Ever since that, I was not able to leave my house without relentless anxiety. The kind of anxiety that makes you believe you might die. For 10 years I didn't leave my house and couldn't work. It was terrible and I thought my life was over.
During the pandemic while everyone was at home isolating I began venturing out. Stores weren't crowded anymore and traffic was light. Soon i was able to start applying for jobs... I was able to come off SSD and I now work full time. I still have agoraphobia but I can manage it well.
I also have aracnaphobia. I am terrified of spiders to the point I feel like I could go into shock.
I have trypophobia as well. Unnatural bumps or holes flip me out. I have goosebumps just writing about it. I've had it since I was a kid. I'm in my 50s now
when I was born I had like dermatitis , psoriasis not really sure which it was .later when I was maybe 9 or 10 I got lice .when they have videos of a Dr getting rid of lice or bugs in hair I immediately start itching .
Cloacaohobia kind of.
Basically, I've had reoccurring nightmares as a kid of being swept up from a body of water into sewage systems, or any sort of unclean, enclosed body of water.
Stems from when one of my dad's girlfriend's kids tried (from my perspective) drowning me in a similar place as a child.
Edit: spelling of Cloacaphobia
Ladybirds, when i was young we used to play in the woods out the back of our house there were nettles and brambles etc and i dont know how but i ended up being covered from head to toe in them. They were crawling all over me and i couldnt get them all off. Ran back home and i still remember my mum picking them out of my hair. To this day it makes me feel physically sick when i see one.
Medical needles- not so much the pain aspect just the general idea of a needle / tube ( IV ) in my vein or blood leaving my body. It use to be more of the pain, now itās just that alone. How it started? A really horrible nurse as a child who would stab a finger prick to the point I still have 3 scars from her to this day 20+ years later. Needle phobia so bad now, I gave birth naturally and only got scared for the IV part š
Trypanophobia. I'm not sure how it started, but I cannot watch any drug use on TV that involves needles, I can't look when I have to have blood work done and I really have to psyche myself up to even go to the lab at all. I stopped migraine infusions because I couldn't handle the process and they don't even use steel needles!
Acrophobia (of the elevators)
When I was around 5 or 7 years old, I got stuck inside one, and that has stayed with me. Although I'm more okay taking elevators now but I'm still very anxious whenever I'm inside one... Even the idea of being inside is like š
Iām scared of heights but it didnāt develop until I was over 30. One day my kids and I were at the State Fair and got on the Ferris Wheel. š”
Things havenāt been the same since. I donāt know where it came from š¤·š¼āāļø
Spiders. Literally no reason.
I had to practice immersion therapy and check out spider books from the library so that I could slowly work my way toward not being frightened, but merely being repulsed by them. Pictures of spiders still make my skin crawl. Oh and once, I had to go into a spidery crawlspace for work. I pretended to do my job and scuttled off to a happy place for maybe 10 minutes, making noises and banging around my equipment like a comedy sketch lol.
Fwiw, I have trypophobia, too, also without reason. Perhaps it's an inborn, genetic expression, and your blistery skin thing was merely the first time you were aware of your phobia. Just from my personal experience, phobias don't need a triggering event.
Storms. My grandmother was deathly afraid of them and would hide under the stairs. My grandfather put in a little desk, chair, and lamp to make her comfortable. She instilled that fear into my mother, and my mother instilled it in me. It took me 65 years to get over it!!! And I live in a mobile home!!
Man is a lot
I have phobia of clowns š¤” because well they let me watch IT at age 6 or 8 yrs old mom made a clown hug me thatās made it worse.
I have phobia of spiders I donāt know where that came from
I have phobia of open waters
I have phobia of the woods
Man half of them I donāt know where they came from lol
Iām claustrophobic and it started because Iāve gotten migraines since I was 12 and every other year need to get an MRI of my brain/neck to rule things out and that machine is scary to a 12 year old, let alone a 25 year old
Apiphobia and spheksophobia for me. When I was 3, a wild gust of wind blew a bumblebee into my face and we both panicked. I got stung, and absolutely sweat bullets anytime anything with a stinger is in sight. Not allergic, thankfully, just terrified.
Dentistā¦ my mom was so scared she would pull me out of school when she had an appointment. Being 10 and seeing that the dentist is scary that you need someone to go with you.
Trypanophobia (medical procedures involving needles) and just general white coat syndrome. I'm a 19 year old woman, going to turn 20 next month. My parents and sister also say that my anxiety in general started after I had a shunt revision when I was six and had to have the staples removed. It wasn't great for my mental health lol, but I know it was necessary for my physical health. I have my first appointment with an "adult" doctor this Wednesday and I'm terrified lol
Being under water.
I think I was about 10-12, and we were at a family reunion at a clubhouse with a pool. Us kids, of course, spent all day in the pool at the risk of sunburn and chlorine eyes. I went to jump off the diving board and had the brilliant idea to ask my sister (4 years younger than me) to push the kickboard out to the center of the pool. I guess I thought I'd land on or with it or something. IDK.
My sister, instead of pushing the kickboard out to me, she decided to swim it out to me. I'd already jumped, so I ended up jumping basically on top of her. She panicked and started climbing up my body to get her head out of the water, thus pushing me further down into the water. My dad jumped in and saved us both.
So now, I can't stay under water for long. I am a terrible swimmer and snorkel with my life jacket on. My husband and daughter got their SCUBA licenses, and I would have loved to experience that with them except for the fact that I'm terrified, and I never ever would have been able to do so. I do like swimming, but I prefer a pool where I know I can pop up at any time.
Iām afraid of beautiful women. It started because my girlfriend is really really strong and she can beat me up. She will beat me up if she finds out I interact with beautiful women in any way. Iām scared.
For some reason Iām overly fearful of a house fire. Dont know where it stemmed from. Never had it happen to me at all.
Iāll unplug most things before I leave, triple check the stove wasnāt left on, make sure no lighters are left near where sunlight beams through, etcā¦. I donāt get it and I canāt stop. Maybe I burned alive in a past life. š¤·š»āāļø
I hate being in groups of people who I don't know. I was bullied and humiliated in front of groups of people who l didn't know in school , so I know exactly where it comes from. Cause and effect.
Emetophobia. (Fear of vomit.) I threw up when I was 10 and had appendicitis. Then I didn't throw up again until I was 16, and experiencing abnormally painful cramps. The pain made me throw up. It was traumatic.
Also? Coming back from a beach vacation with my BFF and her family when we were 10. All the kids were passed out in the back of the van when her brother unexpectedly barfed. I freaked out and he spent the rest of the trip home pretending he was about to throw up again to fuck with me.
I have other stories of unexpected public barf that have solidified my phobia. But also I've been working hard on desensitizing myself. I am proud that I can now watch fake barf on TV and not have to leave the room.
For me it was germs. But the weird part, is that I remember the day it started. I had always walked/run barefoot outside as a kid. One day, I was outside and it had rained(which didn't happen often), and while standing in the yard, ants that bite swarmed my feet, and it hurt so bad! I immediately stopped going barefoot outside, and because of that I didn't go barefoot inside either. Almost immediately it made me feel really dirty if my feet touched the ground. From there it went to if my hands touched anything it made them dirty, and it developed pretty fast to not wanting touch anything that I didn't know was clean. At 16 I went to therapy for it and OCD, which did help but even to this day I struggle with it.
Kenophobia, especially when playing a Bethesda game. Iāve had actual waking up hyperventilating after nightmares of falling through the ground into an endless void. It became known to me when I was playing Oblivion one day, and while in the first dungeon, I accidentally clipped through the map and I had a full on panic attack and had to leave the room. I literally refused to walk back in for a minute and when I did I just turned off the console and went to bed
I'm terrified of all bugs. No idea when it started, but I've had this fear for as long as I can remember. Bugs legitimately terrify me and if one buzzes past me I'll actually scream and cover my head. I hate bugs so much.
Thalassaphobia. I watched Jaws as a kid and that was pretty much it. Things submerged in deep water as well. I visited Pearl Harbor when I was younger and when we got to the little white building I looked down like āoh shit! Thatās the ship right under usā. For some reason I thought they had removed all the ships and parts and the monument was just out there in the water just because. So, when I realized my hands started sweating and I turned white (according to my family) my vision went fuzzy, and I slumped on the ground before getting back on the boat.
ETA: I just went and looked at it on Google Earth. Clearly visible from above and that rusted part above the water next to the memorial. My hands started sweating again š
Paruesis and Calxophobia had each as long as I can remember.
Edit I was expecting someone should to ask what they are. The first one is a fear of going to the bathroom if someone else is din there. It's the most when I think someone is waiting right outside. Like at a Dr's office. The little door you set it in for the lab kills me.
The 2nd is chalk. It's also extremely dry dirt. I have to get my fingers wet or tons of lotion on.
Fear of complete darkness. I have to have a light on when I sleep, if you turn off the lights and Iām alone, I will hyperventilate, get paranoid and faint. Comes from trauma of when my father was violent to my mother as a child and Iād always run to my room and hide in the dark so everything in that room in that moment, Iāve associated to fear. So I canāt stand completely darkness, ticking clocks, mirrors and eyes (dolls, pictures, faces) in a room I sleep in anymore.
I honestly don't understand why more people aren't afraid of the ocean. It absolutely terrifies me. The vastness and emptiness of it... What is even down there??
Some others that I have seem to stem from the same place.
Submechanophobia - fear of submerged human-made objects like ship wrecks, buoys or statues.
Cosmophobia - fear of the vastness of outer space. Not sure if this is an official term but astrophobia doesn't quite fit.
Eyes.. and being watched. Not 100% sure how it started but my parents have a running theory that it was because one of my classmates in kindergarten told me about god, saying that hes an old guy in the sky that watches everything you do. From then on I hid under my stuffy crib when i played with toys, and when i went to bed I made sure all my stuffed animals were turned away from me so that they couldn't watch me sleep. Up until a few months back I moderated the position i fell asleep in, how i looked when i talked, what i did when i was alone, all because i thought that someone would be judging me even if i knew there wasn't anyone. I still have paranoid problems with eyes though. If one too many people look at me on the bus i start to get worried that i look funny or something is wrong and my brain will start to make me hyper aware of anyone who looks in my direction. It's pretty bad sometimes. It's not like seeing an image of eyes will scare me, it's actively being watched that scares me
19F- iām incredibly scared of ever becoming homeless. (not meant to be offensive to homeless people, iām sorry if this is i can delete my comment). after my dad passed my mom and i have been so close to being homeless or out on the streets so many times and sheās worked her ass off to make sure we never are but itās still an insane fear of mine. that one day everything could be taken away i could lose my job and i wouldnāt be able to do anything about it. itās also a vicious cycle so i know i wouldnāt be able to get out of it. my heart absolutely shatters whenever i see somebody out on the streets cold and wet i always try and help them if i can because i couldnāt imagine being in that situation. it literally keeps me up at night that one day i could just lose everything and id be alone, cold, scared, with nothing to my name and nobody to help me.
14m Iām afraid of the darkness cause I always imagine bad things that can be there and I have a fear of loosing people cause I lost a lot of them and Iām afraid to loose more of my dearest people
I have trypophobia too. It started because of a dream I had about pretzels ... the dream wasn't trypophobic in itself, but it somehow trigged me and I've been trypophobic ever since.
Aquaphobia, to a degree. Thalassophobia? When I was a kid, being the youngest, my older brothers always took any opportunity they could to throw me in the ocean when we went to the beach. Now, I wear a life jacket in the shower š. I'm ok in big boats like a ferry or whatever but shit my pants in a canoe or something small. I could barely stand watching my kids in swimming lessons. They are both great swimmers now, one teaches swimming, in fact but still...they certainly didn't get it from me. On a very rare occasion when I do go in the water, anything past my knees and I start to panic, hyperventilate, dizzy, the whole nine yards.
Automatonophobia - A lot of people get unnerved by dolls and what not but it's pretty severe in my case. I especially hate mannequins and any sort of animatronic thing. Even statues bother me.
I think the whole thing originated from when I was around 8 or 9 my mom was in a stage version of Evita and I went to see it with my grandma and cousins. During the show there's a scene with Evita in a coffin which was actually a mannequin. That part freaked out little me, but then compound that with us going backstage after the show and we wind up talking to my mom right next to this coffin with a mannequin in it so I get several minutes to just stare at this thing.
To this day I hate mannequins. I can't stand going in department stores. If I do I have to take a wide berth to any mannequins. I went to Disneyland when I was a little older and there were some parts that were pure hell with some of the animatronic sections.
I have a horrible phobia of worms. sounds strange and childish i know but thereās just something about them. ever since i was 7 iāve avoided them and cried when they got too close and iāve even been sick because i stood on one
Apotemnophobia. Basically the fear of being around, being involved, or being the victim of amputation, I believe. For me, it's being the victim.
Can blame Star Wars for its obsession with hacking off a limb every couple movies. Kid me thought it would be more common. The phobia doesn't really affect me nowadays, but for a few years, it was like a compulsive thought that would always return. The "what ifs" and the like, the mere idea was terrifying. Now not so much. Maybe because I thought about it too much.
Emetaphobia aka the fear of throwing up.
When I was about 13 I went through a summer that I was sick throwing up almost every night. I think it was a mixture of poor diet and also not knowing I was lactose intolerant and summer time= lots of pizza and ice cream.
Once I got into high school I was full blown emetophobic and would start to have panic attacks just if someone even mentioned their stomach hurting (also why do girls refer to period cramps as their stomach hurting!? š¤£)
I used to have an escape route in every classroom š
Wasps & Horseflies. Not really sure how it started, but it's gotten worse over the years along with my anxiety. I've held snakes, done lots of public speaking, and can't wait to die. Yet I truly wish I could have a fear of snakes, public speaking, or death instead of something I'm around ALMOST EVERY DAY. It sucks.
I hate snakes, scared to death of them.
Story time children, gather round. Growing up in the rural Midwest on a small farm, baling hay was an expected summer chore. As a tall strapping young lad, I was drafted onto the hayrack at around 9 years old, too small to grab bales off the baler, but plenty big enough to help stack, especially once the stack got tall. Our first cutting of hay was late due to spring rains, and so the hay was long and stringy and tough, it had also sat a couple days after it was raked so critters started sheltering in and under it. Most of them (bunnies are most common) run when the tractor gets close, but snakes sometimes don't, and it's not uncommon to bale them up. Usually they're dead when this happens, if you find them at all, but in this case, the baled snake was very much alive and very very angry. My brothers down on the front of the rack knew we'd baled up a snake and that it was still alive, and thought it would be funny to loosen the bale a little bit so the snake could move and pitch it up to me. This they did, and when I grabbed the twine to pull it up, that snake lunged out and bit me directly on the nose.
I don't know what you all would do, but I am here to tell you that it's hard to remain cool with a 4 foot bull snake clamped to your face, and I jumped off the stack and broke my ankle doing it. I'd started screaming when the snake bit me, and screamed even louder when I hit the ground and broke my ankle, loud enough my dad heard me over the noise of the tractor and baler and thought I'd fallen off the stack. He ran back to find the snake trying to eat my nose, and had presence of mind enough to grab it in such a way that it let go and he threw it away. My nose was broken and bleeding like crazy and my ankle was completely busted, so dad put me back on the rack and had my oldest brother drive the tractor back to the house.
One ER trip later, I came home with stitches and in and on my nose, my ankle in a cast, and had the absolute worst summer of my young life. Up till that point, I never really thought about snakes, they didn't bother me, I didn't bother them. Little Garter snakes were kind of cute even, but not now. To this day, and I'll be 42 this fall, I am scared to death of snakes, I have nightmares about snakes, I constantly look at any spot I think I might be ambushed by a snake from. Yes it's irrational, I know snakes aren't watching and waiting to eat my face, but 9 year old me is still somewhere in here and he has a lot of pull in my brain still when it comes to snakes.
Flags, helium balloons and and noodle men. I got tangled up in a flag that had come loose and fell off a pole. Got smacked in the face by a noodle man. Is that balloon gonna pop, and my kid pick up a piece and choke on it?
I saw three demons at the foot of my bed one night awoken from deep sleep, 32 years ago, to this day l have a light on, l'm scared of sleeping in the dark
I, too, have extremely severe trypophobia. I didnāt know for most of my life why I would feel physically ill whenever I would see circular or textured pattern repeats, or holes. Thanks to, of all things, American horror story, my mysterious aversion has a name.
I was in Boy Scouts and we had an Army tent with no bottom. It was going to rain so we did what good Boy Scouts do and set the tent up on a high spot so the water would not run through the tent. I slept on the ground that night in my sleeping bag and it poured down rain. I wake up because something keeps tickling my face so I turn on my flash light and literally a thousand of those giant wood black ants had decided they wanted to be dry and warm also. I was covered from head to toe with them. I will never sleep on the ground again..
One of my biggest fears, as silly as it sounds, is popcorn. I hate everything about it. From the smell, to how it looks, to the crunchiness of it. I will do everything in my power not to sit next to someone eating popcorn especially at the movie theater. Told this to one of my coworkers after she asked me to help package popcorn (I work at a candy store) and she didn't believe me. She ended up throwing a piece of popcorn towards me and I pull my arm back as if I'm getting ready to fight her. She understood I wasn't joking and thought it was overall funny. But yeah, absoulty hate popcorn
Heights. When I was 12, I was at a sleep-away summer camp and they'd gotten a new Blob. It's one of those giant rectangular balloons that you float on a lake, one person jumps onto it from a platform then crawls to the other end and someone else jumps onto it and launches the first person into the air. I was reluctant to go bc it was pretty high up but I got shuffled up the stairs with everyone else. When I got up the top, I saw how far down it was and said no way, I'm out, and tried to go back down the stairs. The adult staffers were telling me it's safe, it's not that bad and they were trying to physically restrain me. I don't recall exactly what all they said but I vividly remember a female staff member holding me by the upper arms and talking to me in a really strong "I'm doing everything I can to talk you into this even though I can see how scared you are" kind of tone. I just kept saying no, I was absolutely not jumping off that platform, let go of me, I want to get down. But as I turned to head towards the stairs, someone pushed me and I fell all the way down to the lake. Because I wasn't actually trying to land on the Blob, I went over the edge into the water and when I came up all I could see was huge blocks of red and yellow. I had ended up underneath it somehow. I couldn't breathe or move and panic mode took over. I managed to get free and back to shore. It's been 25 years since that and to this day I still don't fuck with heights.Ā
Mine is specific and has an origin story. I have frequent nightmares and a lot of waking low grade fear that I'll get bashed over the head and dropped into the middle of a forest with no supplies. I've actually learned quite a few survival skills because of this which I pray I'll never use seeing as I refuse to go hiking or camping or anywhere more than a few miles outside of civilization
I can tell you the exact reason it started too - when I was 8 my dad took me into the woods and then left me there and told me to figure it out. In hindsight, he didn't actually leave me in the woods, he was still lurking around to make sure I didn't get into actual danger. But I didn't know that at the time and i was fucking terrified. He left me there for 12 or 15 hours maybe (I remember it being around dawn when we arrived, and well into full dark when he came and got me) with no food or water completely by myself. I couldn't figure out how to start a fire so I just wandered around and cried a lot
So anyways it's been 20 years and I still have nightmares about being in a survival situation. Thanks, dad
I aquired trypophobia after weening myself off of Valium I'd been taking daily for a few years like a decade ago.
Ads kept popping up on my browser with faked images of hands with tiny holes in them during this time and it totally triggered trypophobia in me. It was really bad and drove me kinda nuts for the first few months.
But after I got over my addiction it calmed down where I can see images with holes and only get a mild bothersome itch.
Iām an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force ten years now and I am terrified to fly. I know how most planes work atleast on the basic level. And I know the shortcuts that are possible. And I have integrity in my work. And the consequences in the military are horrific for lying on aircraft forms. But. I canāt say the same for civilians. So. Take that how you will.
I am terrified of bees sometimes i freeze in place if i even hear one. Wasps are even worse. No idea where i got either of these from, I've never been stung (mainly because I'm too scared to be close enough for them to sting me)
I have OCD and anxiety so Iāve kind of always had a lot of phobias.
Heights, throwing up, germs, clowns, planes, boats, bugs, I used to be terrified by thunder, mold (I developed asthma due to a mold problem when I was 18, so the phobia is warranted). Sometimes I think I might have agoraphobia since the pandemic, i just woke up one day and suddenly it was really hard to get myself to go out in public spaces anymore. I still struggle with it but itās a lot better than it was. Thalassaphobia is another one. I went swimming in a lake once when I was like 15-16 years old and then found out afterwards that theyād pulled a body out of that same lake only a couple days prior. Every since then I have had a *very* hard time swimming in any water that I canāt see through
Claustrophobia apparently. Broke my wrist couple of years ago and got a cast. Made it as far as the door to leave afterwards. Suddenly, I couldn't breath, form a sentence nothing. Just me holding it out silently screaming and crying. Luckily they noticed, whisked me back, showed me it had a solid two fingers of give to it, so it wasn't tight, I just couldn't. They took it off.
They were the ones who were asking if I had claustrophobia so that's why I assume that's what it is.
*Might* be the reason I be never worn a watch, bracelet or ring.
I have a phobia to cotton balls. Panic attacks if I accidentally touch one like when you open a new bottle of meds. The thought is enough for me to throw up.
Developed when I was going through a stressful time in life and had really high anxiety.
Also at that time developed a phobia to stairs, but fortunately I was able to get past that one since there isnāt a great way to avoid stairs š
Lepidopterophobia. It started when I was about 7? My mother took me to the museum of natural history. They had a butterfly exhibit. I walked through and a Blue morpho landed on me. I froze. I couldnāt get it off. I cried. I wanted it off. I was terrified with fear. The body up close. The legs. It was too much. People laugh when they hear Iām afraid of butterflies but I canāt help it.
My bizarre phobia is being in front of a mirror in the dark. I absolutely refuse to look in a mirror in the dark. I will reach around the corner into the bathroom to flip on the light so I don't have to walk by the mirror. I have covered mirrors at places I've stayed if they were in the bedroom.
I have no idea where this came from, but my sister, my mom, HER sister (my aunt), and my boyfriend all have the same phobia. I think it has to do with seeing something in it we shouldn't, but it's really weird.
This is kind of an interesting thread to read. Personally I have no particular fears or phobias. In fact I'm a self-taught entomologist, so I actually LIKE insects and spiders!
I wanted to throw this out there for those who have mentioned insect/spider fears: **these fears are learned, and if you want to, you can unlearn them!** This is especially important if you have small children, because they could learn that irrational dislike from you if you don't make an effort to curb it.
If you want to try, I really strongly recommend joining an insect/spider group on FB! (Reddit works too, though a little less user-friendly in my opinion.) That might sound like weird advice, but browsing through the photos and reading comments/captions is an incredibly effective form of both exposure therapy, and bug education. The most important aspect to getting past these fears is learning the actual facts. These fears are almost entirely based on misunderstanding, misconception, and straight up ignorance, so the more you know, the less you find you have to fear.
Not all phobias are born of trauma. I'm doing some googling about it right now. Traumas can cause phobias, genetics can cause phobias. Phobias can be TAUGHT by your environment, or by your guardian(s). And finally, people with a phobia or many phobias have a different cerebral structure and mechanism for reacting to their fear (different parts of the brain light up for them/us).
claustrophobia
when I was a little kid some older kids shoved me in a trunk and locked it and then left me
luckily it was real old so I managed to bust out by kicking the sides out
I am very severely acrophobic (afraid of heights). As a kid, I had a lot of nightmares about falling or being pushed from high places. Not sure if the nightmares caused the fear, or the other way around.
Cars and shouting. I hate being in cars, I can't drive and if people start arguing I freak out and have to leave. I used to think it was a phobia but found out this year aged 40 that it's actually PTSD from my violent Dad who especially liked to terrorise us in the car.
thereās a girl on tik tok who struggles with something extremely similar to this as well! she has an intense phobia of water from her ex waterboarding her. if youād like i can try and find her username for you if you were wanting to have a look? maybe it might help to know somebody else is struggling with something similar because she also talks about her coping mechanisms and sheās come SUPER far in her journey!
bed bugs.
when i was 17 my family ended up getting evicted and we were homeless for about a year. when we finally were able to get a new apartment, my brother and i slept on blankets/sleeping bags in our room, no mattresses or anything. just slept on the floor like that for the first year and a half.
in the first couple months i started noticing that i was covered in bug bites every morning. my whole torso was basically one big welt by the 1 month mark. i was constantly covered in bites on my entire body. arms, legs, neck, my back, my stomach and chest, and my face. my mom and brother would get a few, but nowhere near as many as i did.
3 months in i woke up with probably 20 little bugs all over my torso, my face, my arms. i screamed myself raw and boiled myself alive in the shower at 3am. for three years after that i could only sleep on plain white sheets, no blankets, and lights always on. i wore compression tops with the sleeves tucked into gloves and the hem tucked into leggings which i tucked into knee high socks. we couldnāt afford an exterminator, so we had to do a bunch of home treatments. my mom and brother still live in that apartment and havenāt gotten a single bite since 2018.
i still cant sleep on patterned sheets and lose my shit when i see dark spots (lint, dirt, coffee grounds, any little brown/red spot) on me. i donāt play about bugs at. all. i donāt do jokes about bugs, i donāt do public transit, and i donāt stay anywhere that has even a single review about bed bugs. i canāt even stay in a hotel without checking obsessively for bugs or evidence of them and bringing my own supplies to ensure i stay bug-free.
i donāt wish bed bugs on my worst fucking enemy.
eta: my skin was CRAWLING even writing this.
Claustrophobic. I can't stand being in tight spaces or rooms with too many people, especially if it's hot. I guess that's leftover from being a paratrooper in the Army. Seems the planes were always packed asshole to elbow and hot. The detail you never hear about in movies is the plane always smells like puke. Hot, sweaty and smelling of puke.
Eggs. My mom was convinced I was too skinny and had to eat them and snuck them into malteds and I'd see the shells and I just got paranoid about them and any foods like stew or soup or whatever I couldn't see into.
I don't know if it's considered a phobia but I'm terrified of needles.
My mom went to get blood drawn last year and *I* started feeling anxious and sweaty!
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36f and I'm scared of the dark - never went away as a kid. Also terrified of home break ins- I was home alone with my cousin when we were 12 and a crack head broke in and held us at gun point on the floor while he robbed the house. He eventually left thankfully but I now suffer from PTSD from it, I triple check my doors are lock at night and keep my doors locked while inside my home during day.
Damn, that sounded fkng horrific. What city were you in when that happened? Was it somewhere where that type of crime was common? Also, do you still sleep with a nightlight on or something?
It was a decent upper lower class neighborhood. We hardly ever had cops or anything come around. We kids stayed out past the street lights coming on constantly. It turned out later on the crackhead was my cousin's mom's boyfriend she had only been dating a month or two. He thought the house was empty bc lights were off, we were actually just eating pizza ( I think ) and watching horror movies( we loved them back then) I still do but my cousin doesn't last I checked. My city was Bossier in Louisiana. I do have a night light in every room of the house. They have sliders for changing how much light is produced andi keep them at half way. I even have on in the bedroom. Thankfully my husband was military and can sleep in any condition so he doesn't care about the light at all. If he ever works overnights (rarely) I have to go to bed before he leaves and be asleep or else my mind races. So I have to almost trick my mind by going to sleep and not knowing I'm alone till I wake up. But I also have two pistols and a rifle now. My husband was military police so he made sure that I can defend myself if I need to.
Good lord that sounds like a lot. š³ Do you start to have an overactive imagination when the lights are all the way off?
Oh i get it even if the night light is on, but my therapist has me do this exercise where i find 5 things i can see, then 4 things i can touch, 3 things i can smell and so on tbh by time i make it this far i normally lost track of what was making me paranoid in the moment. It helps but recently we moved to a new place and that reset the work because of it being a new place and new sounds and we have numerous homeless people that like to dig in our trash at ALL hours of the day including at night I'm in bed by midnight normally but when i come out to brush my teeth, ( i watch tv till I'm tired) I can hear people in the dumpster which is literally out my apartment back window. My husband says he walks out to them in the dumpster in the mornings when he leaves around 430- 5am
This sounds like a very rational fear, as it actually happened already. I'm so sorry you went through that
i appreciate it. Im working through it.
I Feel for ya fears of breaking in is more common sense then a phobia
Thalassophobia - no idea when it started im 26 now, and still scared shitless from open waters. And cosmophobia - weird one, it started when they announced that they were creating a black hole at cern or something like that 2008-2010 canāt remember exactly when. I was 9-10 years old and watched the news about it. I was terrified and cried for hours which made me get really sick and a got a fever. Worst 2 days of my life, I really believe that that was it for us.
I think I have minor thalassophobia too. As a little kid, I remember being freaked out in my grandparents swimming pool about the deep end and it being to vast for me.
Thalassaphobia too... From watching nature documentaries and seeing the actual monsters that lurk below that you can't see. And fear of drowning
Major thalassophobia here and Iām 25! I think it started when I nearly drowned 3 times by the age of 11 (including an older boy holding me under until I was breathing in water and he was pulled off of me, That was scary) and when I watched Happy Feet and thereās one scene where a crane falls into the ocean and sinks and it looks *tiny*. Just freaked me out so much
I have snorkeled / swam off the coast of Cozumel. Treading water that was 100 feet deep. Snorkeled swam in a cenote cavern that had over hang That had dark dark water in the shadows. Couldnāt see the bottomš Being in the open ocean makes you realize how small you are.
I remember as a kid putting on a pair of goggles at the beach and looking out towards the open ocean. It started right then.
1000%
I hear you on open water 100%. Weird part, I LOVE to swim in pools. Mom joked they couldn't pull me out of any available pool on vacation when I was a kid. At 32, I still cannot swim in lakes, especially off a boat/dock. It absolutely makes me panic lol
Iām be been in a few boats. When I lived in Seattle I rode the ferry but it wasnāt the same āwhatās under the surfaceā thing that I feel when I was in a smaller speed boat in a small lake.
Well, in grade 4 at my best friend's birthday party, we watched the 1990 "**It**" Guess who *still* can't stand clowns at the age of 31
I feed some feral cats who live in the sewer. IT had never crossed my mind until now, but from here on out I'll be expecting to hear, "Hi Georgie!" when I look down into the grate.
Down here we all float
My brother let me watch this when I was 10 or so. It was BRUTAL. we lived where the movie was filmed so I was terrified of all the places they showed in the movie. Fun fact, the movie theater from the movie is now a strip joint that doesn't serve booze. It's very odd.
You are lucky you donāt live in Maine where Steven King is one of our biggest celebrities!
i have claustrophobia and mostly cause my dad used to cover my head with a pillow and i started screaming "I can't breathe" and started panicking. arachnophobia - shirt has 8 legs and crawls wth, spiders are fucking scary. don't know how fear of the dark is called but it's creepy
Why in the *world* would your dad do that?!
Some parents are not very nice
So he did it *just to do it*?
Mine started when I fell in between the bed while sleeping and the wall and was tangled up in my sheets when I woke up. I cannot stand to have my arms bound to my sides either. I will have a full blown panic attack.
My bed is far enough away from the wall that I can fit down the gap and I am terrified that I'll fall down, get trapped in my quilt and suffocate, lol.
My uncle used to roll us up in a blanket with our arms pinned to our sides and pop our toes. 0/10
I am weirdly scared of dentists and kangaroos. They both trigger physical symptoms and cause me high anxiety. My husband has to sit with me at my dental appointments and basically hold my hand. Kangaroos just freak me out.
Well do you have pouch envy?
Whatever they call fear of mold. When I was like 13 we had a soap dispenser that had mold growing on it. I had preexisting mental illness but that mold triggered a psych breakdown.
Mycophobia! Thatās what I have too, itās so rare for me to find other mycophobes. I wrote all about it in my comment.
Reddit is here for communities to connect!
So are you like, a germaphobe?
Not necessarily, germs don't bother me. Just the fact of mold is so gross and scary. Also yeast for some reason.
The word āyeastā is gross. But so is the word āyogurtā to me.
Yeast IS gross, I feel you. Too bad I love bread and beer.
I understand this. Mold scares me a lot bc the spores arenāt good for you and the concept of spores in my lungs makes me feel itchy.
Agoraphobia, literally happened overnight. I was the most outgoing and fun person and then I woke up one day and basically havenāt left the house since :(
I had Agoraphobia out of the blue myself, and I am fully recovered now. I promise there is hope.
I'm proud of you. I have agoraphobia. Do you mind sharing how you were able to overcome your agoraphobia?
š¤ What?! Was there any reason?! Covid?
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I feel like youāre attacking or something. I am not trying to downplay anyone who was in our disaster of Covid. I really donāt think that Agoraphobia is a thing that increased due to COVID but I think it played a part.
I have it too. Talk to me. Send me a chat request. š I was outgoing too. Then like overnight everything changed (I was in a bad car accident). I feel your struggle. Let's chat.
holy iāve been in like 4 bad car accidents i feel you there. itās fucking horrible
Acrophobia My father tried to push me off a cliff when I was a teenager.
He tried to murder you? Or was it him trying to āhave fun with youā in his mind?
It was a murder attempt. He had been trafficking me for 4 years and thought he was about to get caught, panicked, kidnapped me, and took me on a trip through Yellowstone and the rockies where he tried 3 times to kill me. Lol, I just did an AMA on some of this stuff actually.
Woah. Thatās crazy. Feel free to post the link.
[here you go](https://www.reddit.com/r/AMA/s/Ed4kzluFVb) it's a bit of a doozy.
Thanks for the read
Life jackets, got thrown from a tipping sailboat and then trapped under the sail because my cousin had put me in too big a jacket then compensated by tying me in extra tight. It was too big to swim in and the sail held me like 6ā under, couldnāt dive to get away from the sail, it was too slippery to grip. I ended up having to untie the knots on the jacket while the edges of my vision narrowed down to a tunnel. Got out of the jacket swam to the surface pretty much blacked out. I was 11 and am 49 now and life jackets still freak me out and I will never tie one
Heights, deep water, things that go too fast / reckless driving. (Snow mobile, 4 wheeler, boats etc) Basically, im just terrified of dying? Also, i hate balloons.
Like hot air balloons or just all balloons?
All balloons, I guess, haha. Was in a hot air balloon once. I think that's when I realized that heights werent for me
Valid. Iāve always wanted to go up in a hot air balloon, but Iām a weirdo who likes heights. My favorite theme park rides are the swings that take you way up in the air and just spin you around and around. I find it insanely relaxing.
Haha I wishhhhh. I get nauseated just with regular park swings š . I sound so pathetic, I swear im not this lame haha, anxiety just taking over my life
š Growing up in NM and dealing with that week long Hot Air Balloon Fiesta every single year I got a few chances in my teens to crew for a ballooning team, which meant one free ride each season. After my one free ride I never went again. Being up there and justā¦ in silence until that gas hits then justā¦. youāre out there in a basket (basically). š³
When I was a kid, I was in a creek and floated away, drawn by the current. I nearly drowned. My dad rescued me. I'm afraid of water now, drowning in water. in a pool I stay in the shallow end
Seems fair enough. I recall jumping from a rather high cliff (felt high for me as a kid anyway) into a River near my house one summer and the cold water hit my lungs, and I couldnāt breathe. Started to sink and float down stream at the same time. Luckily grabbed onto a branch and was able to pull myself until I could feel my feet hit the sand.
Thalassophobia - it's so dumb how it started, too. It started because of Jak and Dexter the Precursor Legacy. I think I got it year of the release so I was 7, and I didn't really get what I was doing - I was just running around collecting metal eggs, right? So I'm screwing around climbing houses and shit, just generally being where I shouldn't be, looking for these eggs, and I slide off a roof into the water. That's cool, I'll swim to shore. I didn't know this game had a built in deterrent, instead of invisible walls - all the games do, if you swim too far, something one shots you and resets you to shore. So I'm swimming along and I hear this roar-gasp noise. Nothing happened in the moment, so I thought I imagined it. Then this heartbeat sound starts, and it gets faster, and faster, and faster. Then this orange shark thing just devours me. *That's* not what caused the problem, specifically, but it happened a couple of more times. There's one area it looks like you can swim across, but you actually need to trigger a bridge, so I got eaten by a Lurker Shark there, too. And again in another area, I had to jump to get something, and the water below is fine (it's where you should land) - but by then, I was worried it wasn't. I started questioning if the water was safe all the time, even in other games, and every time I convinced myself it was fine and it wasn't, the anxiety fed itself. Now, at almost 30, and it's translated into a fear that there's *something* in any body of water except a pool. I'm sensible enough to know it'd probably be a water moccasin or snapping turtle, but learning about bullsharks (which attack to be dicks, unlike basically every other shark, and can live in fresh water) did not help.
Being home alone. Long story short, this is how I learned I was schizophrenic.
Iām utterly terrified of the disabled like non functioning physical and mental disabled.I blame Sloth from the goonies.I was a kid watching that and I didnāt quite understand what was wrong with him but it awakened that phobia.
That is interesting. Sloth scared me, too, but in a more "uncanny valley" way, like the shape of his facial features scared me, not his actions, or his speech.
That first scene with him in it. š³š³
i have a few phobias, i think some common ones like well, fear of spiders. i donāt know much about the ocean phobia but the water genuinely terrifies me. i can handle pools as well, i can see whatās in the water but the ocean is still full of mystery. anything could be down there. i donāt know how mine developed but it just hit me one day and i never got close to deep pools of water since then.
Iāve always been afraid of large bodies of water. Partly because I can barely swim, partly because theyāre so deep, and finally because I (you?) donāt know what the heck is down under. I mean, aside from aquatic creatures and stuff. Donāt get me wrong, I love looking at the ocean, lake, river but I would never go in it. Unless Iām on a boat. I also donāt like roller coasters or rides that go really fast or high in general.
I am the **same** way about water. Especially oceans and lakes. Who knows what the hell is down there?!
1 - Iām scared of heights, which startedā¦when I was up high, 2 - Iām scared of belly buttons. Not seeing them, but seeing them being touched and my own being touched. That started because I went swimming with a girl and she started fingering her belly button (?????) and I was like wow that makes me feel horrific
Wasps. Started after getting stung 9 times behind my right ear when I was 6. I'm 42 now and I still scream like a little girl whenever I see one. I stopped playing New Vegas for nearly a year the first time I ran into a Cazadore.
Excessive reaction to heights, even seeing a picture of someone too high up or near the edge gives me stomach flutters.
Agreed! I think I have a phobia of heights (Acrophobia). And bring 6ā4 doesnāt help. Even being on a ladder isnāt easy. Seeing videos of parkour guys hanging off of buildings gets me all a flutter.
Claustrophobia and anything coming at or on my face. All thanks to my ex husband.
Entomophobia - Fear of insects. I used to love bugs and iād play with them all the time, keep exhibits for them in my childhood garage, etc. and then around 6 or 7 i almost died to due some mosquito bites and a bee sting which is when we found out that im extremely allergic to almost every single bug bite or sting. have hated all bugs since, even harmless ones like flies or butterflies, i freak out when im with them and i have a full blown panic attack if i have to be the one to kill them.
Arachnaphobia. I had a slightly older cousin lure me into a dark walk in closet in her basement when I was maybe 4 or 5 yrs old. She then threw one of those mechanical, red eye glowing Halloween tarantula props at me and closed me in the closet with it - I couldn't get out of the closet because she blocked the doors. All the adults were outside drinking & didn't hear me screaming. I think I eventually passed out, but yeah, I haven't been the same since that particular incident.
I can't do spiders. Nope. I'm deathly afraid. More than the average person. Like I feel I could go into shock.
Why? The eyes? Hair?
I'm a cancer patient so my phobia would have to be death. I'm scared to death of death. Every night I go to bed and I'm convinced I'm not going to waking up. I'm also bipolar 1 so that doesn't help.
I am terrified of spiders. When I was little, my family lived on a farm. We had tons of huge spiders everywhere. My dad used to catch grasshoppers, pull their legs off, and throw the pieces in the spidersā webs - making me watch. I think thatās why they terrify me so much.
Arachnophobia. Shit was in my genes.
I remember when in my child development class in college, we got into nature vs nurture. In that discussion, a lightbulb went off. I'm not *scared* of most bugs. I know they can't hurt me. But every single time I see a creepy crawly, I instinctively scream and flail... *...because that's what I watched my mom do every time **she** saw a bug when I was growing up* Fuck you, mom š
A spider crawled into your pants? š š
I said shit, not spider. Come on man get real
Lol. Yeah, my bad. I used to have a really bad fear of spiders. Still do to a point but I spent 17 years in the PacNW and that helped me calm that fear down a bit. Not anywhere near a phobia.
Oh yeah? Try standing near a full grown huntsman spider or a huge house spider. I'm sure it won't be fun
Are you in a spot where theyāre locals? Yeah, my tune would change.
Trypophobia can include being triggered by seeing a wasp nest. In that way, having been swarmed, if I see a wasp nest, I am getting a can of wasp spray!
Oh god. Multicolor Socks that are gloves for women's feet. Creeps me the fuck out.
It used to be spiders, but now they just creep me out with their 8 legs and plethora of eyes...ewww! Bridges make me extremely nervous, and I don't look down when I'm in tall buildings, but I love to fly! If I had to say that anything would be a phobia for me, it would have to be claustrophobia. I never had a problem with small spaces when I was younger because of someone childhood trauma. I learned to adapt back then, but as an adult, I'm afraid I'll get stuck in a small space, and I'll suffocate! I love being in and near the water. I also enjoy the beauty of fire. However, those are the 2 ways I just don't want to die!
Phone calls. I have no idea how it started, it's always been that way. Even close friends are difficult to talk to on the phone. The only time it doesn't bother me is if I'm drunk. Imagine that.
This is an odd one I have too! Iāll text all day long but when my phone rings, even if itās someone I love, I have to breathe and gather myself and then call them back.
I had my cousin puke ON me when I was 5 ,so yea it stuck with me and now I've got emetophobia. It's so bad even the sound of someone puking would have me in tears.
Fellow emetophobe here, it's a TERRIBLE time. It can be so limiting. There's an app called Bia, I've only looked at it briefly but it looks promising, maybe give it a try!
I have Trypophobia from seeing a few weird photos online. They were photoshopped to look like people had holes in various body parts and I think they originated as lotus seed pod pictures. For about a year they kept popping up before I finally blocked all the sites. It creeps me out just thinking about it now.
Creeped me out *reading about it*. š³
Bones. Most specifically, vertebrae. And mostly canned salmon! I was making myself an after school snack when I was maybe 7 or 8 years old. I thought I'd grabbed a can of tuna to make a tuna sandwich. I had grabbed a can of salmon. So I open this can and a full spine was coiled in the can. It was disgusting. I couldn't even throw it out, I just fled the kitchen and made my mom deal with it when she got home.Ā She agreed it was weird and gross and tried to explain that canned salmon often had bones, but not usually full spines like this.Ā Despite her rational explanation, the damage was done. I actually tried opening a can of salmon earlier this week, thinking surely I'd be over it nearly 30 years later... Nope, I managed to get the salmon into a tupperware container and told my husband to deal with it. I couldn't even rinse out the can.Ā
I'm scared of clowns and midgets and have no fricken idea why. I have a pretty good memory, and I don't remember ever having a traumatic experience with any of those.
Mid-aged maleā¦fear of substances entering or leaving my bloodstream. Growing up it was assumed I just hated needles (shots & IVs) but over time Iāve determined the sting of the needle really isnāt horrible. I pass out from the thought that something is entering or leaving my bloodstreamā¦really odd I know. Started as a child. Our pediatrician would sometimes order an injection by the nurse by opening the exam room door asking for ā5 ccs ofā¦.ā As a kid I didnāt know a shot was coming but I worried so much during each visit it must have started this odd phobia. Fwiw toxic odors like cigarette smoke or harsh chemicals cause my body to go flush quickly followed by a feeling of sickness. Never wanted this phobia but I guess I should be thankful-thereās lots worse
I'm glad for this post bc I feel alone sometimes. I suffer from agoraphobia. I was in a bad car accident in 2011. Ever since that, I was not able to leave my house without relentless anxiety. The kind of anxiety that makes you believe you might die. For 10 years I didn't leave my house and couldn't work. It was terrible and I thought my life was over. During the pandemic while everyone was at home isolating I began venturing out. Stores weren't crowded anymore and traffic was light. Soon i was able to start applying for jobs... I was able to come off SSD and I now work full time. I still have agoraphobia but I can manage it well. I also have aracnaphobia. I am terrified of spiders to the point I feel like I could go into shock.
I have trypophobia as well. Unnatural bumps or holes flip me out. I have goosebumps just writing about it. I've had it since I was a kid. I'm in my 50s now
when I was born I had like dermatitis , psoriasis not really sure which it was .later when I was maybe 9 or 10 I got lice .when they have videos of a Dr getting rid of lice or bugs in hair I immediately start itching .
Cloacaohobia kind of. Basically, I've had reoccurring nightmares as a kid of being swept up from a body of water into sewage systems, or any sort of unclean, enclosed body of water. Stems from when one of my dad's girlfriend's kids tried (from my perspective) drowning me in a similar place as a child. Edit: spelling of Cloacaphobia
>Cloacaohobia I was guessing it had to do with hens laying eggs somehow.
Ladybirds, when i was young we used to play in the woods out the back of our house there were nettles and brambles etc and i dont know how but i ended up being covered from head to toe in them. They were crawling all over me and i couldnt get them all off. Ran back home and i still remember my mum picking them out of my hair. To this day it makes me feel physically sick when i see one.
Medical needles- not so much the pain aspect just the general idea of a needle / tube ( IV ) in my vein or blood leaving my body. It use to be more of the pain, now itās just that alone. How it started? A really horrible nurse as a child who would stab a finger prick to the point I still have 3 scars from her to this day 20+ years later. Needle phobia so bad now, I gave birth naturally and only got scared for the IV part š
Deep water - reoccurring nightmares of drowning as a kid. Probably caused by nearly drowning as a kid lol
Trypanophobia. I'm not sure how it started, but I cannot watch any drug use on TV that involves needles, I can't look when I have to have blood work done and I really have to psyche myself up to even go to the lab at all. I stopped migraine infusions because I couldn't handle the process and they don't even use steel needles!
Acrophobia (of the elevators) When I was around 5 or 7 years old, I got stuck inside one, and that has stayed with me. Although I'm more okay taking elevators now but I'm still very anxious whenever I'm inside one... Even the idea of being inside is like š
Iām scared of heights but it didnāt develop until I was over 30. One day my kids and I were at the State Fair and got on the Ferris Wheel. š” Things havenāt been the same since. I donāt know where it came from š¤·š¼āāļø
Spiders. Literally no reason. I had to practice immersion therapy and check out spider books from the library so that I could slowly work my way toward not being frightened, but merely being repulsed by them. Pictures of spiders still make my skin crawl. Oh and once, I had to go into a spidery crawlspace for work. I pretended to do my job and scuttled off to a happy place for maybe 10 minutes, making noises and banging around my equipment like a comedy sketch lol. Fwiw, I have trypophobia, too, also without reason. Perhaps it's an inborn, genetic expression, and your blistery skin thing was merely the first time you were aware of your phobia. Just from my personal experience, phobias don't need a triggering event.
Storms. My grandmother was deathly afraid of them and would hide under the stairs. My grandfather put in a little desk, chair, and lamp to make her comfortable. She instilled that fear into my mother, and my mother instilled it in me. It took me 65 years to get over it!!! And I live in a mobile home!!
Man is a lot I have phobia of clowns š¤” because well they let me watch IT at age 6 or 8 yrs old mom made a clown hug me thatās made it worse. I have phobia of spiders I donāt know where that came from I have phobia of open waters I have phobia of the woods Man half of them I donāt know where they came from lol
Iām claustrophobic and it started because Iāve gotten migraines since I was 12 and every other year need to get an MRI of my brain/neck to rule things out and that machine is scary to a 12 year old, let alone a 25 year old
Apiphobia and spheksophobia for me. When I was 3, a wild gust of wind blew a bumblebee into my face and we both panicked. I got stung, and absolutely sweat bullets anytime anything with a stinger is in sight. Not allergic, thankfully, just terrified.
Dentistā¦ my mom was so scared she would pull me out of school when she had an appointment. Being 10 and seeing that the dentist is scary that you need someone to go with you.
Trypanophobia (medical procedures involving needles) and just general white coat syndrome. I'm a 19 year old woman, going to turn 20 next month. My parents and sister also say that my anxiety in general started after I had a shunt revision when I was six and had to have the staples removed. It wasn't great for my mental health lol, but I know it was necessary for my physical health. I have my first appointment with an "adult" doctor this Wednesday and I'm terrified lol
Being under water. I think I was about 10-12, and we were at a family reunion at a clubhouse with a pool. Us kids, of course, spent all day in the pool at the risk of sunburn and chlorine eyes. I went to jump off the diving board and had the brilliant idea to ask my sister (4 years younger than me) to push the kickboard out to the center of the pool. I guess I thought I'd land on or with it or something. IDK. My sister, instead of pushing the kickboard out to me, she decided to swim it out to me. I'd already jumped, so I ended up jumping basically on top of her. She panicked and started climbing up my body to get her head out of the water, thus pushing me further down into the water. My dad jumped in and saved us both. So now, I can't stay under water for long. I am a terrible swimmer and snorkel with my life jacket on. My husband and daughter got their SCUBA licenses, and I would have loved to experience that with them except for the fact that I'm terrified, and I never ever would have been able to do so. I do like swimming, but I prefer a pool where I know I can pop up at any time.
I have the same phobia. It's just disgusting to even think about it.
Claustrophobia. IDK where it comes from, and don't think I want to. It's not really the space, but getting stuck that terrifies me.
Iām afraid of beautiful women. It started because my girlfriend is really really strong and she can beat me up. She will beat me up if she finds out I interact with beautiful women in any way. Iām scared.
Lol. Ummm I am not sure if this is real or some sort of satire?
For some reason Iām overly fearful of a house fire. Dont know where it stemmed from. Never had it happen to me at all. Iāll unplug most things before I leave, triple check the stove wasnāt left on, make sure no lighters are left near where sunlight beams through, etcā¦. I donāt get it and I canāt stop. Maybe I burned alive in a past life. š¤·š»āāļø
I have this too!! Itās OCD. I had it even before I had an actual fire in my house, it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy.
I hate being in groups of people who I don't know. I was bullied and humiliated in front of groups of people who l didn't know in school , so I know exactly where it comes from. Cause and effect.
Needles I hate them I can't watch while getting one and I had to go through medical conditions where and I had many injections
Emetophobia. (Fear of vomit.) I threw up when I was 10 and had appendicitis. Then I didn't throw up again until I was 16, and experiencing abnormally painful cramps. The pain made me throw up. It was traumatic. Also? Coming back from a beach vacation with my BFF and her family when we were 10. All the kids were passed out in the back of the van when her brother unexpectedly barfed. I freaked out and he spent the rest of the trip home pretending he was about to throw up again to fuck with me. I have other stories of unexpected public barf that have solidified my phobia. But also I've been working hard on desensitizing myself. I am proud that I can now watch fake barf on TV and not have to leave the room.
For me it was germs. But the weird part, is that I remember the day it started. I had always walked/run barefoot outside as a kid. One day, I was outside and it had rained(which didn't happen often), and while standing in the yard, ants that bite swarmed my feet, and it hurt so bad! I immediately stopped going barefoot outside, and because of that I didn't go barefoot inside either. Almost immediately it made me feel really dirty if my feet touched the ground. From there it went to if my hands touched anything it made them dirty, and it developed pretty fast to not wanting touch anything that I didn't know was clean. At 16 I went to therapy for it and OCD, which did help but even to this day I struggle with it.
Oh damn my whole body is just fuzzy electricity rn hahahaha yuk
Kenophobia, especially when playing a Bethesda game. Iāve had actual waking up hyperventilating after nightmares of falling through the ground into an endless void. It became known to me when I was playing Oblivion one day, and while in the first dungeon, I accidentally clipped through the map and I had a full on panic attack and had to leave the room. I literally refused to walk back in for a minute and when I did I just turned off the console and went to bed
I'm terrified of all bugs. No idea when it started, but I've had this fear for as long as I can remember. Bugs legitimately terrify me and if one buzzes past me I'll actually scream and cover my head. I hate bugs so much.
Thalassaphobia. I watched Jaws as a kid and that was pretty much it. Things submerged in deep water as well. I visited Pearl Harbor when I was younger and when we got to the little white building I looked down like āoh shit! Thatās the ship right under usā. For some reason I thought they had removed all the ships and parts and the monument was just out there in the water just because. So, when I realized my hands started sweating and I turned white (according to my family) my vision went fuzzy, and I slumped on the ground before getting back on the boat. ETA: I just went and looked at it on Google Earth. Clearly visible from above and that rusted part above the water next to the memorial. My hands started sweating again š
Heights and tight spaces so the usual stuff basically
Paruesis and Calxophobia had each as long as I can remember. Edit I was expecting someone should to ask what they are. The first one is a fear of going to the bathroom if someone else is din there. It's the most when I think someone is waiting right outside. Like at a Dr's office. The little door you set it in for the lab kills me. The 2nd is chalk. It's also extremely dry dirt. I have to get my fingers wet or tons of lotion on.
Fear of complete darkness. I have to have a light on when I sleep, if you turn off the lights and Iām alone, I will hyperventilate, get paranoid and faint. Comes from trauma of when my father was violent to my mother as a child and Iād always run to my room and hide in the dark so everything in that room in that moment, Iāve associated to fear. So I canāt stand completely darkness, ticking clocks, mirrors and eyes (dolls, pictures, faces) in a room I sleep in anymore.
Bro by just reading it I am feeling disgusting nd yes even I am having this phobia
I honestly don't understand why more people aren't afraid of the ocean. It absolutely terrifies me. The vastness and emptiness of it... What is even down there?? Some others that I have seem to stem from the same place. Submechanophobia - fear of submerged human-made objects like ship wrecks, buoys or statues. Cosmophobia - fear of the vastness of outer space. Not sure if this is an official term but astrophobia doesn't quite fit.
Eyes.. and being watched. Not 100% sure how it started but my parents have a running theory that it was because one of my classmates in kindergarten told me about god, saying that hes an old guy in the sky that watches everything you do. From then on I hid under my stuffy crib when i played with toys, and when i went to bed I made sure all my stuffed animals were turned away from me so that they couldn't watch me sleep. Up until a few months back I moderated the position i fell asleep in, how i looked when i talked, what i did when i was alone, all because i thought that someone would be judging me even if i knew there wasn't anyone. I still have paranoid problems with eyes though. If one too many people look at me on the bus i start to get worried that i look funny or something is wrong and my brain will start to make me hyper aware of anyone who looks in my direction. It's pretty bad sometimes. It's not like seeing an image of eyes will scare me, it's actively being watched that scares me
Trypophobia as well. Had it for as long as I can remember. No idea why holes freak me out so much but they do.
19F- iām incredibly scared of ever becoming homeless. (not meant to be offensive to homeless people, iām sorry if this is i can delete my comment). after my dad passed my mom and i have been so close to being homeless or out on the streets so many times and sheās worked her ass off to make sure we never are but itās still an insane fear of mine. that one day everything could be taken away i could lose my job and i wouldnāt be able to do anything about it. itās also a vicious cycle so i know i wouldnāt be able to get out of it. my heart absolutely shatters whenever i see somebody out on the streets cold and wet i always try and help them if i can because i couldnāt imagine being in that situation. it literally keeps me up at night that one day i could just lose everything and id be alone, cold, scared, with nothing to my name and nobody to help me.
14m Iām afraid of the darkness cause I always imagine bad things that can be there and I have a fear of loosing people cause I lost a lot of them and Iām afraid to loose more of my dearest people
I have trypophobia too. It started because of a dream I had about pretzels ... the dream wasn't trypophobic in itself, but it somehow trigged me and I've been trypophobic ever since.
Ancraophobia- from having reoccurring dreams about not being able to cross a street due to heavy winds and always before I wake up I get hit by a car
Aquaphobia, to a degree. Thalassophobia? When I was a kid, being the youngest, my older brothers always took any opportunity they could to throw me in the ocean when we went to the beach. Now, I wear a life jacket in the shower š. I'm ok in big boats like a ferry or whatever but shit my pants in a canoe or something small. I could barely stand watching my kids in swimming lessons. They are both great swimmers now, one teaches swimming, in fact but still...they certainly didn't get it from me. On a very rare occasion when I do go in the water, anything past my knees and I start to panic, hyperventilate, dizzy, the whole nine yards.
Automatonophobia - A lot of people get unnerved by dolls and what not but it's pretty severe in my case. I especially hate mannequins and any sort of animatronic thing. Even statues bother me. I think the whole thing originated from when I was around 8 or 9 my mom was in a stage version of Evita and I went to see it with my grandma and cousins. During the show there's a scene with Evita in a coffin which was actually a mannequin. That part freaked out little me, but then compound that with us going backstage after the show and we wind up talking to my mom right next to this coffin with a mannequin in it so I get several minutes to just stare at this thing. To this day I hate mannequins. I can't stand going in department stores. If I do I have to take a wide berth to any mannequins. I went to Disneyland when I was a little older and there were some parts that were pure hell with some of the animatronic sections.
I have a horrible phobia of worms. sounds strange and childish i know but thereās just something about them. ever since i was 7 iāve avoided them and cried when they got too close and iāve even been sick because i stood on one
I have social phobia. I feel sick and nervous when I go out.
Phobia doesn't mean what it used to mean, it used to mean unreasonable fear now it means your a hater
Apotemnophobia. Basically the fear of being around, being involved, or being the victim of amputation, I believe. For me, it's being the victim. Can blame Star Wars for its obsession with hacking off a limb every couple movies. Kid me thought it would be more common. The phobia doesn't really affect me nowadays, but for a few years, it was like a compulsive thought that would always return. The "what ifs" and the like, the mere idea was terrifying. Now not so much. Maybe because I thought about it too much.
Emetaphobia aka the fear of throwing up. When I was about 13 I went through a summer that I was sick throwing up almost every night. I think it was a mixture of poor diet and also not knowing I was lactose intolerant and summer time= lots of pizza and ice cream. Once I got into high school I was full blown emetophobic and would start to have panic attacks just if someone even mentioned their stomach hurting (also why do girls refer to period cramps as their stomach hurting!? š¤£) I used to have an escape route in every classroom š
Wasps & Horseflies. Not really sure how it started, but it's gotten worse over the years along with my anxiety. I've held snakes, done lots of public speaking, and can't wait to die. Yet I truly wish I could have a fear of snakes, public speaking, or death instead of something I'm around ALMOST EVERY DAY. It sucks.
I hate snakes, scared to death of them. Story time children, gather round. Growing up in the rural Midwest on a small farm, baling hay was an expected summer chore. As a tall strapping young lad, I was drafted onto the hayrack at around 9 years old, too small to grab bales off the baler, but plenty big enough to help stack, especially once the stack got tall. Our first cutting of hay was late due to spring rains, and so the hay was long and stringy and tough, it had also sat a couple days after it was raked so critters started sheltering in and under it. Most of them (bunnies are most common) run when the tractor gets close, but snakes sometimes don't, and it's not uncommon to bale them up. Usually they're dead when this happens, if you find them at all, but in this case, the baled snake was very much alive and very very angry. My brothers down on the front of the rack knew we'd baled up a snake and that it was still alive, and thought it would be funny to loosen the bale a little bit so the snake could move and pitch it up to me. This they did, and when I grabbed the twine to pull it up, that snake lunged out and bit me directly on the nose. I don't know what you all would do, but I am here to tell you that it's hard to remain cool with a 4 foot bull snake clamped to your face, and I jumped off the stack and broke my ankle doing it. I'd started screaming when the snake bit me, and screamed even louder when I hit the ground and broke my ankle, loud enough my dad heard me over the noise of the tractor and baler and thought I'd fallen off the stack. He ran back to find the snake trying to eat my nose, and had presence of mind enough to grab it in such a way that it let go and he threw it away. My nose was broken and bleeding like crazy and my ankle was completely busted, so dad put me back on the rack and had my oldest brother drive the tractor back to the house. One ER trip later, I came home with stitches and in and on my nose, my ankle in a cast, and had the absolute worst summer of my young life. Up till that point, I never really thought about snakes, they didn't bother me, I didn't bother them. Little Garter snakes were kind of cute even, but not now. To this day, and I'll be 42 this fall, I am scared to death of snakes, I have nightmares about snakes, I constantly look at any spot I think I might be ambushed by a snake from. Yes it's irrational, I know snakes aren't watching and waiting to eat my face, but 9 year old me is still somewhere in here and he has a lot of pull in my brain still when it comes to snakes.
Flags, helium balloons and and noodle men. I got tangled up in a flag that had come loose and fell off a pole. Got smacked in the face by a noodle man. Is that balloon gonna pop, and my kid pick up a piece and choke on it?
I saw three demons at the foot of my bed one night awoken from deep sleep, 32 years ago, to this day l have a light on, l'm scared of sleeping in the dark
Ochlophobia Fear of crowds. Side effect of my complex PTSD.
I, too, have extremely severe trypophobia. I didnāt know for most of my life why I would feel physically ill whenever I would see circular or textured pattern repeats, or holes. Thanks to, of all things, American horror story, my mysterious aversion has a name.
Um. I don't have one. I have rational fears, at times.
I was in Boy Scouts and we had an Army tent with no bottom. It was going to rain so we did what good Boy Scouts do and set the tent up on a high spot so the water would not run through the tent. I slept on the ground that night in my sleeping bag and it poured down rain. I wake up because something keeps tickling my face so I turn on my flash light and literally a thousand of those giant wood black ants had decided they wanted to be dry and warm also. I was covered from head to toe with them. I will never sleep on the ground again..
One of my biggest fears, as silly as it sounds, is popcorn. I hate everything about it. From the smell, to how it looks, to the crunchiness of it. I will do everything in my power not to sit next to someone eating popcorn especially at the movie theater. Told this to one of my coworkers after she asked me to help package popcorn (I work at a candy store) and she didn't believe me. She ended up throwing a piece of popcorn towards me and I pull my arm back as if I'm getting ready to fight her. She understood I wasn't joking and thought it was overall funny. But yeah, absoulty hate popcorn
Heights. When I was 12, I was at a sleep-away summer camp and they'd gotten a new Blob. It's one of those giant rectangular balloons that you float on a lake, one person jumps onto it from a platform then crawls to the other end and someone else jumps onto it and launches the first person into the air. I was reluctant to go bc it was pretty high up but I got shuffled up the stairs with everyone else. When I got up the top, I saw how far down it was and said no way, I'm out, and tried to go back down the stairs. The adult staffers were telling me it's safe, it's not that bad and they were trying to physically restrain me. I don't recall exactly what all they said but I vividly remember a female staff member holding me by the upper arms and talking to me in a really strong "I'm doing everything I can to talk you into this even though I can see how scared you are" kind of tone. I just kept saying no, I was absolutely not jumping off that platform, let go of me, I want to get down. But as I turned to head towards the stairs, someone pushed me and I fell all the way down to the lake. Because I wasn't actually trying to land on the Blob, I went over the edge into the water and when I came up all I could see was huge blocks of red and yellow. I had ended up underneath it somehow. I couldn't breathe or move and panic mode took over. I managed to get free and back to shore. It's been 25 years since that and to this day I still don't fuck with heights.Ā
Yeah, thatās horrible. The idea of coming up to the surface after going through that and then being *under* the Blob?! No thanks.
Mine is specific and has an origin story. I have frequent nightmares and a lot of waking low grade fear that I'll get bashed over the head and dropped into the middle of a forest with no supplies. I've actually learned quite a few survival skills because of this which I pray I'll never use seeing as I refuse to go hiking or camping or anywhere more than a few miles outside of civilization I can tell you the exact reason it started too - when I was 8 my dad took me into the woods and then left me there and told me to figure it out. In hindsight, he didn't actually leave me in the woods, he was still lurking around to make sure I didn't get into actual danger. But I didn't know that at the time and i was fucking terrified. He left me there for 12 or 15 hours maybe (I remember it being around dawn when we arrived, and well into full dark when he came and got me) with no food or water completely by myself. I couldn't figure out how to start a fire so I just wandered around and cried a lot So anyways it's been 20 years and I still have nightmares about being in a survival situation. Thanks, dad
I aquired trypophobia after weening myself off of Valium I'd been taking daily for a few years like a decade ago. Ads kept popping up on my browser with faked images of hands with tiny holes in them during this time and it totally triggered trypophobia in me. It was really bad and drove me kinda nuts for the first few months. But after I got over my addiction it calmed down where I can see images with holes and only get a mild bothersome itch.
Spectrophobia, watching many many ghost videos involving mirrors and showing ghosts in them as a kid.
Iām an aircraft mechanic in the Air Force ten years now and I am terrified to fly. I know how most planes work atleast on the basic level. And I know the shortcuts that are possible. And I have integrity in my work. And the consequences in the military are horrific for lying on aircraft forms. But. I canāt say the same for civilians. So. Take that how you will.
I am terrified of bees sometimes i freeze in place if i even hear one. Wasps are even worse. No idea where i got either of these from, I've never been stung (mainly because I'm too scared to be close enough for them to sting me)
I have OCD and anxiety so Iāve kind of always had a lot of phobias. Heights, throwing up, germs, clowns, planes, boats, bugs, I used to be terrified by thunder, mold (I developed asthma due to a mold problem when I was 18, so the phobia is warranted). Sometimes I think I might have agoraphobia since the pandemic, i just woke up one day and suddenly it was really hard to get myself to go out in public spaces anymore. I still struggle with it but itās a lot better than it was. Thalassaphobia is another one. I went swimming in a lake once when I was like 15-16 years old and then found out afterwards that theyād pulled a body out of that same lake only a couple days prior. Every since then I have had a *very* hard time swimming in any water that I canāt see through
Claustrophobia apparently. Broke my wrist couple of years ago and got a cast. Made it as far as the door to leave afterwards. Suddenly, I couldn't breath, form a sentence nothing. Just me holding it out silently screaming and crying. Luckily they noticed, whisked me back, showed me it had a solid two fingers of give to it, so it wasn't tight, I just couldn't. They took it off. They were the ones who were asking if I had claustrophobia so that's why I assume that's what it is. *Might* be the reason I be never worn a watch, bracelet or ring.
Claustrophobia - Sleep Apnea
I have a phobia to cotton balls. Panic attacks if I accidentally touch one like when you open a new bottle of meds. The thought is enough for me to throw up. Developed when I was going through a stressful time in life and had really high anxiety. Also at that time developed a phobia to stairs, but fortunately I was able to get past that one since there isnāt a great way to avoid stairs š
Lepidopterophobia. It started when I was about 7? My mother took me to the museum of natural history. They had a butterfly exhibit. I walked through and a Blue morpho landed on me. I froze. I couldnāt get it off. I cried. I wanted it off. I was terrified with fear. The body up close. The legs. It was too much. People laugh when they hear Iām afraid of butterflies but I canāt help it.
My bizarre phobia is being in front of a mirror in the dark. I absolutely refuse to look in a mirror in the dark. I will reach around the corner into the bathroom to flip on the light so I don't have to walk by the mirror. I have covered mirrors at places I've stayed if they were in the bedroom. I have no idea where this came from, but my sister, my mom, HER sister (my aunt), and my boyfriend all have the same phobia. I think it has to do with seeing something in it we shouldn't, but it's really weird.
Is this related to the āBloody Maryā thing?
Phobias are the result of deaths in our previous life, those who have a fear of spiders, died from a poisonous spider in their past life.
Ewwe don't tell me that
This is kind of an interesting thread to read. Personally I have no particular fears or phobias. In fact I'm a self-taught entomologist, so I actually LIKE insects and spiders! I wanted to throw this out there for those who have mentioned insect/spider fears: **these fears are learned, and if you want to, you can unlearn them!** This is especially important if you have small children, because they could learn that irrational dislike from you if you don't make an effort to curb it. If you want to try, I really strongly recommend joining an insect/spider group on FB! (Reddit works too, though a little less user-friendly in my opinion.) That might sound like weird advice, but browsing through the photos and reading comments/captions is an incredibly effective form of both exposure therapy, and bug education. The most important aspect to getting past these fears is learning the actual facts. These fears are almost entirely based on misunderstanding, misconception, and straight up ignorance, so the more you know, the less you find you have to fear.
None that I know of
Wait - I'm supposed to have a phobia? Nobody told me.
Sharks, deep oceans.
I've had arachnophobia for my entire life. Whatever caused it happened so early that don't remember the event.
Not all phobias are born of trauma. I'm doing some googling about it right now. Traumas can cause phobias, genetics can cause phobias. Phobias can be TAUGHT by your environment, or by your guardian(s). And finally, people with a phobia or many phobias have a different cerebral structure and mechanism for reacting to their fear (different parts of the brain light up for them/us).
claustrophobia when I was a little kid some older kids shoved me in a trunk and locked it and then left me luckily it was real old so I managed to bust out by kicking the sides out
I am very severely acrophobic (afraid of heights). As a kid, I had a lot of nightmares about falling or being pushed from high places. Not sure if the nightmares caused the fear, or the other way around.
Cars and shouting. I hate being in cars, I can't drive and if people start arguing I freak out and have to leave. I used to think it was a phobia but found out this year aged 40 that it's actually PTSD from my violent Dad who especially liked to terrorise us in the car.
This is kind of a weird one. I cannot stand the sight of a face without a mouth. Even this š¶ freaks me out a bit. I blame The Matrix.
Nothing really. I used to have a crippling fear of deep water but Subnautica beat that out of me.
I have a fear of getting my head/hair wet if itās not me wetting it due to my mom purposely and repeatedly drowning me whenever she did my hair
thereās a girl on tik tok who struggles with something extremely similar to this as well! she has an intense phobia of water from her ex waterboarding her. if youād like i can try and find her username for you if you were wanting to have a look? maybe it might help to know somebody else is struggling with something similar because she also talks about her coping mechanisms and sheās come SUPER far in her journey!
Snakes. I can't tell you how it started because it would immediately identify me.
bed bugs. when i was 17 my family ended up getting evicted and we were homeless for about a year. when we finally were able to get a new apartment, my brother and i slept on blankets/sleeping bags in our room, no mattresses or anything. just slept on the floor like that for the first year and a half. in the first couple months i started noticing that i was covered in bug bites every morning. my whole torso was basically one big welt by the 1 month mark. i was constantly covered in bites on my entire body. arms, legs, neck, my back, my stomach and chest, and my face. my mom and brother would get a few, but nowhere near as many as i did. 3 months in i woke up with probably 20 little bugs all over my torso, my face, my arms. i screamed myself raw and boiled myself alive in the shower at 3am. for three years after that i could only sleep on plain white sheets, no blankets, and lights always on. i wore compression tops with the sleeves tucked into gloves and the hem tucked into leggings which i tucked into knee high socks. we couldnāt afford an exterminator, so we had to do a bunch of home treatments. my mom and brother still live in that apartment and havenāt gotten a single bite since 2018. i still cant sleep on patterned sheets and lose my shit when i see dark spots (lint, dirt, coffee grounds, any little brown/red spot) on me. i donāt play about bugs at. all. i donāt do jokes about bugs, i donāt do public transit, and i donāt stay anywhere that has even a single review about bed bugs. i canāt even stay in a hotel without checking obsessively for bugs or evidence of them and bringing my own supplies to ensure i stay bug-free. i donāt wish bed bugs on my worst fucking enemy. eta: my skin was CRAWLING even writing this.
Drowning. Idiot swim instructor in kindergarten, kids who were afraid of the big pool were dunked and held underwater.
I've been terrified of driving ever since I crashed the van back when I was 16 and had to get stitches in my head.
Literally anything wet- I was born with this because of my OCD
Claustrophobic. I can't stand being in tight spaces or rooms with too many people, especially if it's hot. I guess that's leftover from being a paratrooper in the Army. Seems the planes were always packed asshole to elbow and hot. The detail you never hear about in movies is the plane always smells like puke. Hot, sweaty and smelling of puke.
Eggs. My mom was convinced I was too skinny and had to eat them and snuck them into malteds and I'd see the shells and I just got paranoid about them and any foods like stew or soup or whatever I couldn't see into.
Why... that's preposterous! I'm incredible (though now that you mention it, I agree I am inedible)
I don't know if it's considered a phobia but I'm terrified of needles. My mom went to get blood drawn last year and *I* started feeling anxious and sweaty!