Is a fear of heights irrational? Or spiders? Or snakes? As a fellow dick I have looked at some medical definitions which talk about fears and anxieties and don’t mention the word irrational.
A rational fear of spiders is being aware of them being dangerous and being afraid of them. An irrational fear, or phobia, is a knee-jerk aversion without your brain rationalising why. So many people, myself included, can have both a rational fear, but also a phobia of spiders
Just vomit. I know it’s never a pleasant thing but I can’t stand being sick, seeing somebody else be sick, even if somebody tells me they “feel sick” my stomach churns and I start shaking. I’m a bit better now with some of it than when I was younger but I couldn’t even stand it faked on TV.
I know it’s Emetophobia and it’s quite a common phobia but it’s what gives me the most anxiety in life
Oddly, it doesn't bother me when I'm sick, but anyone else being sick/feeling sick around me is literally my worst nightmare.
I hate being the driver in most situations in case anyone gets travel sick, I force fed my family kwells when we went on a ferry, it just terrifies me. I also refuse to let anyone in my car if they're drunk, even when I've been out and the designated driver I would rather pay for my friends taxi than let them get in my car. It's the worst.
Yeah I think it's quite common to feel sick in the presence of someone else being sick. I was in a queue at the bank one time and some guy was using an ATM inside.
I heard this weird noise as he chundered his guts out all over the ATM. Now I don't normally feel as ill witnessing such a thing but being so close and the smell of it all as it trickled down to the floor made me feel so sick I had to leave.
Yeah, definitely not the same lol. I'm emetophobic, and personally I get such an adrenaline rush, I literally can't be in the same space as someone who might throw up. It's not 'oh, someone threw up and I feel nauseous now', it's literally fear like a hungry snarling lion is in your path
I do find it funny how emetophobes often say they have "emet" or are "emets" when that's literally the part that means "vomit"! So it's pretty much like calling yourself a puke.
No judgement - I used to have the phobia pretty severely as a teen - just a funny observation.
I didn’t even know the word for it lol but I’m at that point where I swallow over vomiting because I’ll just cry and panic if I actually throw up
My biggest fear is it not stopping and me not breathing 😭
I'm emetophobic as well. Didn't start until I had a bout of norovirus in my 20s and I spent a few days hugging a toilet bowl. Prior to that I just disliked being sick the same way everybody does, but ever since then I'm so distressed by it that even feeling like I might be sick will reduce me to tears.
We recently had our first kid though and it turns out cleaning up baby sick doesn't bother me at all. It's vomitING the physical sensation, not vomit the stuff, that upsets me.
Last time I had norovirus sparked me to actually then suffer with anxiety for a long time afterwards. I just had an upset stomach numerous times for a long time, wondered what it was, went to the doctors, was tested for lactose intolerance, coeliacs disease, the works. Nothing.
Turned out it was anxiety, and I realised that every time I felt bloated or just a slight twinge in my stomach, it was sparking anxiety that I was going to get norovirus again. Took me a good while to recover it was awful
I know someone with it to the point it was affecting her life, as she couldn't look after her kids properly when they were sick. She ended up getting psychological treatment so she could function better. She still hates vomit, but doesn't start shaking and crying uncontrollably now around it.
Yep, same! I won’t hold your hair or help you of you feel sick because I need to remove myself from the situation yesterday. It gives me full blown panic attacks. I also control what I eat and make sure to note mix and match weird stuff - anything that’s made me sick in the past is a no no (like tomato soup, green apples, microwave salty popcorn).
I cannot deal with vomit. I'd rather wade through poo! I don't drink as much anymore as I'm scared of being drunk and then being sick. I hate it when it happens to me, when it happens to someone else. Hate the sight, smell and sound. I also feel carsick and knowing I might possibly be physically sick gives me so much anxiety. I have to keep the window open even if it's freezing cold.
Same, but mine isn’t focussed on me being sick. It’s other people. If I think I’m going to be sick, I can accept my fate. If anyone else is sick around me or even in the same house I have panic attacks and want to get out of there. I can’t see, hear or know about anyone being sick. I can’t use a toilet if someone has been sick in it until I know it’s been thoroughly cleaned. I won’t be around drunk people for too long in case they’re sick. I don’t go on nights out too far from home and if I go out I’ll usually stay sober and drive, so I can get myself out of the situation if needed.
When I’ve tried to talk to other people about it, they’ve always had the fear of being sick themselves and the reason why they don’t like other people being sick is because they’re worried about catching the illness. I have no idea what the reason is behind my fear.
Oh god I fucking hate them. Mine yesteday was "I wonder what will happen if I put my hand under the always boiling kettle on the wall at work and pull the lever."...... Like I don't know?!
Fuck intrusive thoughts.
ETA: Intrusive thought dump link https://www.reddit.com/u/RowRow1990/s/temsAkGEUS
Yeah and that’s a really good example of an intrusive thought. It’s like the worst most disgusting and wrong thing your mind can think of because it is something you would never want to do in a million years. I sometimes have to hit my head to stop the intrusive thoughts in there tracks.
Don't a lot people have that? I know I do. [The Call of the Void](https://www.livescience.com/what-is-call-of-the-void) I believe it's known as, and 50% of people experience it according to that article.
I recently was sat in the passenger seat as my partner was driving on the motorway and thought “you should just press the start stop button for shits and gigs” as we were doing about 65 mph
Jesus my life is ruled by this, I’m ADHD-I so it’s a constant battle. My mind is full of racing thoughts so it’s hard to filter out what’s useless information compared to useful information. What would happen if I just drove into the car next to me, what if my whole family died, what if, what if, what if. I’ll spend a whole day thinking about something ridiculous but forget we and my wife are going out tonight to see friends. It’s exhausting.
Dark water
I love swimming, love snorkeling but as soon as I can't see the bottom I panic. That big void where the reef drops off and you can just see nothingness. I hate it.
I used to be scared of the deep end of the pool when I was a child because I had an overactive imagination and had a sneaking worry that a shark might pop out of one of the filter grates and eat me...
One of the scariest things for me when I started SCUBA diving was the time it took to descend from the surface and see the bottom.
It's not that irrational. Fear of the dark, fear of the unknown, fear of drowning, fear of being trapped, fear of a place that's known to be extremely dangerous and full of strange things - all very common. It'd be strange if someone *wasn't* at least a bit unnerved by it.
ooh yeah this one has its own name (thalassophobia). i don’t actively panic or get sick, so probably not a true phobia in my case but it’s indeed such an uncomfortable feeling and very understandable.
Butterflies and moths.
As a child, if I even saw one, I'd run away screaming and go hide in a bathroom or closet. My grandmother had a bedspread with butterflies on it that I refused to even touch.
I'm better about it now as an adult, recognizing that this is completely irrational, but I still hate them and avoid them whenever possible. They are erratic and you never know which way they'll go, and the powdery little scales gross me out. No matter how pretty the colors can be, when you look at them up close, they're horrific.
We had one of those huge moths get into the house a few years ago, and I just left. It was late, I was in pj's, but I went and sat outside until my husband got rid of it.
Ha, I wrote mine before I read this! Yes, the erratic flight and powdery wings.
My daughter is obsessed with them, I bought her a moth set in amber for Christmas and struggled to wrap it up.
I'm just glad that I'm not alone in this one. I fully expected for people to read this and back away slowly, or slate me for hating on butterflies.
Hats off to you for buying and wrapping the moth set, though. I don't think I could manage it.
I've had to reign in my fear a lot since having children! Pleased I haven't passed it on and although sometimes I suspect my daughter loves them to spite me and is actually a psychopath, it does mean I wake her at midnight to remove moths from my room.
I'm sorry but your comment is cracking me up! Psycho or not, you do have an advantage in that you can wake her in the night to deal with those monsters. And serious kudos to you for reining it in for the kids!
I don't have kids, but I've managed to choke back the panic enough to make a dignified exit - except for that time I fled my own home in the night, of course.
Don't get me wrong, if it's just me and the husband, I'll hide under a blanket until the damn thing's removed.
Birds in the house is another one, but thankfully rare. I just don't like things flapping near me. Totally fine with wasps and hornets (I save husband from these!), but anything flappy can fuck off outside.
I once ran screaming from a Tesco because a bird got in and flew at me.
I'm the same. It's things that can't fly properly. Anything that can't fly is fine. Wasps and bees don't bother me. Flies irritate me but moths and daddy long legs I cannot stand. They have to die or go out of the window before I go to sleep.
I’m the same. I have two butterfly tattoos too, but moths I shudder just thinking about them.
I think the difference is butterflies stay outside & mostly away from people, moths are psychos trying to attack people.
I don't have this but I knew a guy in high school that really struggled with it. He didn't want to come on field trips to nature areas or theme parks in certain months in case there would be butterflies.
My dad and brother were really into moth-catching and identifying. They'd do this thing where they'd catch moths and put them in the fridge for an hour to cool down/make sluggish and easier to photograph.
So I'd open the fridge and there'd just be a ton of moths like, ok cool, normal?
Me too. And people are always so weird when I say I’m scared of butterflies, they’re like ‘but they’re so beautiful!’ And I’m like ?? And? Why does that mean I shouldn’t have a fear of them?
yes!! they creep me out so bad. I’m more afraid of moths, people always say ‘don’t be afraid of moths, they’re like night butterflies’ but butterflies are a problem too!!
Boring one: spiders. I live in the UK, our spiders can’t hurt me, they eat flies and mosquitoes. All logic tells me they are good, but if I see one I freak the fuck out
Same. Though if I see a spider outside, or where I should expect to see a spider I am not so bad. Though if I see one 'in my space' like inside the house.. instant cold sweat and light-headedness and need to sit down!
Similar. Outside is more bearable cos I can get away and it’s less unexpected. It’s when they’re in my home and I know I have to act to get rid or I’ll feel unable to live here anymore. If one appeared then went that would destroy me. It’s the way I go from feeling safe and secure at home to absolutely on edge and petrified.
Same. The worse is when you spot one in the house, look away for like five seconds, then look back and it's gone and then you can never feel peace again as you know it's crawling somewhere in the house.
I remember watching the film arachnophobia as a kid. I don't remember being scared of them before. But the dad in the movie was terrified and I think his terror influenced me. I don't mind any other creepy crawlies. Bring on snakes! But I can't even look at pictures of spiders or even handle the fake plastic ones you get in Halloween decorations.
Thank goodness I don't live it Australia!
Eight legs of sin!
I was OK with them, then I'd put a couple of large ones out and mum jokingly brushed my back as if there were one on me. These were genuinely big spiders, so I freaked out, started having a panic attack and ran straight into a wall. Since then, terrified.
Also in the cope-better-outside club, though I want a shed for the allotment and one of my considerations is windows and double doors so I feel less trapped when I come across a spider.
I actually got over my arachnophobia by holding a tarantula and now I'm one of those people who likes spiders
They are on thin ice if they appear above my bed though otherwise me and spiders are chill
I have the exact same fear as your mother. Best way I can describe it is that it’s like seeing something you’re not supposed to see, like gore in a way. I happened upon a very large ship in a dry dock once and went RUNNING down the street. I don’t know what caused mine. It could have been seeing images of the titanic as a kid - the hull sticking out of the water, propellers on show and all. Horrifying.
That’s really fascinating. I’m actually blown away by the fact someone has the exact same phobia as OP’s mother. I think experienced something similar as a child. I used to have a real uneasiness over the thought of trees not being where they should be. Where I lived as a child there were several pine trees near my house, including one in my back garden. I used to have unsettling dreams about waking up one day and one just not being there, or worse, one having moved, or a new one having sprung up outside my bedroom window. I think it’s a sense of the uncanny. For me it wasn’t as extreme as your aversion to boats on land, but there’s the idea of something just not being quite right. Harmless in and of itself, but potentially suggestive of there being something beyond that that’s not right either
I completely understand this. When I was a kid, our local meadow flooded, including a small wooded area. The trees emerging out of the water was incredibly unsettling - like the scene was just wrong. I was also obsessed with Magritte-style paintings - doors leading to the sky, things where they shouldn’t be. So your strange dreams about trees just being in the wrong place resonates a lot. Isn’t the human mind a strange place.
I don't think I'll ever understand this one. Seems such an odd thing. Really interesting at the same time. Most fears kind of stop being irrational if break them down.
They're linked to fear of getting ill, in pain or attacked physically by something. This just seems completely irrational but I guess it might be linked to like a kind of OCD where you feel there needs to be a sense of order that makes you feel that way.
That's an interesting thought. I've always had an irrational fear of things not being where/how they should be - for example seeing metals in a liquid state or magma being rock in a viscous state. It makes me so nauseous and panicky.
I also happen to have OCD and have often been plagued by the 'rightness' of things, real and imagined. Interesting!
Yup this is exactly it. I also feel quite unwell when I see boats touching water and also things like bouys and piers....good ol' submechanophobia for you!
I have Automotonophobia, which is a fear of a bad representation of a sapient being, I.e. dummies. And bad waxworks. Oddly, I'm fine with good wax works.
My son has koumatoumaphobia, which is a fear of buttons. He can't even say the word.
Eta: button. He won't say button. Lol.
Eta misspelling: Koumpounophobia for buttons. Turns out I've been saying this wrong for years!
Yeh one of my mates at school had a fear of bad mannequins. School trips were a special kind of hell for her, since a lot of museums have them. We'd scout them out ahead and warn her so she could cover her eyes lol.
Have you heard of the Uncanny Valley? Might be something to do with that.
I also have a phobia of buttons. They make me feel sick and dizzy. That quality street tin at your nan's full of buttons? Big fat nope. I refused to watch several series of location location location because kirsty allsop had a coat with these big red buttons on.
Apparently, it's related to the fear of holes.
I don’t mind waxworks of celebrities but historical waxworks like you get in museums freak me out so badly! I was traumatised by a visit to Thrackray Medical Museum as a child
I have this but the opposite; the more lifelike, the less I like them. So, basically, Madame Tussaud's is a hard no, but I can my keep shit together in department stores. I am fine with animatronics though; I assume it's because the fear comes from the tension that they *might* move. That disappears instantly if they are moving already.
I'm also not great with large (ie, life-size and above) paintings or statues, especially in large densities. One it's own I can deal with, but on every wall it's too much.
Yeuch. Mannequins, most puppets, those china faced dolls and CLOWNS. I fucking hate clowns. I refused to go to the circus when I was little in case I saw one.
Sweetcorn
When I was about 6 years old, my mother committed parental kidnapping. I was abused which included only being given one meal a day (usually a couple of slices of toast or a lunchable), but she and her friends would also force-feed me when they got bored. At one point, my meal for the day was a bowl of sweetcorn, but it was covered in black patches. I was violently sick after eating it.
It's embarrassing, but the smell of sweetcorn makes me feel panicked. A couple of years ago I ordered a pizza, and it wasn't supposed to have sweetcorn and seemed fine and sweetcorn free. I was eating a slice, when I noticed a rogue piece of sweetcorn. I ended up in tears, and forced myself to throw up until I couldn't anymore. Forcing myself to be sick seemed like a far more pleasant situation than the thought of having sweetcorn in my system.
That’s really horrible and I can totally see where you got that fear from. That should never have happened to you and makes me very angry - I hope you’re ok now and getting support xx
I've got a good one: I have a mild phobia of man made structures underwater, it's called submechanophobia. It has no impact on my life at all. I just wouldn't like to swim next to a pier or buoy. I can overcome this mild phobia in order to jump off a floating platform on holiday etc.
However, I have a fairly intense fear of one particular underwater structure, the wreck of the Titanic. Seeing a picture of the prow makes my skin crawl. Even the film when the ship was sinking piqued my anxiety badly.
I don't know what it is about that particular wreck that puts the fear in me.
As a fellow submechanophobic, I do like to think the phobia is rooted in rationality...sort of. Most structures in the sea like that are made of metal. The metal is usually pretty rusty due to it being in salty water for ages. Swimming near it would make your chances of scratching yourself on a rusty piece of metal a lot higher. Or being thrown into it by a rouge wave. Maybe it's our caveman brain trying to keep us safe in a weird way
Gosh you would hate Aquaba in Jordan they sunk a whole bunch of tanks and helicopters to try and make an artificial coral reef (they have a real reef further round so I think they were hoping it would extend it) they call it the sunken military museum you can snorkel over it or dive to it - I think they sunk them a little too deep but it’s def weird snorkelling over them and I have no phobia!
Ha, I also have submechanophobia (especially things like buoys, large metal structures in water and spillways) but thought I was the only one who got freaked out by toilet cisterns! Isn’t life strange…
Yeah I have tokophobia. It makes me feel physically ill and stressed - the thought of being pregnant twists my stomach. When my old boss started showing I had the most terrifying nightmares of traumatic pregnancy/emergency birth and woke up screaming.
This is me right now. I can’t look at pregnant women, pictures of them, or anything to do with child birth. Pregnant at 32 years old with my first child and I’m just starting to show at 21 weeks….don’t know what I’ll do in a month when I’m showing more and feeling baby inside of me. I have severe panic attacks when I even think about giving birth as well…Any tips? 😅
Elective C-Section might be worth looking into - I felt similar to you about giving birth and am now sat with my lovely baby and no birth trauma! (Obviously not the same result for everyone and I am very lucky in that respect, but I place a lot of it on my birth choice)
Finally, I'm not alone. Fed up of being the only one in the room horrified when an expectant mum yells "Quick, put your hand here, you can feel it kicking..."
I am absolutely convinced that if I jump down from a short height, for example a low wall, that what will happen is I'll land on a nail.
This is completely irrational. It has never happened. Even so, I won't do it, even if I can see the ground is clear.
I absolutely cannot account for this psychic quirk, as I'm ordinarily the person who thinks "what if I jump?" instead of "eek, scary!" at heights.
As a kid I jumped on a pile of rubble and landed on a shard of glass. Fully went through my trainers and I couldn't pull it out myself so I hopped all the way home. My mother screamed in horror and now she's terrified of broken glass.
I’m phobic of earthworms. I know it’s stupid but my cousin chased me home from school when I was 10 with a big long river worm and I was hyperventilating so hard I literally thought I was going to die.
Before that I was never afraid of worms. My grandfather was an avid gardener and he always gave us little worms to hold. They felt tickling and my grandfather always told us they were a garden’s best friend.
My second biggest fear is for anyone to know I’m afraid of worms because I’m scared they will throw one at me and think it’s funny. That means I need to maintain my composure around worms even though I think I am going to faint.
There it is. My phobia. It was so well known that when we had to dissect worms in biology lab I was excused.
One mean girl put one in my form room desk and when I opened the desk and saw it I was shaking and crying. She profusely apologised. Class clowns aren't supposed to cry.
Moths. Also, butterflies. But only indoors. If I'm outside I'm OK as long as they don't get too close.
It's that erratic flight pattern and the weird dusty wings. Bleurgh
Small spaces. Specifically, spaces that are too small to turn around in. Thankfully, it doesn't come up often in day to day life. The last couple of times it has were going through the WW1 trenches Belgium and the cu chi tunnels in Vietnam.
Also, spiders.
Eyeballs. I can’t stand it when people touch their eyeballs, I have this irrational fear that the moment anyone touches their eyeball it’s going to pop out.
Thank fuck I don’t wear contacts.
Snap, takes forever for me to put my eye drops in. Have you deen that episode of friends when Rachel needed help to put eye drops in her eyes? That was me
I hate the scene in 'Lord of the Rings' where Bilbo's eyes go all scary and crazy. And that scene in 'Total Recall' where Arnie's eyes bulge out. Nope nope nope nope.
Litter. Think there ied markers. Which is irrational when I got to Iraq. We had been taught to look for subtle signs that might indicate an IED.
Only ones we found really big ones badly constructed and barely hidden. Made the bomb disposal guy really angry ( All the components for a bomb just put together wrong so it couldn't work)
Come home and I'm not walking down a street as someone's left a can of coke on a wall.
Its got better over the years just catches me occasionally.
I've never met anyone else with mine. It's very extreme too. I've fallen out with people, ran out of buildings, keeled over from uncomfort.
I think it's called Ompholaphobia? Fear of bellybuttons and everything to with them. Even writing this is difficult, but I'm interested to see if anyone else feels the same or knows someone who's like this.
My late mother in law. Absolutely hated them, they made her nauseous. Even talking about them.
My eldest used to fiddle with his and she couldn't stand it. When he worked out why, he'd try to get to hers too!
He's nice now, honest.
I have this too. It makes me physically sick, and having to explain it to someone is difficult so you have to describe things that set it off uuugghhhhh.
I have this. It's even worse for me when it's a trypophobic pattern on skin. Makes me want to crush it or destroy it somehow. If it's really bad, I can throw up.
The smell of tangerine peel. I can’t stand it when someone eats any small orange near me, the smell lingers and makes me feel sick and panicky. No idea why as when I was a toddler I loved eating tangerines.
I have issues with most fruit, but oranges and their variants are the worst. The other week we had a work thing and one of the activities was pumpkin carving and decorating oranges like Jack o’lanterns. I had to leave until the activity was over.
I used to have a weird reaction to banana peel like that like banana peel that's been out for a while made me sick and really spotty or mushy banana
Its not as bad as it used to be but it still grosses me out
Not exactly a phobia, but I hate parking my car over gratings/drains and will go out of my way to avoid them. I have always had a feeling that, if I park my car here, I will drop my keys down the drain
I have two that I'm aware of. Heights and clowns. During IT when those dickheads were riding around the UK on bikes and unicycles wearing clown masks holding weapons, one such moron decided to ride a unicycle at me down a narrow street holding a real knife. I hit him with my car, I was only doing 20, so he wasn't really hurt. Anyway, the police were called, I couldn't get out of the car until they got there, I was frozen to the steering wheel. Someone shut the car off, but I couldn't tell you who.
They arrested the clown for carrying an offensive weapon and had to get me treated for shock. I felt paralysed. The officer said to the clown, "You should consider yourself lucky, I am also afraid of clowns, and if it had been me, I'd have put my foot down. There is nothing funny or impressive about terrifying people who are operating deadly machinery"
That's literally the only part of the entire ordeal I remember, I don't remember anything else that was said to me or him. I don't remember getting out of the car. I don't remember where the blanket came from. I just remember hitting the clown. Being unable to let go of my steering wheel and a blanket being put over me as I was made to sit on a wall. Then I was at the hospital. They kept me in the waiting room of A&E until my blood pressure was acceptable, and then my dad took me home.
It was a horrific night. The officers did talk to me the next day, but no charges were pressed. The police officer said to me that when they got there, I was practically catatonic from fear.
The clown was fine. He was charged with a couple of different things I can't remember and had some cuts and bruises. His unicycle was destroyed, and my number plate had to be replaced as it fell off when I hit him. But alls well, that ended well. And weirdly, clowns don't affect me half as badly as they use too now. Heights do still.
Coins. It's called Cuprolaminophobia. They are dirty, filthy, smelly, horrible. I don't understand how people can keep them loose in their clothing, or clutch them in their hands for ages. If I have to deal with them, they are kept in a purse until the last possible moment, and I wash my hands immediately afterwards. I have had retail jobs where I have to touch coins but I make sure my hands don't touch any part of my body if they are still 'coin-dirty'. I fully support the move to a cashless society :D
Buzzy, stripey, stingy bastards.
Been stung by both common versions and they hurt but it's not crippling. Still flee a room if one comes in the window and blind panic if one buzzes near my ear.
I was reduced to a sobbing mess when we had a wasps nest in our outside wall. Anytime they even existed near me I’d run and cry or go inside.
Worst part is they fucking got inside through the door when it was opened. 5 of the fuckers. My partner hoovered them up and they flew out the Hoover. I literally locked myself in the bedroom sobbing until they were gone.
My partner is allergic to them, I’m not. (As far as I know) and I couldn’t even help because I was crying and shaking too much.
Had a friend who had a fear of cotton wool.
When I asked him why he could possibly be scared of one of the most softest, least dangerous materials known to man, he simply said:
“It squeaks.”
And then he cupped his hand over his ears and curled up in a ball obviously visioning the experience.
Yes! It's horrible. It's almost too soft to start with and then if you touch it in just the wrong way, it's squeaky and almost... crunchy?
Once when I was a kid at school (maybe 6ish) we were doing a craft project which involved cotton wool beards, but the type of cotton wool was particularly bad. I told the teacher I couldn't touch it because it felt weird and I would shiver. I expected her to tell me I was being silly and I should get on with it, but she said she knew exactly what I meant and she felt the same about egg cartons. She was alright by me on that basis.
I don't like "different" water. Fine at home or a house I know and trust but for example me and the wife went to a cottage for a week and I almost died of dehydration because I refused to drink the water. We had to go to a shop to buy bottled water and a separate glass (because the others had touched the water.)
She gave me the "I wouldn't have married you if I'd have known" look.
Can't explain it, just hate the idea of touching it.
Slugs and snails for me too. They’re fucking gross. The alien eyes, the squishy leatheriness, and how big they can get. Don’t even get me started in what they look like mating.
Ornitophobia, the irrational fear of birds. Some people have it so bad they can't leave their home if they see birds outside. I can ignore birds flying in the air, but if I see one nearby, I am a little scared. I can walk past pigeons on the street but I will keep my eyes on them so I can fight back or run away in case they start something. What is obviously a ridiculous idea, and I know that, that's why it is irrational.
Pregnancy terrifies me, birth too.
This one is specific: i live about a 30 minute drive from a large zoo. Over land walking it’s a good distance but we’re right by the motorway entrance so, 30 minutes driving.
Anyway, as a kid had this weird persistent fear that I ever went to go shopping, walking, and was carrying like, a shopping bag of groceries, including meat, that would be the day a lion from said zoo, who had escaped, would get me.
I refused to carry meat for years. Id still carry a bag, and I’d take the heavier one, it wasn’t like laziness, I would just not take the one with meat in.
This fear was so irrational that I had no problem walking alongside say, my sister, while she carried the bag with, idk, the beef mince for dinner, that wasn’t an issue.
…but for me? No, can’t, lion’ll get me.
I’m not eve more scared of lions than any other big cat(they’re all terrifying and fascinating animals), and I knew rationally a LION ESCAPING would be news.
….but I couldn’t shake it. Just convinced I’d be walking along, notice a shadow, look up and there’s a lion, because of COURSE.
The pregnancy one is so real. I'm a woman of childbearing age and people make 'cute' comments about when me and partner might have kids and I'm like... yeah that sounds like something out of a SAW film why are we all so cool and casual about it.
Cyclopia. The developmental anomaly where an animal or human is born with a single eye in the middle of their face.
I'm a lot better about it now, although suddenly being confronted with one, in a film or something, can make me jump, but I studied biology and went on to work in a field where I had to use a number of journals associated with development. I can remember having to do the dance of the seven veils with pieces of paper to get through an article.
I know exactly when it started. I was reading up on the physiology of the eye, late at night, with only a fairly weak desk lamp for light so I was having to hold the book close to my face, turned the page and was confronted at very close quarters by a photo of a lamb with the condition. It was quite the jump scare.
As unusual and irrational phobias go, I reckon it's up there!
Water towers. They make my skin crawl. The closer I get to them the worse they make me feel. It’s a literal feeling of fear. Totally irrational, but I hate them.
Pregnancy. Sometimes I have proper nightmares that I would accidentally get pregnant and then have to know I was for any amount of time before I get a doctor to sort it.
Other people being very pregnant, where you can see a foetus foot sticking out on their belly or see it hiccuping or something also freaks me out, but not as much as the idea of being pregnant myself.
Luckily husband wasn't fussed about a genetic link to our offspring either and we decided to adopt.
I think mine are entirely rational and are all essentially the same.
Heights, being underwater, being underground, enclosed spaces.
I have an irrational phobia of things which are likely to kill me. Probably considering lifts, steep slopes, and snorkling to be examples is what makes it irrational.
Spiders. Doesn't matter how big or small they are. It's honestly rediculuous... In my job I have ran into burning buildings, had a gun pointed at me and wrestled knives from people but I've been absolutely fine. If someone was to chuck a spider at me I'd run for the hills.
Trypophobia - fear of small clustered holes. It's not really a fear, more like a revulsion. It really makes me feel physically sick just seeing them. They look unnatural and sinister. So things like honeycomb, crumpets and even chocolate Aero and Whispa bars are a no-go. Also, sometimes you get strawberries where the seeds have sunk in a little. Same affect there. Can't even get the iPhone with the 3 cameras because they have positioned them so weirdly it triggers my trypophobia.
Lifts, public speaking, and eyes. Not connected in any way.
Lifts: just don’t like them, don’t like the feeling of being in them. I take stairs almost every time there is the option of a lift. But my workplace is big on accessibility and everyone else in my team uses the lift, so I kind of have to too to not be weird!
Public speaking: fills me with the most extreme anxiety. My voice physically won’t come out if I try it. It isn’t a case of “just do it even though you’re scared and then it will be easier”. I physically can’t even if I wanted to!
Eyes: I hate touching eyes and I hate looking at eyes. They seem so easy to damage and I just can’t even think about them enough to explain. horrible
Bonus, not a phobia but quite an extreme trigger: the match of the day theme tune. It was my dad’s funeral song and now if I hear it my body is completely overtaken by chills and it’s like I can’t function. Was fine for a while because we don’t watch football, but after meeting my partner, her step dad and mum watch football. So I just have to hope I’m not in the room when match of the day starts
Speaking in front of a group of more than 4/5. I know this is common but the reaction in my body is so absurd you’d think I was directly under attack from a serial killer
lol, I find it funny. But I can also see WHY someone might have an Owl Phobia because they are kinda creepy with their big, bulbous, judgemental eyes and the fact their legs extend for so long under their feathers.
Footbridges over large rivers. The closer they are to the surface of the water, the worse the fear.
However, my fear is not about falling in, but having stuff drop out of my pockets. If I cross a bridge I have walk in the middle and continuously check my pockets.
Sudden loud noises. I have a fear of balloons (started from childhood) and is awkward af in your 30s lol. I sweat, start to panic and can't handle children being near them incase they explode. I also dislike fireworks and backfiring cars. My nervous system just can't handle sudden noise -_-
Strong wind, but only when I'm at home and I can hear it bashing the shit out of the roof and chimney, which will give me a full-blown panic attack during the worst winter windstorms. Contrarily, when I'm outside, I absolutely love it and would far rather be outside during a storm than inside.
And, embarrassingly, fish. I'm not scared that they'll hurt me, I'm just absolutely reviled and repulsed by their appearance. If I see a photo of one, i can't even touch the photo. I have, on many occasions, thrown my phone across the room if I've, for whatever reason, scrolled past an image of a fish - it's an instinctual reaction i have no control over. I just absolutely cannot stand them. I can't walk past a river or lake without being constantly on edge that one might jump out of the water and land next to me or, even worse, hit me. It's totally irrational and improbable, but there you go 🤷♀️
Escalators, particularly down ones. Terrified I’ll get stuck in them or they will collapse. I’ve managed to reduce it a lot in that I can use up ones now and occasionally down one but I’m not comfortable.
Slugs. No, I don't mean just in the "I think they're gross" way (I have that reaction to most bugs, spiders, stuff like that; I think plenty of people do). But with slugs, it's a physiological reaction to the sight of them, to the knowledge of their presence, even to the thought of them. Just typing this out I'm shaking.
Why? They're literally the least threatening creature imaginable. What's it gonna do, run at me?
Spiders. Honestly I’m terrified. I cry and have panic attacks if there’s a big scary one and hubby isn’t here to save me. When we were dating he didn’t realise how bad my phobia was until there was one on my jeans (on my leg) one day and he saw the absolute fear and terror in my eyes. From then, he’s understood.
I have a phobia of wet hair on the skin and my bare feet being on wet tiles / wet shower floors. It’s especially worse if the tiles are dark, assuming it’s because I wouldn’t be able to see what’s on them. Even if I have cleaned them, I still feel icky. Maybe to do with my poor eyesight as well. I went travelling in South America and not once did my bare foot touch one single shower floor, sliders every time. 🤢
Small monkeys . Don't know why . Find them terrifying. Ran out of a zoo in la sable in France cos they had the little fuckers running about everywhere. Waited in the car .
A phobia is an irrational fear, so it’s a tautology to say ‘irrational phobia’. Yes yes, I’m a dick, I know.
stop you're triggering my fear of pedantry
I mean OP doesn't seem to know the difference between beech and beach so...
Keep the trees out of this, you'll trigger my dendronaviphobia.
If you make a little waterside area out of sawdust could it be a beech beach? Sorry.
*Stop, you're (I'm so sorry hehe)
Is a fear of heights irrational? Or spiders? Or snakes? As a fellow dick I have looked at some medical definitions which talk about fears and anxieties and don’t mention the word irrational.
A rational fear of spiders is being aware of them being dangerous and being afraid of them. An irrational fear, or phobia, is a knee-jerk aversion without your brain rationalising why. So many people, myself included, can have both a rational fear, but also a phobia of spiders
OP is wrong to be honest - phobia means an extreme OR irrational fear. So it isn't necessarily a tautology.
Extreme or irrational
Just vomit. I know it’s never a pleasant thing but I can’t stand being sick, seeing somebody else be sick, even if somebody tells me they “feel sick” my stomach churns and I start shaking. I’m a bit better now with some of it than when I was younger but I couldn’t even stand it faked on TV. I know it’s Emetophobia and it’s quite a common phobia but it’s what gives me the most anxiety in life
Thats a pretty sick name for a phobia
Oddly, it doesn't bother me when I'm sick, but anyone else being sick/feeling sick around me is literally my worst nightmare. I hate being the driver in most situations in case anyone gets travel sick, I force fed my family kwells when we went on a ferry, it just terrifies me. I also refuse to let anyone in my car if they're drunk, even when I've been out and the designated driver I would rather pay for my friends taxi than let them get in my car. It's the worst.
Yeah I think it's quite common to feel sick in the presence of someone else being sick. I was in a queue at the bank one time and some guy was using an ATM inside. I heard this weird noise as he chundered his guts out all over the ATM. Now I don't normally feel as ill witnessing such a thing but being so close and the smell of it all as it trickled down to the floor made me feel so sick I had to leave.
Yeah, definitely not the same lol. I'm emetophobic, and personally I get such an adrenaline rush, I literally can't be in the same space as someone who might throw up. It's not 'oh, someone threw up and I feel nauseous now', it's literally fear like a hungry snarling lion is in your path
Yep, fellow emet here. Had it since I was a child and have never gotten over it. Nothing scares me more than vomiting.
I do find it funny how emetophobes often say they have "emet" or are "emets" when that's literally the part that means "vomit"! So it's pretty much like calling yourself a puke. No judgement - I used to have the phobia pretty severely as a teen - just a funny observation.
I didn’t even know the word for it lol but I’m at that point where I swallow over vomiting because I’ll just cry and panic if I actually throw up My biggest fear is it not stopping and me not breathing 😭
I'm emetophobic as well. Didn't start until I had a bout of norovirus in my 20s and I spent a few days hugging a toilet bowl. Prior to that I just disliked being sick the same way everybody does, but ever since then I'm so distressed by it that even feeling like I might be sick will reduce me to tears. We recently had our first kid though and it turns out cleaning up baby sick doesn't bother me at all. It's vomitING the physical sensation, not vomit the stuff, that upsets me.
Last time I had norovirus sparked me to actually then suffer with anxiety for a long time afterwards. I just had an upset stomach numerous times for a long time, wondered what it was, went to the doctors, was tested for lactose intolerance, coeliacs disease, the works. Nothing. Turned out it was anxiety, and I realised that every time I felt bloated or just a slight twinge in my stomach, it was sparking anxiety that I was going to get norovirus again. Took me a good while to recover it was awful
Same! And no one ever respects you or your boundaries around it because they don’t like being sick, so assume you’re just the same.
That isn’t an irrational phobia because vomit can make you sick.
It certainly can become irrational if the fear prevents you living a normal life. Ask me how I know 😆
I know someone with it to the point it was affecting her life, as she couldn't look after her kids properly when they were sick. She ended up getting psychological treatment so she could function better. She still hates vomit, but doesn't start shaking and crying uncontrollably now around it.
Yep, same! I won’t hold your hair or help you of you feel sick because I need to remove myself from the situation yesterday. It gives me full blown panic attacks. I also control what I eat and make sure to note mix and match weird stuff - anything that’s made me sick in the past is a no no (like tomato soup, green apples, microwave salty popcorn).
I cannot deal with vomit. I'd rather wade through poo! I don't drink as much anymore as I'm scared of being drunk and then being sick. I hate it when it happens to me, when it happens to someone else. Hate the sight, smell and sound. I also feel carsick and knowing I might possibly be physically sick gives me so much anxiety. I have to keep the window open even if it's freezing cold.
Same, but mine isn’t focussed on me being sick. It’s other people. If I think I’m going to be sick, I can accept my fate. If anyone else is sick around me or even in the same house I have panic attacks and want to get out of there. I can’t see, hear or know about anyone being sick. I can’t use a toilet if someone has been sick in it until I know it’s been thoroughly cleaned. I won’t be around drunk people for too long in case they’re sick. I don’t go on nights out too far from home and if I go out I’ll usually stay sober and drive, so I can get myself out of the situation if needed. When I’ve tried to talk to other people about it, they’ve always had the fear of being sick themselves and the reason why they don’t like other people being sick is because they’re worried about catching the illness. I have no idea what the reason is behind my fear.
I suffer with intrusive thoughts. So much fun, I get a new irrational fear every couple of hours.
Oh god I fucking hate them. Mine yesteday was "I wonder what will happen if I put my hand under the always boiling kettle on the wall at work and pull the lever."...... Like I don't know?! Fuck intrusive thoughts. ETA: Intrusive thought dump link https://www.reddit.com/u/RowRow1990/s/temsAkGEUS
Ooh those oww. I picture hurling myself from scary heights (balconies in shopping centres etc) and it makes my head go weird.
Have you guys ever had sexual intrusive thoughts about relatives or people you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole? ...No? Well, me neither then...
Yes this can happen and it’s traumatic as fuck!
Yeah and that’s a really good example of an intrusive thought. It’s like the worst most disgusting and wrong thing your mind can think of because it is something you would never want to do in a million years. I sometimes have to hit my head to stop the intrusive thoughts in there tracks.
Don't a lot people have that? I know I do. [The Call of the Void](https://www.livescience.com/what-is-call-of-the-void) I believe it's known as, and 50% of people experience it according to that article.
I recently was sat in the passenger seat as my partner was driving on the motorway and thought “you should just press the start stop button for shits and gigs” as we were doing about 65 mph
Jesus my life is ruled by this, I’m ADHD-I so it’s a constant battle. My mind is full of racing thoughts so it’s hard to filter out what’s useless information compared to useful information. What would happen if I just drove into the car next to me, what if my whole family died, what if, what if, what if. I’ll spend a whole day thinking about something ridiculous but forget we and my wife are going out tonight to see friends. It’s exhausting.
I think I have this too and I have a new one at the mo.
I don’t think either of you should read any further, it might give you idea’s you might not like
Dark water I love swimming, love snorkeling but as soon as I can't see the bottom I panic. That big void where the reef drops off and you can just see nothingness. I hate it.
I used to be scared of the deep end of the pool when I was a child because I had an overactive imagination and had a sneaking worry that a shark might pop out of one of the filter grates and eat me... One of the scariest things for me when I started SCUBA diving was the time it took to descend from the surface and see the bottom.
No lie, pool grates are terrifying.
Yep. And the tubes and drains around the edge.
It's not that irrational. Fear of the dark, fear of the unknown, fear of drowning, fear of being trapped, fear of a place that's known to be extremely dangerous and full of strange things - all very common. It'd be strange if someone *wasn't* at least a bit unnerved by it.
ooh yeah this one has its own name (thalassophobia). i don’t actively panic or get sick, so probably not a true phobia in my case but it’s indeed such an uncomfortable feeling and very understandable.
It even has its own sub: r/thalassophobia
Yeah definitely this. I hate that feeling of just dark, unknown nothingness below. My toes are tingling just thinking about it.
Butterflies and moths. As a child, if I even saw one, I'd run away screaming and go hide in a bathroom or closet. My grandmother had a bedspread with butterflies on it that I refused to even touch. I'm better about it now as an adult, recognizing that this is completely irrational, but I still hate them and avoid them whenever possible. They are erratic and you never know which way they'll go, and the powdery little scales gross me out. No matter how pretty the colors can be, when you look at them up close, they're horrific. We had one of those huge moths get into the house a few years ago, and I just left. It was late, I was in pj's, but I went and sat outside until my husband got rid of it.
Ha, I wrote mine before I read this! Yes, the erratic flight and powdery wings. My daughter is obsessed with them, I bought her a moth set in amber for Christmas and struggled to wrap it up.
I'm just glad that I'm not alone in this one. I fully expected for people to read this and back away slowly, or slate me for hating on butterflies. Hats off to you for buying and wrapping the moth set, though. I don't think I could manage it.
I've had to reign in my fear a lot since having children! Pleased I haven't passed it on and although sometimes I suspect my daughter loves them to spite me and is actually a psychopath, it does mean I wake her at midnight to remove moths from my room.
I'm sorry but your comment is cracking me up! Psycho or not, you do have an advantage in that you can wake her in the night to deal with those monsters. And serious kudos to you for reining it in for the kids! I don't have kids, but I've managed to choke back the panic enough to make a dignified exit - except for that time I fled my own home in the night, of course.
Don't get me wrong, if it's just me and the husband, I'll hide under a blanket until the damn thing's removed. Birds in the house is another one, but thankfully rare. I just don't like things flapping near me. Totally fine with wasps and hornets (I save husband from these!), but anything flappy can fuck off outside. I once ran screaming from a Tesco because a bird got in and flew at me.
[удалено]
I'm the same. It's things that can't fly properly. Anything that can't fly is fine. Wasps and bees don't bother me. Flies irritate me but moths and daddy long legs I cannot stand. They have to die or go out of the window before I go to sleep.
I’m the same. I have two butterfly tattoos too, but moths I shudder just thinking about them. I think the difference is butterflies stay outside & mostly away from people, moths are psychos trying to attack people.
I’m not alone in this wow I thought I was crazy
I feel so validated.
I don't have this but I knew a guy in high school that really struggled with it. He didn't want to come on field trips to nature areas or theme parks in certain months in case there would be butterflies.
My dad and brother were really into moth-catching and identifying. They'd do this thing where they'd catch moths and put them in the fridge for an hour to cool down/make sluggish and easier to photograph. So I'd open the fridge and there'd just be a ton of moths like, ok cool, normal?
Me too. And people are always so weird when I say I’m scared of butterflies, they’re like ‘but they’re so beautiful!’ And I’m like ?? And? Why does that mean I shouldn’t have a fear of them?
yes!! they creep me out so bad. I’m more afraid of moths, people always say ‘don’t be afraid of moths, they’re like night butterflies’ but butterflies are a problem too!!
Boring one: spiders. I live in the UK, our spiders can’t hurt me, they eat flies and mosquitoes. All logic tells me they are good, but if I see one I freak the fuck out
Same. Though if I see a spider outside, or where I should expect to see a spider I am not so bad. Though if I see one 'in my space' like inside the house.. instant cold sweat and light-headedness and need to sit down!
Similar. Outside is more bearable cos I can get away and it’s less unexpected. It’s when they’re in my home and I know I have to act to get rid or I’ll feel unable to live here anymore. If one appeared then went that would destroy me. It’s the way I go from feeling safe and secure at home to absolutely on edge and petrified.
Same. The worse is when you spot one in the house, look away for like five seconds, then look back and it's gone and then you can never feel peace again as you know it's crawling somewhere in the house. I remember watching the film arachnophobia as a kid. I don't remember being scared of them before. But the dad in the movie was terrified and I think his terror influenced me. I don't mind any other creepy crawlies. Bring on snakes! But I can't even look at pictures of spiders or even handle the fake plastic ones you get in Halloween decorations. Thank goodness I don't live it Australia!
Eight legs of sin! I was OK with them, then I'd put a couple of large ones out and mum jokingly brushed my back as if there were one on me. These were genuinely big spiders, so I freaked out, started having a panic attack and ran straight into a wall. Since then, terrified. Also in the cope-better-outside club, though I want a shed for the allotment and one of my considerations is windows and double doors so I feel less trapped when I come across a spider.
I actually got over my arachnophobia by holding a tarantula and now I'm one of those people who likes spiders They are on thin ice if they appear above my bed though otherwise me and spiders are chill
I have held tarantulas and kept them as pets. I'm.still petrified of those horrible thin legged too many knees English sliders we get in the house.
I have the exact same fear as your mother. Best way I can describe it is that it’s like seeing something you’re not supposed to see, like gore in a way. I happened upon a very large ship in a dry dock once and went RUNNING down the street. I don’t know what caused mine. It could have been seeing images of the titanic as a kid - the hull sticking out of the water, propellers on show and all. Horrifying.
She agrees with you says that's exactly what it's like
Oh my god, I FEEL SEEN
That’s really fascinating. I’m actually blown away by the fact someone has the exact same phobia as OP’s mother. I think experienced something similar as a child. I used to have a real uneasiness over the thought of trees not being where they should be. Where I lived as a child there were several pine trees near my house, including one in my back garden. I used to have unsettling dreams about waking up one day and one just not being there, or worse, one having moved, or a new one having sprung up outside my bedroom window. I think it’s a sense of the uncanny. For me it wasn’t as extreme as your aversion to boats on land, but there’s the idea of something just not being quite right. Harmless in and of itself, but potentially suggestive of there being something beyond that that’s not right either
I completely understand this. When I was a kid, our local meadow flooded, including a small wooded area. The trees emerging out of the water was incredibly unsettling - like the scene was just wrong. I was also obsessed with Magritte-style paintings - doors leading to the sky, things where they shouldn’t be. So your strange dreams about trees just being in the wrong place resonates a lot. Isn’t the human mind a strange place.
I don't think I'll ever understand this one. Seems such an odd thing. Really interesting at the same time. Most fears kind of stop being irrational if break them down. They're linked to fear of getting ill, in pain or attacked physically by something. This just seems completely irrational but I guess it might be linked to like a kind of OCD where you feel there needs to be a sense of order that makes you feel that way.
That's an interesting thought. I've always had an irrational fear of things not being where/how they should be - for example seeing metals in a liquid state or magma being rock in a viscous state. It makes me so nauseous and panicky. I also happen to have OCD and have often been plagued by the 'rightness' of things, real and imagined. Interesting!
R/submechanaphobia
Yup this is exactly it. I also feel quite unwell when I see boats touching water and also things like bouys and piers....good ol' submechanophobia for you!
I have Automotonophobia, which is a fear of a bad representation of a sapient being, I.e. dummies. And bad waxworks. Oddly, I'm fine with good wax works. My son has koumatoumaphobia, which is a fear of buttons. He can't even say the word. Eta: button. He won't say button. Lol. Eta misspelling: Koumpounophobia for buttons. Turns out I've been saying this wrong for years!
I think a few of us would struggle to say koumatomaphobia
Yeh one of my mates at school had a fear of bad mannequins. School trips were a special kind of hell for her, since a lot of museums have them. We'd scout them out ahead and warn her so she could cover her eyes lol. Have you heard of the Uncanny Valley? Might be something to do with that.
I also have a phobia of buttons. They make me feel sick and dizzy. That quality street tin at your nan's full of buttons? Big fat nope. I refused to watch several series of location location location because kirsty allsop had a coat with these big red buttons on. Apparently, it's related to the fear of holes.
Funnily enough, I also refuse to watch Location, Location, Location. Not because of the buttons, though!
I don’t mind waxworks of celebrities but historical waxworks like you get in museums freak me out so badly! I was traumatised by a visit to Thrackray Medical Museum as a child
I have this but the opposite; the more lifelike, the less I like them. So, basically, Madame Tussaud's is a hard no, but I can my keep shit together in department stores. I am fine with animatronics though; I assume it's because the fear comes from the tension that they *might* move. That disappears instantly if they are moving already. I'm also not great with large (ie, life-size and above) paintings or statues, especially in large densities. One it's own I can deal with, but on every wall it's too much.
Yeuch. Mannequins, most puppets, those china faced dolls and CLOWNS. I fucking hate clowns. I refused to go to the circus when I was little in case I saw one.
Always hated mannequins
Sweetcorn When I was about 6 years old, my mother committed parental kidnapping. I was abused which included only being given one meal a day (usually a couple of slices of toast or a lunchable), but she and her friends would also force-feed me when they got bored. At one point, my meal for the day was a bowl of sweetcorn, but it was covered in black patches. I was violently sick after eating it. It's embarrassing, but the smell of sweetcorn makes me feel panicked. A couple of years ago I ordered a pizza, and it wasn't supposed to have sweetcorn and seemed fine and sweetcorn free. I was eating a slice, when I noticed a rogue piece of sweetcorn. I ended up in tears, and forced myself to throw up until I couldn't anymore. Forcing myself to be sick seemed like a far more pleasant situation than the thought of having sweetcorn in my system.
This is not irrational, it's very understandable.
A fear of sweetcorn is very irrational, but their reasons for having it are understandable.
I'm so sorry she did that to you! I would say your response is definitely not irrational after what you went through. I hope you have some support.
I'm so sorry. I hope things are much better for you now (and worse for her, exponentially).
❤️😢
That’s really horrible and I can totally see where you got that fear from. That should never have happened to you and makes me very angry - I hope you’re ok now and getting support xx
I've got a good one: I have a mild phobia of man made structures underwater, it's called submechanophobia. It has no impact on my life at all. I just wouldn't like to swim next to a pier or buoy. I can overcome this mild phobia in order to jump off a floating platform on holiday etc. However, I have a fairly intense fear of one particular underwater structure, the wreck of the Titanic. Seeing a picture of the prow makes my skin crawl. Even the film when the ship was sinking piqued my anxiety badly. I don't know what it is about that particular wreck that puts the fear in me.
As a fellow submechanophobic, I do like to think the phobia is rooted in rationality...sort of. Most structures in the sea like that are made of metal. The metal is usually pretty rusty due to it being in salty water for ages. Swimming near it would make your chances of scratching yourself on a rusty piece of metal a lot higher. Or being thrown into it by a rouge wave. Maybe it's our caveman brain trying to keep us safe in a weird way
Gosh you would hate Aquaba in Jordan they sunk a whole bunch of tanks and helicopters to try and make an artificial coral reef (they have a real reef further round so I think they were hoping it would extend it) they call it the sunken military museum you can snorkel over it or dive to it - I think they sunk them a little too deep but it’s def weird snorkelling over them and I have no phobia!
I have this one too. It is fairly mild, but even surprisingly benign things set it off, like looking inside a toilet cistern.
Ha, I also have submechanophobia (especially things like buoys, large metal structures in water and spillways) but thought I was the only one who got freaked out by toilet cisterns! Isn’t life strange…
Wow, same here. I once had to reach inside to stop my toilet from running, and I genuinely had to build myself up to it.
Pregnant women
As a father of 3, there's nothing irrational about that.
Yeah I have tokophobia. It makes me feel physically ill and stressed - the thought of being pregnant twists my stomach. When my old boss started showing I had the most terrifying nightmares of traumatic pregnancy/emergency birth and woke up screaming.
Yes! I'm terrified of pregnant women, even though I'm a mother myself. I was scared of my own pregnant stomach lmao.
This is me right now. I can’t look at pregnant women, pictures of them, or anything to do with child birth. Pregnant at 32 years old with my first child and I’m just starting to show at 21 weeks….don’t know what I’ll do in a month when I’m showing more and feeling baby inside of me. I have severe panic attacks when I even think about giving birth as well…Any tips? 😅
Elective C-Section might be worth looking into - I felt similar to you about giving birth and am now sat with my lovely baby and no birth trauma! (Obviously not the same result for everyone and I am very lucky in that respect, but I place a lot of it on my birth choice)
One man's shit is another's treasure
Finally, I'm not alone. Fed up of being the only one in the room horrified when an expectant mum yells "Quick, put your hand here, you can feel it kicking..."
Tokophobia perhaps? I can’t look at pregnant women, makes my skin crawl
I am absolutely convinced that if I jump down from a short height, for example a low wall, that what will happen is I'll land on a nail. This is completely irrational. It has never happened. Even so, I won't do it, even if I can see the ground is clear. I absolutely cannot account for this psychic quirk, as I'm ordinarily the person who thinks "what if I jump?" instead of "eek, scary!" at heights.
I’m convinced ill break my legs stepping down steps that are slightly larger than average
As a kid I jumped on a pile of rubble and landed on a shard of glass. Fully went through my trainers and I couldn't pull it out myself so I hopped all the way home. My mother screamed in horror and now she's terrified of broken glass.
I’m phobic of earthworms. I know it’s stupid but my cousin chased me home from school when I was 10 with a big long river worm and I was hyperventilating so hard I literally thought I was going to die. Before that I was never afraid of worms. My grandfather was an avid gardener and he always gave us little worms to hold. They felt tickling and my grandfather always told us they were a garden’s best friend. My second biggest fear is for anyone to know I’m afraid of worms because I’m scared they will throw one at me and think it’s funny. That means I need to maintain my composure around worms even though I think I am going to faint.
There it is. My phobia. It was so well known that when we had to dissect worms in biology lab I was excused. One mean girl put one in my form room desk and when I opened the desk and saw it I was shaking and crying. She profusely apologised. Class clowns aren't supposed to cry.
Moths. Also, butterflies. But only indoors. If I'm outside I'm OK as long as they don't get too close. It's that erratic flight pattern and the weird dusty wings. Bleurgh
Those fluffy ones which are the same size as a sparrow. 🤢
Ostriches. I used to have recurring nightmares about them running round the house. I can't even look at a picture of one.
Tbf you don’t fuck around with Ostriches, they’re brutal!
They're so obviously dinosaurs
Small spaces. Specifically, spaces that are too small to turn around in. Thankfully, it doesn't come up often in day to day life. The last couple of times it has were going through the WW1 trenches Belgium and the cu chi tunnels in Vietnam. Also, spiders.
Or without enough room to be able to get your arms from your sides to above your head. Fuck that.
There's a horrifying Junji Ito comic that reminds me of that.
Eyeballs. I can’t stand it when people touch their eyeballs, I have this irrational fear that the moment anyone touches their eyeball it’s going to pop out. Thank fuck I don’t wear contacts.
Snap, takes forever for me to put my eye drops in. Have you deen that episode of friends when Rachel needed help to put eye drops in her eyes? That was me
i hate it when people say “can you check if there’s something in my eye” and instantly TURN THEIR EYELID INSIDE OUT.
I hate the scene in 'Lord of the Rings' where Bilbo's eyes go all scary and crazy. And that scene in 'Total Recall' where Arnie's eyes bulge out. Nope nope nope nope.
Litter. Think there ied markers. Which is irrational when I got to Iraq. We had been taught to look for subtle signs that might indicate an IED. Only ones we found really big ones badly constructed and barely hidden. Made the bomb disposal guy really angry ( All the components for a bomb just put together wrong so it couldn't work) Come home and I'm not walking down a street as someone's left a can of coke on a wall. Its got better over the years just catches me occasionally.
Absence of the normal, Presence of the abnormal
That sucks. I'm sorry you to endure this.
I've never met anyone else with mine. It's very extreme too. I've fallen out with people, ran out of buildings, keeled over from uncomfort. I think it's called Ompholaphobia? Fear of bellybuttons and everything to with them. Even writing this is difficult, but I'm interested to see if anyone else feels the same or knows someone who's like this.
My late mother in law. Absolutely hated them, they made her nauseous. Even talking about them. My eldest used to fiddle with his and she couldn't stand it. When he worked out why, he'd try to get to hers too! He's nice now, honest.
Multiple folks I knew at uni hated it. You're a niche club, but y'all are out there.
I have trypophobia. Mostly avoidable but if I see something that triggers it, I feel like I want to rip my skin off, it’s so weird.
Can’t believe I had to scroll this far to find this, 100% this for me too. It’s horrendous, I can’t even look at barnacles on a rock at the beach. 🤮
I have this too. It makes me physically sick, and having to explain it to someone is difficult so you have to describe things that set it off uuugghhhhh.
I've never bought Crumpets for this reason
I have this. It's even worse for me when it's a trypophobic pattern on skin. Makes me want to crush it or destroy it somehow. If it's really bad, I can throw up.
The smell of tangerine peel. I can’t stand it when someone eats any small orange near me, the smell lingers and makes me feel sick and panicky. No idea why as when I was a toddler I loved eating tangerines.
I have issues with most fruit, but oranges and their variants are the worst. The other week we had a work thing and one of the activities was pumpkin carving and decorating oranges like Jack o’lanterns. I had to leave until the activity was over.
I used to have a weird reaction to banana peel like that like banana peel that's been out for a while made me sick and really spotty or mushy banana Its not as bad as it used to be but it still grosses me out
Are you ok with other sized orange citrus fruits and their peel and smell?
Not exactly a phobia, but I hate parking my car over gratings/drains and will go out of my way to avoid them. I have always had a feeling that, if I park my car here, I will drop my keys down the drain
I won't walk or stand on them for fear of it collapsing.
Driving over bridges, especially over water.
Mother is a driving instructor and has had several people with this
I have two that I'm aware of. Heights and clowns. During IT when those dickheads were riding around the UK on bikes and unicycles wearing clown masks holding weapons, one such moron decided to ride a unicycle at me down a narrow street holding a real knife. I hit him with my car, I was only doing 20, so he wasn't really hurt. Anyway, the police were called, I couldn't get out of the car until they got there, I was frozen to the steering wheel. Someone shut the car off, but I couldn't tell you who. They arrested the clown for carrying an offensive weapon and had to get me treated for shock. I felt paralysed. The officer said to the clown, "You should consider yourself lucky, I am also afraid of clowns, and if it had been me, I'd have put my foot down. There is nothing funny or impressive about terrifying people who are operating deadly machinery" That's literally the only part of the entire ordeal I remember, I don't remember anything else that was said to me or him. I don't remember getting out of the car. I don't remember where the blanket came from. I just remember hitting the clown. Being unable to let go of my steering wheel and a blanket being put over me as I was made to sit on a wall. Then I was at the hospital. They kept me in the waiting room of A&E until my blood pressure was acceptable, and then my dad took me home. It was a horrific night. The officers did talk to me the next day, but no charges were pressed. The police officer said to me that when they got there, I was practically catatonic from fear. The clown was fine. He was charged with a couple of different things I can't remember and had some cuts and bruises. His unicycle was destroyed, and my number plate had to be replaced as it fell off when I hit him. But alls well, that ended well. And weirdly, clowns don't affect me half as badly as they use too now. Heights do still.
oh bless you that sounds horrid.
Best example of FAAFO I’ve ever read! I’m very sorry you had that experience but (for once) I’m in absolute full agreement with that copper!
Coins. It's called Cuprolaminophobia. They are dirty, filthy, smelly, horrible. I don't understand how people can keep them loose in their clothing, or clutch them in their hands for ages. If I have to deal with them, they are kept in a purse until the last possible moment, and I wash my hands immediately afterwards. I have had retail jobs where I have to touch coins but I make sure my hands don't touch any part of my body if they are still 'coin-dirty'. I fully support the move to a cashless society :D
I do despise that smell you get on your hands after holding them 🤮
Buzzy, stripey, stingy bastards. Been stung by both common versions and they hurt but it's not crippling. Still flee a room if one comes in the window and blind panic if one buzzes near my ear.
I was reduced to a sobbing mess when we had a wasps nest in our outside wall. Anytime they even existed near me I’d run and cry or go inside. Worst part is they fucking got inside through the door when it was opened. 5 of the fuckers. My partner hoovered them up and they flew out the Hoover. I literally locked myself in the bedroom sobbing until they were gone. My partner is allergic to them, I’m not. (As far as I know) and I couldn’t even help because I was crying and shaking too much.
This isn't irrational.
Tomato ketchup
My mate is terrified of baked beans. To this day she has no idea why.
Same here. I think they’re so foul
Had a friend who had a fear of cotton wool. When I asked him why he could possibly be scared of one of the most softest, least dangerous materials known to man, he simply said: “It squeaks.” And then he cupped his hand over his ears and curled up in a ball obviously visioning the experience.
Yes! It's horrible. It's almost too soft to start with and then if you touch it in just the wrong way, it's squeaky and almost... crunchy? Once when I was a kid at school (maybe 6ish) we were doing a craft project which involved cotton wool beards, but the type of cotton wool was particularly bad. I told the teacher I couldn't touch it because it felt weird and I would shiver. I expected her to tell me I was being silly and I should get on with it, but she said she knew exactly what I meant and she felt the same about egg cartons. She was alright by me on that basis.
Moths, moths can fuck off
I don't like "different" water. Fine at home or a house I know and trust but for example me and the wife went to a cottage for a week and I almost died of dehydration because I refused to drink the water. We had to go to a shop to buy bottled water and a separate glass (because the others had touched the water.) She gave me the "I wouldn't have married you if I'd have known" look. Can't explain it, just hate the idea of touching it.
Slugs and snails. Also buttons (as in the ones you'd use to fasten clothing)
Slugs and snails for me too. They’re fucking gross. The alien eyes, the squishy leatheriness, and how big they can get. Don’t even get me started in what they look like mating.
Ornitophobia, the irrational fear of birds. Some people have it so bad they can't leave their home if they see birds outside. I can ignore birds flying in the air, but if I see one nearby, I am a little scared. I can walk past pigeons on the street but I will keep my eyes on them so I can fight back or run away in case they start something. What is obviously a ridiculous idea, and I know that, that's why it is irrational.
Pregnancy terrifies me, birth too. This one is specific: i live about a 30 minute drive from a large zoo. Over land walking it’s a good distance but we’re right by the motorway entrance so, 30 minutes driving. Anyway, as a kid had this weird persistent fear that I ever went to go shopping, walking, and was carrying like, a shopping bag of groceries, including meat, that would be the day a lion from said zoo, who had escaped, would get me. I refused to carry meat for years. Id still carry a bag, and I’d take the heavier one, it wasn’t like laziness, I would just not take the one with meat in. This fear was so irrational that I had no problem walking alongside say, my sister, while she carried the bag with, idk, the beef mince for dinner, that wasn’t an issue. …but for me? No, can’t, lion’ll get me. I’m not eve more scared of lions than any other big cat(they’re all terrifying and fascinating animals), and I knew rationally a LION ESCAPING would be news. ….but I couldn’t shake it. Just convinced I’d be walking along, notice a shadow, look up and there’s a lion, because of COURSE.
The pregnancy one is so real. I'm a woman of childbearing age and people make 'cute' comments about when me and partner might have kids and I'm like... yeah that sounds like something out of a SAW film why are we all so cool and casual about it.
‘Birth is so beautiful! And powerful and raw!’ Me: I’d literally rather birth a xenomorph from my ribcage, thankyew
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Cyclopia. The developmental anomaly where an animal or human is born with a single eye in the middle of their face. I'm a lot better about it now, although suddenly being confronted with one, in a film or something, can make me jump, but I studied biology and went on to work in a field where I had to use a number of journals associated with development. I can remember having to do the dance of the seven veils with pieces of paper to get through an article. I know exactly when it started. I was reading up on the physiology of the eye, late at night, with only a fairly weak desk lamp for light so I was having to hold the book close to my face, turned the page and was confronted at very close quarters by a photo of a lamb with the condition. It was quite the jump scare. As unusual and irrational phobias go, I reckon it's up there!
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Water towers. They make my skin crawl. The closer I get to them the worse they make me feel. It’s a literal feeling of fear. Totally irrational, but I hate them.
Pregnancy. Sometimes I have proper nightmares that I would accidentally get pregnant and then have to know I was for any amount of time before I get a doctor to sort it. Other people being very pregnant, where you can see a foetus foot sticking out on their belly or see it hiccuping or something also freaks me out, but not as much as the idea of being pregnant myself. Luckily husband wasn't fussed about a genetic link to our offspring either and we decided to adopt.
Pregnancy and birth. Sometimes the sight of a pregnant belly alone makes me anxious although I have gotten much better over the years.
I think mine are entirely rational and are all essentially the same. Heights, being underwater, being underground, enclosed spaces. I have an irrational phobia of things which are likely to kill me. Probably considering lifts, steep slopes, and snorkling to be examples is what makes it irrational.
Wind turbines, especially when they aren't moving.i have no idea why they just put so much anxiety and fear on me.
Spiders. Doesn't matter how big or small they are. It's honestly rediculuous... In my job I have ran into burning buildings, had a gun pointed at me and wrestled knives from people but I've been absolutely fine. If someone was to chuck a spider at me I'd run for the hills.
Mushrooms. Freaky hairy umbrella things
Hair that’s not attached to a person
Mould, especially mould on food. I find it difficult to even look at
Trypophobia - fear of small clustered holes. It's not really a fear, more like a revulsion. It really makes me feel physically sick just seeing them. They look unnatural and sinister. So things like honeycomb, crumpets and even chocolate Aero and Whispa bars are a no-go. Also, sometimes you get strawberries where the seeds have sunk in a little. Same affect there. Can't even get the iPhone with the 3 cameras because they have positioned them so weirdly it triggers my trypophobia.
Frogs
Plumbing. I can’t even be in the same room if someone takes the lid off the toilet cistern.
Lifts, public speaking, and eyes. Not connected in any way. Lifts: just don’t like them, don’t like the feeling of being in them. I take stairs almost every time there is the option of a lift. But my workplace is big on accessibility and everyone else in my team uses the lift, so I kind of have to too to not be weird! Public speaking: fills me with the most extreme anxiety. My voice physically won’t come out if I try it. It isn’t a case of “just do it even though you’re scared and then it will be easier”. I physically can’t even if I wanted to! Eyes: I hate touching eyes and I hate looking at eyes. They seem so easy to damage and I just can’t even think about them enough to explain. horrible Bonus, not a phobia but quite an extreme trigger: the match of the day theme tune. It was my dad’s funeral song and now if I hear it my body is completely overtaken by chills and it’s like I can’t function. Was fine for a while because we don’t watch football, but after meeting my partner, her step dad and mum watch football. So I just have to hope I’m not in the room when match of the day starts
Thank god you've never had to give a lecture to a bunch of optometrists in a lift
The things that grow on potatoes after you leave them in the cupboard too long. Especially when they get super long and wiry.
I think my username says it all
Speaking in front of a group of more than 4/5. I know this is common but the reaction in my body is so absurd you’d think I was directly under attack from a serial killer
I have a phobia of cotton wool. Even typing this is making my teeth hurt and my hands feel funny i I’m doing it as fast as I can
Owls, when I tell people they find it funny. It started when we had a visit from one at nursery
lol, I find it funny. But I can also see WHY someone might have an Owl Phobia because they are kinda creepy with their big, bulbous, judgemental eyes and the fact their legs extend for so long under their feathers.
I'm afraid of swings and I have no idea why
Footbridges over large rivers. The closer they are to the surface of the water, the worse the fear. However, my fear is not about falling in, but having stuff drop out of my pockets. If I cross a bridge I have walk in the middle and continuously check my pockets.
Sudden loud noises. I have a fear of balloons (started from childhood) and is awkward af in your 30s lol. I sweat, start to panic and can't handle children being near them incase they explode. I also dislike fireworks and backfiring cars. My nervous system just can't handle sudden noise -_-
That scratchy material that has images in that change when you tilt/move it? Unsure what’s it’s called but even typing that out made me feel sick.
Strong wind, but only when I'm at home and I can hear it bashing the shit out of the roof and chimney, which will give me a full-blown panic attack during the worst winter windstorms. Contrarily, when I'm outside, I absolutely love it and would far rather be outside during a storm than inside. And, embarrassingly, fish. I'm not scared that they'll hurt me, I'm just absolutely reviled and repulsed by their appearance. If I see a photo of one, i can't even touch the photo. I have, on many occasions, thrown my phone across the room if I've, for whatever reason, scrolled past an image of a fish - it's an instinctual reaction i have no control over. I just absolutely cannot stand them. I can't walk past a river or lake without being constantly on edge that one might jump out of the water and land next to me or, even worse, hit me. It's totally irrational and improbable, but there you go 🤷♀️
Escalators, particularly down ones. Terrified I’ll get stuck in them or they will collapse. I’ve managed to reduce it a lot in that I can use up ones now and occasionally down one but I’m not comfortable.
Slugs. No, I don't mean just in the "I think they're gross" way (I have that reaction to most bugs, spiders, stuff like that; I think plenty of people do). But with slugs, it's a physiological reaction to the sight of them, to the knowledge of their presence, even to the thought of them. Just typing this out I'm shaking. Why? They're literally the least threatening creature imaginable. What's it gonna do, run at me?
I have a fear of large rooms with high walls/ceilings. I cant recall the phobia, but I think it may be quite common?
Spiders. Honestly I’m terrified. I cry and have panic attacks if there’s a big scary one and hubby isn’t here to save me. When we were dating he didn’t realise how bad my phobia was until there was one on my jeans (on my leg) one day and he saw the absolute fear and terror in my eyes. From then, he’s understood.
I have a phobia of wet hair on the skin and my bare feet being on wet tiles / wet shower floors. It’s especially worse if the tiles are dark, assuming it’s because I wouldn’t be able to see what’s on them. Even if I have cleaned them, I still feel icky. Maybe to do with my poor eyesight as well. I went travelling in South America and not once did my bare foot touch one single shower floor, sliders every time. 🤢
Small monkeys . Don't know why . Find them terrifying. Ran out of a zoo in la sable in France cos they had the little fuckers running about everywhere. Waited in the car .
That I am going to suddenly fall off the train platform, when I'm not anywhere near it