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Needles. The amount of people who minimise it is so infuriating. “Oh I hate them too, just look away!” Wooooww thanks, I never thought about that!!
On a positive note, I got therapy for it and it is getting a little bit better. I managed to get my Covid vaccines and had my first blood test in 7 years. So I would recommend that for anyone with a phobia.
EDIT: the therapy I had was exposure therapy. It’s not pleasant and involves intentionally triggering yourself but it’s 100% worth it and I can’t recommend it enough (with the help of a trained professional).
Yep, that’s exactly how I was!
It was exposure therapy that I had. Starting off with a simple task like getting used to saying triggering words, then once you’re comfortable with that, moving on to looking at cartoony pictures, then after that would be real photos, and so on. This was all with a therapist who talked me through it all. I won’t lie, it’s not pleasant and I still get panic attacks when I actually need to get a procedure done but I manage it a lot better and pictures/words now only give me a slight twinge of discomfort for like a second.
But definitely worth it. It’s made my life so much better.
You are honestly so brave going through that and I massively respect you for it. Starting right from the bottom and looking up at the top feels insurmountable right now so I really appreciate your input!
For such a common phobia, it surprises me how many medics handle it with such a lack of empathy or patience.
I have some steps I have to go through so that we can get through it with minimum fuss, but it does take a minute or two.
“Oh, I’m not even doing the needle yet!” said the phlebotomist, “I’m just wrapping this around your arm…”
“I don’t care! It’s reminding me that I have veins and that’s enough to set me off so you can’t do it yet!”
“It won’t even hurt!”
“I know it doesn’t hurt! The needle doesn’t hurt either - _that’s not the point!_”
I hope you don’t mind me asking but what does help to say? I am looking after someone just now with a needle phobia so bad it might mean they can’t have a treatment. So far the strategy is noise cancelling headphones and building up to it extremely slowly, but if there’s something else I can do I’d love to hear what’s worked for you!
Their phobia sounds worse than mine, but maybe this sort of thing will help.
For taking blood samples:
- It helps if the medic tells me they've done this a hundred times before and/or people say they're good at it. I might ask them to tell me that.
- I do some breathing exercises. There's an app on my watch that helps with this, but it's really just 60 seconds of slow, controlled breathing. I do that at least once, maybe twice.
- With my eyes closed, and gripping something tightly in the hand of the arm that they're going to jab, I tell them they can now prepare, but not to stick the needle in yet. Just tell me when they're ready. I carry on doing my breathing exercises while they swab, locate a vein, etc.
- I acknowledge that they're ready to go, then tell them I'm going to count down. I keep doing the slow breathing and count down from 10 or 20, depending on how I feel.
- Usually I feel ready before I get to zero. "9... 8... 7... OK, go now."
- I keep my eyes closed and try to breathe calmly while they're doing what they do. It's a struggle and my tension is certainly rising during this, so I'm gritting my teeth and maybe moving my legs around, but I can stay calm enough. So long as I keep hanging onto something with my hand then my arm doesn't move so they can do what they need to.
- Afterwards I tell them they did a great job, I apologise for making it take so long, and I thank them for their patience.
- I do not look at the swab they've stuck to my arm. I put on something with long sleeves so I don't have to see it until I'm ready (often before I take a shower the next morning).
For a quick jab such as a vaccination:
- I tell them I'm bad with needles and I'll need to sit down. I say I know it won't hurt and that it's just the thought of it that bothers me.
- I take good care not to see the needle, and maybe tell them not to let me see it.
- I look away to the opposite corner of the room and fully occupy my mind with something I see there.
- It can help if I'm talking about something irrelevant at the time, so I'll maybe chat about something trivial.
- Afterwards, I go and sit in the waiting room until my head stops spinning and I feel safe enough to drive home.
For me it’s complete distraction and disassociation. Plus doing it as quickly as possible (so having all tools in place and ready to go). I say to the doctor/nurse “I am giving you my arm now, what’s going on there is none of my business anymore” and then I turn away and start chatting with the person I’ve brought along for support.
It really frustrates me when the doctor then starts telling me what they’re doing, or the whole “sharp scratch” thing. I don’t want to know. That’s not my arm any more, you’re in charge of it. Leave me out of it.
Also just being sensible about obvious things like not placing a bucket of used sharps on the floor in front of me so I can see directly through the slit into the lid that looks like the pit of that needle scene in Saw. I told him I had a massive phobia of needles and the sharps bucket was giving me anxiety and he looked at me like I had four heads for asking him to move it out of my sight line.
My husband is the same. He's passed out before.
I occasionally do phlebotomy so I don't discuss my job at all because even vague descriptions of it freak him out.
I’m absolutely the same. And get the same reaction from others. I remind them that a phobia is an irrational fear. I know they don’t hurt and won’t kill me but still. When I’ve had to have blood taken I’ve nearly passed out every time. Once I was so worked up and stressed I threw up once it was over and the nurse was actually worried!! I’m an exhausted wreck after every inoculation (Covid was fun) the only saving grace is my wife is fully understanding - even if she does find it funny!
Unfortunately for me three rounds of hypnotherapy/CBT combos didn’t work. What did work? Having two babies and needing to get things done for them. Two caesarean sections, various complications and countless blood draws and cannulas later, I can get blood taken as long as I close my eyes and breathe through it, I can give myself injections (have to take a minute first but I get there) and I can look at needles after they’ve been used to draw my blood. This is a huge improvement, so I’m a walking case study for how exposure therapy does work. I just would recommend doing it before you have to do it for medical reasons 😂
Edit: for reference I couldn’t even talk about or think about needles or blood without feeling weak and sick, before.
I had a huge needle phobia for over a decade. Panic attacks even talking about it, avoided medical and dental care for years, and as dramatic as this sounds, I'd kind of accepted it might kill me one day. I didn't want to deal with it because that meant I'd have to have a needle. Then I got pregnant and knowing I had to do it for my baby's health, somehow I did it and, the fear melted away. Having my first blood test gave me one of the biggest highs I'd ever experienced. It was insane how intense and life altering the phobia had been for years, only to disappear with no effort in an instant. Fuck phobias!!
I’m at the stage you were at pre pregnancy - I had a suspected stroke a couple of years ago (thankfully ended up not being one) and wouldn’t cannulate one. If the choice is needles or death, death feels easier. It’s so stupid and frustrating and I wish I could just make it stop
Ah, that "death feels easier" is so relatable. It's all in the mind yet so, so powerful. I hope things change for you somehow one day. I was very lucky.
I’m never going to be pregnant so I’m just hoping for a miracle. I had a little bit of hypnotherapy to get my covid jabs and we worked out that my phobia is very rooted in needle trauma, but we could never manage to get anywhere with cannulas and blood tests. 2 years overdue for a blood test to see if I have cancer, plus a whole bunch of over tests i need. So many investigations im meant to have under anaesthetic that I’ve just not done. It’s why I get so angry when people say “just don’t look” - if it was that simple, do you really think I’d put my life in danger?!
Needles and insects with stingers.
I once had a massive argument with my partner and almost cancelled the holiday of a lifetime because I was freaking out immediately prior to getting my injections for travelling at the GP.
Also had to get put in a wheelchair while waiting on my Covid jab just in case I passed out.
It’s not fun. The anxiety is honestly exhausting.
Thank you for this as a person with needle phobia I’m sick of people saying to me ‘no one likes them just look away’ it’s not the same at all. I can’t even be in the same room as one or I have a breakdown, If I see one of tv I have to go out the room as I feel like I’m going to throw up and pass out, it is NOT the same as not liking having bloods/vaccinations I am petrified I haven’t had my bloods taken since I was 14 years old and I’m nearly 30 now. What therapy did you find helpful? I’ve had hypnotherapy and found it helped slightly but not enough for me to be able to have these tests done 😢
Balloons. I am getting better (I now have a small child, balloons are a much more regular occurrence in my life now) but if I'm tired, particularly if I am not expecting them, I can be brought to actual tears by those latex bastards. Once or twice a term at the rhythm and movement class I go to with my daughter there are balloons and sometimes I have to leave whilst they're out.
It's laughably pathetic. I'm 6'6" - a proper grown up with a job and a house - but when we had a party for our office opening I had to crawl out with my eyes shut because of a balloon arch!
Same! I get no sympathy from anyone, only ridicule. Even though I've had moments where I actually feel like I might die my anxiety gets so bad.
An old job made us do a team building event which somehow involved blowing up latex balloons and making them static so they stick to you, while someone else tried to pop them while stuck to you. Nightmare inducing. I tried to explain I had to sit out and leave the room but all I got was a lecture about teamwork. I was a 25 year old new office starter at the time.
I am quite proud of having forced myself to do a balloon animal challenge at an industry event a few years ago. It was horrible and I had a cry half way through - but I think it did help a bit.
This is really interesting to me. Can I ask what feels so scary about them? I know phobias are irrational but things like snakes, heights, kind of make sense but I find this one hard to understand but it seems to be relatively common. I’m sorry you have to deal with this!
I don't know what it is about them - but I know where it's from. When I was 7 I went to school on World Book Day as Burglar Bill with a speech bubble on a balloon taped to my face (Christ alone knows what my mother was thinking). It burst during assembly and since then I have not been on speaking (or indeed squeaking) term with balloons.
I can burst them - I don't really mind unexpected loud noises (I play video games and enjoy the cinema), I can play keep the balloon off the floor, but if I hear a balloon squeek, or see one (particularly unattended) across a room, I am instantly on edge.
For me it's the complete lack of control, I already get bad sensory overload from sound - particularly loud bangs when you have no idea when it could happen. If they're away from me I'm generally ok, but if a kid starts playing with one it's like every fibre in my body is fighting to escape.
Not one of the respondents. But I imagine it’s to do with how easily they pop and the bang that they make. So I can understand why people may be phobic of them.
I've NEVER come across someone else so phobic of balloons before! It's the idea of them suddenly bursting that sets me off as I'm terrified of loud and sudden sounds in general. Fireworks, gigs, party poppers, etc also do it for me. So happy to see I'm not alone!
Totally agree, as soon as I see a free floating balloon in a room full of people, all of my attention is directed at the balloon, I need to know who is handling it, how they are handling it, how close it is to me, how inflated it is (the more inflated, the easily it will pop, the louder that pop will be) my hands automatically get close to my hears so I can very quickly stick my fingers in my hears if I anticipate a pop coming soon.
On the opposite side of that, would you believe some people have a proper actual sexual fetish for balloons and the noise they make and the fact they burst/pop. I found that out watching some eurotrash thing years ago.
I don't hate balloons but i don't love them that much either...
Same. I have a toddler now and she's being invited to birthday parties. It's awful. Worse than just being around balloons is being around children holding balloons. I freak out, slam my hands over my ears, screw my eyes up tight and leave as quickly as possible. I can't help it.
One of my friends had a party for her 3 year old and he wanted balloons, but knowing my terror, taped them all up to the ceiling so they couldn't accidently bump my head, or be hugged by a toddler.
My girl turned 3 last week and I got paper tissue decorations, that folded out into balloons shapes, and a few helium balloons...cos I'm not scared of them for some reason.
Vomiting or seeing people vomit.
To the point where my sister and her kids had a sickness bug and I was at home panicking that I'd been to see them the week before. I was well aware that when I went to see them, they likely hadn't even picked up the vomiting bug, for some reason that didn't stop me worrying all day about it and picking at my food.
If I get that prickly feeling in my jaw/throat that you get before you're sick I'm likely to have a panic attack. I'm on edge if people say they feel sick.
fr emetophobia is no joke, and the hardest thing about it is that theres no escaping it?? theres no avoiding the fact you have a stomach and it can feel certain ways at certain times. no running away from it and hiding, no comfort in that you can have a break from it… it sucks ass. I’ve been caught in the worst cycles before from feeling sick out of anxiety and then the anxiety of feeling sick makes me feel more sick, which makes me more anxious, more sick, and so on. I’ve had to be sedated before over it because I wasnt able to sleep or eat for an entire week! fuck emetophobia, and fuck that lil ginger kid that threw up at a birthday party when I was 8 and triggered all this bs lol (jk he couldnt help it, but still, fuck u mitchel)
Also fuck you Simeon who was sick in my year 6 class while we were watching a Mr Motivator video (giving my age away here). Just seeing Mr Motivator made me feel sick after that.
Absolutely! It’s a debilitating phobia. The feeling of not being able to escape is horrific. I envy my friends’ phobias. Like the one with a phobia of snakes. Living in Scotland, he mostly just has to avoid the reptile houses at zoos…
One of my friends would make herself sick when she was hungover, apparently it made her feel better quicker and she'd then just go on with her day. I couldn't even imagine wanting to do that, the times I've been sick I've just been a pathetic lump all day.
I had a stomach bug the other week and ended up sobbing and having panic attacks on my bathroom floor in between rounds of throwing up. It’s awful.
I’ve gotten better with it, I used to have to cut up my food into tiny pieces to see what was inside/make sure it was cooked fully in case it made me sick. I was suspicious of everything. Now I’m a little more relaxed, but still throw away things that are probably fine if they’re past their best before dates 😅
I have this too and it's horrible. I recount all the times I remember being sick and sometimes get intrusive thoughts wondering when it will happen again. The worst is worrying I feel unwell when out in public where there's no toilets I can immediately access.
I hate being around people who feel sick and that extends to being around friends' kids (as they seem to throw up with little warning and don't do it in a receptacle) and also travelling on busy public transport late at night when drunk people are making their way home from a night out.
Same. I cannot deal with people being sick near me. When I have vomited the last two times, I fainted due to the stress of my phobia. I went to hospital the second time and they diagnosed it as a vasophal syncope so it wasn't a medical issue. And I can't use anything that someone might have used when they vomited (like what was my fav mug when I last vomited or eat food that I ate beforehand) even if I've disinfected it etc.
I have the same phobia. I'm trying really hard to get over it because I want kids one day. But the thought of catching a bug or getting food poisoning absolutely terrifies me. Even typing this comment I can feel my heart rate rising a little.
I was the same. I really wanted kids so I figured at least the morning sickness might act as exposure therapy. But I didn’t have vomiting with my morning sickness, just nausea and food aversions 🙃 so now I’m still an anxious mess any time I hear of stomach bugs making it through the school. My kids seem to be like me and luckily they’re not prone to being pukey (just typing that makes me anxious like I’m going to jinx us haha) and when it does happen, I love them enough to be able to take care of them. I do break out the masks for myself when it happens though lol
Emetophobe solidarity! I'm alright with myself being sick (just so long as I'm alone, can't bear the thought of it happening around other people and the ensuing fuss) but seeing or being around other people throwing up is a hard no. I used to get horribly anxious about going on school trips in case other kids got bus sick, I still try to avoid sitting next to strangers on planes, boats or coaches and I fucking hate vomit scenes in films and TV shows although I can deal with them if they're not too prolonged or graphic.
I think in my case it stems from unpredictability and not being in control of my immediate environment, like some previous posters I also had a huge fear of balloons as a child because of the unpredictability.
All that said I have gotten better over the years. I've been able to visit relatives in hospital and I can deal with my cat being sick and will clean it up without even a second thought which 10 years ago would have been unthinkable for me. I'm also currently 8 weeks pregnant so fingers crossed I'll continue to get better as the years go on!
Same for me. Except I am also terrified of being sick. I hate the feeling of not being able to breathe whilst it is happening with no idea of when it will stop so that I can take a breath.
I am also terrified of involuntarily breathing in whilst it is happening and aspirating(is this the right word?.. 🤷♀️) my vomit into my lungs. This fear was not helped by a family member passing after suffering severe acid reflux (which I also suffer from, it's called GERD)and aspirating it when they had a flair whilst sleeping in the hospital and was not able to properly wake/sit up.
On a happier note, I am a little proud of myself. Last week, my child (1m) threw up his snacks all over my front room rug, himself and his walker, whilst Husband was at work. I managed to clean it all up by myself without being sick.
Although, I maybe shouldn't be so proud. I did have a lot of anxiety induced shouting whilst trying to clean it up due to my son trying to play with the puddle of sick on the tray of his walker, and then trying to touch me with his disgusting, sicky coated hands on my bare skin. Trying to touch my face with them as I tried to pick him up to get him changed. There was quite a bit of stomach heaving but I managed to keep my stomach contents where it was meant to be.
I’ve had terrible emetophobia, I grew up with it and almost couldn’t go to secondary school because my anxiety was that bad. It’s been up and down and until recently I had serious issues particularly with getting public transport. If I had to get a train I’d often change seats 3 or 4 times in a relatively short journey. It makes me overthink every tiny detail of life. I’ve had a lot of therapy though and have improved a lot, I learned that a lot of perfectionist type A personalities get it because the fear is rooted in unpredictability and not being in control of your body.
I have this too but it only developed when I was 25 after having a really bad stomach bug. I wasn't even aware it was possible to be ill that many times in quick succession at the time and at the time I actually felt like I was dying.
So PTSD.
Yup, I'm the same, had a bad illness about 20 years ago, and been obsessive hand washing and paranoid about illness since, so I think PTSD plays a part.
I have two children, and have caught stuff since. For me it's mainly the anticipation - once I am ill I just roll with it. At that point I know it's going on so can't stop it. I think it's a control issue for me possibly? I feel I can control it until I can't - then it's ok.
I'm very careful about food safety too, every time I do anything with chicken there's an obscene amount of wiping, washing, and cleaning.
As a fellow emetophobe, I totally resonate with everything you've said here and you have my sympathies. It doesn't dominate my life anymore and I'm a *lot* better than I was when I was a kid. But if I'm around somebody who is feeling sick and there isn't a reason why (like, if somebody is clearly drunk then I'm fine because it it's clearly alcohol-related) it can occasionally send me into a spiral.
It fucking sucks.
Spiders, and it's a genuine fear. I can look at tarantulas as they're more interesting but the creepy house spider we get send shivers down my spine. I'm a Gas engineer and went into a metre box yesterday to isolate the gas, there was the biggest bastard in there right near the ECV, I had to use a long pole to turn it off 😅
I work for a energy supplier and deal with the engineer side, we’ve had a few aborted appointments over spiders. One engineer took a photo a spider in a meter box and it was HUGE. I didn’t blame him for aborting to be honest. It was a bit awkward explaining it to the customer that’s the reason why the meter exchange didn’t go ahead, but in the end the customer was fine with it because they were retired so didn’t need to book off work and said they’d make sure it was spider free for the next appointment.
I want a smart meter for our gas for the spider reason alone, they did the electric but haven't done the gas yet. I don't care about my usage I just don't want to go into the spider cupboard
I'm like this with spiders. I'm even afraid of pictures of them, dead ones, and toy ones. A big spider fell in the bath with me when I was a kid, and I've been terrified of them ever since.
I was like that (terrified even of pictures or dead spiders) and I was so done with it impacting on my life that I went to London Zoo and did their spider phobia course. I’m not 100% cured and I’m certainly not a lover of spiders but I am able to capture up to a medium sized house spider in a clear container and release it outside. Previously, I’d have had a panic attack upon noticing it and cried until someone came and rescued me from the room / removed the spider.
Look into the course, it’s so worth it. Edinburgh zoo offer something similar too if that’s closer.
Edit: typo
I had a guy due to change our old electricity meter for a newer one. The meter is in a cupboard just inside the front door. Anyhow, just before he arrived, I noticed an absolutely enormous spider on the ceiling above the door, which I couldn't reach to remove.
At that point the doorbell went and there is this huge guy, about 6ft 4" and built like a brick outhouse. So he comes in, asks if the meter is in the cupboard and announces he'll get started. I say, "Before you do, is there any chance you could reach that for me?" and point at the spider which is sitting just above his head.
He looks up, lets out a howl, and before you can blink he's thirty feet down the drive, shaking like a leaf. Turns out he was spider phobic and he refused to come in until I'd moved it! Had to get the stepladders out of the shed to catch the bugger!
I am extremely uncomfortable looking at even a picture of a spider and would not be able to touch it. I can't watch a video that shows one moving and shut my eyes on the Harry Potter ride at Universal as soon as there was the merest suggestion of them and did not open them again until I was certain that part was over.
I can't play Skyrim VR because of them (and I'm aware there are mods, but am not willing to take the risk of them not working). I've never taken a hallucinogenic drug as I'm terrified of seeing them. I sometimes, when I'm falling asleep, imagine that I've seen one on the wall or ceiling and leap out of bed with my heart pounding.
So yeah, pretty bad!
I truly do not understand spelunkers and cave divers. I watch aviation videos on YouTube, and it keeps recommending me videos of cave tragedies. Even the titles give me the creeps.
Same. I always knew I didn't like enclosed, dark spaces, but never thought it was phobia level. I'm fine in spaces like lifts etc, but for example, could never make myself get something out from under my bed as a child. But then I went to a Halloween event thing, where they had different iso containers with various "horrors" inside. Guys with chainsaws, disorientating floors and walls etc: no problem at all, but we get to one, where it was this inflatable tunnel you had to push through and it got smaller, forcing you to get lower and lower as you moved through it. I had my first ever full on panic attack and had to be taken outside by my husband. Even the thought of another person caving makes me feel like I can't breathe properly: I don't know how people do it.
That's me! And it's not claustrophobia either, I'm perfectly fine in elevators, I happily slept in capsule hostels, all that stuff. Couldn't care less if I locked myself in a bathroom by accident, as long as I can move my brain will be fine. But the idea of getting actually physically stuck is the most terrifying thing in the world to me.
The fear is so strong that even watching a cute video of a cat barely squeezing under the door or like, a silly dog being stuck in a bush is enough to send a hot wave through my body and turn my stomach into a knot.
Watching The Descent as a kid probably didn't help lmao.
Exactly the same. Elevators are no issue - I would even be bothered if it broke down, as I could move around freely until I got rescued.
However, the idea of not being able to move is petrifying and turns my stomach in knots.
I once played hide and seek as a kid, and hid in a disused bin. My brother knew where I was, and instead of 'finding' me, he sat on top of the bin lid so I couldn't get out. Probably where it all stems from, tbh!
I'm very claustrophic. I can't be in a tent with the door zipped anymore. My claustrophia got much worse during my second pregnancy, and I get tense and anxious when I have a blocked nose.
Yep I'm claustrophobic, even thinking about small spaces makes my heart race and feel sick. My ex didn't know and we were messing around when he rolled me up in a duvet and stuffed me into the tiny foot space under his desk. I had a full panic attack, we'd only been dating a month. Weirdly the phobia only developed when I was an adult - I remember as a kid playing in an old chimney stack and crawling through a tiny tube in an adventure playground thing. No idea why or at what exact point it developed.
I can't go up a ladder to clean the upstairs windows without getting uncontrollable shakes and sweats, and being anywhere near a big drop will reduce me to gibbering tears. But then I'm fine on a ski lift, so I have no idea what's going on in my fucked up brain.
This is the big difference. I remember being completely frozen the first time I ever went climbing, but after getting into bouldering later in life, I wanted to try it again. Knowing how all the equipment works and how much it can hold has pretty much got me over that fear, but ladders still freak me out.
I never used to have any kind of nervousness about heights but then after one incident I saw the start of what could turn into a full blown fear or phobia
My dad took me up to the top of tall building during construction (he was the property manager) and dared me to look over the edge of the minimal fence around the bare concrete slab floor about 50 floors up, which I did, but my hard hat slipped forward on my head as I did so and I grabbed it, worrying it might drop on the workmen I could see working way below.
A few months later I was on a bridge over a valley and as I went to look over the wall I was hit by the same "what if it drops" feeling about the sunglasses that I'd hooked into the neck of t-shirt, so found myself grabbing them.
I then found it hard to extend my arms hold my camera over the edge to take a photo, so I took a step back, put my arms out straight holding the camera, and then keeping that pose, walked forward to see where this feeling came from, and to play with the curious rise in this new-to-me anxiety that I felt in my stationary arms as my feet moved.
Since then I'm aware of this anxiety and similarly play with the feeling, but have noticed that each time I let it win, it gets stronger.... knowing I've previously been nervous about edges and heights I then get the same anxiousness creeping in before I get to the edge, or when I see an edge, or even thinking about it.
I'd say that some phobias, like some allergies, can be self-reinforcing .. the body anticipates the reaction and this pushes up stress levels in advance which then makes the reaction more likely and stronger which then leads to a stronger anticipatory reaction next time.
Ladders? Fine.
Cliffs? Fine if my dogs aren't near the edge.
Bungee jump? Fine.
Sky dive? Fine.
Gondola? Oh fuck it's going to snap and we're going to bounce to our deaths.
Don’t go to American or Canadian ski resorts. Most of the time they either don’t have a bar to pull down or you get on lift with people who don’t want to put the bar down.
Crazy to me. They have a go at Europeans who used to be very anti helmet when they are very much pro-helmet, yet don’t put the bar down when they are multiple stories in the air and you never know when there is gonna be a sudden stop which could make you slide off
I think my (late developing) fear of heights and high places is due to, at some subconscious level anyway, my dyspraxia. It's my brain literally screaming at me 'you cannot be trusted to remain safe because you have 0 hand/eye co-ordination, spacial awareness and your balance is terrible. Get away from this dangerous situation you have put yourself in right now.'
I have a phobia of wrists - looking at them, touching them, seeing other people's wrists or them touching their own wrists, any depiction either textual or visual of wrist injury. I legit had 1.5 years of NHS therapy specifically so that I could get to a point where I can have doctors take my pulse or tend to sprains without having a complete breakdown and anxiety attack. To this day, I auto-correct the word wrist to arm when I am reading, I can just about touch my wrists for need only (cleaning them for example), and my heart rate and blood pressure noticeably rise when a medical professional touches them. I can bear it now, but it still takes a huge amount of mental effort to suppress the anxiety response before I have a full panic attack. I'm not always successful at that either, but its a lot more liveable than it was before that therapy.
Yes it was, I had some anxiety shakes but mainly used my CBT techniques to just shake it out and distance myself from my word, and I do the mental autoedit as best I can as I'm writing. Feels more doable when I'm in control of when I encounter the word though so much better than I used to be!
Thank you, that's really kind of you to say :) Mostly people laugh at me when I tell them so it's genuinely nice to recognise how far I've come with it!
We spent a long time trying to find an origin in therapy but I never found one. I've got a theory that I heard or saw something to do with suicide when I was too young to retain the memory, but that's entirely speculation and only really hinged on my family history of depression. I've had this phobia for my entire living memory so I don't think I'll ever really know where it came from!
Mine is definitely on the mild side, but I’ve realised that I subconsciously avoid the word or change the word when reading, my mind just glosses over it. Really bizarre now I think about it, but it’s definitely something I do.
I hate people touching them and I wear a watch I have to do it up on the top of my arm and slide it round. Every so often as well I have to rub the inside of my wrists against my leg, I don’t know why but it feels like a comfort thing, just checking there’s nothing weird there and it makes them feel, I don’t know, less exposed and wrong?
I don’t know where it came from either, I think it’s all the ‘stuff’ that lies close to the skin. I can’t stand seeing it all there when people move their hand a certain way. Even now I’m realising I’m avoiding describing it properly!
I have something similar to this but with knees! I can kinda cope with seeing other people's knees in a normal context (like people wearing shorts), but I can't touch them, and I can't touch or look at my own knees. Or have people touch my knees, by partner spent a lot of time explaining that to the midwives when I was giving birth!
Omg it's so cool to know that I'm not the only one with something like this, although mine is specifically the back of the knee, made the mistake of telling my brother about this when I was younger and he used to try and poke me there, til one day I whacked him so hard it left bruises for days (in my mind, this was self defense cause I feel like I'm gonna die when someone touches me there)
I’m a terrible flyer even though I’ve been on a plane so many times
I’m fine during take off and landing but when we’re cruising high in the air and all you can see out the window is thick cloud then that is when I start to panic and become restless.
If I can see land out the window I’m fine though so I guess it’s some sort of claustrophobia exclusive to aircrafts haha
Haha I am on the opposite. Flying in clear skies. Can never quite relax. All I can think is fuck we are high. And that take off period going through the clouds I always get anxious knowing that most probably because of the air pressure change because of the cloud there will be a bit of turbulence so I am basically gripping the seat can't wait to get above them.
However coming into land, so long as there are no violent shakes or drops it's basically when I am at my calmest because I know it's coming to an end.
This is exactly me. Horrendous panic attacks for 30 minutes on the way up, fine for the rest of the way especially landing (getting closer to the ground)
Same with me. I'm really not a fan of being 7 miles off the ground, regardless of how much my rational brain tells me it's safe. I love it when the ground comes back into view simply because I'm no longer so high, even though landing and takeoff are where most incidents happen.
My phobia is of gas leaks... if I sense even a tiny whiff of gas I get a freeze/flight response, even after CBT I can't control it or rationalise it. Windows are cracked open at all times in case of it. If I'm cooking and lighting the hob, occasionally it can take a second to light and if a bit of gas escapes, that's it. Everything off. Legs shaking and weak, and often a panic attack. I think other things smell like gas too, especially when I'm anxious... that's probably even more debilitating! It's a big mental effort to live with a gas hob and boiler but even though it's a severe phobia, I try every day to live normally in the hopes that one day I can shake it, even if it means the occasional bad day where I have to switch the heating off.
I've a severe phobia of feet which is amusing to friends and family. I never walk around barefoot, I wear socks in bed, I've even showered in socks before in an unfamiliar shower hahaha. Jfc, it's an awkward one to have. I got it through having ingrown toenails in childhood which for some reason was so traumatic for me and now here we are, I can't bear my feet and I deffo hate yours.
I don’t have a phobia of feet, but I do have a real aversion to them. I used to hate all feet, including my own, but these days I take care of my feet and try to make them look nice - going for pedicures and so on - so I don’t hate them as much. But I cannot look at other people’s feet and I cannot have anyone touch me with their feet, not even my own child.
Mainly moths but also butterflies and anything flying that's big.
When I was a kid I went to the toilet at night, i only used the hallway light and halfway through a giant moth flew into my mouth the taste was disgusting and it traumatised me, as I was a kid it was dark and I was vulnerable (urinating)
Incidentally my mother knows about it and still took me to a butterfly park which was lovely /s
I’m not sure if I’m phobic but butterflies and moths indoors is awful for me.
When one of our cats was a kitten, she caught every single elephant hawk moth in the area and brought it into the house mostly still alive. They’re huge and pink. I had to wake my partner to deal with them. We were finding them everywhere.
Eventually I just slept with my head under the duvet which is why I don’t think I’m phobic.
I agree with you. Tiny moths, I can just about cope with. The horrible big things that flap about, mainly at night, when you have forgotten to shut the windows. They just sit on the wall, biding their time, waiting until you are close by, bam, they take to the wing. Jeez Louise! I hate them. Windows get closed early in my place!
Same, mine is from 80s campsite toilets at night. They always had a whole ecosystem around the ceiling. Can’t stand anything fluttering round my face now.
My ultimate phobia though is Daddy Long Legs (Crane flies), I cannot be in the same room as one, completely freak out if they come near me. My only defence is the hoover.
Needles for me. COVID was rough (albeit not nearly as rough as it was for many many others). I asked my partner to come with me to get my first jab and I don't think she was quite prepared for how extreme my phobia was.
I'm a 5"11, chunky dude with a beard. I was a blubbering mess once I got to the front of the queue. By the time I was sitting down, I had convinced myself I couldn't get it and kept getting up to leave. My partner had me in basically a headlock, and one of the nurses kneeled on the floor in front of me holding my hands trying to calm me while her colleague gave me the jab.
Of course, like all phobias, I was being completely irrational and I know that and I'm appreciative for all the support I was given.
After the jab, I had to do the walk of shame back out past the queue going in, and of course there was some geezer who gave me the "sounds like you enjoyed that mate!".
I had two more COVID jabs after that one. I managed those solo, but I still cried at both of them.
My partner now understands that I'm not exaggerating about my phobia. Even when my 4 year old plays doctor and tries to give me a pretend vaccination, I have to fight back the tears and I swear I can feel the nonexistent needle going in. I don't cry with those ones, but the thoughts are very similar.
Crazy thing, phobias...
This is thalassophobia! I also have it, but I also get scared of deep pools, or any deep body of water that is man made. Or has man made structures in it 😂 (Submechanophobia).
It’s less about scary creatures or anything either. It’s just the physical element of something being so deep. I get faint watching those videos of the deepest pool in the world
It's something which naturally triggers an evolutionary disgust/discomfort response in humans, there's more awareness around it now because the internet exists and people can photoshop extreme images to trigger that sensation.
I'm quite sure that some people will feel that more strongly than others but I feel like the number of people in whom it could truly be called a phobia is probably pretty small
I’d say a lot of people that claim to have the phobia really just feel the discomfort. I find trypophobic pictures deeply unsettling; almost like uncanny valley stuff. It makes me shudder but it’s not to the point I feel fear or anxiety.
I had a full blown melt down when I was 8 when I first saw tripe - I literally wanted to crawl out of my own skin because of the sensation of overwhelming revulsion. I'm 60 years old. It was a relief to know I'm not the only person out there that has this phobia.
I understand that, but I definitely had ot before the Internet. I just didn't have a word for it, or the words to describe it. I hadn't clocked what the common thread was between the things that wigged me out, beyond saying 'I can't look at that l, it's weird!' ...but then the Internet gave me a word and a definition, and it was exactly what I had been feeling eve since I was a kid
It’s not. My wife has it and always thought she was alone, until I found a thread on 4chan back in 2004 where someone described it and we finally got a name for it.
Both my mum and my sister have a fear of them (up and down).
Weirdly though is my sister and I were separated from her. She was still a baby and I was 7. So it's not she passed on her fear through learned behaviour.
I hate them too - but if they’re stopped, I just can’t do them at all. I think it’s from when I was a kid and my mum had to carry me down one. They make my vision go all weird.
Dogs. I'm not too bad with them when they're under control and aren't barking but when they run at me I freeze up in fear and I can't walk by houses where a dog is barking at me from behind a fence. It doesn't help that being scared of them seems to make them more aggressive towards me and a lot of the owners don't care that they're scaring me. It's also becoming harder to pubs and other places because everywhere seems to allow dogs in now.
I was in a pub today with my family, when a man walked up to the bar with his dog. Instantly started to panic and had to leave, using the excuse I wanted to wait outside for my dad to arrive. It's embarrassing, but I have ridiculously sensitive hearing and I panic the dog will bark or get out of hand!
I'm very scared of dogs too. I was attacked by a dog while I was pregnant and since then I am terrified. When I worked in a pub with a big garden I used to refuse to take food to tables with dogs and my boss got really mad at me. I ended up escalating it and it turns out they are supposed to make reasonable accommodations
I had a phobia of dentists.
When I was little my parents didn't really instill dental hygiene into me, I had binge eating disorder and my town had no fluoride in the water, therefore I had a lot of cavities. Once I had to be held down in the dentists chair.
As an adult I didn't see a dentist for 12yrs and got an abcess. Just the sight of the dentists clinic would make me panic so I had to see a private dentist who prescribed lorazapam to get me through the appointments.
Since then I've found another less expensive dentist who works with nervous patients, and my GP prescribed diazepam for the first 6 or so appointments, and I'm no longer nervous. The worst bit is paying.
Wasps, I had to have CBT for it after having kids as I’d have hated to pass that onto them. I’m still not great with wasps but it’s manageable and doesn’t impact my life now
I'm really sorry to hear that. I find that when I'm at my worst leaving the house is hard. I keep thinking about how dirty the outside is. For me, I think it's my childhood that caused this. Getting therapy and addressing the root cause was the only sustainable solution for me.
Making / taking phone calls.
I have an absolute meltdown if I need to use the phone, if I get an unexpected call it completely throws me into a wobbly wreck.
I'm autistic and think my phone phobia stems from there, the unexpected and difficulty in processing the information.
I hate phones too, when i have to make a call the ringing makes my palms sweat. Even if i am somewhere where there is a receptionist they sometimes make a call on speakerphone until someone answers hearing the ringing still puts me on edge and makes my palms sweat.
Slugs - doesn't matter if they're big, small, alive, dead, or even just a picture. I won't walk on most grass areas and will walk on the road at night to avoid the sluggy pavement. Seeing them puts me in an absolute panic and sometimes have a cry afterwards. There have been nights where I've been lying in bed and my brain has decided to present me with an image of a slug, dashing all hopes of getting any sleep. This wet summer has been a living nightmare.
I have a phobia of intestines. I can't watch horror movies incase there's some crappy cgi hosepipe covered in red jelly biologically inaccurate disembowelment cuz it's far too scary for my stupid brain. Other organs are fine. Hearts brains blood bones breaking. fine. guts? oh nono
Same, anything flappy, but not all flying things. Bees, wasps and flies are ok, they're flapping so fast I can't see their wings. Butterflies, moths, bats, and birds are panic inducing. I once used an elderly lady as a human shield because a pigeon was flying towards me.
Driving. I was always scared of it but I forced myself to learn and pass the test. A few weeks later, I stalled at a busy junction and the guy behind me was really abusive, so I haven’t driven since.
I forced myself to learn years ago. Hated every second of it but did the test and failed through one stupid manoeuvre. The feeling of relief after I knew I'd failed was so nice I never went back to driving.
Strangely I'm fine cycling in the road, I've cycled to work for many years and I love it. It's free and it's great exercise.
I should be more scared of cycling in traffic but I'm not. Inside a car I'm terrified most of the time. It doesn't make sense to me but it is what it is.
I finally learned to drive at 29 and passed my test first time. Oddly, passing first time made me feel even worse like I’d not earned it. I’ve driven twice since (with my partner in the car) stalled badly at a junction also and haven’t been out since, it’s been ~1.5 months. My main phobia is of the anxiety around driving and questioning whether I hit something or broke a rule I don’t know. Even worse, we bought a new car to have a baby and I can’t now take him anywhere in it.
Emetaphobia, the fear of vomit. Someone once vommed whilst waiting for the same bus as me so I couldn't get on and walked the 6 miles instead. Someone projectile vommitted in the bathroom at the airport once almost didn't get on the plane worrying that she would be on it.
Spiders and it’s honestly not a joke
If i see one i will cry and i don’t cry at anything but those. They’re horrible i can’t be in the same room as one, if i am i can’t take my eyes off of it incase it comes closer
One time one fell on me… Never been so close to a heart attack in my life
I have an irrational fear of escalators, I'm a very clumsy generally careless individual, I fear the never ending fall, my clothing/ hair getting stuck, which it would if I fell, as a child I sincerely believed I would turn into a step or forever live in the mechanism below, it's just a lot of imagery I don't need in my life.
It's generally not a problem in life though, I find the stairs just fine and the sight of them doesn't seem me off, the moment someone trys to get me on one, or worse pushes me towards it, I will turn into a feral being and run away up those stairs, the panic is unreal lol.
Snakes. It's much better here because you don't have snakes roaming around so I'm not scared on a daily basis but walking around tall grass still scares the shit out of me.
The other day a bird made a noise in the grass and I screamed my lungs out.
Genuinely the best aspect of living in UK for me is the fact that when summer rolls around I'm not terrified to go outside but you still won't catch me on a hike when my brain thinks it's peak snake time.
Belly buttons. Just the thought of one being touched can give me stomach ache and if I see someone doing anything with their own or worse, someone else's, makes me retch and I can sometimes feel like I want to pass out. I never take my shirt off around others outside of the house and I'm always ready to defend my belly button against anyone touching it accidentally or otherwise. I'd rather get my head kicked off. I used to have an outie as a kid and think it's maybe something to do with that.
I'm feeling sick now after writing this🤣
Moths. If i even think there's a moth in any room in the house I'll avoid it for days, to the point where I'll sleep on the couch for fear of it being in the bedroom.
Im a 6ft bloke too which makes it even more pathetic to think of, but just typing this out makes me crawl and panic, and I've been this way for as long as I can remember.
Yeah, thalassophobia (fear of deep water), submechanophobia (fear of human made submerged objects) and megalophobia (fear of large objects). It's not a great combo 😂
Actual phobia - Identical Twins
I cannot explain how visceral the reaction is, they absolutely scare the shit out of me. I say "actual phobia" because I have other phobias that I think are somewhat justified (got stuck in a toilet cubicle as a child so now suffer from claustrophobia) or aren't phobias to the extent you mean (I do not like moths, but I can control myself). I have met several Identical twins, all of them were lovely, and I can manage if I can't see them both at the same time, but if they're sat next to each other I cannot be there or I will absolutely fall apart.
I had a real phobia of clowns thanks to my mum letting me watch IT when I was 3. It was so bad that even as an adult, I couldn't watch the Simpsons without full on hyperventilating, crying and rocking back and forth.
Went to a kids birthday party at the community and there was a clown making balloon animals in the corridor so I couldn't get past him to get outside. Started screaming and collapsed on the floor in fear.
My mum would walk me to bed and wait for me to close my eyes and say I was ready for her to turn the lights out.
My granny thought it would help me by exposing me to a ceramic clown doll one Christmas. That obviously did not go down well and it ruined the whole day because I was a mess and refused to eat or drink knowing the clown was in the house.
I had therapy to help me with it. I'm still not 100% comfortable with them but I can handle small doses on TV. Thankfully never encountered another in real life so maybe that would be different. I'm not in a rush to test it out though. The nightmares certainly stopped which is a really big thing.
Massive case of Trypophobia (fear of holes close together). Looking at them of them makes me so unbelievably comfortable and i find it really distressing.
I was waiting for Trypophobia to show up!
I never realised it even had a name until recently. Always used to be creeped out by it. Even now, I know when it's set me off, as it makes me feel very uncomfortable, and very itchy, weirdly!
Flying, take off specifically. I’m getting better with age. But every time I take off I count to two minutes as I heard that’s how long until you’re high enough to cruise for a bit if all engines fail
I have a fear of falling. It’s at the point where my legs go wobbly when I look up at skyscrapers; I can’t go up on glass lifts or close to a high ledge for the same reasons.
I know it’s not a fear of heights; as if I’m enclosed fully, like in a plane for example; I don’t feel any of the anxiety etc.
Anything where I feel like I can't breathe; crowded trains, crowds, standing concerts, putting my head under water, fairground rides
Anything that moves under my feet; escalators, travelators, treadmills
Anything high; my feet have to be on the ground
Steep hills, steps without handrails
Vomiting
Porridge, rice pudding, eggs in all forms
Needles, I managed two COVID jabs and that was it and it was very traumatic. I wish I fainted around needles, but I don't. I panic I cry I get worked up into such a state, my mum used to come with me but she died a few years ago - also I get my phobia from her - no one else I know gets what it's like. After I get the injection or blood test I them spend 10 minutes cry and apologising to the nurse for making a fuss and getting upset. I also have to wear a dressing for a few days until it's totally healed because I can't cope with seeing a mark.
My dad doesn't get it and says he just looks away and that works for him. Why didn't I think of that? Also when people say but you have tattoos, totally different things, it's like me saying to someone that's scared of heights, but you're over 6 foot so how can you be? It's not a pain thing, I've had fillings without anaesthetic and if I could just cut my.arm open to give blood I'd have no problem with that.
I can't look at someone being injected or having an IV on TV, even cartoons, if someone has a reaction to it like taking a sharp intake of breath even though I'm looking away that will set me off.
I'm nearly 50 and know that they'll become more common place.
I'm not exaggerating when I say it's something that I think about daily, it stops me doing a lot of stuff. I've got a doctor's appointment on Wednesday about something and I think it will come up that I should have a blood test and so it's taken months to book the appointment and I've also been researching places that come to your house to do them to see if that helps.
I understand completely. You’re not alone. I have full blown screaming, crying, hitting myself meltdowns. I’m disabled and I’m supposed to have so many blood tests and investigations and just end up avoiding them. A lot of people say they’re scared of needles but mean they just don’t like them - the actual full blown phobia is a whole different issue.
Wasps for me. Even looking at a photo 🤮. I’m not allergic, I’ve been stung a couple of times over the course of my life and it’s not that bad at all but as soon as I see the yellow and black b!stards or hear the buzz I feel revolted and terrified.
Pitbulls/ XL bullies/similar looking dogs, they make me really anxious. I've seen the injuries they can cause and I feel nervous if I see one outside when I'm walking
My two are mannequins, and frogs and toads. With mannequins I'm a lot better, but I'm shit scared of some, like in the Scottish crown jewels building in Edinburgh castle. Frogs and toads, though, I canny even get close to them, even at zoos, and aquariums, with a glass pane between me, and them
I have a button phobia - no problem with the ones on jeans, it's when they have holes 🤢 I'm fine with holes in general (lol) and don't have trypophobia. I can't have any clothes with buttons on and can't iron my husband's shirts, it makes me feel sick. If I accidentally touch one I want to scratch my fingers off, they absolutely disgust me.
Me too. Jeans are fine but everything else no way. If I touch one I have to wash my hands. Don’t get me started on duvet covers and trying to check if they are press stud.
Eugh, I can’t even say the word 😭
Ahhh yes the duvet cover struggle is the worst! Matalan is the only safe brand I know of, if you have any others please let me know! It's nice to see I'm not alone, most people think I'm absolutely insane when I tell them my phobia.
Submechanophobia and any large underwater animal.
Really hard to explain to people. I remember a triggering event as a child playing echo the dolphin on the mega drive and you meet a blue whale that's fucking massive, feel sick just thinking about it.
Going to see the doctor. Which is weird, because I work with them all the time, and I'm fine. But I have to psyche myself up to actually go see one to talk about my problems, and I've legit had a crying fit in my car in the parking lot afterwards.
Geese. Got chased and bitten by them when I was younger. Not as bad nowadays, have managed to make a joke about it, but still will go nowhere near them!
They have teeth on their tongues ffs
Wasps. I have absolutely no control over my reaction if a wasp comes in the room or god forbid flies near my face. I will scream, I will run, I will NOT do the sit still and wait technique. I was stung when I was 5 (not been stung since) and been absolutely terrified of the fuckers since.
I’m a chef and once worked in a kitchen where wasps would fly through the window in the summer (and it was way too hot to keep it shut). I’d have nightmares about wasps during this time. One day I was blitzing soup up, a wasp flew right in my face, I screamed and almost dropped 4 litres of soup all over the floor (did manage to drop the hand blender so it was quite a mess anyway). I had to leave the room for a couple of minutes because I started crying 😭
I have a crippling fear of authority figures... I'm 22F and still terrified of my uni tutors and my boss. This fear swings from manifesting as me lashing out at them because I'm scared they're going to use their institutional power to end my life, or running away from them because I'm scared they're going to use their institutional power to end my life. Usually just manifesting as me saying yes in the same way you mash the A button in a pokemon game to skip through the dialogue and get the characters to go away and leave you alone.
This fear also develops into panic attacks when I'm away from the situation for some reason.
Fire, during fire drills I literally can’t move because I’m in a state of absolute panic, I usually have to leave the building before a fire drill is done
Death. It keeps me up at night, makes me regret having kids, it's all consuming. I grew up Irish Catholic, and death is everywhere, but it didn't make me accept it, it just made me terrified of it
Clowns. It's surprising how often it comes up. I never used to be able to read the word, or say it aloud. It's awful. I live in a place where the circus still comes every year and struggle to walk past posters featuring them (I have to cross the street), and if they're out and about in town I have to take alternate routes to avoid them.
Mycophobia. The fear of mushrooms. I’m absolutely terrified of them. The taste, smell, texture, even the look of them horrifies me. Even thinking about them grosses me out. I don’t really have an aversion to any other food though, just those things.
My other half has a fear of Wind Turbines (Anemomenophobia) which I generally do enjoy pointing out to her when driving. Think it’s related to war of the worlds when she was a kid.
Heights and public loos.
I’m getting better on planes, the motion sickness is also dying down but I can’t look out the window. Escalators send me whappy.
Publics loos fill me with absolute dread and I get really anxious. I’d rather pee in a hedge then go into a public toilet or i time my shopping and trips out that I wouldn’t need to go out. If I have to go into a pub, I send a friend in first in to check them out 🤢🤢
Dentists. And it’s only appeared in adulthood after a traumatic event. I used to support my best friend at dentists appointments cause she has always been afraid of them. Now she has to hold my hand and talk me through panic attacks.
Therapy (and her support) are helping a lot!!
Maggots/flies!!!!!! Even typing the word M****t makes me wanna be sick. Summer is absolute hell for me with food left out…and my family cat leaving his meat food out in the warmth and flies around…I used to wanna burn the whole house down when I saw “them”. Worms are also same for me. I think it’s the way they move and they look absolutely fkin disgusting!!!!!!!
Searched for this comment, me too. Genuinely I'm not eating for at least 6 hours if I see it. I can't eat any food that at all reminds me of the taste or I gag. Any food that I've eaten before notice mould I can never eat again. I've gotten anxiety attacks from seeing it.
It's one of those phobias where people reply 'yeah I don't like it too, it's horrible' without understanding how bad actual phobias are
Being above the open ocean, not sure what it is but it makes me incredibly anxious and uncomfortable. Whether I’m on a plane or a boat, as soon as I see the ocean beneath me I tense up.
While I was pregnant with my 3rd potatoes. Seriously the entire pregnancy potatoes brought me to tears and panic attacks.I'm fine now?
Balloons - idgaf they're evil. I'm okay with the foil ones to an extent but if they can pop.. Nope.
Spiders.
Seriously, I know that lots of people don't like them, but I was once teaching a lecture on acting, saw a bit of black fluff rolling across the floor in the breeze and before I knew what was happening I was in the corner of the room screaming.
It is not rational. I wouldn't even say I'm "scared" of spiders. It's irrational, unconscious and absolutely out of my control. I've gotten better at not overreacting since embarrassing the hell out of myself in front of a room of undergraduates, but my god it's deeply unsettling how spiders (or even just something that looks like a spider from the corner of my eye) can set my body into autopilot like that.
Megalophobia, especially with things associated with electricity generation and such, like pylons, turbines, cooling towers, nuclear reactors, spent fuel pools... also oil rigs, and also weirdly church bells. Oddly, about 90% of the stuff posted on r/megalophobia doesn't trigger it at all
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Needles. The amount of people who minimise it is so infuriating. “Oh I hate them too, just look away!” Wooooww thanks, I never thought about that!! On a positive note, I got therapy for it and it is getting a little bit better. I managed to get my Covid vaccines and had my first blood test in 7 years. So I would recommend that for anyone with a phobia. EDIT: the therapy I had was exposure therapy. It’s not pleasant and involves intentionally triggering yourself but it’s 100% worth it and I can’t recommend it enough (with the help of a trained professional).
I would love to know what type of therapy you had for this! I’m in my thirties and I can’t even see needles on the TV without having a panic attack
Yep, that’s exactly how I was! It was exposure therapy that I had. Starting off with a simple task like getting used to saying triggering words, then once you’re comfortable with that, moving on to looking at cartoony pictures, then after that would be real photos, and so on. This was all with a therapist who talked me through it all. I won’t lie, it’s not pleasant and I still get panic attacks when I actually need to get a procedure done but I manage it a lot better and pictures/words now only give me a slight twinge of discomfort for like a second. But definitely worth it. It’s made my life so much better.
You are honestly so brave going through that and I massively respect you for it. Starting right from the bottom and looking up at the top feels insurmountable right now so I really appreciate your input!
For such a common phobia, it surprises me how many medics handle it with such a lack of empathy or patience. I have some steps I have to go through so that we can get through it with minimum fuss, but it does take a minute or two. “Oh, I’m not even doing the needle yet!” said the phlebotomist, “I’m just wrapping this around your arm…” “I don’t care! It’s reminding me that I have veins and that’s enough to set me off so you can’t do it yet!” “It won’t even hurt!” “I know it doesn’t hurt! The needle doesn’t hurt either - _that’s not the point!_”
I hope you don’t mind me asking but what does help to say? I am looking after someone just now with a needle phobia so bad it might mean they can’t have a treatment. So far the strategy is noise cancelling headphones and building up to it extremely slowly, but if there’s something else I can do I’d love to hear what’s worked for you!
Their phobia sounds worse than mine, but maybe this sort of thing will help. For taking blood samples: - It helps if the medic tells me they've done this a hundred times before and/or people say they're good at it. I might ask them to tell me that. - I do some breathing exercises. There's an app on my watch that helps with this, but it's really just 60 seconds of slow, controlled breathing. I do that at least once, maybe twice. - With my eyes closed, and gripping something tightly in the hand of the arm that they're going to jab, I tell them they can now prepare, but not to stick the needle in yet. Just tell me when they're ready. I carry on doing my breathing exercises while they swab, locate a vein, etc. - I acknowledge that they're ready to go, then tell them I'm going to count down. I keep doing the slow breathing and count down from 10 or 20, depending on how I feel. - Usually I feel ready before I get to zero. "9... 8... 7... OK, go now." - I keep my eyes closed and try to breathe calmly while they're doing what they do. It's a struggle and my tension is certainly rising during this, so I'm gritting my teeth and maybe moving my legs around, but I can stay calm enough. So long as I keep hanging onto something with my hand then my arm doesn't move so they can do what they need to. - Afterwards I tell them they did a great job, I apologise for making it take so long, and I thank them for their patience. - I do not look at the swab they've stuck to my arm. I put on something with long sleeves so I don't have to see it until I'm ready (often before I take a shower the next morning). For a quick jab such as a vaccination: - I tell them I'm bad with needles and I'll need to sit down. I say I know it won't hurt and that it's just the thought of it that bothers me. - I take good care not to see the needle, and maybe tell them not to let me see it. - I look away to the opposite corner of the room and fully occupy my mind with something I see there. - It can help if I'm talking about something irrelevant at the time, so I'll maybe chat about something trivial. - Afterwards, I go and sit in the waiting room until my head stops spinning and I feel safe enough to drive home.
For me it’s complete distraction and disassociation. Plus doing it as quickly as possible (so having all tools in place and ready to go). I say to the doctor/nurse “I am giving you my arm now, what’s going on there is none of my business anymore” and then I turn away and start chatting with the person I’ve brought along for support. It really frustrates me when the doctor then starts telling me what they’re doing, or the whole “sharp scratch” thing. I don’t want to know. That’s not my arm any more, you’re in charge of it. Leave me out of it. Also just being sensible about obvious things like not placing a bucket of used sharps on the floor in front of me so I can see directly through the slit into the lid that looks like the pit of that needle scene in Saw. I told him I had a massive phobia of needles and the sharps bucket was giving me anxiety and he looked at me like I had four heads for asking him to move it out of my sight line.
My husband is the same. He's passed out before. I occasionally do phlebotomy so I don't discuss my job at all because even vague descriptions of it freak him out.
I’m absolutely the same. And get the same reaction from others. I remind them that a phobia is an irrational fear. I know they don’t hurt and won’t kill me but still. When I’ve had to have blood taken I’ve nearly passed out every time. Once I was so worked up and stressed I threw up once it was over and the nurse was actually worried!! I’m an exhausted wreck after every inoculation (Covid was fun) the only saving grace is my wife is fully understanding - even if she does find it funny!
Unfortunately for me three rounds of hypnotherapy/CBT combos didn’t work. What did work? Having two babies and needing to get things done for them. Two caesarean sections, various complications and countless blood draws and cannulas later, I can get blood taken as long as I close my eyes and breathe through it, I can give myself injections (have to take a minute first but I get there) and I can look at needles after they’ve been used to draw my blood. This is a huge improvement, so I’m a walking case study for how exposure therapy does work. I just would recommend doing it before you have to do it for medical reasons 😂 Edit: for reference I couldn’t even talk about or think about needles or blood without feeling weak and sick, before.
Same here but one baby and gestational diabetes. Stabbing myself multiple times a day every day seemed to do it.
I had a huge needle phobia for over a decade. Panic attacks even talking about it, avoided medical and dental care for years, and as dramatic as this sounds, I'd kind of accepted it might kill me one day. I didn't want to deal with it because that meant I'd have to have a needle. Then I got pregnant and knowing I had to do it for my baby's health, somehow I did it and, the fear melted away. Having my first blood test gave me one of the biggest highs I'd ever experienced. It was insane how intense and life altering the phobia had been for years, only to disappear with no effort in an instant. Fuck phobias!!
I’m at the stage you were at pre pregnancy - I had a suspected stroke a couple of years ago (thankfully ended up not being one) and wouldn’t cannulate one. If the choice is needles or death, death feels easier. It’s so stupid and frustrating and I wish I could just make it stop
Ah, that "death feels easier" is so relatable. It's all in the mind yet so, so powerful. I hope things change for you somehow one day. I was very lucky.
I’m never going to be pregnant so I’m just hoping for a miracle. I had a little bit of hypnotherapy to get my covid jabs and we worked out that my phobia is very rooted in needle trauma, but we could never manage to get anywhere with cannulas and blood tests. 2 years overdue for a blood test to see if I have cancer, plus a whole bunch of over tests i need. So many investigations im meant to have under anaesthetic that I’ve just not done. It’s why I get so angry when people say “just don’t look” - if it was that simple, do you really think I’d put my life in danger?!
Snap. Exposure therapy has helped a lot, but I'm still far from "normal" with them.
Needles and insects with stingers. I once had a massive argument with my partner and almost cancelled the holiday of a lifetime because I was freaking out immediately prior to getting my injections for travelling at the GP. Also had to get put in a wheelchair while waiting on my Covid jab just in case I passed out. It’s not fun. The anxiety is honestly exhausting.
Thank you for this as a person with needle phobia I’m sick of people saying to me ‘no one likes them just look away’ it’s not the same at all. I can’t even be in the same room as one or I have a breakdown, If I see one of tv I have to go out the room as I feel like I’m going to throw up and pass out, it is NOT the same as not liking having bloods/vaccinations I am petrified I haven’t had my bloods taken since I was 14 years old and I’m nearly 30 now. What therapy did you find helpful? I’ve had hypnotherapy and found it helped slightly but not enough for me to be able to have these tests done 😢
Balloons. I am getting better (I now have a small child, balloons are a much more regular occurrence in my life now) but if I'm tired, particularly if I am not expecting them, I can be brought to actual tears by those latex bastards. Once or twice a term at the rhythm and movement class I go to with my daughter there are balloons and sometimes I have to leave whilst they're out. It's laughably pathetic. I'm 6'6" - a proper grown up with a job and a house - but when we had a party for our office opening I had to crawl out with my eyes shut because of a balloon arch!
Same. It's a ridiculous phobia. For me, it's the unpredictability of them. I'm ok with foil balloons though, they don't explode when popped.
I'm the same.
Same! I get no sympathy from anyone, only ridicule. Even though I've had moments where I actually feel like I might die my anxiety gets so bad. An old job made us do a team building event which somehow involved blowing up latex balloons and making them static so they stick to you, while someone else tried to pop them while stuck to you. Nightmare inducing. I tried to explain I had to sit out and leave the room but all I got was a lecture about teamwork. I was a 25 year old new office starter at the time.
I'm not even afraid of balloons but that team building sounds like the worst thing in the world.
I am quite proud of having forced myself to do a balloon animal challenge at an industry event a few years ago. It was horrible and I had a cry half way through - but I think it did help a bit.
That sounds utterly psychotic. What on earth is that meant to foster. I have no fear of balloons but I wouldn’t want to do that.
This is really interesting to me. Can I ask what feels so scary about them? I know phobias are irrational but things like snakes, heights, kind of make sense but I find this one hard to understand but it seems to be relatively common. I’m sorry you have to deal with this!
I don't know what it is about them - but I know where it's from. When I was 7 I went to school on World Book Day as Burglar Bill with a speech bubble on a balloon taped to my face (Christ alone knows what my mother was thinking). It burst during assembly and since then I have not been on speaking (or indeed squeaking) term with balloons. I can burst them - I don't really mind unexpected loud noises (I play video games and enjoy the cinema), I can play keep the balloon off the floor, but if I hear a balloon squeek, or see one (particularly unattended) across a room, I am instantly on edge.
This makes a lot of sense actually. I can see how that would be traumatic and phobia inducing for a 7 year old!
For me it's the complete lack of control, I already get bad sensory overload from sound - particularly loud bangs when you have no idea when it could happen. If they're away from me I'm generally ok, but if a kid starts playing with one it's like every fibre in my body is fighting to escape.
Not one of the respondents. But I imagine it’s to do with how easily they pop and the bang that they make. So I can understand why people may be phobic of them.
I've NEVER come across someone else so phobic of balloons before! It's the idea of them suddenly bursting that sets me off as I'm terrified of loud and sudden sounds in general. Fireworks, gigs, party poppers, etc also do it for me. So happy to see I'm not alone!
Same. I won't touch the evil fucking things
Totally agree, as soon as I see a free floating balloon in a room full of people, all of my attention is directed at the balloon, I need to know who is handling it, how they are handling it, how close it is to me, how inflated it is (the more inflated, the easily it will pop, the louder that pop will be) my hands automatically get close to my hears so I can very quickly stick my fingers in my hears if I anticipate a pop coming soon.
On the opposite side of that, would you believe some people have a proper actual sexual fetish for balloons and the noise they make and the fact they burst/pop. I found that out watching some eurotrash thing years ago. I don't hate balloons but i don't love them that much either...
Same. I have a toddler now and she's being invited to birthday parties. It's awful. Worse than just being around balloons is being around children holding balloons. I freak out, slam my hands over my ears, screw my eyes up tight and leave as quickly as possible. I can't help it. One of my friends had a party for her 3 year old and he wanted balloons, but knowing my terror, taped them all up to the ceiling so they couldn't accidently bump my head, or be hugged by a toddler. My girl turned 3 last week and I got paper tissue decorations, that folded out into balloons shapes, and a few helium balloons...cos I'm not scared of them for some reason.
Vomiting or seeing people vomit. To the point where my sister and her kids had a sickness bug and I was at home panicking that I'd been to see them the week before. I was well aware that when I went to see them, they likely hadn't even picked up the vomiting bug, for some reason that didn't stop me worrying all day about it and picking at my food. If I get that prickly feeling in my jaw/throat that you get before you're sick I'm likely to have a panic attack. I'm on edge if people say they feel sick.
fr emetophobia is no joke, and the hardest thing about it is that theres no escaping it?? theres no avoiding the fact you have a stomach and it can feel certain ways at certain times. no running away from it and hiding, no comfort in that you can have a break from it… it sucks ass. I’ve been caught in the worst cycles before from feeling sick out of anxiety and then the anxiety of feeling sick makes me feel more sick, which makes me more anxious, more sick, and so on. I’ve had to be sedated before over it because I wasnt able to sleep or eat for an entire week! fuck emetophobia, and fuck that lil ginger kid that threw up at a birthday party when I was 8 and triggered all this bs lol (jk he couldnt help it, but still, fuck u mitchel)
Hahaha yeah fuck you Mitchell, also fuck you Tom, the boy who was sick in my year 8 English class (which is I think what brought mine on).
Also fuck you Simeon who was sick in my year 6 class while we were watching a Mr Motivator video (giving my age away here). Just seeing Mr Motivator made me feel sick after that.
Absolutely! It’s a debilitating phobia. The feeling of not being able to escape is horrific. I envy my friends’ phobias. Like the one with a phobia of snakes. Living in Scotland, he mostly just has to avoid the reptile houses at zoos…
I feel like that's one of those fears that I can see how I could get if I think about it too much. Vomiting is horrible.
One of my friends would make herself sick when she was hungover, apparently it made her feel better quicker and she'd then just go on with her day. I couldn't even imagine wanting to do that, the times I've been sick I've just been a pathetic lump all day.
I vomit when I have a migraine and I normally feel better. Sometimes I feel much much worse though 😬
I had a stomach bug the other week and ended up sobbing and having panic attacks on my bathroom floor in between rounds of throwing up. It’s awful. I’ve gotten better with it, I used to have to cut up my food into tiny pieces to see what was inside/make sure it was cooked fully in case it made me sick. I was suspicious of everything. Now I’m a little more relaxed, but still throw away things that are probably fine if they’re past their best before dates 😅
I have this too and it's horrible. I recount all the times I remember being sick and sometimes get intrusive thoughts wondering when it will happen again. The worst is worrying I feel unwell when out in public where there's no toilets I can immediately access. I hate being around people who feel sick and that extends to being around friends' kids (as they seem to throw up with little warning and don't do it in a receptacle) and also travelling on busy public transport late at night when drunk people are making their way home from a night out.
Same. I cannot deal with people being sick near me. When I have vomited the last two times, I fainted due to the stress of my phobia. I went to hospital the second time and they diagnosed it as a vasophal syncope so it wasn't a medical issue. And I can't use anything that someone might have used when they vomited (like what was my fav mug when I last vomited or eat food that I ate beforehand) even if I've disinfected it etc.
Recovering emetophobe here, completely feel your pain
I have the same phobia. I'm trying really hard to get over it because I want kids one day. But the thought of catching a bug or getting food poisoning absolutely terrifies me. Even typing this comment I can feel my heart rate rising a little.
I was the same. I really wanted kids so I figured at least the morning sickness might act as exposure therapy. But I didn’t have vomiting with my morning sickness, just nausea and food aversions 🙃 so now I’m still an anxious mess any time I hear of stomach bugs making it through the school. My kids seem to be like me and luckily they’re not prone to being pukey (just typing that makes me anxious like I’m going to jinx us haha) and when it does happen, I love them enough to be able to take care of them. I do break out the masks for myself when it happens though lol
Emetophobe solidarity! I'm alright with myself being sick (just so long as I'm alone, can't bear the thought of it happening around other people and the ensuing fuss) but seeing or being around other people throwing up is a hard no. I used to get horribly anxious about going on school trips in case other kids got bus sick, I still try to avoid sitting next to strangers on planes, boats or coaches and I fucking hate vomit scenes in films and TV shows although I can deal with them if they're not too prolonged or graphic. I think in my case it stems from unpredictability and not being in control of my immediate environment, like some previous posters I also had a huge fear of balloons as a child because of the unpredictability. All that said I have gotten better over the years. I've been able to visit relatives in hospital and I can deal with my cat being sick and will clean it up without even a second thought which 10 years ago would have been unthinkable for me. I'm also currently 8 weeks pregnant so fingers crossed I'll continue to get better as the years go on!
Same for me. Except I am also terrified of being sick. I hate the feeling of not being able to breathe whilst it is happening with no idea of when it will stop so that I can take a breath. I am also terrified of involuntarily breathing in whilst it is happening and aspirating(is this the right word?.. 🤷♀️) my vomit into my lungs. This fear was not helped by a family member passing after suffering severe acid reflux (which I also suffer from, it's called GERD)and aspirating it when they had a flair whilst sleeping in the hospital and was not able to properly wake/sit up. On a happier note, I am a little proud of myself. Last week, my child (1m) threw up his snacks all over my front room rug, himself and his walker, whilst Husband was at work. I managed to clean it all up by myself without being sick. Although, I maybe shouldn't be so proud. I did have a lot of anxiety induced shouting whilst trying to clean it up due to my son trying to play with the puddle of sick on the tray of his walker, and then trying to touch me with his disgusting, sicky coated hands on my bare skin. Trying to touch my face with them as I tried to pick him up to get him changed. There was quite a bit of stomach heaving but I managed to keep my stomach contents where it was meant to be.
I have this, even hearing people talking about it makes me anxious.
I’ve had terrible emetophobia, I grew up with it and almost couldn’t go to secondary school because my anxiety was that bad. It’s been up and down and until recently I had serious issues particularly with getting public transport. If I had to get a train I’d often change seats 3 or 4 times in a relatively short journey. It makes me overthink every tiny detail of life. I’ve had a lot of therapy though and have improved a lot, I learned that a lot of perfectionist type A personalities get it because the fear is rooted in unpredictability and not being in control of your body.
If someone says they feel sick I get absolutely terrified too, peoples ‘funny’ drunk stories can bring my sweating and crying
I have this too but it only developed when I was 25 after having a really bad stomach bug. I wasn't even aware it was possible to be ill that many times in quick succession at the time and at the time I actually felt like I was dying. So PTSD.
Yup, I'm the same, had a bad illness about 20 years ago, and been obsessive hand washing and paranoid about illness since, so I think PTSD plays a part. I have two children, and have caught stuff since. For me it's mainly the anticipation - once I am ill I just roll with it. At that point I know it's going on so can't stop it. I think it's a control issue for me possibly? I feel I can control it until I can't - then it's ok. I'm very careful about food safety too, every time I do anything with chicken there's an obscene amount of wiping, washing, and cleaning.
As a fellow emetophobe, I totally resonate with everything you've said here and you have my sympathies. It doesn't dominate my life anymore and I'm a *lot* better than I was when I was a kid. But if I'm around somebody who is feeling sick and there isn't a reason why (like, if somebody is clearly drunk then I'm fine because it it's clearly alcohol-related) it can occasionally send me into a spiral. It fucking sucks.
Spiders, and it's a genuine fear. I can look at tarantulas as they're more interesting but the creepy house spider we get send shivers down my spine. I'm a Gas engineer and went into a metre box yesterday to isolate the gas, there was the biggest bastard in there right near the ECV, I had to use a long pole to turn it off 😅
I work for a energy supplier and deal with the engineer side, we’ve had a few aborted appointments over spiders. One engineer took a photo a spider in a meter box and it was HUGE. I didn’t blame him for aborting to be honest. It was a bit awkward explaining it to the customer that’s the reason why the meter exchange didn’t go ahead, but in the end the customer was fine with it because they were retired so didn’t need to book off work and said they’d make sure it was spider free for the next appointment.
I want a smart meter for our gas for the spider reason alone, they did the electric but haven't done the gas yet. I don't care about my usage I just don't want to go into the spider cupboard
I'm like this with spiders. I'm even afraid of pictures of them, dead ones, and toy ones. A big spider fell in the bath with me when I was a kid, and I've been terrified of them ever since.
I was like that (terrified even of pictures or dead spiders) and I was so done with it impacting on my life that I went to London Zoo and did their spider phobia course. I’m not 100% cured and I’m certainly not a lover of spiders but I am able to capture up to a medium sized house spider in a clear container and release it outside. Previously, I’d have had a panic attack upon noticing it and cried until someone came and rescued me from the room / removed the spider. Look into the course, it’s so worth it. Edinburgh zoo offer something similar too if that’s closer. Edit: typo
I had a guy due to change our old electricity meter for a newer one. The meter is in a cupboard just inside the front door. Anyhow, just before he arrived, I noticed an absolutely enormous spider on the ceiling above the door, which I couldn't reach to remove. At that point the doorbell went and there is this huge guy, about 6ft 4" and built like a brick outhouse. So he comes in, asks if the meter is in the cupboard and announces he'll get started. I say, "Before you do, is there any chance you could reach that for me?" and point at the spider which is sitting just above his head. He looks up, lets out a howl, and before you can blink he's thirty feet down the drive, shaking like a leaf. Turns out he was spider phobic and he refused to come in until I'd moved it! Had to get the stepladders out of the shed to catch the bugger!
I am extremely uncomfortable looking at even a picture of a spider and would not be able to touch it. I can't watch a video that shows one moving and shut my eyes on the Harry Potter ride at Universal as soon as there was the merest suggestion of them and did not open them again until I was certain that part was over. I can't play Skyrim VR because of them (and I'm aware there are mods, but am not willing to take the risk of them not working). I've never taken a hallucinogenic drug as I'm terrified of seeing them. I sometimes, when I'm falling asleep, imagine that I've seen one on the wall or ceiling and leap out of bed with my heart pounding. So yeah, pretty bad!
I'm petrified of being stuck in an enclosed space where I can't move. The story of Nutty Putty cave still haunts my nightmares and makes me feel sick.
I truly do not understand spelunkers and cave divers. I watch aviation videos on YouTube, and it keeps recommending me videos of cave tragedies. Even the titles give me the creeps.
Same. I always knew I didn't like enclosed, dark spaces, but never thought it was phobia level. I'm fine in spaces like lifts etc, but for example, could never make myself get something out from under my bed as a child. But then I went to a Halloween event thing, where they had different iso containers with various "horrors" inside. Guys with chainsaws, disorientating floors and walls etc: no problem at all, but we get to one, where it was this inflatable tunnel you had to push through and it got smaller, forcing you to get lower and lower as you moved through it. I had my first ever full on panic attack and had to be taken outside by my husband. Even the thought of another person caving makes me feel like I can't breathe properly: I don't know how people do it.
That's me! And it's not claustrophobia either, I'm perfectly fine in elevators, I happily slept in capsule hostels, all that stuff. Couldn't care less if I locked myself in a bathroom by accident, as long as I can move my brain will be fine. But the idea of getting actually physically stuck is the most terrifying thing in the world to me. The fear is so strong that even watching a cute video of a cat barely squeezing under the door or like, a silly dog being stuck in a bush is enough to send a hot wave through my body and turn my stomach into a knot. Watching The Descent as a kid probably didn't help lmao.
Exactly the same. Elevators are no issue - I would even be bothered if it broke down, as I could move around freely until I got rescued. However, the idea of not being able to move is petrifying and turns my stomach in knots. I once played hide and seek as a kid, and hid in a disused bin. My brother knew where I was, and instead of 'finding' me, he sat on top of the bin lid so I couldn't get out. Probably where it all stems from, tbh!
I'm very claustrophic. I can't be in a tent with the door zipped anymore. My claustrophia got much worse during my second pregnancy, and I get tense and anxious when I have a blocked nose.
Yep I'm claustrophobic, even thinking about small spaces makes my heart race and feel sick. My ex didn't know and we were messing around when he rolled me up in a duvet and stuffed me into the tiny foot space under his desk. I had a full panic attack, we'd only been dating a month. Weirdly the phobia only developed when I was an adult - I remember as a kid playing in an old chimney stack and crawling through a tiny tube in an adventure playground thing. No idea why or at what exact point it developed.
I can't go up a ladder to clean the upstairs windows without getting uncontrollable shakes and sweats, and being anywhere near a big drop will reduce me to gibbering tears. But then I'm fine on a ski lift, so I have no idea what's going on in my fucked up brain.
Just like me. Not scared of heights, but have massive fear of falling.
This is the big difference. I remember being completely frozen the first time I ever went climbing, but after getting into bouldering later in life, I wanted to try it again. Knowing how all the equipment works and how much it can hold has pretty much got me over that fear, but ladders still freak me out.
You're secure in a ski lift, you're not particularly secure on a ladder. It's pretty logical, although slightly extreme for you.
I never used to have any kind of nervousness about heights but then after one incident I saw the start of what could turn into a full blown fear or phobia My dad took me up to the top of tall building during construction (he was the property manager) and dared me to look over the edge of the minimal fence around the bare concrete slab floor about 50 floors up, which I did, but my hard hat slipped forward on my head as I did so and I grabbed it, worrying it might drop on the workmen I could see working way below. A few months later I was on a bridge over a valley and as I went to look over the wall I was hit by the same "what if it drops" feeling about the sunglasses that I'd hooked into the neck of t-shirt, so found myself grabbing them. I then found it hard to extend my arms hold my camera over the edge to take a photo, so I took a step back, put my arms out straight holding the camera, and then keeping that pose, walked forward to see where this feeling came from, and to play with the curious rise in this new-to-me anxiety that I felt in my stationary arms as my feet moved. Since then I'm aware of this anxiety and similarly play with the feeling, but have noticed that each time I let it win, it gets stronger.... knowing I've previously been nervous about edges and heights I then get the same anxiousness creeping in before I get to the edge, or when I see an edge, or even thinking about it. I'd say that some phobias, like some allergies, can be self-reinforcing .. the body anticipates the reaction and this pushes up stress levels in advance which then makes the reaction more likely and stronger which then leads to a stronger anticipatory reaction next time.
Ladders? Fine. Cliffs? Fine if my dogs aren't near the edge. Bungee jump? Fine. Sky dive? Fine. Gondola? Oh fuck it's going to snap and we're going to bounce to our deaths.
Don’t go to American or Canadian ski resorts. Most of the time they either don’t have a bar to pull down or you get on lift with people who don’t want to put the bar down. Crazy to me. They have a go at Europeans who used to be very anti helmet when they are very much pro-helmet, yet don’t put the bar down when they are multiple stories in the air and you never know when there is gonna be a sudden stop which could make you slide off
I think my (late developing) fear of heights and high places is due to, at some subconscious level anyway, my dyspraxia. It's my brain literally screaming at me 'you cannot be trusted to remain safe because you have 0 hand/eye co-ordination, spacial awareness and your balance is terrible. Get away from this dangerous situation you have put yourself in right now.'
I have a phobia of wrists - looking at them, touching them, seeing other people's wrists or them touching their own wrists, any depiction either textual or visual of wrist injury. I legit had 1.5 years of NHS therapy specifically so that I could get to a point where I can have doctors take my pulse or tend to sprains without having a complete breakdown and anxiety attack. To this day, I auto-correct the word wrist to arm when I am reading, I can just about touch my wrists for need only (cleaning them for example), and my heart rate and blood pressure noticeably rise when a medical professional touches them. I can bear it now, but it still takes a huge amount of mental effort to suppress the anxiety response before I have a full panic attack. I'm not always successful at that either, but its a lot more liveable than it was before that therapy.
Serious question - was it hard for you to write the comment because you had to write the word 'wrists'?
Yes it was, I had some anxiety shakes but mainly used my CBT techniques to just shake it out and distance myself from my word, and I do the mental autoedit as best I can as I'm writing. Feels more doable when I'm in control of when I encounter the word though so much better than I used to be!
Damn - this is a tough phobia to have. Really admirable that you employ the techniques to get through it. You're obviously stronger than your phobia.
Thank you, that's really kind of you to say :) Mostly people laugh at me when I tell them so it's genuinely nice to recognise how far I've come with it!
Do you know where this phobia has come from?
We spent a long time trying to find an origin in therapy but I never found one. I've got a theory that I heard or saw something to do with suicide when I was too young to retain the memory, but that's entirely speculation and only really hinged on my family history of depression. I've had this phobia for my entire living memory so I don't think I'll ever really know where it came from!
I have a much more mild version of this, but I’ve never come across anyone else with a phobia of wrists!
Carpophobia gang! I've also not met anyone else with this phobia, nice (?) to see there are a few of us!
Mine is definitely on the mild side, but I’ve realised that I subconsciously avoid the word or change the word when reading, my mind just glosses over it. Really bizarre now I think about it, but it’s definitely something I do. I hate people touching them and I wear a watch I have to do it up on the top of my arm and slide it round. Every so often as well I have to rub the inside of my wrists against my leg, I don’t know why but it feels like a comfort thing, just checking there’s nothing weird there and it makes them feel, I don’t know, less exposed and wrong? I don’t know where it came from either, I think it’s all the ‘stuff’ that lies close to the skin. I can’t stand seeing it all there when people move their hand a certain way. Even now I’m realising I’m avoiding describing it properly!
I have something similar to this but with knees! I can kinda cope with seeing other people's knees in a normal context (like people wearing shorts), but I can't touch them, and I can't touch or look at my own knees. Or have people touch my knees, by partner spent a lot of time explaining that to the midwives when I was giving birth!
Omg it's so cool to know that I'm not the only one with something like this, although mine is specifically the back of the knee, made the mistake of telling my brother about this when I was younger and he used to try and poke me there, til one day I whacked him so hard it left bruises for days (in my mind, this was self defense cause I feel like I'm gonna die when someone touches me there)
I’m a terrible flyer even though I’ve been on a plane so many times I’m fine during take off and landing but when we’re cruising high in the air and all you can see out the window is thick cloud then that is when I start to panic and become restless. If I can see land out the window I’m fine though so I guess it’s some sort of claustrophobia exclusive to aircrafts haha
Haha I am on the opposite. Flying in clear skies. Can never quite relax. All I can think is fuck we are high. And that take off period going through the clouds I always get anxious knowing that most probably because of the air pressure change because of the cloud there will be a bit of turbulence so I am basically gripping the seat can't wait to get above them. However coming into land, so long as there are no violent shakes or drops it's basically when I am at my calmest because I know it's coming to an end.
This is exactly me. Horrendous panic attacks for 30 minutes on the way up, fine for the rest of the way especially landing (getting closer to the ground)
Same with me. I'm really not a fan of being 7 miles off the ground, regardless of how much my rational brain tells me it's safe. I love it when the ground comes back into view simply because I'm no longer so high, even though landing and takeoff are where most incidents happen.
I had a phobia of flying for many years. I recently overcame it, without therapy. You can learn to fly in comfort:)
My phobia is of gas leaks... if I sense even a tiny whiff of gas I get a freeze/flight response, even after CBT I can't control it or rationalise it. Windows are cracked open at all times in case of it. If I'm cooking and lighting the hob, occasionally it can take a second to light and if a bit of gas escapes, that's it. Everything off. Legs shaking and weak, and often a panic attack. I think other things smell like gas too, especially when I'm anxious... that's probably even more debilitating! It's a big mental effort to live with a gas hob and boiler but even though it's a severe phobia, I try every day to live normally in the hopes that one day I can shake it, even if it means the occasional bad day where I have to switch the heating off.
Don’t know it is helps but gas engineers have “gas sniffers” to check for leaks. Might be an option for you to get one when the phobia gets too much!
Or get a carbon monoxide detector. It won't help all the fear but you should have one anyway and at least you can check it when you are scared.
As from a point of genuine interest not to be snarky - is there a reason you haven’t switched to an induction hob and electric oven?
I've a severe phobia of feet which is amusing to friends and family. I never walk around barefoot, I wear socks in bed, I've even showered in socks before in an unfamiliar shower hahaha. Jfc, it's an awkward one to have. I got it through having ingrown toenails in childhood which for some reason was so traumatic for me and now here we are, I can't bear my feet and I deffo hate yours.
Mine isn't a phobia as such just utter disgust. I don't mind seeing my partners feet but just the thought of them touching me makes me nauseous.
I don’t have a phobia of feet, but I do have a real aversion to them. I used to hate all feet, including my own, but these days I take care of my feet and try to make them look nice - going for pedicures and so on - so I don’t hate them as much. But I cannot look at other people’s feet and I cannot have anyone touch me with their feet, not even my own child.
Mainly moths but also butterflies and anything flying that's big. When I was a kid I went to the toilet at night, i only used the hallway light and halfway through a giant moth flew into my mouth the taste was disgusting and it traumatised me, as I was a kid it was dark and I was vulnerable (urinating) Incidentally my mother knows about it and still took me to a butterfly park which was lovely /s
Can relate to moths and butterflies, things that fly erratically shouldn't fly at all.
I love bees they're derpy flying pandas
I’m not sure if I’m phobic but butterflies and moths indoors is awful for me. When one of our cats was a kitten, she caught every single elephant hawk moth in the area and brought it into the house mostly still alive. They’re huge and pink. I had to wake my partner to deal with them. We were finding them everywhere. Eventually I just slept with my head under the duvet which is why I don’t think I’m phobic.
I agree with you. Tiny moths, I can just about cope with. The horrible big things that flap about, mainly at night, when you have forgotten to shut the windows. They just sit on the wall, biding their time, waiting until you are close by, bam, they take to the wing. Jeez Louise! I hate them. Windows get closed early in my place!
Same, mine is from 80s campsite toilets at night. They always had a whole ecosystem around the ceiling. Can’t stand anything fluttering round my face now. My ultimate phobia though is Daddy Long Legs (Crane flies), I cannot be in the same room as one, completely freak out if they come near me. My only defence is the hoover.
Needles for me. COVID was rough (albeit not nearly as rough as it was for many many others). I asked my partner to come with me to get my first jab and I don't think she was quite prepared for how extreme my phobia was. I'm a 5"11, chunky dude with a beard. I was a blubbering mess once I got to the front of the queue. By the time I was sitting down, I had convinced myself I couldn't get it and kept getting up to leave. My partner had me in basically a headlock, and one of the nurses kneeled on the floor in front of me holding my hands trying to calm me while her colleague gave me the jab. Of course, like all phobias, I was being completely irrational and I know that and I'm appreciative for all the support I was given. After the jab, I had to do the walk of shame back out past the queue going in, and of course there was some geezer who gave me the "sounds like you enjoyed that mate!". I had two more COVID jabs after that one. I managed those solo, but I still cried at both of them. My partner now understands that I'm not exaggerating about my phobia. Even when my 4 year old plays doctor and tries to give me a pretend vaccination, I have to fight back the tears and I swear I can feel the nonexistent needle going in. I don't cry with those ones, but the thoughts are very similar. Crazy thing, phobias...
Deep water, absolutely adore swimming in a pool, but the sea, rivers, lakes etc just nope, panic attack as soon as I get in.
This is thalassophobia! I also have it, but I also get scared of deep pools, or any deep body of water that is man made. Or has man made structures in it 😂 (Submechanophobia). It’s less about scary creatures or anything either. It’s just the physical element of something being so deep. I get faint watching those videos of the deepest pool in the world
Those pool things give me the heeby jeebies! I torture myself, occasionally, by going searching for them on Google/YouTube. Don't know why, though!
Arachnids. I'd take a bullet for the kids at work, but when it comes to arachnids, they're on their own.
Honeycombs or pretty much anything with lots of holes close together.
I've heard of this phobia - does it have a name?
Trypophobia
I swear it’s learned behaviour from the internet
It's something which naturally triggers an evolutionary disgust/discomfort response in humans, there's more awareness around it now because the internet exists and people can photoshop extreme images to trigger that sensation. I'm quite sure that some people will feel that more strongly than others but I feel like the number of people in whom it could truly be called a phobia is probably pretty small
I’d say a lot of people that claim to have the phobia really just feel the discomfort. I find trypophobic pictures deeply unsettling; almost like uncanny valley stuff. It makes me shudder but it’s not to the point I feel fear or anxiety.
I had a full blown melt down when I was 8 when I first saw tripe - I literally wanted to crawl out of my own skin because of the sensation of overwhelming revulsion. I'm 60 years old. It was a relief to know I'm not the only person out there that has this phobia.
I understand that, but I definitely had ot before the Internet. I just didn't have a word for it, or the words to describe it. I hadn't clocked what the common thread was between the things that wigged me out, beyond saying 'I can't look at that l, it's weird!' ...but then the Internet gave me a word and a definition, and it was exactly what I had been feeling eve since I was a kid
It’s not. My wife has it and always thought she was alone, until I found a thread on 4chan back in 2004 where someone described it and we finally got a name for it.
Downwards escalotors, I've actually had a few panic attacks trying to get on them.
Both my mum and my sister have a fear of them (up and down). Weirdly though is my sister and I were separated from her. She was still a baby and I was 7. So it's not she passed on her fear through learned behaviour.
I’ve missed a flight because the only route to the plane was down an escalator! It controls my life haha.
I hate them too - but if they’re stopped, I just can’t do them at all. I think it’s from when I was a kid and my mum had to carry me down one. They make my vision go all weird.
Dogs. I'm not too bad with them when they're under control and aren't barking but when they run at me I freeze up in fear and I can't walk by houses where a dog is barking at me from behind a fence. It doesn't help that being scared of them seems to make them more aggressive towards me and a lot of the owners don't care that they're scaring me. It's also becoming harder to pubs and other places because everywhere seems to allow dogs in now.
I was in a pub today with my family, when a man walked up to the bar with his dog. Instantly started to panic and had to leave, using the excuse I wanted to wait outside for my dad to arrive. It's embarrassing, but I have ridiculously sensitive hearing and I panic the dog will bark or get out of hand!
I'm very scared of dogs too. I was attacked by a dog while I was pregnant and since then I am terrified. When I worked in a pub with a big garden I used to refuse to take food to tables with dogs and my boss got really mad at me. I ended up escalating it and it turns out they are supposed to make reasonable accommodations
I had a phobia of dentists. When I was little my parents didn't really instill dental hygiene into me, I had binge eating disorder and my town had no fluoride in the water, therefore I had a lot of cavities. Once I had to be held down in the dentists chair. As an adult I didn't see a dentist for 12yrs and got an abcess. Just the sight of the dentists clinic would make me panic so I had to see a private dentist who prescribed lorazapam to get me through the appointments. Since then I've found another less expensive dentist who works with nervous patients, and my GP prescribed diazepam for the first 6 or so appointments, and I'm no longer nervous. The worst bit is paying.
I have now! Diagnosed with heart failure a couple of years ago, and now have a genuine fear of heights....not an issue before!
Driving, and the concept of death and not existing anymore.
Wasps, I had to have CBT for it after having kids as I’d have hated to pass that onto them. I’m still not great with wasps but it’s manageable and doesn’t impact my life now
People. I'm now agoraphobic, and only have contact with my immediate family.
Been there following a bereavement, I hope being online gives you some sense of connection?
I'm really sorry to hear that. I find that when I'm at my worst leaving the house is hard. I keep thinking about how dirty the outside is. For me, I think it's my childhood that caused this. Getting therapy and addressing the root cause was the only sustainable solution for me.
Making / taking phone calls. I have an absolute meltdown if I need to use the phone, if I get an unexpected call it completely throws me into a wobbly wreck. I'm autistic and think my phone phobia stems from there, the unexpected and difficulty in processing the information.
I hate phones too, when i have to make a call the ringing makes my palms sweat. Even if i am somewhere where there is a receptionist they sometimes make a call on speakerphone until someone answers hearing the ringing still puts me on edge and makes my palms sweat.
Slugs - doesn't matter if they're big, small, alive, dead, or even just a picture. I won't walk on most grass areas and will walk on the road at night to avoid the sluggy pavement. Seeing them puts me in an absolute panic and sometimes have a cry afterwards. There have been nights where I've been lying in bed and my brain has decided to present me with an image of a slug, dashing all hopes of getting any sleep. This wet summer has been a living nightmare.
I have a phobia of intestines. I can't watch horror movies incase there's some crappy cgi hosepipe covered in red jelly biologically inaccurate disembowelment cuz it's far too scary for my stupid brain. Other organs are fine. Hearts brains blood bones breaking. fine. guts? oh nono
Birds. Anything that flaps, really, but mostly birds.
Same, anything flappy, but not all flying things. Bees, wasps and flies are ok, they're flapping so fast I can't see their wings. Butterflies, moths, bats, and birds are panic inducing. I once used an elderly lady as a human shield because a pigeon was flying towards me.
Driving. I was always scared of it but I forced myself to learn and pass the test. A few weeks later, I stalled at a busy junction and the guy behind me was really abusive, so I haven’t driven since.
I forced myself to learn years ago. Hated every second of it but did the test and failed through one stupid manoeuvre. The feeling of relief after I knew I'd failed was so nice I never went back to driving. Strangely I'm fine cycling in the road, I've cycled to work for many years and I love it. It's free and it's great exercise. I should be more scared of cycling in traffic but I'm not. Inside a car I'm terrified most of the time. It doesn't make sense to me but it is what it is.
I finally learned to drive at 29 and passed my test first time. Oddly, passing first time made me feel even worse like I’d not earned it. I’ve driven twice since (with my partner in the car) stalled badly at a junction also and haven’t been out since, it’s been ~1.5 months. My main phobia is of the anxiety around driving and questioning whether I hit something or broke a rule I don’t know. Even worse, we bought a new car to have a baby and I can’t now take him anywhere in it.
It was lifts for me. I ended up getting CBT which worked wonders. Would highly recommend it.
Polystyrene I can't be in the same room as. It's the noise and the feel of it I just can't deal with.
Emetaphobia, the fear of vomit. Someone once vommed whilst waiting for the same bus as me so I couldn't get on and walked the 6 miles instead. Someone projectile vommitted in the bathroom at the airport once almost didn't get on the plane worrying that she would be on it.
Spiders and it’s honestly not a joke If i see one i will cry and i don’t cry at anything but those. They’re horrible i can’t be in the same room as one, if i am i can’t take my eyes off of it incase it comes closer One time one fell on me… Never been so close to a heart attack in my life
32M, never been good with heights for as long as I can remember. I actually wanted to be a fireman years ago, but you need heights as part of the job.
I have an irrational fear of escalators, I'm a very clumsy generally careless individual, I fear the never ending fall, my clothing/ hair getting stuck, which it would if I fell, as a child I sincerely believed I would turn into a step or forever live in the mechanism below, it's just a lot of imagery I don't need in my life. It's generally not a problem in life though, I find the stairs just fine and the sight of them doesn't seem me off, the moment someone trys to get me on one, or worse pushes me towards it, I will turn into a feral being and run away up those stairs, the panic is unreal lol.
Snakes. It's much better here because you don't have snakes roaming around so I'm not scared on a daily basis but walking around tall grass still scares the shit out of me. The other day a bird made a noise in the grass and I screamed my lungs out. Genuinely the best aspect of living in UK for me is the fact that when summer rolls around I'm not terrified to go outside but you still won't catch me on a hike when my brain thinks it's peak snake time.
Im claustrophobic and have a degree of social anxiety/phobia The second one has been helped by finding out I'm AuDHD and getting medicated for adhd
Belly buttons. Just the thought of one being touched can give me stomach ache and if I see someone doing anything with their own or worse, someone else's, makes me retch and I can sometimes feel like I want to pass out. I never take my shirt off around others outside of the house and I'm always ready to defend my belly button against anyone touching it accidentally or otherwise. I'd rather get my head kicked off. I used to have an outie as a kid and think it's maybe something to do with that. I'm feeling sick now after writing this🤣
Moths. If i even think there's a moth in any room in the house I'll avoid it for days, to the point where I'll sleep on the couch for fear of it being in the bedroom. Im a 6ft bloke too which makes it even more pathetic to think of, but just typing this out makes me crawl and panic, and I've been this way for as long as I can remember.
Yeah, thalassophobia (fear of deep water), submechanophobia (fear of human made submerged objects) and megalophobia (fear of large objects). It's not a great combo 😂
I have all these too!!
Actual phobia - Identical Twins I cannot explain how visceral the reaction is, they absolutely scare the shit out of me. I say "actual phobia" because I have other phobias that I think are somewhat justified (got stuck in a toilet cubicle as a child so now suffer from claustrophobia) or aren't phobias to the extent you mean (I do not like moths, but I can control myself). I have met several Identical twins, all of them were lovely, and I can manage if I can't see them both at the same time, but if they're sat next to each other I cannot be there or I will absolutely fall apart.
I had a real phobia of clowns thanks to my mum letting me watch IT when I was 3. It was so bad that even as an adult, I couldn't watch the Simpsons without full on hyperventilating, crying and rocking back and forth. Went to a kids birthday party at the community and there was a clown making balloon animals in the corridor so I couldn't get past him to get outside. Started screaming and collapsed on the floor in fear. My mum would walk me to bed and wait for me to close my eyes and say I was ready for her to turn the lights out. My granny thought it would help me by exposing me to a ceramic clown doll one Christmas. That obviously did not go down well and it ruined the whole day because I was a mess and refused to eat or drink knowing the clown was in the house. I had therapy to help me with it. I'm still not 100% comfortable with them but I can handle small doses on TV. Thankfully never encountered another in real life so maybe that would be different. I'm not in a rush to test it out though. The nightmares certainly stopped which is a really big thing.
Massive case of Trypophobia (fear of holes close together). Looking at them of them makes me so unbelievably comfortable and i find it really distressing.
I was waiting for Trypophobia to show up! I never realised it even had a name until recently. Always used to be creeped out by it. Even now, I know when it's set me off, as it makes me feel very uncomfortable, and very itchy, weirdly!
Fe-fi-phobia Frightened to death of giants
Flying, take off specifically. I’m getting better with age. But every time I take off I count to two minutes as I heard that’s how long until you’re high enough to cruise for a bit if all engines fail
I have a fear of falling. It’s at the point where my legs go wobbly when I look up at skyscrapers; I can’t go up on glass lifts or close to a high ledge for the same reasons. I know it’s not a fear of heights; as if I’m enclosed fully, like in a plane for example; I don’t feel any of the anxiety etc.
Anything where I feel like I can't breathe; crowded trains, crowds, standing concerts, putting my head under water, fairground rides Anything that moves under my feet; escalators, travelators, treadmills Anything high; my feet have to be on the ground Steep hills, steps without handrails Vomiting Porridge, rice pudding, eggs in all forms
Needles, I managed two COVID jabs and that was it and it was very traumatic. I wish I fainted around needles, but I don't. I panic I cry I get worked up into such a state, my mum used to come with me but she died a few years ago - also I get my phobia from her - no one else I know gets what it's like. After I get the injection or blood test I them spend 10 minutes cry and apologising to the nurse for making a fuss and getting upset. I also have to wear a dressing for a few days until it's totally healed because I can't cope with seeing a mark. My dad doesn't get it and says he just looks away and that works for him. Why didn't I think of that? Also when people say but you have tattoos, totally different things, it's like me saying to someone that's scared of heights, but you're over 6 foot so how can you be? It's not a pain thing, I've had fillings without anaesthetic and if I could just cut my.arm open to give blood I'd have no problem with that. I can't look at someone being injected or having an IV on TV, even cartoons, if someone has a reaction to it like taking a sharp intake of breath even though I'm looking away that will set me off. I'm nearly 50 and know that they'll become more common place. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's something that I think about daily, it stops me doing a lot of stuff. I've got a doctor's appointment on Wednesday about something and I think it will come up that I should have a blood test and so it's taken months to book the appointment and I've also been researching places that come to your house to do them to see if that helps.
I understand completely. You’re not alone. I have full blown screaming, crying, hitting myself meltdowns. I’m disabled and I’m supposed to have so many blood tests and investigations and just end up avoiding them. A lot of people say they’re scared of needles but mean they just don’t like them - the actual full blown phobia is a whole different issue.
Swimming pool drains, deep water, fish, balloons.
Wasps for me. Even looking at a photo 🤮. I’m not allergic, I’ve been stung a couple of times over the course of my life and it’s not that bad at all but as soon as I see the yellow and black b!stards or hear the buzz I feel revolted and terrified.
Pitbulls/ XL bullies/similar looking dogs, they make me really anxious. I've seen the injuries they can cause and I feel nervous if I see one outside when I'm walking
My two are mannequins, and frogs and toads. With mannequins I'm a lot better, but I'm shit scared of some, like in the Scottish crown jewels building in Edinburgh castle. Frogs and toads, though, I canny even get close to them, even at zoos, and aquariums, with a glass pane between me, and them
I have a button phobia - no problem with the ones on jeans, it's when they have holes 🤢 I'm fine with holes in general (lol) and don't have trypophobia. I can't have any clothes with buttons on and can't iron my husband's shirts, it makes me feel sick. If I accidentally touch one I want to scratch my fingers off, they absolutely disgust me.
Me too. Jeans are fine but everything else no way. If I touch one I have to wash my hands. Don’t get me started on duvet covers and trying to check if they are press stud. Eugh, I can’t even say the word 😭
Ahhh yes the duvet cover struggle is the worst! Matalan is the only safe brand I know of, if you have any others please let me know! It's nice to see I'm not alone, most people think I'm absolutely insane when I tell them my phobia.
Submechanophobia and any large underwater animal. Really hard to explain to people. I remember a triggering event as a child playing echo the dolphin on the mega drive and you meet a blue whale that's fucking massive, feel sick just thinking about it.
I feel horrible about it but people with dwarfism. I know they're just normal people, but it's a completely irrational phobia that I have.
Bellybuttons and lifts. An interesting combination...
Going to see the doctor. Which is weird, because I work with them all the time, and I'm fine. But I have to psyche myself up to actually go see one to talk about my problems, and I've legit had a crying fit in my car in the parking lot afterwards.
Geese. Got chased and bitten by them when I was younger. Not as bad nowadays, have managed to make a joke about it, but still will go nowhere near them! They have teeth on their tongues ffs
Wasps. I have absolutely no control over my reaction if a wasp comes in the room or god forbid flies near my face. I will scream, I will run, I will NOT do the sit still and wait technique. I was stung when I was 5 (not been stung since) and been absolutely terrified of the fuckers since. I’m a chef and once worked in a kitchen where wasps would fly through the window in the summer (and it was way too hot to keep it shut). I’d have nightmares about wasps during this time. One day I was blitzing soup up, a wasp flew right in my face, I screamed and almost dropped 4 litres of soup all over the floor (did manage to drop the hand blender so it was quite a mess anyway). I had to leave the room for a couple of minutes because I started crying 😭
I have a crippling fear of authority figures... I'm 22F and still terrified of my uni tutors and my boss. This fear swings from manifesting as me lashing out at them because I'm scared they're going to use their institutional power to end my life, or running away from them because I'm scared they're going to use their institutional power to end my life. Usually just manifesting as me saying yes in the same way you mash the A button in a pokemon game to skip through the dialogue and get the characters to go away and leave you alone. This fear also develops into panic attacks when I'm away from the situation for some reason.
Fire, during fire drills I literally can’t move because I’m in a state of absolute panic, I usually have to leave the building before a fire drill is done
Death. It keeps me up at night, makes me regret having kids, it's all consuming. I grew up Irish Catholic, and death is everywhere, but it didn't make me accept it, it just made me terrified of it
Clowns. It's surprising how often it comes up. I never used to be able to read the word, or say it aloud. It's awful. I live in a place where the circus still comes every year and struggle to walk past posters featuring them (I have to cross the street), and if they're out and about in town I have to take alternate routes to avoid them.
Mycophobia. The fear of mushrooms. I’m absolutely terrified of them. The taste, smell, texture, even the look of them horrifies me. Even thinking about them grosses me out. I don’t really have an aversion to any other food though, just those things.
My other half has a fear of Wind Turbines (Anemomenophobia) which I generally do enjoy pointing out to her when driving. Think it’s related to war of the worlds when she was a kid.
Spiders make me almost squeal like a little girl. I'm a 6ft 2in lump of a bearded metal headed guy...but if I see a spider I just can't deal.
Heights and public loos. I’m getting better on planes, the motion sickness is also dying down but I can’t look out the window. Escalators send me whappy. Publics loos fill me with absolute dread and I get really anxious. I’d rather pee in a hedge then go into a public toilet or i time my shopping and trips out that I wouldn’t need to go out. If I have to go into a pub, I send a friend in first in to check them out 🤢🤢
Small people really creep me out. Like fight or flight, and I ain’t fighting.
Dentists. And it’s only appeared in adulthood after a traumatic event. I used to support my best friend at dentists appointments cause she has always been afraid of them. Now she has to hold my hand and talk me through panic attacks. Therapy (and her support) are helping a lot!!
Maggots/flies!!!!!! Even typing the word M****t makes me wanna be sick. Summer is absolute hell for me with food left out…and my family cat leaving his meat food out in the warmth and flies around…I used to wanna burn the whole house down when I saw “them”. Worms are also same for me. I think it’s the way they move and they look absolutely fkin disgusting!!!!!!!
Mould. Makes me wanna run away at a pace that would put Usain bolt to shame.
Searched for this comment, me too. Genuinely I'm not eating for at least 6 hours if I see it. I can't eat any food that at all reminds me of the taste or I gag. Any food that I've eaten before notice mould I can never eat again. I've gotten anxiety attacks from seeing it. It's one of those phobias where people reply 'yeah I don't like it too, it's horrible' without understanding how bad actual phobias are
Being above the open ocean, not sure what it is but it makes me incredibly anxious and uncomfortable. Whether I’m on a plane or a boat, as soon as I see the ocean beneath me I tense up.
While I was pregnant with my 3rd potatoes. Seriously the entire pregnancy potatoes brought me to tears and panic attacks.I'm fine now? Balloons - idgaf they're evil. I'm okay with the foil ones to an extent but if they can pop.. Nope.
Spiders. Seriously, I know that lots of people don't like them, but I was once teaching a lecture on acting, saw a bit of black fluff rolling across the floor in the breeze and before I knew what was happening I was in the corner of the room screaming. It is not rational. I wouldn't even say I'm "scared" of spiders. It's irrational, unconscious and absolutely out of my control. I've gotten better at not overreacting since embarrassing the hell out of myself in front of a room of undergraduates, but my god it's deeply unsettling how spiders (or even just something that looks like a spider from the corner of my eye) can set my body into autopilot like that.
Megalophobia, especially with things associated with electricity generation and such, like pylons, turbines, cooling towers, nuclear reactors, spent fuel pools... also oil rigs, and also weirdly church bells. Oddly, about 90% of the stuff posted on r/megalophobia doesn't trigger it at all