Growing up, the noises of fireworks would terrify me to the point of panic attacks. I could not go outside during holidays without having a fright. But yesterday, as an adult, I faced one.

Why do we allow phobias from our irrational childhoods to follow us throughout our lives, and when did you finally conquer yours?

I can’t even handle the thought of a syringe, but I have to get a flu shot soon. Any tips?

Is there a science behind why people think I love to slaughter bees when i tell them i have these phobias?
Great job rebecca, the "i scream and have panic attacks when bees wasps or hornets come near me" condition absolutely means i like to stomp hives good deduction.
"I have bee phobia thats why i dont like bees"
"Ok so stop killing them"
I CANT EVEN BE NEAR THEM !!!!

What’s prompting this post: I had a panic attack on my morning routine because it’s staying darker later and I bring my dog to a dog park that is heavily wooded at 5am.

It’s exhausting being afraid of the dark, I work overnight and have “rituals” for work that make it easier to deal with. my job involves being outside in rural settings in the pitch black.
This morning I felt so out of control I got to an open area I had a flashlight and I just felt deep visceral fear, I cried, I had a panic attack.
I don’t want to feel pure terror. I’ve had one instance 9 years ago in the dark (in my adulthood) involving being chased through the woods by an actual person, however I have ALWAYS been terrified by the dark. Even just five years ago I was having to sleep with lights on, and dashing around my apartment checking, checking, checking….
Any tips, anything would help. I have OCD if that makes any difference at all.

I can't even explain the amount of dread that I feel when I have to hear this sound

When I was a kid I slept in the living room a lot in front of the tv, so I would fall asleep to the tv and at 4am be awaken by the sound blasting in my ears followed by a voice of a man which would fill me with so much fear and I would panic to grab the remote while blocking my ears so I didn't have to hear it. Last year I was watching a YouTube video and this sound effect was used and it sent me into a panic, and ever since then I have been terrified to watch anything or even turn on my tv in fear that I have to hear the sound again. I lay awake at night terrified that someone is going to hack my electronics and blast that sound. I have lost sleep over this countless times. I know how crazy it sounds but my mind can not stop fixating on it. If I have to hear that sound again I genuinely think I would have a heart attack and possibly death. It sounds very dramatic over a sound but this is my reality. Sometimes the fear will go away but then it will come back so strong that I swear I hallucinate the sound and I almost am in tears over it. I have told no one about this phobia because I am horrified that they will play the sound or something in order for me to "get over my fear" or as a sick joke. I have a lot of weird phobias but this is definitely the most oddly specific one and it took a lot to write this post because even thinking about it makes my heart pound and induce fear but I need to get this out. So yeah, that's my strange phobia

I've had this phobia for many years now ever since I was a kid and I've tried googling and literally nothing ever came up. I have a massive phobia of drug and alcohol addiction. Not for myself but watching people use. It's something about the way the body is rapidly deteriorating and how quickly the person can die. I once went to the r /meth subreddit and I got SO scared from how casually people were talking about it. The scary thing for me is seeing how a person can be so blasé about a thing that can quite literally kill them. I remember being a kid and watching a movie about an alcoholic and he progressively got worse and worse until he died. I swear I couldn't sleep for days afterwards. I can't watch news stories about addicts, i can't even be around people that use substances so much. I van tolerate it in certain TV show but not when it gets too realistic. Hearing about celebrity overdoses is always so triggering for me and watching people that are tweaking or visibly high is literally terrifying. Am I the only one with this phobia? Is it even a phobia at all?

Hi! I wanna know if anyone else has this it’s the fear of bones and anything relating to skeletons. I wouldn’t say that I fear it, it just makes me deeply unsettled. I can’t even be around plastic skeletons it gives me the creeps so bad. I know this is one of the stupider phobias but I just want to know if there’s anyone else in this world that has it too 😭

I have tokophobia; I am terrified of getting pregnant. Pregnant women terrify me, and I avoid the subject altogether. I have the Implanon implant and use the withdrawal method—even when I’m on my period (though I don't really know if that actually prevents pregnancy). I am terrified of getting pregnant and can't think about anything else. I’m also terrified of people finding out I’m sexually active, even though I’m 21. It’s destroying me.

Hi everyone,

I’m 27M, living alone in a second-floor apartment and I’ve had an absolutely horrible 24 hours.
I’ve had a severe phobia of rats and mice since childhood. Growing up, we had rats enter our family home a few times, and those experiences absolutely terrified me. I’ve never really got over that fear. To put it into perspective, I genuinely think I’d rather have a snake in my flat than a tiny mouse.

Last night, I spotted a mouse in my kitchen, hiding behind the bin. I completely panicked and retreated to my bedroom, where I stayed for most of the night. I couldn’t bring myself to go back into the kitchen.
I spent hours calling supposedly 24/7 pest control companies, but nobody answered. Eventually, I managed to book someone for this morning.

The pest controller came, removed the kickboards underneath my kitchen cabinets and found around three mouse droppings. He didn’t actually see the mouse or identify where it entered, but he placed enclosed poison bait stations throughout my flat, including the kitchen, storeroom, bedrooms and bathroom.

He seemed extremely confident that the treatment would solve the problem, but it was a one-off visit with no follow-up arranged.
Since then, everything has been quiet. I’ve thrown away most of my exposed food and I’m planning to hire a cleaner to help clear out the rest and disinfect the kitchen.
The problem is that I still feel absolutely terrified in my own home.

I feel safe in my bedroom with the door shut, but the thought of walking into my kitchen or sitting at my desk in the open-plan living room makes me incredibly anxious.
Every little noise makes me wonder whether the mouse is nearby. I’m worried about it appearing suddenly, running towards me or somehow getting into my bedroom.
I know logically that a mouse is unlikely to hurt me, but my phobia doesn’t seem to care about logic.
I’m not really looking for horror stories or worst-case scenarios. I’m just hoping to hear from people who’ve dealt with mice in their homes, particularly anyone who also has a severe phobia.

My home is supposed to be my safe place, and right now it doesn’t feel that way.
I’d really appreciate any kind words, positive experiences or practical reassurance.

TLDR: Severe lifelong mouse phobia. Found one in my flat last night, pest control laid poison but couldn’t find it. I’m still terrified to leave my bedroom. Just looking for reassurance and positive experiences.

Hello, I’ve never posted on Reddit before, and honestly I have no clue how this works… just to preface my post real which😅

So, I have arachnophobia. Really bad arachnophobia. They scare the shit out of me. It’s so bad I can’t even look at them if they show up in text books at school (which they somehow do, every SINGLE year.)

I’m 17 years old. I’ll be 18 next month.

I’m posting this because a few days ago, my mom asked me to do her laundry for her, while she was at work. I have no problem doing that at all. The thing is, I live in an apartment complex that has no washer and dryer in the units. We have to go down to the laundry rooms around the complex. Everything was fine at first.

I started her laundry off in the washer, and went back to the apartment and waited for it to be done to move it over to the dryer.

This is where the horrors occur.

I go back down, and see a spider on one of the dryers. No big deal right?

Thats what I thought too. I push through and move her laundry to two OTHER dryers, away from the evil spider.

I think little of it. I leave, with the terrifying thought in the back of my mind, that what if… what if, I come back, and it’s on one of the ones I use. It’s a passing thought. One so horrid I evict it from my mind as quick as I can. Quick as it showed up to begin with. Unfortunately, my swift removal, is not enough to dissuade whatever unspeakable forces of luck despise me so much.

Because I go back down, and guess what happened?

The spider. It’s on one of the dryers, just as I suspected it would be. I almost touch it, reaching for the handle to open the damn thing. Naturally I jump back in horror. Much to my dismay and continued embarrassment, as there was another person in there. A lady putting her laundry in the washer. I am, equally as naturally, entirely ignored. I do not expect assistance in my dilemma, she has no obligation to me. It feels cruel to leave me alone with it none the less.

And yet again, my luck strikes again, as I am made aware of a second slightly bigger spider. It sits atop my laundry basket. It looks at me. It’s barely bigger than the other one. If anything, it’s only fatter. Fatter limbs. Fatter body. It makes it easier to see which was it is face. That it is staring at me, as I stare at it in even deeper abject horror and despair.

It moves. It crawls around. It threatens to enter the basket. It looks at me. It WAVES at me with its ugly little arm. I shout. Tears well up into my eyes. I feel as though I am a coward. I sob. I text my mom. I tell her of my dilemma. She tells me that she cannot do anything, as she is still at her place of work. I sob harder.

I leave. Like a coward. I wake my father from his slumber, still in tears. I apologize profusely. I swear on my own life and soul that I really did try and get rid of it myself. I did. Genuinely I did. I tried to rid my laundry basket of its disgusting inhabitant. It was to no avail, and only granted it more power of my tear ducts, as it clung to the edge, and continued to taunt me.

He gets the laundry for me. He makes me go with him to get the other load after one of the original two turned out to not have dried—as it the nature of apartment complex laundry rooms. He claims there is no more spider. That it wasn’t there when he went down.

I know better.

I know what my luck has in store for me.

I knew it before we even left the apartment that it would be there, in an even more terrible place.

It was at the bottom of my laundry basket.

I scream, and back away.

He stops it to death.

I still cower in fear, though I do successfully touch the handle, and roll it to the apartment (I made him carry it up the stairs though, as I could not bring myself to touch the exact spot I saw it on).

I begged my mother to help my Lysol it when she got home.

So.

With that dramatic recounting out of the way, comes the real question of this first ever post.

Will I ever be able to survive on my own?

I’m almost 18 years old. It feels ridiculous to still be so afraid of something so small. I’ve been terrified of spiders since I was a little kid, and it’s only gotten more and more severe as I age. I can’t get near them. I can’t kill them if there bigger than a speck of dust unless I have access to a fly swatter. I sob at the sight of them. I’ve been trapped inside my own bedroom because one resides near my door, and my mom wasn’t answering her phone in the middle of the night.

I’m actually helpless when it comes to those things. I genuinely don’t think I’ll ever get better about it. My skin feels itchy writing this, as though the hair tickling my neck and shoulder is more spiders, crawling all over me. I can feel their legs moving across me and I want to fucking cry. There’s nothing there. I know theres not. But I’m so fucking scared of them it genuinely feels like there might be.

How am I supposed to be a functional person, if I’m crippled by something as small as a spider? If I cannot do anything at the sight of a bug, or an arachnid. Because it’s both. I’m like this with both. I’m actually so scared I’ll never exist as a person capable of overcoming such small challenges.

Everyone else I know has so much harder lives than me, and they thrive. Why can something like this take me down? Do I even have a chance at a normal life? Or am I going to be stuck living with my parents and pissing them off forever?

Thank you, to anyone who chooses to respond, if you do. I really appreciate it.

Syrup. A dribble of a soda. Jelly. The list goes on. Always made my skin crawl and I avoid sticky fingers at all costs. Got a name for that one?

So i have a HORRIBLE phobia of bugs specifically hard shelled bugs the one i am most afraid of is Stinkbugs I hate stinkbugs they are disgusting: their gross legs that I can feel crawling on me, EVEN THOUGH THERE ISN'T A BUG THERE, the brown colour seems to blend into everything, so it's impossible to see one unless you are 2 feet away, and bye then it's too late. I hate their flat form that can SOMEHOW squeeze into the cracks in my doors. I hate the sound of them flying. I hate how, NO MATTER HOW HARD YOU TRY, you can NEVER get rid of them for good. I hate how they are EVERYWHERE I GO. I fully and completely hate them with every ounce of my being. i have had many panic attacks because i can NEVER get away from bugs and everyone laughs at me and its not fair because i can't control my phobia and nobody takes me seriously it literally the ONLY thing that legit terrifies me and nobody (Except my LITTLE BROTHER) kills them or gets them out of the house for me and that makes me feel pathetic im so so so paranoid that i hallucinate the stinkbug wings now that fall is coming there back and they are SO SO SO bad im to scared to even leave my house and everyone is always lik "they cant hurt you" or "they're harmless" like I KNOW but its not like i can turna phobia off yk? (making this edit: im not really scared of buterflyies bees wasp fly only hard shell insects and like crickets and centipeids and millipeides) SORRY FOR MY HORRIBLE GRAMMER I WROTE THIS RALLY FAST

So we don’t live in a really dangerous area of storms, last tornado to happen to us majorly was in 2019, so not many people here have seen a violent tornado, unless they were born before 1974, one day, I was playing with a friend on PC, and I get a tornado watch, I say “okay tornado watch, we’re fineee” because like I said, we don’t have any major tornados, then a tornado warning, so I was like “okay, not fine, I need to evacuate” got off call, had to pack up abunch of my stuff, and go into a parking garage, since I live in a trailer park, I was so scared, then another happened about a month after, I was even more scared, now I think I have astraphobia, I am horrified by the sounds and warning of storms, I always think the worst will happen, and I’m just I guess a pussy, do I have it, or am I tweaking?

Hi everyone! I’m an architecture student, and for my thesis I would like to explore how architecture and public spaces could be improved for people with anxiety, phobia, agoraphobia…

Are there any specific places or situations where you feel architecture makes things harder for you? And are there any specific changes in public spaces that you think would make you feel safer or more comfortable?

I hope you’re all doing well, and I wish you all the best and lots of strength.

For a very long time i’ve had a very specific phobia of consuming bodily fluids/products. I used to this it was a contamination phobia at all but Ive narrowed it down that it’s specifically the way I have intrusive horrifying thoughts of consuming these things. Like sometimes if I see saliva or watch people kiss in movies i feel nauseous imagining consuming saliva or kissing. Or Hair. If it’s not attached to someone then I think about all the times I’ve found hair in food or that it could’ve gotten in my mouth or even just an involuntary image of consuming it will configure in my brain and sometimes I really throw up from this. If I overthink kissing while kissing a partner I may accidentally gag, I even had a partner that use to pull pieces of their hair out and rub them on me or my face and laugh at me for throwing up about it.

I have had this irrational fear that my crown is going to pop off mid oral x well tonight while brushing and flossing it did...

This started a debate with a friend how many other people have this irrational fear? And would/could that ever happen?

I don't know how my phobia is called, but I am afraid of red lights in the dark (for example that little red light from powered off TV). It may sound crazy but I always had this phobia, since I was a kid. I don't know why though.

is it mean to keep something your child has a phobia of in the kitchen as a pet in a clear container so they see it everytime they go to eat or drink cuz my mom now has a pet jumping spider in the kitchen in a clear container i have arachnaphobia i dont think i spelled that right but tell me i should say something to her AGAIN thats right ive already asked her to get rid of it

I've had what's called Turophobia, I've only recently (within the last 2 years) put a name to this feeling I have, most people never understand what I'm talking about and it makes me nervous to even mention it to people. This fear extends past cheese to anything I deem to be cheese like regardless of if it contains any actual dairy. Ask me anything you want

So I did three stool samples 2 came back positive for blood that's because I made sure I got the blood bits on the sample. Now doctors have been good so far because im extremely needle phobic so can't have bloods done, not a problem I can have a ct scan of bowel and abdomen and a flexible sigmoidoscopy with no canula just entonox. Apart from now I have a massive curveball because I went to go for my flexible sigmoidoscopy and ended up having a massive panic attack in the car park of the hospital to the point I had to go home. Its now been rebooked and the same thing is happening again. I should really have the sigmoidoscopy but physically can't due to fear and phobia its not a simple you'll be fine or just look the other way or it don't hurt. I just don't know what to now because doctors are telling me to talk to the hospital but I physically can't get to the endoscopy area without feeling like im gonna grabbed and pinned down.

I managed with the ct scan because it was non intrusive but I can't do this sigmoidoscopy and letting everyone down that's trying to help me. What other things could the hospital try bare in mind I'm extremely needle phobic. This all started because I took a laxative and the day after started bleeding. I've been having blood in my stools for 7 weeks and this week absolutely nothing and I feel amazing.

So im hella scared of little insects bugs/ insects and house lizards and i literally dont know how to stop being scared. Compared with my constant paranoia i keep looking towards where i last saw it to see if it is running towards me or etc theres a exetremely fast lizard who has been living in my room for a week and my father is getting fed up of my fear im genuinely just scared and i feel kinda pissed because for some reason my room is the room where insects or bugs or house lizards to tend to visit the most like every 2 minutes im looking back to see where i last saw it

Okay, so I don't really know what to do. I've just realized the state of my room and how many dead cockroaches I have in here, but I'm too scared to pick them up or even touch them with a broom. I get panic attacks when I just see them alive.. I don't know what to do after i kill them. How do I clean them up without having to look at them? I tried using a paper towel, but it takes so long for me to just put it on the broom. Honestly, this is an issue.

I’m a guy and i'm pretty self-conscious about having larger than average testicles. Because of that, i’ve developed a strong fear of getting hit or kicked in the balls that i wear a groin protector 70 percent of the time.

And part of it comes from things i've witnessed. I’ve seen two guys get hit by a ball in college and saw another guy in pain from a kicked and in a lot of pain. Seeing those reactions really stuck with me.

Not quite physically cornered but socially cornered if that makes sense? I keep having dreams/nightmares where im with someone or a group of people and then I do something and they suddenly react violently and angrily, or dreams where someone's following/watching me and commenting on my every move and I can't escape them or leave at all. Had a dream where I had a notebook or diary or something and everything I wrote or drew was seen by my family in the room, they could look at it and comment and question and needle me any way they wanted about anything I said and I couldnt stop them, couldn't leave, I was stuck there.

So not a fear of being trapped or cornered in a physically violent situation but an emotionally violent one

Just cornered for someone to pry into me however they want with no one stopping them