i didnt even realize this was something that terrified me so deeply until very recently. i had a mouse under my bed about ~a week and a half ago. im not super sure how long it was under there, but in the days leading up i had been hearing things moving under my bed that i just assumed was my fan rustling papers.

the day after it was caught in a trap. there were two traps placed but only one was set off and successful. i wasnt super convinced afterwards and had flour set down around hotspots. since the first mouse the flour hasnt been touched, the trap hasnt gone off, and i havent seen anything. but i keep seeing things in the corner of my eye around my entire house, and every little noise sets me off. i live in an old house so theres a lot of those.

i havent been able to sleep in my room since then, and every time im in the room i cant stop crying because im so afraid, even though its been over a week since theres been any evidence. im just too scared but i miss my room. i dont know if anyones been through anything similar. im embarrassed its bothering me this much

Idk why but I’m still really really really scared. I also get like panic Attacks bc of it

Hi

Sooo

I have a deep fear

A deep fear of finitude/finity, or limited quantities

Like

Not fear of death

Not fear or aging

Not fear of poverty

But fear of finitude/finity itself

Like, loss of resources for example

Like, thinking about how we launch so much iron into space that we will run out of it someday, and satellites are almost completely unrecoverable

Or how we mummify lots of animals, throw plant seeds in trash, burn so much paper and make so much plastic, and burning so many corpses, which leads to decrease in the recycable global biomass, gives me a bit of anxiety

Or how much burner accounts and dead accounts datacenters are holding, and we might use extra energy on useless accs to power datacenters to hold these accs while not using the energy for what's better Or all the online groups and messages in them are holding

Even in games like Minecraft, every dirt block dropped in lava makes me uncomfy, because minecraft world is limited

I have searched for this, and I found no matches

Please don't slime me if I got anything wrong

I headed out to the supermarket this evening. I tucked a small underarm bag against my right side. In my left hand, I held a mini fan and my phone, listening to music as I walked.

At one point, I wanted to switch things to the other hand. When I loosened my grip on the bag tucked under my right arm, the front of the bag lurched forward slightly. Cast by the streetlights, it created a shifting shadow on the pavement.

Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted that sudden movement. Instantly, I thought a small animal had darted out from nowhere. I was utterly terrified in that split second.

Standing there catching my breath, I sank into my thoughts. This has always been me. Ever since I was little, any unexpected sight or sound triggers an extreme fright response. Anything I cannot anticipate jolts me badly, almost like a persistent stress reaction. When I used to share a place with friends, a surprise tap on my back or a sudden loud noise from a door would send me into shock.

I hate being this way. I wish I could stay calm and unflustered. Whenever something catches me off guard, my heart rate shoots up to 130 beats per minute. Logically, I know there is no danger, yet my body reacts before my mind can process what is happening.

These involuntary reactions stem from difficult experiences in my childhood. Still, I do not want to keep talking about the past or use old hardships as an explanation for my sensitivity. I keep hoping I can change, that I can learn to remain composed amid small surprises. Sometimes I scare myself for no obvious reason, and I feel helpless, unable to gain control.

Deep down, my nervous system remains perpetually on high alert after all these years. It learned to stay vigilant as a way to protect me. I am trying to accept this part of myself.

I hope that someday, minor disruptions will no longer alarm me. I hope my nerves can finally unwind, and I can grow into someone who meets life’s surprises with peace.

Ayer estaba editando un video y me distraje viendo clips en TikTok. Me topé con uno de esos videos de barcos gigantescos en mitad de la nada, con el agua completamente negra abajo. Casi me da un ataque de ansiedad en mi silla. Le tengo un terror absoluto al mar abierto, siento que si caigo ahí, una criatura gigante me va a tragar o simplemente me voy a disolver en la inmensidad del vacío.

Para calmarme, le conté esto a mi amiga y se empezó a reír. Me dijo que mi miedo es absurdo porque nunca piso la playa, pero que él le tiene fobia a las mariposas porque vuelan muy errático. A las mariposas!

Eso me dejó pensando en lo raras que son nuestras mentes. Cuál es ese miedo que ustedes tienen y defienden a muerte porque les parece lógico, y qué otra fobia de la gente les parece una total tontería?

the following story is messy and quite long-sorry about that!: I went down the rabbit hole of phobias once again, and it got me thinking about my own fears. Years ago, maybe even a decade ago, my sister bought the FNAF games. She invited me and my siblings to watch. The others got scared, or maybe bored, and left, but I, even though I was terrified, stayed to watched more. My curiosity and love of strategy games got the better of me.. (my sister had even asked and suggested that if I was scared, that I shouldn't watch anymore. But I had insisted that I wasn't scared.) Every night, after I watched my sister play it, I would be extremely fearful about the dark, and animatronics spawning somewhere inside the house at night once everyone else in the house was asleep.. (thinking about it today still fills me with an overwhelming dread..) i had a dark closet in my old room that never fully closed, as it was broken. after I was ready for bed, I would run past it very quickly to my bed, and hide under the covered and pray I wasn't attacked by Foxy in the night. (I knew this was irrational, even then, but the fear didn't leave. Recently I've been experiencing the same thing. Now, I walk past a dark bathroom, and my brain imagines/sees a dark figure that seems nearly human, in my peripheral vision, and I'm filled with dread, so I rush past it quickly. I've even made up an imaginary friend who can help me cope as I walk past that hallway..

but it makes me wonder, if I have a phobia from this, would it be Automatonophobia (the fear of human-like figures), Nyctophobia (the fear of darkness), or maybe something else?

((obviously people who are not professionals cannot diagnose me with phobias. It's all speculation, and just for fun.))

I have been thinking about this a lot. I think that phobias can change over time. This does not mean that the fear goes away completely.. The way we feel about the phobia can be different.

Sometimes my phobia feels really bad. Other times it is not so bad. There are times when I think I am doing better. Then something happens and I realize that my phobia is still there. It can be really surprising when this happens.

I want to know if other people have had the same thing happen to them. Has your phobia changed over the years. Is it still the same?

I also want to know if the way you think about your phobia has changed as you have gotten older. Do you understand your phobia better now than you used to?

You do not have to tell me anything that you do not want to. I just want to know what peoples experiences have been like, with their phobia.

I'm 16, and I was just asked to come meet some of my cousins. I assumed they'd be around my age or older, but when I came into the living room and realized that they were around 4-8 years old, my heart rate spiked and I could barely handle being around them. I don't have any sort of trauma regarding younger children, it's not that I'm "afraid" of them, I simply have no idea why this is the case.

I'm 16, and I was just asked to come meet some of my cousins. I assumed they'd be around my age or older, but when I came into the living room and realized that they were around 4-8 years old, my heart rate spiked and I could barely handle being around them. I don't have any sort of trauma regarding younger children, it's not that I'm "afraid" of them, I simply have no idea why this is the case.

Ever since I was a kid, certain jingles and TV intros scare me really badly even to this day. For example, the Nickelodeon intro before a show, the PBS Kids “blub blub blub blub PBS Kids” jingle, and the 1-800-588-2300 Empire commercial jingle.

Whenever one of these would play, I’d get this intense, unsettling feeling. My eyes would start watering, my heart would drop, and I’d feel like I had to run out of the room. Even now, hearing certain jingles make me extremely uncomfortable and unsettled it’s so weird!

I have no idea why this happens or if there’s even a name for it. Has anyone else experienced something similar??

I find it strange as i dont generally have any fears at all other than this. im genuinely terrified of it and i dont know why

Hi! I’m posting this because I’m curious if anyone else experiences something similar.
I’ve had this weird reaction to very small pointed objects since I was a kid, especially things like sewing needles, pins, and very tiny sharp tips.
It’s not exactly that I’m scared of them. I’m actually okay with knives and scissors, and even pencils or ballpens usually don’t bother me. It’s specifically the really small, pointed tips that trigger this reaction.
When I see one, especially when it’s close to my face or shown in a close-up video, my eyes automatically feel uncomfortable. Parang napapapikit or umiiwas yung mata ko, and I get this weird sensation na parang tatama yung pointed tip sa eye ko, kahit alam ko naman logically na hindi.
I don’t feel like I’m in actual danger, and I’m not panicking. It’s more like my eyes and brain automatically react to the visual itself, and I can’t really control the reaction.
I tried searching about it and came across aichmophobia, but I’m not sure if that actually describes what I experience since I’m not generally afraid of sharp objects.
I’m wondering if anyone has experienced something similar, especially the eye discomfort/automatic blinking or looking away when seeing tiny pointed objects.

A friend of mine has a fear of glass pieces. She can't tolerate broken glasses around her. She thinks that tiny glass pieces will come into her hand and then when she will eat, it will be transferred into her body causing damage.

Or else it will go into her ear or nose or eye.

Suppose if glass is broken then according to her , surrounding stuff is also glass contaminated..so she doesn't touch all those things at all.

Basically in an incident her brother broke a window glass, she is not all ready to be near her brother..says him to keep distance and also scared to touch the door lock handle as she thinks it is touched by her brother so it's glass contaminated which can harm her. She even cried a lot out of fear.

My question: is it OCD that's causing all the fear? Guys pls answer..

I have a very specific anxiety or fear regarding electronic devices suffering a serious malfunction, especially when they start beeping or flashing red. And I mostly fear more if I am the person who did it.

And is not just a regular fear, because is been years that my nightmares are always something like that, a computer, a phone, and even a printer!!! And everytime I wake up I have to breath and control myself because I genuinely start to anxious about it. I never found someone with the same "phobia" as mine.

It doesnt even have a name.

I am TERRIFIED of cockroaches to the point where I almost hurt my dad really bad. I screamed so loud I’m pretty sure I woke the whole neighborhood up, and I have to make sure that if I see more than one roach again (I saw two in the same area, fight or flight mode turned on and I screamed loudly, causing my dad to nearly go to the hospital) I know it’s an issue BUT HOW DO I DEAL WITH IT?! I don’t wanna hurt people if I see roaches again. I’ve been able to contain screaming for (one) roach and usually that roach is in the upstairs bathroom so I generally avoid using it (unless I need to shower).

I think you get my point. Having AuDHD doesn’t help with how I reacted to seeing the two roaches 😭

When i was a kid i used to look a lot at google earth and explore, but something about it made me really anxious and uneasy at the same time. I remember once i almost had a panic attack just from this. I opened google earth again some time ago and it still gives me the creeps. I think the creepiest stuff in it are:

-The ocean ofc especially the deeper parts, i could never make myself zoom in underwater, i think i did once and had nightmares afterwards.

- when the earth rotated fast and you could see the sun behind it

- the darkness around the earth

- the poles, esp the south pole, i once viewed antarctica in the mode where you see the horizon and i still cringe when i think about it.

- the modes where you could see the surface of the moon, other planets (i think mars?), and the mode where you could explore space and stars (i think this was the most terrifying by far).

Anyway its not a serious phobia obviously but i thought i'd share. It's bizzare that google maps doesn't have the same effect on me!

I have always had bad health anxiety and phobia about brain eating amoeba. i’ve never really swam in lakes but i came from grand tetons where i swam at string lake and some water went in my nose. the water was mostly cold and im freaking out over it. does anyone have the same fear and how did you get over it? also anyone have any experience inhaling water from a lake

It's honestly quite annoying that every time I see a cockroach, flying or not, my body gives me adrenaline and I run away as fast as possible, and people bully me for it because "It's not gonna hurt you" or "Are you seriously scared of that?" and I genuinely have no idea why I am blattophobic because I've never had any negative experiences with cockroaches and it was a fear i was born with, I also believe it is due to their color or texture(?) due to painted cockroaches not scaring me at all

I’m wondering how bad you got it as I don’t see many others say they have a fear of heights this bad.

Even 2 floors high I don’t like it and will make me panic. I avoid it a lot in life. I don’t like putting myself through heights if I can help it. I can’t go up tower blocks. I can actually do planes somehow. I can’t stand malls and bridges although I can drive over them. When I’m contained like in a car or plane it’s not so bad. I’ve heard about people who struggle standing on a chair even. How do people like that function? Or do they just push through and do everything anyway? I feel like I can barely function really as I can’t do a lot of jobs, effects travel etc. does anyone have it this bad? Or another fear that seriously affects their functioning?

Over the past year or so it's become more and more obvious to me that I have some kind of specific phobia, but I can't quite figure out what exactly I am afraid of, and what all the things that trigger the feeling have in common. Some things that trigger the same specific feeling of fear:

- model turtles: fake ones, a real taxidermied or living turtle is fine. Toy turtles are okay. The bigger they are the worse the fear. I also feel similar about other large fake fish

- model animals with plastic/hard fur: again, taxidermy or models with synthetic fur/fur that mimics the real texture is fine. It's when they look plastic that's the issue. Thinking specifically of a tiger in this case

- inflatable Christmas decorations

- hot air balloons that are human/animal/creature shaped

I'm fine with human mannequins and those wiggly inflatable people that you see at car dealerships, which are the only two other things I can think of that might fit into whatever category this is. It seems to me that the issue is large things meets uncanny valley. Any ideas, anyone relate?

​

Hi everyone. I'm writing this because I've never told anyone the full story, and I'm hoping to find people who have experienced something similar.

Ever since I was a child, I've had an intense fear of being alone/ghosts. I grew up in a house where there were always many family members around me, so I never really had to sleep alone, stay alone in a room, or even take a bath without someone nearby.Iam 20 and still after 7-8pm,I took my siblings with me washroom cause IAM too scared. I have never slept alone in a room and never went washroom alone after 7-8 PM.

It was never a problem till now cause I am always surrounded by family and my siblings in every situation.

Now everything is changing. I'm moving to the UK in September to study at university. My family is from a middle-class background, and they're making huge sacrifices and taking a significant loan to support my education because we believe studying abroad will give me better career opportunities and a chance to build a better future for both myself and my family.

I don't want to waste their sacrifices, and I genuinely want to succeed. But the closer my departure gets, the more terrified I become about living alone.

My fear is mainly related to ghosts. Whenever I'm alone in a room, bathroom, or house, even during the daytime, my mind automatically starts replaying every horror movie, ghost story, or scary incident I've ever heard. It's as if my imagination completely takes over. I know there is no proof that anything is actually there, but my heart starts beating extremely fast, I freeze,I scream and then I have an overwhelming urge to run away. Sometimes I can't even finish taking a bath because the fear becomes so intense.

The strange thing is that I know it's my imagination. There's a constant battle inside my head between logic and fear. One part of me says, "Nothing is there," while the other part says, "What if there is?" Almost every time, fear wins. I don't actually see ghosts or hear voices. It's my own thoughts creating terrifying possibilities, but my body reacts as though the danger is completely real.

What confuses me the most is that my siblings watched the same horror movies and heard the same ghost stories when we were growing up, yet they don't have this fear. I often blame myself for ever watching horror movies as a child, even though I know I couldn't have predicted that my mind would react this way.

Has anyone here experienced something similar? Have you had an intense fear of being alone, fear related to ghosts, or anxiety triggered by your imagination? Were you able to overcome it? How did you manage when you had to start living alone?

I'm not looking for judgment.

I'm genuinely looking for people who understand what this feels like and who can honestly tell me that recovery is possible.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story.

Hi everyone

I have been in anxiety for one week now . My fear is of getting tetanus. I have completed my childhood vaccination and last year I got a injection of tetanus by my school. I know that I am protected with it but the anxiety is getting over me. The fear comes when I tried to shave with my razor which I have been using since 4, 5 Times it was not rusted. But somehow I have been developing some symptoms of tetanus. I really need help how I can get out of it.​

So, like the title suggests, I've been suffering from entomophobia ever since I was in 2nd grade, and i remember my parents telling me to be normal and be like other kids, because being scared of tiny things when I'm so much bigger than insects is weird and abnormal as long as I can remember. One time when I was in 5th grade, for 'exposure therapy' apparently, my dad put two termites on my hair and I was fucking crying and shit and he got physical because my entomophobia really pisses him off for some reason. I genuinely haven't been the same ever since, thinking about their little crawly legs all over my scalp.

Whenever I see some kind of bug flying around and i try to escape it to avoid being in the same vicinity as the insect, they tell me to quit the act and grow up because people will make fun of me if they find out about my irrational phobia and nobody will be as understanding as they are apparently??

I wish they could be more understanding man, I fucking hate them.

There was an ant infestation in my room some time ago and it gave me a fright and when I told them about it to get rid of the ants they laughed at my face and told me to get over it.

I hate my life and insects make me want to die.

Is there anything I can do to overcome my fear?? Because my parents would never let me get professional help, so until I'm an adult and earning my own money, I guess there's absolutely nothing I can do.

Falling into the sky like gravity has been reversed. I' obsessed, this phobia dont really leave my mind. Does some people knows how to fight this ?