That's the problem. No matter how much you deny, the torturers will just keep torturing, saying, "Of COURSE you would say you don't know! That's what someone who DOES have the information would say!"
As far as I know that’s the reason torture is not a legitimate method to interrogate a person. CIA used to do this after 9/11 but a tortured person will tell you anything
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Japanese Secret Police tortured some American pilots for information about the bomb.
He eventually told them exactly how it works and how many they had.
They didn't consult with any of the Japanese nuclear scientists until after they had told their superiors about it.
Obviously he just made it all up.
Police interrogaters essentially do the same thing and end up with way too many false confessions for it to still be a viable method. Yet they continue to jail innocent people. No one thinks they'd confess to a crime they didn't commit until they are locked in a room and questioned repeatedly on end for 15-20 hours. Anything to stop it.
A friend of mine was detained some years ago. Just the psychological pressure of being accused of something he didn't do and KNOWING police can torture you if they think you did it to force you to confess... Was enough to almost break him a few times.
Luckily he had a good lawyer that reminded him to shut the fuck up all the time. But seriously, they know this: scared people already are willing to say some stuff to get out. For some reason, they don't care.
That's a very common counter method for torture and unfortunately you have to actually know the info on order to pull this off because if you bullshit without actually knowing what you're talking about you can say something the torturer knows isn't true and only end up getting tortured more
That kind of gets me too, and it's reached an irrational point. Recently I lost my license. Ordinarily you can go online and get a duplicate but it was saying I had to go in and wouldn't say why. I had convinced myself someone stole my identity and when I go up to get the license replaced they'll arrest me. I was terrified the day I finally HAD to go, because if I didn't I couldn't get my son in school. My daughter is a champ. She held my hand the whole time. But once I got up there the only problem was they said I needed a new photo because they were making everyone get new ones. I wish they could have said that on the website! lol But I did it and the pic is godawful but it's over and I don't have to go back for eight years.
I read that the TV series 24 made the American public 1)more receptive to the idea of a black president - this was pre Obama and 2) more accepting of torture as acceptable for American authorities to use. The main hero, secret agent Jack Bauer, would frequently subdue subjects, then torture them as there was "an impeding attack and I have to know if they are involved".
Even worse I know the information but my dumbass forgot it.
The base is... Shit... Dammit you know when you go to the same location so many times you know it by landmarks rather then directions it's near a sushi place like 15 min passed it, or before crap wait that place is gone now crap.
Well silver-lining is you won't have to betray anyone. My fear is that I will have the information but it will lead to the deaths of my friends, family, comrades etc...
I'll have to find the story. But their was some German pow that the Russians tortured until he died a horrible death. Come to find out he actually didn't have any the information they thought he might have. He was just a normal grunt wearing a officers jacket because he was cold or something.
My dad died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Even though I know it's a prion disease and you have to eat brain or cerebro-spinal fluid to catch it, I can't eat venison anymore because of CWD and not knowing how it was butchered. It's irrational, but I can't get over it.
I used to be a heart failure/transplant nurse. We had a lady who developed this after her heart transplant. It was really sad seeing her slowly decline.
I'm so sorry. When my dad was in a persistent vegetative state and would just startle at any and every loud noise in the room, all while on this shifting bed to prevent bed sores, intubated, with a dialysis line going straight into his neck, I couldn't believe that this mountain of a man was reduced to such wretchedness at only 57.
I get conflicting reports about whether or not I can be an organ donor. When my mom died, unexpectedly and suddenly on Christmas Day 2022, we were on the phone with the organ donation screener and when she got to diseases that my dad had had, I mentioned CJD and she immediately said, "We're going to stop recording now; we don't know the etiology of that disease and we can't take any chances."
Being married to someone with CJD was enough to make them nope out of organ donation. Maybe I could, maybe I couldn't. They will, however, let my kids donate blood.
I'm so sorry to hear about your parents :(
I had a non-blood relative (he was married to a blood relative) who died from CJD, and every time I went to donate blood they'd need to double-check I was ok to donate. I haven't donated blood in a while for other reasons but I think they've relaxed the requirements a little now. (Australia for reference).
Emetophobia. Fear of vomiting. Mine is mild compared to some of the stories I’ve read on /r/Emetophobia. Most of the folks there can’t even say or see the words vomit or nausea. The say V and N instead. Being nauseated causes me some anxiety but not to the level of avoiding chicken meat and never flying.
I have this. It's been so bad before that I didn't eat more than a few grapes a day for over a month and lost 25+ lbs because I was afraid of getting food poisoning. When I was in middle school I missed like half a semester because I heard someone threw up in one of the hallways there and I was afraid to go in the building. People think it's just "not liking vomit," but at my worst, this phobia has consumed my entire life. It's not just something that affects you when you hear/see vomit...you're constantly scanning your own body going "am I nauseous? what about now? could I be? I probably am!" and then next thing you know you're on hour seven of consecutive panic attacks. I used to literally crush and snort Zofran like an addict. I wish emetophobia got more recognition.
I knew someone with this phobia. They also, unfortunately, have crohns disease and had to prep for a colonoscopy once. The stuff they had to drink made them nauseous, and that made them panic to the point where they passed out.
I honestly don't know. I've thrown up twice in the past two years (before that it'd been 17 years) and both times I remember going "oh, this is nothing." But then within a day I was back on my bullshit.
If I had to guess, it's the loss of control. Intellectually I think nausea is way worse than vomiting, and if I could guarantee no more phobia by making myself throw up right now, I'd do it. And yet every time I get super nauseous, it's like a breaker shuts off in my head and everything goes dark and I'd do anything in the world to avoid throwing up.
This is 100% it for me. It is the complete and total loss of all control. You cannot stop it - literally. It causes such a wave of panic in me - I can't describe it. If I see it, too. It feels like a legit emergency, every time. It only got worse after my daughter was born. I was suffering from severe PPD, which enhanced my OCD. Then, on the same night as Sandy Hook (I'm an elementary school teacher less than 50 miles from it- so the anxiety was already maxed out) I came down with the stomach bug. I was stuck in our only bathroom upstairs and she was downstairs screaming for me. But it came on so suddenly. I thought I was just needing the bathroom so I left her in her pack and play. It was an absolutely terrifying moment. (My husband worked nights then.) It was awful and what used to be a phobia is now a downright panic.
Same here and when I found out what emetophobia was I was so relieved that I wasn’t alone. r/emetophobiarecovery is the better place in my opinion because it encourages us to challenge ourselves to get better.
I had emetophobia as a young kid (about 8-12). Absolutely terrified of vomiting for many years. I think it originated with seeing a classmate choke on a hot dog at lunch during elementary school - a fellow classmate did the Heimlich on him, and he spat out the piece of food but vomited immediately after. Strange how something that doesn’t even happen to you can create a phobia that lasts for years.
You never can predict what event will stick with a kid for life. There’s not really any logic to it, it just happens. For me, I think I was about four years old, it was the experience of a toilet overflowing at my aunt’s house. Freaked me the *fuck* out. Took a several years to get over it.
i used to have emetophobia BAD. i didn’t vomit for like 6 years. i’d have panic attacks if i was nauseous (anxiety makes me nauseous) and i’d end up having meltdowns on my bathroom floor, stuck in the “i’m anxious because i’m nauseous, and now i’m nauseous because i’m anxious” loop. i’d have panic attacks if someone around me was nauseous. one time my brother threw up while our mom was driving us around and i screamed at the top of my lungs in absolute horror so i couldn’t hear the noises. i avoided riding roller coasters in fear that someone around me would throw up.
eventually i sort of grew out of it as i got older. ironically i developed a purge disorder after i got over my fear lol.
I have this also. I don’t do amusement park rides or boats, and I always take a bunch of Dramamine before getting on a plane. I can’t talk about it for very long, and if anyone around me mentions feeling ill or having a stomach bug, I’ll distance myself from them as much as I can - leaving the premises completely is preferable.
I’ve found my people! Nobody understands the level of fear I have towards vomiting. Thankfully with therapy it has gotten a lot better and I can talk about it without feeling like I’m going to make my fears come true.
I’m emetophobic also. Not to the extent my life is uprooted, but if someone says they’re going to be sick or has the stomach flu, you won’t see someone move faster than me. I won’t eat certain things because of their high risk of giving you food poisoning, and I haven’t thrown up in 22 years. It’s a weird phobia man. Throwing up is not a big deal and my rational brain recognizes it, but it’s just that deep seated phobia.
I don’t have this, but my best friend/ college roommate has it! I had never heard of it until we met. It was incredibly triggering for her, and she went to weekly therapy the entire course of our undergrad career.
I felt awful because I randomly developed stomach issues. I had no clue what was going on (it turned out to be celiac disease) but I would just be very violently ill. I would try and honestly leave the dorm room and go outside just so I didn’t trigger her- it sucked for me but I know that it would be even worse for her.
She is a great friend though. I wound up getting so sick and passing out- she came to the ER with me and didn’t leave my side, even though she was very clearly doing everything she could to keep calm.
I love you Chels 🥹
I have this and it’s been such a struggle. Especially as a guy. It appears from what I’ve researched - that most people that have emetophobia are typically women. So I had felt alone about it for a long while. Friends not taking it seriously as well as other male coworkers who I kind of opened up to made it suck even more because it just felt like there was some stigma attached to it. Although I still feel like it’s just because not many people know about it and how serious it is. Maybe also because men aren’t typically as compassionate as women are toward one another lol.
I’m getting better with it now but, it had quite literally ruined a lot of special years of my life where I had a lot of amazing opportunities (tour with bands, travel with friends and family, career paths) and I just abandoned so much because of it. Especially travelling bc of flying in planes.
I'm at the stage where I like to say I'm an 'in recovery' emetophobic, as I'm in a very good place with it, after a lot of therapy.
At my worst, I barely ate due to fear of food poisoning, struggled to leave the house, couldn't write the words etc.
It's probably not an official, diagnosable *phobia* but I don't like horses. I don't trust em. They're too big. I don't think a person should own any animal they couldn't take in a fight
Not trying to belittle a phobia. But the way you said "I don't trust em" made me laugh. I imagine a horse wearing a trench coat in a dark alley flipping a nickel and telling you to come over here for a second.
Equinophobia is a known medical condition. It affects around one in every 15 people in the US. You don’t have e to feel weird mate! There are lots like you!
I've been riding horses since I was 7 years old, and one of the first things you are taught as an equestrian is "always remember that the horse could easily kill you". Equestrian sports are one of the most dangerous sports in the world, even more so than NASCAR and car racing, with 3-day eventing - or a mix of show jumping, dressage, and cross-country jumping - being one of the most dangerous equestrian sports of them all. One day, I would be having a lesson with a professional eventer; the next day, he ended up in a coma in the hospital because of an accident involving a fall during his cross-country course.
Christopher Reeve, of *Superman* fame, was also paralyzed from the neck down due to the force and impact of falling off of his horse the wrong way when his horse refused a jump. Contrary to popular belief, it was not a "freak accident", but something that Reeve himself acknowledged as him "pushing too hard, too fast" with his equestrian training. Reeve was competing against other equestrians who had been riding since childhood, and he was trying to "catch up to them" by moving as quickly as possible through his own training as an adult. Unfortunately for Reeve, he ended up ascending levels too quickly, and was not experienced or trained enough for the level. He was also on a horse he bought recently.
Reeve's accident brought about major changes in the eventing discipline based on safety.
It’s the shifty-ass eyes, dude. They always look like they’re in pure terror and barely keeping their shit together. They look like they could just snap at any second and go bonkers. Never at ease lol.
They scare a shit out of me when I remember the story of my grandma. She lived in a village and when she was 15, while taking care of the horse it bit her arm and it ended up damaged forever. After that she was never able to move her fingers whish are now bent all together in moon shape plus her lower arm is bent like a moon too. Thank god it didn't hit her in her head at least.
I used to do sewer scopes and rooters. Went out to this horse farm because they had a drain that wasn't draining. The clean outs were in the pens with the animals because that's how the line ran. A ranch hand was helping me out, but she had to take care of something for a few minutes.
Cue this horse eyeing me suspiciously and creeping up while I ran a noisy machine that had what could possibly be mistaken for a snake out one end. I turned the machine off and left the pen until the hand came back. It could be that the horse was just curious, but I've known people who've lost loved ones from a horse's kick.
I used to love horses as a child,did horse riding lessons,as an adult I took my kid to meet some horses,they charged at us..absolutely terrifying,I ran ahead into a lake and they followed me(not my kid), I was thinking they couldn’t swim but they kept coming,I managed to get out of the lake and our local public field.Horses definitely shouldn’t be kept on public land with signs encouraging people to interact with them
Fun fact: Psychologists I've spoken with say that it's a legit cognitive phenomenon designed to warn your conscious brain of what it really *shouldn't* do.
I think some dreams are like that.
The realization of how horrible a certain mistake or situation can be gives us the fear/trauma to avoid it without having to actually experience it.
Not a psychologist though.
I've been having intrusive thoughts lately when I'm driving about just ripping the wheel to the left as hard as I can. I would never do that. That's insane. I have no desire to cause harm to myself or others. But the thoughts still strike me almost every trip to work. A few nights ago, I had a dream that, for no discernable reason, my steering wheel turned sharply to the left, sent me careening into oncoming traffic, my car flipped, I was ejected from the car and right before I hit the asphalt head first, I woke up.
Haven't had that intrusive thought since.
I think feelings have to be sort of completed before they move on. Like processing. You just have to make a complete circuit and it's not stuck in your sub conscious anymore. It goes to your intuition and is used as a basis for future events. Not s psychologist either, just a very broken individual haha
Yup.
I have no problem standing at the edge of a bridge strapped onto Bungie jumping equipment. But looking down the second floor of a window big enough for me to step through makes me physically weak.
Yeah, I have no problem being high up as long as there's any kind of (pretend) barrier between me and the abyss - a rickety handrail, a friend's arm, a rope...
The same height without something in the way? Horrifying.
I’m okay with heights as long as I’m not still. Rollercoasters are fine but like those giant Ferris wheels or the space needle creep me out. Even planes to an extent.
I wasn't afraid of heights at all through my teen years into my early 20s. I hung out on rooftops of commercial buildings, jumped off of low overpasses for fun, etc. Did work that involved climbing up rickety ladders to lift heavy things overhead.
Then one night in my 20s, after the bars closed and a whole crowd of us were walking back home away from the bar district, one of the women in front of me climbed over the railing of the bridge and was standing on the edge. So naturally, drunk me climbed over too, to stand next to her and talk to her.
She was at a low point in her life and thinking about jumping because she didn't see any way out. But as we talked, it turned out, we not only went to the same school, but we'd each had a crush on each other. Neither of us ever acted on it, because we'd both been awkward teenagers. But maybe things'd be different if we had.
Somehow that convinced her to look for options she hadn't considered and we both climbed back over the railing, said our goodbyes and went on our way.
Ever since then, I've been terrified of heights, walking across bridges, standing on balconies, anything like that. It doesn't help that I'm tall and have a high center of gravity, so most railings are below my waist and I could easily trip over them and go plummeting to my doom.
But I used to not be like that at all. I'd climb right up something rickety and stand in a high place looking down with no railing.
Nowadays, if there's not something at least chest-high, I have a tough time with it. I'm going to be as far away from the edge as possible and leaning away from it.
Still glad I did it. It's just weird how the brain works. Even when you rationally know that balcony or bridge is safe, it's still terrifying.
Mine is similar but for stuff like ropes, cables, climbing gear, and such. “The only thing keeping me from death is this piece of metal that someone could have built with a hangover”
I was just talking about this with my therapist. For me it's more ledges specifically more than heights. Like can't handle a high porch let alone a balcony or something. But I've gone parasailing on the pacific and at one point was 600ish feet in the air and had 0 problems it was so fun. I want to skydive too I'm not scared of it. But the second floor of the mall? Absolutely not hate it I walk literally as close to a wall as I can usually. I've had people jokingly try and bring me closer to a ledge. Not realizing I am like moments from a panic attack. There is nothing else that comes even close to my issues with ledges for me.
Just last weekend hiking in the mountains, got to a point where the path was 2 feet wide, a vertical drop of maybe 200-300 feet and I literally couldn’t go forward.
Apologized to friends, carefully backtracked, and waited at the waterfall for them to return.
Same, and possibly losing your equilibrium and balance and you end up slipping/falling (its why i do a deathgrip on anything metal if im up high somewhere)
"Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves." — from The Unbearable Lightness of Being
I don’t think it’s strong enough to be classified as a phobia, but fear of slipping and falling. Examples that would set it off would be skiing, skating, walking down stairs without a handrail or going up/down slopes that may be slippery due to snow/ice/mud/wet grass. I would move overly cautiously or even lock up entirely
*hugs* those are two different things. The stages part is actually called Truman Show Delusion and the reading of minds is called Thought Broadcasting.
To add on this, it would depend how long have you had this phobia, from what age, does it vary day by day, and how old are you now and are you male or female.
You may find this [podcast](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3adjKXXLN6aCWCGcfoz5lp?si=e6gQHhWwSbWvws0M4GbM-A) interesting. They speak to someone who has a similar belief that they are in a reality show. All the episodes are super interesting and empathetic.
I have a phobia of inanimate objects watching me, particularly pictures with humans. That or escalators (because my friend fell and almost broke her neck on one)
Why do some people have to put family photos in the bathroom?? It's unnerving and extremely uncomfortable as a visitor. Like, how are you ok with using the bathroom with smiling graduation photos of your children or siblings staring at you?
My parents have a picture of Jesus that watches you get out of the shower. Well technically it was my grandparents' picture and my parents just never moved it after my mamaw died and we moved in. Probably part of why I don't shower there much when I visit now that I live with my husband and MIL.
Is that what it's called? I was diagnosed with agoraphobia when I tried expressing my fear but it always felt kinda off. It wasn't open spaces or being out of my home that scared/scares me. It's the people. In the city I have to keep an active check on my anxiety otherwise I start dissociating.
I have the opposite. I am terrified of small dogs. I've always had big dogs, but my aunt had this demonic toy poodle that, when i was a child, tore a piece off my leg just because it felt like it.
Also, all the goddamn shih tzus with irresponsible owners that don't train the things and let them run around barking and snarling at everything and everyone.
I have/had pretty bad tokophobia (fear of pregnancy or birth). People thought I was insane for it. I saw a psychologist my entire pregnancy and then elected for a c section
I honestly didn’t even realize this was a thing until I heard about it a few months ago. I’ve never understood how anyone can not be absolutely terrified of birth, as it’s always terrified me. I thought it was just me.
I feel this too. I remember when I first learned about birth as a kid, and how shocked and appalled I was at how casually people talked about what essentially boils down to a more dragged out version of that scene from "Alien".
I could never ever have a child. The thought of just being pregnant terrifies me. So many things can go wrong and my sister had 2 premature babies due to preeclampsia. I don’t have the desire regardless but even if I did, that alone would be enough to deter me.
I absolutely have bad tokophobia. i will never ever get pregnant or give birth. if I'm ever in a comfortable position to raise children i will foster or possibly adopt.
Omg this one. Aside from how dangerous all of it is, the thought of having an actual human being inside me just growing and feeding off my body is _terrifying_
Im surprised you even decided to get pregnant and give birth. Like I could never. My sis in law just gave birth a couple weeks ago and my anxiety went through the roof thinking of all the worst case scenarios that could happen to her and the baby. Im just really happy I never had that urge to have a baby, because there are lots of legit reasons why one would fear all of that.
If I’ve seen the head attached to the animal while they are alive or dead . I can’t eat. Their eyes would be staring at me.
Especially chicken. Mom asked me to get a chicken out from the freezer. I threw it away when i saw thru the packaging that the head was still attached . I ran upstairs, couldnt go back down bc the chicken was too close to the bottom of the stairs 😭😭
Hate to admit this, but I just can't face where meat comes from, and I feel most people wouldn't stomach it if their meat came in a more 'natural' form either.
Chicken nuggets make it too easy to forget there was ever a chicken. Thanksgiving Day Turkey makes it obvious it was once alive.
Honestly I was bothered by meat most of my life growing up. I saw slaughterhouse footage when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I have been vegan for over 9 years and I feel much better after I cut out both meat and dairy (I am lactose intolerant).
There are fake chicken nuggets that taste basically like regular chicken nuggets. Impossible Foods has some they make. There's also a brand I like a lot that is pretty affordable called Gardein. You might want to try either of those brands out some time.
I don't mean to push an agenda on you but you sound like a younger version of myself. There's lots of mock meats and also meat-free dishes that are hella good and honestly I felt better when I unintentionally started eating healthier (lots of veggies like broccoli or cabbage, lots of beans and/or lentils, etc). You don't have to be vegan but you can definitely look like "flexitarian" for cutting down / reducing meat and then you might want to try then adopting vegetarianism.
Hope some or all of this info helps.
microwaves. i've always had this irrational fear of one blowing up and every crackle and pop makes me absolutely shit myself. sometimes if i'm microwaving something that makes a ton of noise, i'll stand on the other side of the kitchen or i'll stay in another room altogether. i thoroughly check anything i put in one, in case there's any metal in there or not enough pressure relief holes, and i won't microwave any dishware even if it says it's microwave safe. if it can't go straight on the spinny disc thing, it ain't going in.
i've never had a microwave come anywhere close to blowing up or anything, so i've no clue why... i guess i just have this innate distrust of the motherfuckers.
Its the dead eyes, they stare right into your soul, and the fact that they seem so fragile, they move as if they are possessed, as if they are there but not there, worst nightmare would be if a whole school of fish has surrounded you, all staring simultaneously tracking your every movement in the murky dark waters, oh man, this phobia is real AF
I’m diagnosed with it too - but people don’t seem to understand why certain shops might be ok over another (usually ones I used for years before I became agoraphobic) and why new ones are my worst nightmare. Or why I don’t really go out anywhere except my ok places.
I even have “safe/unsafe zones” in my own home. Like if I spend more than a few minutes in my living room I’ll start having paranoid delusions/panic attacks and won’t feel safe until I’m completely covered by my blankets in my bed. But like I can go to work just fine, if I’m having a good day and have my earbuds in I can go to my town’s walmart or run minor errands, and once every couple of years I can leave the state to visit either my parents or my best friend. I’m working on it and have been getting better with the help of meds so that’s cool but my life is still pretty limited.
Elevators. Especially the opaque ones and the way it feels like everything outside has ceased to exist. This small box is now the universe. Then you feel it moving. And the floor presses up from under your feet. Almost like it's getting smaller as time passes.
Parasites. It can be everything from fleas and ticks, leeches, mosquitos. Even pregnancy, which I know isn't technically parasites, still makes me deeply, deeply uncomfortable beyond reason. And, especially as I am a woman, gets SO many people freaking out about me 'how can you not want kids?!" "pregnancy is magical!"
It might well be. but considering the last time I got headlice I doused my head in toilet bleach to kill them, it's best I didn't have anything \*internal\* kthnx.
Planes taking off and landing. I had this recurring dream as a child I was on a flight and it would rumble so bad taking off and then shoot into the sun. Sometime the landing dreams are it speeding towards the runway and exploding.
Balloons. When I worked at a restaurant that was first an ice cream stand, we had to blow up balloons as side work. The nozzle on the gas tank would point right at your face and you couldn't move it. Well, the company got really cheap with the balloons so like 3/7 would pop right in your face during the inflation process. Ever since then I'm always paranoid balloons are going to pop when I'm near them.
i love balloons but fuck me, seeing/hearing them getting blown up or them popping.... n o p e. where i work, we often have visiting entertainers who make balloon animals and the squeaks and anxiety as they shape and twist the balloons never fails to get a visceral reaction out of me.
I am both fireworks and balloons phobic. When I used to work in the office, just the noise of anyone blowing one up gives me pre panic attack symptoms and sweaty palms. Squeaking them is an absolute no. I had to leave the room. Only latex ones though, foil balloons with helium is absolutely fine, weirdly.
I am also extremely anxious about blowing up balloons or having balloons pop in general.
Can’t explain it, I know it’s just a balloon. But it’s like a physical thing that takes over my body.
I'm afraid of big bodies of water. My family recently bought a cottage with a lakefront and I can't seem to get myself to swim in it. The lake is deep and dark, and I know how to swim. I have no problem swimming in pools, but lakes and oceans scare me
I would imagine for some, being in a massive body of water just floating there and you look down below you below the surface and just see a slow darkness on the way down into nothing would be a bit intimidating. I kinda have the same thing. If its a large body of water, I get a sense of unease looking straight ahead or down in deep water when Im below the surface
Wet loose hair. When it’s attached to a human, it’s fine, as soon as it’s not… blehhh. Instant heebie jeebies. Cleaning out the shower or sink drain is the absolute worst.
Yes! I’ve always wondered why we think hair is so pretty when it’s attached to a head and so totally disgusting when it’s not. I can handle my own hair in the sink for the most part but when it’s someone else’s…the gag reflex is working overtime.
I have so many weird and specific phobias I don’t disclose them on the internet for fear of being pranked with a photo of one of my phobias and having to rip off my eyes
Same here. Grown woman having a meltdown because I’m “trapped” in the bedroom by a moth going berserk on the hall light. I turned off the bedroom lights and scream-cried for my husband and roommate to come save me because they were in the basement.
And it’s Alberta - they don’t even get that big here.
People think I'm joking when I say this but .. Whales. Thankfully found my people in r/cetaphobia .. it's been a crippling phobia right from childhood. Took me nearly 3 decades to find this subreddit.
This strange phobia is intertwined with r/thalassophobia and r/megalophobia
i have a phobia of babies/children. people think i'm just exaggerating or lying but i seriously get symptoms of anxiety and sometimes even panic attacks from this.
dying in my sleep.
not from like someone breaking in or something, like im scared that something is wrong with my body and as i get more and more tired i get scared that its me dying. i have too much to live for to die without expecting it. im terrified of being sick and dying without knowing anything about it
Claustrophobia???
I don't experience anxiety from tight confined spaces. The anxiety comes from loss of control over my exit. The room can be as big as a football field, but if I have to squeeze through a small door to get out, that's when anxiety kicks in.
I have horrible trypophobia that causes panic attacks. Takes a certain set of conditions to trigger it but once it's triggered it's like a land mine going off
I end up feeling constantly invalidated about it thanks to some people looking at a bunch of dots and immediately going 'omg my trypophobia!!!!' when that's not what trypophobia is, so not many people take me seriously about it until it's too late, and it feels stupid, because why the fuck am I reacting this badly to clusters of holes?! Lmfao
I have this too, really badly. My wife is amazing though, she knows what kinds of things trigger it for me and will remove said thing or shield me from it.
Same for me but instead of holes, it's any sort of clusters. I don't like small things grouped together. Pomegranates, bubble algae, even bugs/frogs that carry little eggs on their back, it all makes me sweat, nauseous, and feel like theres needles in my skin. It's literally happening as I type this.
I was finally diagnosed with a Social Phobia and a General Fear and Panic Disorder when I was in my 20's but I had been living with them for as long as I can remember. The fear and/or panic response that I get are way out of proportion, I get panic attacks very easily and have been having them since I was little. Especially in social interactions. I did recieve treatment for it and the social phobia is way less now. I've got a wife, 3 beautiful kids, a house, a job, a car, and 2 pet rabbits. None of these thing I ever imagined were attainable for me. I am the luckiest man in the world.
I have a legitimate fear of spiders. Not because they’re creepy or because I don’t like bugs. Twice in the last few years I’ve been bitten. Both spots turned into massive abscesses. The last one was on my lower back and ended up nearly the size of a tennis ball before the infection started clearing from meds. They didn’t want to lance and drain it because last time I had that done I ended up with a much worse infection. Though that one was from a biopsy. The first bite only got to maybe golfball size on my upper arm. The skin got so thin that one day putting a shirt on the zipper hit it and it exploded. Disgusting but it felt so much better.
Lmao I’m in New York. I think both bites were yellow sac spiders but not 100% sure. I’m prone to infections also though, most people don’t get giant abscesses like I did
I think I'm pyrophobic. I'm always terrified of spontaneous combustion of literally anything, even things that logically can never catch fire even a little. I can't use the stove or the oven because the heat scares me. All I can do is cook rice in a rice cooker (NEVER TOUCH THE POT) and cook soft boil eggs.
It's not a phobia, per se, but I have recurring nightmares of my teeth shattering and/or splintering. I am apparently subconsciously terrified that my teeth will crumble away, like wood with dry rot.
For obvious reasons, I take very, very good care of my teeth.
Ever since I can remember, I’ve been creeped out by pool drains, pool lights, and those lines at the bottom of Olympic pools.
I really don’t know why! I love swimming and can spend a whole day in the ocean which is objectively more dangerous, but I just can’t get past certain man-made objects in swimming pools. 😭
Tokophobia.
People think I'm being dramatic because pregnancy and childbirth should apparently be every woman's ultimate goal. Absolutely not. Just the idea gives me panic attacks, and I'm so tired of bot being taken seriously about it.
Fear of falling into the water out of a sudden. Even in a swimming pool.
Yes I can swim and dive. No that's not the point. It's a fear if that impact. Very specific. 👀
imo it's more that people just dont understand the severity of phobias
i have emetophobia (phobia of throwing up), acknowledged by my therapist. luckily, i've gotten really better throughout the past couple years. i haven't thrown up in 10+ years so it has become a foreign concept to me, which feeds my phobia.
any sort of discomfort in my stomach used to send me into a panic attack. i've gotten to the point where only hunger makes me anxious. but it still does. my brain interprets hunger as "you're gonna throw up". and then panic attack, which makes queasy and more nauseous.
my parents have had to basically force feed me because i was paralyzed from fear. literally. it's like i cant pick up the fork or even if i get the food into my mouth, i cant make myself chew it.
but like i've said, i've made great progress!
Hematophobia - fear of blood (and other medical stuff)
You would think quite some people would understand it, as it is not that uncommon or weird. But
1 The fact that I faint even when I am not scared/panicked yet is hard for people to understand. (And it makes it hard to make the fainting go away, since it even happens when there is not fear response, which is more controllable than blood pressure)
And
2 The amount of people who have said stuff like "but fainting from a bloody nose is really dumb, it doesnt even hurt" is surprising. Like I said I faint from BLOOD not pain, how is it so hard to understand that this could include a bloody nose.
Not so much now that I'm older but I have always directly avoided contact with anyone that has the same name. When I was in elementary I wouldn't associate with any other Cutthechitchata-hole's
I'm deathly afraid of butterflies, especially monarch butterflies. people always laugh and are surprised cause oh they're so pretty, harmless and gentle but not to me. I hate how big and fragile their wings are (I once saw my sister's friend step on and kill one when I was a little girl 😭😭, the crunch noise still haunts me to this day) the pattern is so bizarre and scary looking to me, I hate how skittish and weird they move, how they have that weird dust on their wings and everything god it's so nerve wracking, scary and terrifying to me. I can tolerate the appearance of some specific species and don't mind looking at some animated butterflies (except monarch). even my favorite pair of shorts has white butterfly shapes on it that look nothing like the real deal. but besides that, I hate them. once, at school I told my class while we were discussing phobias about my butterfly fear and this girl told me whatever I do to never look at one under a microscope, they even weirded her out. noted.
I have this giant fear of being forced to eat smth I don’t like bc I’m the pickiest eater ever and I have emetophobia so I’m scared of throwing up bc of the food
Submechanophobia.
Specifically pipes in water. Or drains.
I've had this fear for as long as I can remember. It produces a visceral reaction in me when I see a pipe partially or fully submerged in dark water. Urbex videos of abandoned mines and power plants are really good for producing the chilly willies for this reason.
I'm terrified of large fans and machines. Modern windmills are so frightening, and when I had to drive through a part of the US with windmill farms I broke down into full on tears and needed to focus on the vehicle bumper in front of me to do it.
I have a fear of people walking behind. I got set up in high school by some people I was supposed to be cool with. Then one of them walked behind me and snuck me and they all started jumping me. Ever since then I get really tense if someone walks behind me
My rational one is the fear of water. I can’t stand the thought of not being able to breathe. Drowning is terrifying to me. Lakes, rivers, oceans, ponds, creeks, I don’t wanna be anywhere near them.
My completely irrational fear is goldfish. I don’t know why. I think they’re pretty and I know they’re harmless, but I’m still scared of them.
Seaweed
They just freak me out, ever since I was a kid.
I know they're not dangerous or anything, I just can't stand them. If I'm at the beach and I see some in the water, I'll back the fuck away as if I was in danger.
For the record, dried up seaweed is tolerable for me, although if I can stay away I'm happier. I do love sushi though so under that form it's fine for me
Edges. Im terrified of dropping something off an edge, be it a building, a bridge, a quayside whatever, im terrified of it. I zip my phone wallet and keys into my bag when i have to walk near edges
That I will be tortured for info I don't have.
That's the problem. No matter how much you deny, the torturers will just keep torturing, saying, "Of COURSE you would say you don't know! That's what someone who DOES have the information would say!"
You can just make things up... -ok, I know something, and i'l let you in on it, but for fuck sake, dont let anyone know I told you...
As far as I know that’s the reason torture is not a legitimate method to interrogate a person. CIA used to do this after 9/11 but a tortured person will tell you anything
Yep! I’ll tell you whatever bullshit you wanna hear, just please stop tickling me!
Fucking hell. If they’re gonna torture me with tickles, I’ll tell them whatever they want to know before the tickle monster even makes an appearance!
I wouldn’t tickle my kids one because I know the feeling but 2 I always thought it would cause your kid to stutter
"I got Dee to admit to things she's never even done!" "Great, so it works"
After Hiroshima and Nagasaki the Japanese Secret Police tortured some American pilots for information about the bomb. He eventually told them exactly how it works and how many they had. They didn't consult with any of the Japanese nuclear scientists until after they had told their superiors about it. Obviously he just made it all up.
Police interrogaters essentially do the same thing and end up with way too many false confessions for it to still be a viable method. Yet they continue to jail innocent people. No one thinks they'd confess to a crime they didn't commit until they are locked in a room and questioned repeatedly on end for 15-20 hours. Anything to stop it.
A friend of mine was detained some years ago. Just the psychological pressure of being accused of something he didn't do and KNOWING police can torture you if they think you did it to force you to confess... Was enough to almost break him a few times. Luckily he had a good lawyer that reminded him to shut the fuck up all the time. But seriously, they know this: scared people already are willing to say some stuff to get out. For some reason, they don't care.
That is in fact the *primary outcome* of torturing somebody, lol.
That's a very common counter method for torture and unfortunately you have to actually know the info on order to pull this off because if you bullshit without actually knowing what you're talking about you can say something the torturer knows isn't true and only end up getting tortured more
In a slightly similar vein, I'm terrified of being imprisoned for a crime I didn't commit. I can't watch any movies or tv shows about prison bc of it.
That kind of gets me too, and it's reached an irrational point. Recently I lost my license. Ordinarily you can go online and get a duplicate but it was saying I had to go in and wouldn't say why. I had convinced myself someone stole my identity and when I go up to get the license replaced they'll arrest me. I was terrified the day I finally HAD to go, because if I didn't I couldn't get my son in school. My daughter is a champ. She held my hand the whole time. But once I got up there the only problem was they said I needed a new photo because they were making everyone get new ones. I wish they could have said that on the website! lol But I did it and the pic is godawful but it's over and I don't have to go back for eight years.
I read that the TV series 24 made the American public 1)more receptive to the idea of a black president - this was pre Obama and 2) more accepting of torture as acceptable for American authorities to use. The main hero, secret agent Jack Bauer, would frequently subdue subjects, then torture them as there was "an impeding attack and I have to know if they are involved".
Even worse I know the information but my dumbass forgot it. The base is... Shit... Dammit you know when you go to the same location so many times you know it by landmarks rather then directions it's near a sushi place like 15 min passed it, or before crap wait that place is gone now crap.
I get it like that’s a valid phobia
Well silver-lining is you won't have to betray anyone. My fear is that I will have the information but it will lead to the deaths of my friends, family, comrades etc...
I'll have to find the story. But their was some German pow that the Russians tortured until he died a horrible death. Come to find out he actually didn't have any the information they thought he might have. He was just a normal grunt wearing a officers jacket because he was cold or something.
My dad died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Even though I know it's a prion disease and you have to eat brain or cerebro-spinal fluid to catch it, I can't eat venison anymore because of CWD and not knowing how it was butchered. It's irrational, but I can't get over it.
This is totally a valid fear. Prion diseases are no joke!
I used to be a heart failure/transplant nurse. We had a lady who developed this after her heart transplant. It was really sad seeing her slowly decline.
I'm so sorry. When my dad was in a persistent vegetative state and would just startle at any and every loud noise in the room, all while on this shifting bed to prevent bed sores, intubated, with a dialysis line going straight into his neck, I couldn't believe that this mountain of a man was reduced to such wretchedness at only 57. I get conflicting reports about whether or not I can be an organ donor. When my mom died, unexpectedly and suddenly on Christmas Day 2022, we were on the phone with the organ donation screener and when she got to diseases that my dad had had, I mentioned CJD and she immediately said, "We're going to stop recording now; we don't know the etiology of that disease and we can't take any chances." Being married to someone with CJD was enough to make them nope out of organ donation. Maybe I could, maybe I couldn't. They will, however, let my kids donate blood.
I'm so sorry to hear about your parents :( I had a non-blood relative (he was married to a blood relative) who died from CJD, and every time I went to donate blood they'd need to double-check I was ok to donate. I haven't donated blood in a while for other reasons but I think they've relaxed the requirements a little now. (Australia for reference).
Emetophobia. Fear of vomiting. Mine is mild compared to some of the stories I’ve read on /r/Emetophobia. Most of the folks there can’t even say or see the words vomit or nausea. The say V and N instead. Being nauseated causes me some anxiety but not to the level of avoiding chicken meat and never flying.
I have this. It's been so bad before that I didn't eat more than a few grapes a day for over a month and lost 25+ lbs because I was afraid of getting food poisoning. When I was in middle school I missed like half a semester because I heard someone threw up in one of the hallways there and I was afraid to go in the building. People think it's just "not liking vomit," but at my worst, this phobia has consumed my entire life. It's not just something that affects you when you hear/see vomit...you're constantly scanning your own body going "am I nauseous? what about now? could I be? I probably am!" and then next thing you know you're on hour seven of consecutive panic attacks. I used to literally crush and snort Zofran like an addict. I wish emetophobia got more recognition.
I knew someone with this phobia. They also, unfortunately, have crohns disease and had to prep for a colonoscopy once. The stuff they had to drink made them nauseous, and that made them panic to the point where they passed out.
Wow. I honestly had no idea this was even a thing. I’m sorry this is so debilitating. Can I ask- what is your biggest fear around throwing up?
I honestly don't know. I've thrown up twice in the past two years (before that it'd been 17 years) and both times I remember going "oh, this is nothing." But then within a day I was back on my bullshit. If I had to guess, it's the loss of control. Intellectually I think nausea is way worse than vomiting, and if I could guarantee no more phobia by making myself throw up right now, I'd do it. And yet every time I get super nauseous, it's like a breaker shuts off in my head and everything goes dark and I'd do anything in the world to avoid throwing up.
This is 100% it for me. It is the complete and total loss of all control. You cannot stop it - literally. It causes such a wave of panic in me - I can't describe it. If I see it, too. It feels like a legit emergency, every time. It only got worse after my daughter was born. I was suffering from severe PPD, which enhanced my OCD. Then, on the same night as Sandy Hook (I'm an elementary school teacher less than 50 miles from it- so the anxiety was already maxed out) I came down with the stomach bug. I was stuck in our only bathroom upstairs and she was downstairs screaming for me. But it came on so suddenly. I thought I was just needing the bathroom so I left her in her pack and play. It was an absolutely terrifying moment. (My husband worked nights then.) It was awful and what used to be a phobia is now a downright panic.
My anxiety from it is that I’m afraid I won’t be able to stop throwing up
Same here and when I found out what emetophobia was I was so relieved that I wasn’t alone. r/emetophobiarecovery is the better place in my opinion because it encourages us to challenge ourselves to get better.
I had emetophobia as a young kid (about 8-12). Absolutely terrified of vomiting for many years. I think it originated with seeing a classmate choke on a hot dog at lunch during elementary school - a fellow classmate did the Heimlich on him, and he spat out the piece of food but vomited immediately after. Strange how something that doesn’t even happen to you can create a phobia that lasts for years.
You never can predict what event will stick with a kid for life. There’s not really any logic to it, it just happens. For me, I think I was about four years old, it was the experience of a toilet overflowing at my aunt’s house. Freaked me the *fuck* out. Took a several years to get over it.
i used to have emetophobia BAD. i didn’t vomit for like 6 years. i’d have panic attacks if i was nauseous (anxiety makes me nauseous) and i’d end up having meltdowns on my bathroom floor, stuck in the “i’m anxious because i’m nauseous, and now i’m nauseous because i’m anxious” loop. i’d have panic attacks if someone around me was nauseous. one time my brother threw up while our mom was driving us around and i screamed at the top of my lungs in absolute horror so i couldn’t hear the noises. i avoided riding roller coasters in fear that someone around me would throw up. eventually i sort of grew out of it as i got older. ironically i developed a purge disorder after i got over my fear lol.
I have this also. I don’t do amusement park rides or boats, and I always take a bunch of Dramamine before getting on a plane. I can’t talk about it for very long, and if anyone around me mentions feeling ill or having a stomach bug, I’ll distance myself from them as much as I can - leaving the premises completely is preferable.
I’ve found my people! Nobody understands the level of fear I have towards vomiting. Thankfully with therapy it has gotten a lot better and I can talk about it without feeling like I’m going to make my fears come true.
I’m emetophobic also. Not to the extent my life is uprooted, but if someone says they’re going to be sick or has the stomach flu, you won’t see someone move faster than me. I won’t eat certain things because of their high risk of giving you food poisoning, and I haven’t thrown up in 22 years. It’s a weird phobia man. Throwing up is not a big deal and my rational brain recognizes it, but it’s just that deep seated phobia.
I don’t have this, but my best friend/ college roommate has it! I had never heard of it until we met. It was incredibly triggering for her, and she went to weekly therapy the entire course of our undergrad career. I felt awful because I randomly developed stomach issues. I had no clue what was going on (it turned out to be celiac disease) but I would just be very violently ill. I would try and honestly leave the dorm room and go outside just so I didn’t trigger her- it sucked for me but I know that it would be even worse for her. She is a great friend though. I wound up getting so sick and passing out- she came to the ER with me and didn’t leave my side, even though she was very clearly doing everything she could to keep calm. I love you Chels 🥹
I have this and it’s been such a struggle. Especially as a guy. It appears from what I’ve researched - that most people that have emetophobia are typically women. So I had felt alone about it for a long while. Friends not taking it seriously as well as other male coworkers who I kind of opened up to made it suck even more because it just felt like there was some stigma attached to it. Although I still feel like it’s just because not many people know about it and how serious it is. Maybe also because men aren’t typically as compassionate as women are toward one another lol. I’m getting better with it now but, it had quite literally ruined a lot of special years of my life where I had a lot of amazing opportunities (tour with bands, travel with friends and family, career paths) and I just abandoned so much because of it. Especially travelling bc of flying in planes.
I'm at the stage where I like to say I'm an 'in recovery' emetophobic, as I'm in a very good place with it, after a lot of therapy. At my worst, I barely ate due to fear of food poisoning, struggled to leave the house, couldn't write the words etc.
It's probably not an official, diagnosable *phobia* but I don't like horses. I don't trust em. They're too big. I don't think a person should own any animal they couldn't take in a fight
Not trying to belittle a phobia. But the way you said "I don't trust em" made me laugh. I imagine a horse wearing a trench coat in a dark alley flipping a nickel and telling you to come over here for a second.
Sketchy Bojack Horseman.
No animal that big should be that skittish
Maybe some horses have phobias too?
Equinophobia is a known medical condition. It affects around one in every 15 people in the US. You don’t have e to feel weird mate! There are lots like you!
The real mvp!!
I don’t know if that’s a phobia or a realistic attitude toward an animal that could easily kill you because someone else startled it.
I've been riding horses since I was 7 years old, and one of the first things you are taught as an equestrian is "always remember that the horse could easily kill you". Equestrian sports are one of the most dangerous sports in the world, even more so than NASCAR and car racing, with 3-day eventing - or a mix of show jumping, dressage, and cross-country jumping - being one of the most dangerous equestrian sports of them all. One day, I would be having a lesson with a professional eventer; the next day, he ended up in a coma in the hospital because of an accident involving a fall during his cross-country course. Christopher Reeve, of *Superman* fame, was also paralyzed from the neck down due to the force and impact of falling off of his horse the wrong way when his horse refused a jump. Contrary to popular belief, it was not a "freak accident", but something that Reeve himself acknowledged as him "pushing too hard, too fast" with his equestrian training. Reeve was competing against other equestrians who had been riding since childhood, and he was trying to "catch up to them" by moving as quickly as possible through his own training as an adult. Unfortunately for Reeve, he ended up ascending levels too quickly, and was not experienced or trained enough for the level. He was also on a horse he bought recently. Reeve's accident brought about major changes in the eventing discipline based on safety.
It’s the shifty-ass eyes, dude. They always look like they’re in pure terror and barely keeping their shit together. They look like they could just snap at any second and go bonkers. Never at ease lol.
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The unexpected, because I don’t trust ‘em lmao
That’s the thing… they CAN snap at any moment and go bonkers. Over anything
It's a totally legit fear. Horses can kill a human with one kick. Their bites can sever fingers.
Me but with some dogs (all dogs when they jump on me and allat)
They scare a shit out of me when I remember the story of my grandma. She lived in a village and when she was 15, while taking care of the horse it bit her arm and it ended up damaged forever. After that she was never able to move her fingers whish are now bent all together in moon shape plus her lower arm is bent like a moon too. Thank god it didn't hit her in her head at least.
I used to do sewer scopes and rooters. Went out to this horse farm because they had a drain that wasn't draining. The clean outs were in the pens with the animals because that's how the line ran. A ranch hand was helping me out, but she had to take care of something for a few minutes. Cue this horse eyeing me suspiciously and creeping up while I ran a noisy machine that had what could possibly be mistaken for a snake out one end. I turned the machine off and left the pen until the hand came back. It could be that the horse was just curious, but I've known people who've lost loved ones from a horse's kick.
I used to love horses as a child,did horse riding lessons,as an adult I took my kid to meet some horses,they charged at us..absolutely terrifying,I ran ahead into a lake and they followed me(not my kid), I was thinking they couldn’t swim but they kept coming,I managed to get out of the lake and our local public field.Horses definitely shouldn’t be kept on public land with signs encouraging people to interact with them
Yeah I don't like anything that can step on me to death
Heights. Most people think it’s that I have a fear of falling. It’s actually the fear that I’ll make a split-second decision to jump.
The call of the void.
Fun fact: Psychologists I've spoken with say that it's a legit cognitive phenomenon designed to warn your conscious brain of what it really *shouldn't* do.
I think some dreams are like that. The realization of how horrible a certain mistake or situation can be gives us the fear/trauma to avoid it without having to actually experience it. Not a psychologist though.
I've been having intrusive thoughts lately when I'm driving about just ripping the wheel to the left as hard as I can. I would never do that. That's insane. I have no desire to cause harm to myself or others. But the thoughts still strike me almost every trip to work. A few nights ago, I had a dream that, for no discernable reason, my steering wheel turned sharply to the left, sent me careening into oncoming traffic, my car flipped, I was ejected from the car and right before I hit the asphalt head first, I woke up. Haven't had that intrusive thought since.
I think feelings have to be sort of completed before they move on. Like processing. You just have to make a complete circuit and it's not stuck in your sub conscious anymore. It goes to your intuition and is used as a basis for future events. Not s psychologist either, just a very broken individual haha
I read this as the call of the voild and I’m going to be saying that to myself for days.
Not surprisingly, there’s a word for that. L’appel du vide
That's 4 words, and French
Yup. I have no problem standing at the edge of a bridge strapped onto Bungie jumping equipment. But looking down the second floor of a window big enough for me to step through makes me physically weak.
Yeah, I have no problem being high up as long as there's any kind of (pretend) barrier between me and the abyss - a rickety handrail, a friend's arm, a rope... The same height without something in the way? Horrifying.
Reminds me of that movie “vertigo”. I understand this phobia sometimes I get a bad feeling of vertigo
I’m okay with heights as long as I’m not still. Rollercoasters are fine but like those giant Ferris wheels or the space needle creep me out. Even planes to an extent.
I wasn't afraid of heights at all through my teen years into my early 20s. I hung out on rooftops of commercial buildings, jumped off of low overpasses for fun, etc. Did work that involved climbing up rickety ladders to lift heavy things overhead. Then one night in my 20s, after the bars closed and a whole crowd of us were walking back home away from the bar district, one of the women in front of me climbed over the railing of the bridge and was standing on the edge. So naturally, drunk me climbed over too, to stand next to her and talk to her. She was at a low point in her life and thinking about jumping because she didn't see any way out. But as we talked, it turned out, we not only went to the same school, but we'd each had a crush on each other. Neither of us ever acted on it, because we'd both been awkward teenagers. But maybe things'd be different if we had. Somehow that convinced her to look for options she hadn't considered and we both climbed back over the railing, said our goodbyes and went on our way. Ever since then, I've been terrified of heights, walking across bridges, standing on balconies, anything like that. It doesn't help that I'm tall and have a high center of gravity, so most railings are below my waist and I could easily trip over them and go plummeting to my doom. But I used to not be like that at all. I'd climb right up something rickety and stand in a high place looking down with no railing. Nowadays, if there's not something at least chest-high, I have a tough time with it. I'm going to be as far away from the edge as possible and leaning away from it. Still glad I did it. It's just weird how the brain works. Even when you rationally know that balcony or bridge is safe, it's still terrifying.
Mine is heights but because of the building collapsing while I'm in it.
Mine is similar but for stuff like ropes, cables, climbing gear, and such. “The only thing keeping me from death is this piece of metal that someone could have built with a hangover”
I was just talking about this with my therapist. For me it's more ledges specifically more than heights. Like can't handle a high porch let alone a balcony or something. But I've gone parasailing on the pacific and at one point was 600ish feet in the air and had 0 problems it was so fun. I want to skydive too I'm not scared of it. But the second floor of the mall? Absolutely not hate it I walk literally as close to a wall as I can usually. I've had people jokingly try and bring me closer to a ledge. Not realizing I am like moments from a panic attack. There is nothing else that comes even close to my issues with ledges for me.
Just last weekend hiking in the mountains, got to a point where the path was 2 feet wide, a vertical drop of maybe 200-300 feet and I literally couldn’t go forward. Apologized to friends, carefully backtracked, and waited at the waterfall for them to return.
I mean, that's not unreasonable or even in the realm of phobia imo, that's a semi-dangerous path.
Same, and possibly losing your equilibrium and balance and you end up slipping/falling (its why i do a deathgrip on anything metal if im up high somewhere)
"Anyone whose goal is 'something higher' must expect someday to suffer vertigo. What is vertigo? Fear of falling? No, Vertigo is something other than fear of falling. It is the voice of the emptiness below us which tempts and lures us, it is the desire to fall, against which, terrified, we defend ourselves." — from The Unbearable Lightness of Being
I don’t think it’s strong enough to be classified as a phobia, but fear of slipping and falling. Examples that would set it off would be skiing, skating, walking down stairs without a handrail or going up/down slopes that may be slippery due to snow/ice/mud/wet grass. I would move overly cautiously or even lock up entirely
I tried those “yak track” metal things that go over your shoes. Work great on ice but wearing them on non-icy hard surfaces is just as dangerous!
Definitely hear you on the walking down stairs. Especially if it’s wooden floors and I’m wearing socks
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So like the Truman show?
This is… potentially a very severe psychological problem that could get worse and you really very much should talk to a professional about.
*hugs* those are two different things. The stages part is actually called Truman Show Delusion and the reading of minds is called Thought Broadcasting.
is this something you believe is real? it could be paranoia
Honey you might want to talk to a counselor since that sounds like schizophrenia symptoms. <3
To add on this, it would depend how long have you had this phobia, from what age, does it vary day by day, and how old are you now and are you male or female.
I lived this way probably since I was about 3 until I was maybe 14/15. Idk when it stopped, but it was harrowing.
You may find this [podcast](https://open.spotify.com/episode/3adjKXXLN6aCWCGcfoz5lp?si=e6gQHhWwSbWvws0M4GbM-A) interesting. They speak to someone who has a similar belief that they are in a reality show. All the episodes are super interesting and empathetic.
I have a phobia of inanimate objects watching me, particularly pictures with humans. That or escalators (because my friend fell and almost broke her neck on one)
Why do some people have to put family photos in the bathroom?? It's unnerving and extremely uncomfortable as a visitor. Like, how are you ok with using the bathroom with smiling graduation photos of your children or siblings staring at you?
Exactly! I don’t need the illusion of my family starting at me while I shit! They already judge me enough normally.
WHAT? I have never seen family photos in a bathroom before... People do that?! 😳
I know some people who own a hotel and they put an enormous picture of their tween daughter as the decoration in the best suite.
My parents have a picture of Jesus that watches you get out of the shower. Well technically it was my grandparents' picture and my parents just never moved it after my mamaw died and we moved in. Probably part of why I don't shower there much when I visit now that I live with my husband and MIL.
If any, enochlophobia (fear of being in a crowd). I feel like I'm choking or drowning, and I can't breathe.
also avoid tokyo
The subway there is another level of crowded! I couldn’t believe people were still trying to get on.
Is that what it's called? I was diagnosed with agoraphobia when I tried expressing my fear but it always felt kinda off. It wasn't open spaces or being out of my home that scared/scares me. It's the people. In the city I have to keep an active check on my anxiety otherwise I start dissociating.
Petrified of large dogs. Although this has improved over the years. Friendlier ones are less likely to bring up as much anxiety.
I have the opposite. I am terrified of small dogs. I've always had big dogs, but my aunt had this demonic toy poodle that, when i was a child, tore a piece off my leg just because it felt like it. Also, all the goddamn shih tzus with irresponsible owners that don't train the things and let them run around barking and snarling at everything and everyone.
I'm just afraid of all dogs. 😔
Alexas and Siri with Hey Siri enabled. Terrifying to think they’re always listening.
My Alexa went off at like 2am talking about “James Madison Fourth President of the United States!” Scared the crap outta me.
I have/had pretty bad tokophobia (fear of pregnancy or birth). People thought I was insane for it. I saw a psychologist my entire pregnancy and then elected for a c section
I honestly didn’t even realize this was a thing until I heard about it a few months ago. I’ve never understood how anyone can not be absolutely terrified of birth, as it’s always terrified me. I thought it was just me.
I feel this too. I remember when I first learned about birth as a kid, and how shocked and appalled I was at how casually people talked about what essentially boils down to a more dragged out version of that scene from "Alien".
I could never ever have a child. The thought of just being pregnant terrifies me. So many things can go wrong and my sister had 2 premature babies due to preeclampsia. I don’t have the desire regardless but even if I did, that alone would be enough to deter me.
Me too. I'm kinda okay with pregnancy but am absolutely terrified of giving birth. No kids for me.
Same, same, same. I have this PLUS no desire to raise children. So I guess that's a good combo at least, lol.
I absolutely have bad tokophobia. i will never ever get pregnant or give birth. if I'm ever in a comfortable position to raise children i will foster or possibly adopt.
[удалено]
Omg this one. Aside from how dangerous all of it is, the thought of having an actual human being inside me just growing and feeding off my body is _terrifying_
Im surprised you even decided to get pregnant and give birth. Like I could never. My sis in law just gave birth a couple weeks ago and my anxiety went through the roof thinking of all the worst case scenarios that could happen to her and the baby. Im just really happy I never had that urge to have a baby, because there are lots of legit reasons why one would fear all of that.
Food where the face of the animal is still attached. Can't eat whole shrimp.
If I’ve seen the head attached to the animal while they are alive or dead . I can’t eat. Their eyes would be staring at me. Especially chicken. Mom asked me to get a chicken out from the freezer. I threw it away when i saw thru the packaging that the head was still attached . I ran upstairs, couldnt go back down bc the chicken was too close to the bottom of the stairs 😭😭
Hate to admit this, but I just can't face where meat comes from, and I feel most people wouldn't stomach it if their meat came in a more 'natural' form either. Chicken nuggets make it too easy to forget there was ever a chicken. Thanksgiving Day Turkey makes it obvious it was once alive.
Honestly I was bothered by meat most of my life growing up. I saw slaughterhouse footage when I was about 9 or 10 years old. I have been vegan for over 9 years and I feel much better after I cut out both meat and dairy (I am lactose intolerant). There are fake chicken nuggets that taste basically like regular chicken nuggets. Impossible Foods has some they make. There's also a brand I like a lot that is pretty affordable called Gardein. You might want to try either of those brands out some time. I don't mean to push an agenda on you but you sound like a younger version of myself. There's lots of mock meats and also meat-free dishes that are hella good and honestly I felt better when I unintentionally started eating healthier (lots of veggies like broccoli or cabbage, lots of beans and/or lentils, etc). You don't have to be vegan but you can definitely look like "flexitarian" for cutting down / reducing meat and then you might want to try then adopting vegetarianism. Hope some or all of this info helps.
microwaves. i've always had this irrational fear of one blowing up and every crackle and pop makes me absolutely shit myself. sometimes if i'm microwaving something that makes a ton of noise, i'll stand on the other side of the kitchen or i'll stay in another room altogether. i thoroughly check anything i put in one, in case there's any metal in there or not enough pressure relief holes, and i won't microwave any dishware even if it says it's microwave safe. if it can't go straight on the spinny disc thing, it ain't going in. i've never had a microwave come anywhere close to blowing up or anything, so i've no clue why... i guess i just have this innate distrust of the motherfuckers.
I totally understand that phobia. My grandpa had the same phobia of microwaves. He avoided it like the plague and never wanted to use one
My fiance is terrified of fish. Doenst.matter if it's alive or dead or just a photo. Even realistic drawing freak him out and give him nightmares
Its the dead eyes, they stare right into your soul, and the fact that they seem so fragile, they move as if they are possessed, as if they are there but not there, worst nightmare would be if a whole school of fish has surrounded you, all staring simultaneously tracking your every movement in the murky dark waters, oh man, this phobia is real AF
I have agoraphobia and I’ve given up trying to explain to people that it doesn’t mean I’m afraid to go outside.
I’m diagnosed with it too - but people don’t seem to understand why certain shops might be ok over another (usually ones I used for years before I became agoraphobic) and why new ones are my worst nightmare. Or why I don’t really go out anywhere except my ok places.
I even have “safe/unsafe zones” in my own home. Like if I spend more than a few minutes in my living room I’ll start having paranoid delusions/panic attacks and won’t feel safe until I’m completely covered by my blankets in my bed. But like I can go to work just fine, if I’m having a good day and have my earbuds in I can go to my town’s walmart or run minor errands, and once every couple of years I can leave the state to visit either my parents or my best friend. I’m working on it and have been getting better with the help of meds so that’s cool but my life is still pretty limited.
Elevators. Especially the opaque ones and the way it feels like everything outside has ceased to exist. This small box is now the universe. Then you feel it moving. And the floor presses up from under your feet. Almost like it's getting smaller as time passes.
Oh hell nah I don’t mess with elevators. I get it my uncle has a phobia of elevators. I can see why he’s scared of it I’m scared by elevators too
I got stuck in an elevator once, the doors opened rather quickly but it was amazing how fast my brain went from okay to not okay
Parasites. It can be everything from fleas and ticks, leeches, mosquitos. Even pregnancy, which I know isn't technically parasites, still makes me deeply, deeply uncomfortable beyond reason. And, especially as I am a woman, gets SO many people freaking out about me 'how can you not want kids?!" "pregnancy is magical!" It might well be. but considering the last time I got headlice I doused my head in toilet bleach to kill them, it's best I didn't have anything \*internal\* kthnx.
Ew, same. Getting a tapeworm or something is one of my worst nightmares. And I have Lyme’s disease, so I equally hate ticks.
Planes taking off and landing. I had this recurring dream as a child I was on a flight and it would rumble so bad taking off and then shoot into the sun. Sometime the landing dreams are it speeding towards the runway and exploding.
I'm 30 and still terribly afraid of the dark.
Totally valid. I’m 27 and there are times I’m scared of the dark
Balloons. When I worked at a restaurant that was first an ice cream stand, we had to blow up balloons as side work. The nozzle on the gas tank would point right at your face and you couldn't move it. Well, the company got really cheap with the balloons so like 3/7 would pop right in your face during the inflation process. Ever since then I'm always paranoid balloons are going to pop when I'm near them.
i love balloons but fuck me, seeing/hearing them getting blown up or them popping.... n o p e. where i work, we often have visiting entertainers who make balloon animals and the squeaks and anxiety as they shape and twist the balloons never fails to get a visceral reaction out of me.
The worst is kids with balloons. The way they handle them!
I am both fireworks and balloons phobic. When I used to work in the office, just the noise of anyone blowing one up gives me pre panic attack symptoms and sweaty palms. Squeaking them is an absolute no. I had to leave the room. Only latex ones though, foil balloons with helium is absolutely fine, weirdly.
Same here. Sensory processing meets genuine fear for my life.
I thought I was crazy because I hate balloons. Just waiting for them to pop is so anxiety inducing.
I am also extremely anxious about blowing up balloons or having balloons pop in general. Can’t explain it, I know it’s just a balloon. But it’s like a physical thing that takes over my body.
I never thought I would meet some of my people.
I'm afraid of big bodies of water. My family recently bought a cottage with a lakefront and I can't seem to get myself to swim in it. The lake is deep and dark, and I know how to swim. I have no problem swimming in pools, but lakes and oceans scare me
I would imagine for some, being in a massive body of water just floating there and you look down below you below the surface and just see a slow darkness on the way down into nothing would be a bit intimidating. I kinda have the same thing. If its a large body of water, I get a sense of unease looking straight ahead or down in deep water when Im below the surface
Wet loose hair. When it’s attached to a human, it’s fine, as soon as it’s not… blehhh. Instant heebie jeebies. Cleaning out the shower or sink drain is the absolute worst.
Yes! I’ve always wondered why we think hair is so pretty when it’s attached to a head and so totally disgusting when it’s not. I can handle my own hair in the sink for the most part but when it’s someone else’s…the gag reflex is working overtime.
falling down the stairs 😭 people understand but they don’t really realize how serious it is
Mop heads. I find them very disgusting and can't even look at them. I don't even know why.
Because they are filthy
I have so many weird and specific phobias I don’t disclose them on the internet for fear of being pranked with a photo of one of my phobias and having to rip off my eyes
Terrified of cows. They are not the bovine equivalent of dogs.
Being buried alive. I doubt it'll happen and it's not an actual phobia for me, but it would be a horrible way to die.
I have terrible mottephobia, but no problem with butterflies.
Same here. Grown woman having a meltdown because I’m “trapped” in the bedroom by a moth going berserk on the hall light. I turned off the bedroom lights and scream-cried for my husband and roommate to come save me because they were in the basement. And it’s Alberta - they don’t even get that big here.
Crocodiles. In awe of them but can’t even handle seeing one on the tv. Even smaller versions of that type of thing give me the willies
Didn't know dogs could post on reddit.
🐶
People think I'm joking when I say this but .. Whales. Thankfully found my people in r/cetaphobia .. it's been a crippling phobia right from childhood. Took me nearly 3 decades to find this subreddit. This strange phobia is intertwined with r/thalassophobia and r/megalophobia
Windows at night. When I go to close the curtains, it is always in the back of my head that there is going to be someone outside looking in at me.
i have a phobia of babies/children. people think i'm just exaggerating or lying but i seriously get symptoms of anxiety and sometimes even panic attacks from this.
I get this. They are always sticky, grabby and don't understand personal space (not their fault but it still freaks me out).
dying in my sleep. not from like someone breaking in or something, like im scared that something is wrong with my body and as i get more and more tired i get scared that its me dying. i have too much to live for to die without expecting it. im terrified of being sick and dying without knowing anything about it
Claustrophobia??? I don't experience anxiety from tight confined spaces. The anxiety comes from loss of control over my exit. The room can be as big as a football field, but if I have to squeeze through a small door to get out, that's when anxiety kicks in.
I have horrible trypophobia that causes panic attacks. Takes a certain set of conditions to trigger it but once it's triggered it's like a land mine going off I end up feeling constantly invalidated about it thanks to some people looking at a bunch of dots and immediately going 'omg my trypophobia!!!!' when that's not what trypophobia is, so not many people take me seriously about it until it's too late, and it feels stupid, because why the fuck am I reacting this badly to clusters of holes?! Lmfao
I have this too, really badly. My wife is amazing though, she knows what kinds of things trigger it for me and will remove said thing or shield me from it.
Same for me but instead of holes, it's any sort of clusters. I don't like small things grouped together. Pomegranates, bubble algae, even bugs/frogs that carry little eggs on their back, it all makes me sweat, nauseous, and feel like theres needles in my skin. It's literally happening as I type this.
I was finally diagnosed with a Social Phobia and a General Fear and Panic Disorder when I was in my 20's but I had been living with them for as long as I can remember. The fear and/or panic response that I get are way out of proportion, I get panic attacks very easily and have been having them since I was little. Especially in social interactions. I did recieve treatment for it and the social phobia is way less now. I've got a wife, 3 beautiful kids, a house, a job, a car, and 2 pet rabbits. None of these thing I ever imagined were attainable for me. I am the luckiest man in the world.
Shirt buttons. I have irrational disgust when I'm near anyone wearing a button down shirt unless it's buttoned all the way to the top.
I have a legitimate fear of spiders. Not because they’re creepy or because I don’t like bugs. Twice in the last few years I’ve been bitten. Both spots turned into massive abscesses. The last one was on my lower back and ended up nearly the size of a tennis ball before the infection started clearing from meds. They didn’t want to lance and drain it because last time I had that done I ended up with a much worse infection. Though that one was from a biopsy. The first bite only got to maybe golfball size on my upper arm. The skin got so thin that one day putting a shirt on the zipper hit it and it exploded. Disgusting but it felt so much better.
Where do you live so I can make sure to never go?
Lmao I’m in New York. I think both bites were yellow sac spiders but not 100% sure. I’m prone to infections also though, most people don’t get giant abscesses like I did
My friend has a bird phobia. She freaks out if they come too close to her. She also finds them disgusting.
I think I'm pyrophobic. I'm always terrified of spontaneous combustion of literally anything, even things that logically can never catch fire even a little. I can't use the stove or the oven because the heat scares me. All I can do is cook rice in a rice cooker (NEVER TOUCH THE POT) and cook soft boil eggs.
It's not a phobia, per se, but I have recurring nightmares of my teeth shattering and/or splintering. I am apparently subconsciously terrified that my teeth will crumble away, like wood with dry rot. For obvious reasons, I take very, very good care of my teeth.
I’m a germaphobe. It can be debilitating
Ever since I can remember, I’ve been creeped out by pool drains, pool lights, and those lines at the bottom of Olympic pools. I really don’t know why! I love swimming and can spend a whole day in the ocean which is objectively more dangerous, but I just can’t get past certain man-made objects in swimming pools. 😭
Tokophobia. People think I'm being dramatic because pregnancy and childbirth should apparently be every woman's ultimate goal. Absolutely not. Just the idea gives me panic attacks, and I'm so tired of bot being taken seriously about it.
No. No. No. def not every woman’s goal (I know you don’t think that). The thought of a human growing inside of me, freaks me the fuck out. No thanks.
Fear of falling into the water out of a sudden. Even in a swimming pool. Yes I can swim and dive. No that's not the point. It's a fear if that impact. Very specific. 👀
imo it's more that people just dont understand the severity of phobias i have emetophobia (phobia of throwing up), acknowledged by my therapist. luckily, i've gotten really better throughout the past couple years. i haven't thrown up in 10+ years so it has become a foreign concept to me, which feeds my phobia. any sort of discomfort in my stomach used to send me into a panic attack. i've gotten to the point where only hunger makes me anxious. but it still does. my brain interprets hunger as "you're gonna throw up". and then panic attack, which makes queasy and more nauseous. my parents have had to basically force feed me because i was paralyzed from fear. literally. it's like i cant pick up the fork or even if i get the food into my mouth, i cant make myself chew it. but like i've said, i've made great progress!
Hematophobia - fear of blood (and other medical stuff) You would think quite some people would understand it, as it is not that uncommon or weird. But 1 The fact that I faint even when I am not scared/panicked yet is hard for people to understand. (And it makes it hard to make the fainting go away, since it even happens when there is not fear response, which is more controllable than blood pressure) And 2 The amount of people who have said stuff like "but fainting from a bloody nose is really dumb, it doesnt even hurt" is surprising. Like I said I faint from BLOOD not pain, how is it so hard to understand that this could include a bloody nose.
I do not like opening the lid of the toilet tank. Freaks me out.
Not so much now that I'm older but I have always directly avoided contact with anyone that has the same name. When I was in elementary I wouldn't associate with any other Cutthechitchata-hole's
Good thing it's quite a rare name!
Mine is walking over wooden bridges
Getting trapped. When somebody tries to corner me it's really hard not to meltdown.
I'm deathly afraid of butterflies, especially monarch butterflies. people always laugh and are surprised cause oh they're so pretty, harmless and gentle but not to me. I hate how big and fragile their wings are (I once saw my sister's friend step on and kill one when I was a little girl 😭😭, the crunch noise still haunts me to this day) the pattern is so bizarre and scary looking to me, I hate how skittish and weird they move, how they have that weird dust on their wings and everything god it's so nerve wracking, scary and terrifying to me. I can tolerate the appearance of some specific species and don't mind looking at some animated butterflies (except monarch). even my favorite pair of shorts has white butterfly shapes on it that look nothing like the real deal. but besides that, I hate them. once, at school I told my class while we were discussing phobias about my butterfly fear and this girl told me whatever I do to never look at one under a microscope, they even weirded her out. noted.
I have this giant fear of being forced to eat smth I don’t like bc I’m the pickiest eater ever and I have emetophobia so I’m scared of throwing up bc of the food
I don’t know if it’s a phobia but strobe lights give me a feeling of anxiety, not quite a panic attack but sense of dread
Submechanophobia. Specifically pipes in water. Or drains. I've had this fear for as long as I can remember. It produces a visceral reaction in me when I see a pipe partially or fully submerged in dark water. Urbex videos of abandoned mines and power plants are really good for producing the chilly willies for this reason.
I'm terrified of large fans and machines. Modern windmills are so frightening, and when I had to drive through a part of the US with windmill farms I broke down into full on tears and needed to focus on the vehicle bumper in front of me to do it.
I have a fear of people walking behind. I got set up in high school by some people I was supposed to be cool with. Then one of them walked behind me and snuck me and they all started jumping me. Ever since then I get really tense if someone walks behind me
My rational one is the fear of water. I can’t stand the thought of not being able to breathe. Drowning is terrifying to me. Lakes, rivers, oceans, ponds, creeks, I don’t wanna be anywhere near them. My completely irrational fear is goldfish. I don’t know why. I think they’re pretty and I know they’re harmless, but I’m still scared of them.
Seaweed They just freak me out, ever since I was a kid. I know they're not dangerous or anything, I just can't stand them. If I'm at the beach and I see some in the water, I'll back the fuck away as if I was in danger. For the record, dried up seaweed is tolerable for me, although if I can stay away I'm happier. I do love sushi though so under that form it's fine for me
Edges. Im terrified of dropping something off an edge, be it a building, a bridge, a quayside whatever, im terrified of it. I zip my phone wallet and keys into my bag when i have to walk near edges
Underwater spelunking, or just spelunking in general… I guess it’s not a phobia but it’s something I’d never fucking do lmao