my family invalidates my fear of bugs
i have a very very intense (sometimes maybe irrational) fear of bugs. i live with my parents and lately our home has been facing an infestation of several bugs, ranging from ants, roaches, spiders.
my parents and 2 other sisters dislike them, sure, but they don’t have as big of an issue with them as I do. What makes things worse too is that my room has the worst issue with them. I’m generally a clean person so we do know that they must be coming from cracks, outside, and i also sleep right next to the garage where we’ve always seen very many roaches.
I see at least 2 or 3 roaches inside or near my bedroom a day, dead or alive. i’ve occasionally had spider bites on my body when i wake up. it’s become impossible for me to feel comfortable in my bedroom. it feels like i can always sense one before i see it. sometimes ill look on my floor to make sure im not crazy, and sure enough theres one there. or sometimes ill be doing my makeup and in the corner of my eye, theres a huge roach crawling on my wall.
it makes me panic every single time and even though im 18 years old i still have to ask my dad to come kill it for me lol. i often cry if i think too much about it and i wont go into my room for several days after i see one that’s alive and crawling which ill then do a deep clean of my room. i can also hear them if i turn off my fans and stay very still, you can hear one or two shuffling around and its the most terrifying sound and feeling ive ever had.
they’ve called pest people but the problem in my room still doesn’t go away and personally, i dont know how to handle a big issue and my fear of them makes it too hard to actually get to the places they may be coming from and facing my fears.
my parents and sisters make fun of me when i cry or panic, or sometimes scream. they make me feel as though im crazy or as though it should be reasonable that im comfortable in my room when i see a different bug at least once a day. i don’t know what to do anymore because it doesn’t seem like they want to look into all the ways to get rid of them and that makes me really frustrated because i don’t think they’re taking it as seriously as they should. however; when there’s bug in other parts of the house that’s when they do decide to take it seriously. my parents are also very clean people so i dont understand why it’s not so grotesque and worrisome to them as it is to me.
i guess im looking for some reassurance that im not insane lol and maybe some advice on how to manage this issue on my own or with my parents.