r/Phobia

Welp- here’s mine:

Mine is getting stabbed in the face or eye with something sharp. Specifically, if I’m holding a pencil or knife pointy-side up, my brain immediately thinks an earthquake is going to happen at that exact second, and I’m going to lose my balance and fall face-first into it.

It’s just a fear of an oddly specific accident where I somehow end up tripping and stabbing myself.

What is your insanely specific phobia? Tell me I'm not the only one. TwT

(I won’t be able to answer everyone’s comment, sorry ToT.. but just to let you guys know I will be able to upvote! Just because I don’t comment doesn’t mean I didn’t read it :])

Since I was about 14, if I stay in the house where I sleep on a regular basis for more than 4 hours ( not counting time spent asleep) I begin to have what feels like a panic attack.

The only remedy is to leave and not come back until a time where I only have a couple of hours bed I fall asleep.

Is there a name for this? Do other people have this?

Guys do you know any group chats that talk about Deipnophobia? Where I can share my journey with this phobia

Deipnophobia is the fear of eating around other people or fear of dinning.

I just wanted to share my experience with it and how it has impacted my life.

My phobia started at the age of around 10 or 11. I'm 13 now. It was worse when it first started and has gotten a little bit better but I still struggle with it.

When it first started I couldnt eat around anyone and at school when I was forced to eat around people I literally wouldn't eat anything and would feel insanely sick. I wouldn't even eat around my family and would eat in my room or in the kitchen where no one was around me and I could eat in peace.

Now its gotten a bit better. I still cant eat around people at school and get really bad anxiety from it which has caused me in some occasions to eat in the bathroom where no one could see me (I know it's gross but it's better than not eating at all..). Im able to sometimes eat infront of my family but I eat way slower and don't eat all of it and gets put off my food so I prefer to eat in my room by myself.

This is my experience with Deipnophobia. I hope this gives some information about what Deipnophobia can do and alot of negative things that can come with it.

Thank you for reading.

(13M) I have an unhealthy fear of lace. When I'm near it, I don't feel well (like my body); I stop breathing, cry out, and distance myself. When I touch lace, I throw up a few times, repeatedly wash my hands, and cry. I don't know why, because I don't have trypophobia. Therapists and doctors don't know why I have this hate. Small or big quantities, I can't STAND it. I tried exposure therapy (touching lace), and I end up having some sort of health-related issue (dizziness, throwing up, not breathing). For the past like 5 years (I'm a teen), I've tried to fix it, and nothing works, even therapy. Does anyone know why I am like this? The second I just see it, a dont feel good, and I feel nauseous and sick; sometimes I get a fever even if I see it. If I touch it, I usually cry, get disgusted, and throw up. I have literally no thought process; I just have an instant "ew, I can't stand it." It's an instinct. I have tested for autism, negative results. I don't have any thread, shoelaces, or knit material. Doilies yes. Ruffles sometimes. This feeling is individual. It's so specific, and there is no phobia name, so I think it's a "specific phobia". I have tried many therapy, no came, even phobia therapists. My family is so tired of me too.

My dream job is to be a paramedic, and I'm so upset I'll never be able to become one because of all my stupid phobias. I have contamination OCD and emetophobia, which I have done exposure therapy for in the past, but I definitely did not get over the anxiety enough.

I also have a terrible phobia of bones. Skeletons or old bones are fine, but seeing dislocated or broken bones, even just x-rays or bones on thin people, terrifies me and I won't be able to get the image out of my head. It also makes me hyper aware of my own bones inside my body and disgusts me at the feel. There are other body parts I’m afraid of too, mostly eyeballs and teeth.

People tell me that with exposure in the field I would get over these fears, but I don't think they understand how bad it is. Is it ever possible to get over a phobia? Does exposure truly work and is it worth it, or should I just let my dream go?

I have a severe phobia of bodies of water. I panic in even shallow swimming pools where my feet can’t touch the floor and I’ll cling to the side of the pool if I do manage to get myself in. The whole time my heart is pounding and I’m scared I’m going to slip or lose grip of the side and go under the water.

I want to be able to go swimming and sit on floaties on the middle of the pool but as soon as I start drifting and feel like I can’t control my movements on the water I flail and panic. It reduces my options for activities on holidays. I’ve gone on boat trips abroad where I’ve had to sit on the boat while everyone else goes swimming and snorkelling, but I’m too terrified to get in the water. I’m ok if I’m not touching the water but as soon as my feet hit even shallow water I feel panic and fear start to creep in. The smell of chlorine is enough to get my heart racing. My worst fear is drowning.

Am I the only one who has an intense fear of getting blood drawn in some specific areas over my entire body? Having it taken from the opposite side of my elbow disgusts me, makes me nauseous and dizzy however say if I was to draw blood from the back of my hand it wouldn’t even be that bad? I have a disgust with some certain areas when drawing blood. Do others with this fear feel like this or is it genuinely just everywhere in your bodies you have a fear of drawing blood? I need a explanation

For aslong as I can remember I have been a indoor person and for as long as i can remember bugs scare me deeply. Anytime I see a springtail or small bug like ants in my room or near a window im terrified. Not necessarily of the bug but the thought of a bug issue or them in the walls or possible infestation im terrified. I stress and stress and fear if I ever get bed bugs or fleas. Or whatever. Im not sure how to overcome this. Thanks

This probably sounds a bit weird, but flies genuinely freak me out and it's mostly because of the buzzing sound and little bit because of flying suddenly in front of me.

If a fly suddenly buzzes near my ear, I get a massive fright and my heart jumps.My reaction is either freezing in place or kill a fly with bug spray

It's not just a dislike of flies either, I'd actually say it's a fear.I have some fear of dogs but flies are worst for me.Why is that?

So when I started dating my gf, she told me she gets nauseous by the fear of hearts and what’s associated with it, she can’t even say “I love you” out loud, but she’s not afraid of the organ, and Google doesnt know what the name for it is. She’s not like- aromantic or anything she just has AA (avoidant attachment) so like is there a name for this phobia anyways?

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.

I tried to make the title obvious but it's exactly what I said.

For example, imagine I'm doing my groceries, I CANNOT hold any bag on my wrists instead of my hands, because I'll start imagining my veins exploding.

I CANNOT do a lot of cardio because I feel like my muscles are gonna get ripped, literally, like thorn into pieces, specially the calfs.

I CANNOT feel confortable when looking at other people's bodies if they have visible veins or visible muscles, specially if they are very buffed, because I feel like they are going to explode with any movement.

Like I feel very uneasy, maybe lightheaded, I may have the urge to throw up and it has caused me significant distress to the point of having panic attacks.

Does anyone know of a name for this? I don't think it applies to like a phobia of bodily harm or gore in general, because in media, it usually doesn't affect me that much, but it's more with non exposed organs and not in media.

sorry if I misspelled anything...

Was having a conversation with coworkers and fears/phobias came up. A few of them have some of the more common phobias (snakes and spiders) but we started to discuss when fear becomes a phobia and where that line is. Snakes became our example, you find a snake in your yard and dont want to handle it, is it a phobia? Do you need to flee the area and not come back till it gone to be phobic? Or does the thought that a snake may be out there and it prevents you from mowing your lawn at all constitute the line for phobias? ​

We work in an industry where language has precise meanings and typically look for quantitative measure for labels like phobia, so we probably went deeper than needed and became our own worse enemies in that conversation.

In order to avoid diminishing anyone's own experiences im going to provide my biggest fear/phobia and people can feel free to disect that or label it or whatever for this conversation. You have my express permission to ridicule me if you feel that its productive to the topic.

I cant watch those cave diving/spelunking videos without becoming immediately uncomfortable. Something about that tight dark space or the inability to turn around just gets me like nothing else. However, I dont feel the NEED to flee from it and it doesnt impact my life in a negative way (not something I encounter everyday). Fear or phobia? What do you people think?

Just to see how far I would get and I didn't even make it past the first post.

I'm So scared of bugs, l never feel safe because i am so scared of finding another bug. I found so many bugs in my home. Yesterday there was a giant Cricket in my bathroom. l am so Scared I havent taken a shower. l open the bathroom door with my heart already racing, Prepared to See a bug, l havent gone to the bathroom now without carefully checking everyplace for bugs, even when i really need to go to the bathroom. I also see and feel bugs when they arent really there. I am Constantly on edge. Could there be bugs in my hair? maybe in my clothes? Every little noise I hear i can only think it's a bug. I am so scared.

im literally so scared I am in a corner rn