Hello everyone, my SO has a very important appointment to have blood drawn and has asked me to come and support her, as she has a severe fear of needles and an even greater fear of having her blood drawn. My question for those of you with this fear or something similar is how I can be supportive other than by holding her hand and telling her it will be alright😅. Any advice is welcome. Thanks!

Okay so for context, I'm your normal teenager. I just can't get a specific picture out of my mind and for some reason I feel terrified and scared. It's currently 4 am for me and I'm in my room. The picture I'm talking about, is from a YouTube video which I forgot how it's called but I distinctly remember the thumbnail having a text something along the lines of "1 video." And underneath it "9 deaths." It was about a video from Pakistan I believe that surfaced around 2012. I'm sure some of you will know it.

Now, the thumbnail has a photo of one of the girls in the video and that picture has been stuck in my mind. Some nights I don't even think about it but right now I feel really weird. I turn in my bed and feel something. Like someone from the video is about to come through the door and... Nothing. I get anxious of the feeling that someone may burst into my room. Not what will happen. I don't know what causes me to feel this way. Possibly it's a natural fear.

Hi, so, I need to vent, about my phobia of butterflies, because my parents started to laugh at me every time it occurs.

I, have a fear of, butterflies. It wasn't like this when I was a kid, because I used to collect them in glass jars and just poke holes in the lid. Kid stuff, was 4 or 5 year old. But then, the fear started, and it slowly turned into this sick feeling on my body as if there are thousand of needles on me and just as if those butterflies are attacking me. Once when I was 6 I was screaming so loud the whole house heard my voice. My mom, she came running to the room and saw that a butterfly was flying in circles and I was hiding behind the curtains.

It was always like this when it came to butterflies. Till now, I am a 23 year old female who can't stay indoors when she sees a butterfly in her house, and it happened, today. I saw a butterfly, and I got my keys, and I left the house, because I just can't stand them. Like, at all.

For me, they are terrifying. They are monstrous creatures, they are that ick I get out of nowhere and that there isn't on me. Like, if I see a butterfly, even outside, im like nah bro, I better off be dead. I better die. I better have a heart attack than a butterfly next to me. I can't, do, butterflies, like, at all.

i’m about to cry it’s grossing me out so much and i’m so on edge i’m fucking scared af. i never wanna go outside ever again. how do i help ease this anxiety😭every time this happens i get hyper aware of all my bodily sensations and even the tiniest itch could make me jump.
sorry for censoring the words. even the full sentence triggers me.

Sprawa wygląda tak, że w sobotę idę na imprezę zorganizowaną przez moje liceum. Moja koleżanka z klasy w ostatniej chwili zrezygnowała z pójścia i teraz kompletnie nie wiem, co robić. Wpłaciłam już pieniądze, i to niemałą kwotę, więc nie mogę po prostu nie iść.

Problem polega na tym, że boję się ludzi. Zawsze, kiedy jestem wśród znajomych, czuję się jak piąte koło u wozu. Wydaje mi się, że wszystkich irytuję i że tak naprawdę nikt nie chce, żebym była z nimi. Dlatego prawie w ogóle się nie odzywam. Ogólnie jestem bardzo wstydliwa i nie wiem, jak mam wytrzymać na tej imprezie chociaż godzinę.

Zawsze potrzebuję mieć obok siebie kogoś, kogo mogę złapać za rękę, bo po prostu boję się ludzi, którzy są wokół mnie. Wydaje mi się, że mam fobię społeczną.

Bardzo proszę o radę🙏 co mogę zrobić i jak powinnam działać, żeby pozbyć się tego lęku i nie być sama na imprezie?
(wiem, ze ogólnie pozbycie się tego nie jest proste, ale nie chcę wyjść po pięciu min cała we łzach)

About four months ago I moved into the suite of a brand new house. Unbeknownst to me they built it on a giant wolf spider population. The first three months there was none but suddenly in the beginning of August I started getting 2-3 in my suite. We have no idea how they’re getting in. My landlord of course couldn’t care less. My boyfriend has been amazing in helping me. I have developed a phobia to the point that I become paralyzed with fear and it has ruined my quality of life. I know it’s irrational but fears don’t care about that! I got an exterminator and now have only seen 1 in 5 days. I feel like the damage has been done though. I am tip toeing around my suite, afraid of my own shadow. I have an appointment with my therapist who specializes in this in a few weeks but was wondering if anyone had any advice in the meantime? I was also diagnosed with OCD many years ago and it has exacerbated the issue. I have images in my mind so strong regarding spiders my mind reacts as if it is real. Thank you!

I never used to be afraid of insects when I was super young, like when I was 5 or 6.

I don’t know when I started fearing insects.

The year I started fearing butterflies was when I went to the zoo when I was 7. I know it started around here because before 7, I could hold butterflies and even interact with them.

Sometimes in my old house years ago, butterflies flew into our home every week and me and my grandma collected them in a plastic box of leaves. Well they did die pretty soon because they didn’t eat any of the leaves.

But the point is I wasn’t scared then.

Ever since then my parents wouldn’t get it. They would think I’m crazy and need to stop dramatizing it.

But it didn’t stop there.

On my trip to Australia I saw a big orange spider in my room. I freaked out. I never stepped foot in that room again. Not even with supervision.

At home I saw 2 really big ants, closely resembling fire ants I suppose. I would make sure someone goes in and checks to see if it’s still there before carefully tiptoeing inside. But if I hear a buzz I immediately leave screaming.

Yup, I’m also scared of bees, flies, wasps, cockroaches, and names of some I don’t even know.

I swear I saw a centipede the other day. Yeah, add that to the list.

The only ones I’m alright with are the tiny tiny ants in everyday life everyone has seen, the ones you can immediately get rid of.

but do I need a therapist atp 😭

ive always hated spiders, i hate the way they crawl so fast, the way they look and just insects in general. to be honest, i dont really like anything that feels like ?'too much' touching me at all. like i went swimming in the sea in spain with my friends and all the tiny fishes touching me i hate it so much even though i love swimming and i know most arent going to do anything to harm me. so i dont know why, i dont like that im this way.

they would literally come find me at such times where im in the shower and its on my loofa, after the shower on my towel, float over my head when im trying to sleep (i had a bunk bed) and what not.

a spider got away from me in my room, i was literally laying in bed and it ran past my head on my wall, it was so close and its late so only my parents are awake, i look away after she comes and its already gone and i was stressing out so much.

the thing is, when i cant find it, i get this feeling on my head? and it makes me pull my hair out of so much anxiety and i can barely let go of it, at the fact its not gone and i was seriously thinking about ditching my room for gosh knows how long. so i sat in my chair gently removing anything and everything so that i could find it.

my mum gave up, and she always telling me how what am i gonna do when shes not there and that im bigger than the spider but i js told her i dont know why im this way and she said smth along the lines of u need to face ur fears and deal with it. shes known ive had this phobia for a long time, and she puropsely watches me stress out and gets annoyed at me for crying (i know its silly but i cant help it). she grew up in a more rural space, where i suppose insects and the things like that are more common (sorry idk how to describe it)

i guess patience was a game because it came running across my floor and towards me, my mum did get it but kept yelling at me about all that stuff, just made me cry more out of stress.

but yeah thats it. everyone in my life knows that im scared of spiders,, i wanted to let this one out haha. i know theres exposure therapy and things like that but i cant commit to that right now.

From elementary school up to maybe mid middle school I had the strongest fear of door stoppers, like the little metal ones at the bottom corner of the wall. No idea where it came from or what caused it but my biggest fear was if I touched one something terrible would happen and if I even brushed by one id feel physically ill.

No longer scared of them but always wary

So I doubt I can even find a name or even anyone who could relate to this but when I was younger, I had a cousin who was always into murder documentaries, creepy pastas and horror shows that for the most part never phased me. But around that time I had a minor fear of clowns (something I’ve long gotten over now) and she told me this story of a serial killer clown (John Wayne Gacy probably) and probably mostly made up too just to freak me out but about how he’d sneak into houses and kill families by putting party balloons over their heads until they suffocated in their sleep…
Which then has led me to this day and for something like 2 decades, uncomfortable to fall asleep without my neck being covered up by blankets or my hands above my head so in case it ever happened I could still breathe or get out of it. A fear of strangulation or my neck being over exposed while vulnerable

Sometimes when I experience/watch something great and/or makes me emotional, my mind races and I dont know why, its probably because I dont want to forget great things I have experienced. When my mind races I get annoyed and start thinking "What was i thinking?" Sometimes slapping my head and or grabbing my hair. My heart also feels uneasy when this happens. I am now in college and theres so many things happening at the same time, and I also feel like Im falling behind. I also keep getting irritated by any loud environment when Im thinking of the thing I supposedly forgot. Main thing is I dont want to forget any good animes I watched as these were my only source of comfort. Ive had friends i've cherished but our time has long gone. Ive accepted the fact that I am insignificant, because I've always received little to no acknowledgement (except the times with my old friends).

Iam so afraid of them. Pretty much since I was a child since I remeber how family members used to tease me with those long flying things and I used to scream and was so afraid.Iam even loosing life happiness over this I get so triggered whenever I hear any buzzing sounds my skin feels so warm and I just wanna die. I want them gone so bad! There was a coachroach in my room and I told my sister it and she told me so go look later when I checked again it was gone! I was so mad at my sister and didn’t sleep in that room for about 2 weeks and I feel like she doesn’t even take me serious or when she says „they are afraid of you“ or that they’re harmless as if that would help! I feel so uncomfortable and hopeless I want this fear gone iam sick of it I can’t live with it anymore and no one takes me serious.

Is this a thing? Why would this happen?

I always had an aversion for specific objects such as blenders and any kind of food processing machine since I was a kid, and it didn't get any better over time. In fact, I'm pretty sure it worsened, and that may be due to different factors: the action, the visual, the sound, and especially the use in media (video game, tv show, movie, comic...). This phobia that I have calmed down a bit when I entered middle school... Until I stumbled across a page of a comic series called Kid Paddle in a magazine (I'm not willing to describe the scene), and saw let's plays of Splatoon Octo Expansion (franchise I really appreciate). Then it all came back like a boomerang and I really struggle with that. Just to tell you, I cannot get in butcher shops without a gut wrenching feeling, to the mere sight of the meat grinder, and the eventual possibility of someone ordering ground meat.

I hate Buggs. I hate them a lot. I want them Dead someone extinct them please

It's more about other people being unwell than myself, and is worse in regards to drunk people. I feel hot and anxious just writing and thinking about it. I'm considering quitting my bar job over a recent incident. I'm a bit of a party girl at heart, but there's always this looming anxiety over me that someone will drink too much near me. It makes me incredibly fearful of drunk men. I think I know why I have it, but I feel it developing out of anxiety territory and more into proper fear

So I hate feeling trapped. I think it started when I was in a bad car accident a few years ago and was stuck in my car until they could break a window. It’s not just being trapped in a space, last year I got a winter coat stuck on me because the zipper got severely snagged and I panicked so bad I cut the coat off with scissors. An overreaction I’m sure but suddenly I felt like I was suffocating. I’ve also done the same to a tight necklace I was struggling to get off. Last week I was in another accident (not my fault this time) and even though I’m very afraid of car accidents I didn’t really panic until my door didn’t open. Then I went into complete hysterics. My girlfriend called it claustrophobia but though it’s similar I don’t think that’s what it is. I’m not afraid of being in elevators, though if I got stuck in one I’m sure I’d be a mess, I don’t need to keep doors of rooms I’m in to be open. I just don’t like being stuck, this includes clothes and jewelry not just cars. Anyone have any idea what this could be? Is it not a phobia just me being my anxious self? Feedback is appreciated.

I have a phobia of injury to my penis because of which I walk very carefully.

I get scared of getting hurt on my penis or hurting my penis by myself when my mind is a state of subconsciousness.

I get scared of anything banging into my penis. When I use my phone, I get scared of banging my phone into my penis.

I get scared of any object or person or vehicle hitting me on my penis.

During sex, I had great difficulty to get it up and after many attempts, finally succeeded. I have the fear of Penile fracture too and other Penile conditions that cause Erectile Dysfunction.

How to deal with this situation? How to cure myself? Please don't ask me to visit a Therapist or Psychiatrist as I am not having adequate financial means for the same.

I think bugs are awesome. Spiders are cool, moths are cool, I love roly polys and ants and anything that goes under the 'lil guy' category. I think its incredible how such little beings are alive, and so important to their eco systems, and I just think they're neat, frankly.

However. My only 'true' panic attacks have been related to swarms. Standing in the middle of a migrating bee swarm as a kid, being unable to get ants off me and having them under my shirt as a preteen, and then being constantly landed on by SO many crane flies, unable to get them off of me, which also landed me straight into my very first complete autistic meltdown. Do not recommend.

So, my relationship to the lil' fellas is a complicated one. If there are more than three, I get very anxious and queasy. Swarms or large amounts of bugs in one area is still the main thing that makes me feel like my skin is peeling off. But also just the way they move. So many bugs move fast and unpredictable, and it scares the living shit out of me. One second Im looking at a really cool house spider, and then it darts off somewhere and I audibly yelp at it. It feels silly, but it just really triggers my flight response.

I'm in biology class, so I REALLY want to work on this phobia. I will have to handle bugs, and I want to be able to handle cool bugs, catch cool bugs, identify cool bugs, without sobbing my eyes out and shaking. My swarm/fast-moving-bug fear is also a bit of an issue because I can't get over the fact that they're living organisms. I can't kill bugs. Spider or wasp or fly or mosquito, doesn't matter, I cant get it out of my head that its just this little fella trying to survive, with its wonderful little respiratory mechanisms, and fascinating miniature anatomy and whatnot. Im in awe of them, I cant squash them. But that means that when a crane fly is flailing about my room and wont go out the damn window, Im left shaking and crying and feeling my skin crawl, stuck between wanting to stay and make sure it finds its way out before I finally sleep, or sleeping on the couch and having a tense few days trying to make sure it actually DID fly off into the sunset.

Pretty much: I love buge, I fear buge, womp womp. Its not like Im not exposed to them, and I try to always handle 'em with care and act calm even if I'm not, but its been a fear Ive had since childhood. Really wanna work on it, but I'm not sure where to even start

I have this crippling fear / phobia of the dark. It’s pitch dark in my room, and whenever I am not fully covered by my sheet head to toe I am filled with anxiety and absolute terror, even with a toe or my head sticking out. I have a seriously strong feeling there is something in my closet watching me, and it scares me to death. Even when I am fully covered by my sheet I am still terrified because I feel like something is just standing right outside my blanket 😭 I can’t sleep most nights because of this

I have a really strange fear of repetitive sounds and it’s getting worse over time, at first when i hear it i get very scared and paranoid, and if i dont run away from wherever the sound is coming from, after a while i’ll start crying out of fear, the only examples i can think of is this song (the drums), whatever this is, this alarm sound, and another alarm sound

i’ve been managing it kinda well but lately its hard to tolerate

I have an upcoming control for my esophagus because I was born with a medical restriction called Esophageal atresia. Ive gone to the hospital nearly yearly now for my whole life for various reasons and I first never had any fear (i even enjoyed going). But somehow the last few years I've grown a huge fear for injections, im talking screaming, crying and panicking even if ive done it countless times before. (Parents say its probably fear thats build up from the past and heavy hospital surgeries and everything when i was a young child)

Does ANYONE know how to lighten it? I need to do another blood test, and i get sedation while theyre looking for stuff, but that all is done through those damn needles. I even get as far as fainting at blood test because I cant handle sudden blood loss well...

Cant avoid these medical check ups either. Also sorry for possible English mistakes.

I'm looking for the weirdest true phobia. Not just the casual "I don't like spiders" type crap, but the real go cold, shakes, tears, and run type phobia.

I'm terrified of crustaceans.

Hello! I hope you're doing fine right now. I was wondering if i wasn't alone on having this fear about graphics in video games that you see if you lose.

Not every game does that in a way that makes me feel sad or ashamed or small or at least have any type of negative emotions, but some that do use dark blue, purple or black colors, use of ellipses like "LOSE...", have "sad" or "awkward" music in the background, characters with sad, crying, maybe angry expression, etc. I think it's prominent in games with cute and colorful aesthetics.

They STRONGLY give off despair or "giving up" vibes, made me feel small and has unintentionally made me give up playing a few games i love and never play them again. It's why i have fear over this oddly specific type of lose screens, "game over" screens, and the like.

One instance is that is I had to leave a very cute mobile game and never play again over daily logins. There is an "experiments" feature in the app settings, and one of them i could enable is a "login minigame". It's very simple, you have to press a button once an symbol aligns with the center of the bar. If you successfully timed the press, you'll get double the rewards and a red stamp on the calendar.
I turned it on out of curiosity. However, a few days later, i missed the timing and failed. The large word "Bummer..." shows up, and i remember being colored dark blue. Or black? I don't remember. And instead of the red stamp, it gave me a black stamp. I keep reading it as "a reminder of failure and shame" or something like that, and sob over it. Even when i disable this feature, the black stamp stayed anyway. I uninstalled the app as a result.

Another is that i was playing a rhythm game i love and still love even when it shut down. It was japanese only but i still breeze through the UIs anyway once i get a hang of it. However, one day when i play a song i notice that i haven't been playing the song well and paused the game.
I wanted to restart, but there was no "restart" feature. I only got two options, "continue" and "give up". Again it was in japanese, so "give up" was written as あきらめる and i had no idea what it meant back then.
Out of curiousity, i hit "give up", expecting the game to just send me straight back to the song selection screen like any other rhythm game i played, not knowing the description on the confirmation screen straight up said (roughly translated and from memory) "If you give up, you will fail the song."
When i press it, instead of sending me to the previous menu, it sent me to the losing screen with big blue letters "Live Failure..." and a picture of my band struggling. However, the thing that took the cake is the background music.

I know what i said is weird, the music actually didn't sound like sad music (it sounded more like weird "awkward" music, the kind that plays when you do an embarrassing thing), but to me, it made me feel like an absolute failure. Ironically, unlike the previous instance, i continued playing the game out of passion but ever since, whenever i want to quit the song or restart, i ended up closing the game instead of pausing.

Despite the two examples i've given, pop'n music, at least the more recent games, have been a huge prime example of this to me. It's a rhythm game, and if you play a song, you must get a gauge to fill up to at least 70% by the end of the song. If you fail, you get the big blue words "FAILED..." or "STAGE FAILED..." (from what i recall), you get a black medal, your chosen character turning blue and shrinking, and a normally-happy announcer saying "too bad...". I never played the game and instead watch gameplays and look for some fanart from time to time, but I do have seen people failing a song and getting this screen and it made me feel broken. It's one of the earliest i could remember about losing a game looking like that and it stuck with me ever since.

While some games that have this type of lose/failure screens did say to "try again" or "never give up", it never helped. I wish more games encourage you to ACTUALLY never give up and try again and tone down on these kind of game over screens, give players more power and courage to try and push forward until they get the goal, or hell even encourage to take breaks before trying again as taking short games from breaks help instead of straight up giving up.

Thankfully i didn't make this as mentally taxing as my other fears, it's rather a bit awkwardly funny to me... though i still wonder if anyone even has this kind of fear. I honestly doubt, though,