People Break Down Their Strangest Irrational Fears

People Break Down Their Strangest Irrational Fears
Eri Pançi on Unsplash

Fear can be based on real dangers or past experiences, but what happens when it isn't?

What happens when fear goes beyond "healthy level of caution" to "abject terror"?

Sometimes labeled as phobias, those irrational fears can still be crippling.

Redditor An_Anxious_Mess_Idk asked:

"What is one fear you have that would be considered stupid by most people?"

Never See It Coming

"I’m scared that when I’m driving anywhere late at night and the roads are clear I’ll be struck by one of those land speed record vehicles."

"I’d be afraid it would come out of nowhere and I wouldn’t see it coming."

- gameofthrones_addict

"I always had this fear (a vehicle coming out of nowhere) when crossing streets as a kid. Suburban streets, mind you..."

- unknown-permutation

"Yeah pretty much, just middle of nowhere you don’t always see everything…"

"I know it wouldn’t happen. So I know it’s an irrational fear."

- gameofthrones_addict

Detached

"Becoming detached on a space walk and drifting off into the void."

"I am not an astronaut, for clarity."

- LoneKharnivore

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Wooly Bully

"Cotton balls."

- DatDude999

"I can't touch cotton wool or anything of that texture. It gives me the chills and the jitters."

"My wife thinks I'm an idiot."

- cloudstrifeuk

"Me too. Everyone always tries messing with me by showing me them or chasing me because I actually run as soon as I see them!"

- AdministrativeCap998

"It's called Sidonglobophobia. The sounds and the static they make when you touch them makes me shake."

- DatDude999

Hiisssss

"Toilet snakes. Thanks, Stephen King."

- Beesareourcousins

"Wife found a 5 foot long black snake in her mom’s washer. She thought it was some sort of gasket that fell in the tub at first….reached for it and it moved."

"Our house is 500 feet away, heard her scream from the front porch."

"Mother-in-law’s house was built 1890 or so. Not very well sealed up anymore."

- tatpig

"Omg. I found a 3-4 foot snake in my hamper once."

"I heard what I THOUGHT was like, a soda bottle slowly letting out fizz, and when I went to investigate, it was A F'KING SNAKE hissing."

"Carried the whole thing, dirty clothes and all, out to the driveway and kicked it over so the snake would slither away."

"I had bombed for spiders the day before. I had opened all the windows and doors for several hours to air the house out. I’m guessing he snuck in then."

"I was ready to burn the place to the ground after that. 😳"

- SamSepiol-ER28_0652

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Take A Seat

"I can't sleep with my desk chair facing my bed."

"I have to get up, turn on a light, face it away from me, and then I can go back to bed."

"I get irrationally afraid that I'm going to turn over or blink and look at it and someone is going to be sitting in it watching me sleep."

"No idea where that fear came from."

- lockehearte

Deep Blue

"Swimming in a lake, or in the ocean without being able to see the bottom."

"I was bit/cut by something once and since then it's a fear I just can't control.

"I will still go and do it though because I hate it when people tell me what to do. Even when that's myself."

- Personality4Hire

"Thank god water shoes were invented or I’d never go in the ocean or lake again."

"I stepped on a horseshoe crab and it freaked me out so bad I can’t go into those bodies of water unless I have shoes on."

- JRich61

"We had a little sand shark swimming by us one trip to the ocean."

"Haven’t been able to get past ankle deep since. It’s been probably closer to 14 years ago now."

- Negative_Shake1478

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Reflection

"Fear of mirrors."

"Creepy things they are."

- The_dead_are_rising

"I'm specifically scared of mirrors in the dark, or any reflective surface."

"I'm convinced that if I look at it, I'm gonna see something horrible standing behind me."

- Kotori425

"Same but I’m not scared of seeing something behind me."

"I’m scared of seeing something in it that could possibly reach or step out."

"Mirrors in the dark feel like a door to another dimension to me and I have no idea why."

- christopharo

"My worst nightmare is getting up at night to go to the bathroom, going past my mirror and I'll see myself in the mirror but the me in the mirror does something different than me..."

"It's that bad that I'll walk past my mirror with my eyes closed at night."

- JenJMLC

Unblinking Eyes

"DEAD FISH."

"UGLY MOTHERF'KERS."

"UNBLINKING EYES ALWAYS STARING"

- Flat_Bodybuilder_175

"Hate to break it to you, but fish don’t blink when they’re alive either."

- Itsafinelife

"You're... not wrong. By the law of my own phobia, I now have a fear of living fish too."

- Flat_Bodybuilder_175

"The sharks got your back bro, they wink."

- salinase

discovery eye roll GIF by Shark WeekGiphy

Mothra Is A Monster

"Moths."

"I get teased all the times about it and my reasons and people try to trick me in to liking them or admitting it's fake.

"Apparently being scared of spiders is ok (I like spiders) but terrified of moths is weird because I like butterflies and 'they are the same thing'."

- kyaria17

That Moth Fear Is Justified

"May 2020, my husband and I took off on a road trip. Everything was mostly shut down but that’s fine, what we like to see and do are outdoor, nature things. We stopped at a state park in Oklahoma that had only partially opened that very day."

"We walked around for a bit, let the dog run around as we were the only ones there. Then I had to pee. Now I’m a chick and 'I’ve got to find somewhere to pee' is pretty much always happening or going to within half an hour."

"The usual state park bathroom places were one hole situations but in little concrete buildings….nice enough, I’ve used way worse."


"When we first opened the door a LOT of moths flew out. I’m not scared of moths but it was a LOT. So we let them fly away and I went in. I’m sitting there beside one of those large toilet roll things….the one foot diameter ones with the black cover and you pull the paper from under."

"Even as I gave the toilet paper a yank, a tiny part of my brain knew what would happen. A truly biblical number of moths burst out from the bottom of the paper roll when I pulled."

"I ran/hobbled with shorts pulled down and toilet paper in hand just screaming out of the bathroom. My husband all but dropped he was laughing so hard. My poor dog was sure I was being attacked and ran into the bathroom barking and growling."

"It was all hilarious in hindsight. But trying to explain to anyone how moths could make me run screaming is difficult to say the least."

- rebel1031

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For me?

June bugs.

June bugs crawl out of the ground in the summer because they're mini demons emerging from Hell. I cannot be convinced otherwise.

So what's your irrational fear?

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