I have a friend who is terrified of moths.
She's an adult, but the fear has been there since she was a child. Interestingly, as is the case with many phobias, she is fully aware that moths are pretty much harmless. Especially to her as a fully grown adult human.
Still - she has that involuntary panic reaction every time she sees one and finds herself regularly screaming and sobbing her way through "moth season" (she means Spring.)
Reddit user BlueberryJingle13 asked:
"What is something harmless you were scared of as a child?"
Most of us outgrow those irrational childhood fears, though that doesn't mean they didn't have us in their grips when we were younger.
Here's what freaked Reddit out.
Drains!
drain GIFGiphy"The drain in the bath tub. The tiny whirlpool of water would suck me down with it"
- JAR-man999
"Apparently when I was a toddler my dad told me spiders would come out of the drain if I stayed in the bath after the plug got taken out. I still feel uncomfortable taking the plug out the drain if I'm still in the bath, even now I'm 28"
- ImQuiteRandy
"I seem to remember being a daredevil with that and sticking my finger in it while holding onto the side of the tub to make sure it couldn't actually pull me in."
- doomalgae
"I had a children's book about a baby crocodile that was sucked into the drain and was crying alone in the sewer system because it didn't know how to get back to the zoo and it's parents. Also scared me for a while after reading that."
- More_Example6153
"38 years old and I’m still frightened I’ll get sucked down the drain."
- Arkady2009
Auctions
season 7 GIFGiphy"Fidgeting at a livestock auction and accidentally buying a cow."
- graceamazed
"This one made me lol. This is exactly the brand of anxiety I would have as one-off fears as a kid."
- Triairius
"I went to a house foreclosure auction in my 20s and I had the same concern. I was convinced that I'd make the wrong move and end up buying a house that I couldn't afford."
- UndeadBread
"2000$ to that little kid that scratched his head. SOLD"
- l0u1s11
Sinkhole De Mayo
"I had an irrational fear that a sinkhole would randomly open under me. I would walk around grabbing onto nearby objects just so I'd have something to grab onto when the Earth inevitably tried to consume me."
- DatWeirdo04
"I was scared a hole would open up under me just to swallow me then close up as if nothing happened."
- Theveryshyboy
"Me too!"
"What’s ironic is that I’m 34 years old and moved to a town 2 years ago and there’s been 4 sinkholes already! Like why?!"
- TitusLemonades
"Holy sh*t! I thought that I was the only one with that fear!!!"
- Tricksyknitsy
"I'm not alone. Yaaaay"
- gliitch0xFF
Draft Or Giraffe?
"Giraffes. Not because of what you think. I lost a fair amount of hearing due to a compilation with my tonsils, so when my dad tucked me in at night and said “I’ll close the window, wouldn’t want the draft to get you…” Well, you can assume what I heard."
"I thought there was a rabid giraffe that would step over backyard fences and eat kids if their windows were open."
- SsjAndromeda
"That’s too funny and somewhat wholesome. It was sloths for me. I used to have nightmares of a sloth slowly chasing me. You can never run fast in dreams."
- Strongbad23
"Bro, same f*cking thing. My mum used to say wow the drafts coming from there at a cold dark place on the house and I used to imagine like a giraffe hiding there or an invisible giraffe and it was kinda scary lol"
- notarealpersondw
"I literally had the same fear!! "
"I was in a car when I was told to close the windows so that the draft doesn’t get in and I also heard ‘giraffe’, I then envisioned rabid giraffes trying to break into the car.. I thought I was the only one with this experience!"
- Kovu-and-Dedenne
You Too Will Have A Mullet
"My brother told me someday I too had to get a mullet haircut"
- MuluLizidrummer
"I have a mullet currently. I'd be scared too"
- BlueberryJingle
"Such an older brother thing to say"
- catnmoose
"I mean, mullet families are a thing. I used to see at least a few day when I lived in the midwest. Granted the oldest son usually has a buzzcut."
- 0kokuryu0
Loud Sound Check
scared season 5 GIFGiphy"The THX sound before movies"
- Geezson123
"The audience is now deaf…”
- User Deleted
"Convinced that's why I have tinnitus."
- DillPixels
"Same, little me would run behind the couch and plug my ears. Now I've just learned I have sensitive hearing, and that urge to run and hide when it comes has never left."
- OtaPotato
Vacuums
"When I was really young, like 3 - 5 years old, I thought the vacuum would come to life at night and try to suck out my lungs while I slept."
"So, I insisted that the vacuum be kept in the basement, locked in a closet, because clearly it couldn't climb two whole flights of stairs."
- smokehidesstars
"Imagine you wake up one night and the vacuum is just in the middle of your room LOL"
- BlueberryJingle
"Lol. My sister was terrified of the vacuum as well but it was because one time it caught the edge of her nightgown and I guess she thought it was going to suck her up. She was scared of vacuums until a pretty unreasonable age"
- mercenaryblade17
Surprise Flush
"Automatic flushing toilets in public places."
"Not me, but my 2 daughters when they were young (like 3y-6y). I had to stand next to them with my hand over the sensor so they could escape the stall before the toilet flushed."
- AltyMcSalty
"Loud toilet flushes still scare the crap out of me, even if they aren’t automatic and I’m prepared. I have no idea why. I’m 27, and I still have to sprint from the washroom at once I flush."
"It’s only when I’m alone though for some reason. During shifts when lots of other people are around, I have no issues. I have no explanation for this fear."
- TwiceUponADecember
"As a former daughter who was petrified of auto flush toilets, I want to thank you on their behalf."
- wevegotscience
"Pro tip for if you become a grandparent. Carry a pad of post it notes. Stick one to the sensor so the toilet won't flush unexpectedly."
- Paradisedreamer7
Bald Head
"The bald head of my uncle"
- italoomg
"Bald heads used to freak me out too when I was a kid, they just looked weird to me."
- idratherchangemyold1
"As a teen, I thought going bald would be the worst thing imaginable. Now that I’m 40, lost most of my hair, and shave it down every day, I couldn’t be happier. I love the easiness of having a bald head."
-Every1onRedditisDumb
Aqua Vacuum
Water Satisfying GIF by MaytronicsGiphy"My grandparents robotic pool cleaner 😂"
- minivan2022
"Oh man I can't believe the first comment is one I can actually relate to. I totally forgot about it until reading this. Yeah that 'creepy crawly' thing sliding around the bottom of the pool was unsettling, especially since when in the water at the same time of it you could hear it 'ticking' every second through the water. I remember asking them to pull it out before I went in. This was a fairly brief phase but it happened."
- Chromattix
"Lived in a house for years with a pool vacuum. Many adults are scared of those too lol"
- Triairius
"I actually have an irrational phobia of that thing it's wack"
"Stupid Barracuda/Creepy Crawly pool cleaner it looks so creepy"
- thegoldilocks_zone
"I came here to also say pool cleaner! We had one with two long “tentacles” that sprayed water out of the tips and swirled around the bottom of a pool….like a creepy robot octopus ."
- HAYYme
Do you and Reddit share similar phobias?
Is there something you want to add to the list?
Want to hear about my (completely understandable when you know the backstory) severe distrust of clowns that USED TO BE a childhood phobia?
Let's get into it in the comments.
We all have fears. Some are the spectacular phobia kind, things like spiders and heights. And other fears come from all the media we consume, the narratives of abduction and murder that dominate television and movies.
And still others are a bit more realistic. These tend to be the one's that really make us shiver.
Of course, everybody has that one fear that seems to rise above the rest. For some reason, it seems more plausible and more catastrophic than the others all at the same time.
Curious to hear what the top fears out there are, Redditor THE_FALL1N_1 asked:
"What genuinely scares you to the core?"
Many people opted to share the more outlandish possible catastrophes. These weren't very likely, but their spectacular horrors made up for that.
Avoidance of Suffering
"Being tortured I think. I feel a healthy amount of fear towards death. Like I am not thinking or worrying about it everyday, but I try not to get in risky situations either."
"BUT The thought of someone provoking me an immense amount of physical pain with the whole purpose of making me suffer just scares the sh** out of me."
Like a Plague
"A swarm of flying cockroaches." -- Affectionate-Sock-62
"I'm in Texas, so imagining our Texas-sized roaches flying en masse is pretty scary." -- 3-DMan
"Fu** that I'm scared of even one roach!" -- Rocket-Tree
"Minor"
"Nuclear confrontation. Even at a minor scale." -- edgeofsanity76
"With nuclear bombs there is no 'minor' scale" -- ron_sheeran
"This, absolutely. There're now more countries with nuclear weaponry than ever and we're 100 seconds to midnight." -- GlebRyabov
Other people feared suddenness. They just couldn't fathom the idea of it all ending like a bolt out of a clear blue sky.
Just Happens
"That everything can change in a second."
"Just over a year ago my dad went for a walk, had a heart attack and died straight away. He was in great shape. there was no warning and he was only 50. Everything changed that day."
-- TpotCharlie
A Common Choice
"Brain aneurysms! You could just be going about your day and bam! All over" -- indistrustofmerits
"One of our colleagues today was rushed to the hospital for an aneurysm. Apparantly it's non operable and she has 48 hours left. It really puts things in perspective." -- meltedsnake
Never Good
"Phone calls late at night or at awkward times when people normally don't call. Those are never good calls." -- spockgiirl
And others went with the very realistic, existential threats out there. These had a lot to do with time passing and a thousand moments of bad luck all adding up.
The Withering
"I'm not afraid to die. I'm scared of getting old, and losing control over my body and mind. That is far scarier to me than having it all end" -- Silas-Alec
Eroding at the End
"Having a long-term illness that is a burden on my family and wipes us out financially." -- irishamerican
"My grandmother has become that kind if burden and she doesn't care and intentionally makes life impossible for my family. We will probably be sending her to live with my POS aunt because of how they both are behaving."
"My family might lose our house because of everything we are going through. My grandmother needs to be out of the picture. She's not even a good person and she brought her illness on herself, so I have no pity." -- LaunchesKayaks
To Be Loved
"As a 36 year old man with no kids and having never been married, dying alone. Getting old never having known what it feels like to have someone who chose you scares the hell out of me."
-- ramboy18
What If It's Just Not Enough
"Doing everything right financially, saving for retirement, investing, paying down my mortgage, etc. and everything crashing. As a millennial I have already been through 3 major recessions, I'd prefer to not ad a depression onto that."
Just in case you were feeling safe, secure, and confident about the future, hopefully this list didn't upturn it all.
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Step on a crack, break you mother's back. I tell you that phrase has haunted me for decades. It was told to me by an adult who was clearly messing with my head, but the way he made me feel, my body has never forgotten so to this day. I jump over all cracks I see. Just in case. I'm also superstitious. You're welcome, mom. We all have fears that seem irrational, even to our own minds, but we just can't help being held hostage sometimes. Thank God for therapy and vodka.
Redditor u/SweetP1078 wanted everyone to discuss all the phobias and life anxieties that hinder the everyday by asking.... What's your strange irrational fear?
Who's Watching?
jim carrey what GIFGiphyThat my entire life has been recorded and will be released to the public.
What is Wrong with me?
Unknowingly being severely mentally deficient/ill.
Me too! Sometimes I wonder if I'm developmentally disabled, and everyone around me is just pretending like I'm not.
I have asked this question to a lot of people, about myself. I feel smart, but just different than other people and wonder if they all act like they really like me. I guess I see people treat me differently than I see them treat others. I suspect it's because I'm very personable but could just be my imagination.
A 2 Way Mirror
That time travel will be possible in the future sort of like an exhibit, where people can secretly watch you in a "two way mirror-like" way. When i'm doing weird stuff alone, i always point in a random direction and squint to make the future person think I'm onto them. But then again, they could just be watching me type this comment and know I'm bluffing. commence internal screaming.
Then you just see a dark hand reach in and then a dark face with deep dark sunken in eyes, with the most about of hatred possible, then it gets down on all fours and open its mouth until there jaw is broken.... then runs at you.
It's 4am and I just woke up, sorry if this is gonna scare you.
Don't Answer
Answering phone calls from unknown number.
I have come to the conclusion that they are 99% advertising campaigns so I simply don't answer. Now I have an irrational fear of losing an important call despite no one would try to contact you only by phone and only once.
Through the Nostrils
Not being able to breathe through my nose.
It's enough to trigger an immediate panic attack especially if I'm asleep.
I even had nose surgery to stop it blocking up, so I wasn't living in a state of high anxiety with panic attacks every night.
Unfortunately the nose surgery recovery went wrong and it got completely blocked for 3 weeks, so now I have a strong fear of hospitals as well.
Inside of Me
Worms.
I'm afraid they'll get inside of me and I'll see them slithering around under my skin.
They're literally my phobia, it was a real struggle last year for my zoology labs, I now know more about worms than I wished.
I have the irrational fear of maggots and worms crawling over me and a few days ago while I was sitting on my couch and got up I literally saw a few maggots crawling where I sat holy crap.
And all of that because my girlfriend cannot stop eating on the couch and gets the food everywhere which attracts these morons.
In the Can
Canned drinks.
True stories of bugs and rodents ending up in canned packaging are bad enough, but I'm also afraid that something has crawled into the can after opening it. It's not like we stare at the drink until we're finished with it, and you can't see the contents. Ugh... gives me chills just thinking about it.
From the Back
where is it monday night raw GIF by WWEGiphyWhen I'm reaching my hand into my backpack (or similar items) I think my hand is gonna get bitten by a spider or a raccoon. Think this came from a jump scare in until dawn.
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Sometimes being a human means living a life full of fear, or at least, harboring lots of fears at every turn.
But there is always one fear that stands out more than the others. One fear that makes you seriously reconsider getting out of bed in the morning. And it can easily take over your entire life if you're not careful.
u/frogga asked:
What are you terribly afraid of ?
Here were some of those answers.
A Long Way Down
That my life already peaked and that was as good as it gets.
I thought my life peaked in my early 20's. I had a period where my mental problems almost disappeared and I felt like I could do anything, then the anxiety and depression came back.
Now I'm 28 and slowly working my way back. Next month I start working as a cleaner at a state-owned company and starting to get connections in the music business again, and I got some work on the side building stages. Its always possible to bounce back.
The True Crime Doc Waiting To Happen
Being convicted of a crime I didn't commit and spending my life in jail with no hope of being acquitted.
Absolutely my biggest fear. Whenever I see stuff about people serving stretches in prison and then being found innocent later my blood boils. Like...boils. I really really hate that. I'd seriously rather let everybody be free than have people locked up that dont deserve it.
Thanks, Cinema!
At this moment...being kidnapped and tortured thanks to a horror movie I watched this morning.
Lonely
Losing my partner.
My biggest fear is waking up and he's died in his sleep. I often reach over to make sure he's still breathing in the night. It's weird because I've never experienced anything like that but I know it would ruin my life and sanity if it ever happened.
Constant Unhappiness
Going thru life not being genuinely happy..and also maybe dying alone? Idk
A quote I picked up on Reddit a while back- " The worst Hell I can imagine is that when I die, the person who I am meets the person I could have become".
A Parent Departed
The death of my mom. I can't bear it. I might just die from frickin grief
It'll break your heart and it'll tear you to shreds, it'll be so hard but you'll find a way, my mum was my best friend. But it's been 3 years, not a day goes by without thinking of her but you get there.
A Rotating Cast
That all my friends might leave me one day and I'll be all alone
I think it helps to think of friends as people who come and go in waves. Like the friends you had in high school will probably not be the same friends you have at age 35. It's always good to be open minded and actively trying to meet new people. I think too many people think the friends you made at some point in your life must remain friends forever, and if they aren't, you failed.
Too Close To Home
Weird but being homeless with no money and no help from any friends or family members. It scares me. I sometimes think about what i will do and how I will survive the winter. It makes me sad just thinking about it. How I'll have to dumpster dive for food or shelter etc. I have somewhat of a plan if it ever happens to me but I don't know why I put so much thought into this scenario and why I'm super scared of it. I did grow up poor.
A Very Real Fear
I'm afraid that my best friend is dead and rotting somewhere with a needle sticking out of his arm. He probably just couldn't put together the money to pay his phone bill this month or something like that, but when you've witnessed someone overdosing and being revived more than once and you know they're still doing what they do it's hard not to worry when they drop off the face of the Earth.
And NOT The New England Kind
Wasps.
I can deal with bees, they are friendly little flower children. Spiders are just natural insect deterrents. Any bug or creature I can deal with.
But wasps... Those bastards scare the hell out of me. They want to attack because you exist, no other reason. You don't gotta piss em off, your existence is enough justification for them to ruin your day.
People Share The Most Unusual Thing They Were Afraid Of As A Child
Full disclosure- when I was a kid, I was TERRIFIED of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I couldn't handle Violet Beauregarde turning into a blueberry for some reason. Luckily I outgrew it, and now it's one of my favorite movies!
These Redditors had similar fears to mine as a child. Here are some of their best stories.
u/kumquat_kutie asked: What's an unusual thing you were afraid of as a child?
Baby trees!
Broccoli, but not because I thought it tasted bad. It's because they looked like little trees and I didn't want to kill all the imaginary birds that would live in the broccoli trees.
I thought they were genuinely baby trees and thought it was so wasteful to prevent an entire tree growing just for one little vegetable.
Spooky AND relaxing.
GiphyAutomatic car washes with the brushes.
When I was 3 these used to scare the sh*t out of me. 12 years later I'm the complete opposite, I think they're extremely relaxing.
Yikes.
I had a book about the Civil War and on the page about Reconstruction, there was a drawing from the time, that depicted a black family minding their own business, completely unaware that Klan members in terrifying masks were sneaking into their house to hurt them. However, at my young age, my reading comprehension was clearly low, so I couldn't quite put together why this was happening.
And that's the story of how I, a white boy living in the 2000's was scared of the Ku Klux Klan breaking into our house and trying to kill us.
Yes to both of these.
The "Unsolved Mysteries" theme. Hearing that, then Robert Stack talking about missing kids and ghosts, then it being bedtime, was scary indeed. I love the show now as an adult.
The X-files theme/opening is what got me in the same way, I always thought it was creepy.
......consume?
GiphySand. I hated the feeling of the sand on my feet and I would refuse to step onto the beach.
My weird cousin didn't help matters when he would endlessly consume sand.
It's coarse and it gets everywhere.
How do you feel about podracing?
Bad dino.
I was scared someone would break through my bedroom window and kidnap me.
We live on the 8th floor.
I was the same but thought it would be a Brontosaurus to get past the height. I was even a dino geek as a kid and knew they ate tree-stars. Also, ya know, extinction.
Sharks aren't the scary ones anymore.
Orcas in the swimming pool.
Not sharks, I wasn't concerned with those. It was only orcas.
It only gets worse when you realize Orcas hunt and eat Great White Sharks.
I am DEAD.
GiphyI was afraid of Mickey Mouse and Goofy, I thought these dudes wanted to beat me up. Like I'd turn it to Bugs Bunny and WB cartoons at every opportunity, because I didn't trust Disney characters, and also thought they were sh*tty and lame at the same time.
I remember one vivid nightmare in particular, where Mickey and Goofy were secretly preparing and talking in detail about the ways to f*cking crucify me.
"Heok, get the nails Mickey".
Mood.
I was scared that if I eat Airheads candy, then my head would turn into a giant balloon like in the commercials.
I was afraid of Capri Sun because I thought it would turn me into a floaty silver cloud.
I'm STILL scared of those.
I was afraid of those tornado warning emergency broadcast tests on TV.
I'd just be watching like...Arthur on PBS and the screen would turn red
AAAAAAAAG AAAAAAG AAAAAG BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
And then a man with an unclear voice would talk. Then that sh*t would go back to normal.
It was always so abrupt and loud. I remember running out of the living room to my parents all the time.