"What screams 'I’m insecure'?"
The Wisest People Are Those Always Willing To Learn
"When people are unable to admit that they don’t know something."- slimytoads
not listening no way GIFGiphyOther People's Success Are Not Your Failures
"Mocking someone else's achievement."- SuvenPan
Never Pick Yourself Up By Taking Others Down
"Belittling others."- Term-Haunting
"Always talking badly about others and trying to make them look weak/bad."- Pildith
The Simpsons GIF by MOODMANGiphyMaybe Honesty Isn't Always The Best Policy...
"When you're quick to be 'brutally honest' with others, but have a meltdown when someone does it back to you."-eF240uKX52hp
Not As Funny As They Think...
"People who tear other people down as a joke but then get mad when they get it handed back to them."
"Clearly they either aren’t joking or are too sensitive to be dishing out sh*t."- babythrottlepop
Being On Top Adds More Possibilities Of Falling Down...
"Trying to one-up people in every conversation."- Flanky_Bwai
"One upping people in conversation."
"If I tell you I had a great trip to X place, I don’t need to hear about your better trip to someplace else that’s ostensibly 'better'."- I_Am_The_Grapevine
kristen wiig television GIF by Saturday Night LiveGiphySome Things Speak For Themselves...
"Constantly saying what kind of person you are."
"If you were, you wouldn’t have to tell us."- ubereddit
A Little Contrition Goes A Long Way...
"Never apologizing."
"Making excuses and even twisting the facts but never apologize."- SuvenPan
But Enough About Me, What Do You Think Of Me?
"Constant projection and self-serving compliments."- nhabz
Look At Me Kiki GIF by The Bachelor AustraliaGiphyWhat Are They Even Trying To Prove?
"Revving your vehicle loudly every time you pass another person."- msnmck
Superior By Association
“'You will address me by my husband’s rank!'”- Psychological-Stay16
PDA Much?
"Elaborate Instagram and Facebook posts declaring love for one’s significant other over and over and over."- jbmaun
Happy Married At First Sight GIF by LifetimeGiphyAlways Needing Validation
"People who can’t think or feel anything without being told that it’s okay to do so."- Diesel07012012
It's sad that so many people think the only way to overcome something which makes them embarrassed or afraid is by embarrassing or demeaning others.
When being open and honest about your insecurities might, instead, result in your finding common ground with others.
And making new, lifelong friends in the process.
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
GiphyWooly 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
GiphyTake 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
GiphyReflection
"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 WeekGiphyMothra 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
GiphyFor 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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Phobias. Maybe it's presumptuous to say we all have one. But when you consider all the fears the American Psychiatric Association (APA) has identified, it can force you really examine yourself and revisit something so fearful, it's been buried in your head somewhere.
Fear of small spaces, spiders, heights, and even clowns. There's a reason why Pennywise was the main antagonist in Stephen King's It. The morbid clown is purely the stuff of nightmares.
Curious to hear about the thing that keeps people up at night, Redditor Green_Own asked:
"What's a weird phobia you have?"
The ASA may not have official names for these paranoia-inducing scenarios, but the following examples make these Redditors tremble.
Tremors And Scalding Liquids
"An earthquake happening while i'm deepfrying or in the middle of draining boiling hot pasta water."
Increase Of Intensity
"I get anxious when a sound get progressively louder, or beeping gets progressively faster, I don't know why."
Boo To The Residue
"Maybe not overly weird, but i get unnatural anxiety if i have anything sticky on my skin, jelly, jam, cola, that kinda stuff. I hate it. I have to get it off instantly."
Safety Measure
"Maybe not a phobia just a little paranoia, I always cover my camera with my finger when I scroll on my phone when using the bathroom, I'm deathly afraid I will accidentally FaceTime somebody."
There is the G-spot and then there is also the nope-spot.
Absolutely no touchy, 'cause these Redditors don't likey.
Portal To My World
"Having my belly button touched. Some part of me is sure you can just push through to my insides right there."
"I can't let my belly button get touched. It sends a physical like 'chill' type of feeling through my whole body. Idk what it is, if I have a whole bunch of nerves there for some reason, but I can't touch it or let anything touch it."
Literal Achilles' Heel
"Having my Achilles' tendon touched by anything."
"I freak out around shopping carts."
These physical or aural environments make some people want to retreat under the bed sheets.
Not So Grate
"Sidewalk grates. like these f'kers. always have an irrational fear that they'll collapse beneath me or whatever."
The Big Bang
"I hate balloons popping."
"I get extreme anxiety when little kids start squeezing them. It's not the volume of the noise, it's the unpredictability."
Labyrinthine
"I'm scared of being in a maze."
"Not sure if this will help but you can get out of any maze by putting a hand (left or right) on the wall/hedge closest to that hand and continuing to walk while maintaining contact with your hand, until you are out. It isn't efficient, but it is effective."
This brings us to my phobia. It's called submechanophobia.
Basically, it's a fear of a man-made object – like a giant building, statue, or shipwreck – that is either partially or entirely submerged in a large body of water.
In Long Beach, California, the retired British ocean liner – the RMS Queen Mary – was an operational hotel and museum which featured a dark room overlooking one of the ship's propellers submerged in a tank eerily lit from below. Guests traversed a catwalk around the perimeter above the tank to marvel at the huge mechanical device.
As a six-year-old seeing it for the first time, I remember being paralyzed while inside the room with my parents. I was genuinely terrified and never understood why.
Years later, I revisited it. I'm still intrigued by it – yet I absolutely remain fearful of it.
After recently discovering the term for my phobia, I felt validated for my genuine fear.
It was strangely reassuring but it will forever give me anxiety just thinking about it.
Okay. We're done here.
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.
never ending door GIFThen 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.
cat flying GIFIn 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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