“The cry“ Aaah, climbed in! ”Heard the whole microdistrict”: Lifehacker readers talk about their phobias

«Let me know” is a rubric for the stories of our readers. Every week we launch a survey and look forward to your comments. This time we asked you to tell us about your phobias. Here are the most frightening and unusual answers.

I'm afraid of heights. It probably started after I dreamed that I was falling from a skyscraper. Moreover, everything in the dream happened very naturally, in color and with sound.

I can’t say that I have a phobia, but I feel very uncomfortable at night if I have to get out of bed. I constantly wait for someone to grab my leg. And in general, I try to sleep compactly.

Still strain stairswhere you can put your hand between the steps. I prefer to run quickly.

Perhaps these fears appeared due to the fact that as a child I saw how in some movie the hero was grabbed by the legs from under the bed. And I had a fantasy! This is where one overlaps with the other. Well, my older brother had (and still has) a large collection of books by Stephen King, I secretly made my way to his room and read. I think it also had an effect.

I have insectophobia and arachnophobia in particular. I remember that in early childhood I often had dreams with huge spiders that entwine the whole house with cobwebs. They didn't hurt me, but they seemed terribly scary. And so this phobia began.

Even at the sight of a photo with spiders, I begin to panic attack, paralyzes, it becomes difficult to breathe. The rest of the insects do not cause such a reaction: I just get scared of them and quickly leave the place where they are. If a cockchafer flies into the house and sits on the curtain, I put on a hazmat suit and a million gloves, take it like a bio-bomb, and carefully release it out the window. Unfortunately, I do not know how to deal with these phobias.

I'm afraid of infections and parasites. Everything that can be washed is mine. I do not have sterile cleanliness, but home microbes For some reason I'm not afraid.

I'm very afraid of snakes. I understood this in childhood, when I visited the zoo with an exotarium. At the entrance there was a cage with a white python, I saw it and immediately ran out. Mom tried to persuade me to come in and look at other animals, but I was afraid to even walk past that cage. We went to the zoo with another family, so everyone continued to look around, and I waited for the company outside.

Because of my fear, I do not walk in nature on tall grass. As before, I do not attend exhibitions of any creeping living creatures. If I see photos of snakes on the Internet, I immediately try to close my eyes and close the page.

I love Fort Boyard very much (especially the French seasons, they are cooler), and snakes are shown there quite often. I tried not to watch tests with them before. However, not so long ago I got hooked on the American reality show "Naked and Scared", where the participants survive in the wild. Here they treat snakes not as something terrible, but as a potential dinner. When you see in dozens of episodes how they happily catch, cook and eat snakes, praising them, they no longer seem so creepy.

I'm afraid of taxi drivers. Saves meditation in headphones.

I don’t have to say that it’s a phobia, but rather a feature of the body: in open space, even at a relatively low altitude, dizzy. There is no fear or panic, but there is discomfort. So running on rooftops or walking along old wooden bridges at a height of 50 meters is clearly not my thing.

I also try to avoid mirrors in the dark. Voluntarily, I would not go to rides like a mirror maze.

Almost all insects are afraid. Especially crawling ones. Just shaking with horror and disgust.

Once I frightened a bunch of people by flying out of some river with a wild screech, because, melancholy sorting out pebbles on a shallow bottom, I picked some kind of wriggling larva in my palm. And the people on the shore thought that at least I found a corpse.

Two years ago, we had the roof blocked, it started to rain heavily and the kitchen was completely flooded. I had to repair everything again - from the floor to the stretch ceiling. The work cost a fortune. Now, as soon as it starts to rain, I get panic and fear. It looks like it will flood again.

I'm afraid of the dark, especially if I'm alone in the apartment. The sponsor of the phobia is a collection of horror stories by Eduard Uspensky, presented to me by a family friend at the age of five. The fear of the dark is not logical at all - I understand that monsters does not exist, but when it's dark, the imagination kicks in. For a long time she lived like this: she caught panic attacks in the dark. And then she just got angry. I realized how long it has been ruining my life, that it is stupid and that this fear is my choice. Now in moments of fear I say to myself: “I refuse to be afraid. You don't have to suffer." I am still afraid of the dark in general, but situationally this “mantra” helps. Not only with darkness, in general.

I also have aerophobia. Its reason is the film "Destination”, which I once stumbled upon as a child at night and looked in its entirety while the adults were sleeping. This fear is more difficult because it is reinforced by real dangers. Somewhere 3-7 days before the flight, I start to get nervous, see different “signs”, I can even cry. On takeoff, landing and in the turbulence zone, I catch panic attacks. Especially if I don't fly for a long time before. The more often you fly, the calmer. Music, movies, comedians, and food help make flying easier. It distracts, occupies and does not allow the imagination to draw scary pictures. I also noticed that I am less afraid next to those who are also afraid. Like you have to be strong to support another. I start to joke, distract, and distract myself.

All in all, a very cool story. deliberate choice. When I'm scared, I remind myself that I can avoid the dark, flying and other dangerous things in general, at least for the rest of my life, if I'm so scared. And I immediately understand: well, no, this is game, I'm not going to subordinate my life to fear, let it go. And it becomes clearer in my head.

I'm afraid of centipedes flycatchers. We lived in a private house, there were a lot of them, fat ones crawled along the walls. One went into the neighbor's boy's ear while he was sleeping. His cry "Ah-ah-ah, climbed in!" heard the whole neighborhood. And one night she fell into my shorts (I was sitting near the wall where they hunted) and started crawling there. Brrr…

I am very afraid of geese. I don't understand how anyone can keep these hellish creatures right in your backyard. Geese have completely empty and lifeless eyes, huge strong wings and a frightening beak with nasty small teeth. But the most terrible thing is their bad temper and the habit of throwing themselves in a flock at every passer-by with a terrible cackle. For some reason, the perfectly white color of their plumage scares me, it seems somehow unnatural and therefore causes anxiety.

I can't remember if I had an unpleasant experience with geese as a child. It feels like I've always been afraid of them.

Over time, I began to notice that I was disgusted with almost all birds. While walking, I imagine that now a huge seagull or a bunch of infectious pigeons will fly at me.

I have hemophobia - the fear of blood, someone else's or my own. It appeared suddenly two years ago, there were no extreme or stressful situations before. Taking tests is now completely sad, the sight of blood pouring into a test tube causes dizziness and cold sweat.

And also scare elevators. As a child, my brother and I were stuck between the seventh and eighth floors. Now it’s easier for me to go at least 15 floors, but I don’t put my foot into the box on cables anymore.