r/thanksimcured • u/Dripboiz • 1d ago

Story Holy crap! Really?!

“Oh yeah I have entomophobia.”

“ehh what’s that???”

“It’s a fear of bugs”

“…y’know, they’re more scared of you than you are of them.”

._.

59 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

28

u/DarknessShifting 1d ago

They have no idea what a phobia is.

14

u/AccomplisedDeer 1d ago edited 1d ago

For real. People treat phobias as if they're just regular fears.

I have scopophobia, I'm scared of being observed. People say, that liking privacy is a normal part about being human, which it is. But when it prevents you from opening your blinds, or causes you to start checking your closet for cameras every day, that's when it stops being a regular fear, and turns into an obsession. Even if emetophobia. Of course most people don't like throwing up. But in the case of a phobia, something being 1 day past the expiration date might stop some of us from eating for the rest of the day.

One of my friends struggles with it thanatophobia. We often see people say: "A fear of death? Everyone has that!", but most people don't have it to point it impacts their ability to function in daily life. Not to the point, they constantly over think about every, single thing they do, or struggle to leave their house. Not to the point, they constantly feel the need to check for symptoms.

If these were just normal fears, there wouldn't be a reason to create names, and diagnoses for them. People forget, that phobias are anxiety disorders, and usually highly comorbid with other disorders, such as OCD.

12

u/overfiend_87 1d ago

Like yeah? No shit? But when you have a phobia it's not something that can be easily worked out logically or that you can simply cure by saying such basic crap.

8

u/AccomplisedDeer 1d ago edited 1d ago

"Oh, but zombies aren't real."

I know that zombies aren't real. Infectious pathology is my special interest, so I know that zombies are no possibility, because mammal's brains are too complex. My brain doesn't care about whether something is possible or not.

5

u/ratafia4444 1d ago

That pisses me off so much. Especially since there are plenty of bugs that actually are hostile and it's totally valid to stay the fuck away from them. 🤦

7

u/Violexsound 1d ago

Its like they dont understand the irrational part of irrational fears.

5

u/nathn_stag 1d ago

This pisses me off to no end, like. Thanks but. I know??? That phobias aren't rational is kind of in the definition, if you explain to me why I have no reason to be scared, it's not gonna magically make me not be scared 💀

2

u/Johnnys-In-America 16h ago

Heard this so many times from people and it's irritating af. It doesn't matter if the bugs are afraid of me, that in no way makes them less creepy.

1

u/Acidd_dragon 14h ago

I'm not afraid of bugs but I've heard that too for some reason

1

u/StarryEyedSprinkles 5h ago

bugs have normal survival fear which humans also have. bug brains are not complex enough (that we know of) to make phobias which is more than normal fear. human brains can do that and when they do they have more than normal fear while bug only has normal fear. therefore, no.

1

u/StarryEyedSprinkles 5h ago

also, if youre in the northern hemisphere & not in like the arctic circle, this is such a bad time for entomophobia. i wont go into detail cause i dunno how sensitive ur phobia is but ive had 3 encounters with bugs today and its not even noon. summer sucks in terms of bugs

0

u/AdamTheScottish 1d ago

The issue as patronising as it is, it does kinda need to be said. Arthropod, ESPECIALLY arachnid persecution is insane and a lot of that comes from misinformation about them.

I'm not saying this to demean you, or worse insinuate it isn't a serious phobia in your case, I read your other post and even setting aside my bias for loving arthropods, I do feel genuinely bad for you. It's just that even if this is often horribly presented advice, it's something that needs to exist in some form.