What is a phobia?
Phobias are persistent and intense fears of a particular:
object
person (like a doctor or clown)
situation
activity
If you have a phobia, you may experience severe anxiety and panic attacks when you’re:
exposed to the object or situation you’re fearful of
thinking about the thing you’re afraid of
anticipating an encounter with the item you’re scared of
I have a “phobia” (or at least a very strong fear) of insects. This includes regular flies, worms, mosquitos, bees, butterflies to some extent. Whenever I hear that buzz of a fly, my fight-or-flight response activates and I instantly become more aware of my surroundings. Whenever I hear a fly inside my apartment I tell my parents to please kill it or let it out, sometimes I hide in my room. Coincidentally enough, a few days ago I found a decently small worm in my bedroom and it kept wiggling, and my anxiety was intense. I kept yelling for my mom to go get it, my heartbeat was so intense.
People like to laugh whenever I flinch or act nervous around a small fly, and I get why that’s funny, but I really hate it. It distracts me and makes me feel on edge. People keep telling me, “it’s just a small insect, it can’t hurt you”; I know it can’t, but the buzzing and the way it flies makes me really uncomfortable. It’s why I don’t like summer. It’s weird, because I didn’t always feel this way; I only started having this phobia at around 10 years old maybe. Anyway, I don’t know why I have it. But it’s really debilitating.
You really should seek therapy. There are specialists that help people manage their phobias.
I know, people have suggested CBT to me. I haven’t gotten around to take the initiative to actually get help, but hopefully I will soon.