Phobias and Nightmares Thread - Things that go bump in the dark

[Wish I knew]

With Halloween coming in about a few days here's a thread about phobias and nightmares that people experience. Stuff like Hydrophobia which is the fear of water, Coulrophobia for those who pissed themselves seeing a clown aming other numerous fears. Or having nightmares liking watching a person kill your family and friends while you can do nothing about it or Drowning.
Lately i’ve had a few nightmares where I can’t move in my bed and I feel the tip of a sharp knife aimed towards my chest and that soon it’ll plunge into my body.

 

[No Exit]

I'm acrophobic and trypanophobic. Getting needles creeps me the fuck out and always makes me nauseous. There's just something about how a needle just slides into the skin that bothers me greatly.
I can get tattoos no problem though.

 

[AgriDrThunder]

I have two recurring nightmares;

1. That I didn't actually graduate college because there was a course that I thought I dropped but didn't actually drop. It takes various forms, either I have to go back to college and dispute it, or take the class again, or weird shit based off that.

2. That I've been enrolled in the Army Reserve or National Guard without my knowledge and I've been missing drill, get dragged to drill, or something like that.

It always takes me a few minutes to shake them off in the morning when I get them.

 

[From The Uncanny Valley]

The sensation of falling
People in mascot outfits
Assault
Vomiting/shit
Being controlled against my will
Crowds
Tight small spaces
Pregnancy
Small children
Classrooms

I HAVE A LOT

 

[Jason Wynn]

I'm acrophobic. Heights absolutely terrify me. I don't even like driving across bridges because it makes me too damn nervous. I can make myself sick to my stomach if I think too long about things like skydiving or bungee jumping.

 

[Sam Losco]

2. That I've been enrolled in the Army Reserve or National Guard without my knowledge and I've been missing drill, get dragged to drill, or something like that.

I had a nightmare after I got out of the AF and moved to a different state. Only had it once years ago but I can still remember it. They somehow fucked up my discharge and made me move back and go back to work while they sorted it out. I think when I woke up, I had been back at base for about a year.

 

[AgriDrThunder]

They somehow fucked up my discharge and made me move back and go back to work while they sorted it out.

It's good to meet another person with post bureaucratic stress disorder. I'm here for you if you want to talk.

 

[Recoil]

I have recurring nightmares of being surrounded by layers of trash and filth, unable to move.

When I'm close to someone I have nightmares of losing them somehow, as a result of forces beyond my control. It's not an abandonment thing, it's a powerlessness thing.

 

[HolocaustDenier]

Spoiler: phobia

"Thalassophobia" i cant even play vidya with underwater levels

Spoiler: nightmares

sleep paralysis, i used to think i was possesed until i googled the symptoms

 

[The Sauce Boss]

I have a ton of nightmares around having missing credits/years of school and being behind everyone else again. So, there's that.

More common, though, I have this weird thing with my nightmares where they're recursive. When I was a little kid, I would just jam my eyes shut when I had a nightmare, and when I opened them again, I'd be awake. Well, my brain decided a few years ago that shit wasn't gonna fly anymore. Most of my nightmares nowadays are about me being stalked, so if I'm in a situation where I can't escape my pursuer, I'll jam my eyes shut, right? Wake up in my bed, all is well... then I notice something off. The clock has a time that isn't right, or time moved backwards, or something in the room is different. Sometimes this will go on for five to ten repetitions.

 

[Botched Tit Job]

My #1 fear my whole life has been dead bugs. Especially dead spiders. The way their bodies curl up fills me with an intense dread and panic. IDGAF about alive bugs, unless they're assholes (wasps, ants, mealybugs, etc) at which point I will murder them. But I'm very selective about that because murder means dead bugs. It's a weird cycle.

 

[Recoil]

In almost all cultures you'll see some variant on the "Night Hag", a creature of indeterminate gender who looms over the sleeper and sucks out their soul (or whatever). Brazil has the Pisadeira, Greece has Varypnas, Thailand has Phi Am, Nigeria has Ogun Oru, Europe has the Old Hag (or Baba Yaga).

It's all sleep paralysis. We are creatures that live to create meaning and tell stories. We all tell the same stories, but our work is filtered through our respective cultural aesthetics and takes on an apparent uniqueness by virtue of how those aesthetics resonate with us.

I mention this stuff because understanding it helped me conquer my absolute terror of sleep paralysis. I used to be convinced it was some chaotic entity sucking my soul out of my body, because that's what it felt like. Now, I experience it and realize it as a byproduct of both my brain's autonomous pattern recognition loops and my body's onboard protection systems - you are paralyzed at certain levels of sleep so that you don't hurt yourself flailing when your reflexes to various perceived stimuli are triggered.

If you find yourself in the grips of sleep paralysis and wish to wake up ASAP, choose a singular object or point within the room around you and focus on it intensely. You'll snap out of it within several seconds of total concentration.

 

[AgriDrThunder]

In almost all cultures you'll see some variant on the "Night Hag", a creature of indeterminate gender who looms over the sleeper and sucks out their soul (or whatever).

Sure, you could just accept that it's a common psychological phenomenon but at the same time you need to be prepared for the 0.0000001% chance that such a creature actually does exist and is really visiting you in your sleep. It's the only prudent, risk adverse option.

Stay safe out there friend.

 

[Prince Jello]

I have a remarkable ability to wake myself up as soon as I feel that a dream's atmosphere is getting eerie or disturbing, so nightmares are quite rare for me. I remember one occurence of sleep paralysis, like a figure standing in my doorframe and getting closer, but I immediately forced myself to wake up.
As for phobias, I have a fear of heights, especially if I have to climb up a ladder or something similar. I also can't stand spider webs - the classic spiral orb webs are the worst, I completely freeze up when there's one near me. When I was younger, I couldn't even remove them. More recently, I realised that I wasn't helping myself at all, and I started keeping long sticks and gathered the courage to remove the webs so I wouldn't have to call for help while tending the garden.

 

[User name: Required]

Women

Literally can’t even once

 

[Autisimodo]

I once met the Grim Reaper in a Nightmare I had after I was in a bad car accident a few years ago.
Turns out Death is a dream symbol so it's not anything too special.

I've mentioned in another thread that I had nightmares of Hell and dying, so while it's not necessarily a phobia my biggest fear is losing someone close to me. That what happens when you're exposed to horror movies as a young kid.

EDIT: Forgot to mention Nyctophobia, fear of the Dark. Had it when I was a kid, not so much now as an adult.

 

[Vlinny-kun]

I have two reoccuring nightmares.

One is where I'm in a large room thats dimly lit and the ground is filled with really deep water. I'm swimming alright for a few minutes before I find myself under water. I didn't purposefully dive down so I am confused for a moment. I decide to swim back up but ether my arms won't move, I can't swim fast enough because the water is too thick, or my flailing won't do anything and I continue to sink down what seems to be miles underneath the surface. When I go down far enough I suddenly remember that I need to breath, but it's too late at that point and I proceed to drown and wake up right when I "die" in the dream. I never had any fear of the ocean or drowning, even though I cringe at the thought of having to drown, so I don't know why I have it as much as I do. There's another version of this dream where the water is much shallower but there is so much shit floating on the surface that when I go down, I can't move it out of the way fast enough to resurface and then I drown.

I had this dream alot for almost a decade but in the past two years I've stopped having it. It would start with me being at school and having a shitload of unfinished assignments and shit in my backpack and it would be super heavy and I'd try to find the class I was late for. I would walk down a confusing amount of staircases and winding hallways before I would get completely lost while starting to feel guilty about getting into this situation and then I would forget my schedule, making me even more anxious then I already was. Eventually I would find the class and walk in while they were just wrapping up. The teacher would tell me that I was in the wrong class and everyone stares at me. I would get embaressed and run out. The bell rings and it would be too late, but I keep searching for that one class. I need to get to that one class really badly. All that I know at that point of the dream is that I am so far behind in all of my classes that I can't catch up and will have to retake them again. By the time I wake up, I'm sweating so bad and I think I'm going to flunk the year before realizing that it's a dream. Those dreams are the worst.

 

[Exigent Circumcisions]

Millipedes and moths both move in a way that makes me deeply uneasy. I was traveling through the Rockies once and saw a streetlight being obscured by an undulating cloud. When I looked closer I realized that it was a huge mass of moths and all my hair stood on end; I promptly butted my cigarette and got back on the greyhound.

Deep water also scares the shit out of me.

 

[Coldgrip]

I don't really have a fear or phobia, just a rather strong dislike for deep, murky water. Not being able to see he bottom kinda bugs me and I don't really care for the reduced mobility that being in the water creates.

2. That I've been enrolled in the Army Reserve or National Guard without my knowledge and I've been missing drill, get dragged to drill, or something like that.

This reminds me of something a friend of mine said to another co-worker who had also been in the military. Went something like this: "You know what'd really fucking suck? Waking up one morning realizing all these years have been a dream and you're actually on your way to basic".

 

[Large]

Any and all objects that cannot be classified as drainpipes and are used for directing water flow in some way.