the title of this thread is the title of my upcoming autobiography. that was a joke. which i am bad at making because its 4 am here.

long story short I just had the worst night's sleep I think I ever had because of bugs. I am deathly afraid of bugs. I think I got 2-3 hours sleep tops. basically a spider drove me out of my bed and another stray bug drove me from the loveseat in the living room and here i am. I want to fumigate so bad but we have cats and we really don't want to kill them on accident! the best we can do is buy the traps and hope the bugs eat the poison out of them.

I don't know if I have a real phobia of bugs and spiders or if I'm just being a big scaredy cat. Does anyone else have this problem especially concerning bugs? Do you have phobias/fears that interfere with the quality of life?

I don't think you are the only one. I'm afraid of most bugs except for mosquitoes, small ants, ladybugs and small flies. I'm even afraid of moths, grasshoppers... so no you are definitely not alone. I can handle baby spiders but not something bigger than my fingernail. O.o I've had a nightmare once that a spider larger than me was trying to eat me. (shivers) I try to ignore them though or ask my sister to shoo them out the window if I am scared. I don't kill them using sprays because I have three kittens and two dogs.

- You definitely have a phobia, and it's reasonable. Some bugs can hurt you.

I have a major fear of flying roaches and any flying bug that buzzes and can sting. I gasp, panic, and run. It's embarrassing in public, because it looks like I'm spazzing out over nothing.

Ooh, I definitely share that fear. Flying roaches are one of the scariest things I've seen in my life, and the buzzing of other bugs scares the crap out of me simply because their buzzing alerts me to their presence. I definitely remember one time I was at a summer camp, and at around 3AM I was standing on the table screeching like a banshee because a massive cockroach was making its way across the floor while my roommate was in the shower. But I digress, yeah, , that does sound like a phobia. My greatest fear has always been deep water. I can swim reasonably well, and I can certainly float, but for whatever reason, being in water where I can't reach the floor seriously freaks me out and leaves me swimming as quickly as possible for the nearest shallow zone.

- I've woken up to a roach on my face and on my leg... 😭 I also recently had a roach squished in my sneaker. I didn't realize it was there until 2 hours later.

My childhood house was filled with roaches. I was scared to go anywhere at night, because I didn't want to run into one of them. I've had too many encounters with flying roaches to count...

I never had a problem with deep water, maybe because I was swimming since I was an infant. I love going into ocean water and riding the waves. I've done that since I was 7. But, I can understand the fear. There's a much greater chance of you drowning in deep water.

I'm legit afraid of bumblebees.

There was one in my house (on my window) a couple weeks ago. My brother was yelling to kill it (it was huge, omg). But I refuse to kill something that .. lives. So it took me near 2 hours to trap it between a book and a glass and I released it outside. The thing was hella aggresive at the end tho, but at least I didn't kill it (my hands were shaking soo bad).

I'm scared of all bugs but the flying and buzzing things are definitely the worst. (Also for the sake of things I'm grouping spiders in with 'bugs' even though one can argue blah blah). Yesterday I was at my uncle's house out in the country and this giant flying buzzing insect flew by my head and I shrieked and broke down crying... :/ I also really really hate roaches, in my OP that's what the stray bug was but I was too embarrassed to say. I'm scared of any bug that I can't identify right away, and even then I still might be afraid. Example: if I see something crawling out of the corner of my eye I will jump pretty badly but then I realise it's just an ant and I feel so pathetic...

Also if we're going to mention other huge fears my other fear is dogs. People don't understand me, especially my extended family, who have dogs. I mentioned visiting my uncle, he has a big pit bull and I get all nervous and cry a lot when we have to visit him. My parents get mad at me for 'being rude' when I'm scared to death of all dogs. Big or small, you can tell me "it won't hurt you" or "it's a nice dog" like those sentences will cure my phobia I'll just laugh.

For both insects and dogs I'm perfectly fine seeing them but not having contact. IE if I'm sitting in my house and I see a dog running outside, whatever. Dogs on the TV, whatever. I even partially think that insects are fascinating and sometimes I research about them, but just don't get any near me in real life.

I'm afraid of spiders...well, not so much afraid I guess as just really grossed out by them and don't want them near/God-forbid-on me. I'm not fond of those many-legged things that move really fast either. But for the most part I like insects. Bumblebees are cool and I used to keep roly poly bugs as pets when I was younger. But spiders = NOPE. If they're outside, I generally leave them alone. What's weird, is that I will pick up daddy long legs...they don't ick me out in the least. But spider-spiders, hell no not going near.

One time I was lounging in my chair, playing Halo with friends on Xbox live and this little fucker comes dangling down right in front of me, stops right in front of my face like it's taunting me. I shriek, smack at it with my controller, it flies into the wall where it lands somehow on it's disgusting little feet, I throw an xbox game box at it, and it dies in pieces. All the while this is going on, I'm shrieking over the mic and my friends are all going 'WTF WHAT'S WRONG?!?!!??!' and when I finally calmed down enough to utter the word 'spider' the idiots all laughed at me. -_- It wasn't funny. Bastards.

It's worse if insects buzz because I freeze, and turn pale, and all rational thoughts leave my brain... but buzzing mosquitoes are annoying, especially when you are trying to sleep.

Roaches are awful because they not only crawl really fast they fly as well. T.T

In my opinion, I don't think you are being rude to your uncle or whatever. I mean you are scared and you can't help being afraid of the pitbull regardless of whether he is safe or not.

You are definitely not alone in your fear. I can relate so much to your fear of bugs, I nope right out of that situation. My parents think it started when I was little and a june bug landed on me. Apparently I flipped shit and have ever since with even the smallest bug or spider. Another time (like my sophomore year of high school) a kid at summer camp threw a stink bug on me and I had a full-blown panic attack, and I mean crying and shaking and everything. I would probably flip shit at a butterfly even. Doesn't matter what kind of bug, it'll make me leave my seat or swat at it uncontrollably.

I understand your sentiments, I can't stand having wasps in the house (back home we have a ton of them in the area), and I remember when I was small one got into the bathroom and stung me on the toe while I was showering. Not only did I freak out and accidentally squash it with my foot, I cried over the fact that I'd killed it and buried it in the backyard.

I don't think that's being rude at all. Even if the dogs won't hurt you, it's a bit like telling someone that a huge drop is safe because there's a guard rail; it doesn't keep someone who's afraid of heights from freaking out.

Oh, yeah, I don't know, I'm a little torn on spiders. On one hand, they have way too many legs for me to feel comfortable, but on the other hand, they catch the annoying flying bugs and it's fascinating observing them when they're not indoors in places like, say, your house. There was one time, though, when a spider was crawling on my brother's leg and he just flicked it. The spider went flying...onto another part of his leg >.< At any rate, he flicked it again, except that time it just sorted of exploded. I have no idea what happened, but one moment there was a spider and the next there was a smudge with legs on my brother's jeans. Kind of gross, but my cat found it fascinating and kind of pawed at my brother's leg where the ex-spider was (ew).

You're definitely not alone. I'm terrified of spiders - even the puny ones. My family laughs at me since I always have to run and get my dad whenever I see a spider. If there is any proof of spontaneous generation, it's these guys - seriously, they seem to pop up everywhere. I just look away for a split second and the next moment, there is a spider right there. So every time I enter a room, I start scanning the walls and corners to make sure there aren't any eight-legged creepers waiting to surprise me. I was pretty anxious when I moved out for college (no Dad around to save me >~<) but so far I haven't come across any spiders in my apartment, though there were few other bugs that scared the crap out of me. Like one time a ginormous roach just came out of nowhere... I've never really been afraid of roaches, but this one was over 3 inches long and super fat. And it was flying too (sobs). I started screaming and then my roommate ran in with her kendo sword, thinking I was getting attacked by a robber, lol.

Eeew, poor thing. That's another thing though. I hate spiders who are indoors and I usually kill them. But then I feel bad that I killed a living thing who has just as much right to live as I do. :(

The spider I mentioned in the OP was harassing me again today. When I go to bed I clear the stuff from on top of the bed and put it in my computer chair. So today I woke up and started to transport the stuff out of my chair and back onto my bed when I saw movement and there the spider was darting across the backrest of my chair. By the time I grabbed the flyswatter it had ran down to the underside of the chair... I got my mom to come help me try to get it, since it was a black spider on a black chair underside it was difficult, not to mention I'd just woken up after all. My mom flipped the chair on it's side and upside down completely until I saw it running and then she killed it. Finally. Good riddance 😱

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's a phobia, I'm sorry- anxiety is a terrible thing to go through )= I used to be pretty scared of bugs... then I got a gecko... and they eat bugs... and after a few years and having to handfeed sick/ailing geckos it went away. Don't get an insectivore if you've got a phobia of bugs. Now I just hate for crickets because they chirp.

I used to have problems with deep water- even deep end pool water {though not quite as severe} until I damaged a disc in my back... then the only place that was "safe" was water that I couldn't touch the bottom on, cuz putting any weight on that disc hurt so much. Needless to say that fear is gone- actually the "shallow water hurts" mindset is still there somewhat... Not a 'cure' I'd recommend.