sleep help: I am very easily scared, and it really annoys people. - Help.com

hm, i’m extremely paranoid as well, mostly due to an over-active and overly-morbid imagination, but i respond rather quietly instead of tearing down the house :)

face your fears and go along with it, is all i can say. i remember being literally too frightened, when i was younger, to tear my eyes from the door, close them, foll over, or even breathe, even when there was no concievable way anything could hurt me. one night i decided, screw it, rolled over in my bed and closed my eyes, trying to ignore the feeling that there was something horribly terrifying crawling up to my bed, ready to attack my defenseless back. but i refused to turn around. night after night it was the same, and eventually i was able to sleep peacefully.

aww, it’s ok, when i was ten i had that problem, EVple you’ll meet. unless there’s something wrong with a friend, then i’ll cry until i know whats going on…

what the hell?? it screwed up my reply…

what i said, was i had that problem until i realized how much weaker my lil sis was, and i tried my best to be strong for her. now i’m one of the least scareable people you’ll meet, unless something’s wrong with a friend or family member, then i can cry and cry till i know whats going on…

i still stop dead in my tracks at the sight of a roach! :) oh yeah, and that stuff i was descibing, that was when i was 13/14

i have spiders running amok in my room. onmy bed sometimes, on the windows - in the morning i’ll wake up to go downstairs and overnight a web has been spun across the doorway! i live on the second floor all alone, which had been previously uninhabited, so i’m the real intruder here. i catch them in my jewelry boxes to put outside because i really have a strange adoration for spiders… all creepy animals for that matter

hehe, sorry i made a bad reply…
i am also grossed out by roaches and beetles, but i have a big bro who gets em for me, so…sorry, i’m being no help

Well I can’t tell you how to get over it, but I can sympathize with you a bit. I also stop dead in my tracks when I see a roach. Seriously I will cross the street to avoid getting within 10 feet of one. I am just as scared of spiders, bees, wasps, snakes. I will squeal, stomp, dance a funny dance if a roach crawls towards me!

the only major phobias i have are taking baths (i take showers, but I’m terrified of baths) and dead anything. Dead bugs, animals, ESPECAILLY people, It all freaks me out so much…

Well… first thing you want to do Goth…is STOP saying you are childish and stupid! ’cause you are not. Phobia’s can be a very serious issue, and impact the lives of millions of people. There used to be a post here (when I first came online) where someone posted a list of phobia’s (does anyone else remember that?). You would be amazed at the size of the list. OK… so you are a scaredie cat… what are you going to do about it? First it’s good that you recognize it… and you you have to own that part of you. It’s ok to be scared, because it is our fears that can protect us. Only sometimes our fears are unrealistic; yes? So i want you to go to a mirror, and look into it and say to yourself 100 times… “I’m a scaredie cat!” Say it and mean it!!! OK… after you do that you will own “scaredie cat”. Knowing that it is ok to be scared because it is that which keeps you safe. But you still jump at every little thing? OK… go buy a bag of bugs from the toy store… take one day… do the mirror thing again, and while you are doing it… have someone throw the bugs at you… also have them plant the bug around the house. Owning “scaredie cat” will take you a long way to control this issue.
Bright blessings ~
Richard

it’s called gradual accomodation, i think (not willing to get up and go grab my psychology handbook). it’s how ppl deal with extreme phobias, get closer to your fear in small increments until you become used to them and eventually they go away

is there anything i can do about my bath issue? sometimes i really need to relax, and thats the only thing I have on mind, but i am absolutely terrified of them….

what about the bath is it Hannah?? the pooled water? or too many shows like “What Lies Beneath”? (drowning)

haha, i have never seen a horror movie like that. i’m not into horror. not afraid of either, i just get this feeling like i’m gonna be pulled under, i feel like i’f falling….*shudders*

i get scared when i cant see the bottom, in a bath, pool, river, beach… like i said, rather overactive and morbid imagination… bleh

the loss of physical senses… TERRIFIES most people. It seem this is what you might be discribing Hannah… I think what will do you good is the same thing with the mirror… get in touch with, and OWN that which you are frightened of… tell yourself 100 times “I’m afraid of loosing control” Of course you can’t say it and count at the same time… so say it alot of times until you FEEL like it doesn’t hurt anymore. If “I’m afraid of loosing control” is not right… say what ever is right… say that which makes you feel like squirming out of your seat.

Then you test is a game of Marco Polo… not in the water… but get a blind fold, (kinda like blind-mans-bluff when you were a kid). You need helpers for sure… now…when you say Marco… no one replies Polo… instead… they will use any sort of tactile stimulation on you. You say Marco… someone brushes a feather boa across your face (remember you must be blindfolded and in the dark would be best). You say Marco… and someone else brushes a bristle brush across your hand. Here you have no control over your senses… someone might even spray some heavy perfume in the air when you say Marco… get the point??
Bright blessings~
Richard

Ozy… get intouch with the fear… as before repeat it in the mirror till you own it. Your test is harder, cause it sounds like drowning is your fear. You have to be careful not to do anything to hurt yourself in the test. I’m not really sure of one… but the first thing that comes ot my mind is… after you own your fear… lay in bed… relax… visualize in you imagination floating on your back in the middle of a lake… then pull the blankets over your head. Continue to visualize you are still on the lake… but as it get harder for you to breath (under the blanket) realize that you’ve floated out to the very deep part of the lake. IF YOU START FEELING DIZZY STOP THE EXERCISE IMMEDIATELY.

bright blessings~
Richard

thanks rich, i’ll be sure and try that

actually i don’t fear drowning. i can swim quite well. i have an irrational fear that there is a carnivorous animal in the water with me. it’s bizarre, because it defies all logical reasoning, but it makes sense in my head. and if i tell myself to stop checking the water to make sure nothing’s there, the irrational part of me tells me that i am taking a necessary precaution, and that i’m much safer if i check for sharks and gators first…

Well… that’s a healthy part of your fear isn’t it Ozy? … especially if you are swimming in Florida, Georgia… or in the West Coast Ocean… But there are not too many sharks or ‘gators at the local pool. I would guess your test would be more like Hannah’s then :) BUT… do it in the pool!

I do the same thing as kindaGothic. Last night when I went to put something in the trash can and to the left of it is a brown paper bag omething. You know not seeing a baby before and seeing something like it all of a sudden isn’t exactly normal…I also thought it was a dead baby or something decapitated. So many thoughts in such a small amount of time…

Then when I went to the bathroom, I usually have my hair up and a little of it came down and touched my shoulder. I jumped and freaked out ’cause we have many moths, flies, and bugs flying around in the bathroom (sometimes even bees). And another time a piece of my hair was sticking out the right side of my head and from the corner of my eye I could see it and I thought it was something else :P

When I do see another living thing I think I change…even people…

^Lol, well open it. Is there anything in there? If you can’t open it ’cause of fear, then that’s the ONLY reason you ARE scared then. I don’t know if this makes sense to you, but you’re scared of fear.