Phobias: No laughing matter

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder, where a person experiences a persistent, extreme fear towards a specific something. The person is usually aware that the fear is irrational, but will experience distress and intense fear in the event of coming into contact of a situation where the phobia cannot be avoided entirely.

I, for one, have scoleciphobia and myriapodophobia.
Scoleciphobia is the phobia of worms;
Myriapodophobia is the phobia of millipedes.

When I define my phobia to people, I generally define it as a phobia of longish creatures that have either no legs or more than 8 legs.
I do NOT have insectophobia.

To clarify, I'm okay with snakes, okay with grasshoppers and crickets, okay with spiders, (not so much cockroaches, but it's not a phobia), okay with beetles, ants, bees, butterflies, mosquitoes and basically everything else.

Things I am NOT okay with are
Earthworms
Worms
Any type of worm
Maggots
Millipedes
Centipedes
Caterpillars
Snails
Slugs
Leeches

I decided to make this blog post all out of a sudden because I realised the world doesn't know enough that PHOBIAS ARE NOT A JOKE.
I had a dream this morning which I woke up to crying and sweating. In the dream, my family was talking about going to buy this dish to eat which contained minute live caterpillars. There were also two huge millipedes leaving the porch of my house when we were leaving the house, and another one curled up and twitching IN THE FRONT OF THE CAR next to the driver and passenger when I was in the Estima. In the dream, I was screaming and crying, but nobody heard me. Everyone in the dream treated it like I was overreacting. I WAS overreacting, but phobias are not a joke. It's disappointing, but in reality, reactions I get from people aren't far off from the ignorance I got in my dream.

There are different degrees as to how intense one person's fear of something can be.
I have a fear of heights, but it is a not a phobia.
For someone with a phobia, you understand entirely what I am talking about.
When I come into contact with my phobia, I get a panic attack. I literally have no rationality left in me, my chest starts pounding and I experience a panic attack as would someone suffering from anxiety would.
The only difference, is that I need a trigger.

I'll explain, the degree of severity of my phobia.
Even typing the words millipede and caterpillar gives me the chills. Just looking at the words make me picture them and start imagining a terrible situation.
Talking about them, seeing pictures of them, all of that gives me chills at the back of my neck and the start of irrational imagination.
If you ever see me hold the back of my neck and rubbing it, any talking about or picture showing of those things need to stop.
It's because I imagine them at the back of my neck, that's why I need to make sure they're not there.
(Having long hair doesn't help too)

So I just want to remind everyone out there, now that you are more aware of the perspective of someone who actually has a phobia, understand the severity of it.
I get jokingly chased around by someone holding one of those things, thinking that it's funny.
It's not a laughing matter.
I guess I have it worse off sometimes because it's more irrational than a phobia that's more common or taken more seriously such as claustrophobia. Regardless of how 'rational' you think someone's fear is, remember you are not in the position to control 'how scared' they're allowed to be.
People with scoleciphobia have every right to be taken just as seriously as claustrophobics.
You might say 'oh I'm helping them overcome their fear', but in reality, you are making it worse.
If one person wants to work on fixing their phobia, they themselves will make the necessary arrangements for therapy sessions with professionals, and a mental preparation to face their fear.

Scaring the living daylights out of them doesn't help their phobia.