Entomophobia (Insectophobia)

A phobia is an intense, exaggerated and unexplained fear in the face of situations, objects, or actions (Martins, 2021). Individuals with entomophobia can experience an unpleasant crawling sensation either on their skin or under their skin. They also experience an overwhelming itch as they have anxious thoughts such as being bitten by a tick, being stung by a bug, or the thought of anything crawling on them. Symptoms may include; Rapid heart rate, trembling, sweating, shortness of breath, and even nausea. Although I don’t know if I have an extreme case of entomophobia, one thing I can say for sure is that the intense fear of any insect is there. It goes as far as panicking if a mere fly comes too close to me. Although it is alright if it is far away from me the moment it seems like it is coming closer to me the intense fight or flight mode activates making me want to run away from it without waiting another moment. Like my fear is usually laughed about by my friends as they always tell me “its a regular bug tho” or if it’s a tiny spider “it’s just a spider they are more afraid of you than you are of them” and to that I say…. Right. Quite recently I fought a mosquito in the bathroom. It was a normal day and I wanted to take a shower, however, I quickly noticed that there was a mosquito cheekily hiding there, probably waiting for me but, who knows at this point. I was immediately filled with dread, and my first reaction was to effectively run out of the bathroom quicker than you can say Universidad Europea de Madrid. I hid behind my bedroom door and peeked out to see if it followed me out so that I can run back to the bathroom and close the door. It seemed like it was clear and I carefully went back into the bathroom. I quickly scanned the area and it seemed like the coast was clear, however, to my dreadful surprise the insect was quite smartly hiding behind the door. To me, it looked like it was about to attack me as it was coming right at me quickly and that’s when I started panicking and looking for the quickest escape to safety, as the insect was between me and the door the only option I had left was to use the towel in my hand to SLAP the insect right out of the door. It worked but it was coming back towards me (like come on give me a break already) but I managed to close the door shut and proceed with my shower after having calmed down with immense relief. This might sound like a ridiculous story but bugs are extremely disgusting and it just makes my skin crawl if they’re too close for my comfort. It goes as far as to me not liking to open my window in my room too often (unless I’m cleaning) because I don’t want anything to fly into my room especially at night when I am, in my words, defenseless.

https://www.psycom.net/entomophobia-fear-of-bugs

https://www.terminix.com/blog/science-nature/entomophobia-why-you-may-be-afraid-of-bugs/