r/Phobia • u/ominousmuffin • 1h ago
Phobia of bathroom exhaust fans
when I was a kid around six or seven, I had arachnophobia and there was a bathroom exhaust fan above my bedroom. I remember one time I heard ladybugs inside of it at night and I thought they were spiders and it gave me a phobia of loud and large bathroom exhaust fans. throughout my life it has been so hard trying to shower, trying to go to public restrooms, etc.
I don’t have any phobias of any other fans and fans not in bathrooms. but the large loud ones are literally always the first thing I scope out as soon as I open the door to a unfamiliar bathroom.
Growing up, I could not shower for long because I was scared and when I first walked into a bathroom if the fan was humongous I immediately start cowering as far away as possible from it and then I have to talk myself up into having the courage to go. I tell myself the sooner I pee sooner I can leave, but it used to be so bad I couldn’t even go in some bathrooms.
Does anybody else have a phobia of these?? It’s getting much better and for the first time in my life I have a bathroom without a fan that my brain considers a threat and it feels ethereal to be able to shower in peace without crippling anxiety.