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2. I wanted to say from the phobia from clocks, I have that but I’m not afraid that the time passes. I’m just afraid of the sound and how they look. my grandma had 26 of these big clocks. I am not scared of these that don’t make any sound or the ones who make sound but they are just round. but if they are old and big even more than 10 cm I can’t even touch it I have this phobia already 12 years long, but then you think you know when they go off right no I actually don’t know cuz I can’t read on a clock 😦 and the ones of my grandma are even scarier cuz they go 6 minutes later then they should be I never know when they go……. 6 months past by and I wasn’t scared of them anymore cuz I haven’t seen them in a long time. and I needed to go sleep there so I though it won’t be that harsh right but it was I cried there for hours and they would ring and I cried and cried my grandma said what’s wrong I said it was the sound of the clocks and then she put all the clocks on mute and u was satisfied but not really cuz I think they are very scary to look at too and this was a month ago I hate these things and after that day I got nightmares 😦 of these stupid clocks and one time I needed to sleep on the couch that was HELL they tinged the whole time the only thing I heard was DING DONG, TRINGGG, AND WEIRD MELODIES. I cried the whole time and I put my fingers in my ears so I couldn’t hear it and I fell asleep crying with my fingers in my ears I needed to go to my grandma and I said to my mom I’m staying only at the front door I’m not going further I don’t want to see ONE CLOCK she said okay I’m my whole life scared of it and everyone says it’s from my past but when I’m 18 I can finally go on session and find out what happend I will sent a comment to you when I know ( in 6 years ) but who cares maybe I was burned in a church I have no idea but everytime my mom says go sleep at grandma I say NO THE C C CLOCKSS Life is really hard when your grandma has 26 clocks and you need to stay around them for 24 hours so this was the comment from the clock phobia

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   • Wow, that sounds terrible! You poor thing. I’m glad your grandmother put the clocks on mute. It’s very unusual to have 26 clocks.

     It won’t be easy to figure out what started your phobia, like you said. And I’m not sure that discovering the origin helps with overcoming the fear anyway. Just like knowing a clock can’t hurt you doesn’t make you feel less frightened. Phobias are not rational.

     But you can work to overcome your fear slowly. The worst thing to do is to keep reinforcing the fear by being around so many clocks and being terrified. You need to build up to being calm around a clock. So, you could start by looking at a picture of a clock from far away, and when you don’t feel any fear from the picture, move closer to it and eventually touch it. And when that feels not scary, try watching a movie with a clock (but not a scary movie!) and then try a real clock. When you work up to a real clock, start with a small one, maybe held by someone in the next room, then in the same room, then right next to you. Then just be in the room with the small clock doing other things until you don’t really notice it and you feel calm. Then try a bigger clock. And eventually work up to clocks that make sounds. But only work up to each stage when you are no longer scared by the current stage. It honestly takes years. But you can do it. Maybe you can ask your mom and gramma to help?

     No one with your phobia could be in a house with 26 clocks and feel calm. If they were all in one room with the door closed, that might help. Or if there is a room with no clocks that you could stay in, that might help. But every time you are around clocks feeling overwhelmed and terrified, you are reinforcing your phobia and it’s not likely to get better.

     It’s hard for people without phobias (like maybe your mom and your gramma) to understand the terror that people with phobias feel. Before my fear of heights kicked in in my 30s, I thought that a phobia was just a strong dislike or regular fear; I didn’t know that it felt like a rush of overwhelming terror. People without phobias think, why can’t you just get a grip, or just ignore it? They think maybe they can convince you to see reason. But when you have a phobia, you know that you can’t get a grip. You are overwhelmed by terror, and it’s not your fault. It’s almost like a mental version of an allergy.

     I feel for you. And I hope that you have lots of happy moments in life to counter the scary ones. 🙂

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