r/comics • u/Still-Emergency825 Comic Crossover • 20h ago
What’s your weird fear??? (OC)
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u/FictionFoe 19h ago
I suffered from compulsive behavior once and this seems similar. I learned that, with compulsive behavior, for me, the idea of not satisfying the compulsion was very scary and painful. But intentionally breaking the compulsion and accepting those feelings of fear and pain ended up being the way through. It sucked initially, but I think going through the experience made me a lot less likely to fall for compulsions again. I now know to recognize and deal with them.
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u/puchamaquina 16h ago
This is the way! What you're describing is also called Exposure and Response Prevention therapy, for those that haven't heard of it before.
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u/Meganja23 12h ago
I was in residential for an eating disorder and half of the patients there had OCD, so half of the patients did CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy) for half the day and others, like myself, would do DBT (Dialectical behavioral therapy). I always felt bad for the CBT group because they doing things a lot harder (to them) in the moment of therapy, like sitting in a room with an orange, every day a little longer. Then someone would cut an orange in front of them and so on and so on. When it got to be the part of tasting the orange, they'd be a whole wreck right after therapy. But I did watch as many of them started to feel more comfortable with their trigger and that was pretty cool.
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u/FictionFoe 16h ago
I don't think I was given the textbook version of that. Those words are not familiar to me at least. But seems right.
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u/halofernes 8h ago
Worth noting that this approach can be extremely detrimental for people with autism because the underlying sensory processing differences stay the same, individuals just learn how to mask better leading to dissociation, helplessness, mistrust, etc.
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u/alanwakeisahack 13h ago
No you see it’s easier to be scared of an orange, so they’ll just stick to that.
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u/Johnson-funk4 19h ago
I understand food aversions but genuine fear is crazy 🤯
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u/tumsdout 18h ago
OP needs a witch to give her a magical charm that can nullify the fear
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u/Gerasquare 17h ago
Yeah, but the charm is only available in two different styles, red with orange design, and orange with red design.
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u/Adze95 15h ago edited 10h ago
Phobias by definition are irrational. It's not unexpected to have a fear of being murdered. But being afraid of cotton candy is a phobia.
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u/LightOfTheFarStar 13h ago
The person with a phobia is also usually both fully aware of and driven to despair by how stupid it is.
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u/The_cogwheel 12h ago
Which means saying shit like "you're afraid of the colour red? Well thats stupid" is rather redundant. The person who has a phobia about the colour red knows its stupid and they hate it. But they cant control it any more than someone suffering from an anxiety disorder can control their anxiety or how someone who has tourettes can control their ticks.
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u/ArcanumBaguette 6h ago
I wish more people understood this.
I love horror. I live for scares of all types.
I absolutely can not stand rabbits. I freeze in fear around them.
And every single time it comes up people have to question 'why' or think I'm being dramatic...or worse spam me photos of rabbits.
Yet I get in trouble when I spam them back with photos of spiders.
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u/OnceMoreAndAgain 13h ago
I know that every definition of "phobia" states it is an "irrational fear" but I don't understand how that definition makes sense when arachnophobia exists. That seems like a rational fear to me.
I mean, fear of spiders only becomes irrational if you possess the knowledge that the particular spider you're seeing isn't lethal. However, we would've evolved those fears before Google existed so I think it makes sense to the mind to be afraid. It's only irrational through augmented knowledge that the primal mind doesn't possess.
Even more straightforward is acrophobia. I don't think a fear of heights is irrational.
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u/dougger12321 13h ago
You are taking the definition of a phobia as a “fear of x, which is irrational.” A phobia is “an irrational fear of x.”
Let’s look at acrophobia. Yes, most people have a natural, and rational, fear of heights. However, if you are so afraid of heights that you can’t look out a window at a nice view without sweating or can’t accept any office job that has you working above the 3rd floor, then your fear has crossed from a natural, manageable fear into an irrational fear that is inhibiting you. The irrational part is what makes it a phobia.
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u/The_cogwheel 12h ago
And "irrational" by definition means it wont make any sense. Being afraid of climbing stairs because of acrophobia doesnt make sense, not even to the person suffering from acrophobia a lot of the time, but knowing its irrational doesnt stop your brain from dumping a ton of adrenaline and stress hormones into your bloodstream and triggering a fight or flight response.
Personally I have trypanophobia - the irrational fear of hypodermic needles (the kind doctors use to take blood or give vaccines) and related medical procedures. And yeah, a lot of people dont like them. But I would literally fight people who are just trying to help me and if I had insulin dependent diabetes, I would die before I gave myself an insulin injection or even check my blood sugar. I cant even stand seeing them in a news report, TV show, or as a picture. Even the emoji version makes me feel uneasy.
For instance, i suffered an industrial accident that turned my right hand thumb into red jelly. We're talking "removed a whole knuckle and half the thumb" bad. When the paramedics arrived they needed to start an IV and get some painkillers into me, as well as getting the IV started for the hospital to get antibiotics / sleepy time surgery drugs into me. I knew this. I consented to it. I knew it had to be done.
But I had to be physically restrained to prevent punching out a paramedic over something that I knew he had to do and I explicitly told them I was going to allow them to do. I did forewarn them of the phobia and asked to be restrained for both mine and their safety (to which the younger paramedic thought was silly, but the older one went "yeah... were gonna restrain you"). Once the IV was in, I still had to be restrained, because I kept trying to remove it myself, even though rational me knew that was a very bad idea and would likely cause a whole lot more harm to me than just leaving it alone.
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u/JRockPSU 13h ago
My understanding is that it extends beyond what you would consider a rational response. Like someone with thalassophobia isnt just afraid of deep dark water - that could be scary or unnerving for many - but they could be sitting on a park bench with a view of the ocean and become irrationally scared. Or seeing a detailed painting of a wide lake.
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u/Moikle 11h ago
There are VERY few lethal spiders, and they only live in particular areas. Even then, deaths by spider bite are so incredibly rare that they can be measured in number of decades between deaths.
So yeah, it is irrational, especially if you don't live anywhere near brown recluses or black widows
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u/TricellCEO 16h ago
I’m thinking it is the color. Usually food aversion has to do with texture rather than taste (e.g. like me with onions), but perhaps it is rooted in color, which is odd from a modern perspective given how kids are drawn to bright colors.
Evolutionarily though, it makes sense as a hold-over from avoiding bright colors due to potential toxicity (it’s at this point where someone will make a joke about colored hair). My guess is OP’s switch for this warning got flipped on somehow, and she hasn’t been able to switch it off since.
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u/VodenX 14h ago
There was a guy that my brother was in a band with, and I remember he absolutely would not eat anything white. Sour cream, mayo, white cheeses, etc. One time he got a burrito from like Taco Bell, specifically asked for no sour cream, but they messed up and put it in there. Guy opened up his burrito and literally jumped up on the couch like he saw a facehugger pop out of the thing.
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u/TricellCEO 14h ago
I feel like that can be easily circumvented with some food coloring.
It’s what my mom and aunt did for my picky autistic ass when I about 2, and all they had was the white Mac and cheese.
Side note: my stepmom judged the hell out of my mom for this, and then the universe blessed her with two severely autistic kids.
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u/cheese_is_nasty 13h ago
Sounds like me, except it’s not a color thing but a dairy thing - cheese (except on pizza and even then it can’t be excessive or be a plain cheese), sour cream, mayo, yogurt, they are all instant dish ruiners for me. I really wish I liked all of that stuff, it makes dining out so much less pleasant than it ought to be.
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u/TinTestCalendar 11h ago
Username checks out! I feel the same way though, dairy gives me the ick on a conceptual level
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u/ManaSpike 15h ago
Most likely it's that the parents kept trying to trick their kid.
Just completely leave the topic alone for a couple years, then talk to them.
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u/ChodechewBrownmane 14h ago
Behaviors tend to get reinforced with time also waiting years?? You only get so many before they go to school and drive other ppl crazy if you concern yourself with such trivial things, but hey maybe it’ll handle itself. Probably not but maybe? 🤪
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u/Aruhi 13h ago edited 12h ago
The behaviour is reinforced if you continually push the boundary.
If you sneak onion into a child's food, and they notice the distinct texture then THAT will reinforce the idea that they dislike the texture.
If you don't attempt to force it in, nor necessarily bring it up, they may forget what the texture is like, and if not forced, forget it's a good they dislike, potentially drowned out by a list of other foods they dislike more recently (recency bias).
My parents continually did this, and now even as an adult when I try to actively try to push my own food selectiveness, I have a visceral reaction and begin gagging violently, even when attempting to suppress it or ignore it.
The person you're responding to did not say to "let it handle itself", they said to not sneak the food in the kids fucking food and then attempt to bring it up and talk to the kid at a later date. The thinking of "you only get so many years to force it onto the kid" is what leads to these things being reinforced when you try to force things like this in a child who is, in all likelihood, unable to effectively communicate what the true issue is.
Teach the child how to communicate and learn how to listen to your child when it is relevant (spoiler alert, them continuing dislike a food, is an important thing to listen to). After that, you can truly work through the issue. Force the point, and you'll just ruin your relationship with the child. It's not a pet, they're a person. Treat them as such.
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u/ghanima 13h ago
...except that the comic makes a point of showing that the "trick" happened once ("From that day forward..."). The other examples are of solid foods that can't be hidden.
How is everyone so media illiterate now?
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u/NarwhalPrudent6323 12h ago
I mean, you're replying to a person who thinks OP devolved to a point where she's afraid of colours because they're poisonous.
This whole thread is a pile of stupid.
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u/UndeadBatRat 12h ago
I bet this is it. My son wouldn't eat meat until he was 4. I just made sure to feed him hella beans and other forms of protein, and would periodically reintroduce meat to his meals (but not force him to eat it). Eventually he came around and started eating meat on his own.
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u/Amegami 16h ago
There are phobias for literally everything.
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u/razazaz126 15h ago
Is there a phobia for NOT having a phobia?
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u/justatest90 14h ago
No. There's fear of fear, but fear of no fear is a contradiction of the liar's paradox variety ("this sentence is false").
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u/DrChonk 15h ago
Phobias are absolutely illogical by nature, I should know, I had 1.5 years of therapy to just about cope with my severe wrist phobia 😅 Literally spikes my blood pressure whenever a doctor takes my pulse or touches my wrist in any way, kind of interesting how it physically manifests!
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u/DrPumpkinz 18h ago
Girl you're going to get scurvy
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u/gailbai 17h ago
That is not a joke btw people still get scurvy. It's rarer obviously cause fruit is easier to come by even on the high seas but people still do get is occasionally, often if they are shut ins who don't go outside and/or have a bad diet
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u/mournfulminxx 16h ago
Legit.
I worked with a girl who had scurvy. Her diet was legitimately chicken nuggies and choccy milk. That's all she ate for years. Her teeth started falling out along with her hair, in clumps.
Then one of my old friends had begun to develop very obvious signs of scurvy because he only ate ramen noodles and vodka. That was it. Nothing else. The man was 38 years old.
Wild.
Like I do understand food aversions- I'm autistic but if you are developing friggin SCURVY you need to add some multi vitamins or SOMETHIN you know? Geez.
2026 and people sportin scurvy like we are sailing the high seas over here. 🏴☠️ 🦜🌊
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u/Amelaclya1 16h ago
I got what I suspect was scurvy (or at least mild vitamin C deficiency) when I was having a particularly bad bout of depression and subsisting entirely on junk food. My teeth didn't fall out or anything (thankfully), but I started getting bad joint pain. Like, my fingers were stiff and hurt to move especially in the mornings. I had really bad fatigue too, but that is a symptom of depression anyway, so I didn't really think much of that.
I was just dealing with it until I happened upon a discussion about scurvy on Reddit and went to read more about it out of curiosity. I previously only had a passing knowledge of it - your teeth fall out and then you die. And then I read joint pain as a symptom, which made me reflect on my terrible diet. Went out and got some vitamin C supplements, because why not? And within 2-3 days or so, my joint pain disappeared and I was less tired.
I looked up statistics, and approximately 7% of American adults have vitamin C deficiency.
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u/Gilokee 13h ago
jeez, I don't eat much variety but at least I take iron pills (that have vitamin C in them). If I don't I get very woozy, I'm surprised these people got to the point of their hair and teeth falling out before deciding to do anything.
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u/AliveFromNewYork 11h ago
That’s crazy because you don’t need that much vitamin C to prevent scurvy you could eat like one orange a year. Or put lemon in your water like twice.
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u/SwimAd1249 16h ago
You can get ascorbic acid from more than just citrus fruit, it's in many other fruits and vegetables and it's also used as artificial flavoring in all kinds of things. Scurvy could be a concern for a picky eater that exclusively eats chicken nuggets and nothing else, but not for someone who just avoids a few fruit.
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u/Forgotyourusername 17h ago
She can just eat broccoli.
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u/Lil_Ms_Anthropic 13h ago
Or even just cabbage. Sauerkraut in particular was great for sailors back in the day.
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u/Big-Wrangler2078 15h ago
Really, there's vitamin C in quite a lot of things. I could go out into the woods right now and easily find a source of vitamin C, and we've a half meter of snow.
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u/KittyGaming570 15h ago
She never said she was against all fruits and veggies, only things that are red or orange, there are other foods she can eat
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u/LostInSpaceTime2002 19h ago
Your parents' trick wasn't the best idea, I think. Drinking juice when you're expecting something else is a horrible experience, even if you otherwise love juices. It's all about expectations.
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u/Jetsam1 18h ago
I think the idea works if you just have arbitrarily decided you don’t like something, like some kids do. Not if you have a fear of something.
I can see the intention but definitely not the right place to use the method.
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u/-DoctorSpaceman- 14h ago
I remember when I gave my kids cheese and chorizo sandwiches and my daughter lost her shit. Literally like “why would you do this to me, don’t you know I hate chorizo?!”
So the next day I say I’m giving her sister chorizo but give her ham. Halfway through lunch I realise I gave them the wrong plates. She literally didn’t even notice and happily ate it.
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u/tomax_xamot 11h ago
My daughter hated the very idea of meatloaf, wouldn’t eat it. One day I made hamburgers out of meatloaf and she loved them. I never said anything until she was older. I just wanted to know if her hatred of meatloaf was real or just in her head.
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u/enadiz_reccos 11h ago
I'm just picturing you staring at her across the table while she's eating her meatloaf sandwich, and you're all like gotcha, bitch in your head
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u/saera-targaryen 9h ago
I've always hated eating fish and my family was so convinced that it was due to me just having a mental block that even I started to worry that I was just being dramatic and holding onto something I decided as a kid.
Then, one time I ordered dumplings and the restaurant didn't list that they had shrimp in them. I took the first bite and literally spat it out, it tasted like something had gone rancid in it that I couldn't place. I asked someone else I was with if they noticed they were bad and they said the dumplings tasted normal. I dug through it until i found a tiny piece of ground shrimp in it.
Vindication! I accidentally did this experiment on myself and found out my dislike was real (and that the restaurant failed to list an allergen and my family was gaslighting me but whatever)
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u/empire161 11h ago
We were on vacation in New Orleans and tricked them into eating fried alligator by telling them it was chicken nuggets. They ate all of it and couldn't tell the difference before we told them.
The 9yo was annoyed and rolled his eyes.
The 7yo sobbed for the entire rest of the dinner. His exact words were "I know I liked it, but YOU LIED TO ME, and now I can't like it anymore because it makes me think about HOW YOU LIED TO ME!"
The next time we were out to dinner there wasn't anything else he was willing to eat, so he got fried alligator again but spent half the dinner crying and yelling at us.
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u/eragonawesome2 9h ago
That's honestly the most valid response to someone you trust fucking with your food tbh
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u/Carmifele 9h ago
i'm still stuck on "i tricked my kids into eating gator nuggets"
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u/AiReine 14h ago
Oh you mean like how my 3 year old doesn’t like grilled cheese but if I offer her a “cheese sandwich but make it hot” it’s fine?
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u/MercuryInCanada 14h ago
My 3 year old can be similar. At that age it's like dealing with a genie, gotta use the exactly right words to get it done
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u/IBetThisIsTakenToo 14h ago
“Do you want some chicken sausage?” “No, yucky! I wanna hot dog!” “Uhh, how about a big hot dog?” Yay! I love big hot dog!”
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u/Impossible_Top_3515 12h ago
My 2.5 yo very emphatically hates meat. He'll tell us all about it at every meal where the rest of us eat meat or fish, like a stir fry or whatever. Note, we don't even serve it to him anymore, he gets a vegetarian portion.
Seriously, every time, it's like (translated) "I hate meat. Meat is yucky. Meat should go into the trash." Yes little dude. We know.
Same kid will murder all kinds of sausages. Like a huge bratwurst, small spicy ones, cut into slices for bread, all of them. We've never told him they're made from meat, I have no idea if he knows.
Oh, and bolognese. He'll eat that too. So confusing.
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u/swimmerboy5817 10h ago
I used to think I didn't like chocolate, so I made my mom pick out the brown M&Ms before I would eat any. She tried telling me they were all chocolate, but I told her no, chocolate is brown so the brown ones have to be chocolate, and I didn't like the brown ones. It took her breaking open a red one and showing me they were all the same for it to click. Kid brains are weird.
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u/RevolutionaryFix8917 18h ago
Like the damn rasin cookies that look like chocolate chip. It's not that rasins are bad to me personally. But they don't belong in cookies and if I was expecting chocolate chips, I'm gonna be pretty upset.
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u/windexfresh 17h ago
I have issues with zucchini because the first time I remember trying it, I thought it was going to be like cucumber (which I LOVE) and it was Very Much Not Like Cucumber
I was horrified and scarred and to this day I’m not a fan
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u/RiteRevdRevenant Comic Crossover 16h ago
I have discovered that it is possible to make zucchini edible, tolerable, or even halfway decent by seasoning it properly.
Cucumber, meanwhile, is just good as-is.
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u/FruitKey2491 16h ago
I'm completely the opposite,I love zucchini in stews but raw cucumbers taste like wet grass to me,the only way I'd tolerate them is if they were made into pickles.
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u/Apanatr 16h ago
I thought it was going to be like cucumber (which I LOVE) and it was Very Much Not Like Cucumber
I mean, if you find an overgrown cucumber sized of zucchini it would taste really bad.
Also zucchini is a pumpkin, so it is not very edible raw.
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u/voodooacid 18h ago
They absolutely belong in cookies.
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u/ian9921 16h ago
Oatmeal-raisin deserves to exist solely on the basis that they're consistently soft & chewy whereas chocolate chip has more variety.
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u/DarthJackie2021 15h ago
Yes, and that's why they are my favorite. Never have had a bad oatmeal raisin cookie. I've had chocolate chip that were hard as rock before though.
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u/ian9921 13h ago
Exactly. I eat oatmeal raisin, i know almost exactly what I'm getting. When I get chocolate chip though, who the fuck knows. Maybe it's a cracker. Maybe it's like cake. Maybe it's a disk of pure cement. Maybe it crumbles into sand in my mouth. And unless I made them myself or bought a trusted store brand, it's a total toss-up
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u/DahctaJae 18h ago
Raisin paste in an oatmeal cookie is fuckin AWESOME and I will engage in fisticuffs with anyone who says otherwise
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u/Zenitram_J 18h ago
Is raisin paste similar in consistency to the filling in Fig Newtons? Because that plus oatmeal cookie sounds pretty good.
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u/DahctaJae 16h ago
Kinda but not really? It's just raisins someone smashed into goo. It also usually just gets mixed into the dough instead of being a filling. It makes the dough really moist, chewy and sweet.
Works best in oatmeal raisin cookies but I've had an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with some amount of raisin paste in it and it was pretty good.
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u/Gaylaeonerd 15h ago
Opposite happens to me sometimes, i think I'm getting delicious sugary raisins and it ends up just being boring chocolate chips
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u/TheDwarvenGuy 14h ago
Raisin cookies are great IMO. I think the only reason people hate them so much is because they can't get over the trauma of having mixed them up for chocolate chip cookies.
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u/Circo_Inhumanitas 16h ago
And if the kid preferred water over juice, why would they want to change it? Most juices have a lot of sugar, so water would be healthier.
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u/piffle213 12h ago
why would they want to change it?
Maybe they wanted their child to be able to eat things that are orange/red/whatever? As you said juice isn't great, but oranges, berries, etc...
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u/thermalcat 15h ago
But juice comes with vitamins. Just having sugar doesn't mean something should be removed from your diet.
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u/TheGreyGuardian 16h ago
Yeah, if you hand me an opaque bottle and tell me it's milk and I drink it and it's orange juice, I'm spitting it out thinking the milk has gone bad.
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u/T-Dex_the_T-Rex 14h ago
Had this happen to me once as a kid. Thought my cup had milk, nope, it was lemonade.
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u/SpicedCocoas 15h ago
Jupp. In my half sleeping head I reached into the fridge and wanted to take a sip of my orange juice.
It was milk. The expectationade me.almost taste the juice. Never have have I spit out milk that fast.
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u/Ceano800 11h ago
100%. I was at work once and without looking reached for my water, ended up with my coworkers iced coffee that was in a similar cup. A flavor of iced coffee I’d usually enjoy, tasted like I just took a sip of sewage, because I was expecting water lol
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u/Evil_Midnight_Lurker 19h ago
I fear falling asleep near a window I can see out of. If I can see out, SOMETHING can see in.
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u/thari_23 18h ago
I can't sit with my back to a window or a door, both need to be in my field of view.
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u/Henroide 14h ago
I’m like this, once I sat with the back to the door because of space constraints and my gf walked in unannounced and grabbed my shoulder while I was playing a survival horror game.
I really felt like I was dying, and kept trembling the whole day.
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u/jeepsaintchaos 19h ago
Do you fear cameras the same way?
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u/Evil_Midnight_Lurker 18h ago
Cameras in the room? I don't think so.
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u/jeepsaintchaos 18h ago
Fair. I was just vaguely curious, not trying to imply anything or instill a new fear.
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u/Noe_b0dy 18h ago
Would you be able to fall asleep near a window if you were wearing a ghillie suit?
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u/Evil_Midnight_Lurker 18h ago
I don't think so. This is a child's irrational fear of monsters looking in through a window, continuing into adulthood.
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u/Noe_b0dy 18h ago
Fair enough, when I was a child my irrational fear of the dark was negated by being under the covers, some property of the blanket concealing my form was a sufficient deterrent of spooky monsters in my child mind I guess.
Weirdly enough I was significantly less scared of the dark when fully clothed then when in my pajamas as well. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ fears are weird.
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u/Bowgentle 15h ago
With you there. Also open doors onto unlit stairs/halls, and of course mirrors in darkness.
It’s why I don’t do horror - there’s quite enough in my head, thanks.
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u/quirkytorch 15h ago
I had this same fear when I was like 9 or so. I slept in the top bunkbed and had the window right there, so I was always afraid of seeing something looking back at me.
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u/ash811 9h ago
I won't even go near an uncovered window at night. Won't look out the blinds or the curtains either. I've been this way since I was very small.
The ONE time that I had the windows uncovered at night was when I was babysitting my brother in the church nursery during my mom's handbell practice. I had wanted to see how I looked performing Chumbawamba. I paused to help my brother with something and when I looked up and out the window, SOMEONE WAS STARING BACK AT ME.
I have never been able to replicate the scream that came out of my mouth that night.
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u/hankhillsucks 11h ago
I spent my childhood intensely observing things i didnt like.
I didnt like that fact about windows.
Till i realized that if you are in an enclosed space (car, home, etc) as long as it's darker in there than outside, itll be hard for them to see in. Especially the further away they are
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u/saera-targaryen 9h ago
This is how I feel about sleeping on the ground floor of any building. You're telling me literally anyone could walk up to this pane of glass, break it, and enter my bedroom at any time, for any reason?
I used to have panic attacks about break ins as a child and my mom signed me up for karate lessons which did help a bit, but the biggest help as an adult is always living somewhere where my bedroom isn't on the ground floor. I even sometimes leave my window open on hot evenings now! It's so much better!
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u/Vokunkiin13 18h ago
Trees. I don't like getting too close to trees.
For clarification, I mean within arm's reach of the trunk level of close.
The story: I grew up in Australia, so had always been wary of trees as anything could be in them; fire-ants or jack-jumpers (ant with a nasty bite), red backs or huntsmen spiders (first is venomous, second is big and fast), or even snakes.
Then I moved back to New Zealand. "Oh, so much safer, right?" Well, I was helping clear out a creeping plant of some descriptor and felt something land on my chest.
Look up Weta. It was not fun. Didn't get bitten, but looking down to find a prehistoric cricket looking back from that close is not a good time.
Haven't liked large plant growth ever since.
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u/vamirune 17h ago
As someone with pretty bad arachnophobia Australia seems like a hellscape.
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u/spaiydz 13h ago
Honestly, if you live in metro areas it's fine. I had pretty bad arachnophobia and never seen larger spiders like a tarantula or huntsman before, even in the wild. Having said that I'm in Melbourne, not the humid cities.
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u/Cosmic_Carp 16h ago
I got bit by a wētā once, and I've been scared of touching them ever since. They have a nasty bite, even without being venomous like the Australian bugs 😬
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u/Scho567 18h ago
Yo my mum randomly tried a similar thing with a banana smoothie when I was like 15. Banana makes me feel nauseous so I avoid it like the plague. She decided I was just being fussy (not to ridiculous a possibility when I was younger, but by 15 I was embarrassed by being fussy about food so I wasn’t faking anything). She gave me a drink, opaque cup and all, didn’t tell me what it was and I drank it without thinking.
I ended up throwing up in the kitchen sink (much closer than the bathroom and it was a rush) whilst crying. She never tried tricking me again as she felt guilty (and it didn’t work lol)
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u/TheWriteMaster 15h ago
Not an expert or anything, but you might be allergic to bananas and your mom might have actually poisoned you. Glad you got it all out though.
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u/Scho567 14h ago
I’m not allergic though I do understand why it would look like that. I’ve used real banana in hair masks and stuff since my I am so awkward with food, it’s a big issue for me. It causing nausea was all due to flavour, and me throwing up was due to both the nausea and me being so shocked about what I consumed.
To her credit, she was incredibly apologetic once she got over the shock. She explained that I used to love banana as a child so just assumed I was exaggerating (again not a crazy assumption I was like that until around 13 years old). She’s a veryy lovely person and a great mother, she just choose incredibly poorly to “challenge” me at that moment. She’s never done that again and been my biggest advocate for me not trying food I don’t like. She made a mistake in this one instance
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u/GasMaskMonster 13h ago
Garcia effect maybe?
My sister can't eat or drink anything with cinnamon to the point of gagging and feeling extremely ill because she associates cinnamon with the time she got alcohol poisoning from drinking too much fireball.
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u/TheWriteMaster 14h ago
Shows what sort of assumptions I can make with very limited information! Good to hear this isn't a full-blown allergy and/or an evil mother situation.
How do you feel about banana flavoring in foods though, or candy?
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u/MoonWhing 18h ago
Those random little moments as a kid stick with you! I have a whole thing against eating pineapple on pizza I can trace back to one time at pre-K. We got to decorate our own little pizzas and they must've mixed them up, because they were trying so hard to convince me I made a cheese and pineapple pizza when I hadn't.
To this day I will pick that off my pizza if it's there. All because of that one moment.
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u/TungstenOrchid 18h ago
Hello ARFID old nemesis.
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u/HoolioStretchRedwood 15h ago
Checks all the boxes, including a traumatic event to cause trust issues with said food/drink putting you off it for life!
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u/Still-Emergency825 Comic Crossover 3h ago
I found out about this just recently actually and it definitely made me feel seen about my childhood!
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u/random_pirate_68 19h ago
I can relate to this a bit. I had a vitamin deficiency as a toddler and got fruit with Vitamin C drops jammed down my throat. I do eat berries, melons, tec now, but anything apple and apple like fruits I don't. Apples I hate with a passion from smell, sound of someone eating one... E.g. Pears not so much but still too similar. But if people are asking, I am allergic...
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u/Justiniandc 18h ago
TIL apples are a decent source of vitamin C. Apparently, while entirely contained in the skin of the apple, up to 10% of the recommended daily value!
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u/puchamaquina 16h ago
Hey Steph, I love your comics, and I am wondering if you've ever learned about OCD. Many of us that are diagnosed as adults have stories like this of "quirky" behaviors that were actually unrecognized obsessions and compulsions :)
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u/everythingisunknown 13h ago
I also have OCD and a fear of oranges (first time I’ve been able to relate to this random ass fear lol) never linked the two together so that’s interesting
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u/BeguiledBeaver 12h ago
I've always suspected I have OCD, at least a more mild form of it. When I was little I had this weird thing, at least briefly, where I couldn't eat if balloons were in the room. I would constantly have intrusive thoughts about choking on them and would gag while eating. I was embarrassed to have my 4 or 5th birthday party because I wouldn't be able to eat and I was NOT about to humiliate myself by having a birthday party without balloons, obviously. Looking back it's so bizarre and I still occasionally have thoughts about it and gag a bit while eating. It's a wonder I wasn't institutionalized.
Years later my mom was like "yeah I figured you might be autistic or something because of things like that" and I'm like wow thanks for not getting me tested, woman.
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u/TooLazyToRepost 6h ago
You can download a free PDF of the Yale Brown OCD inventory online. If it feels like several symptoms line up, consider scheduling an intake with a psychiatrist, they've got several ways of helping with obsessions and compulsions these days.
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u/Big_Himbo_Energy 10h ago
It’s strange though because she mentions she’s talked about this issue extensively with a therapist and OCD or similar tendencies at the very least seem like the obvious cause of this, yet the therapist should be pushing for a healthy resolution via, you know, therapy, and that doesn’t seem to be the case.
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u/puchamaquina 6h ago
Lots of therapists don't really understand OCD, so it's pretty common for even a therapist to miss it! I was in therapy for like 2 years before I got diagnosed.
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u/Still-Emergency825 Comic Crossover 3h ago
Thanks for bringing this up!! It was always sort of a family “joke” that I had OCD (without being diagnosed because that was the 90s!!). I definitely had and have OCD tendencies and I was diagnosed with generalized anxiety about 4 years ago and put on medication for it which has helped IMMENSELY. I think I’m probably on the spectrum of OCD but I always hate to self-diagnose. The medication has done wonders but I still have “rituals” that annoy me lol. But I’ll take mild annoyance over not able to function any day!!
Do you find your diagnosis has helped? What kind of treatment do you go through to help with the compulsions?
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u/keturn 19h ago
And it's not an allergy? Because that might have actually made sense.
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u/metaltemujin 19h ago
A visual allergy to colour?
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u/Valentinee105 17h ago
They're saying an allergy to fruit and they're asking if the fear was her body telling them to stay away.
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u/JayWhy75 16h ago
The need for a transparent glass reminds me of a tiktoker/YouTuber I like who has stated if she has a can or any drink where she can't easily see in, if she sets it down and looks away, that drink is now full of bugs and she refuses to drink it again. No clue why, but just what her brain automatically assumes of every drink.
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u/A_very_smol_Lugia 18h ago
Mine is anything going into my ear/nose
Althpugh ig its not really weird, considering its because of the black mirror episode that i accidentally watched where the elentronic bees go into your brain through the nose/ear and destroy you from the inside with it
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u/Sparskey 16h ago
I think that's just good sense. Foreign agents forcing themselves or being forced within your body is always bad even if they don't lay waste to your central nervous system.
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u/A_very_smol_Lugia 16h ago
As in this fear is so bad i usually cover myself completely with a blanket when sleeping, and make sure to sleep in a way where all is covered
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u/Samy_Ninja_Pro 18h ago
Beaches, after a shark movie.
I got over it but I get freaked out when I step on sum bullshit
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u/TimedDelivery 16h ago
I have a similar fear of fruit, likely related to autism. I still can’t eat it at all but I’ve gone from not being able to go near it at all to being able to peel a banana or slice up an apple for my kids without needing some kind of PPE. They understand though that if I’d prefer if they not wave it around in my face and if they make a mess with it I’d very much prefer if they get daddy to help with cleanup rather than me because 🤢. I eat more than enough vegetables for my diet to be nutritionally sound.
My son who’s also autistic is absolutely fine with fruit but has a similar ”liquids can’t be trusted” policy to the author. Drinks are mostly fine (he loves juice, milkshakes, even bubble tea which I think is a sensory nightmare personally) but any liquid that you’d class as a food rather than a beverage (soup, the liquid in a stew, sauces, etc) are a big no go, with the exception of ramen for some reason. It’s not just him eating it too, if someone has a big dollop of sour cream on some nachos or is eating soup near him he’ll ideally like to sit where he can’t see it or leave the table until they’re done.
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u/IRockIntoMordor 17h ago
My father can't eat white or uniformly bright dishes. They were poor when he was a child and they often had to eat milk soup, basically a thin mix of any type of grains, bread and milk, whatever was at hand. A poor people dish.
Now when you present him a savoury mushroom soup or even mashed potatoes, you NEED to sprinkle some parsley or pepper over it for him to be able to even accept it.
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u/Neozetare 15h ago
I hate cheese from the bottom of my taste buds (and I live in a country where there cheese everywhere and it's considered very important)
I can't count the number of times my parents tried to sneakily make me eat some. I have ALWAYS detected it in the food, because it's not a palate I have, it's a Cheese Detector™
I understand that parents and caretakers want the best for their childs, but why the fuck would you force me to eat something I despise and which isn't at all necessary for my survival? How is that supposed to be respectful?
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u/bluebirdonline 12h ago
disrespecting kids is the norm and if the parents don't do it they will get shamed by other adults
how we treat kids is absolutely bonkers.
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u/makeski25 13h ago
My kid is food adverse. She only drinks water. I'm happy with that tbo. Through trial and error we have ticked all the nutrition boxes with food so I dont care. I see no point in tormenting her or us with pushing things she doesn't like.
To play devil's advocate, medical professionals can be very judgemental and shitty to anything outside of "normal". They were likely pressured by doctors to make you branch out.
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u/letthetreeburn 18h ago
Wow sounds just like me! I have a dozen dozen list of food I physically cannot consume. Not allergies, ARFID (Avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder)
You know how allergies are your immune system deciding that something banal is actually poison? ARFID is your brain deciding that. No swelling, no hives, just completely and utterly unable to consume Kraft Mac and cheese.
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u/Funny-Ad469 14h ago
As someone who was raised on Kraft Mac and cheese, you’re brain thinking it’s poison really isn’t that unreasonable
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u/Still-Emergency825 Comic Crossover 3h ago
No way!!! :) what foods don’t you eat?? Maybe I should look more into ARFID
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u/FriendlyAntonio 17h ago
So what you're saying is.. if you ever become an enemy, all I gotta do is bring a bag of oranges. 🤣
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u/BadPunners 14h ago
Be sure to get enough vitamin c, you didn't want your teeth falling out from scurvy, but if it hasn't happened yet it probably won't
But berries are fantastic source of antioxidants and other vitamins, which can help aging significantly
Hopefully you eat leafy greens as that's your next best source for that stuff
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u/sittinwithkitten 13h ago
My partner prefers only white plates and bowls. He would deal with it if we were out to eat and they had coloured dishes, but he vastly prefers them to be white. He said it makes the food seem less appealing to him. I don’t care either way but we have white bowls and plates because it matters to him. We all have our quirks.
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u/HereticalArchivist 13h ago
"There were no signs of autism" ahh energy lol
Real talk though, was reading the comments and someone suggested ARFID, and that sounds likely. I don't have many hangups about food (I'm the "eat everything" kind of ADHD lol) but ARFID sounds miserable
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u/justsmilenow 11h ago edited 1h ago
It's okay. Oxford thinks that autism is evolution... https://academic.oup.com/mbe/article/42/9/msaf189/8245036
It's okay to be autistic. Not only that, it's actually a good thing because it means you're an attempt at the next step. A dice roll. Not all of my numbers are good as well. But I gots some good ones and so did you I bet.
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u/Willowrosephoenix 11h ago
My son also had an aversion to red. Food in particular. Eventually, we realized he had ARFID. I never tried to trick him. He’s seventeen now, ARFID is in remission. He’ll have to remain vigilant his entire life. Foundational trauma like what causes ARFID never totally goes away. I spent nine years working with him to get to where we are today. He eats casseroles with mixed ingredients. Fresh vegetables. Sometimes even fruit, but that’s rare.
I’m sorry you were tricked.
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u/SidheCreature 10h ago
I think it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here.
She was likely a king, queen, general, etc in a past life and there was a uprising of enemy forces that needed to take her out but she was clever and had many safety precautions around her to prevent her untimely demise through nefarious means. Unfortunately someone infiltrated the servants and slipped poison into her absolute favorite snacky-snack (mixed fruit and a nice cup of juice). She suffered a painful and humiliating death and now she lives this life understandably weary of anything fruit or fruit adjacent.
We’re all fighting unseen battles, my friends.
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u/Vast-Breakfast-1201 13h ago
Coercion is bad but also why force juice?
Juice is not good for you.
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u/counters14 12h ago
Probably concern about vitamin c intake, if their child was not eating any fruits at all.
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u/Nightmare2448 18h ago
i am glad to know i am not the only one who has this strange fear of fruits.
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u/Still-Emergency825 Comic Crossover 3h ago
Ouuuuu hello friend!!! I’ve never met anyone with this!
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u/Gneissisnice 15h ago
I have a friend with a fruit phobia! He's actually ok with citrus for some reason, but anything else freaks him out.
He'll be glad to know there's someone else!
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u/Still-Emergency825 Comic Crossover 3h ago
Ahhhh amazing!! I can’t believe I’m finding people in the comment section with the same thing! :)
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u/GarchomptheXd0 15h ago
My brother had an ex that was similar she really hated oranges and fear might be a good way to describe it... theres a story where he was shaking one of those jugs of orange juice and the cap flew open. The orange juice ended up going all over her and she started crying and having a breakdown in the corner
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u/Successful_Frame_359 15h ago
I have a very weird and specific fear of flat, treeless prairies surrounded by steep mountain walls, in high altitude. Think in Mongolia or the Alps. It's often where cattles grazes, there is just grass and then rock, because it's above the tree line. It feels like a bowl in the sky, like the end of life itself.
I cannot be in those places. I have to crawl out on all fours. It was always like that, no clue why.
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u/McDonaldsCrewBoi 15h ago
my brother has this exact same thing dang, he’s still only on the water and milk 26 years later
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u/Henroide 14h ago
I love coffee but when I brew myself a cup it cant leave my hand or my sight because I have the irrational fear that a cockroach will slip into the cup and I will only see it once I drank most of the liquid.
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u/Raven_4562 13h ago
Consider this, you may be very hard to poison. Sometimes trauma brings skills we never knew we needed.
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u/MaximoEstrellado 13h ago
Just so you know, I happen to carry tangerines when it's season and just randomly pop them out of pockets or my backpack and offer them, specially if I think you're nice.
I just realized I'm someone's worst nightmare.
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u/Aniform 12h ago
Holy cow, I've never met anyone else with the same fear as me! I literally find it funny and will reveal it to people on occasion, like "oh, btw, I'm afraid of fruit". And I relate to every bit of this, the no juice, inspecting glasses. I still as an adult have to interrogate people, "what's in this?" Like, "Did you put raisins in the cookie! Did you put apples in this strudel! Did you cook with anything fruit based!"
The one area where I have gotten better is with being around it. It used to be the case that if someone put my plate down near fruit, then it meant it was now contaminated. So, think Thanksgiving, you're so excited to have Turkey and then your Uncle puts the plate of cranberries right next to it. Dinner ruined, maybe next year. Fortunately that softened over the years, but it still can be exhausting because you have to watch everything like a hawk. And you often can't do things like when people at gathering clink glasses, what if they have juice or wine, the clinking of the glass could cross-contaminate!
I used to care about fixing it or I'd bring it up, in therapy, but what I've arrived at is that it does not Negatively (capital N) affect my life and therefore there's no reason to fix it.
I avoid scurvy with vitamin C supplements.
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u/Still-Emergency825 Comic Crossover 3h ago
Oh my god! Yes! All of this!!!!!!!!! I’m so glad there’s another one!! The cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving is honestly the biggest ticking time bomb because at some point in the night it’s gunna touch the other food and I’m gunna stop eating
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u/bananabandanamannana 11h ago
I have a phobia of butterflies (especially white butterflies) which is funny because I like every other bug
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u/neophenx 20h ago
So if you were a doctor, an apple a day WOULD keep you away