Chilopodophobia

@Quinzel241 - I don't know that I have a phobia, but they definitely do give me the creeps!

@Quinzel241 I hope this will help you. I've suffered from Chilopodophobia for quite a long time. I used to freak out whenever I saw a centipede or a millipede. I even used to have nightmares where one of them would grow so big that it would squeeze me with his legs until I was dead. My therapist told me that my Chilopodophobia is actually based on an unresolved conflict between myself and the fact that there is another world right beneath where we are standing - the underworld. As a kid, I was always disgusted with the sight of soil, sand, and of everything that is hidden underground. Worms live underground and centipedes are just worms with legs. Thus, I developed a phobia towards them because my mind would automatically relate a centipede to a worm and worms are symbols of the underground. In addition, the legs of a centipede are a symbol of power - at least in my case. The large legs they have made my mind believe (at least subconsciously) that they are capable of using them to crawl, to climb, to inject their poison and kill etc. So, I was afraid of centipedes because unconsciously I believed that they may use their legs to climb to my bedroom's window, crawl beneath it and even use them to walk on my body and tear my flesh apart. Yes - just at the sight of the legs of the centipede, my mind produced such unconscious thoughts! My therapist helped me to "convince" my unconscious mind that, no matter if I am disgusted or not, there is such thing as a world underground which hosts a lot of small animals and I have to embrace this idea and even befriend these animals because this way the conflict between myself and the underground will be resolved. So, he introduced me to exposure therapy. In the first stages, he had me touch soil with my bare hands. Then, he would encourage me to dig holes in my garden using nothing but my bare hands and in case I met a worm or something relating to it, I would just have to ignore it. This helped me a lot because I had never tasted the feeling of touching the soil myself and by doing it I grew more and more familiar with it. In the final stages, he had me touch and pet a centipede so as to realize that these creatures do NOT necessarily share the thoughts I had in my mind. It was not easy. In fact, it was very much uncomfortable but I had to do it and believe me the moment I had the centipede on my bare hand I automatically felt that what I used to think was just b*****it because it was so friendly towards me that it made me think that It might actually like me. In short, I got used to the feeling of dealing with a centipede. Holding it in my hand and petting it gave me the sense that it is ME who has the power over you because if I just decide it, I can squeeze you to death. Believe it or not, now I have him as a pet. I feed him and I pet him regularly. After a month or so, all these thoughts about it doing harm to me are completely gone and I no longer suffer from centipede nightmares. So, my advise to you is, if you still suffer from Chilopodophobia up to the point that it controls part of your life, seek medical help as soon as possible because such a phobia ruins your life for no reason and I don't think you deserve it. All people can develop specific phobias in their life which will be based on their own unique experience but if somebody wants to get rid of them, he/she has to see a therapist to help him/her manage and overcome them forever.

Best of luck!

@Quinzel241 Yeah, I have the same thing and it's been getting really bad recently to the point where I'm just scared to stand on the ground or go to sleep, because I am so terrified that centipedes will come. I know it's irrational, but I can't help it, and I'm not sure what to do.