Have you had an experience that caused a phobia?

When I was a kid, we lived an old Victorian funeral home. The cement basement was large, dank, and dark, not to mention there was a room with coffin-sized shelves. There was one light bulb hanging over the washer and dryer in one corner of the room; the remaining area was usually navigated using a flood light which caused really long creepy shadows. The basement lights could also only be turned on or off from the top of the stairs, so my brother and step-dad liked to scare me by plunging me into darkness. Funny now, but not funny to a kid.

The phobia isn’t darkness though, its spiders. My step-dad made me vacuum the floor and ceiling of the basement, and told me to get all of the cob-webs. I’ve never had so many spiders land on me in my life. It didn’t help that the lights kept getting turned off, adding to my stress. This incident resulted in a pretty bad arachnophobia that lasted until late in my teenage years.

Do you have a phobia? Is it inherent or was it cause by a traumatic event?

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