Do you have any habits caused by past experiences/situations/traumas?

I sleep with a pillow over my head because as a child I was always scared someone was looking in my window and I didn’t want them to see any part of my skin, not even my face.

I have pretty severe physiological reactions to the feeling of my cell phone vibrating in my pocket. I’d really rather not get into why.

@knitfroggy I used to do that too! But eventually I guess I got over it.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard Oh, I’m sorry. :(
So I guess that means you can never set your phone to vibrate, huh? Unless you always keep it in your hand.

@squidcake Well, I am not frightened of a Peeping Tom looking at my sleeping face anymore. It’s just a habit that I doubt I will ever break!

@squidcake, nothing to be sorry about, but I appreciate the sentiment. I always leave my phone on vibrate, and I keep it in my pocket most of the time. I just sucked it up and dealt with it. It doesn’t bother me nearly as much anymore.

I have a paralyzing fear of ever getting married again. lol

I do a ceiling check quikly most everywhere i go or sit in case of spiders because mom told me one walked up on my shoe when I was like 2. I don’t remember that but am scared of them. I left my closet door open for years because I could see a. pattern of an attacking bear in the wood. From a movie when I was 5 or so with just such a bear, Clint Walker starring.

I ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS make sure there’s toilet paper before sitting down.

@bob_, good thinkin’

Yes, but… well I am answering the question, but the trauma is not something I generally discuss with most or many or hardly any people at all, but yes, it was life changing, habit changing in many ways both big and small.

I use to have trichotillomania, so now when I panic or get nervous or anxious I pick at my eyebrows and at the hair on the back of my head. I don’t pull it out, but I just tug on it.

When I was young, I developed a fear of the number 6. I wouldn’t call it a fear today, but I try to avoid that number as much as I can. I can never have the volume in the car on at 6. I can’t eat six pizza bagel bites. There has to be more or less. Etc, etc.

And several other things from some trauma I experienced about 2 years ago, but I’m slowly getting over it.

I can’t sleep with sharp kitchen knives in the kitchen drawer. I only own one, and I lock it in the shed at night.

@escapedone7 but what if you need it some night and you don’t make it to the shed on time??

I was sitting in a toilet cubicle in uni a few years ago and the door swung open to a group of unsuspecting ladies. So now I hold the door shut, regardless of a faulty lock.
Apart from that, I think I’m okay. I could be editing later

All my traumas pretty much come from horror movies, like Jaws. I can’t sleep unless everything sharp and pointy is in a drawer, doll eyes staring away from me, and my closet door must be closed. Living proof that scary movies and slight lack of parental supervision aren’t such a good combo.

I’m always hypersensitive to whats going on around me in a public place. Where people are standing, what they are doing etc. I’m always watching for dodgy activity, people exchanging glances, silent messages. This comes from being stabbed in the lower back when I was 16yrs old. I never let my guard down now.

My grandma’s house at any major holiday has made me totally freaked whenever people stand or sit, like, RIGHT next to me. My mom’s got a big family and it’s hard to move around my grandma’s house at holidays. Drives me nuts at the store when someone is in line behind me by at checkout and they’re like an inch away from me. XD

I religiously wear seatbelts when in cars and bug everyone else to put theirs on too. I’ve been in enough car accidents where really bad things would’ve happened if I’d not been belted.

I wear a high neck shirt when target shooting because bullet casings stick to and burn the skin if they pop backwards.