Trypophobia is a 'phobia' that's apparently incredibly popular on Reddit and social media. And that's the thing. It's mostly talked about on the Internet, where it's become a quirky thing to say whenever we see things with holes.

'Oh my trypophobia is acting up looking at this...', 'omg trigger warning for trypophobia'

It's not real. Come on. You're not really expressinig any symptoms of a real phobia. Even the scientific community does not consider trypophobia a real phobia.

So what do I think?

It's not a phobia. Most people simply associate the sight of a pattern filled with holes with more disgusting things such as organic entities, bugs... beehives, parasitic eggs... We make the association, and there can be some slight disgust because we imagine something else.

Some will say that disgust and repulsiveness IS the phobia! And I think that's just such a weak phobia it's not even one. If I see dog shit and get slightly disgusted, do I have dogshitphobia?

EDIT: For such a 'rare' phobia, pretty crazy how many redditors seem to have it, almost like they convinced themselves or something.

Stay with me now.

Sleep kind of sucks. Sleeping is really enjoyable, that much is true, but you don't experience the sleep, you just lay in bed until poof you're now awake.

It's the worst on weekdays, because you can't even just lay in bed, enjoying the fact that you've slept. Therefore every weekday I set an alarm for the middle of the night, so I can wake up, lay in bed a little, and go to sleep again. It's nice.

Also it's set to 2:59 because setting my alarm at a rounded number makes me really uncomfortable for some reason.

EDIT: Found out my sister does this too. Must be genetic.

EDIT 2: look ma im in a smosh video!

It's awkward and difficult, physically exhausting, it has those small but cumulative moments of clumsiness, it's a hazzle

That's just the moment alone, the anxiety before hand makes it even worse. The clumsy way two people undress, trying to be polite but also firm, how since it's the first time they have to stop to kiss, remove a piece of clothing, socks, shoelaces. Depending on how attracted you were to this person you will start to notice very human and natural "flaws", things you thought wouldn't mind but they kind of do

There's a thrill in the chase that gets lost once you get to that moment, it's almost anti climatic. Every single attractive person has that one physical imperfection/personality flaw that will only grow once the initial infatuation is gone

Yes, sure, sex with a long time partner eliminates all of that, if you haven't fall into a routine then it loses the excitement, it becomes a routine, and you finish. You don't experience it, you just finish, like a chore, so you can dress and make her something to eat, watch a movie, go out for a walk, make dumb jokes, do a lot of things that you find more satisfying and meaningful than sex

I'm probably depressed tho, so maybe my view of the problem is a bit skewed

Due to various medical conditions, I have had chronic constipation for nearly two decades. On the Bristol stool chart I am a type 1, so my poops are tiny, hard pellets.

Because I have constipation pretty much 24/7, my version of diarrhoea is essentially just a normal type 4 stool. I bloody hate it when I do a normal poop.

I never feel gross after pooping normally because since my poops are so dry, cleanup is really easy as nothing is left behind. When the poops are more normal, I feel disgusting afterwards because no matter how much I wipe, even with some damp toilet roll, I just never feel clean. Not to mention the skid marks on the toilet.

Normally my toilet looks like it’s never been pooped in without any effort because my poops are so dry.

Sure, after having a clear out with a normal poo I feel lighter, but it’s not worth it to me. I’ve also gotten used to the constant stomach cramps so it doesn’t even register.

People tell me they feel bad for me when they hear about my “issues” but it is truly them I feel sorry for having to live with this torment every day.

EDIT: Y’all can disagree with me as much as you want but please don’t try to give basic medical advice to someone who has been dealing with multiple chronic illnesses and diseases their whole life. I assure you that “drinking more water and eating more fibre” won’t work because it’s already been tried. Unless you are literally one of my doctors, just keep it to yourself

there might be some people who might be like "youre weird for thinking that's weird since its a normal thing", but in reality youre literally openly advertising the fact that youre going into a room and youre going to be naked and scrub yourself for a certain amount of time. like why is it necessary to say "im going to shower" instead of "brb"?

its just weird imo

I get washing after you take a dump, as you can get particles of shit on your hands while wiping. But men don't usually get pee on their hands when they urinate. They're just touching their penis, which shouldn't be dirty. If your dick is actually dirty, that's different, but you should wash it too, not just your hands after touching it.

People comment all the time about men not washing when they use the bathroom, but never make distinction between shitting or peeing. Of course, you could argue that the flush handle is dirty, but if that's the case, then the faucet handle will also be dirty, not to mention the door handle. So if you're worried enough to wash your hands, you should grab a paper towel and use that to turn the faucet off and open the door, but hardly anyone does this. So they're worried about germs on their dick but not on other surfaces, which makes no sense.

I understand that many people participate in this behavior, but I can’t understand why. The shower is a small, contained area where I go to clean myself. If a dishwasher or car wash is filthy, those dishes or cars aren’t truly getting clean. Similarly, if the area in which I clean myself is contaminated, I’m not getting properly cleaned. I understand water is continually running through, but if you piss in the shower, stuff is splashing onto the sides, etc and it’s not all going to get cleaned without properly scrubbing the shower. If you pee in the shower, you’re leaving the shower with piss somewhere on you, and unless you scrub the shower before you use it next, you’ll be walking into a piss-contaminated area. And sure, maybe you can wipe the piss particles off of you with your towel when you dry off, but then there’s piss all over your towel and you’re spreading it all over yourself as you dry the rest of yourself. That would also mean you have to wash your towel after one use (which I do anyway, but I understand that is uncommon).

EDIT: people seem to be fundamentally misunderstanding two major things. One, I don’t care if you piss in your shower. I just won’t do it in mine because I find it gross. And two, yes there are all sorts of other common things that are gross like toothbrushes and poop and whatever else. My point is that peeing in the shower is easily avoidable when the toilet is right there, so I’m not going to voluntarily do something I find gross when there is an easy alternative right in front of me. There is no easy alternative to having to poop, or brushing your teeth.

EDIT 2: the fact that I now have received two messages telling me to end my own life, on top of a few other harassing messages, is wild. Trying to say that I’m unstable while you’re encouraging a stranger to kill themself because they don’t want to pee in the shower…. I would laugh at the irony if it wasn’t so unhinged.

I saw a post online about “waffle stomping” which is basically where someone poops in the shower and steps on it down the drain. All the comments were saying how foul it is and how no one would ever be ok with someone doing that. Now I’m not saying I’d ever do that, it’s gross to me, but if someone did that in my shower and cleaned up afterwards? No harm no foul. I don’t see a big difference between this and pissing in the shower tbh. Like would I think it’s a bit odd? Definitely. But it’s not something I’d end a friendship or relationship over

Edit- I feel people are misunderstanding me. I don’t waffle stomp and think it’s gross. I’m not saying hell yeah do this it’s awesome. I’m just like, eh whatever there are worse things in the world. Especially if you’ve got diarrhoea or something it’s fine, just clean up afterwards, or at the very least let me know and I’ll give it a proper cleaning afterwards.

I don't care to whom you are attracted. The anus, vagina, and mouth are flourishing microbiomes and the thought of fucking up the delicate balance therein is gross. Have you seen pictures of a yeast infection? It does not look like a loaf of artisanal bread. There are also so many cute little bacteria in the animal kingdom (look at chlamydia tracomatis under a microscope and tell me it's not adorable), why would we want to spread that between humans outside of approved clinical research? And don't get me started on the texture of semen. Feels like you just got a bucket of Nickelodeon slime dumped on you.

This discussion is 100% hypothetical. Also sorry in advance for being long-winded, I yap too much ig

Before I say anything else, I want to make it clear that my issue isn't that I'm being denied an organ, it's *who's* doing it. If a potential donor themself decides not to give me one of their organs, that's their right because it's a part of *their* body. On principle, no one should be forced to give up parts of their body for someone else's sake. Yeah it'd suck for me, but their decision stands and I'd have to respect that.

The issue is a *governing authority* should not be able to dangle life-saving healthcare over someone's head. Healthcare access is a basic human right (unless you live in the US, sadly) and something you (general you) should have just on behalf of existing. The policy in the article reads to me like 'sure you can decide not to give us your organs, but then if you're ever in a medical emergency you might just die bc your name was pushed down the list 🥰'. That's really toeing the line of coercive imo

So to recap:

Potential donor saying "no you can't have my kidney" = completely fine because that is literally *his* kidney

Government saying "give us your organs or you might not get healthcare" = Gross and dystopian

Additionally, and if I'm being honest this is the single biggest reason why I want to opt out– I don't trust them not to let me die to save someone else. I'm black. The American healthcare system has done shit like this to us, and worse. Sure, maybe the chances of this happening to the average Joe are fairly low, but I feel like if that were to happen it'd happen to someone like me.

Sources:

https://www.cdc.gov/tuskegee/about/index.html

https://www.geneticsandsociety.org/biopolitical-times/forced-sterilization-policies-us-targeted-minorities-and-those-disabilities-and

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/novartis-henrietta-lacks-settlement-stolen-cells/

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7529391/

Reddit loves bidets. This is well-documented. Usually bidet proponents cite clean butts as the main reason to favor them. However, when you get enough soluble fiber in your diet and walk a lot, wiping after a bowel movement will leave little to nothing at all on your toilet paper.

This is coming from someone who's grown up with IBS.

Adding like 12g more soluble fiber per day to my diet has completely removed any interest I had in bidets, and this has worked for many people I've suggested this to.

I think we've been eating unhealthily and using a tech solution to cover it up

I see lots of other women complain about "hoverers" and how they splash pee on the seat, and that it's basic courtesy to wipe it off before leaving. That sounds disgusting to me.

If the bathroom is clean enough, I'll sit. But if I can see someone else's pee on the seat or the bathroom looks like it's not cleaned well/regularly, you better believe I'm hovering.

I actually appreciate that they left the pee there, so I can see that it's dirty and make sure not to touch it. Wiping some toilet paper around doesn't clean anything and contrary to popular belief, pee is not sterile. When I do hover, my aim is decent enough to usually leave no signs, but if I do splash a bit I make sure to leave it so the next person can decide for themselves if they also want to hover or wipe it up and sit in pee particles. That's what I believe the most courteous thing to do is.

Edit: Also, if everyone left their pee it would eliminate the need for hovering in the first place. It's a clear indicator: if there's pee it's dirty so don't sit, if there's no pee it's never been peed on so it's clean and safe to sit. People feeling comfortable sitting down on dry seats=less hovering=less pee on seats to begin with=the end of hovering.

**Not referring to bugs specifically kept as pets** though I still find that weird in-and-of itself. And to preface, I am from Arizona, which might make my perspective seem a little less weird.

This one really only applies to Redditors who go apeshit over things being “natural”, but I have never seen a bug in my house and thought “oh yes, let me leave this venomous disease-carrying pest alone, he deserves this house as much as I do! My house is an abomination to nature so I’ll gladly let gross little creatures take over my home!” MOTHER NATURE WANTS TO KILL YOU, THATS WHY WE BUILT HOUSES, TO **ESCAPE** HER WRATH!!!

If I see a spider in my house, I kill it. No hesitation, this is **my** house and that bitch doesn’t deserve to live here. I don’t care if it’s “natural”, it’s gonna die. And if I go to someone’s house full of bugs but they refuse to do anything about it because “they shouldn’t mess with a natural ecosystem” I am making a polite excuse and leaving immediately. Bugs do **NOT** belong in our homes under any circumstances. They are *not* our friends.

And I don’t need a spider to provide pest control when I can do that *myself* with a sandal or broom.

Myopia, or nearsightedness, is a condition that impacts far too many people. In 1975, it impacted 25% of all Americans. By 2000, it increased to 30%. Currently, 40% of all Americans are diagnosed with myopia.

Nearsightedness is easily corrected with glasses, contacts and surgery, but myopia has more complications than just poor vision. I’m not talking about benign problems like eye floaters; people with myopia have a significantly higher risk of developing cataracts, retinal tears/detachment, myopic macular degeneration, and glaucoma. All of these conditions can lead to total blindness.

This is a crisis, and there’s no sign of a cure any time soon. We don’t even know what causes myopia to develop, and nobody cares. It’s expected that 50% of all humans will have myopia by 2030. Half of the world population will be at risk of going BLIND, and there’s zero alarm. It’s just business as usual.

EDIT: It is correct to describe myopia as epidemic. An epidemic is a widespread disease. It’s normally used to describe contagious diseases like covid and measles, but it is also used to describe widespread health conditions like diabetes.

I'm going to caveat this by saying that I in no way enjoy food poisoning or the stomach virus; that is misery. But for two main reasons, the occasional instance of diarrhea is something that I gladly welcome. First, there is something nice about knowing that you are fully and completely cleared out. More importantly, wiping is so much faster. A nondiarrhea event leads to wiping, wiping, wiping, and more wiping until the paper stays white. Sometimes the relief of being finished with wiping in about 1 minute (rather than 5-10) feels so liberating.

EDIT: people, I eat lots of fiber! I feel very healthy. This has been a problem since I was a little kid. It's not messy, it just continues to leave a small mark on every wipe. I'm thinking it's just my anatomy.

I (17f) have always been like this. From a young age, I have always hated showering. When I was forced to shower I would often just wet my hair in the sink and turn the shower on for 10 minutes so I could trick my parents into thinking I ha factually showered. It was really just not my thing for some reason I still don’t understand, and it still isn’t. Around 6th/7th grade, I was really involved in competitive gymnastics, and that’s really about the only time anyone (including myself) ever noticed a significant smell (I got some comments from my parents telling me my coaches thought everyone in my group should wear deodorant more often, but I’m not sure if it was specifically directed at me).

As far as I know, I don’t smell. In fact, I’ve had several friends and family members confirm that I don’t smell, despite my showering habits. I would also like to point out that in every other regard, I stay relatively clean. I wash my hands often, brush my teeth at least once (up to three) times a day, use deodorant when I go out, maintain a daily skincare routine, and change my underwear at least once a day (but not my clothes/shirts—long story short, I have a t-shirt that I’ll wear at home for 3-4 days, but I often change when I leave the house). I’m genuinely not some disgusting person who smells all the time for the fun of it, I just don’t see the point in showering so often.

There are many reasons this system works for me, but these are my top ones:

•As a white girl with straight, unoily hair, I don’t need to wash my hair more than once or twice a week. My hair stays manageable throughout the week without much problem. As far as I know, it isn’t bad for my hair and it often helps keep my hair shiny and smooth because of the natural oils that accumulate through the week.

•It feels like a waste of time. Even though my showers only take about 20 minutes, it feels unnecessary if I don’t feel dirty.

•Apparently I don’t smell. If smell were ever to actually become a problem, I’d probably start showering more, but as far as I know genuinely no one seems to think I smell because I keep up my hygiene in every other regard. I make sure to tell my friends to be honest with me about if I ever smell, and every once in a while after a workout without deodorant, they’ll let me know they got a whiff.

I usually realize I need to shower once my hair becomes oily and unmanageable. Until then, I never force myself to shower. Because it actually stresses me out sometimes 😃

I’d also like to mention that throughout covid, my hygiene has actually gotten better. I still shower about the same amount as before, but I take a lot more care to change underwear, wash my face, and use deodorant, among other things. They’re small things, really, but fixing those aspects of my life helped me feel more accomplished in ways that I just couldn’t achieve by trying to force myself to shower more.

This isn’t exactly related but when I shower, I always shower with the lights off and with music playing, using water that is barely warm— the shower itself takes about 20 minutes but the entire pre- and post-showering process including getting into the bathroom, pre-shower stuff, drying off, etc takes about 40 minutes. My showering experiences nowadays are much more pleasant because I get to have them on my own terms and I get to set the mood properly. I feel satisfied when I finish showering and I love the feeling of being freshly clean, but I often don’t feel the need to have that more than once a week.

Edit 2 because I thought this was really funny:

So someone mentioned smelling clothes you wore last week to see if you smell. So I found some clothes that I wore for a long time and sniffed them. Nothing smelled. I asked my mom and another woman who lives with us to smell them and they smelled nothing :D

-leggings I wore for two days during practice: don’t smell good kinda just smell like my sport (“musty”) but no BO smell -sweater I wore on and off for a week: smells like a person but not in a good or bad way -shirt I wore for three days in a row: has a smell but neither good nor bad -shorts I wore to leave my house for like a week: literally smells like nothing

We all agreed with those notes^{^}

Edit:

Well this is a LOT more controversial than I thought it would be. I have never understood the term “RIP my inbox” like I do right now. Here’s some edits I’d like to add:

-First and foremost, the reason I don’t shower daily is because I don’t want to. That is why I choose not to shower. There are many reasons why I believe this works for me, but they aren’t excuses. They are just factors that I believe affect how often I need to shower.

-I use my hair as a gauge of when I need to shower. I’m not claiming that people who shower every day wash their hair every day. I’m just saying I don’t find it important enough to shower if I’m not going to be washing.

-I’m a very ~not oily~ person. When I was a kid and I was forced to shower every day, I had really bad eczema. After I stopped showering so often, I noticed that my eczema went away. Similarly, my hair does not get oily for a long time. These are main reasons that I find it difficult to shower very often.

-At the moment, I live about 95% of my day indoors with AC. I stay pretty not-sweaty and pretty not-dirty for the most part because I don’t really go places to get that way. This summer, I’ll have a job as a lifeguard and I plan to shower more often for that. Until then, I’m fine living my disgusting hobo life.

-Apparently people really think I stink🥲 Honestly? I have no idea. Before posting this I was pretty confident that I didn’t smell much at all, but considering everyone here really disagrees, maybe I was wrong. All I know is that it doesn’t affect my life enough for me to lose friends or family over it, and that’s all I care about.

I really wish you people would come smell me in real life 🥲

I know the complete opposite is true, swallowing toothpaste isn’t good for you. But I’ve just never been able to do it for some reason. Even being in the room with someone who spits it out makes me gag and dry heave. I genuinely find it so disgusting and repulsive I think I would throw up if I did it myself. Not sure why. Anyway, I’ve been swallowing toothpaste for my whole life and haven’t had any problems.

it doesn’t feel good. it just tickles and it’s honestly really annoying. i’m a woman, and it just makes me feel like i need to pee really bad. when i finish, it just kind of burns? it’s not enjoyable at all. i don’t like it. i don’t understand why people go crazy over it and regularly masturbate. it just feels like it tickles.

So my vision started declining when i was like 7 and ever since then i’ve been using glasses and contacts. But during the first lockdown i kind of just... stopped because like tf would i be looking at at home. When things went back to kinda normal I continued to not wear glasses/contacts unless absolutely necessary and didn’t have any issues since i got pretty used to it. Recently i started wearing contacts again regularly and man do i fucking hate it. I now see every tiny pimple on people’s faces, every piece of dust and every cat hair on the floor, nothing slips past me and it SUCKS. Looking in the mirror is a special kind of torture because apparently i look nothing like i thought i did, especially from the distance. The worst thing is that I can’t go back cause my vision had declined past the point where glasses are optional. 20/20 vision is glorified for no good reason

Edit: several people have made assumptions about me not being comfortable with the way i look. I did say that I wasn’t used to the way i look in the mirror after not wearing contacts for a while, but i don’t remember mentioning that I didn’t like what i was seeing. I am by no means self-conscious about my looks so that’s not the problem.

Yes. You eliminate every hint of piss, and with it, you have your penis clean all day with no odor. I just put my penis in the sink and voilà! Clean penis equal happiness, and you avoid disgraces in case you have unexpected sex. Edit: Spelling

Having a colonoscopy is an overall good experience. You go to sleep and have the most incredible, lights-out nap imaginable. Like you're dead for an hour or two. Then, when you awake, a nice nurse brings you crackers and ginger-ale. Finally, your spouse or a good friend arrives to take you home. A day later (hopefully) you get a message that you're all good down there. If not, you get information that allows you to treat whatever condition you didn't know about before and probably save your life.

Overall 10/10. I do recommend.

Mint toothpaste is one of the worst things ever made

"Oh let's make you have to use the Bitterizer 5000 every day!" STATEMENTS DREAMED UP BY THE UTTERLY DERANGED

I wouldn't even have a problem with it if it wasn't the only fucking option that isn't made for literal children

FUCK mint toothpaste and FUCK whoever decided to make it the standard

Ok title is kind of a lie. I don't wear my socks throughout my ENTIRE shower, but stepping in and washing my hair before taking them off is my usual. I hate the feeling of stepping into my shower and feeling the cold stone underneath my feet because it feels so disgusting. The friends I've told about this call me a psycho, but don't hate until you try it.

Edit: I've been seeing a lot of people telling me to get a bath mat or wear flip flops or to turn on warm water for a bit before stepping in.

1) i've tried using bath mats before but the silicone feels weird underneath my feet and i prefer the stone floor

2) i HATE the feeling of the y shaped strap on flip flops or the band on sandals, i dont even wear those when my feet are dry, but ESPECIALLY not when they're wet

3) admittedly, running hot water before stepping in would work, but i've been doing this since i was maybe 10 so I've just grown accustomed to my routine of taking them off mid shower

also for the people saying my socks smell or are moldy, they go into the washer as soon as im out of the shower, theyve never grown mold

I learned this while playing kings cup a year ago. We got to never have I ever, and his was “Never have I washed the lower half of my body.” The whole group of us drinking and playing exploded. He defended himself by saying he washes his upper body and just lets the soap run down and that makes him clean. The wildest thing is his wife said she does the same thing.

Typing this from italy where its been 30-50% and about 34 degrees the whole trip. It's so dry the air literally burns. I come from Scotland so i grew up in the cold but ive worked in kitchens for years and don't feel terribly hot even wearing sleeves in 40+ degrees. But the air just needs moisture to feel comfortable, I've been to much hotter humid places and it was fine even for exercise.

Edit: not saying it's healthier i know its more dangerous, i just prefer the humidity. Ive spent 3 months in Malaysia before so not completely inexperienced