Are you afraid of butterflies? There is no official name for this phobia, but it is referred to as Lepidopterphobia. This comes from the term Lepidopterans, which is the order of insects that include butterflies and moths. This phobia is also linked to Mottephobia, the fear of moths.
Since there is no official name for this phobia yet, there isn’t a lot of information about it so if you have this phobia please share your story.
Posts
41 comments:
I have a fear of butterflies, also large moths, birds, especially humming birds... Anything that flies (besides small insects) disgusts me and I don't know why. When they are near me, I try to avoid them thinking they will somehow come in contact with me and that grosses me out.
Thank God i am not the only one with this fear. I feel gross, ill and i cannot move if i see moths (large or small). Butterflies too. If i see them near a door i will not enter the building. I have strained my neck from shriveling up just at the sight of them. I get made fun of so much at work for this. Some people have even left dead ones at my office door just to see my reaction. Its embarassing but i cant help it.
Butterflies scare me because they flutter all around you without purpose. All that fluttering freaks me out. It's like all they want to do is get on you, and their antennae twitch all over......Agh! just thinking about it gives me the hee-bee-jee-bees. And it always seems like they gravitate towards me!
Im so glad im not the only one with this fear for some reason i had a fear of them from like when i was 5 it just scares me when the fly to you no purpose when they land i scream. some people scream when a spiders on them why when a butterfly for crying out loud.
My family thinks it is so funny that I have a fear of butterflies... I think its weird because they are so beautiful and graceful, but when they get too close I run in fear. I'm not as scared of moths with their brown colors but lunar moths scare me just like a butterfly does. I try so hard to keep my cool when they fly near but I can't help but to run sometimes even scream in terror.
Everyone finds it hilarious that I'm scared of butterflies! It all stemmed from a trip to a butterfly house when I was younger. Now I can't go anywhere near one or where one might be. It is most embarrassing when I am alone and a butterfly flies towards me and I freak out!
My 9 year-old daughter is positively frightened of butterflies. This is a new thing but it is real. She screams in terror and cries and begs to not go anywhere near a butterfly. She will sit far away from gardens and flowers just to stay away. She can look at them in pictures but cannot be near them in real life. The little white ones cause the most fear.
People laugh at me because of my phobia. Luckily though, I can also laugh at myself. It is quite interesting. My phobia includes birds, butterflies, moths, dragonflies, and pretty much any other flying creature bigger than a small insect. I have been diagnosed with ornithophobia (the fear of birds), however at that time there was no name to include the other creatures. I suffer severe sweating, heart racing, up to full blown panic attacks. My friends like to play pranks on me, like putting cheezits all around me when I fall asleep on the beach, and I wake up sorrounded by seagulls. After 20-30 minutes, I calm down, then laugh. I feel for anyone with similar fears...
i am terrified of butterflies and moths! when i think of touching their errie wings, ew! i run and bruise my head by hitting the ceiling! AAAH! tk god, am not the only person who is afraid of this dreadful creature... one day, one of my friends told me she had s=got something. when i was waiting, she placed a half-dead butterfly on my desk! i screamed, but then calmed down, trying to be as cool as though...when i was asked if i would mind holding it for a minute,(i was sweating profusely at the thought) i at last managed it by saying i dont like touching "half-dead" creatures. the worst was, she was sitting write in front of me, ad whenever she losed "it" from her hand and it dropped on my desk, i freaked out. finally, another mate from my class released it outside and i was relieved. AAAAH!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! butterfly on the screen!!!!!!!11
I am 76 years of age and have been terrified of butterflies almost all of my life, although I can remember as a very small child having a butterfly in a glass jar and just being interested. Something must have happend after that because I dodge and duck and dive in the garden in summer. If I see one in the garden I shut the door and stay inside, no matter how warm and lovely the weather. I am equally afraid of moths.
It is the dark or beautifully coloured butterflies that cause me to panic. The white or very pale blue small ones I can tolerate if I am outdoors. Anything fluttering (including birds) indoors scares me horribly . I lose all sense of decoram and scream and run wherever I happen to be.
I once pushed past a boss who was interviewing me for promotion as a butterfly came in through the open window. I tried to escape but the boss was blocking the door so he got crashed heavily into the door frame as I escaped. I didn't get the promotion.
Well I'm terrified of butterflies and to be honest I cry even when they are outside a window or door. It's strange because that's really the only thing I'm afraid of.
I am very scared of butterflies! Anytime I see one I am overcome with fear and run. What scares me are their faces, they are all demented and there antennas twitch and try to sniff you out. It FREACKS ME OUT!
I am a 33 year old man. I am terrified of Butterflies and Moths. I will run at the sight of one. Just the thought of one landing on me and getting there "glitter" or "dust" (which, by the way are actually scales) on me, sends shivers down my spine. People find it very funny since I am known as quite a "manly man". I also have an issue of killing spiders. I believe it to be bad karma. I will pick up a spider, regardless of size with my bare hands and place it out of harms way. I'll never forget a time in my mid-twenties. I was working on a landscaping crew in the mountains of Colorado. I was on a job site when, a very large wolf spider was discovered. None of the guys on the crew wanted to go near it. But it was in the way, I picked it up and moved it to a safer place. And, our foreman said to me " I've never seen a man like you rush in to save the life of a spider but, shriek like a little girl when a butterfly is twenty feet away. Like another commenter said. People think its funny to leave dead moths & butterflies on my desk, or taped to my office door.
I never even knew I was afraid of butterflies until I was 10. I went into one of those Butterfly Gardens and cried because I was so scared. I could hardly move. It was terrible. But I've always been afraid of dragonflies, because whenever we went to a lake, dragonflies would fly around it and I would scream whenever on came close to me.
Oh My Gosh I'm so glad to hear i'm not the only one. I have been scared of butterfiles and moths since I was a very little girl, i think the fear came from either looking at a book my grandma gave me for christmas which had a massive picture of some kind of moth in the middle pages or from when one flew in my face when I was playing on a swing in my garden. Which ever it was has left me with horrble fear of going in the garden when its summer or leaving a door or window open because one might fly in.
OMG, reading all of these comments make me feel 1000 TIMES BETTER!!!!!!!! I am currently 26 years of age. When I was a little Girl, I NEVER had a fear of Butterflies, but, strangely, as, I have gotten older, My Fear has popped out of the Bleu! I'd say My Fear first started when I turned 20, (and I know what you're thinking, what an odd age for this fear to start out of nowhere) But, the only thing I can think of that initiated this fear was when I was about 7 years old, My Grandmother showed My Younger Brother & Me this Beautiful Glass Case with A Dead Butterfly in it; This Butterfly looked as if it died fluttering in the perfect position, it was just in the Glass like stretched out and underneath the Glass Case was a Switch to turn to start playing Pretty Music. My first thought of this Butterfly In A Glass Case was, Awwww, Poor Butterfly. And now as I mentioned, My Fear has come out of the Blue, just one day or any day, I think of a Butterfly brushing by with it's creepy, soft, eerie, wings, UGH! JUST THINKING AND TYPING ABOUT CREEPS ME OUT!!!!!!!!!! EVEN JUST HEARING THE WORD "BUTTERFLY", I GET THE CHILLS THROUGHOUT MY ENTIRE BODY AND JUST CRINGE!!!!!!!!!!! To quite a few people This Fear Of Butterflies seems VERY STRANGE, BUT, EVERYBODY HAS SUM KIND OF FEAR OR SOMETHING THAT IRRITATES THEM IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.... And My Fear Is INDEED Butterflies and when These Butterflies are actually near me, depending on what distance they are from me; I run if they're a good ways away from me, but, if they're close, I duck hoping they won't touch me and just get VERY LOW to the Ground, nearly laying down. When My Ex~Bf and I were dating, he brought me to His House for the first time and His Mom, not knowing about My Fear Of Butterflies, said to me...And check it out Sweetheart, right in front of you you is A Butterfly Bush, as she spoke the Word "Butterfly", she brushed her hand through the Bush, and OF COURSE SCATTERS A WHOLE BUNCH OF BUTTERFLIES AND I STARTED TO RUN, My Bf had grabbed me snuggled me right up against him asking me what was wrong and I said to him in almost tears, I have of Fear Of Butterflies, he and his Mom just laughed! They questioned me about it and I just told them The Truth, I really have no idea what causes the fear. So, every time I would visit over there, Both My Bf and his Mom would make contact with The Butterfly Bush and they'd fly out everywhere and I'd just run, IT WAS MEAN, I'D LIKE TO HAVE SEEN THEM PUT IN MY SHOES!!!!!! I'M SURE THEY HAD A FEAR OF THEIR OWN!!!!!!!! I WOULD NEVER WANT TO HURT ANYONE IN ANYWAY WITH USING THEIR OWN PHOBIA AGAINST THEM!!!!!!! People still think that My Fear Off Butterflies is odd till this day, but, WHATEVER! All I can say is, if YOU'RE ONE OF THOSE SCUMBAGS who try and scare someone in using their own fear AGAINST them, UR PATHETIC, GROW UP AND ACTUALLY ACT UR AGE FOR ONCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-0
OMG..... i'm not the onlyyyyyy one!!! THANK GOD.... i have a younger brother who likes... no loves insects and wud just to freak the hell outta me bring dead or alive butterflies to me with their awfully weird colors.... i fear colorfull butterflies...the one with single sft colors dnt scare me that much...but the others just terrorize me!!!!:/ :/ and MOTHS are the scariest of the insects..!!
I'm also terrified of butterflies. Once I was held hostage in my apartments laundry room for 30 min. Because two butterflies were fluttering outside. I'm pretty sure my fear spawned from being dragged into a butterfly enclosure by my aunt when I was about 5 years old. A large blue one landed on me and it refused to leave! I still get shivers thinking about it
I thought I was the only one! Butterflies mainly, but I have this visual image I have created that butterflies are going to burrow into my skin. I hate them and want them all dead.
As well as most of you, I too thought I was the only one with butterflies phobia. Actually, I cannot stand almost anything that flies: birds, moths, insects (slightly less problems with insects though). Since ever. No idea why. It's not that I fear they can harm me, I just cannot stand them near me. I can watch them if caged, but that's about how far I go.
im 12 years old i think about wen i was 10 my phonia started and yesterday there a butterfly fliyying above me and i took one glance and i started shaking and crying i feel better knowing im not alone
Okay.... I am not the only one!!! I am terrified of butterflies, moths and, well... most winged beasts really. Right now I am waiting on my husband to come home and rescue me from a butterfly. I walked into our bedroom to change my clothes so we could go out for a nice (child-free) lunch, put my clothes on the bed, turned around to get undressed and a red admiral flew into my face. I ran, slammed the door and am sitting downstairs shaking. Rang him to tell him and he laughed but said he would be home soon to get rid of it. In the meantime I am aving a cup if tea to deal with the shock! Damn fluttery wings freak me out. My family think it is hilarious, and I am too embarrassed to tell most of my friends or colleagues but you people seem nice, compassionate and just the right amount of crazy too! Thanks for letting me share. Xxx
Reassuring to know I'm not the only one! I am now a 30 year old woman.
My phobia started when I was around 7, I remember a red and black butterfly flying very close to me and being very afraid. To this day, I panic hugely if one comes near. The red and black ones scare me the most. Their wing patterns and colours petrify me...I'm struggling to type this thinking about it...At work yesterday a red and black one fluttered in somehow and there were no open windows..It was awful!
You couldn't pay me enough to hold one! Bizarrely the white ones don't scare me....
I think if one were to get in a car if I was driving at speed it would be horrendous! Thankfully this summer there haven't been that many due to the rain. If I had it my way they would all die out!
Reassuring to know I'm not the only one! I am now a 30 year old woman.
My phobia started when I was around 7, I remember a red and black butterfly flying very close to me and being very afraid. To this day, I panic hugely if one comes near. The red and black ones scare me the most. Their wing patterns and colours petrify me...I'm struggling to type this thinking about it...At work yesterday a red and black one fluttered in somehow and there were no open windows..It was awful!
You couldn't pay me enough to hold one! Bizarrely the white ones don't scare me....
I think if one were to get in a car if I was driving at speed it would be horrendous! Thankfully this summer there haven't been that many due to the rain. If I had it my way they would all die out!
It started when i was 8 years old. A big moth(mariposa) drops onto my head.im shaking and crying that day. until now im afraid to butterflies and moths especially to mariposa my friends laugh at me because of this.Luckily im not the one who have this fear....
m too afraid of butterflies!! i jst start screaming when d butterflies starts cuming near me...other insects dont scare me that much...bt ya a flying cockroach does!! its really funny to know that how a butterfly can scare me so much... bt yes it does!!!!! :O :O :O
butterfly scare me like hell!! i just cant sit in a place when it comes near me!! especially brown ones! (any kind of butterflies scares me though)
also i get goosebumps when thespread their wings and start flying...aghhh!!!
Wow! I thought I was the only one with this crazy irrational phobia!Thanks to all your comments, I feel a lot better!
I have had a huge phobia of moths and butterflies, big and small alike, heck, even thinking of these DISGUSTING creatures give me the creeps! Gosh I'm shivering all over right now! I'm feeling so... ARGH! I can't explain!
I thought I was alone on this wierd embarrassing fear. I was in marine corp boot camp standing in Formation. I guess my di was watching me. I seen the butterfly I fell back and my di freaked out with a strange look on her face like "that's the weirdest reaction to a butterfly I ever seen". It was 3 inches from my face I had to get away no matter how much I knew not to move. So embarrassing. my family laughs at me :/ strangely my husband has a fear of caterpillars.
i also m really afraid of butterflies .... actually it started from kindergarten when the school teacher used to scare away all the children by a dead butterfly wing and that left a great impact on my mind from that onwards and today whenever i see a butterfly i end up screaming or telling people around me to get rid of it , really that creature freaks me out !
I am terrified of butterflies and moths. Especially the big and colourful ones. I hate their wings really. I have this fear since I was born and I still think it has something to do with my past life. I have found out recently that I am also afraid of what buttefly expresses as a creature: The change, metamorphosis. It really gives me creeps.
I thought i am the only one person who is scared with butterflies. I dont know why, but whn butterflies fly towards me i will ran quickly. That little insect really grossing me. I cant even....my whole family sometimes felt weird with my behaviour. But seriously, i hate butterflies. I hate their wings. Most of people said, the wings are pretty but for me that is really freaking me out!
Seriously guys, i have this fear since i was born. My mother has to sent me to my cousin's house because my parents was working at tht time. Unfortunately, my auntie is a good gardener, there is a lot of flowers she has. And everyday i came there ,too many butterflies flew around me. That is soooooo freaking me out. And my cousin always gave me a death wing butterflies! Arghhhhh. The pattern on it is so ugly. When i enter the house, goshhh too mny butterflies on the wall. So u guys imagine, i came there everyday and everyday too i have to facing a freaking's adventure with butterflies! Disgusting!
It makes me feel sooo much better knowing that I'm not alone. I've been afraid of butterflies since I was born. I HATE them!!! I went to the butterfly exhibit in 3rd grade and it was the worst thing ever. I did not look up once. I can't even stand to see them in pictures. My friends kind of laugh at it a little but recently saw me freak our when I saw one and now understand how much I fear them.
I honestly don't really know exactly what makes me fear them but they are just so disgusting!!
At the age of 32 now, I have constantly lived in fear of butterflies and moths since young. Basically same reaction as u guys, run away shrieking and will also cry sometimes. I am staying in Singapore now where it is quite safe from general insects. My hometown in Kluang, Johor, Malaysia has this moth season annually or bi-annually where there are hundreds of - Lyssa Zampa moths in palm size (ugly creature that are attracted to lights and doesn't fly high, it dives down after few flights) so beware! Google it. The sight of it freaks me out totally and I was chased by one when I was young. FML. This is a rare phobia and I am glad that I'm not the only one. Thanks guys.
It really is a relief to know that there are more people out there with this fear. I've been told that an easier way of referring to the fear of butterflies would be to categorize it as Mottephobia (fear of moths). It started when I was about 2. I had a horrible nightmare about a giant colorful butterfly flying in me and my older sister's bay windows and attacking me for absolutely no reason. Also I have a fear of bees. It doesn't matter what kind it is, regular bee, wasp, hornet, yellow jacket. I run in fear from them all. My sister recently mentioned that my fear of butterflies may have something to do with my fear of bees. Also when I was probably about 5, my grandparents, aunts and uncles were all visiting our house on Sunday so we could all go to church together. I was standing outside on the porch while my family was loading up. My grandmother was still in the house. Out of nowhere this huge yellow jacket or hornet, whichever it was flies by really fast lands on me, stings me, and flies off. That's probably when my fear of bees started. I have mistaken that for a large colorful butterfly that attacked me ever since. They looked similar enough with the strange arrangements of colors on they're bodies and wings. They look like eyes to me. It's the same with moths. I start hyper-ventilating when there is a barrage of butterflies or moths around. I'm deathly afraid that one of them will touch me, or I'll find a dead one in my hair. My aunt is also deathly afraid of bugs. For me, it's only certain types that I have a phobia of. I too also visited a butterfly exhibit when I was in elementary school.
The feeling of not being able to control whether or not you can escape from those merchants of terror is indescribable. While walking back to the house with my mother and close friends on numerous occasions, I have run out into the street, nearly getting hit by cars trying to escape from these creatures. My mother has pulled me back by my collar and arms plenty of times for fear I might get hit by a car one of those times. The large black and orange ones scare me the most. The small white ones seem to freak me out just as easily. Pretty much all butterflies scare me senseless. At times I feel like I am being tortured when I try to walk down the street and see like 50 of them blocking my path and fluttering about. Just on my way to work the other day, I was walking down the street and out of nowhere the small white butterfly starts fluttering near me, and it seems to mimic my attempts to go an alternate path to escape it. I freak out; feeling defeated until the wind finally blows it away from me. Then I ran like a bat outta hell into my workplace. My coworkers and managers think it's funny to tell me that there's a butterfly inside the building, or that they will chase me with one if I don't hurry up with a task. It's not funny to me in the least bit. I understand it's a strange fear, and I know I shouldn't fear some of God's most beautiful creatures, but they scare me to death. Since I've turned 22, I feel like my phobia has taken a turn for the worst. I now cannot even look at a picture of the large colorful ones (specifically orange and black) for fear they might pop out of the picture and try to fly near me. Everyone in my family and my friends initially thought that this was a silly little annoyance I had until they realized it was a phobia instead.
My mom even thought it would be a hilarious joke when I was 18 to buy me two large snap wallets completely covered in butterflies. I still use them; I just tore the covers off. When I'm working, there are so many butterfly-oriented objects that I have to stock the sales floor with, that I feel like all my coworkers are playing some kind of sick prank on me. I really do have serious panic attacks when these things fly near me. It's like my mind alerts me to imminent doom and I just run.
its nice t know im not a freak...butterflies scare me senseless i feel sick at the thought i shake and go all sweaty just seeing one and if they come close im off running screamimg hystericaly as if im being murderd...friends and family wet themselves with laughter...it all goes back t when i was 5yrs old and a butterfly got caught up in my long hair my nanna had t brush it from me hair as it was tangled i could feel it vibrateing in me hair it was horendous and ive been terrified ever since...but its nice t know there r other people out there who know what we r going through...roll on the winter.
It definitely is comforting to see so many others with the same fear because everyone thinks it is very strange that I am afraid of butterflies and moths. I'm not scared of heights or spiders and actually like snakes but will run at the sight of a moth or butterfly. As someone else mentioned its the fluttering and the thought of them touching me that really freaks me out. Once I almost crashed my car because a moth got inside. I have had this phobia since I was a child but it has gotten worse as I have gotten older. My mother loves butterflies and has had two dead butterflies hanging in her living room for the last 40 years and as I kid I used to look at them. Now I can't, even looking at a picture freaks me out.... especially the ones that look like they have eyes on their disgusting wings... ughhhh.
I'm a 17-year-old girl and I've been afraid of butterflies (and moths to a lesser extent) since I can remember (but I can look at pictures of them). The bigger they are, the more uncomfortable they make me. I find it odd how my sister is afraid of all bugs, EXCEPT butterflies. I ask her why; I say that butterflies are like big moths, except they look more like clowns. She says she's not afraid of them because they're prettier than moths. When I was really little (I'm not sure if this was a dream or if it actually happened.), A butterfly landed on my nose. When I was about 6 years old, I was relaxing with my family. I looked away for a second and when I looked back, a yellow butterfly was fluttering right in front of my face! I freaked out and my parents had to scare it away. Just today, I was taking a walk. I accidentally startled a butterfly, but to my relief, it flew AWAY from me. Later, I startled another butterfly and it flew around like crazy. I got scared and ran to the other side of the road. I don't like how butterflies just flutter around clumsily. It's like they have no control and I always feel like they're going to touch me.
It's a shame that I'm afraid of butterflies. It's not like they want to scare me; they're more afraid of me than I am of them. I don't hate butterflies; they're good creatures. The world NEEDS butterflies. You shouldn't dislike butterflies just because you're scared of them; you should appreciate them (from a distance, of course; a HUGE distance).
I'm so glad I'm not alone in this situation. I honestly don't know why I'm so afraid of butterflies. I hate them so much. Sometimes I feel like they know I'm scared and want to chase me on purpose. I have also been to a butterfly exhibit when I was younger and it was torture. I want to get over it, but I don't know how. I don't want to go to a therapist because I know they're gonna force me to look at pictures and touch them. The though of that makes me feel queasy and shaky. I'm now a senior in high school and I think my fear is getting worse. Pictures of them make me really nervous. I'm going on a field trip to the tropical rainforest at moody gardens. I know that there are butterflies there and the thought is killing me. I want to go for everthing else...but the butterflies might be the reason why I stay home and not go to the trip. Fml this has gone too far I want to live a normal life with no fear!!
Post a Comment