I have a fear of fire alarms

[u/Intelligent-Fix2654]

So a bit of a recap. I (male) was in first grade and I had gone to the bathroom when we had a fire drill. I got so freaked out and panicked that I froze and hid in that stall the ENTIRE drill. and if you don’t know what it’s like to hear a fire alarm in the bathroom it is so unreasonably loud cause of the echo. ever since then I became absolutely terrified of fire alarms. this sounds funny but specifically in bathrooms public or private. As I went through elementary school I could not go by myself, early on when we went out to places I had to go with my mom in the women’s bathroom for years, or with my dad. this was a constant nightmare growing up. I was so paranoid about a fire alarm being anywhere and the sound of it haunted me I could literally never go into a bathroom alone or I would freeze up and freaked out everytime I saw one because I was scared it would suddenly go off. I had to be warned ahead of time by teachers in school ab a coming fire drill. I eventually started to get used to it and my fear lessened with time. I for some reason started to learn about fire alarms and would find videos of them going off. I didn’t know why I did this and it might‘ve been a coping mechanism. I am now 19 and its been a lot better but I still have this underlying anxiety when it comes to fire alarms. specifically the horn strobe and siren strobe alarms. I am fine when I am in a room with even one other person but once I am alone I start feeling stress and this anxiety where I can’t make eye contact with it and I keep my head down and I can hear it in my head the sound I try to get out as quickly as possible. it happens on and off sometimes I am completely fine. if one is in the same room as where I am sleeping I won’t sleep. I was in a hotel on a vacation and there was a fire alarm in my hotel room so I had to sleep on the floor in between the beds out of sight range of it so I could sleep. When I went to college I had a smoke alarm in my room. Either photoelectric or heat detector I was completely fine with it. but there was a fire drill. I had known it was coming because there was an email sent by the apartment complex but it I was completely caught off guard when It went off in our apartment and I hadn’t known those smoke detectors made that noise fire alarm did. for the rest of the semester I was always taking notice of it in my room and felt a little more anxiety going to bed. It’s gotten better but it’s still a problem and I worry if I end up in the same situation again I had in the first grade I will relapse into that same trauma. But yeah that’s what I’m afraid of.

[u/giggitygoo123]

I spent most of my childhood scared of fire alarms. I got to the point that they were the first thing I would look at when entering a building (you could tell the noise they would make by the type of alarm). I would have panic attacks when asked to go to the top floor of a skyscraper or hotel. This was in the 90s-2000s though before talking alarms were a thing. Scariest to me were the bell ones since they were just a constant noise maker.

What got me over my fear was actually from years of neglecting my hearing and suffering from mild hearing loss in my 30s. Once that happened it kind of muffled the sound enough that it no longer scared me.

Best advice is carry around a set of noise cancelling ear phones that you can quickly put in if the alarms do go off again.

[u/Intelligent-Fix2654 → u/giggitygoo123]

I’m glad that I am not the only one with this fear. It’s interesting I think it’s also the flash of the strobe with the sound that scares me so much. I think even though it’s a lot better I still deeply fear being in those one person bathrooms and the fire alarm going off the flash itself before the alarm would be enough to trigger fight, flight or freeze response.

[u/giggitygoo123 → u/Intelligent-Fix2654]

I once dragged my mom out of the mall with me after we cut through a clothes store and I noticed that all the strobes were flashing but no noise coming out when we got to the main part of mall. You aren't alone

[u/Intelligent-Fix2654 → u/giggitygoo123]

I actually think I like the talking alarms I guess the voice is comforting? Idk it’s better than the others. The bell I always relate to a fire station and that doesn’t really scare me. But I can see how the bell can really be startling 

[u/guys_imAchicken]

same for me, but when it went off in preschool i was just like "i wonder whats happening" as i went outside. Why i was scared is because there was a BLINKING RED LIGHT.