The everlasting discomfort of stickers.
In life there will always be obstacles or fears that we have to face and overcome, but no matter how much I try there’s one that I will always feel defeated by. My fear of stickers will be an everlasting discomfort I will have to face. Yes, one of my biggest fears is an adhesive piece of paper with printing on it. One of the worst things about having a phobia of stickers is the fact that I can’t run away from it even if I try. Stickers are constantly surrounding, whether it’s on an apple or somebody’s water bottle.
I truly always remember always having this idea of not liking stickers, but I think I have an idea of when I stopped being a fan of everything about stickers. When I was around six years old, my sister and I would always play with each other whether it was with dolls or coloring books. One day we decided we wanted to color and in the coloring book, on the first page, there they were, stickers. I always did and still look up to my sister, so whenever she had an idea I never doubted or questioned it. However, now looking back at my childhood I should’ve questioned a lot of things. However, staying on topic she thought it would be a good idea to roll the stickers and STICK THEM IN MY NOSTRILS.
I know what most are thinking, “why would you let her do that?!?” But, like I said before I was only a six-year-old girl who never questioned what her sister would suggest. So, yes, six-year-old me still allowed her to do this all while my mom thought we were just coloring. I remember not feeling an ounce of apprehension, until I heard her say that they couldn’t come out! Seeing her laugh so much that she couldn’t breathe while I was crying my eyes out as the stickers were still stuck, will forever be engraved in my head and never forgotten.
One could say that was when my hatred for stickers became VERY noticeable. After this experience anytime I saw a sticker near me I would look for the nearest hand sanitizer or just walk away from it altogether. I have slowly gotten better at seeing stickers near me, just because there really isn’t any other option. It’s hard to explain the feeling I get when I’m near stickers, but the best way to explain it is that it feels like I need to jump out of my own skin. The idea of me touching or having a sticker on me is something that makes me break out into goosebumps and to curl up in a ball.
I remember once in middle school a sticker had touched me and I was freaking out. I know that a sticker can peel right off and that it won’t stay there forever, but it definitely feels like it. I vividly remember scrubbing my hand with soap to the extent that my hand was extremely red and irritated. However, that didn’t bother me as much as still feeling the sticker was still there with its goop all over me. Once I feel or touch a sticker all I can think about is how I can jump out of my skin to get rid of this horrible discomfort.
Most people don’t know I have this strange phobia of stickers because I started to normalize it after having to deal with this discomfort in disguise. However, the people who do know about this phobia of mine know not to come near me with a sticker or I will definitely be walking away from them any second. Whenever mentioning this phobia of mine I’m not surprised at all with people’s reactions just because it does sound so bizarre. However, no matter how bizarre it sounds, it’s definitely not bizarre to me and will never be.
