[WikidPissah]

Hi, I don't usually post here, so bear with me.

I have major anxiety/ocd issues. Big fear of seeing my own reflection. I can handle small face mirrors for makeup/hair, but not body. I can't manage glass doors at malls or shopping stores. Those closed circuit tv's they have everywhere drive me nuts.

oh yea...Aliens. My son is petrified. Highly intelligent 25 yr old functioning adult. Still lives home, but financially self sufficient. He can't sleep with the lights off. He thinks they will abduct him. He can't read or see anything alien related. I love him, but I don't know how to help him. He won't go for therapy. Is there anyone that suffers from this? Is there anything that anyone says that helps you?

My heart breaks for him.

I don't know if this is like it or not, but for any ground level windows, the shades and curtains must be drawn at night ... I have an intense fear and sense of dread about looking out the window and seeing someone or something standing there staring back at me ... I guess that includes humans, animals and aliens ... Therefore, I'd say you are not alone.

Originally Posted by WikidPissah

Hi, I don't usually post here, so bear with me.

I have major anxiety/ocd issues. Big fear of seeing my own reflection. I can handle small face mirrors for makeup/hair, but not body. I can't manage glass doors at malls or shopping stores. Those closed circuit tv's they have everywhere drive me nuts.

oh yea...Aliens. My son is petrified. Highly intelligent 25 yr old functioning adult. Still lives home, but financially self sufficient. He can't sleep with the lights off. He thinks they will abduct him. He can't read or see anything alien related. I love him, but I don't know how to help him. He won't go for therapy. Is there anyone that suffers from this? Is there anything that anyone says that helps you?

My heart breaks for him.

Because aliens are scary as hell. Not to get you worried about them too, but they are freaking terrifying. I have seen them and trust me you don't want to experience them. They really scare me. Sometimes, even at 21, I still leap out of bed and think I see them out of the corner of my eye as I try to sleep. Aliens are scary. I don't blame him. I was abducted at the tender age of 6 and so was my mother but her memory was erased. Mine was semi-intact. I have vague recollections of a spaceship but most importantly evidence wise, I do not remember 7 hours of my life Yes, 7 hours My mom agreed until she denied it later on probably because they messed with her mind Then, they were in my bedroom once when I was like 15 and scared the crap out of me. Then, recently, a few months ago they injected me with some weird chemicals. I have no idea what happened but it even left a mark on my skin I don't blame him for being scared. My brother saw them as well.

Fear of aliens is indicative of a psychiatric problem that he should really get help for. I know you say he refuses to go to therapy - honestly he probably needs to see a psychiatrist for meds more than therapy. Think of how irrational it is to not turn the lights out because then the aliens will get you... if there are super-technologically-advanced aliens out there I don't think the 60w incandescent light bulb will stop them... I would consider you try to continually (gently) press him to see a psychiatrist without being overly confrontation and pushing him away.

[Verity81]

I would be curious to know if your son has ever experienced hypnogogic hallucinations? These are hallucinations not related to psychosis but related to the stages of sleep and is part of a REM sleep disorder.
I had them quite bad when I was a child and teenager, I saw all sorts of things, figures, monsters, people in my bedroom. I thought I was either psychotic or I was being visited by some sort of supernatural beings. I was seeing a psychologist at the age of 14 for various issues and I told her about the visions and that I only got them at night, either when just falling asleep or upon waking up. She told me about hypnogogic hallucinations and it was a great relief to me.

[wish_I_was]

I went through a similar fear when I was a teenager. I recall very vivid dreams (or were they?) of alien abductions or seeing ufos in the sky from my bedroom window. I have had dreams and woken up with strange markings and nosebleeds. I had an irrational fear of taking a shower and pulling back the curtain with an alien just standing there. I swear something must have happened in my childhood. I have no other irrational fears like this. :/