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Avatar universal

Afraid of Monsters

This is a fairly embarrassing issue to discuss, even over an anonymous message board, but here goes. I am a healthy, 25 year old male, with a wife, a three year old son & over the last few weeks I have developed a fairly intense fear of zombies. This is not a joke. It started after seeing the movie "I Am Legend," and since then it has grown to significantly interfere with my life in the following ways:

-It takes time to mentally "prepare" myself to go into the basement to do laundry, especially at night.
-It is very difficult for me to take showers, as I feel very vulnerable to an attack while washing my hair/face.
-It takes a great deal of courage to go outside by myself at night to do routine tasks like take out the garbage, salt the driveway, etc.
-When I am alone (or with only my son), I am pretty much always aware of the possibility of an attack.

I am always, 100% of time, aware of the fact that this behavior is ridiculous and that there is absolutely no way that there are zombies trying to attack me, yet the fear & anxiety persists. It is always the specific creatures in the movie that I am occupied with, not a general sense of paranoia/fear. I have never had this problem or anything close to it before & I have no prior history of mental disease. I do not use drugs other than alcohol in moderation. What the hell is going on here? I am 25 and afraid of nocturnal, flesh eating zombies I saw in a movie! I have to laugh at myself writing this, but it is a relatively serious impedance in my life right now. Anyone have any experience or ideas about this? No insurance btw, so seeing a professional is out of the question for now. I'm kind of hoping it just fades away.
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Avatar universal
My life *has* changed fairly dramatically in the last few months, but it has not produced much extraneous anxiety. We relocated a few hours away for my wife's career and I am at home with my son right now (although looking for a job currently). The insurance thing is only temporary for me until I find a job, but my wife & son have good insurance, so it doesn't really bother me much.

I agree that the zombies (god, I *have* to laugh out loud every time I actually write that!) are not the problem here, rather a manifestation of a deeper issue, but nothing pops right out at me. I will continue to meditate on it and hope to hear some more comments from those reading this. Thanks for the ideas.
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Avatar universal
^agrees with above.. do you feel anything has provoked you to thing thoughs as these aswell.
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366811 tn?1217422672
It is not zombies. It is something else. You are literate, highly intelligent, an excellent communicator. You have a family, but no health insurance. Any chance the circumstances leading to this situation have prompted a background anxiety which has simply used the zombie as a psychological token?
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