By TheLadyOpal - 13/12/2013 07:55 - United States

Today, I have such an irrational fear of the noise my smoke detector makes when it goes off, that dying in my sleep from smoke inhalation or carbon monoxide poisoning sounds absolutely peachy by comparison. FML
I agree, your life sucks 35 828
You deserved it 6 265

TheLadyOpal tells us more.

Aaaah! I finally got an FML published :D Awesome. Now to clear a few things up: I have had an irrational fear of sudden loud noises my whole life. Not necessarily the noise itself - (although there are exceptions if it's particularly loud, like the smoke alarm), but the anticipation of the noise - one of the reasons I hated school was because I would sit in class and worry about whether or not we'd be having a fire drill that day. And I don't keep an alarm clock. I have tried to keep one in the past, only to realize that if I'm expecting an alarm to wake me up in the morning, I don't sleep. I don't have a cell phone either, and I live alone, so to the smartass who suggested someone mess with my phone to set an alarm ring-tone, sorry to burst your bubble :P And no, I don't actually WANT to die - I was just thinking about this the other day and saying to myself, would I actually rather die in my sleep than wake up in the middle of the night to a terrible noise and have to maybe evacuate my house and call 911 and probably dissolve into a sobbing wreck due to all the anxiety? No, death is not the better solution, obviously, but irrational feelings tend to disregard logic.

Top comments

ineedalogin 19

Alarm clocks make everyone cry

Comments

MzZombicidal 36

At least when a microwave stops, you have a reason to be happy!

We just got Nest smoke detectors. They really tell you if there is smoke, instead of a loud beep. And you can turn it off by waving your hands at it.

happyfingers 15

You sound like my doggies! :D Two of my dogs start shaking if the fire alarm goes off and will climb on top of me and pant in my face. It's horrible. Unfortunately our fire alarms like to chirp for no reason sometimes in the dead of the night...

I remember when I lived in a certain condominium. I have an irrational fear of sudden loud noises, especially fire alarms. The fire alarm in my building would go off far too often (there was a speaker in the living room and each bedroom), and all but one were false (and the one true one was not for a fire-related emergency, but for a flood). Unfortunately, most of the time, it went off in the middle of the night. It turned out that the smoke detectors were faulty and constantly picking up stuff like dust. The problem was eventually fixed, but it really negatively affected me.

JoseIsAdork 31

op, they have ones that have a voice alert feature which may be less frightening then the loud beeping. I personally think they should all come standard with voice alerts with sweet brown saying oh lawd Jesus its a fire! I would keep a cold pop and my shoes by my bed incase I heard that, then book out of the house. haha.

The problem is that I live in an apartment, I'm not sure if I would be allowed to have the smoke detectors here modified so that they sound less frightening. Still, I suppose it can't hurt to ask. I'm definitely not about to disconnect them entirely, so no worries there.

JoseIsAdork 31

are you smoke detectors in a main hallway as well as your own apartment? because maybe the ones that are right directly in your apartment could be switched up. maybe if you explained to the landlord about it he or she may allow you to buy the ones that use voice alerts instead as long as the ones that are already there weren't tossed aside provided they belonged to the landlord. worth looking into anyways!! I think some of them aren't overly expensive. besides even so, spending a little bit extra would be worth it if it saved your life in the event of a fire.

The one upstairs is in front of the front door, and the one downstairs is directly outside my bedroom door. I can ask her about getting new ones that use voice activation or vibration - I'm not sure if she'd be keen on the idea but you're right, it never hurts to ask. I'd certainly feel better about having them.

I would feel like the voice ones would be better all around because they can differentiate between fire, carbon monoxide, and any other things the alarm system is set to monitor so that the confusion is minimized in the event of an emergency. Would be a smart investment for the landlord, I should think.

Mayhaps the whole burning alive thing would provide some incentive? I could be time to see a psychologist/psychiatrist for that.

I have an irrational fear of bounce houses, blow up lawn ornaments, blow up slides, blow up pool toys, and blow up pools. I've had it since I was probably five years old. It's quite embarrassing.

Don't take this the wrong way - I'm not one to judge anyone but maybe you should get some help, like professionally. This fear is actually life threatening and no one would want to lose you just because of something that would have possibly been prevented with an alarm.

I'm seeing a therapist - not necessarily for this, specifically, but we do talk about it. But I know what you mean and I agree. I know this kind of paranoia isn't healthy.