I have been a sufferer of Brontophobia or the phobia of Thunder for over 30 years. I was 2 years old when I saw my gran put her fingers in her ears due to a storm, I copied her but at that age I didn't know why. My mother was in the room at the time but didn't think anything of it, I partly blame her for it as she should have picked me up took my fingers out of my ears and taken me out of the room.

 

I was badly bullied through school... very close to the point of suicide more than once, all because of this phobia. I used to watch the weather on TV a lot, keep my eye on what was happening outside every few minutes or so. I still do that but not quite as bad as I was in my teens/early twenties. I joined a weather forecasting site on here 3 years ago, they have all sorts of radars showing rain and the likeliest places for storms, they also have a forum page where people discuss everything to do with weather. I find the site very helpful to know what the weather is doing and going to do for my area... so I don't go checking the weather elsewhere.

 

The past few years I have started seeing the man in me take over from the little boy, everyone has that little kid in them, that kid in me is the one who has the phobia but its him I turn to each time there is a threat of a storm instead of standing my ground and telling myself to ignore it and think like the man that I am. Yesterday the sky to the west of me went very dark and I saw on the rain radar that it was a storm, I didn't clam up like normal but I stayed on my pc instead of sitting on the bed with my headphones on waiting for the first flash of lightning (which never came). I told myself that if it happens it happens, nothing I can do about it.

 

I find the worst part of my phobia is the waiting for it to happen, once I know one is on the way I get agitated, a tight feeling in my chest, feel sick etc and I have to lie on the bed TV on and headphones on and listen to music. As long as I don't hear any thunder I am ok, and once the storm is underway then I relax quite a lot and do a crossword or read a book. If the storm is bad then I will go to the window and watch (I love to watch Lightning... strange eh?).

I have had various treatments from hypnosis to psychiatrists but no one can seem to help me, I have been told that Brontophobia is one of the more difficult ones to conquer.