I have a huge and persistent phobia of my boiler (furnace/waterheater). My last landlord was just awful and never fixed anything. The boiler was always wonky.
Anyway cut to now - new landlord and new boiler. They will fix everything. But I still have this utter fear of the boiler.
I think I have had like 3 showers since September. I clean with wet wipes and stuff. Everyday I don’t use the shower the wall gets higher. It is now too high to scale.
Right now saying this I feel my boiler will punish me for speaking about my fears. I fully expect a catastrophic leak because I didn’t keep my mouth shut.
I know this is all petty. Plenty of folk have real/proper problems. I am a total douche
Hi Jim, Idk if this helps but the heating system is outside so if anything was to happen it would be out there & its very new, its been checked, have they come to check it again? all i can do is ask you what you think will help solve the problem.
Maybe washing at your parents would help if you really had to, if you explain the situation they would definitely allow that.
Everyone has phobias. Don’t be too hard on yourself. I’m afraid of blood pressure monitors, especially when the assistant puts it on me and then leaves me alone with it while it squeezes the sh#$ out of my arm. I worry it won’t stop squeezing.
It sounds crazy, but I am afraid of my car. Any time I need to go somewhere in my car I start having mini panic attacks and my pulse goes up. It’s gotten to the point that I’ll take taxis or the bus just so I don’t have to drive. So…yeah, I totally get the fear of things that shouldn’t be scary but, no matter how illogical, they ARE scary.
You sound like you punish yourself to some extent and I don’t think you should do that, like your wording makes you sound terribly hard on yourself. You gotta love yourself. Maybe see taking a shower as a way to say that to yourself- that your okay and you deserve to be clean and happy
Dont be ashamed. I have the weirdest fears. I had to leave a 6+ childrens movie this week because it scared me (the cute little girls with pony tails in front of me were fine). We all have phobias.
That said: do try to find a solution.
I’m thinking of the way they treat arachnophobia. First you touch an iny tiny spider, then bigger and bigger, until you have to hold a tarantula. Step by step. Can you make a program like that? As an example: you first stand in the shower. Next time you touch the tap without showering. Next time you turn it on cold without standing underneath. Then hot. Then you take a 1 minute shower. Etc. No idea if it works.
Is a boiler the same thing as what we call a water heater (with tank) in the U.S.? Unless the (tank) water heater has been turned completely off, the water heater turns on and off as needed to keep the hot water supply at the ready. So whether you use hot water for a shower or don’t take a shower, the water heater is still on and off as needed. Maybe it’s different with a boiler in the UK?
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, at least in the U.S., whether you take a hot shower or not, the (tank) water heater still fires on periodically to keep the water supply hot. Not taking a shower has no impact on this in the long term.
