Alex's Answer

Hi, you are very welcome to Ask Alex.

Thank you sharing your fear of fire alarms with us. It’s very courageous of you to open up about your fears and feelings. It’s understandable that you have some fear around fire alarms – they are signalling that there is a potentially dangerous situation afoot, they are often unexpected, and they are very loud. At Ask Alex, we believe that when we scared of something it’s good to talk about it, and to ask ourselves questions about our fears. Perhaps it may be helpful to ask yourself how long you have felt like this about fire alarms, what exactly it is that you feel when an alarm goes off and if you can link this fear back to any particular event. You might also want to consider the things you can do to help yourself feel better in the event a fire alarm goes off.

Remember, various emotions can crop up when we start focusing on our feelings and fears. You have the right to get support to help you work through this; is there someone in your family or perhaps a trusted adult at school you can chat to? Talking about our concerns can be a difficult thing to do but we also know how relieving and helpful it can be for young people.

You are always welcome to contact us at Childline. You can call us on 1800 66 66 66, text us on 50101 or chat to us via our webchat which you can find here: www.childline.ie. All of the services are confidential and free to you. We don’t judge what you say, we believe what you share with us and finally, you are safe to chat about anything no matter how big or small.

We wish you all the best,

Alex