Legitimate fear or all in my head?????

[Hoosiermomma]

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That's me and escalators.......

 

[Hoosiermomma]

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Sorry you had to go through that. I know exactly what you mean. The fear is terrifying but oh so real.

 

[Camelot Farms]

This will make you feel better or at least not so alone...

I have flown for years and years, all over the country. No big deal.

In January 2008, I woke up in my hotel in Denver, Colorado and began to get ready for the flight home. I was there with 3 of my colleagues who are also some of my BFF's.
Suddenly in the shower, I lost it. Started thinking about the flight and just lost it.
Called DH and said "come get me". (We live in SWVA). Even though he was stunned, he said okay but could I at least get on a bus and head East.

Instead, I called the car rental agency at the airport and reserved a car. When my colleagues got out of the shuttle at the airport, I explained that I was driving home. Then the driver quickly took off, leaving those poor girls standing there looking like they had been hit by a bus.

I went into the rental place in a fog, got my car with a GPS and set it for Nashville where my Dad lives and started driving.

I dont remember anything from the drive except for 3 or 4 small bits of time. I left Denver at 6am (Mtn time) and arrived in Nashville at 2am (Central time).

I truly believe to this day that God was my co-pilot. It was as though there was an invisable rope hooked to the front of that car and I was just pulled home.
The only things I remember are a few mile stretch in Kansas where I saw a coyote loping alongside the interstate. I remember Stl Louis cause I stopped there to take a 15 minute nap. I remember Paduca KY cause they had a ice storm a few hours earlier and it was scary to see trees just falling over while I watched. And I remember crossing the Mississippi because I stopped on the bridge to look at it for a few moments. The rest is gone.

I'm sure that clinically, I was disassociated due to my fear and I am extremely grateful to have made it to my Dad's safely.

He then drove me to their airport to return the car. The clerk checked the mileage and the time 5 times before she cleared the car for return. She was stunned that the car had been in Denver less than 24 hours before.

Dad then drove me to Knoxville where DH picked me up.

Quite an adventure hey? Fear can cause some amazing reactions. My fear had no basis in reality. I knew even at the airport that I wasnt afraid of a crash. I wouldnt have let my colleagues on the plane if I had thought that. I just knew I shouldnt get on the plane.

So, next time I need to fly, you can go and I will cross your bridges...

 

[joebryant]

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No big deal, it's both. You have a phobia "in you head" and that was your reaction to it. Do you have the power to "change"?
Sure you do, but since it will probably not happen again for years, why go through all the hassle.

 

[gypsy2621]

I so hate to hear some one say "Grow up and get over it" when it comes to a deep rooted fear.
I am terrified of heights and fire.
the heights, I feel is unjustified fear, the fire fear is due to experience from the house burning down .

My fear of heights has been attempted to be dealt with going so far as to get really po'd and climb a ladder , just to get frozen 5 steps up unable to move, triggering a panic attack and an asthma episode. still I couldnt get down, couldnt move my hands nothing.
Not always facing or confronting such deep rooted fears is the solution, sometimes it only re~ enforces that fear.
You know those grated storm drains in sidewalks? I cant step on one of those either, veritigo sets in and I feel like I would fall straight through them. silly yes I know but its there.

The fear of fire comes from when the house burned and I made repeated trips inside to get the animals, on the last trip in to get the kitten, there was a flash over the minute I hit thelast up step.
Now open flames will trigger a panic attack from hell, the smell of excessive smoke will do the same.
talking with my sister about this fear , her response was to grow up and get over it, after all it had been 6 months since the fire. I nearly leveled her.
what got me was this was coming from a woman who mind you will not drive anywhere near the yellow line, prefering to drive as close to the white line as is legal, why? because she was in an vehicle accident over 20 years ago driving normal and is now "afraid " of the yellow line.
When I confronted her on the fact her response was, " thats different" different how fear is fear. I was the bigger person here though and DID NOT tell her to grow up and get over it. ( she is now 63 )

 

[Mahonri]

Yup, fear is fear.

You can get over it, but you may need some therapy.

 

[tdgill]

I was seeing Peter Gabriel concerts in the 80's. He was in the habit of laying back on the crowds and they would pass him around (at Merriweather pavillion). Well at the Philadelphia Spectrum where i was in a third row seat, standing ON the folding chair like the rest of the idiots, Peter walked to the edge of the stage and layed down on the crowd. Well, being Philly, they literally devoured him. In the surge forward the crowd piled up and I was shoved off the chair and my leg slid down between the back of it. I was suspended above the floor and laying over at a 45 degree angle waiting for my leg to break and seeing the newspaper article about it the next day in my mind. Luckily I only had bruises and a very scary experience. To this day if I hear that same song I break out in a cold sweat, my pulse racing and can't catch my breath.

Age and Having kids changed me too. I never had ANY fears. Until I became a mom.

 

[sfw2]

I agree with previous posters. Yes, it's all in your head. And YES, IT IS VERY REAL.

When my kids were small, and DH was in the Navy, we spent nearly two-and-a-half years stationed in Newport, RI. You had to cross a bridge to get anywhere. No problem. A couple of years later, I was driving home to Virginia from my in-laws home in PA. As I drove onto the Bay Bridge, I was seized by a panic attack. White knuckles, cold sweat, ear-ringing panic attack. I almost had to stop at the top of the bridge, I was so scared. My kids were sitting in the back seat, oblivious. Ever since then, I was TERRIFIED of suspension bridges.

I have no idea what triggered the fear. It's probably part of a greater anxiety and depression issue that I'm now medicated for. The meds seem to help - I can make it across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel with no problems - but I haven't driven over the Bay Bridge since.

Please don't let your fears paralyze you. There is help out there. Meds aren't for everyone, but there are other therapies.

 

[EweSheep]

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SEE! Even SHE knows what i'm talking about...

They're sly and crafty..they wait for the perfect moment to jump on us to attack..they dont care we're huge giants compared to them....they STILL try to take us down......

Red! Quick! Get out from under that chair! I seen one of them under there.... We're not safe, we're just not safe! Not even in our own homes, we're not safe!!!

>>>>>>>>>>>runs over to the spider, took a slipper and SMACK! Ding dong, the spider is DEAD!

Now feel better????? I dont mind spiders, they are more afraid of you than you are of them. Same for snakes, no fear of them.

My big fear are GEESE! Yep, those white nasty hissy mouthed feathered bags with webbed feet! Every time I get near them, I would get behind my hubby and use him as a shield. I've been bitten too many times by a very aggressive guard goose with his ganders at my neighbor's farm where I went to visit their horses.

Then again at the farm which my mother insist to ahve a pair of Toulouse geese. Lovely they are but man, the hissy fit of the goose was something else! In order for ME, yes, ME to get the eggs I had to take a small metal garbage pan lid, block her face and get her eggs. Simply because NO one else wanted to get her eggs except me!

I love going to the zoo with my family even they have geese walking around.

Funny I have NO fear of Canadian geese.........even I've been hissed at when walking by them but none like the white or Toulouse geese.

 

[joebryant]

I forgot to mention. You should've seen me when I was younger on some airplane flights; I'd get so terrified that now I laugh at some of the things I did before the plane landed. It's a wonder the flight attendants (my daughter used to be one) didn't throw me off the plane.
Later, in China, on CAAC (China Air Always Crashes) I really flipped out, scared out of my wits. Everyone in the group saved all their sedatives for me for the return flight from wherever it was we went (can't recall). Turned out the return flight was on a newer plane, unlike the other old one where the seats wouldn't stay up and almost everyone had to tie themselves in with their seat belts that didn't latch... oh well.