The Height of Angst
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Imagine what would happen if Vertigo married Anxiety. Their offspring would be Fear and Phobia. Welcome to my world.
I am fearful about a lot of things and I don't know exactly what has happened in my life to make me so fearful.I am afraid of the unknown.I am not daring in the least.Yes! I can ride rollercoasters and I do enjoy them, always have.
- I can climb a on a ladder, but do not get me on a ladder that I have to go to the fourth step. I will get dizzy.
- I am afraid of enclosed spaces like long elevator rides. (shorter rides are ok) Please, do not ever lock me in a closet!
Sky-rides in parks are a double whammy:An enclosed box going SLOWLY, on a cable with the added attraction of great heights.Been there, done that, ONCE.Yes I have ridden in one and it is among my experiences I wish never to do again.
Recently, I went on a haunted hay ride, it was fun. But then we had to get out of the wagon and proceed to walk into a house, not haunted, but pitch dark, and we had to feel our way out of the darn thing. (again...the unknown) If this is what they have for amusement, they can keep it. I did not enjoy the adventure. BUT, before we could exit and get back to the parking lot, there was yet another attraction: The Haunted Corn Maze (enclosed place). Oh I raised such a fuss that we were rerouted to another fun-house in order to avoid the corn maze "thrill". Oh yes, I protested.I do not care to be scared out of my wits to what benefit? Hay rides, yes, but to walk through a corn maze, not this little chicken!
Sigmund Freud would certainly have a field day because, oddly enough, I am NOT afraid to fly in airplanes.There is something majestic about being up there near the clouds, and the enclosed atmosphere does not bother me, mostly because I enjoy looking out the window. Airplanes are not slow like the sky-rides. There is also the excitement of simply traveling to another place.
Yes, there's the chance we will crash. Crash landing in WATER would be my biggest fear If we were going to crash, ok it is done, game over.I do not want to suffer trying to stay afloat, treading water because that would be indescribable torture. Let me just crash quickly, but not suffer in the water. Strange but true.
By the way, Cruise Ships do not call my attention.
- I have never learned how to swim.
There were plenty of opportunities.I merely cannot relax enough learn how to swim.I freeze when I go too far from my comfort zone in a pool. I do enjoy being in a pool as long as can stand in it, I can float, but only in 3 ft of water. .As a child, I did go to the beach with the family and enjoyed the waves that would splash on and around me.I have even ventured out waist high. As a teenager, a boyfriend brought me out into the ocean, knowing I was terrified, made me kiss him before he would let me loose to go back to the shore. He soon became my ex-boyfriend. Now as an adult in a 3ft. pool, there are children that swim circles around me, it is a bit embarrassing. I cannot enjoy water parks: climbing way up to then go way down on a raft in water! Oh the thrill of it! My granddaughter loves the water park adventure.
I cannot expect anyone to understand, but this is my feeling.There is something clearly wrong with these unexplainable fears. One day, I will get myself some counseling but that may include hypnosis.I have never been hypnotized. That would be yet another unknown that I am too afraid to try. I need help.
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Thank you PWalker for those words of encouragement.
I like the way you wrote about fears, anxiety and phobias in this hub. They are serious topics and I've suffered from some that you mentioned and successfully overcome some (but not all) of them, but I like the light-hearted way you wrote about your own fears and anxieties and made gentle fun of how non-sensical and irrational many of our fears are.
On a serious note, the book, "Feel the Fear and do it Anyway," by Susan Jeffers PhD is an excellent alternative to therapy if one's fears aren't incapacitating and I would highly recommend it.
It's available through Amazon.com as a paperback and most libraries have copies of it.
Love the original art work that you used to illustrate this hub. It's fabulous.
Hi Happy! Thank you for the beautiful comments. I will try to get to the heart of this mystery.
PWalker281 Level 7 Commenter 6 months ago
You are an amazing artist! It was this brightly colored painting in my favorite colors of turquoise and purple that attracted me to your hub.
I can certainly empathize with some of your fears. While I have no problems riding in elevators, I do get nervous when I travel by air. And deep water really scares me because, like you, I've never learned how to swim. But I've overcome some fears too - like speaking in front of groups and fear of the unknown. How? It sounds corny but I simply felt the fear and did it anyway. I've found that waiting for the fear to go away before I do the thing I fear doesn't work. But as I do something that creates a feeling of fear, the doing of it without the bad results I imagined is often enough to get rid of the fear.
Rating your hub up and beautiful!