I got stuck in one once...in 1994...in Paris...with my family. So yes, I understand how ridiculous this sounds, that I'm still apprehensive about riding in them alone, but we all have our weird quirks, right?
This anxiety has been around since...well, 1994. But recently it's gotten worse. Now I feel claustrophobic on the CTA trains as well, and I have to ride them every day.
After four years in the city without any incidents, there was one morning this May when the absolute PACKED rush hour train I was in had to stop for 5-10 minutes. So, not even that long (and really, most would not think of this as an "incident" but it was my personal turning point for the worse). But there was hardly room to move (or breathe) as it was, and being stopped, and not knowing why we were stopped, caused me to start to panic. I was able to keep it all inward, but was seriously freaking out. Felt like I was suffocating and helpless - prime example of having no control over the situation, which I think is one of the main things that contributes to claustrophobia. I tried to close my eyes and listen to music
Recently, in an attempt to find out why my fear of elevators is so bad and if there was anything I could do, I googled "fear of elevators" which brought me to a video feature on 20/20 that included an interview with a man who was trapped on one for 41 hours in October of 1999. It literally ruined his life - he finally got out and never went back to the job he was working at when it happened, instead suing the building management company and going to Anguilla for eight weeks. He was fired, broke, didn't get much of a settlement, and had the trauma of being trapped that long. Other than the eight weeks in the Caribbean, all of that sounds awful.
So, I am going to see a psychiatrist next weekend, unfortunately her office is on the 33rd floor and I'm dragging my friend with me so she can ride up the elevator with me. Seriously.
What's your biggest fear or oddest phobia? How have you conquered it?
While I don't share your fear of elevators or crowded L cars, I get very uneasy when it comes to personal space on elevators and L cars. The worst part is that I lived in Brazil for a time and there is no concept of personal space that most (if not all) Americans expect. So imagine riding up 10 floors in a packed, out-dated elevator in sweltering heat with not enough room to breathe. Let's just say there were a few times that I lost my temper and aggressively asked people to move so I could get out and take the stairs.
ReplyDeleteAs for strange phobias, the one that usually strikes people as strange is clowns. I was a pretty dedicated reader as a child. After I read Stephen King's "It" it was all over.
I hope your session went well.
Jonathan