Real strange phobias

[Khonshu]

I'm afraid of bridges over water. Funny thing for a civil engineer to be afraid of.

I blame my mom - every summer, when went to the beach, we had to pass over a drawbridge that a Romanian ship had hit & knocked one of the pilings into the river, along with a good section of bridge with cars on it (about 1971, iirc). Several people were killed as their cars plummeted into the river. She always made a point of pointing out where the new concrete started when they rebuilt the bridge as we were driving over it.

She thought it was neat, I'm still terrified at the thought of it.

Interesting thing, there's a picture of the bridge down in the building where I work now, and I have a huge picture of the new replacement bridge that was just finished right behind my desk. The new hybrid suspension bridge is higher than the towers of the old drawbridge. And yes, I've driven over it myself, and it still terrifies me (which greatly amuses my wife & kids).

 

[KFCA]

Fear of tall buildings...

that's my irrational fear.

Coming from a little town where the biggest "skyscraper" was maybe five stories to NYC on vacation many years ago was panic-time. I used to put my head down when walking up the church steps because I felt the steeple coming straight down on me when I was a kid & even later...I should have known The Big City wouldn't work out well for me.

Tall buildings still do this to me. I can't look straight up or even almost straight up at them.

 

[rightbrain]

I have vertigo, but it applies only in certain types of surroundings--either heights where my feet are dangling, or manmade structures where there's a lot of open space. I took my kids on a puny cable car ride (we were all of about 12 feet above the ground) and sat there rigidly the whole time, wanting to throw myself out of the car. I get terrified just thinking of ski lifts and ferris wheels, and I'm not fond of suspension bridges.

I experienced intense vertigo when I was standing on the high-up balcony at St. Peter's in Rome; I had to get out of there. Something about the immensity of the open space around me.

I don't fear "natural" heights, such as standing on a mountainside. I've never understood why one would be afraid of heights in some instances and not others.

 

[cajela]

I read an article in one of those newspaper fluffy weekend magazines recently about phobias. The reporter confessed her own phobia of cotton wool. Weird.

I used to find dim lights scary, but I got over it. When I was younger, I used to have nightmares about going into a room, and turning the light on to scare off the monsters, and the light coming on so dimly that it didn't actually light uip the room.

 

[Nucular]

I used to find dim lights scary, but I got over it.

I had a kind of similar thing - it wasn't a phobia, but I used to get so frustrated at night time at the thought that however much I wanted to, I couldn't be in sunlight. It was worse when there was a powercut, and all we had was candlelight: I used to crave bright light.

I remember thinking that when I was grown up I'd buy an aeroplane, so I could chase daylight around the world. Still saving.

 

[BillyJoe]

In fact I have had a phobia, although I am now cured.

Fear of Eternity

Does it have a name?