Just a Little Panic

/ Liz Mayers

“High bridges, new places, or old elevators

may make us a bit uneasy or even frightened.”

That’s the first sentence on the Anxiety and Depression Association of America’s Specific Phobias webpage.

Not to judge (ok just a little judging) the ADAA’s choice of words, but a “high bridge” scares the bejesus out of me.  I’m not “a bit uneasy or frightened”; I feel like a current of electricity is lighting me up and believe the world (my world) may end.

I understand and appreciate the Association’ softer word choice; I’m sure they don’t want visitors to their site to experience more anxiety than they may already.

But I do believe that someone who hasn’t experienced a fear of crossing bridges or even another fear like heights or elevators or snakes may not know what it really feels like in my body.

I just look at this bridge and “panic lite” sets in.   How about you?

 

 

 

 

2 thoughts on “Just a Little Panic”

  1. Na– that’s just an elegant bridge. But if I look at photos of Nantlle Ridge, or Bristly Ridge in Snowdonia, or a picture of someone stopping to sit on a girder to eat his lunch while building the cable car station at the top of the Aiguille du Midi (wearing a flat cap, a woolly jumper and with his legs dangling above the void), then I feel a flash of adrenaline in my chest and the soles of my feet go all funny. Is that panic lite?

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    • Thanks Rachel…. I need to look up the Ridges you mentioned and see what happens to me! I think you’ve got panic lite…. since I made the term I’m going to have to work on defining it… lol! It’s exactly like in your case where you know you don’t have to sit there and have sandwich while dangling there so you don’t feel the intense panic you would then. Panic on a spectrum I suppose!

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