Recently I had to fly to the east coast for a conference. I find, the older I get, the more I dislike flying. My husband, the helicopter pilot, thinks I'm being silly and irrational. And I am. Intellectually, I completely understand that I am more likely to die driving down the freeway than I am flying. But most of our fears are irrational, aren't they?
What makes it even better - and sillier - is that I am more scared of flying over the ocean (I live on an island so flying anywhere involves flying over the ocean) than I am of flying over the land. Maybe it's not the crashing that scares me but the drowning? Which is also silly and irrational for two reasons:
a.) I'm a lifeguard and a pretty strong swimmer
b.) crashing - whether it's into the ocean or into the ground - from 30,000+ feet will probably kill you either way
See? Silly. And irrational. But no one said that my fears had to be rational, did they?
My other fear is bridges.
Yes, bridges.
When I was a kid, my parents would play pinochle with friends and I
would hang out on that Friday night and watch "Love Boat", "Fantasy
Island" (I know, I'm dating myself here) and whatever "Movie of the
Week" was on. One night, it was a movie about the San Fransisco Bay
bridge. The bridge apparently had weaknesses that only this one
engineer knew about and, though he tried to warn everyone, the bridge
started to collapse with cars still on it. Which sent several cars
plunging into the ocean.
Again, scary. And ridiculous.
But it's my fear.
Needless to say, I avoid bridges at every opportunity. I hyperventilate
going over tall overpasses. I once threatened to exit a moving vehicle
(at 55mph) because my friend's dad was threatening to drive me on to
the Bay Bridge.
I am not scared of earthquakes, tornadoes, spiders, clowns (though I do
think they are creepy), or anything "normal" like that. Guess I"m just
odd.
What irrational fears do you have? How do you cope with them? I'm
almost to the point where I might need pharmaceutical help the next
time I fly.I tried a natural anxiety relief remedy and that helped a
bit but I was still pretty tightly wound on this trip. Which, given the
fact that we are a military family and we live on an island, doesn't
really work very well.
Guess we'll see. Makes it very difficult to make it to any SpouseBuzz Live events!
So, what about you?
