Huckleberries Online

JeanS: Help! I’m Falling

Posted by DFO

March 26, 2009 5:26 p.m. • 25 comments

I discover new things that add to my fear of heights – besides changing light bulbs and cleaning ceiling fans. Fire escape stairs. I cannot go down fire escape stairs. I can go up just fine. I went to see a friend in an apartment building that had fire escape stairs that went to the second floor. I didn’t give it a second thought as I skipped up the stairs to her apartment. Once there I realized that 301 was not on the second floor, it was on the third floor. So I turned to go up the next flight when I froze. I could SEE through the stairs to the ground far, FAR below me. I couldn’t move. A couple came out of an apartment and I just stood there/JeanieS, Nuts & Nonsense. More here.

Question: What’s your main phobia?

25 comments on this post so far. Add yours!

Liz on March 26 at 5:03 p.m.
monkeys.
brandxranch on March 26 at 6:05 p.m.
You and Jim would be a great team, Jean. I thought he was having a heart attack as he drove over the Tacoma Narrows bridge last weekend….. he was pale, shakey, sweaty, and gasping for air all the way across the bridge. He had told me that he was afraid of bridges and tunnels, but I’d never seen it in real life!! You can relate, I’m sure!
JeanC on March 26 at 7:41 p.m.
Spiders. I really, really, really don’t like spiders. I also thought I had a fear of falling and heights, until I finally realized what I had a fear of was the sudden stop at the bottom. I think that started when I fell off the top bed of a bunk bed when I was 8 and didn’t wake up until I hit the floor.
Stickman on March 26 at 8:16 p.m.
I am with you JeanieS: I used to be afraid of heights, and then I jumped out of a plane from way up and bungee jumped four times, once even from a hot air balloon. Go figure. Am I still afraid of heights? of course.
JeanieSpokane on March 26 at 8:20 p.m.
Stickman - there’s no way I’d jump out of a plane OR bungee jump, although I bet it was a ton of fun. No - I can’t even watch someone else on high things - like trapeze artists at circuses. I can’t watch it even on tv. I know……. I’m weird.
Stickman on March 26 at 9:04 p.m.
JeanieS; My wife is terrified of heights. Years ago, she said she would do anything for me if I would start going to the Spokane Juvenile Detention Center to spend some time with the kids. Such a sad place, but I got a lot of satisfaction from it for many years to come. But, she still had to do something for me. I asked her to jump out of a plane from 11 thousand feet attached to a jump master and she did. I am so proud of her for doing that, though she was completely terrified and would never do it again. Shows you the human spirit in a sense.
Stickman on March 26 at 9:07 p.m.
Also, a documentary of sorts that many of you might enjoy, especially you Jeanie. It’s called ‘Man on Wire’. If you think you are afraid of heights, watch that sometime.
florined on March 26 at 9:16 p.m.
Stickman, I’d say it shows what LOVE will do.
Stickman on March 26 at 9:25 p.m.
Florine: Love has many facets, take them as they are given. I loved our visit this past year, maybe again some day.
JeanieSpokane on March 26 at 9:36 p.m.
> I asked her to jump out of a plane from 11 thousand feet attached to a jump master and she did.<

O, I bow to your wife. That was a brave thing to do. A lot of love there for you!
Charlie on March 26 at 9:36 p.m.
Not to thrilled with heights but love to fly and look down. Several years ago, we vacationed over on the Oregon coast and on our way home, we decided to go over the Astoria bridge to Washington. If you have ever seen a picture of that bridge it starts up high at Astoria and goes down hill to Washington. It got very quiet in the car on the way over, never again.
Escapee on March 26 at 9:40 p.m.
I had the same ‘immobilization’ reaction happen to me when I tried to go down a ladder, from a rooftop…I could see all the way down to the ground…and voila, a fear of heights revealed itself. I don’t understand how people, such as house painters, for instance, can spend all day on the upper rungs of a quivering, shaking ladder and be so calm. Brrrrrrr. No thanks.
marmitetoasty on March 27 at 12:42 a.m.
I think maybe stickman gave his wifey a gentle but firm push LOL

I cant do ladders…… no way no how, and its not cos Im scared of heights cos I LOVE being up high and looking down on everything… I love viewing the world from above..

Im also not to good with flying, and jebus help the poor people that sit either side of me…. I usually grab the first available arm and crush it LOL……. the poor Doodle bloke that was on the plane next to me 18 months ago…. he did smile and he actually held me hand until we had taken off LOL…. he said it would save the bruises on his arm…….. :) - and when I fly I do NOT leave me seat for all the time Im in the air…. not even for a wee LOL……. I also dont eat the meals cos that would mean I might have to get up and go to the loo after LOL……

oh shut it, like Im bovvered what you think of me :)

x

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D.F. Oliveria is a columnist and blogger for The Spokesman-Review. Huckleberries Online was judged the best 2008 Idaho newspaper blog by the Idaho Press Club. And the best 2007 news blog in the Pacific Northwest by the Society for Professional Journalist. Print Huckleberries is a past winner of the Herb Caen Memorial Column contest by the National Association of Newspaper Columnists. The Readership Institute of Northwestern University cited this blog as a good example of online community journalism.