High anxiety: For many, bridge collapse in Minneapolis is frightening reminder

Stan Hughes has been afraid of bridges for most of his 66 years.

It all started when he was about 5 years old and nearly fell from the top of the Hoover Dam.

“A nearby tourist grabbed my ankles,” says Hughes, a retired Central Valley School District principal. “Sixty years later, I can still hear my mother’s scream of fear and remember what I saw looking down the face of that structure.”

And the massive bridge collapse in Minneapolis early this month didn’t help matters.

“It just reinforces the precarious nature,” says Hughes, who lives in the Spokane Valley.

The Maryland-based Anxiety Disorders Association of America has fielded dozens of calls since the bridge collapse, says Jerilyn Ross, the group’s president and CEO.

Ross is quick to point out the difference between fear and phobia.

“All of us have fears,” Ross says. “And fears are a normal part of living. We need them.”

It makes sense to be fearful and anxious about bridges immediately after seeing images of one crashing to the ground. Such fears are usually temporary. In that case, people should learn what they can about the safety of the bridges they cross, Ross says. If a bridge seems structurally unsound, lobby whoever you can to get it fixed.

Phobia, though, takes fear to the next level. About one in eight adults suffers from phobia, an irrational fear, of bridges, heights, animals, flying, elevators or other things, Ross says.

“It’s a fear where if the person is afraid, the person will avoid common everyday objects or situations that don’t really pose any threat or danger,” she says. “They’re afraid of the fear themselves … The person is always aware it’s irrational.”

Phobias don’t care about statistics (like you’re more likely to die driving to a bridge rather than across one). And phobias can cause major life disruptions – forcing people to avoid traveling, give up jobs and steer clear of relationships, in some cases.

“Phobias are real. They’re serious and they’re treatable,” Ross says. “As frightening as the feelings are, they’re not dangerous.”

Rev. Dr. Iris St. John of Spokane, a retired professor at Gonzaga University, lived through a California earthquake about a decade ago. For a long time after the quake, she feared the roof of her home would cave in.

“When we go through some kind of trauma it comes back to us through imagery,” St. John says. “We see motion pictures running through our heads. Whenever there’s a catastrophe that’s in the media, exposure to the media makes it a lot worse because we see pictures over and over again of things collapsing.”

With that in mind, St. John, a former professor of counseling psychology, decided to look for a way to deal with her fear by changing that mental picture.

“Whenever I began to imagine that our ceiling was going to collapse, I turned the image so that I envisioned angels holding up our ceiling,” she says. “And it worked. The key is to change that image.”

She calls it “reimprinting” and says it could work on a fear of collapsing bridges or other scenarios.

Marc Walker of Spokane sees mental images of cars going off the edge of the bridge whenever he drives across one. The 34-year-old mold operator is always looking at the cars ahead of him, to make sure they’re not plummeting from the bridge. It’s a fear he’s had as long as he can remember, ever since he looked up at the Monroe Street Bridge as a child and saw those big, ornamental bull heads.

“That gave me some imagery of death,” Walker says.

Still, the fear hasn’t impacted his everyday activities.

“This is a city with a lot of bridges,” he says. “I don’t avoid them. I figure I’ve got to get across the river somehow.”

Ross, who is also a therapist, treats patients with phobias using the cognitive-behavioral approach.

“I go out with patients and drive over the bridge and teach them to be desensitized to the feelings,” she says.

If they worry about their heart pounding, she tells them their heart pounds during exercise, too, for example. Treatment usually works in just a few sessions, she says.

“Allow yourself to be in the moment,” she says. “Don’t run away from the fear … People need to know that if somebody has a phobia, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.”

Despite his lifelong fear of bridges, Hughes has still done plenty of traveling – though he often looks for driving routes with the fewest spans. He even summoned the courage to drive across the mammoth Golden Gate Bridge, and then back again.

“I just looked straight ahead,” he says. “I really had to get up the nerve to drive back. … I just look straight ahead and try to sing a little song to myself in my mind. I don’t want to embarrass myself.”