Claustrophobia Overview

[rangerrebew]

Claustrophobia Overview

 

By Catherine Shaffer, M.Sc.

Claustrophobia is a psychological condition characterized by unbearable anxiety in enclosed or physically restrictive spaces. Claustrophobia can occur in spaces such as very small rooms, elevators, and crowded places. The prevalence of severe claustrophobia is estimated to be as high as 4% in the general population, and many more experience milder symptoms.

Sufferers of claustrophobia often, but not always, have a belief that they will not be able to breathe in the enclosed space.

https://www.news-medical.net/health/Claustrophobia-Overview.aspx

[Neverdul]

I have a bit of claustrophobia, not a severe or crippling case, but I don’t like certain situations like being in the middle of an enclosed space packed with other people (years ago I had to leave a nightclub where I had met up with some friends because it was so crowded, wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder when I started to feel very panicky, heart racing, felt like I couldn’t breathe) and when I go to the movies or to a concert, I much prefer sitting at or near the end of a row and always look to where the closest exit is.  But I also don’t think this is entirely irrational.

Now my fear of bridges like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge ….sort of irrational… but then again…

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I can really identify with the woman in that last video. If someone else is driving, it’s not quite as bad but I still feel very uncomfortable and don’t like if the diver is looking over the side and pointing out boats far below instead of keeping their eyes on the road and I feel a great sense of relief when we finally get past the middle and are nearing the end.

I also recall the first time I drove across that bridge by myself to visit a friend living on the Eastern Shore. I wasn’t thinking about the bridge at all, having gone across it many times as a passenger, until I paid my toll and saw the bridge and that big curve up looming up ahead.  My heart started pounding, I started breathing very fast, I felt shaky all over, my palms and the soles of my feet were sweating profusely, even as I was sitting my knees were shaking, and I was feeling like I might pass out which of course only added to my panic.

My solution was to roll all the windows down, the cold fresh air seemed to help, and I cranked up the car stereo up as loud as it would go, trying concentrate on the song being played, but all the while having a death grip on the steering wheel and looking straight ahead at the car in front of me.

But to make matters worse I had to drive across it to get back home and they had the other span closed with two-way traffic on the east bound span which sucked as it is usually three lanes wide so at least I could have driven in the middle lane.

That was the last time I drove across it. After that when I’d go to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I’d take the northern route, up I-95 and then east and south, just to avoid that bridge. $25 to drive me across? Well worth it!


I’ve driven across the Delaware Memorial Bridge a couple of times and while I don’t like it, feel a bit panicky, it is not nearly as scary to me as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I think it has to do with the open side rails and the narrowness, no place to go if something bad happens. So perhaps that is a type of claustrophobia. I don’t like driving on highways through construction areas where the lanes are narrowed and enclosed by temporary jersey walls on either side either.

[Suppressed]

Now my fear of bridges like the Chesapeake Bay Bridge ….sort of irrational… but then again…
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I can really identify with the woman in that last video. If someone else is driving, it’s not quite as bad but I still feel very uncomfortable and don’t like if the diver is looking over the side and pointing out boats far below instead of keeping their eyes on the road and I feel a great sense of relief when we finally get past the middle and are nearing the end.

@Neverdul

I don't know when that video was shot, but it's now illegal to sit in the back seat without a seatbelt, like that reporter was doing.

What gets to me while driving it isn't that the bridge will collapse as much as going over the side for the 200' drop like trucks have done.  The wind blows hard there, and trucks weaving all over are pretty scary.  I've crossed when it was blowing like shown in that video.

But to make matters worse I had to drive across it to get back home and they had the other span closed with two-way traffic on the east bound span which sucked as it is usually three lanes wide so at least I could have driven in the middle lane.

Yup...you nailed it.  The real problem is when they have the eastbound traffic traveling on the north span, so you have oncoming traffic.  And if you're heading eastbound when they are directing traffic that way, the E-ZPass express lane eastbound automatically dumps you into that lane to head toward two oncoming lanes. 

They often have that 2-way traffic even if the other span isn't closed, but they want the extra lane to move more traffic eastbound.

That was the last time I drove across it. After that when I’d go to the Eastern Shore of Maryland, I’d take the northern route, up I-95 and then east and south, just to avoid that bridge. $25 to drive me across? Well worth it!

I understand that the Mackinac Bridge has a "Drivers Assistance Program" for free.  http://www.michigan.gov/mdot/0,4616,7-151-16940-74104--F,00.html

I’ve driven across the Delaware Memorial Bridge a couple of times and while I don’t like it, feel a bit panicky, it is not nearly as scary to me as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. I think it has to do with the open side rails and the narrowness, no place to go if something bad happens. So perhaps that is a type of claustrophobia. I don’t like driving on highways through construction areas where the lanes are narrowed and enclosed by temporary jersey walls on either side either.

I think it's a heightened awareness that there are sometimes "random" things that can affect driving, such as a blowout or a gust of wind.  (Shoot, maybe I shouldn't have mentioned those!)

[Neverdul]

The Delaware Memorial Bridge while high and long, to me it isn't nearly as scary as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge as the lanes seem wider and the guardrails much taller and sturdier looking and it's four lanes wide on each span and it is more straight and a gradual up and down grade.

The Chesapeake Bay Bridge, especially on the east bound span, you’ve got that very steep upgrade and then that big curve looming ahead…it looks like it will go on forever….and half way up, all you can see is water from horizon to horizon.

No. I do not fear the bridge will collapse, I know it is well built and that’s not very likely to happen. It is more my fear that some idiot driver will come over into my lane or slam into me from behind like the woman in the video and I’ll have nowhere to go but over the side. Or my biggest fear is that my very fear will cause me to pass out or black out and cause me to have an accident that ends up plunging me off the side or that something really unexpected will happen like yes, a sudden tire will blow out and I’ll have nowhere to pull over….

One year my husband I and were coming back from our vacation in Ocean City, MD driving back to Baltimore during a strong tropical storm, the very reason we left a day early from our vacation.  We got stuck in traffic in the middle of the west bound span of the bridge, came to a dead stop in the middle of the span and in heavy rains and high winds. Thank god it was dark so I couldn’t see how high up we were, but it was still scary as sh!t. The winds were whipping up so strong that I could feel the bridge and thus our car bouncing up and down like we were on a trampoline and even as we were stopped, our car rocking wildly from side to side..I remember saying to my husband that we would have been better off riding the storm out at our beach condo rather than being stuck on this &*(@# bridge. : )

Or you could be crossing the bridge during a severe thunderstorm or possible tornado, it was a lot like this but in pitch black darkness.

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[thackney]

Claustrophobia?  Seems like a tunnel would be a bigger problem than a bridge.

Whittier Tunnel: Anton Anderson Memorial Tunnel
http://www.alaska.org/detail/whittier-tunnel

I remember driving this one.  If you happened to get in front of the line (alternating travel one direction, then the other, then the train), you could see light at the end of the tunnel.  But for a long time in the first part of the drive, the light doesn't get bigger or seem to draw closer, 2.5 miles.

[Neverdul]

Claustrophobia?  Seems like a tunnel would be a bigger problem than a bridge

Yes, you would think so, but then I used to commute through the either the Harbor Tunnel and the Fort McHenry tunnels on a regular basis and without any problems.  I used to travel this route every day, both ways for about six months when I lived in Harford County MD and was working in Annapolis MD and many other times and with no feeling of claustrophobia or having any panic attacks. 

Driving through the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore, Maryland
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[thackney]

Yes, you would think so, but then I used to commute through the either the Harbor Tunnel and the Fort McHenry tunnels on a regular basis and without any problems.  I used to travel this route every day, both ways for about six months when I lived in Harford County MD and was working in Annapolis MD and many other times and with no feeling of claustrophobia or having any panic attacks. 

Driving through the Fort McHenry Tunnel in Baltimore, Maryland
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Perhaps Claustrophobia isn't your problem.

[Smokin Joe]

My avatar image: light shining through the west portal into the Allegheny Tunnel.