Three people talk about their experiences of 'phobias'.
The phone rang at midnight. There was a frantic voice on the other
end. "I know it's late. But it's urgent. Please come round." My friend
was standing miserably in the hallway of her flat, pointing towards a
closed door. "It's in there, please do something, but be careful, it's
really large." I opened the bathroom door carefully not knowing what to
expect, and there was a peaceful little spider in her bath.
"Going up in the lift doesn't worry me, but some of our offices have
large windows and I feel as if the ground is coming up towards me,
making me want to jump. I tried explaining my fear of height to another
girl in the office, but she laughed at me and told me not to be so silly. I
know it's silly but I can't help it. I'll do anything to avoid going into
those offices -1 even stayed at home once because I didn't want to go to
a meeting in there."
"I wasn't at all afraid of flying at that age, but I remember that it was
a very bad flight. There was lots of turbulence; even the cabin crew
15 were falling about. I was frightened for the whole-journey.
If I look up and see a plane and think about flying, my heart starts
beating faster. When I'm actually on a plane, I feel sick and physically
stop myself from standing up and screaming. The only way I can cope
with it is to pretend it's not happening to me. I sit rigid, next to the
aisle, staring at the seat in front. I can't look out of the window. I count
the number of seats - anything to avoid acknowledging the fact that I'm
flying. It's so unnatural to be thousands of metres up with all that open
space around you"
