You all know I am very scared of flying. Well, not flying, but CRASHING. I generally take 1 mg of Ativan to help curb the fear... however, it doesn't help. I'm still very afraid of dying! I feel there is no amount of Ativan that is safe to take that will help me not be afraid.
I am proud that even though I am so scared of flying, I still do it. Because there are so many beautiful things to see in this world, and a lot of them you can only get to by plane!
Our trips to and from California are going to suck because there are connecting flights. That's 4 takes offs and 4 landings withing just 6 days! UGH. Wish me luck...
You also probably know I am scared of snakes! That's one reason I am hesitant to hike or run trail during the spring, summer, and early fall... basically, 8 months out of the year! I have never been bitten by a snake or have had an aggressive encounter with a snake. In fact, I have run/hiked thousands of miles on trails and I can count the number of times I saw a snake on just one hand.
Yet still, I have a lot of fear. Last week, I did something very brave. Paul and I went on a disc golf/running date at Pinchot Park. I wore my trail shoes and did not pack my road shoes. That was going to FORCE me to run trail and not chicken out. Guys, I did it! I ran 6 miles on the trail. I didn't see any snakes... but I wonder how many were lingering around that I didn't see!?
3. Tornadoes.
Within the past couple months, I've been becoming increasingly nervous anytime there is supposed to be a thunderstorm because I am scared there will be a tornado. Just last week while I was at Lowe's, I saw dark clouds overhead. When I went inside, everyone was bustling around. Was everyone bustling around because a tornado was coming!? Or is Lowes just a bustling place!? Spoiler Alert: There was no tornado.
I feel like all of my fears are rational, it's just the DEGREE to which I fear them are irrational. It's normal to be a little afraid of flying, snakes, and tornadoes... I mean, people have died from all of those things. However, I feel like my fear of these events greatly outweigh the chances of them ever happening. Let's face it, you're more likely to die in a car crash on the way to the airport, or on the way to the trail run. Yet I am not writing a blog post about my fear of driving!
Tell me something that scares you!
How about 1 rational fear and 1 irrational fear!
How about 1 rational fear and 1 irrational fear!
You know I hate flying as well. I do feel better on shorter flights that don't require much fuel, or on connecting flights. My rationale for that is that the planes that were hijacked on 911 were picked because they were non stop cross country flights and had enough fuel to do so. So yea, connecting flights for longer distance are always best in my mind!
ReplyDeleteAny form of weather does not scare me but maybe it should. When I was younger I would always have a nightmare that my house was on fire.
Snakes don't scare me but i've never really given them much though. I always assumed because they don't have arms or legs that that I would be able to out run them or something. I am more frightened to see a bear.
All your fears are totally rationale!
So I take it you are afraid of terrorism rather than just straight up crashing via human or mechanical error? I never even thought about shorter vs longer flights. I'm more afraid of crashing via an error rather than terrorism. Although onetime I did convince myself there was a terrorist at our gate getting on our flight. Tall, slim shit dude with white hair and white mustache. He had two phones and one was a flip phone. In my ativan haze, that was a terrorist.
DeleteNope, i'm totally scared of crashing due to mechanical problems as well. I just know that if there is less fuel in the tank there will be less of an explosion!
DeleteBWAHAHAHA!
DeleteI think your fears are related to control issues. I can say this without being offensive because I also have major control issues :). When it comes to plane crashes, snake bites and tornados there is fear because you have no control over these things. You can't fly the plane, your eyes can't look everyone at all times to see snakes in advance and you can't control the weather. When it comes to driving, while you can't control other drivers, you can control your car. You can tell yourself that if someone was coming to hit you that you would be able to react to it and possibly save yourself from being hit (even if there are instances where that is not true). That's my armchair psychologist theory for the day:)
ReplyDeleteI love when you take on roll of psychologist. I agree its likely a control thing, particularly flying!
DeleteI hate snakes! A few weeks ago I went running and came home, and there was a small (harmless) black snake on my door steps. I would not go inside until the snake left. That meant I walked around my neighborhood more to wait until it moved, probably about 10 minutes! I knew it was harmless I just... hate even walking by them. I'm not really scared of flying so much but it does make me nervous that I'll miss the flight or board the wrong plane (not that you can really do that anymore since they double check so much) or something. But I'm glad you faced your flight fears for the vacation!
ReplyDeleteYou told me tgat snaje story once... horrible! Flying is so stressful without even the fear of crashing. Lime you said, missing a flight, etc would be terrible. I'm always scared security will take forever and then I miss my flight.
DeleteI hate flying too. I had really bad anxiety before I flew to DC last year, and then was OK on the plane. I'm flying to Las Vega for my next race, and I'm doing the one thing I hate most of all: flying over the Rockies. The last two times I've done that, we hit turbulence.
ReplyDeleteOoh, is flying over the rockies known for creating turbulance? I suppose I only flew over them twice and I don't remember anything bad.
DeleteI think it's normal to be afraid of all those things, it's part of being human to be scared of dying.. and all those fears can lead to dying.
ReplyDeleteI am irrationally afraid of eating reheated food. This lady at work shared her lunch with me, and although it was delicious, I considered calling off sick and going home for the rest of the day when she told me she was going to share her meal with me.
And my rational fear is to go blind. I already can't see without my glasses, the thought of not seeing the world terrifies me.
Do you not like any reheated food or just somebody elses?
DeleteKaren I do that too!!!! I check the dryer to make sure one of them didn't jump in. It's my biggest fear!!!!
ReplyDelete