With all the travel threads - I thought I’d throw this out. I can manage mountain switchbacks, barely, if I am the one driving. (I don’t take my eyes off the center line or, lacking a center line, the edge of the road.) I barely avoid true panic mode if I am a passenger on a road with drop offs, twists and turns, switchbacks, etc. It doesn’t help to close my eyes, stare straight ahead, distract myself, etc. I think it’s the “going off the edge” fear that gets me. I feel the same panic when standing near a cliff edge.
On the other hand, I love the views from the tops of lighthouses, church domes, tourist viewing areas, etc. as long as these have nice railings. I have skied and hiked mountain slopes and can manage this fine if there is no steep drop off. So, I guess I don’t have true acrophobia, maybe just fear of open heights?
I would love to visit the Amalfi Coast, but would only do this with a driver - not driving I’d take on myself. Given my fears, I don’t think I could manage it. I avoid other vacation spots as well. Remembering my childhood fears during Rocky Mountain drives, I haven’t been back for 40 years. There are other mountainous destinations I’d consider if it wasn’t for the “switchback” concern. Hubby wants to go to the Grand Canyon next year!
Oh yeah.
I posted about this awhile back. My daughters marine biology class in 10th grade, took a field trip to eastern Washington, to look for marine fossils among other things and I was a chaperone.
I thought I was acquainted with the area, but I had no idea what lay at the end of the narrow, one lane abandonded mining road, or that I would be so terrified, that I eventually would have to pull over & let someone else drive.
I got into one of the other vehicles, and another chaperone( chaperones included the " retired" instructor of the biology teacher, and his pals from rugby), and when we got to the top, I still wouldn’t even get out of the van(& I had crouched down so I couldn’t see out the window).
There are videos of the drive on youtube, but this one is of the top, so I can see what I missed! http://youtu.be/0hkanKzFhIg
This is a video that a family who voted to turn around on the 12 mile road shot. http://youtu.be/13Fs0VGRa0A
But some people love this sort of thing, I was there for a falcon count last fall& D goes up when theres snow!!!
Ive always been aware I was slightly agraphobic. I stand back from the edge of high footbridges, or observation towers.
I also don’t like flying, but I think it is claustrophobia, because I am much better if I can sit by a window.
( for some reason, I didnt tell the flight attendant during my last flight I needed to sit by the window, and I was practically sobbing until we landed)
My Dr however, has said that he will prescribe some xanax for me, which I will be happy to try, as ofttimes the flight attendants dont get back to steerage to dispense the wine!
Me too. I even break into a sweat crossing bridges. I would only go to Muir woods if my sister drove, as she lives in mountainous area. I didn’t like driving by the ocean in CA. It is hard enough to be the passenger, but I couldn’t be the driver. My son drove that curving road in Hawaii.
I’ll be reading this discussion with great interest. I don’t do well on roads with drop-offs and narrow (or nonexistent) shoulders, even the very common 3’ - 8’ drop-offs near our home. On several trips to TN and NC, the only way I’ve coped has been to stay up the night before so I’ll be tired enough to sleep while dh drives, and even then I need two Librax before I can relax enough to fall asleep. When I have to drive along such roads, I’m convinced we’ll end up at the bottom of some ravine never to be seen again.
For years, driving over bridges made me feel slightly panicky. I always drove in the lane closest to the center (if possible). I moved to Portland, where eleven bridges cross the Willamette and I go back and forth over them all the time. I even have to bike over a bridge to go to one of our stores (if I go by bike). I’ve been almost completely desensitized by this constant requirement to drive over bridges. Moreover, while I knew multiple people in Seattle who refused to drive over the bridges there, I know no one in Portland who has “bridge issues.”
A few days ago, I found myself contemplating doing a local bike ride where they close all the bridges to cars for a few hours (on a Sunday morning) and open them to cyclists. It took me a while to remember that I might not want to bike over a bridge that rises that high, even though I’m fine with the lower bridges.
I was driving down a windy mountain road in Boulder after visiting schools with DS and I thought I was going to die. Foot on the brake, going 20 miles an hour, convinced I was going over the edge straight down.
I am the same way on narrow mountain roads with drop offs. You are NOT alone! I do OK going Ok if I am hugging the mountainside, but if I am driving on the drop off side, I’m a mess. I also have to be the driver- can not handle it as a passenger. We go to Colorado frequently, and it is an issue…
I had an aunt who got to where she could not drive across bridges. I read in the Wall Street Journal (I think) in the past year that there are actually services that will drive you over the major bridges and then you go on your way and the hired driver gets a ride back across the bridge.
I’d skip the Amalfi Coast if I were you. Lots of sheer drop offs on the narrow road and people drive like bats out of hell. Plus, even if you could tolerate it, you probably wouldn’t ENJOY and that’s a place where the drive is really the attraction.
The most terrifying experience in my life was trying to drive on mountain switchback roads early in the morning on a bright clear day – the low sun would hit me right in my eyes coming around a turn and even with sunglasses and the visor I couldn’t adequately deal with it.
It would be fine for a bit but then the road would turn and the blinding sun would be right in my eyes. Terrifying.
I feel the same as you. We did some famous mountain drive in Colorado a couple of years ago and it was pure agony for me. I kept telling DH,“stay to the middle”! I drove him crazy doing that, but I was literally panicking.
I can’t be the only one on here who sees this and thinks, “looks like fun.” The family and I had lunch last weekend at the top of P3, legs dangling off a 400 ft cliff. We used to swim at a spot in the Feather River called Three Ford Hole, named for what’s sitting at the bottom.
It’s not unusual to be more afraid as a passenger than as a driver. You just have to trust they know where the right side wheels are in relation to the edge of the road. It’s an optical illusion because the person in the passenger side can see nothing but air. As a passenger, try to relax your muscles, control your breathing, ignore the driver and enjoy the view.
This might be kind of out there for a suggestion, but there was just a new study linking Tylenol to dulling negative feelings, including anxiety (as well as positive feelings actually). Maybe as an experiment, try taking some Tylenol before a situation that might make you uncomfortable, and see if it might help at all?
I have a terrible fear of heights, and I generally try to avoid those kinds of things whenever possible. Went on the “Going to the Sun Road” in Glacier Park, Montana some years ago, it was soooo terrifying!!
Oh my gosh - all this company is so welcome! I grew up with a mother who loved mountains and would never recognize my aversion - every family vacation was to the Rockies. Being forced to endure switchbacks without being allowed to comment on my feelings didn’t help me overcome my fear. I thought I was pretty much alone in this!
@emeraldkity4, those youtube videos brought back the “Oh My God Road” childhood Colorado excursion. I’m not sure if that was a real name for the road, or my Dad’s title - but no matter what you called it, it terrified me. I think that was the trip I was on the floor of the car.
@Nrdsb4, thank you - at least you gave me a link I could immediately close. I couldn’t handle the photo - can’t imagine the reality!
@nottelling, I’m checking youtubes of the Amalfi Coast - hadn’t thought of that as a way to check my tolerance before this thread. I think you may be right. Lots of other fascinating places to visit…
@movemetoo, Tylenol is a very effective medication for me. It stops my tension induced migraines and headaches when prescription medications won’t. (The MD says it isn’t supposed to work that way - but whatever!) I will definitely give that a try!
I don’t know that this bothers me terribly in a car, and I prefer to be passenger in such situations. But I HATE riding a bike down a steep incline, and especially hate switchbacks. We went on a bike trip once, and most everyone was looking forward to the 8 miles of downhill, some of it switchback. After 4 miles I had to get in the support van. My hands hurt from pressing the break so much. @movemetoo, wasn’t that a spectacular area, despite the drive?
I’m not saying you can control your fear, but you do have some capacity to not freak out the driver. Breathing and relaxation is what therapists teach for controlling anxiety level during exposure. “Enjoy the view” was tongue-in-cheek.
I love Going to the Sun Road - it’s paved and wide enough in most places for the biggest vehicles. Much of it has rails and walls holding the cars in. Fold in the mirrors and go.
Switchbacks on a bicycle are where you can pass the cars. Finding out my front wheel had a weird resonant point at 70mph did scare the heck out of me, though.
Sometimes I wonder if we are actually two different species.
We have those who like myself prefer to have our feet firmly on the ground, and then we have people who have built wonders like Machu Picchu, and free climb, or jump out of airplanes, parasail, walk across sketchy looking bridges in the Cloud Forest, travel by zipline, or drive narrow wagon tracks in the winter!
I’m so glad that there are others who share my phobia of narrow mountain roads with sheer cliffs on the edge. I hate driving on them, but being a passenger is worse. (Bridges aren’t great either, but they’re worse for me when I see them on the approach than when I’m actually on them, especially if there’s more than one lane going each way and I can stay to the inside). Standing near the edge of cliffs is hard for me is well, although I don’t seem to have the same problem with things like towers and lighthouses and viewing areas at the tops of tall buildings, which usually have a decent railing.
I think I can directly trace my fears back to the summer I was three years old, when my mother drove us to Pine Hill in the Catskills on vacation. I sat in the back with my older sister (of course this was long before the days of car seats or even seatbelts), and I vividly remember that as we were going up a steep mountain road, which I had never done before, I felt that the car was almost vertical, and became completely convinced and terrified that it was going to tip over backwards, and tumble down the mountain head over heels. My parents tried to persuade me that that wouldn’t happen, but it seemed like forever until we got to level ground.
Since then, some of the most frightening experiences of my life have involved being on mountain roads or otherwise near sheer cliffs – from being a passenger on a bus tour across the Rockies at the age of 10 or 11 and looking out the window to see what appeared to be a sheer drop of thousands of feet, to standing near the edge of the Grand Canyon when I was 12, facing inwards, with my father telling me to keep backing up so he could get a better picture (eventually I froze and couldn’t go a step more), to being on a mountain road in Northern California in the 1970s with a friend driving his MG, who saw how frightened I was and decided to tease me by speeding up and going around sharp turns at 70 miles an hour, and going faster the more I begged him to slow down (I almost had a heart attack; some friend! He thought it was so funny!); to driving in the Canadian Rockies in the 1980s on my honeymoon; to driving up to see the redwoods when I was in San Francisco with my son a few years ago. It wasn’t so bad going up, since I was on the inside next to the mountain; but going down I had my foot on the brake the whole way and couldn’t bring myself to go faster than about 15 miles an hour. There was a long line of cars behind me honking away, but I tried to ignore them. Much as I liked the redwood forests, never again if I can help it!
