Why won't I get under a car? What won't YOU do? Why?
 

Someone PMd me asking why I can't or wont get under a car.
I have had to a few times in emergency situations (Kansas City and BAD
noises) but refuse to if there is a way I can avoid it. It shakes me up pretty bad.

Once upon a time when I was 7 I was a latch key kid. Got home from
school before mom came home and had a babysitter.
I was kind of outgoing, okay a bit of a pest, and some sitters had less
patience than others for me. My brother was an introvert and just needed
the TV and he was calm and quiet most of the time.

I came home one day after a hard day at school and the babysitter, Kelly Green, was relatively new to us. While most of the time she was pretty nice
and cool, this particular day her boyfriend was over. Since she wanted to spend time with HIM and not babysit us, she sent both of us outside to play. Jeff (dear brother, 4 years younger) went to bed instead and I wouldn't stay outside.

To calm me down (not ADHD, just 7 and good at it) she wrapped me in a bed comforter. She said it was a game. I laid on the blanket at one corner and she rolled me in the blanket, arms at my sides. I couldn't move at all. She rolled me to the side of the couch and put the coffee table on the other side so I couldn't roll myself out of the blanket. It was over my head and over my feet.
I was okay with it for about 2 minutes. Then I began to call for her to get me out. I called, I cried and I was left there from about 4pm to about 6pm when my mom got home.

By then I would need therapy for a few years to overcome my fear of being under a blanket. And in any space where I couldn't move my arms.

35 years later I am fine under a blanket but in order to turn over in my sleep I have to wake up and turn over, moving the blanket so I don't get wrapped up in it. Since I wake up 5 or so times per night to change positions I don't get much real sleep.

I can be in elevators and the like, it's not that kind of clautrophobia. Just tight spaces where I feel like I am completely surrounded, like under a car.

Wow. My heart is still pounding just from typing this.

Kelly was severly busted when my mom got home to find me like that and slapped Kelly in the face a few times (it was the 70s). After I calmed down, NyQuil did that, my mom marched over to Kellys mom and told her what Kelly had done. Mom was at first 'not my daughter' but eventually understood what Kelly did. I really did go to therapy for 2 years, and froze a lot in the winter without a heavy blanket on. I'm still cold today.

If you think it's not a big deal, wrap yourself in a blanket and try to be calm for more than 5 minutes. Even for most adults that think they can do it, it will get to ya.

Just a little known fact about me.

You're it! Spill the beans!

Confined spaces don't bother me.....I've laid under the car for 3-4+ hours straight working when I only had it lifted enough so that I had about 5" of room above me. I could wrap myself in 2 blanks for half a day and it wouldn't bother me (aside from the extreme heat). I've slept all night when it was 5F out inside a completely closed sleeping bag......

In my job sometimes I work in very small data closets where there's barely enough room to move....for hours....

If someone purposely confined me in something, I'd get out eventually.....and when I did.....I'll pull a Jack Bauer on them. ;)


However, I have a real fear of heights. I don't even like being near the railing in a building (over open spaces). Its very specific though. If the wall is as high as my chest, doesn't bother me....and if I am working high up but have a tether....also doesn't bother me. I used to work at lowes and would go up 3 stories on the lift to get stuff, and I was standing on a open platform 30 feet up and it didn't really bug me, all because I had a harness on.

I don't like roofs (I've fallen off an 11 foot high roof before and landed square on my back on the ground, thank heavens it was MUDDY and soft....)....and I don't like high ladders.....but I'll still do it if I have to.

The thing that causes my nads' to retreat into my body cavity up to my diaphram is putting my hands into something that's wiggling/crawling on it's own...like if you're climbing up the side of a hill and you reach up and grab the edge and you've got that "squishy feeling" between and on your fingers and it can be anything from pigeon crap to spiders?



(ok...i feel better now...)

:o

I am a signed sealed and delivered mentally ill person.

Bipolar disorder, type II, hypomania.

I dont get the highs, but severe, I mean severe !! lows.

I have been hospitalized several times during these low periods.
I have spent months not getting out of bed.

The only way I can come close to explaining it is to imagine waking up in Hell one day, and you cant get out.

_________________

Finally after 10 years of trying different combinations of medications a mixture started working !!!

The sun came back out, and the world was in color again, not just black and gray.

I have been lucky as can be, for the last 7 years.
I have not cycled down. (knock wood)

I cant sleep worth a darn, but that is OK, as long as I'm not sleeping in Hell.

I am also a recovering alcoholic, and spend lots of my time trying to help other people with simmilar problems.

I see everyting that I have gone thru as a gift now.
I would not have learned the lessons that I have without going thru what I did.
And I can use my experience to help others.
I have truly found some peace and contentment in life.

But I carry the fear that one day the black couds will come again.

Many, (many) years ago, I was rock climbing with some friends, and came face-to-face with a LARGE snake on the same ledge as my finer hold. Bad day.

I can handle heights, except at one place. The Air & Space Museum in DC has several levels overlooking the exhibit area below. The only thing keeping people from plunging 40 or 50 feet are sections of silver railing held up by clear glass panels. Even though the glass is thick, its only waist high and it wiggles when you lean on it. I can't even walk near that.

When I was about 5 years old my Dad and I were watching an old B&W movie where people were tuning into snakes through some experiment or something.

I don't really remember much more about the movie. My dad was a very immature 25 year old and thought it would be funny if he wrapped me up with electrical tape and told me I'd turn into a snake if I didn't break myself free.

He kept acting all panicked and was saying "Hurry up, you're starting to change!!" This went on until my mom came home from wherever she was and they ended up in a big fight because I was so hysterical. I have a big fear of snakes that I think is due to that experience.

My dad also bought a ventriloquist dummy of WC Fields and a Howdy Doody doll to scare me with. He would put it in a room and then tell me to go get something in there for him and scare me. Or he would position one of them on my bed so when I'd wake up there would be a freaky puppet staring me down. I almost forgot ... he painted the eyes of both dolls all white to add to the scare factor. I'm still uneasy about being near puppets and dolls.

Those are just two examples of the weird crap my father thought was funny and would justify by saying he was toughening me up. Now that I'm a parent, I'm even more confused as to how someone could do things like that to their own child or any child for that matter.

I don't see my dad anymore and he hasn't met my kids either.

Where's that pic of a the guy welding the gas tank with the car propped up on its side with a 2x4?

For some odd reason, I’m not real keen on working on aircraft engines while they are driving a propeller.

I usually will only have one hand to work with, while the other has a kung-fu grip on some solid piece of airframe.

As for "why".
Well... the thought of getting chopped to bits isn't pleasant for me.:)

That's terrible, Images! I can't stand to hear of kids being mistreated like that. I'm sorry that you had to go through that.

I hate getting under a car, because it's dirty and greasy under there and most of the time I haven't a clue as to what to do once i'm under there.

use a jack stand in addition to that jack, wheel chocks, and you should be fine.

I like small, safe, confined spaces.


big open spaces freak me out

Everyone carries their own cargo of demons as ballast.
When I was 6,just after my Father died things were quite bizarre as my Mother drifted off into a dreamlike netherworld of painting,reading and shutting herself off emotionally from everyone.

One of her sisters was deputed to watch over me and a worse choice could not have been made as this particular aunt was schizophrenic and an alcoholic who somehow managed,during her more lucid?moments to entice tradesmen into
the house for brief and very noisy trysts.

In her "other"moments she would tell me about the voices she heard and the wisdom to be gained by having these long-departed writers and philosophers frequently communicate to her.
One day she insisted that my late Father had spoken to her and wished also to speak to me.Needless to say I was puzzled,as until then I had derived considerable amusement from her nonsense.

She brought me down into the cellar,said some reassuring words,then ran up the stairs and latched the door.
It was dark,moldy and terrifying,there were demons and gargoyles grinning at me thru trap doors in the ceiling and walls,and only my screams brought someone to open the door after 2 hours of what seemed an eternity of stark panic.

Shortly afterwards I went to live with my Gramps.
My aunt eventually did the right thing and offed herself with pills.

I'm 46 now and I still am terrified of being in basements,even accompanied by someone,matter how well lit or finished they may be and many and amusing are the stratagems with which I avoid them,unless somewhat drunk.

I am afraid of heights, springs, electricity and lightning... in that order

Your dad sounds like a real dick. Sorry to hear that.

I hate heights. As a kid, I almost fell out of Space Mtn. in Disney World. They used to have bench seats with a lap belt that went all the way across. I was barely tall enough to ride, and no one sat next to me. The belt didn't tighten enough to hold me in the seat. First drop and turn, I popped out of the seat. I grabbed the seat belt, and wedged my arms under it to hold me in the seat.
Later on, I rode one of those swings on a pole rides. Pole turns, swings spin. This one was a pretty big one. The seats were steel, there was a bar across the front, but no bar between the legs. Once it got up to speed, I slid down the seat. I grabbed the bar going across, but because of centripetal force, I couldn't pull myself back into the seat. I went around a couple of times like that until my mom saw me hanging on and got the guy to stop the ride. I was almost out of strength when it stopped.

Ginny, what that baby sitter did was so wrong I can't even express it in words!

My issue is genetic. My mother is agoraphobic. She is afraid of EVERYTHING.
She passed it down to me. I have been fighting these tendencies my whole life. As a result I overcompensated and became more of a daredevil. If something made me really scared, I had to do it just to prove that I could. Of course this meant broken bones, concussions, etc. :eek:

My son also has this problem. Even as a baby he was timid. I had to show him that the world is not as scary is we BELIEVE it to be. He is well adjusted now...

My daughter, on the other hand, is much more outgoing and fearless and has been since birth.

I absolutely detest driving at night in the rain. I do it because I have little choice sometimes. I don't see how people drive fast on a rainy night.

When it does happen, I drive like I am 100 years old.

I hate scuba diving at night. I hate navigating a boat at night. Some kinda weird feeling comes over me.

Kinda hard to feel comfortable when you can't see 5' in front of you.

I'm scared of Botnst!:P

If you don't mind me asking could you PM me the combination of drugs that worked? My niece has Bi-Polar depression and is having a really hard time with it. Maybe the same combo will help her too...

springs are scary.

I'm not unreasonably afraid of anything that I can think of.

There are some things that piss me off though!

Like really stupid, slow drivers in front of me.

not really afriad of anything, but im not to fond of heights.

I don't like tall ladders, don't know why I just feel like I'm going to fall off them.

On the last three story house we did I wouldn't go up to the 3rd floor until the stairs were in. NFW am I climbing a shaky aluminum ladder on the edge of some OSB with a 4 story stair hole going down to the basement right next to me.

I won't go up on most roofs either.

I'll do roofs.

Ladders are ok to some extent. In high school I had to climb like a 15 foot old wooden ladder to pull some cat5 over the stage and it was frign rickity.. I made a makeshift harness just in case.

At work in the grocery store we have a nice 15 ladder we use for stuff. I use it mainly for removing and rehanging the seasonal banners on each aisle... My ass has to do it since I'm the lightest person lol... damn my light weight body.

15's are not bad, its the 30 or 40's that get me.

Once I have my car secure on four jack stands I don't mind being under there. Last fall I put a new muffler on my 84. I was under the car and back out a lot getting the length of the pipe right. At one point I was under the car, a little tired, looking up at all of the different stuff under there, fascinated by it all, and stopped to think about how peaceful it was. It was quiet; if the phone rang I wouldn't have heard it or if I did would not have bothered to answer it. No one was interupting me by asking me to do anything else. I remember thinking that I could just lie under here for a long time and be happy.

I like to garden but I don't like worms. I am not afraid of them, I just don't like them. I have never touched a worm. I have picked them up with sticks and tossed them back in the grass when they get lost on the sidewalk. When my daughter was little she was fascinated by worms and would pick them up and let them wiggle around in her palm. Yikes, eeek, no way man would I do that. I was amazed that she felt so comfortable doing that. Maybe some day, but I'm in no hurry. If I leave this world without having touched a worm it will be OK.

I am really sorry to hear about some of the traumatic experiences others have had. I have had some traumatic things happen but nothing I can think of that affects me on a day to day basis in a disfunctional way. I don't like exposed heights like some have mentioned, but just avoid them. When I am near an open edge like a flat roof without any wall, if I get too close to the edge I feel like something is trying to suck me over the edge. It is a weird feeling.

I can be somewhat agoraphobic.
I also suffer from a fear of heights. With prayer or consultation in the Lord, I've gotten better. As my faith strengthens, my fears weaken.

Ahhh!!! I have been to that very place! That IS probably the WORST spot ever for heights fears. I wouldn't even go near it! :eek: Our local mall is like that too.....its little skinny steel posts with a brass railing (once again at waist height for me).......and glass panels held into place with little clamp things. The drop over the edge is a good 20-25 feet. :eek: Can't stand it.


Strangely enough, I don't get bothered at all by flying. I get slightly nervous on take-off but thats it. Landings don't even bother me....unless its over a dark ocean at 2:00am in a thunderstorm, THEN its a bit freaky!!

One of the sportswriters at my newspaper actually died that way. It was before I got my job there, so I didn't know him, but it was really sad. He and a photographer had to cover a hoops game on one night in N.C., then one the following afternoon in Delaware. The photog was a pilot and they took his prop plane to NC, and went to come back to DE after the game real late. I guess they had the plane fired up and the pilot realized he left a chock under one wheel or something like that, and the writer got out to remove it ... well, he walked around the front of the plane. Game over. Really sad ... he was only about 30 years old. What an awful way to die.:( I also feel so sorry for the photog ... he apparantly (obviously) was haunted by what happened.

I'll admit I'm very nervous about getting under the car, but not because I have any problem with the space (I actually fit under there pretty well). I'm just so afraid I'll do something wrong and it will come crashing down on me. I've read so many things about just the littlest mistake ending in instant (and awful) death. I guess that's somewhat good, though, because I'm really careful.

I'm afraid of people, for the most part, especially guys I like. I've overcome that on few occasions, but when I have it's ended in rejection or indirect rejection (which is no way near as cool as indirect injection) every time.

My more normal fears are rabid animals, rapists, murders, awful car accidents (I have to read about them all the time) and fire (not so much dying in it, but losing my home or car ... or worst of all, my beloved cat). I'm not afraid of heights at all, but I am afraid of falling hundreds of feet to my death.

In Inverse Order
 

Cottonmouth Moccasin
Diamond Back Rattler
Coral Snake

(Think I spend a little time "In the Woods"?)

(Oh, yes Tornados ['not mannerly as Hurricanes, which give days of warning])

I also must admit to using Railroad Tie Pieces stacked crosshatched...
['Real hard to "Scream for Help" when the car's on top of your chest.]

Sure, I would be glad to.

For some reason, I can't get over 3 foot off the ground on a ladder without my right leg refusing to work. Yes, I'm afraid of heights, but I enjoy Bungee Jumping and Skydiving...doesn't make sense about the ladder issue though.

I was in a masive housefire in 2007, where I nearly lost my kids due to being trapped. I am now so over sensitive with my nose, that I can smell a campfire a mile away easily. I refuse to go camping due to the smell, and can't stand winter time when the neighbor fires his fireplace up!

You are building houses now? That fear isn't good one to have when working on houses. The roof thing is fine, a few years ago I was painting a Third story dormer and had to stand on a cedar shake roof, well there was mold and mildew on the roof. It was a rether steep pitch and the obvious happened, I started to go down paint bucket and all. Luckily I grabbed on to the edge of the stile with my fingertips and stopped the fall. I wasn't scared of falling, I was scared of landing my options were land on the concrete sidewalk (ouch), land on the wrought iron fence complete with the spear like tips (not good) or land on the man made ravine complete with gynormous boulders (fantastico). I was messed up for years whenever we worked the site finally last year I got a grip and actually found some great work shoes that made a world of difference for me to regain my confidence, but for at least five years I was petrified when I would go on the roof at that site, my kids would flash through my mind and I would be done.

I have a healthy fear of heights, and I think it is a learned response.

As a crazy kid in college (WVU, Morgantown, WV), my friends and I would jump off of bridges into lakes and rivers. We started with the sidewalk on an old low bridge over Cheat Lake. It was about as high as the high dive at your neighborhood pool. Then we progressed to the top of the arched truss bridge. Sure -- drink some liquid courage and climb to the top of the bridge with wet bare feet. You put your feet on each rivet and place your hands under the lip of the beam. The top of this bridge was about 35' off the water. The beams are about a foot wide so it didn't seem to dangerous to just stand up there with nothing to hold onto. You can go off of either side. On one side, you have to clear the sidewalk (about 8' wide). On the other, there are power lines cantilevered off the side. Your choice. We started by jumping but soon were diving from that height.

Once that got boring, we moved down the lake a bit and tackled the I-64 bridge. There is an inspection catwalk that runs underneath it. Oddly enough, the access ladder had a locking mechanism, but it was never locked. So we'd climb up and walk out over the water. We estimated the catwalk was about 80' off the water. When you got to the jump point, you'd climb over the railing and hold on facing away from the railing. Then you'd step off and drop down THROUGH the triangular openings made by the trusses about half way down. Yo had to be careful to just drop straight down and not push off from the railing.

That was my height limit. Other daredevils jumped or dove from the top. We figured that was at least 100'. I knew a guy who broke his neck diving from there, so I never tried it.

But twice I jumped off the Suspension Bridge into the Ohio River in my hometown of Wheeling, WV. That was at least 70'.

Now I am spooked of open air heights. (If I'm behind glass, it doesn't bother me.) I reason that, based on my bridge jumping experiences, I have such a clear mental picture of falling through the air and remembering how hard you hit the water, I vividly imagine falling and hitting the ground.

I'm guessing you wouldn't much enjoy this one then:

http://graphics.boston.com/bonzai-fb...20413_0952.jpg
http://files.blog-city.com/files/aa/...alk8075254.jpg
http://images-cdn01.associatedconten.../300_68608.jpg

Heights generally do not trouble me once I spend a few minutes orienting myself to the surroundings.2 or 3 shots of single malt and I do not even have to pause.

Until recently I've been scared *****less of bees and wasps due to an unfortunate incident when I was 4.I was running thru the the ivy,paused to retrieve a ball I had lost when 2 yellow and black insects with wings alighted on my arm and proceeded to give me the worst pain I had ever felt until then.

Inverted flight in an open cockpit aircraft… Not a problem. :D
Steep turns in a helicopter without the doors on… Not a problem. :D

Walking up to the edge of cliff or building… Not a chance in hell. :eek:

And I don't think they make enough single malt to help me with that phobia.

Back (in the 80s) before they changed all the rules related to flights over the canyon. I used to get a real kick out of flying as low and fast as I could (Usually about 10 to 15 feet above the ground.) and shooting out over the canyon. I loved the sensation of the ground instantly dropping hundreds of feet out from under me. Instant loss of ground effect was cool too.

But walking out on that thing. No way.

what I won't do
 

I'll do anything for Love but I won't do THAT.

-meatloaf-

ooohhhhh....... that's bad.

:)

Claustrophobia? no problem. Sit strapped very tightly in a blazing hot race car in the pits, not a breath of cool air, waiting for your turn to go, or go caving in places so tight you are glad you are slick & muddy..... I get a little weak kneed at heights, but it's more like a thrill.:P I can see myself rock climbing on a sheer cliff and really enjoying where I am.
But loose dogs:(....... I was knocked off my bike & mauled by a pit bull when I was a kid, in my 20s lived next door to dobermans that would attack me in my own garage or yard, and ever since that pit bull incident, dogs seem to sense my slight fear and go after me. Which of course compounds the problem.
I am a runner and still get attacked by dogs;.. so people, if you let your dogs run loose don't be surprised if I run it down on purpose. I have no remorse or sympathy for these 4 legged loose terrorists.:mad:
(I like good well trained dogs, I own one)

I would call that Pilot Error.
1) stop engine
2) if only one door, ask passenger to get out, so pilot can remove wheel chock and properly stow someplace safe.
3) all get back in plane, close door and restart engine.
Time for all of the above...approx. 5 min. max.

I agree 100% with your procedure here.

I’d say maybe 90 seconds tops though for shutting down, pulling a chock(s), and restarting something like a Cessna/Piper in the sub 200hp range.

Not sure if I’d call this one pilot error or not. But he certainly should have reminded the guy upon exiting the aircraft to be aware of the propeller. Usually that’s all the seed that needs to be planted to make the individual walking around the aircraft very aware of it at all times.

Our kids where born and thus far raised around aircraft of all sorts. There is hardly a day that goes by that they are not in or around them. It’s just the way life is here. They (9 and ~12) are very familiar with various types of aircraft and actually quite capable and confident in taking control of some types even at their young age.

Even so – I can assure you that if and when they are ever in a propeller driven aircraft, and either of them for whatever reason needs to get out. The engine(s) is shut down until they are back inside and seated. And never, are they permitted to exit a spooled helicopter without walking directly to and from the nose. (My parents 520N being the only exception.)

Luckly I rearly have to climb up something like that, the framers know what they are doing, and set the stairs, so by the time I need to get up their the stairs are in.

I would love to get one of my friends totaly smashed and have them pass out on that thing. I'd camp out for the morning scream.:D