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

[imagesinthewind]

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!

[pawoSD]

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.

[mgburg]

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?

I HATE THAT!!!

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

[RichC]

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.

[MS Fowler]

Originally Posted by mgburg

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?

I HATE THAT!!!

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

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.

[raymr]

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.

[Chad300tdt]

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.

[Kuan]

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

[WVOtoGO]

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.

[Dee8go]

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.

[Dee8go]

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.

[cudaspaz]

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

[TheDon]

I like small, safe, confined spaces.


big open spaces freak me out

[Carleton Hughes]

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.

[G-Benz]

Originally Posted by Kuan

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