Any other acrophobics here?

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MartDude · #1 Post by **MartDude** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:20 pm

I've had this all my life - proper job, sweating, nausea, panic - & it seems to be getting worse as I get older. Particularly on the bike - riding on a road with a drop to the side really freaks me out. And as for anything like the Millau Viaduct - I'd rather have a cactus up my ring-piece than have to cross that.

If anybody here has had any treatment/therapy for this, that's worked, I'd be grateful to hear about it; I'm getting really pissed off with it now.

#2 Post by **mangocrazy** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:26 pm

I've never done heights at all well, and have frequently felt queasy when riding next to a sheer drop, but I have to say that crossing the Millau Viaduct was absolutely not a problem for me.

The first time I crossed it I was a passenger in my own van, just so that I could dive into a quivering huddle in the footwell if need be. But I didn't - it was fine; enjoyable even. The second time I crossed it was when I was driving my Lancia Beta Spyder down to the South of France to leave it in its new home; and this time I was the driver and it was still OK (enjoyable, in fact).

The next thing is to cross it on the bike. That will be the real test, I think. But I'm pretty confident it will be OK.

Now if you asked me to cross it on foot I'd have the screaming heebie-jeebies...

#3 Post by **Kwackerz** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:28 pm

I can smoke 2 cigs in the time it takes to cross the QE2 Bridge at Dartford in a car. Have to have sunblind down and have to concentrate on the road just in front of the car..cant look left or right or upwards at them fkn big uprights!! Hate it. Did about Concrete fatigue and stuff when I did my apprenticeship which i think is what put me off bridges..
Similarly the Chepstow bridge is another serious problem crossing although the lower level new one isnt as much of a problem.

Bike? Not a chance.

Yet somehow I can abseil off the Pont-y-sulty (sp?) Aqueduct without batting an eyelid...

#4 Post by **Kwackerz** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:31 pm

OOOH this is the thing yer on about!!

http://www.energyefficientbuild.com/ima ... iaduct.jpg

Yer right. Sod that. I wouldnt even use the approach road knowing it leads to it, yet alone cross the fekker.

Samray · #5 Post by **Samray** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:33 pm

* waits for Tim to fess up , and alad to take the piss *

#6 Post by **Kwackerz** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:33 pm

in fact why would you use it? There's a cracking downhill twisty on the left of the pic, with a nice low level bridge.

So much more fun...

Samray · #7 Post by **Samray** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:33 pm

Oops....too late.

#8 Post by **Kwackerz** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 10:37 pm

LOL! I dont mind admitting it. Having SEEN some of the concrete at Dartford when we visited it during my course, I can sit there and be worried knowing I have good reason.

You dont accept the highest bidder when you put a job to tender...

D-Rider · #9 Post by **D-Rider** » Sat Apr 24, 2010 11:36 pm

Yeah - I'm in the same club

I hate raised sections particularly on the bike - I know I'm going to fall over the edge.

Thing is, it's something that's not consistent - a bit like Tim, there are plenty of situations that you might logically think would be worse and they don't bother me at all.

Generally speaking it's man-made structures that do it for me .... I guess that being an Engineer I know what could go wrong and I don't trust someone else's Engineering (so why can I throw a motorcycle into a bend at silly speeds without worrying when I can't walk along a castle's battlements or stand near the edge of the arc de Triumph or go up the Eiffel tower?)

Natural structures like cliffs are usually no problem.

It makes no sense at all.

All sing together "Ye tak the high road and I'll tak the low road ......."

Aladinsaneuk · #10 Post by **Aladinsaneuk** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 7:45 am

try hypnosis

and am quite surprised about tim being afraid of heights - like how the hell would he know??

D-Rider · #11 Post by **D-Rider** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:25 am

Aladinsaneuk wrote:try hypnosis

and am quite surprised about tim being afraid of heights - like how the hell would he know??

Of course he is - it's lack of familiarity.

#12 Post by **Kwackerz** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 8:31 am

#13 Post by **mangocrazy** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 4:43 pm

Kwackerz wrote:OOOH this is the thing yer on about!!

http://www.energyefficientbuild.com/ima ... iaduct.jpg

Yer right. Sod that. I wouldnt even use the approach road knowing it leads to it, yet alone cross the fekker.

That makes it look uber-scary because of the fisheye (or at the very least extreme wide angle) lens used to take it, plus the fact it's taken from the air.

In real life it's nowhere near as scary as that; plus it has large wind-deflector things on either side of the carriageway which help in giving a feeling of (comparative) security. It's one of the high points (no pun intended) of the drive down to our gaff in France, to be honest. And this is a real 'heights wuss' speaking.

MartDude · #14 Post by **MartDude** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 6:54 pm

Don't care; not as long as I've a hole up my arse . . .

Thanks for all the replies; didn't appreciate I was in such esteemed company.

D-Rider · #15 Post by **D-Rider** » Sun Apr 25, 2010 7:22 pm

Aladinsaneuk wrote:try hypnosis

OK - I've just given it a go.

Sat in front of a mirror and managed to put myself into a deep trance.

Didn't work though .... once the guy in the mirror had got me into the trance, he fell in to one too and was incapable of curing me.

..... was woken up 2 hrs later by my wife beating me with a broom handle for wasting time and being over obsessed for ogling myself for hours in a mirror.