Confession time - one of my biggest fears

[KitchenWitch]

I have a serious phobia about getting lost (as in driving somewhere and losing my sense of direction). It was a huge deal for me, for example, to have driven (by myself) in Southern California the last time we visited my in-laws. I was TERRIFIED that I would take a wrong turn and end up totally lost.

[Wcross]

1. Yet you always find your way home.....

I used to drive around and try to get lost! I just made spur of the moment right or left turn decisions. Which way looked fun, what is over that hill?
What happens if you "get lost"? Absolutely nothing! You just have to have fun with it! Your phobia is easily conquered by the invention of GPS. How would you like to have a map on your dashboard with instructions on how to get to your destination? The technology is available.
I am afraid of stinging insects. I would rather be in a closet with a pit bull than a wasp.

[KitchenWitch]

3. I am not sure where the fear comes from

I buy those big map books and study them religiously when driving in a new area.

[Wcross]

16. Maybe a need to be in control of your life?

I seem to enjoy things when they are unpredictable. Maybe you enjoy it when everything goes as planned? Everyone has something they aren't comfortable with. You have to ask yourself, "whats the worst that can happen"?

[KitchenWitch]

22. Not sure if it is that

but I do have mild PTSD stemming from when I was treated for cancer.

[Wcross]

2. Deleted-double post

[Benfea]

4. I'm scared of power tools and garbage disposals.

Of course, I'm such a klutz that it's probably perfectly sensible for me to be afraid of those things. ;)

[KitchenWitch]

5. I am afraid of garbage disposals too.

I once saw a spoon become a nearly deadly projectile coming out of a garbage disposal.

[Benfea]

12. Every once in a while something gets stuck in there...

…and reaching in to get it out is one of the scariest things! At least for me.

[Wetzelbill]

6. I have a fear of tall women...

wait... make that a fear of women in general...

Not women per se'.... I am mainly a tongue-tied fool...

Can somebody have a fear of getting lai.. nevermind. :)

[KitchenWitch]

8. LOL

;)

[Wetzelbill]

14. I know... I am a tragic clown

:+ :cry:

[SeattleGirl]

7. I still have an unreasonable fear of the "witch under the bed"

No connection to you, of course. But when I was a kid, I thought that a witch hid under my bed, so I could never let my arms or legs hang over the edge. I'm still that way! :crazy:

[Wetzelbill]

13. me too

Not about witches but just like a murderer or something. Never hang my arms or legs over the edge. Well, not much of a chance that, I am what you would call: "Vertically challenged." :)

[SeattleGirl]

20. God, I'm so glad I'm not the only one!

Sometimes I think I'm being silly, but hey, I guess we don't get to pick our fears and phobias!

[Digit]

37. Blame it on the movies where you are grabbed in that manner

I do the same thing when I get into bed. I need to get my legs up quickly, imagining something under the bed will get me.

Funny how these things stay with you, huh.

[SeattleGirl]

40. Exactly. And I'm sure that's were that came from

Silly, silly, silly. But dang it, I KNOW there is a witch under the bed! :scared:

[FuzzySlippers]

9. Oh jeez, Kitchie. That's the story of my life.

Last summer when I was in Portland, I made a wrong turn coming back from the supermarket and spent 2 hours driving around lost. I ended up across the river....twice. I ended up driving around downtown....twice. It was a nightmare. I'm pathetic about directions.

[laheina]

21. I have a similar story.

Only, I had dropped my boss off at a meeting, and couldn't find my way back to pick him up.

Thinking about it now, it's kinda' funny. At the time, I was mortified!

[KitchenWitch]

25. I have a funny "lost" story to tell

My son had a baseball game in one of the exurbs of Minneapolis (think mostly rural). The team's manager handed out maps (from mapquest) to the field. We drove to where the field was supposed to be (according to mapquest) and there was nothing but a farmer's field. Drove to the nearest gas station to ask where the bleepin blargin fields were and was told that the fields were 5-7 miles further west than they had been reported by mapquest. I was so distraught by being lost.

[LeftyMom]

10. I was scared to death of driving and needles

I got over both eventually. I'm still very very very very afraid of heights, though.

[Shine]

11. Maybe you could invest in one of those GPS systems in your car.

that would probably alleviate a lot of stress. Just a thought.

Other than that, my only other suggestions would be to make sure you've got street maps and a cell phone.....and to consider re-framing "getting lost" in your mind so that it becomes "an Adventure". :)

BTW, have you ever seen the movie "LA Story"? If you're moving to So Cal and you haven't seen it, you really should, it's pretty funny.

:hi:

[KitchenWitch]

15. Is that the one with Steve Martin?

If so, I thought it was hilarious.

[Shine]

17. Yup, same one. Oh good, you've seen it.

I loved that movie. Remember the scene when he gets in his car and drives up two houses on the same street? Classic.

[BikeWriter]

18. You were very brave.

:-)

[KitchenWitch]

19. Thank you!

[CaliforniaPeggy]

23. You may have a big fear there.......

But I think you're handling it just fine!

:loveya: :hug:

Map books are DEFINITELY the way to go, sweetie!

[KitchenWitch]

24. I love the Thomas Guide for LA and Orange Counties

And I love my King's map of the Twin Cities metro area.

[reyd reid reed]

26. I used to swear by mine...

...wouldn't go anywhere without it when I lived in Los Angeles. I think I still have it around here somewhere, as a matter of fact (yeah, I'm a packrat).

Here, all I have to do is remember that the mountains are west...from there it's all pretty easy to figure out.

I'm terrified of heights. I'll leave a burned out light bulb all day until someone else can come home and change it, if I can't reach it from the floor. And the one at the top of the stairs? I won't even let the oldest boys change that one, I'm afraid THEY'LL fall. When hail broke the skylight, I literally had to leave the house while it was being replaced. I took the kids to the zoo for the afternoon.

[KitchenWitch]

27. You get HAIL in Los Angeles?

:scared:

[reyd reid reed]

30. Heh...clarity is an issue sometimes....

...shame on me.

No...the hail vs. skylight thingie came after I left Los Angeles. We get lots of hail here (I live in Colorado now), but at least earthquakes aren't as big an issue.

[KitchenWitch]

31. LOL

Yeah, I am trying to measure Tornadoes versus Earthquakes, since I will be moving to California, from Minnesota. I think I like Tornadoes better.

[reyd reid reed]

36. I do, too

At least you can go to the basement if you're in the path of a tornado. There are warnings. Earthquakes you can't do anything about except wait for it to end. And there's just something fundamentally unsettling about the earth under your feet starting to tilt and jolt like that...

[Broken_Hero]

28. Damn...

I am that way a bit...I just hate going somewhere, where no one knows how to get there. I am not to map friendly, and neither are any of my friends...:)

My fear, sharks...Jaws, forever changed my life. I'm from an island in SE Alaska, and the ocean is a part of life...Jaws, forever ruined every single second, i spent swimming in the ocean...:)

[file83]

29. You might be suffering from a form of Agoraphobia...

read up on it here, see if you have these symptoms:

1. Anxiety about being in places or situations from which escape might be difficult (or embarrassing) or in which help may not be available in the event of having an unexpected or situationally predisposed Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms. Agoraphobic fears typically involve characteristic clusters of situations that include being outside the home alone; being in a crowd or standing in a line; being on a bridge; and traveling in a bus, train, or automobile.

2. The situations are avoided (e.g., travel is restricted) or else are endured with marked distress or with anxiety about having a Panic Attack or panic-like symptoms, or require the presence of a companion.

[KitchenWitch]

32. Hmmm interesting!

This could be.

[Digit]

33. Oh, that is DOUBLE your fun in downtown DC

I took a wrong turn driving back to VA from Ocean City, Maryland. I had my (then) 4 year old daughter in the car and dusk was upon us, I had to pee, and it was POURING down rain with horrible lightning, so I could not see the road signs.
The glances I was getting from people when I stopped at a gas station were not at all friendly, and being only 4'11...I was defintitely intimidated.

Not that I negate your fears, but maybe if you think upon my experience, it might not seem so bad.

Oh, and I made it out alive!

:hi:

[KitchenWitch]

35. Every time I have visited DC

I have not used a car at all. I rode the metro everywhere.

[Digit]

38. Hard to do when driving back from Ocean City, MD

The Metro is great, tho.

[Digit]

34. I am afraid of electricity...

I always seem to get shocked!

Sometimes, I have to have a neighbor plug in things for me...especially if it is an unusual plug.

Once, I asked my mother while she was still alive if there was a reason for this. She confessed that as a baby, I had put a bobby pin in a socket and was shocked.

Possibly, it is my hesitation when inserting a plug which causes me to get a jolt...I don't know.
A three pronger used to be a huge problem for me. I had to get someone over to plug one in...I am better at it now.

[wildhorses]

39. my biggest fear

I am afraid that I no longer give a shit and it scares me a little sometimes

[XemaSab]

41. I'm the opposite

I am fearless about getting lost to the point where I will intentionally try to make it with poor directions.

:patriot:

[pokerfan]

42. You're never really lost

You are always directly above the center of the Earth!

I remember one time in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, worrying about getting lost, i.e. separated from my driver. I only had a vague sense of location, but I knew if I walked west, I would eventually hit the Red Sea and if I turned right and headed north I would eventually find my hotel.

[XemaSab]

43. Well there you have it!

I've only been lost once, when I was 5 in the woods near my grandparents' house near Yosemite.

I was with their dog, and I figured that as long as I stuck with the dog I would be okay, 'cause the dog knew the way home. :bounce:

[billyskank]

46. If I'm ever driving you somewhere

should I ignore any direction advice you give? :P

[XemaSab]

49. If you're driving me somewhere it's going to be in Britain

so YES!!!!!

[billyskank]

50. So you wouldn't give me random directions

just to make the journey more interesting? :P

[XemaSab]

51. How can you possibly get lost in Britain anyways?

Isn't the whole place, like, the size of the county I live in?

:hide:

[billyskank]

52. Yeah, you can walk from edge to edge in about an hour

And everybody knows everybody's name.

[XemaSab]

44. I'll tell you what scares me though:

Mountain Lions.

:scared:

[billyskank]

45. I can see that

:hug:

[XemaSab]

47. I've only ever seen a live, wild one once

But I saw a dead one once up close, and if they want to kill you you're dead.

:scared:

[Hugin]

48. I've been around several...

But, what impressed me the most was a Jaguar I saw in Arizona.

It was on the opposite side of the ravine I was in...

It could've cared less that I was there. Except, that I was
scaring away all of the juicy morsels it was hunting.

[Orsino]

53. How Never to Get Lost (Telecom Industry)

Always carry a foot of fiber-optic cable in your pocket.

If you ever lose your way, simply place the length of cable on the ground and wait fifteen minutes. When the backhoe operator shows up and cuts it in two, ask the driver for directions.

[merh]

54. Here, KW, to help you along the way.

and a :hug:

:loveya: