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Thread: phobia of buildings / ceilings not being safe

  1. #1

    phobia of buildings / ceilings not being safe

    hello everyone.
    I don't know if any of you have come across this before. About 4 years ago I started having panic attacks and really severe anxiety centering around my bedroom (mainly as this was where I was spending all my time when not at Uni, work or with friends).
    The best way to describe this phobia is that I feel things are not sturdy, secure or safe. My most vivid memory of it starting was when I was tidying my room, I shared it then with both of my sisters and it had a massive amount of stuff in it. I remember thinking that the floor surely couldn't support all of this stuff - and bang. there it was. Its only gotten worse ever since.

    I feel this in new buildings, places where I can see the floor to be unlevel (glass of wine in a restaurant not being perfectly horizontal will trigger it just as much as me sitting downstairs glancing at the ceiling and noticing cracks in the plaster leading from the middle of each of the four walls -- this is where the heaviest objects are...)

    It's getting a bit ridiculous. Most of my belongings are piled against the walls because what little I remember from Physics is that walls and floors are strongest where they meet. I won't have anything in the middle of the room. I feel it even when I drive past a house at night and I can see into the house, and see that there is a lot of stuff in the rooms, I start freaking out about how the house would support itself.


    It's really driving me mad, I'm 24 and I've never had anything like this, I've travelled the world for the past 18 months and there's been no rhyme or reason to the peaks and troughs of me feeling better and then worse. I don't even know what to call the damn phobia.
    I've been to see a Behavioural Psychologist, which didn't work, and the doctor gave me one box of Diazepam before I went travelling 'for emergencies'. I made friends with a chemist in Aus who gave me Xanax instead, which worked far better for me, but I'm out of both right now, and although not in dire need right now, I'm at a loss for what to do next.

    If anyone has any advice, tips, comments, I would really appreciate them.

  2. #2

    Re: phobia of buildings / ceilings not being safe

    .
    Last edited by Sigmund Freud; 19-11-12 at 21:55.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Re: phobia of buildings / ceilings not being safe

    Aimee If you have not seen the above video yet please do not watch it! it is someones idea of a sick joke and will not help you at all.

    ---------- Post added at 20:54 ---------- Previous post was at 20:50 ----------

    My husband has worked on building sites and buildings in UK are built to a VERY high standard and under strict safety regulations. There was one on Tv recently were the river washed away part of the foundations but the building stayed stable. i used to live in a house which was very old and the ceiling was also the floorboards for upstairs. My kids used to jump on the bed and play all the time without any problems.

  4. #4
    Join Date
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    Re: phobia of buildings / ceilings not being safe

    I think Mr Freud will be finding himself banned in the near future.

    Before that happens I would just like to say that bullying or poking fun at those afflicted with a mental health issue is in my opinion the sign of a much more disturbed mind than anyone here will ever have.

  5. #5

    Re: phobia of buildings / ceilings not being safe

    you're right, that was wrong

  6. #6
    Join Date
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    , , United Kingdom.
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    Re: phobia of buildings / ceilings not being safe

    Incidentally Mr Freud, this post is over a year old, so I doubt your "helpful" message will even reach the OP. Try harder next time. Preferably somewhere else.

  7. #7

    Re: phobia of buildings / ceilings not being safe

    Although I imagine there is likely a school of thought somewhere that condones some sort of shock therapy along those lines. The former link was to that of a truly horrible event in Jerusalem about ten years ago, I believe. Additionally, the vintage of the post had not escaped my attention so I had not a great deal of worry about causing any real mischief.

    ---------- Post added at 17:06 ---------- Previous post was at 16:37 ----------

    While on this topic, though, I suppose a revelation of what I suppose is a phobia of my own would only be fair. I've always had this irrational fear of missing ceiling tiles, very strange to me, as though not knowing what may lurk in the black void is simply too much. The massive H.V.A.C. equipment found hanging in these regions seems to bother me the most. Fear is not something I generally experience, either. I do not have serious nightmares, horror films often cause me to laugh at their ridiculousness.

    About ten years ago, I found myself in a situation where my job required me to enter these ceiling spaces routinely, some really large and wild ones at that; the wildest being in the large shopping malls some thirty feet up. Believe me, the irony of my predicament did not fail to reach me. But I survived by forcing myself to carry on, and it did require sometimes great effort but I got my mind around the problem by applying a little bit of realism. It can be done. I am still bothered when I get near a missing ceiling tile, even after all that experience. Willpower can overcome, and must.

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