Any other gephyrophobics (fear of bridges) here?

[Stretch]

I've battled this for years now (even seeing photos or videos of big bridges makes me anxious), but it seems silly to contemplate a life on the road when those roads often cross over bodies of water. Honestly, I don't even like overpasses.    

The definition says the fear includes 'fear of driving off the bridge, the fear of a gust of wind taking one off the bridge, a fear of the structural integrity of the bridges itself, or the fear that the bridge will collapse if they try to cross it,' and all of those are true for me. It's illogical, but phobias are always illogical.

I was thinking about a test trip from the midwest to Denver over the Christmas break, but that damn Mississippi gets in the way. I've done it before, on the interstate, and that's bad enough, but I'd love to take back roads. I Google mapped the route and looked at the street view of every larger river I'd have to cross, and gave myself anxiety just "driving" across on my computer. lol

Am I doomed? Has anyone here had any luck overcoming this or a similar driving phobia?

 

[waldenbound]

Galloping Gertie did it for me.

 

[RollingOm]

For me is mountain passes, but I just keep pushing. Whenever I cross a bridge I just start singing, and it really helps  .  Literally, I already crossed that bridge.

RollingOm

 

[user 423]

Whenever I cross a bridge I just start singing, and it really helps 

"Over the river and through the woods to grandma's house we go", should work.

Seriously though, it never used to bother me before but now that I'm older, the really high ones get to me a little.

Maybe stick to ferries for river crossings?

 

[Stretch]

Galloping Gertie did it for me.

Hoooooooooooooo boy, I really didn't need to watch that.

 

[TrainChaser]

Get some help from a medical/psychiatric hypnotist. Many years ago in SoCal, I heard about a woman who wouldn't leave the house because she was afraid of planes flying overhead. The hypnosis worked.

"Hypnosis: An Underused Technique": https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/two-minute-shrink/201004/hypnosis-underused-technique

This is from an M.D.

 

[Almost There]

^^^ Yea, I was thinking that Walden and her video weren't about to do anyone with a fear of bridges any good at all.

Actually it bordered on cruelty didn't it....

 

[user 423]

Then I guess I'm glad that I can't watch streaming content.

 

[lenny flank]

Hoooooooooooooo boy, I really didn't need to watch that.

I probably should not tell you the story of when a freighter ship knocked down the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida, then......

:angel:

 

[waldenbound]

Actually, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster was used to teach engineers how to build better bridges. Galloping Gertie changed the ways bridges are built, a good lesson learned the hard way.

Another span was built around 1950, then a brand new bridge within the last 10-15 or so years ago. But do you think I'd drive on it? Nooooo waaaaaaay. Yeah, I'm chicken, bawk bawk bawk!

 

[JustACarSoFar]

Here in MN...  I was around when one of the I-35 bridges collapsed. Extra bad as it is a Minneapolis city bridge that has a
gawd awful amount of traffic.  It was sudden, not weather or accident related, just gave up by stress on the older infrastructure.

I kinda developed a more keen' sense of crossing bridges since then but grows less acute with time.

I live right on the Mississippi and take walks over a large dam and bridge. I'm more fond of heights (for viewing) than I am of bridges.

Funny it's been mentioned about fear of driving off a bridge as that's a somewhat recurring dream I have.
In the dream I never fall off or crash below but I get the sense of imminent catastrophe as I try to keep a vehicle on a very dangerous snaky 
falling apart bridge!  then I wake up!  (Must be a control issue)

 

[Neal]

I don't have a fear of going on bridges, but when I'm in Ca I sort of have a problem stopping under bridges at a red light.

 

[DuneElliot]

Not bridges per se, but of driving over a body of water! For me it's the water that is the issue, not the bridge

 

[RollingOm]

"Over the river and through the woods to grandma's house we go", should work.

Seriously though, it never used to bother me before but now that I'm older, the really high ones get to me a little.

Maybe stick to ferries for river crossings?

Yes! same here. When I was young I didn't even think twice about going mountain high, but now I notice the fear came as I got older. What's that all about?

 

[user 423]

What's that all about?

It's just one of the perks you enjoy when you get old...

 

[WalkaboutTed]

I used to have nightmares about steep bridges and skidding down backwards. I forgot about them until seeing this thread. Its been decades since the last one.

Though I did have a blowout in a dually rental truck while crossing over the Mississippi, with two kids in the truck with me. My son looked out the window and exclaimed "Mom, the tire is melting and shredding and flying everywhere!" I wasn't gonna stop until I got off the bloody bridge! It was very, very loud on the metal roadway. Seemed longer than the Seven Mile Bridge in the Florida Keys (just a bit of hyperbole there).
Ted

 

[badjingle]

Hoooooooooooooo boy, I really didn't need to watch that.

who on EARTH would leave their dog in the car!!!!!! some people have no business having pets. 

 

[user 423]

Then there are the bridges that have a metal grate road surface. Those can be really fun on a motorcycle.

 

[tav-2020]

I used to have nightmares about steep bridges and skidding down backwards. I forgot about them until seeing this thread. Its been decades since the last one.

I still have dreams about sliding backwards in a vehicle, not on a bridge, but on an incline and sliding backward into a gaping sinkhole. Pedal to the metal, but I keep sliding backwards...shivering just thinking about it. Ack!

 

[user 423]

^
That's similar to nightmares we have of falling,falling,falling. That's because our simian ancestors lived in trees and falling out of one would feed you to the leopards,lions,hyenas and other carnivores.