We, as humans, always like to think that we are indestructible. However, this thinking can sometimes be considered irrational because truthfully, everyone is afraid. Many of us try to deny the fact that we can have phobias and fears and we aren’t willing to admit that we are afraid of something. We put up a confident and strong face and say that we are immune to any sort of fear.

A fear or a phobia can be something that is unexplainable to most people. We sometimes fail to understand why there is such an intense physiological reaction when we are in some sort of distressful situation that makes us so terrified that we jump out of our skin! Another type of phobia can be related to a certain object that some individual feels. Some examples of fears can be the fear of the unknown, fearing the future, fear of failure, or even more tangible things, such as the fear of spiders and clowns. Many of us consider a fear of dogs completely irrational compared to a fear of sharks; however, phobias and fears can be very different for all types of people on different levels of intensity. Trying to recognize a fear and addressing how to overcome it is very crucial to help you grow as a person!

Claustrophobia is something that I have struggled with ever since I was around 9 or 10 years old. There were no incidents of this fear in my childhood but the first incident of this fear has been ingrained into my brain. I remember that it was an extremely stormy night when I was visiting family in Richmond from New Jersey. I was in my cousin’s car with my two cousins in the front and my brother and sister in the back with me. Around 3-4 hours into the trip, I started to feel cramped in the back and my cousin had the heat cranked up pretty high. I told him to lower it a little but it became hard for me to breathe, and I couldn’t open the windows because it was pouring cats and dogs! I felt uneasy at first so I distracted myself and listened to music. I thought that taking a nap might help so I went to sleep afterwards; however, the nap only invigorated my troubled breathing and I woke up very shaken and frightened because all the windows were extremely fogged. I remember that I woke up screaming to my cousin to pull over and let me out. I freaked them out so much that he immediately pulled to the side of the highway and I pushed the door open! I was so frazzled and I didn’t know was happening to me! I rarely fell to the ground because I felt so constricted while rain beat down my back and soaked me completely. My cousins rushed out of the car after me and they helped me calm down. Furthermore, they convinced me that I was fine and come back to the car. Once in, I sat in the front and I tried to regain my normal breathing and starting thinking about something else, rather than this incident.

After that experience, there had been a few episodes in my life so far where I have panicked severely in cars whenever I felt cramped and in a tight, closed space. Most of my family and friends know this excessive fear that I have and because of this, I never go to the very back seat of a car or I don’t sleep in the car when it’s too crowded because I’m scared that it will trigger my claustrophobia. However, even though I’m still terrified of enclosed spaces and small elevators, I try to keep my calm whenever I’m around people. Most importantly, my friends and family help me find my peace if any similar situation ever arises, so I’m fortunate to have a strong support system to try to combat this phobia.