In 1977, construction on the New River Gorge Bridge in West Virginia was completed. It spans a half mile chasm at the bottom of which is the New River. Before the bridge was installed, the drive from one side of the gorge to the other — down into the gorge and up again on the other side — took 45 minutes. Now it’s about 25 seconds.
The bridge carries U S Route 19 from one side to the other. You can walk across the bridge too but not on top where everyone drives. That would be dangerous and illegal.
However, when the bridge was built, a 24-inch wide catwalk was installed as part of the structure. This walkway was placed under the road surface and in 2009, it was opened to anyone who would pay the fee to lock in and stroll from one end of the bridge to the other. Beneath the road surface! This is a distance of 3030 feet, more than half a mile, on a 24” wide metal grid, 851 feet above Earth. Holy heck!
You know, with my acrophobia, I’m rushing to get in line. Do I have acrophobia, a fear of heights, or is it actually a fear of falling? That’s called… Wait a minute. It seems there are three words to describe the fear of falling. To wit…
basophobia
the fear that, while walking, something dreadful will happen as a result, like collapsing and dying
Nope, that’s not it.
climacophobia
the fear of stairs or the fear of falling down stairs
Roughly 12 000 people die every year in a staircase related injury. That’s one every 44 minutes. While I have no desire to die as a result of a staircase, this is also not my fear.
philophobia
the fear of falling in love or fear of being in love
That would be a shame.
I have seen the fear of falling called, in a scientific manner, FOF. Enlightened yet?
Recall the Toni Morrison quote…
I don’t fall in love. I rise up in love.
This is helpful for me.
Let me tell you about one excellent friend. In life he is always optimistic, seeing the best side of people and situations. As positive as you can imagine. He was once a fighter jet pilot for the Marines and was also a flight instructor. Mach 3, upside down, Immelmanns, barrel rolls. That’s some serious flying, eh?
But these dreads are a funny thing. He and I were hiking a ten-miler on the Archers Fork Trail in Ohio when we came to a section that was considerably overgrown: ragweed, sunflowers, bottlebrush buckeye. This flora grew well over our heads which ain’t small potatoes given that my friend is 6’4”. The trail took us through a narrow corridor between these monsters.
My dear friend, who used to hit supersonic speeds in all kinds of postures and orientations — he even wore a helmet! — mentioned to me how uncomfortable and anxious he was while in the midst of this towering vegetation. He didn’t like the feeling that this plant life was closing in on him.
His botanophobia was unbidden, difficult to control and insidious. Even the strongest among us can be plagued by these pissant phobias.
Lisa and I visited Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. One way to get to the cavern itself is by elevator, a 754-foot ride, straight down toward the seething center of the Earth, in a little room with a dozen or so other people. Neither one of us is a fan of claustrophobia, but we both seem to have some.
Pushing through one irrational fear at a time is enough for me. I’ll stick to my acrophobia. Or more accurately, my aeroacrophobia. Acrophobia is the fear of heights whereas aeroacrophobia is the fear of heights in open places, such as on a high overlook or the area you would be in if you were to exit an airborne airplane.
Along with these bothersome fears, admittedly, I’ve also got cremnophobia, the fear of cliffs and precipices. I am fully aware that there are folks who have a much harder time getting through their day than I do. There are your homilophobes, those with an irrational fear of sermons. Or you could have proctophobia, the fear of rectums. Most proctophobes keep to themselves.
A couple others are hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia, the fear of long words. There must be an easier way to tell someone you are a hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobe. You might have octophobia, the fear of the figure 8, or mortuusequusphobia, the fear of ketchup, or levophobia, the fear of things to the left side of your body. These are real, named pathologies.
Spend time with an apocalypticist, one who has a strong religious belief in the apocalypse, and you may develop hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, the fear of the number 666. I have a touch of coulrophobia, the irrational fear of clowns. No, wait, the fear of clowns, as I see it, is absolutely sane and rational. Worst of all however, might be phobophobia, the fear of phobias, or the fear of fear. With this one, you are really up the creek. Especially if you have aquaphobia, the fear of water.
But fear not! Whatever you’ve got, there’s a scientifically validated long word to describe it.