So I'm sitting here on the sixth floor of the college library and I'm really wondering about something as I'm looking out the window. What scares people more about heights. I'm not really afraid of them, but I cant help feel a little weird when approaching an edge and looking down over the ground far below. Anyway, what scares you more. The thought that you might accidentally fall, or the thought that you might actually jump. For me it's that I might actually jump.
For me, with heights, it's the fear of falling, not jumping. However, I always have to lock my car door, especially when going at high speeds, because I'm afraid I'll throw the damn thing open, either accidentally or on an impulse. Also, when I'm sitting in the passenger seat, holding onto any technological device, I get the urge to chuck it out the window. . . Before you think I'm weird, my brothers get the same thing.
I don't judge, and I know what you mean about driving at high speeds. It's a necessity especially considering the way some people drive.
i've been acrophobic all my life and can't really say what scares me most... even when watching a movie, if a character is on the edge of a 'drop' i have to hold my hand up and 'not look'... same for whan a camera shot is aimed downward from the edge of whatever... oddly enough, aerial shots from planes or whatever don't bother me and neither did flying in our cherokee six, back in my old life, though i can't even bear to walk up/down 'open' stairs [the ones with no risers] and i'm near panic if i see anyone go too near the edge of a sizable drop...
It's not the fall that will kill you - it's landing... No matter what I've been on; Eiffel Tower, Empire State, whatever I have a great urge to jump. In my younger days I worked in a sawmill and always had the urge to grab the blade as the massive shark teeth spun about 2000 miles an hour. I saw a scorpion once, a huge thing and I was dieing to pick it up... Old enough to know better - not quite stupid enough to do it anyway
I find it is the fear that I would be awake and conscious when landing. Most people who do fall from great heights pass out and die of shock rather than the impact of the fall. Ever heard the "scared to death" theory? That happens to most people. However some can feel it. I would like to jump out of an airplane or a building and see myself flying down and the parachute opening and seeing everything from a calm speed.
How do they know? You're saying a person can jump off the empire state building and die of a heart attack 2 seconds before he splats all over the road? And they can tell this?
I have severe acrophobia. I just tell people that if I were any taller, I'd never stand up. It's that bad. I'm perfectly okay flying in a plane. I'm okay, in fact, anywhere the railing is strong enough for me to trust. But I can't even climb a stepladder unless I have something to hang on to. I used to work with riggers in the entertainment industry, doing things like hanging lights from indoor stadium ceilings, and I'd have to keep my equipment on the floor and operate it from there. I couldn't even get onto the catwalk with these guys, let alone into a climbing harness and up to the ceiling. I would get queasy on behalf of the riggers who were actually up there.
Could you explain in more detail? It doesn't look to me like your response answers the question. How do they know a person died a second before hitting the ground? And how does that relate to the guy who jumped from the edge of space?
I read once, not sure how true it really is, that they believe that some people die right before hitting the ground because their faces are relaxed. Again not sure how true it is, as I think death would relax your face. Either way the only people who could really answer the question are already dead.
an autopsy could possibly determine if the faller had a fatal heart attack before he hit the ground... btw, no one can jump from the top of the empire state bldg and hit the 'road' [sidewalk], because there are several setbacks between the top public-access level and the lowest floors...
Is this a riddle? In order to prove how someone died they proved how another guy lived? I think a guy with training, in a special suit, with a special chute with NASA supporting him may fair well just a little better than a dude with a brick in his pocket. SIB - After scraping him off the sidewalk they decided his face was relaxed which proved he died before he splatted? I can picture a Monty Python sketch here... Okay mamma - lets pretend it's the Eiffel Tower...
Hmmm, I think I'm more afraid of falling than of jumping and while driving I get the urge to hit the car in front of me just cause i'm too lazy to move my leg to the brakes paddle. lol The thing that scares me the most though is ball-shaped objects, especially if they are small. There's no named phobia for that as I have looked all over the place for it, kind of depressing.
For me, it's definitely falling. My knees start to feel loose and weak as though they're going to give way and that's just at the top of a down escalator. It's a physical reaction, usually I search for a staircase or elevator. Preferably stairs, in elevators I'm aware of the empty shaft below the car.
Any ball shaped things make me feel nauseated, as though they are disgusting to look at. It doesn't matter what size, though the smaller the worst it is. When I usually have cold/flue I have dreams of round objects trying to get out through the door's keyhole, that usually is as bad as a nightmare.
I'm not so much afraid of heights... Let me put it in another way. I don't mind being high in the air, I just don't want to look straight down, as I get dizzy and get the feeling I will tumble on over. What scares me is the immense pain I'd feel after falling from high up. Sure, if I fell from high enough, I'd die on impact, but any lower and broken bones galore!
I'm not afraid of heights, really, I'm scared of falling off the height by accident and being killed. I know this isn't a fear of 'heights' per say because I'm perfectly fine in a plane, looking straight down at the earth below me. Actually, I quite enjoy it. If I was to stand on a ledge at 10,000 feet with a guard rail I could easily imagine myself being fine. Without that guardrail, though, I'd become easily frightened.
For me, the greater fear is falling since I don't have to urge to jump. Acrophobia makes sense because we intrinsically know that falling from a great height would kill us and very few people live without fearing death once they understand what it is. And most people understand death when they get older. I once visited a skyscraper that had a small piece of glass floor in an elevated part of the building. When I visited it years ago, I saw very young kids jump up and down on the glass, the older ones walked across it, the even older ones skirted the very edges of the glass where it met the floor, and interestingly enough, none of the adults approached it.
. For some it could be the fear that they'll be morbidly curious. I wonder what it'll be like to fall... I wonder what it'll be like to look down this gun barrel and pull the trigger... So it's not necessarily the height, but the mental attitude and closeness to death. And as for dead before hitting the ground? Perhaps nature will cause a blackout. Who knows? There's a lot of urban myth about. Like drowning being a pleasurable experience. No drowned person ever said that.
okay, erebh... but, as with the empire state building, no one could hit the ground from any but the lowest of the 3 levels, because of the tower's shape... and i've been to the [public-accessible] top of both, so know from personal observation, not just pictures...
The guardrail is everything! I work construction, and at dizzying heights. I can lean over a guardrail, or poke my head through the mid and top rail with no trouble. But no guardrails on a deck change everything. Same goes for wearing a safety harness. I've walked I-beams at 200 feet in the air. I've built hanging scaffolds at nearly 400. Without that safety harness on, it would have been a different story. The harness gives confidence, like the handrail. You could stand on the edge of the platform high in the air and be fine, the guardrail gives you the confidence you wont fall (or jump). The harness could fail if I did fall, and I would surely still get hurt if I fell and it did its job. But it gives me enough confidence to be comfortable and do what needs to be done. If I walked an I-beam with no harness, I would be so nervous I would probably cause an accident. I see pictures of construction workers building things back in the day with no safety equipment. I don't know how they did it. I would have chosen a different profession if I would have lived in that era.
Interesting! I've never seen anything like this in person. I would have to say I would walk to the edge of it, but don't really know if I would walk on it. Unless I was wearing my safety harness, of course.
