Читать книгу Jog On - Bella Mackie - Страница 13

Almost everyone has a fear of something strange. The NHS estimates 10 million people in the UK have some kind of phobia.[28] My mum hates rats. For years, she wouldn’t even allow the word to be spoken in front of her. We had to say ‘big mice’. My mother is incredibly strong, smart and fearless. But I have seen her turn into a screeching mess when confronted with ‘big mice’. A country walk a few years ago turned into a farce when we spied one twenty metres ahead of us. ‘TELL IT TO GO AWAY!’ she yelled repeatedly as she clutched my arm. Unhelpfully, I laughed uncontrollably at this request. I am not a kind daughter. She can write her own book about this.

But phobias can be life-changing. My mother rarely comes into contact with rats. Other people are not so lucky with their fears – and it can be incredibly distressing when you sense danger – whether or not the danger is real.

Phobias usually fall into one of two categories – specific phobias and complex ones. My mother has a specific phobia. Animals are common, as are heights, blood, vomit and flying. If you have a fear of something specific you’ll normally go out of your way to avoid it. If your phobia is massive spiders and you don’t live in Australia you might not find this too restrictive but when it’s something you can’t always avoid, you can find your world shrinks. I developed a fear of flying aged eighteen. Having previously been fine on planes, I suddenly could not get on a flight. I was terrified. I missed fun family holidays, friends going on adventures, and work trips. I occasionally took dreary train trips and pretended it was a fun way to travel, but I felt absurd and immobilised. Just the thought of a plane journey would have me shaking, and I felt so restricted by it.

Complex phobias are even harder to overcome. This term usually refers to agoraphobia and social phobia. Agoraphobia is widely assumed to be a fear of wide open spaces (a desert? the surface of the moon?) but is more likely to mean anxiety about how to get out of somewhere without panicking or where help is not obvious. Anxious people are often looking for the literal or metaphorical emergency exit. This might mean you feel overwhelmed on the Tube, or in a busy supermarket. Again, this can mean a person with agoraphobia might limit the places they go to. In the worst case, this might mean becoming housebound – the only place a person might feel truly safe. Agoraphobia often comes on after a bad experience – being stuck in a lift, or after having had an accident. Professor Kevin Gournay, an expert in the condition, estimates around 1 per cent of the UK population is affected by severe agoraphobia.[29]

Maybe this sounds like claustrophobia to you – the difference is small, but important. Claustrophobia is the extreme fear of confined or closed off spaces. With agoraphobia, you have a fear of any place that might make an easy escape difficult, leading to a panic attack or extreme anxiety.