It Turns Out I’m Claustrophobic
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At my age, I thought I knew pretty much everything about myself, especially about my fears. I know I have an irrational fear of snakes and there is pretty much nothing I can do to put mind over matter when faced with one of those slithering creep shows. However, I had no idea I was claustrophobic. I have been on elevators and airplanes with no problem. I know I cannot get out of those situations until I’m told I can get out, and still I’m not bothered.
Today I went to have an MRI. I went once before to have my kidney stones looked at, but it as an open MRI. Today I needed to wear the TMJ “coil” to they can take pictures of my clicking jaw. Therefore I needed to be in a fully enclosed torture chamber, or so it felt. They got me all situated, explained everything in detail and slid me inside. Immediately I started to hyperventilate and freak out in general. I asked to let out and it took a long time to get calm enough to try again. One of the techs in training needed to stand there the entire time and hold onto my leg for me. For some reason, having another human touching me helped so much.
It took me at least a half hour after I left to get my heart rate back to normal. Now, I did have one indication that I might have claustrophobia. I was watching that episode of Desperate Housewives when Lynette gets locked in the freezer of her restaurant with that chef who had the hots for her. Anyway, the angle of the shot when the door slammed closed and they realized they were trapped was so realistic, so accurate in how it portrayed the small, enclosed space that I found I had to pause the show and get up to walk around until I felt calmer.
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