On 04/05/2021 11:58, R D S wrote:
There's a recognised phobia of wind, I don't think i'm at that level,
i'm not curled up in the foetal position but I am in my office in the
loft at work and the gusts are making me tense up.

Didn't sleep very well last night with gusts hammering the house.
I've lived there 20+ years and it's a windy spot but in all that time
the only issues we've had are a couple of lost slates (and several
flattened green cheap greenhouses).
It doesn't help that I was out at 5.30am recently collecting the
contents of our recycling bin from the street in a gale/****ing down rain.

I get particularly stressed with open windows and have to have them all
shut, especially so if we are away from home. I dare myself to leave
them open to (hopefully) demonstrate that they aren't going going to be
torn off but I panic and buckle.

Just wondering how common this is, is anyone else bothered in this way?

Phobias are very common. Sometimes they're just a mild inconvenience;
sometimes they can disrupt your life. Usually they're somewhere in
between. When it's a phobia that doesn't arise very often, like yours
about high winds, I'd be inclined to just grit your teeth and put up
with it. Obviously there could be some practical measures you could take.
But when a phobia interferes with normal life you need to do something
about it. That either means self-help (read up on it), hypnosis, or
drugs. I have known a small dose of SSRIs to have a miraculous effect on
agoraphobia.
The only real phobia I've had myself concerned my hands. I was afraid
that they might get chopped off or attacked. It was the result of an
elderly relative who was babysitting me when I was about six warning me
this if I let my arm hang down from the bed a monster might come from
under the bed and eat my hand. The result was that I couldn't do the
hand signals on my driving test.

Bill