"williamwright" wrote in message
...
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.

Fark, weird how little kids can be like that.