So, what's your excuse?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Phobias, unusual habits, irrational behaviors… We all have 'em. Slight imperfections, kinks, if you will, in our otherwise magnetic personalities.

Here’s the place to confess yours, then justify why you behave that way.

Me? Well, I have so many to choose from. But I’ll share the one that got me thinking about starting this thread. I’m afraid to drive on the freeway. I can drive on my local freeway because it’s not too wide and it’s not too crowded. But, ask me to drive over 30 miles in any given direction and I start hyperventilating, become sweaty and feel faint. I’m a fairly good passenger, however, if I’m allowed to premedicate with Xanax. How did I get this way, you ask? Well, I believe it’s a combination of nurture and nature. You see my mom was a fearful freeway driver. My dad died when I was young and her family lived about an hour away and the only way to get there was to take the freeway. If my mom wanted to see her family, she had to drive us herself. I remember many a Saturday morning being woken up while it was still dark (less cars on the freeways) to make the drive to my cousin’s house. My mom had it down to a science, she knew which lane to get into so that she could go from freeway to freeway without ever having to change lanes. Invariably, however, her hands would start sweating, so I’d have to slide a handkerchief between her hands and the steering wheel, first one hand, then the other hand. She hated to be near trucks and was sure at any given moment that we were going to die. Only an amazingly strong need to see her family enabled her to drive on the freeway.

I think I not only had the fear of freeway driving modeled for me, but I also think I have the (yet to be discovered) fear of freeway gene. So my freeway phobia is not my fault, really!

So, what’s your problem and what’s your excuse?

2

I hate using the telephone, the very idea of having to phone someone nearly brings me to tears, reason being years agoI got a phone call from the “Social” about claiming dole when you’re sick, I was going “hmm” - like you do to let the person on the other end of the line know you are listening. My mother screams from somewhere “speak properly!! The word is Yes, not Uh huh!!!” [which is so not what I was saying] I had to ask the woman [on the phone] to repeat herself, and again I mm-ed and again my mother screamed at me … four times I had to ask the woman on the phone to repeat herself [who could obviously hear my mother screaming, and she started laughing, I still had no idea what she’d said {I couldn’t hear her over my mother’s yelling], so I said “thank you” and hung up. Don’t like phones one little bit no siree bob I don’t

3

I’d like to chime in and say that I, also, had a major phobia about freeway driving. I only used to wear a seat belt when I HAD to drive on the freeway, thinking that THAT was where danger lurked. Mind you, I didn’t have this fear if someone ELSE was driving, only if I was.

I live in WA state, and whenever I HAD to drive to my sister’s house just north of Seattle, I would take the “back roads” as far as I could, then I would stop before I HAD to get on the freeway and give myself a “pep talk”. I always made it safely there, and then wherever we went my sister or her husband drove and I was content.

So, some years ago I had an accident. Three blocks from home. Someone ran a stop sign and “T-boned” me…hit me square in the driver’s door. I broke my pelvis in three places and was lucky to live through the whole thing. I progressed through the wheelchair stage, the walker stage, the cane stage and the “I’ll never be quite the same as I was” stage. Well, I haven’t actually passed through THAT one yet, but…I’m working on it. :slight_smile:

Since this experience, I have NEVER driven or ridden in a car without my seatbelt fastened. I no longer fear the freeway…I know I am a good and safe driver, and that danger lurks EVERYWHERE…and I cannot and WILL not live my life in fear.

I still hate driving in Seattle, and prefer that others more used to driving in big cities handle it. But if I HAVE to do it, I manage much better than I did before.

I have a theory about this, which you are free to disregard should you wish to. See, I think that subconsciously we never REALLY believe anything will happen to US. Sure, stuff happens to OTHER people, but…not ME, surely not ME? Losing your parents is another thing along these same lines…you KNOW your parents are getting older, but you never really REALLY think they would ever leave you. When something actually DOES happen, or you actually DO lose a parent, it is like you are “blindsided” and go…“YIPES! I am NOT sacrosanct! It actually CAN happen to me! My parents actually CAN die! No matter HOW much I love them, no matter HOW much I try to make them immortal!.. I actually CAN be get in an accident…no matter HOW carefully I drive! How can this BE?” But it IS, so you adjust your thinking and learn the best way to deal with it. And when you have learned the best way for YOU do deal with it, you lose the fear. (Not the pain, in some circumstances, but the fear.)

All of which is probably not relevent to this thread, but…there it is. Phobia conquered by tragedy. Go figure.

4

I don’t know that this is along the same lines of what’s in the thread so far… but I don’t think I’ll ever learn to drive.

My reason? I have limited vision: I can only see out of one eye. (and then I can justify it further by talking about road rage and the insane drivers on the roads!) I know there are people who drive with exactly the same kind of limited vision I have… but for me, I don’t know if it’s an option. So it’s the bus or other people driving me around.

F_X

5

My problem - I like to schedule other things on workdays.

My excuse - I call in with “I’ve got the 24-hour polio again.”

Luckily I’m not in a service job where people would have to take up the slack to cover for me. When I come back, my work is all there waiting where I left it.