Feel the fear and do it anyway

I don't mind calls to doctors, businesses etc. It's chatting that I hate. It takes me days to pluck up the courage. Much prefer texts. It's so good to know it's normal.

Me too! Isn’t it silly. That’s why I like to text or WhatsApp but I have a couple of friends who prefer phone calls and I’m constantly feeling guilty for not phoning them.

Mine is putting air in the tyres. I can’t get down comfortably to fit the air pump onto the valve so have to wait for a family member to do it for me.

I know what you mean about hand car washes. I won’t use one. I’m basically afraid of looking silly or doing the wrong thing. Has held me back from so many things.

Dentist for me along with spiders. Unfortunately I'm on my own now so I will have to deal with the 8 legged things eventually. As for dentist I haven't been for years but during lockdown I've had two teeth cause me trouble so I know I will have to go at some point.

I get lost really easily, I have no sense of direction . Luckily I don't drive, but I am quite an impulsive person, some see me as brave, but it's not bravado, it's just impulsiveness. I do feel the fear but I always do it anyway, whether I should or shouldn't is a different matter.

Lifts terrify me but since I have now developed mobility problems I have to use them, my daughter tells me that mobile phones do work if stuck in a lift, so would ring fire brigade.

Escalators
Being a passenger in a car

That’s about it really, but I agree with other posters that anxiety levels in general have risen since the lockdowns.

Using a car wash machine. I couldn’t tell which nozzle to use first: it seemed counter intuitive and the bleepin thing cut out before ai’d washed the foam off.

Like many previous posters I used to be reasonably confident about most things, I'd get a bit nervous before speaking to large groups, would always got lost when travelling for work (would find the town no problem but the actual office was another matter). Nowadays the slightest thing, hairdressers, dentist, doctors, having to make a phone call sends me running to the bathroom with a nervous stomach. As for driving, DH has done all of it since retirement but is now too ill so if we want to go anywhere I have to drive. He becomes incredibly nervous, I drive like an idiot with the constant critique and the end result is a blazing row. Oh the joys of old age!!!

Everything scares me: you name it: spiders, driving, heights, lifts, confined spaces, the telephone, the dark, parties, crowds.....I am terrified of the lot of them.

Smalltalk at meetings, conferences etc - I always say something wrong. I can answer questions, participate in discussion and give opinions, but smalltalk brings me out in a cold sweat.

Well it used to be flying l would force myself to do it.But since lockdown will not be a problem ever again.Have decided for me it is not worth the physìcal sickness and fear, l vowed never to do it again.
More recently going into restaurants for a meal. l am constantly doing a risk assessment before l can relax but l am getting there.

She being daughter meant to say daughter first time sorry

Hate getting a train on my own, don’t know why. Am Okish if I get on with someone else. Made myself get on the train just before first lockdown and she met me on the platform. Terrified but did it . Now not going out much have only been once on local
train one stop with family so no chance to practice.

Don’t mind driving including the M25 and other motorways as long as I know the route. Get anxious driving where I don’t know not make myself as like driving mostly.

Can do email and order stuff online but am anxious about other computer stuff and hate doing online bank transfers, usually get DD2 to do it

DiscoDancer1975

What are you driving Maw? Our local car hand wash is £10 for our SUV.
I hate the phone. Always have. Wish we’d had email and texts when young. Video calling is fine because I can see the person.
Those answer machines turn me into a mumbling, gibberish speaking wreck!

Wash, full valet, wax etc
A year or so ago it was £15, so £22 while a bit of an increase seems money well enough spent to me.

DENTIST! I'm terrified, and it's something that I only ever do once a decade or so, and yet I know how ridiculous I am. I have even seen first hand what can happen when you DONT go to the dentist. My son ignored a dental abscess, and the infection moved to his heart, and then became a multi system infection that in turn turned to sepsis. 17 weeks in ICU, 11 weeks in a medical ward, followed by 4 in a rehab centre, with the removal of his spleen, and long term kidney damage.

I should get over it. But despite having an abscess I just can't visit the dentist.

So good to know it's not just me ! Motorways - hate them ! Hand car wash too and the dentist!!!! Why am I like this ?

What are you driving Maw? Our local car hand wash is £10 for our SUV.
I hate the phone. Always have. Wish we’d had email and texts when young. Video calling is fine because I can see the person.
Those answer machines turn me into a mumbling, gibberish speaking wreck!

Dentist, this started with the School Dentist, no anaesthetic just straight in with the drill, that fear has stayed with me all through my life. I've been known to make appointments & cancel them. I do force myself to go now.

Lifts, I've been stuck in one, I won't get into a crowded lift.

Escalators, I can manage going up but not down

Motorways, I've always hated driving on busy motorways, I passed my test in 1973. I do drive on them as it's the only way I can see my Mum s she lives in Yorkshire & I'm in Devon (no motorways except the end of the M5)

I have to face my fears head on, lots of other things cause me anxiety but the worst is having an MRI scan, I've had 3, head only but I'm claustrophobic, my worst nightmare

Tomorrow I am watching my youngest daughter parachute out of an aeroplane. Im far more scared than she is. I've advised her to wear brown trousers!

Going to the dentist, absolute terror. I have to leave in a few minutes for an appointment with mine and would prefer to be dragged there than have to voluntarily go myself.

It's been so interesting reading your comments, especially as so many fears are to do with driving.
My overcome fear is driving on the right hand side in Europe with a British car, I'm feeling slightly anxious just thinking about it, even though I'm now in the UK.
I know I get far more anxious as I'm ageing - getting to trains on time, driving DH's car, moving house, and also, as a newbie on GN, I also feel anxious about giving my political opinions for fear of being trolled. Hardly anything used to arouse fear.
30 years ago I read the book, Feel The Fear and Do it Anyway - it's been my mantra since then, because after doing it the feeling of having done it negates the fear of it, at least temporarily.

Hi Inishowen, try and turn your fear of meeting people, so think ,
“strangers are just friends I haven’t met yet!!” ???

Riverwalk

Those paying £6/£8 for a hand car wash - do you not worry that these men are likely being exploited. How can anything so labour-intensive be so cheap?

There have been so many reports over the years that such car washes are usually dens of modern day slavery.

No it's the going rate around here and it's their own business so expect they are charging what will get the customers in.
We have our cars fully valeted for £40 again own business and has been doing it for years