It seems that I have always had claustrophobia. I can’t remember a time when enclosed places didn’t set off anxiety.
My Mom would often comment about my inability to allow ANYTHING to touch my throat. Zip up my jacket on a cold Denver morning, just don’t get near my throat. I have since learned this could also be a due to ADHD and aversion to some forms sensory input, like something near my throat.
My claustrophobia caused me to wake my parents and my sister and maybe even the whole campground one night when I had a nightmare that I was caught inside our wonderful heavy and warm old fashion sleeping bags in our camper (like the one pictured above). I wasn’t, but there after I always got to sleep by the window with it cracked a little so air could hit my face.
(This was the camper whose lifting gear broke before we were to head to Big Thompson Canyon the weekend of the devastating flood. Nylon gears at that time were not as tough as they are now.)
Though I have done work on myself to be able to handle somethings, like sleeping in a 2 man tent, other things no amount of work is going to conquer it. I completely freaked out when I had to have my first MRI, and I tried to go into that teeny weeny coffin sized tunnel. It took me 20 minutes to calm down enough to speak. I only do open MRI now, and even then only with my eyes closed and constant self talk.
Generally I prefer moving air (that’s why there are ceiling fans in my house) and enjoy the “space” and openness of the out doors.
Until last week there was only one time I ever felt claustrophobic outside. It was when we were in Pakistan. I felt it while taking pictures on the roof of my in-laws house thinking about the laws and treatment of women in Pakistan.
The only time. . . until last week when Trump and his maladmistration got Cobert canceled and then used it to threaten The View with cancelation all because Joy Behar said Donald Trump is “jealous” of Barack Obama.
My country feels smaller like a lid on a coffin is being closed.
Our freedoms are shrinking. My claustrophobia is rising even outside. And many Democrats in leadership positions are not fighting hard enough.