# Anxiety Disorders > Specific Phobias >  >  Lifts/Elevators

## Otherside

This isn't exactly...a phobia. Or maybe it is. I don't know. I don't know where to put it. It's not something that affects my life majorly. I'm just curious. Is this just me? Is this something a lot of people with Anx have problems with? 

It's more a...dislike rather than full blown panic attack anxiety. I will use a elevator if I have to. But given the option between walking twenty flights of stairs or using a elevator, I'd take the stairs, even if I do have a big heavy suitcase with me that I have to drag up (Although I've yet to actually have to stay on the 20th floor of a hotel...) I've never liked crowds or small spaces...and crowded elevator...aren't exactly pleasant, and the whole time I'm just praying I can get out of there...although not exactly having any of the symptoms I usually would with anxiety. No dizziness, no fast breathing or rapid heartrate, no feeling sick...if anything the only thing is that I feel slightly light headed and can't think straight. 

Nightmares for me generally involve a very, very small and unsafe elevator on the top of say, a skyscrapper or something, in which the cable snaps and the lifts ends up freefalling through the shaft. And although I have absolutley no idea what being stuck in a falling lift is like, I can imagine it's pretty horrible, and heck, sometimes in my dream, I can feel the pressure, air rushing fast, and the fear of falling...before waking up and realizing that I am in fact, on the second floor of a house, in bed, and not in a elevator. 

Thinking about, it probably has something to with control. In an elevator...how do I put this, it seems...trapped. You're trapped in that metal box and there is pretty much no way out if something goes wrong. On the stairs...well, at least you're the one doing the movement and you're the one in control, although I guess the stairs could collapse or something, but still...

That sounds really stupid. I can drive a car. I can fly on a plane. For heaven sakes, it's not even about heights. I've absailled down a building and jumped off a cliff (It was purely recreational, and it was in an area where it had been okayed to do it)...but I seem to have a problem when it comes to taking elevator...more of problem taking it down, than up.

I'm not looking for a soultion or advise...just curious if anyone else has a hatred of elevators, elevator-phobia, or any other, odd, small box related dislike?

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## Total Eclipse

This is a phobia, I think. But can also be related to anxiety and the closed spaces. The fear of elevators is relatively common.

The fear of elevators have been a great part of (and so much at a very young age) one of my first anxiety memory's, to be honest. I think this is because it combines two phobias in one: fear of enclosure and fear of heights (many worry about the elevator falling). Also, throw in some social anxiety with the people pressing up against you, and you have a recipe for the perfect phobia.

I don\t like getting in them, I try and avoid them if I can, whenever I'm in one I feel uneasy and do feel a bit panicked, I get nervous and scared if it makes any type of noise. I can't think straight and I'm really all over the place till we get off. (With that I also get a full blown panic attack). 

One hospital I was going to for treatment had a specialist I had to see on a floor that only allowed elevators and stairs for emergency's. I ended up avoiding it for MONTHS all because I refused to take the elevators. 

I don't know - I think  your on to something... it also might be about control (I don't like planes, elevators (even drinking and medication).   But an aspect of fear in their, too. I'd rather g on a plane then an elevator, however..

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## Noca

I only hate escalators, the ones going down, they freak me out! lol

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## compulsive

Sounds like a phobia. I like small spaces. But I am very afraid of large crowds talking loudly as the noise just blurrs and I cant hear anything. I dont like being in close proximity to other people. An elevator is ok as long as there isnt lots of talking.  Large lecture halls are a nightmare.

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## Otherside

Old thread, but today I walked up 193 steps/about 15 storeys rather than take a lift (a packed lift to make it even better. Not. I hate crowds too.) ignoring the "Only in an emergency" signs.  Guys watching the CCTV must have seen me stopping for breathe, because a message on the tanoy reminded people not to walk up the stairs unless they were in good physical shape.

Ugh. 

Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk

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## HoldTheSea

I hate elevators... I guess I would call it a phobia.

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## Member11

I don't have issues with elevators, it goes to show how anxiety can affect people differently.

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## Total Eclipse

> Old thread, but today I walked up 193 steps/about 15 storeys rather than take a lift (a packed lift to make it even better. Not. I hate crowds too.) ignoring the "Only in an emergency" signs.  Guys watching the CCTV must have seen me stopping for breathe, because a message on the tanoy reminded people not to walk up the stairs unless they were in good physical shape.
> 
> Ugh. 
> 
> Sent from my D5803 using Tapatalk



Ugh,, I would do the same ;(

Hugs

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## lethargic nomad

I'm okay with them as long as they aren't crowded.  The elevators were quite crowded at my previous job.  And it was made worse because on the 2nd and 3rd floors there were a couple clinics.  So often times there were heavily pregnant women, people in wheelchairs, people on crutches, very old frail looking people.  So do you let the sick people on first to be polite?  Or should I get on first, so that the sick people can get off easily (I won't have to leave the elevator to let them get through)?  I usually just got on first.

And there was this insurance company that was taking over the whole building.  They had offices on multiple floors and would often take the elevator to go from say the 6th floor to the 9th floor.  So annoying.....they really overused that elevator.

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## Antidote

I don't have a fear of elevators though I have been stuck in one for about 5 minutes with someone having a panic attack. The lift just stopped and the lights went out, it was pitch black and my uncle's girlfriend at the time started panicking. It wasn't long before it started moving again though. I think it had been caused by a power failure which is pretty common where we were. I'm not really fussed by these things, because I usually assume that if a lift stops it won't take long before you get out (even if it takes several hours), so I don't truly feel trapped.

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## PinkButterfly

Escalators always made me feel like I would be sucked in the crack from the bottom once on I was okay and then at the top I would watch really carefully and get off and elevators Ugh I feel my stomach coming up and my head all off balance so I usually find one object and stare at it and hold onto the bar on the sides.

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## Cuchculan

I went to the doctors, he said, "What's wrong?"
I said, "I've got a terrible phobia about lifts and escalators."
He said, "Are you taking anything at the moment?"
I said, "Yes, the stairs."   ::D:

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## Ironman

I used an escalator the other day and it still gives me the creeps to this day, seeing those metals stairs and that "light' as it eats the stairs into the digestion of the abyss.  I thought it was going to take my shoelace and never give it back.  I was going up the escalator.....and I was afraid to look down.

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## PinkButterfly

Look down is scary yes and Cuch that is funny!!!! lol 

I just hate when I am surrounded by so many people I think WHAT IF .

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## Ironman

I saw a child fall down the escalator as it was going down.  The escalator did stop, but I was like - oooh, the metal will hurt!

I need to practice using the escalator, but that means going to a store  :: .

@TyeDyedButterfly
 - so you are afraid someone in the crowd might snap or the fear that you might feel like you are going crazy?

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## PinkButterfly

I suffer from agoraphobia so I am not leaving my home anytime soon unless its a trip to the er or a doctors office but at my docs there is an elevator and thankfully he is on the 3rd floor but I always make sure it is just me and my hubby inside that box I feel people watch me and know I am a mess and on escalators I just can not stand someone standing right behind me or right in front of me because what if I need to cry or throw up or I need to walk up it faster it is the WHST IF'S for me and what if someone did take a photo of me laying on the floor usually all you see are people taking photos with their cell phones . Luckily in my area I don't think is an escalator I used to go up the one at JcPenny's store over in KY but then I finally stopped I quit going up one.  My Neuro surgeon his office is on the main floor at the James Cancer center thank goodness but the testing is up higher Ughhhhhhhhhhh so it is bad enough that I have to go up in a Metal Box but there are so many people at the OSU Hospital you can not get alone in a elevator so I always take a vomit bag and keep my face down and I do have to use a wheelchair.

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