Many people have lift or elevator anxiety. They panic when they enter, or think about entering an elevator. For the purpose of this blog I will refer to elevators as "lifts" as I am English and lift is the English word.
Lifts commonly cause phobias for various reasons. On the one hand they can aggravate claustrophobia. The small enclosed space is the nearest most of us get to prison. Often the walls are metal and the doors are several inches thick. Not much hope of getting out of there, we think, if the lift gets stuck.
Lifts also go beyond claustrophobia. Lifts do not leave us fully in control, which is often where the anxious mind wants us to be. And lifts are obviously associated with tall buildings, hospitals and work. So there are many possible subconscious considerations to a lift phobia.
Worst of all, lifts are easy to avoid, and evasion is the arch enemy of a phobia sufferer.
But a lift is also a gift. There are a few reasons why lifts are so great for helping you overcome anxiety and phobia issues.
Although they appear scary to some, lifts are incredibly safe! It is basically impossible for a lift to plummet to the ground, the chances are millions against.
Lifts are easy to find, there is more than likely one in your local shopping centre you can use.
Lifts give you a very short dose of what you are afraid of. You can go on a lift for as little as twenty seconds.
As time goes by you can stay in lifts for longer, getting used to not being able to see out, not being able to get a reference point from which to orientate yourself.
And will they lift get stuck? The chances are very remote, but if you do get stuck what is the worst that can happen?
Assuming the lift you use is in a building used by others, people will be aware of the problem strait away. People will be called and restarting the lift rarely takes long. You might think that you would die if you got stuck in a lift, but you would be wrong. In fact you would probably have a panic attack, but after some short time the panic would give way to reasonable concern and boredom.
So don’t delay, start using elevators or lifts to get a feel for surrendering control!
