18 Problems Only Claustrophobic People Will Understand
3. I'll Take The Stairs
A lift is a claustrophobic's arch enemy. If the stairs are not an option, you have to face your fears by using the lift. Go to any public building and you cant avoid getting into a lift. Be it to take you from the car park to the supermarket or to your room on the 18th floor in the hotel, you are forced to use the elevator. As the doors close to trap you in, you stare intently at the digital display telling you what floor you are on. The pause as 1 turns into 2 and then into 3, it seems to last forever. Why is it taking so long? At least they have tried to create an illusion of space by putting a mirror along the back of the lift. But when you look at it for comfort, all you see is you and the doors trapping you in the lift. You keep feeling for the slight tremor to indicate that there is some kinetic energy in motion, but what if it gets stuck? What if the lift stops moving and you are trapped between floors. Help could take ages; you could be trapped in the lift for hours! Does the help button even work? You start thinking of escape routes. Can you open the escape hatch on the roof? How would you even reach it? That doesn't matter because if the lift gets stuck, you must reach that hatch and get it open like your life depends on it. That hatch is what divides you from being in an enclosed pressurised space and freedom. Then out of nowhere, a exhilarating DING as the lift reaches your floor. The doors take a little too long to open and for a moment you begin to wonder if you are really tapped, but you can relax, you have survived to fight another day. And at least the lift wasn't packed with people.
