I have a number of common phobias; nyctophobia (fear of the dark), arachnophobia (fear of spiders), acrophobia (fear of heights) and claustrophobia (fear of being closed in a small space), and I can remember the exact moment each of these phobias manifested.

I grew up in a house that was heated with a wood stove in the basement. Because of this, the basement door was always left open. Unfortunately that door was across from the only bathroom in the house.

I would wake up in the middle of the night and have to use the bathroom, but the dark basement scared me so much I would lay in bed for as long as I could to try to avoid having to go past its open door. 

Eventually I would have no choice and I would creep down the stairs, rush by the basement and into the bathroom, quickly shutting the door. After I was finished I would gather up my courage to leave, running out as fast as I could, back up the stairs and under my covers.

My arachnophobia developed during a childhood game of hide and seek. Because the town I grew up in was so small, we would hide around the entire town, not just someone’s yard.

That day I was looking for a place to hide when I ran into a small space between two buildings and came face to face with a huge barn spider sitting in the center of its web. I barely stopped in time to avoid plowing into it.

I had never seen a spider that large before and almost running into it cemented my phobia.

My fear of heights came from the two-story enclosed metal slide that was attached to the old brick schoolhouse in the center of town. It was originally the fire escape, but the school had closed before my time so for us it was just the best slide ever.

We were actually forbidden to use the slide because it was so old and barely hanging onto the building, but that just made it more appealing. We would climb the rickety metal ladder up to the top and zip back down over and over again.

One day when I had reached the top I felt the entire structure move away from the building. I suddenly realized how far off the ground I was and that was it. My fear of heights had begun.

Claustrophobia is actually the worst fear I live with today. I used to give myself nightmares about being stuck underground or buried alive.

The fear began during another game of hide and seek, this time in our house. I hid under my parent’s bed like I had numerous times before, but after I was discovered I couldn’t get back out. I had grown just enough since the last time I’d hid under there that I was stuck.

After panicking I managed to free myself, but that started the claustrophobia, and my fear of being trapped has actually grown over time instead of lessening like my other phobias.

The worst episode I had was in St Louis, MO, when we decided to go to the top of the Gateway Arch. 

When it was our turn I was dismayed to find that to get to the top you had to sit in a tiny elevator car that took minutes to reach the top. As soon as the door shut I knew it was a mistake. I panicked but there was no way out.

Being in the arch was almost worse, because all I could think about was what if the elevators quit working and I was trapped. It didn’t help that the ceiling in the arch is really low and you have to hunch over.

To get out I had to face the elevator ride back down. To top it off, two weeks after we got home the arch lost power for two hours with people at the top and inside the elevators. My heart races just thinking about it.

Halloween, the season of creepy fun, is a good time to try to face your fears and overcome them. Maybe this is the year I’ll succeed.