Gephyrophobia is the fear of crossing over bridges…small, medium or large! There are thousands of people around the world who suffer with Gephyrophobia. I’m fine with small and medium sized bridges but when it comes to large bridges with a lot of congested traffic on them…my anxiety rises! If you suffer with this type of phobia you’re not alone.
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When we approach a large bridge I can feel my heart rate increase, I start sweating and sometimes I actually feel sick to my stomach. I refuse to drive across one and will always make my husband do the drive. With that said, I’ve been coping with it by distracting myself while we’re on the bridge. That could be playing a game on my phone, reading a book, doing a crossword puzzle, making a phone call (I’m not driving) or something else. I try to NOT focus myself on the bridge!
Once we’re off the bridge and about a mile past it…I can feel the anxiety and tension leaving my body. It used to be a terrible thing for me to experience until I learned distraction techniques that work (see above). If this type of phobia is interfering with you doing any type of traveling, going to and from work a certain way, etc. I would highly recommend that you talk to a doctor or therapist about it. There’s help out there to help you cope with the fear of crossing bridges.
We enjoy traveling and taking road trips, so it’s something I’ve had to deal with. I’m happy to report that with the distraction techniques that I’ve learned…I’ve been getting better and better about crossing those big bridges!