Most people have had a blind date at least once in their life. I’ve had several. My first one didn’t go so well. A friend of mine was dating a girl, and she wanted to bring a friend along on a date. She needed a date so that became me. We went to a local amusement park, which was kind of the local thing to do when you were in high school.
We got in line for the roller coaster and this girl did not want to go on it. Riding wasn’t a really a big deal but her friend really wanted to go on. So we pushed like teenagers often do and a little peer pressure later we were in line thinking we had left bill the cat behind.
I didn’t think anything of it until we sat down and the security bar, came down across our laps. At the same time, her fingernails, literally dug into my arm and I could not get her to release. During the course of the roller coaster ride I wasn’t focused on enjoying the roller coaster I was focused on the fact that my arm was now bleeding. The girl was almost catatonic and would not let go. I had multiple fingernail holes with blood coming out of my arms. When the ride finally stopped we got her to come back to reality and remove her fingernails from my arm. It was kind of a bloody mess at that time and we were all wondering what the hell just happened.
At that point, she proceeded to tell us that the last time she rode a roller coaster. Her and her father were in a car that left the track. I don’t remember if anybody was killed, but it was clearly a traumatic event. If she had said that before we got on the roller coaster we probably all would have understood. But instead she chose to not share the information, and then freaked out in the process.
This is probably not that uncommon that somebody has a fear of something and is also afraid to tell other people. Looking back I completely understand, but at the same time, it’s a scenario that shouldn’t happen,
This is not an example of somebody screwing the fear. This is somebody getting caught up in the fear and being controlled by it. This is not what you want to happen. She definitely gets points for attempting it. But, for execution, not so much.
There’s definitely a difference between dancing with fear and being paralyzed by it. And that really was where this person was. Maybe if we tried a smaller roller coaster. It would have been a better experience. People need dealing with fear need to take control of their own journey through it. Are they going to allow themselves to be thrown into the deep end of the pool, or are they going to take baby steps, and slowly work their way in to get comfortable.