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The Battalion
Page 3 • Monday, February 9, 2004
&on’* fear fhe reaper
lyes and creepy crawlers force students to duck under the covers in fear
By Tori Foster
THE BATTALION
Jessica Brazeal and her mother were at the kitchen table studying
»(1 talking one night when she heard a tap on the window. As the
uadgrew louder, Brazeal looked up to see two eyes staring back at
(.Then, Brazeal said, she opened her mouth and screamed. Her tear
dark windows was bom.
Brazeal faces anxiety over more than just things that go bump in the
|it.She, along with others who have been similarly scarred, must
fj tahow to adjust their lives around these fears.
"Ever since then, dark windows just creep me out," said Brazeal, a
sophomore journalism major. “Of course, all of a sudden, my dad ran
wdsaid, Tm sorry, 1 was just playing.’"
Now as Brazeal is living on her own and attending college, she said
ktfearhas led to a new evening routine.
“It's an automatic thing now." Brazeal said. “Once it is dark, that
lasts it is time to walk around and close the blinds. I also have a ten-
tey to check windows and make sure no one is out there.”
is time for Brazeal to turn out the lights and go to sleep, she
i lie awake until her eyes become adjusted to the darkness if there
is a window uncovered.
1 automatically assume that when 1 hxvk at a dark w indow some-
me is going to be staring back at me because of w hat 1 experienced
»tal was younger,” Brazeal said.
TafiStaine said windows are not her problem; her sick feeling of
ad is induced by something of a creepy-crawly nature.
"lamextremely terrified of roaches," said Staine, a junior joumal-
tmajor. 'They disgust me. I am more afraid of a nasty roach than 1
of any other insects.”
With reality show mania taking over the television you never know
iliatyou might see people doing or eating.
“Ihaveseen those shows and all I can say is ‘yuck.’” Staine said.
pple eat a nasty roach I w ill never know . I mean, just imagine
kroach crunching in their mouth.”
Hie way Staine copes w ith her fear of cockroaches is to not be
lie vicinity of them. Now, Staine stays as far aw ay from cock-
itaches as possible.
“If there was a roach in my room 1 would freak out.” Staine said,
lomeoneelse would definitely have to kill it because I am not going
lodoit.But until it is dead 1 wouldn’t sleep.”
The thrills and chills of theme parks and rollercoasters are exciting
many people, but to Vivina Rivera, the emphasis is on the chills.
I have a terrible fear of roller coasters.” said Rivera, a junior com
munications major. “If 1 am ever at a theme park and I see a roller
Met,my heart begins to race and my palms get sweaty.”
Rivera's trepidation over roller coasters stemmed from a family out-
iioSnFlags in Dallas.
“While I was there, 1 got on a kiddie roller coaster and 1 was terri
fied,” Rivera said. “1 was yelling and pleading with the operator to turn
the machine off because I couldn’t take it anymore. I felt as though my
heart was being torn out of my body. At the moment 1 didn’t think any
thing worse than this could ever exist.”
Though Rivera hasn’t had any medical treatment to over
come her fear, she said she has tried to be brave and face
it head-on.
“I have tried to get over this fear by making the situation
more familiar by riding roller coasters,” Rivera said. "But I
think I will always be this way. It’s a horrible feeling, and'
even just talking about them makes me nervous.”
When Haley Love went to sit at the window of the top floor of
the Hancock Tower in Chicago, she realized that her fear of heights
made the window too threatening to stand therefor any length of time.
“1 was miserable and could not do it ” said Love, a senior psycholo
gy major. “I am afraid of heights, specifically of falling off high things.”
If Love cannot see the ground in front of her, an immediate rush of
physical symptoms comes over her.
“I feel a sinking feeling and 1 get really unbalanced,” Love said.
“I have to hold on to something. I don’t know that I really picture
anything, I’m just kind of scared I will slip or someone will push
me off by accident.”
Love said she does not feel it is necessary for her to seek medical
help hut she said that she needs to learn to cope with this
anxiety on her own.
“I have tried to tell myself it is stupid and I am
okay — I won’t fall out of a building,” Love said.
“I have never sought out treatment because
heights are not that big a part of my life, and I
figured I am just avoid the situation.”
Though she may not be affected by her fear
of heights at this time in her life. Love said one
day this fear may be an encumbrance.
“Later on when I get to do what 1 want in regards
to vacationing and outdoor activities I think I will be
limited,” Love said. “I love to be outside and a lot of
the most beautiful places are near mountains and other
high places.”
As Brazeal has gotten older, she said her fear has
decreased because she has learned how to
cope with the panic and is not the
only female who has learned to live
with this apprehension.
“It has probably subsided a lit
tle by being on my own.” Braze"'
said. “I think (we all) have fears
and have a tendency to protec
ourselves from them.”
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