When the Fear of Bridges Takes Over

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When the Fear of Bridges Takes Over

(August 7, 2007) -- As soon as Shawn Dickerson sees an overpass, she darts for the exit and takes the feeder road instead. Her friends joke that to be on time, she has to leave way earlier than anyone else.

Dickerson is 32 and gephyrophobic.

"I can't describe it," she says of her irrational fear of crossing bridges and overpasses. "When I'm up there I get the sense that my car won't turn or that I won't get over it. Or I feel like I'm gonna fall off of it."

The Sawyer Street entrance ramp to Memorial Drive in Houston has a steep enough incline to cause those with an irrational fear of bridges to panic.
STEVE CAMPBELL: CHRONICLE

When someone else is driving, Dickerson copes by closing her eyes or dropping down into her seat. She remembers this started about five years ago, on the Loop 610 West interchange to U.S. 59 North. She panicked, slowed to a crawl and felt her heartbeat fast and her palms get sweaty.

She made it, of course, but she had a line of angry motorists behind her.

"It's like right when you're about to drop on a roller coaster, and you're anticipating the ride down," she recalled Tuesday. "I'm in fear even though in my mind I know I'm gonna (make it) down."

While last week's deadly bridge collapse over the Mississippi River in Minnesota might cause short-term anxiety in some individuals, those most likely to be affected will be the people directly involved, said Jerilyn Ross, president of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. A small percentage may develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

Real phobias, said Ross, aren't induced by such tragic events. A phobia is an irrational fear.

Ross said 13 million Americans suffer from some kind of phobia — from claustrophia, a fear of being enclosed, to agoraphobia, the fear of being in a public place.

Gephyrophobia is the fear of crossing a bridge, and it can be extreme. Ross has treated two patients so panicked by the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland, they preferred to ride in the trunk of the car.

There's no single explanation for what causes these panic attacks, but Ross said it could be that crossing these bridges isn't a natural experience.

"Early primitive people didn't have these heights and bridges," she said. "These are things we weren't biologically prepared for."

So the reaction — sweaty palms, a faster heartbeat — is a primitive reaction, typical of the fight or flight response.

Sarah Granbery, a research coordinator for University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, can't explain where her fear of bridges came from. On the balcony of a tall building, she's OK. Her siblings and parents are fine on bridges, too.

But she remembers as a child, she'd slide down in the car seat and close her eyes so she wouldn't have to see the water as the family car traversed a bridge. Now 52, Granbery takes the center lane every time she goes over the causeway to Galveston Island.

Texas Department of Transportation spokesman Mark Cross says bridges are "designed with safety in mind" rather than aesthetics.

But, he added, during public hearings held before a bridge is built, someone inevitably will talk about a bridge's imposition or about its fear factor. Cross says one of the bridges that gets the most talk is the Dallas High Five, the U.S. 75/Interstate 635 interchange that rises about 120 feet, making it one of the tallest in Texas.

Joe LoBuono, a structural engineer who helped design the 5 1/2 -mile-long Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Florida's Tampa Bay, said most bridges are constructed with federal money, and the government wants the "most bang for their buck."

"It means that you are trying to put up the most cost-effective bridge possible," he said.

He points to the Loop 610 bridge over the Houston Ship Channel, which he said was built for the convenience of ship traffic, just tall enough that they could pass underneath.

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He said even the grading, or incline, of a bridge is determined by cost.

Dickerson knows the chances of falling off a bridge are remote. She talked to her doctor, who said she could take some anxiety medication or simply face up to her fear.

But for now, she's still taking the long way home.

By: EYDER PERALTA
Source: Houston Chronicle

Last updated 08/07

When the Fear of Bridges Takes Over

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