Phobias and Corrals
You’re probably wondering what phobias and corrals have in common. My family vacation of course! I’ve had to postpone talking about my vacation due to one thing or another, but it’s finally time that I get the chance to share with you how exactly my vacation went. Vacations are supposed to be all about relaxing, having fun and spending time with your family and though we did do those things, there was also a mix of drama, frustration, sweat, and tears. So sit back, relax and learn how I spent my summer vacation, starting with phobias and corrals.
Phobias:
Traveling has been a difficult task for my family for the past few years. Why you may ask? Because my husband has a phobia of flying, or rather, he has a fear of heights which includes flying. He gets extremely anxious and just does not do well with flying, period. It’s hard enough to get him on the sixth floor of a hotel, let alone 30,000 feet into the air. To say the least, we have never missed a flight and generally it was because he was on sleeping medication that caused him to pass out for the entirety of the flight.
The problem though was that he is no longer on that medication, which meant he had to try a new medication for the anxiety. Let me tell you…it did not work. So the entirety of the flight he squeezed my hand until I thought it was going to fall off. And to make matters worse, we had two guys sitting behind us who decided that it was okay to talk about the plane flying and potentially running out a fuel. My mom finally had to tell them nicely to stop, which they did, but seriously, I thought my husband was going to run off of the plane as soon as it landed.
Welcome to Florida!
We made it to Florida and I thankfully was able to keep my hand intact. Baggage was, for once, not a problem nor was renting the car. The next problem I had to face was following my brother—who was driving the car in front of me—to the time-share where we were to meet my husband’s family. My brother drives fast and yes, that means that I did lose him at one point along the way and urgently had to turn my GPS on to make sure I didn’t miss the turn. I did manage to get us there and right behind my brother actually, so go me! There we met up with my hubby’s family and it was so great to see them. It had been two years since we had seen one another, so it was nice to reunite. Of course the joy was short lived because as we waited around to be checked in, the kids started getting a little fussy, but considering they had just driven from Mississippi to Florida, it was reasonable.
The Room:
We stay at a great time-share when we go to Florida and it never fails to disappoint—except of course for this time. Don’t get me wrong, it was still a great room, but the heating was off for the first day and a half and then we found that there was a little ant problem. All in all, it had a few kinks which lead to a bit of bickering, but it got worked out. But now the problem was…hunger.
The Corral:
I bet you were wondering when this would come in. We decided on going to Golden Corral for dinner considering my family had never been there before, it was cheap and they had my favorite desert: cotton candy. I never knew that there could be a line for a buffet, but low and behold, we entered the first line of many in Florida when we went there to eat. The food was really good and it’s a great place to go if you’re on a budget. It’s only about $12 to get in and less if you have someone 10 years or younger, plus it’s all you can eat and they have a large variety of food to pick from.
Adventures at Wal-Mart:
After eating we knew we had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up some supplies for the week. Nine people plus a very large Wal-Mart is not a good mix for the record. I swear we were there for two hours, if not more. Less learned: If you’re going to Wal-Mart with a big group, make a list of items you want to get in advance so when one of the kids wants to look at clothes and one wants to look at video games, you won’t have to keep trying to get in contact with the person across the store trying to figure out what snacks need to be picked up.
Finally…Sleep…Maybe:
We returned back to the time-share and put everything away. It was then time to head to bed, but of course that’s never easier—especially when you have two rooms connected to one another and the kids decide to go back and forth between the two for at least another hour before they pass out in one of the beds (not necessarily the one that you had planned for them to sleep in).
What I Learned:
- Anxiety meds are wonderful…when they work.
- You can have your hand squeezed by someone else for two hours and still have feeling in it afterward.
- It’s always great to see family.
- There can, and probably will, be kinks when you first arrive at your destination.
- Family will get on your last nerve despite how long it’s been since you’ve last seen them.
- The Golden Corral has awesome food for awesome prices.
- Make a list before going to the grocery store.
- Kids will never stay in one place for long periods of time…or short periods for that matter.
All in all, the first night went well; though, the fun was just beginning.
Posted on July 23, 2012 by Felicia
OMG!!
I understand that it can be extremely difficult to handle a person suffering from a phobia like this. What makes matter worse is seeing your loved ones become the butt of all ridicule at the hands of all onlookers.
Hats off to you for being so patient with him and to your Mom. I guess that what makes Moms special.
Just a suggestion- Have you ever tried hypnotherapy for helping your hubby out?
Oh yes, it is very difficult to say the least, haha. It always makes me feel bad when he’s experiencing the stress and there’s really nothing I can do. He gets through though and I’m proud of him for that!
We have not tried hypnotherapy and I don’t think it’s something that he would actually go for. You never know though, it may happen one day and if it does I’m sure I’ll blog about it! Thank you for the comment and the suggestion!!
Oh, boy! You just never know what’s going to happen when you go on a vacation!
I’m impressed that your husband was willing to fly given his fear. I’m not sure I would have.
Hope your vacation was a good one. Visiting from SITS.
Patty recently posted..Avocado Hummus
That’s absolutely right, Patty! Anything can happen on a family vacation. I’m thankful that he can concur his fears and is willing to fly; though, I don’t think I’ll be getting him on plane again for a while. Thanks for stopping by, Patty!
Well, it’s really nice of you to have supported your husband while he was anxious rather than embarrassing him… good for you!
Stopping over via SITS Sharefest
BarefootMedStudent recently posted..Hart of Dixie: Bedside Manner
The last thing I would ever want to do is embarrass my husband when he’s under such anxiety.
You never cease to make me laugh! Walmart is a crazy place to go, day or night. I swore y’all had Golden Corral’s up there! Can’t wait to read the other posts on your trip. Great post!
Haha, I’m glad that I make you laugh! I swear, it was like 9 o’clock and the Wal-Mart there was STILL busy. It was insane–especially with 9 people. Nope, no Golden Corrals up here! Well, not yet at least, we’re apparently getting one in close by the end of the year, so I’m super excited about that!
Not that its any of my business but you can tell your husband a story of some kind and let him know that the probability of a plane crashing is almost zero… This yahoo answer page tells it all.. http://malaysia.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110628055054AAI7ETS
Thanks for the resource and thanks for stopping by! I’ll have to show my hubby this at one point, but I’m sure he has some sort of argument no matter what I throw his way, haha.
The comparison of flying to driving is greatly flawed. Here is an article on that very fact: http://www.science20.com/gerhard_adam/flying_or_driving_which_safer
Airlines use the comparison to try and make flying seem safer to passengers, and the media simply picks up on it without doing any real scientific research. The airlines’ motives are, of course, dealing with money.
To sum up the flaw in the comparison: the whole argument is based on either the number of deaths or the number of crashes each year between planes and ground vehicles. But here is the thing, there are far more automobiles out driving each day than there are planes in the air. This increases the number of automobile accidents NOT because it increases the chances, as is often presumed, but BECAUSE it increases the sheer number of people on the road. Of course more people will be hurt in while driving, or even killed, than when flying–there are more people to be hurt!
But even then, the number one problem with the comparison is that it overlooks the fact that there is a MUCH lower chance of surviving a plane crash than there is surviving a car crash. People who fear flying, people like myself, do not necessarily fear it because there is a chance of dieing. Like most phobias, it is an issue of control–or lack thereof really. In a car accident, there is still a great deal of control that can be had, especially if I am driving. And there is a greater chance of surviving the impact and being able to actually do something. When flying on a passenger jet, however, there is very little a passenger can do doing a crash except kiss themselves goodbye. Oh, and again, there is a much greater chance of actually dieing in a plane crash than a car crash.
In short, you cannot really rely on statistics to gauge the safety of flying versus driving since the two modes of transportation are so different. You might as well compare flying to walking or space travel. Completely different risks. You can die at any time of any day from pretty much anything. It is not merely the thought of death that scares people with a phobia though.
I’m going to split this response because there are multiple URLs and it tells me I cannot post that many in one reply.
But, if you really want to use statistics, just be aware that they do not consider every aspect. Hence why you also get statistics like this,which reports that there are more occupational fatalities from flying than from say, driving a cab for a living. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf
Also, here is a testimony from an actual pilot on the matter: http://www.flyingmag.com/forums/training-safety/flying-really-safer-driving
And for the record, another reason the “but flying is safer than driving” argument falls short when used on me is that I do not really like to drive either. It is almost like telling me “but broccoli is so much tastier than tomatoes!” I do not care. I am not going to enjoy either of them.
Oh I have a bit of anxiety on airplanes too. I do not like the bumps and my blood pressure rises so I can kind of relate to your hubby! Yes, there are always some kinks aren’t there? One year our whole family got sick, one person at a time in Hawaii. Glad you had a nice time! Found you on SITS.
Raquel recently posted..Simple Chocolate Crossionts
Hi, Raquel, thanks for stopping by! Yeah, I get a bit of anxiety with flying, but I think it only started occurring after September 11th, but a lot of people developed some sort of problem(s) with flying after that. That really sucks that your entire family got sick while you were in Hawaii!
I actually ended up getting sick AFTER I got back from vacation and I was so glad it wasn’t during–especially with all the activities we had planned.
Awesome stories. I can’t imagine trying to have a vacation with a large amount of people, I’d much rather just have immediate family or just 3-4 people.
Thank you, Geoffrey!
Haha, I have to admit I’ve never been on a vacation with this many people before, so it was certainly an experience. I think the biggest group I’ve gone on vacation was 3-4 people, like you said.
Well, least the food was good eh? Well, I’m sorry to hear about your husband, but i do too have a phobia or am I scared of Heights, wind turbulences & etc…. So yeah, afraid to go on airplanes too or to fly on them. Always got a phobia that its gonna crash or etc.
There were a lot of good things that happened on the first day/night we arrived.
Like what exactly? Please specify, I’d love to know further details about it thank you.
If you go back and read my post, I wrote several positive things that happened such as seeing part of my family again and having a good dinner.
Forgive me or my bad, I did miss out something…