A tip for those afraid of roller coasters
Depending on the “type” of roller coaster fear you have, this tip may help some of you. I have the type of fear that comes the second I stand in line… the anxiety and nervousness in my stomach is much to great, so I leave the line.
This is a relatively “new” fear. As I teenager, I jumped off one-roller coaster, and on to the next bigger, greater and faster one. My fear was initiated, I’m sure, when I jumped in the seat of a 360 degree roller coaster, (upside down loop), and the seat belt harness that is supposed to pull down over your head and shoulders to hold you in, was still up in the air, high above my head when the roller coaster started to roll out of the dock. A loud scream did stop the roller coaster, alerting the attendant to adjust my seat belt. Maybe centrifugal force would have held me in my seat. What if I couldn’t get my scream out — would a warning system let him know before I rolled down the hill? This is something I thought about way to much; now I won’t step foot on a roller coaster.
Still, there are times when I just need to jump on the baby “log-ride” or the Scooby-Doo baby roller coaster, with my little boys… and pretend I”m not scared.
As I waited in line for the log-ride yesterday for our all-day exhausting family outing at an amusement park, watching log after log of innocent people surviving the descent, I calculated how many seconds the harrowing fall lasted… actually not in seconds; the descent was longer than a wave; it was longer than a yawn. The drop was just too long, I agonized, silently.
So, I figured out this visualization technique that really helped me manage the rides.
When you’re moving slowly up the hill, and that anticipation of that first dead drop is hovering over you, while you smile over your anxiety and say, “Isn’t this fun?” to your children, visualize this: Imagine that that first drop is really just a slant. Imagine that there is no straight down drop… imagine that it’s just a nice, easy slant, and the wheels of the roller coaster are just coasting along down a little hill, like a little leisurely country ride in the country. I passed the tip on to my 10-year-old, who fears them just like me, “Remember the slant.” It was our own private little motto throughout the day.
As I looked across the park at all the wooden roller coasters soaring through the air, the same roller coasters I used to derive great pleasure from, I said, “I’m so glad I don’t have to think about that anymore. When I was younger, I had to choose to go, harness courage and pull myself together to go. Now that I’m older, I don’t even think about it. I’m just not going.”
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Hahaha!!! That sounds like me. I don’t know what has happened to me. I used to run from ride to ride. The coaster couldn’t be fast enough, high enough or have enough loops. Now when I ride them I picture me flying off and leaving my children motherless.
sigh…
i was never a huge rollercoaster gal. i liked some of them but the really big huge scary ones…i left to everyone else.
as for the old blog…it was found by my in-laws. and there was much gossip going on around hubbys family, due to it. i didn’t feel free to write what i wanted to write anymore. so…i shut it down and started a new one!!!
I was a bit nervous when we went to Disneyland - it had been a while since I’d been on any roller coaster - worried that if nothing else I might wrench my neck or something.
But I still love it.
Great tips!
I’m such a weenie when it comes to roller coasters/log flumes/heights in general. I went on Splash Mountain for the first time as an adult, and had a little girl of maybe 8 sitting in front of me. As we’re going up the big hill at the end, she looks at her father and says she wants to get off. I looked at my sister and agreed with her:) I’m better at it now since I know what to expect. The first time is always the worst! However, I draw the line at free falls and anything that turns me even remotely upside down.
More power to you!
I have never liked roller coasters. Even mild ones. Nothing that spins, goes backwards, upside down, fast, side ways. Just not my thing. And wouldn’t you know, both of my girls like them. Daddy has to deal with it.
i LOVE rollercoasters, always have. Cedar Point is the BEST!