Anyone heard of this phobia - fear of floor collapse?

[mom2ariana]

for as long as i can remember, i have had a fear of floor collapse. i think it started when i was little and read in the newspaper that  truck had been under a bridge that collapsed. that seemed to introduce me to the possibility. to find out that something you've trusted can fail at a young age can be somewhat traumatizing. now i am scared when im in homes, apartments, etc... my husband and i - despite my opposition - live in an apartment unit on the top floor. sometimes it scares me and other times it doesnt. i get terrified when i think about how heavy the couch is, or the fridge, or especially the washing machine when it's loaded and running. i get nervous bringing home heavy bags of groceries. we are moving into another unit soon and its also on the top floor. im scared of the move. scared to move furniture in. i dont know how to overcome this phobia, but sometimes it can really interfere with my happiness. the thought of buying a home is not as happy as it should be because im scared of the top floors. ive told my husband repeatedly that i want a ranch. anyone ever heard of this?

[LucyMacy]

I have the same phobia, have done since I was a kid and now in my fifties. I have searched and searched for a name for this, and I also thought I was all alone, I have never seen anyone else describe my fears until I found this thread today. It has made a huge negative impact on my life, and I haven't been able to share it with anyone because on the odd occasion that I have tried to open up people have not taken me seriously. I try so hard not to think about structure collapse, but whenever I read the rare stories of structures or buildings collapsing in the news it just seems to confirm my fears.

[TheDudeScaredofHotels]

I am not affected as much since I live in a 1 story home with no basement. I deal with this phobia while staying at hotels. I over-analyze a LOT of stuff, and I fear, "What if it collapses, how the heck can this hotel handle this much weight?" I deal with this EVERY time and rarely get sleep. It helps to know that people also deal with this.

[AnxiousNoMore]

DudeS  Maybe a sleep app with narrators will help your sleep. They focus you to NOT think. Avoiding overthinking if you're tired may make you fall asleep.

[MadameRuby]

Here’s a different kind of explanation for phobias that are otherwise inexplicable:  past-life memory when you died from the very thing you are phobic about.  I have a strong fear of fire.  It doesn’t take long for me to “remember” being burned alive when waking up to a house in flames.  For those of you who are willing to explore this possibility a little further, just allow for it to exist, and see what kind of memories might arise.  It’s pretty freeing to put the phobia “back where it belongs.”  The fear is still there for sure, but now it makes sense, and that in and of itself is healing.  

[arvbuttar]

Hi,
My friend has the same phobia.
Thanks.

[kkristy48]

A phobia is a type of anxiety disorder,Phobias can be divided into specific phobias, social phobia, and agoraphobia like Specific phobia may be further subdivided into four categories: animal type, natural environment type, situational type, blood-injection-injury type, Social phobia, also known as social anxiety disorder, is when the situation is feared as the person is worried about others judging them and agoraphobia  is a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.

[Paxiled]

Just to say, almost everyone has a phobia, so if you're reading the above and you're phobic about jumping out of airplanes, don't worry.  Just don't jump out of airplanes, it won't affect your life.  An anxiety disorder is an anxiety disorder, and it can manifest in many ways, but it is a disorder in the sense it's a medical problem only when it significantly affects your life and what you're willing to do.  Avoidance is the key to anxiety disorders -- you start to avoid doing things you want to do or have to do, and that's the disorder.  If you're scared of something, well, we're all scared of things, if you're still able to do it you don't have a disorder.  Agoraphobia isn't really a thing, it's a colloquial term for something that goes by different names such as panic attack disorder.  It usually rises to the level of being called agoraphobia, which literally translates to fear of the marketplace, when you become irrationally afraid to leave your house or go far from your house and you keep developing new phobias.  It isn't caused by situations, it's caused by having a disorder that manifests itself this way -- in other words, the cause of all anxiety is how we think about something.  It isn't caused by the thing we're avoiding.  Nobody knows why anxiety or depression exist, but for some people, they do when life becomes very hard to live.  If you have a fear of something and choose not to do that one thing in your life, that isn't really a disorder, it's just a problem or maybe not even that if it's something you really won't miss by not doing.  Example:  my wife is afraid of driving because when she was very young she had problems with here eyes that required a lot of treatment and left her with poor peripheral vision.  There's no reason for her not to drive, but she's scared of doing it because she's afraid of the things she can't see that others can, even though those things aren't really a danger for a driver.  But this has never impeded her life.  She gets around fine.  Her life is fine.  She goes where she wants and does what she wants, she just finds alternative means of getting there.  So it's not a mental disorder, it's just a glitch.  Everyone has those.  It's the intensity and pervasiveness of the glitch that determines if something is a disorder or not.  I only say this so anyone reading this who has some things in life that bother them but otherwise life is fine, don't worry, you're not sick.  It's more complicated than that.  You're just human.  When you truly have a disorder, you usually know it, life gets really difficult.  Peace.

[specialmom]

kkristy48, thanks for participating in the discussion and I appreciate what you have to say!   Hope you come back!

[Alexah03]

It also gets really bad for me when I think about people dancing or at the gym on a floor which isn’t the ground, like the thought of dropping weights like weightlifters do, also the vibration of the floor when people are jumping or dancing. I have a lot of the triggers mentioned above too. Anyone else have these?

[Paxiled]

First, phobias are always irrational and so trying to explain then is usually impossible.  It's possible somewhere in your past something happened or you read something, but the important thing is to get into therapy with an anxiety specialist and learn some coping techniques and then see if you can rewire the way you think about this thing.  Some of what you describe sounds familiar to me, which is disorientation, a common thing for people with panic attack disease.  It can happen when the floor doesn't seem solid which triggers a feeling of being out of control.  Alcohol can do it.  Lots of things can.  Humans are complicated and anxiety sufferers focus in on different things, and if you just have this one thing and not a whole bunch of things you're better of than many.  Almost everyone has one phobia.  If it gets in the way of your life, therapy is your best bet.  Good luck.

[Alexah03]

OMG, I’ve been searching high and low on the internet to find more about this.. I have this too and it’s got to be the worst it’s ever been... everyone also thinks I’m crazy, I can’t explain it there is no way to easily describe it, but all of the above really has confirmed a lot for me, we need to find out more about this... if anyone finds out please let us know. I feel a bit of relief knowing I’m not the only one.

[Sara_MHModerator]

Hello and welcome to MedHelp's forums.  You most certainly are not alone or the only one with phobias.  We appreciate that you have found our forum for support.  Do you work with a doctor or therapist?  Here is some information on phobias to read through. https://www.webmd.com/anxiety-panic/understanding-phobias-basics.  There are treatments that do help but connecting with others who also suffer can be beneficial.  So again, we are glad that you have round us.