windshear

blog post – third quarter 2025

overcoming fear
People laugh at me. “You are afraid of heights, but you spent the great majority of your career working in aviation?” Yes, that’s true. They laugh even harder when I tell them: “Flying does not bother me because it’s too high.”

I am not a psychologist, so I won’t delve into the scientific differences between fears and phobias. But I know my fear of heights is a phobia – acrophobia, to be exact. I really am not fearful of height, in and of itself, but rather this sinister voice in my head that tells me to jump when I am in a high place. Yes, I know, hearing voices may be even more troublesome.

I think this explains why when I visit the Empire State Building in New York City, I have to keep against the wall on the open observation deck – voice is present. But I can go to the very top enclosed space and look out the bubble windows with no issues – voice is not present. You cannot jump from there.

I know that my fear of heights, as I experience it, is irrational. There are usually fences, guardrails, or other protective devices in these high places. So I have combed through pictures of when I was a kid and I think I found two that may provide some explanation. One is of a relative tossing me in the air. Another is of me sitting atop a thin cement wall. Both were from when I was exceptionally young. Maybe it was a real fear then, the possible danger of falling and being hurt, that has manifested itself into my phobia now.

Whatever brought it about, conquering it is still a work in progress. My friends tell me one good skydiving experience will alleviate the fear once and for all. To me that seems a bit ominous. Besides, why jump out of a perfectly good airplane? We all have fears and most are irrational. But they can still lead to panic attacks and worse.

As crisis professionals, we need to be aware that the people we help will be frightened of very real situations – loss of property, loss of security, loss of life. These may be made even more traumatic by the phobias people are battling as well. Imagine having social anxiety yet mustering the courage to fly on a plane to visit family. The aircraft experiences an emergency requiring passengers to slide down the chutes and be bused to the survivors reception center. There you find people crowded into a room with no personal space, For an individual with social anxiety, the trauma is magnified significantly because there is no safe space for them to work through the emergency landing and the crowded room.

We cannot have separate rooms at all of our facilities. We can train our responders to be on the lookout for people who need a little extra compassion and care when crisis strikes.

One fear I was able to conquer early in my career was the fear of being chastised by peers because I raised nuances regarding the processes we created. “In a crisis, we cannot take care of every little thing, August.” They may have been right. But they were wrong not to explore whether they could. A blanket dismissal is just an excuse not to determine whether there are a few “little things” you can take care of. If we do not advocate for those who will experience the processes we create, then who will?

I may have a ways to go to enjoy the view from a high place. But I will not succumb to the irrational fear of representing the people I am tasked with helping in a crisis regardless of any pushback. Neither should you.

Be different. Be ready.