Pipe Helps My Fear of Heights (While Driving). You?

[macaroni]

Title says it all. So, I've found that smoking a pipe somehow helps me stay a bit more relaxed and less anxious when driving over high bridges and elevated highways, "mix-masters, etc. Anyone else?

Just wondering about your thoughts and/or experiences.
kind regards,
mik

 

[bullet08]

Nope. Don't smoke when I'm driving. Tho, pipe smoking help me to doze off on front porch.

 

[STP]

Not a fan of tall ladders, but no issues driving over bridges. You probably wouldn’t like going over the Bay Bridge into OC, Md. You might need more than a pipe to get over that one?

 

[jpmcwjr]

Been a while since I've met a bridge that gave me second thoughts, but I like your idea.

As a kid, the Tampa Bay bridge gave me the willies.

 

[RookieGuy]

Not a fan of tall ladders, but no issues driving over bridges. You probably wouldn’t like going over the Bay Bridge into OC, Md. You might need more than a pipe to get over that one?

The worst of the problems with that bridge is it takes a good solid hour to cross on a Friday evening.

 

[STP]

The worst of the problems with that bridge is it takes a good solid hour to cross on a Friday evening.

Ha… we only go over it about once a year, and it’s usually a cluster fuk.

 

[RookieGuy]

Ha… we only go over it about once a year, and it’s usually a cluster fuk.

I think it's a requirement to cross it at least once a year if you I've east of Frederick.

 

[warren]

Nope, not acrophobic.

 

[Epip Oc'Cabot]

Even though I do not tend to have worries driving over bridges and such, a pipe is usually with me.... but I am of a mindset that a pipe helps with damn near anything.... so it sounds good to me. ?

 

[olkofri]

No heights to drive over here, so I can't test this theory. And even if there were, being someone whose pipe is all the time going out when driving, I wouldn't be fiddling with it when driving with a precipice to the side of me.

 

[saltedplug]

Bridges connect, and my desire to get on a bridge thus depends on what lies in on the other side. For instance one bridge connects to the peninsula of demons, not real demons mind you, but family who are especially lame, stupid and controlling.

One of them has a long history of yapping about my heels with incessant criticism. This has been going on for years. I'd like to kick the
this relative down the stairs, stuff my fist down his throat, etc., etc.

The problem with this approach is that he will not be deterred as he has made yapping at my heels his life's mission, and he is too stupid and lame to realize he owns those descriptors.

Nothing short of cutting out his tongue will provide relief. What a frakking dope!

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I’m not a fan of extreme heights, but I’ve never felt out of sorts on any road bridge. However, this sumbitch worked my nerves over:

I’m not sure exactly how high above the bottom of the ravines these bridges got, but it was enough to make me want to get right with the Lord, plus a hundred feet.
Narrow gauge railroad between Durango and Silverton, CO. I’m sure some of you have been there. Kind of crazy looking out the window and you can’t see any bridge structure, just a long long drop.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Cumbres Y Toltec RR, no? Good ride.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

Cumbres Y Toltec RR, no? Good ride.

That’s the one! It was beautiful when I wasn’t all ass-puckered.

 

[bayareabriar]

There’s a bridge in West Virginia where they have volunteers that will drive your car across with you in it.

I feel for you. With bridges it gets easier the more and more that you do it. As far as steep drop offs I don’t know.

I’m originally from the Midwest where everything is flat. I had issues with bridges in the Bay Area but no more.

 

[STP]

I’m not a fan of extreme heights, but I’ve never felt out of sorts on any road bridge. However, this sumbitch worked my nerves over:
View attachment 85476
I’m not sure exactly how high above the bottom of the ravines these bridges got, but it was enough to make me want to get right with the Lord, plus a hundred feet.
Narrow gauge railroad between Durango and Silverton, CO. I’m sure some of you have been there. Kind of crazy looking out the window and you can’t see any bridge structure, just a long long drop.

That’s pretty cool. Always wanted to ride the D&SNG. Maybe one day…

 

[LikeDadDid]

Reminds me of Gail Bigbie, an old fella long since passed on. He kept a single cigar in his glove box. He said "I don't even have to light it. I just chew on it and it keeps me awake on a long drive." I don't know whether it helped him get over tall bridges though. I guess he never mentioned it. He was funny that way.

 

[Keitha]

Do you smoke Seattle Pipe Clubs Galloping Gertie while driving over these bridges?

Seattle Pipe Club's Galloping Gertie take its name from the 1940 Tacoma Narrows Bridge that spanned the Tacoma Narrows Straight in Puget Sound and collapsed just four months after it opened due to aeroelastic flutter caused by high-speed winds.

 

[Keitha]

 

[anotherbob]

Title says it all. So, I've found that smoking a pipe somehow helps me stay a bit more relaxed and less anxious when driving over high bridges and elevated highways, "mix-masters, etc. Anyone else?

Just wondering about your thoughts and/or experiences.
kind regards,
mik

honestly that's kind of what it does for everyone. It helps us focus and relax. I have talked about how weird the effects of nicotine as a drug are. They're actually pretty extreme but the outward manifestations aren't usually very dramatic. I think the best none science way to explain the effects are nicotine gets the neurotransmitters where they need to be. Driving over a bridge normally your brain (cause brains are stupid like this each and every brain) puts too much into the anxiety and not enough into the just focus area (I know that's not the proper name, but roll with it) with a good level concentration of nicotine your brain is able to get the neurotransmitters into a better formation for that experience.