Fear of lifts!

[Hattiehats]

Anyone else? I make myself get in them anyway if it’s the quickest way but I really dislike it, particularly the older style ones that have clearly been going for donkeys years. I have this worry of becoming stuck in one, between floors - even though it’s never happened! I also never get in them if I need a wee 😂

Does anyone else have this?

When I first seen the title, out the corner of my eye, I thought it said ‘Fear of tits’

I’m the same. I hate them. Haven’t been in one for many years. I went to the US a few years ago for work and I was staying in a skyscraper in NY and asked for a room as near to the ground floor as possible. Then I asked where the stairs were and she says I don’t know, I’ve worked here for 13 years and I actually don’t know 🫣 I think she thought I was crackers!

I don’t like confined spaces at all but lifts I can not do it at all so well done you. I refuse to get in one.

TBH, I think you’re sensible. I know several people who have been stuck in lifts, though rarely for more than about half an hour. And using the stairs is good exercise. Four floors is around my cut off or if I’m carrying a heavy load.

YANBU, I hate them. I use stairs where possible.

😂😂😂😂 that would be a funny fear

@HeddaGarbled

Oh my God you know a few people who have got stuck in a lift
Bloody hell
One of my worst night mare senerios real life situations

I also don't like small confined spaces,

I've been locked in toilets in which the door handles mechanical has been faulty and its jammed,

So now how claustrophobic suffocating intense feeling is like too

I fear flying and ships and I fear lifts. I watch too many mishap tv shows and recall watching lift accidents.

The chances of getting stuck in lift are remote but I've feared that and or lift falling or falling as I get out - often I'm in a worried mood at the time

Just keep your mobile handy

I'm with you, I don't like lifts.

I have been stuck alone in one for 45 minutes before the firemen got me out, and I didn't have my phone, it took ages for someone to answer the emergency phone, all the while I was screaming help. The lights stayed on at least, I think I would have been climbing the walls if the lights had gone out.

I once decided against getting in the elevator in Covent Garden tube, the amount of people trying to squeeze into the lift was also unsettling, so I walked up the stairs, not realising how many flights of stairs it was until I noticed a sign saying it was equivalent to something like 17 floors. I was dying by the time I reached the top.

I do try and avoid busy lifts and I have been to the toilet so if I get stuck I am not as bothered

I got stuck in a tiny lift in a building in Africa. It was red hot and claustrophobic. Eventually I managed to alert someone, who bashed the underside of the lift until it slid down a few inches, then motioned for me to crawl out through the coffin sized gap. I had visions of the lift dropping and chopping me in half! Never been in one since.

Not me, but my sister. Before she had her kids she would do everything to avoid getting in a lift. I remember climbing up the stairs in one of the deep underground stations as she wouldn't take the lift. 🙈

Luckily, after having kids she will get the lift now. Mainly as its much harder to take a pushchair up a flight of stairs. I think she's just always had an irrational fear of getting stuck in one.

There is a glass lift in my local shopping centre, it's only a 2 storey building, I hate it. I would much rather stairs, every time.

@cerisepanther73

Oh my God you know a few people who have got stuck in a lift
Bloody hell
One of my worst night mare senerios real life situations

I used to work in a college and 3 girls were late to my lesson because they got stuck in the lift. I did think that was a pretty creative excuse until I went back to the office and everyone was talking about it. They were embarrassed (glass lift, attracted an audience) but otherwise fine.

That was my experience in Leicester Square. Everyone was saying there’s no stairs you’ll have to use the lift, as they all squeezed in. Absolutely no way was I getting in that so off I went to find the emergency stairs- dying off at the top, heart racing thought I was going to have a heart attack but still prefer that over that lift.

Hate them. Got seperated in a very busy airport from parent when I was five, think it's stems from that. It's not claustrophobia. I avoid wherever possible.

I have gotten stuck in a lift, and as they were trying to get me out I was worried it would fall, but they told me it can’t as there is a notch that means it can’t fall, so I am not afraid at all. (Please don’t tell me otherwise )😁

However, someone showed me a diagram / video of an old lift that kept moving. I’m not describing this very well but it was terrifying, you had to jump on and off or you would be squashed!! Now I definitely would not get on that type of one.

Hate lifts but find stairs difficult because of mobility problems with my legs. Recently got stuck in one between the 8th and 9th floor with my mum and my 4yo. We used the emergency call button who told us it would be 4 hours til they could come and get us. Luckily(!) I'm an insulin dependant diabetic and was having a hypo with no way to treat it because I'd left my bag in the car so they sent some fireman to rescue us!

Here it is, it’s called a Paternoster:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=KdVKIdGyKkk

No effing way.

A paternoster lift? They're terrifying!

There was a paternoster lift at my uni and it actually didn’t feel claustrophobic as they were open!

I avoid normal lifts wherever possible. I don’t mind in brand new office buildings in London or New York where they’re new and big used a lot. But I avoid the Covent Garden lift (I’m a runner so the stairs are fine). I also once went on bbc radio and was shown to this TINY old lift to get down, I asked to take the stairs and the poor runner had to take me all the way down. However it turns out the next day someone got stuck in it and was late for the one show!

@Octaviathethird

Up to 4 hours !!!! it would usaully take them to come and rescue someone from a malfunctioning lift like that,
when you press emergency button in a lift,

That's astonishing !

I forgot about this -

I used to work in an accounts dept and I was helping a different team one day… The girl I was counting the cash with said right we’ll take this to the safe and she turned to get in the mankey old 70 year old tiny scary look lift.

I said I’ll meet you at the safe, I’ll go down the stairs. She said ‘You have to there has to be two of us taking the cash’ I said ‘I understand but there’s no way I’m getting in to that rackety old thing Jo, I’ve got a severe phobia of lifts and I’d rather get fired than getting in that so they’ll have to fire me’

She looked a bit bemused and said ok I’ll go and get someone else. We still giggle about it years late. I literally wouldn’t have got in it if the MD had told me to that’s how much I hate them.

We had an ancient lift at the old place I worked in, with the pull across metal cage thing. It was about 50 years old and looked like only 1 person could fit in. I didn’t use that one!

My neighbour got a job in a huge airport kitchen and they had those tiny lifts for food, are they called a dumb waiter?

Anyway, staff used to get into them to bring the beer kegs and squeeze in beside them. Little did he know that the new person got left inside, squeezed over a keg for a while on purpose.

He told me afterwards it really affected him, he was probably in there for ages, he was just a teenager.

I think the company covered a lot of lifts and all their engineers were out on other jobs. First time I've ever been glad to be having a hypo, firemen were there in 5 minutes and had us out in 10! It was in my mum's over 55s housing association block, both the lifts are always failing there. Over Christmas the electric failed to both of them and they were out of action for over a week, not much fun for the residents, many of whom have mobility issues or are in wheelchairs. There's no way I can manage 10 flights of stairs so after being rescued, we had to go in the other lift to get back down!

I’m terrified of them. I got stuck in a lift at a train station 20 years ago and now I’ll do anything to avoid them. I take the stairs everywhere, even Covent Garden tube. I’m not fit either! I always ask for low floors in hotels but still get put on the fifth floor. I feel your pain!

I'm the opposite, and am scared of "up" escalators (don't mind down)! I have a weird fear of falling over backwards and breaking my neck.
If a lift is available for going up, I'd pick that every time!