sudden fear of tube escalators

[movingonishard]

That's just it. I've travelled on th einderground on and off for years and years with no issue at all. Suddently when on the "up" escalator a few months ago, i staet4d to feel dizzy, and like i was going to fall and had to keep staring at my feet and was clinging for dear life to the handrail - I honestly wondered if i'd make it to the top. I tried to disregard it and put it down to tiredness, but then a few days ago the same thing happened again. I'm ok on the "down" escalator but the "up" one has now become a big issue. I've got another trip to london in a few weeks and i'm panicking about what to do...

Thanks Phoenix - that's what i've done. Do you feel lie i do that you're clinging for dear life to the handrail? Have you always had this fear?

Thanks Zebra :) Where are the lifts down to the underground at waterloo? I've never seen them? Are there no stairs anywhere?

I used to have this fear of escalators after partly falling down one of the big ones. I got over it by forcing myself to keep going on them so many times that it felt normal. The advice about just getting on without thinking is the way to go.

Look on the TFL site - scroll down to the bottom of the link I gave for lots of accessibility information, plus you can check on each individual station's page if you like.

My daughter got this last year: a sudden fear and nausea on the tube escalators. Turned out to be a virus! Once she's gotten over it, the fear went. She does get travel sick and so she stares at the person in front and doesn't look at the stuff that moves either side. I have stopped trying to read the adverts as my eyeballs feel funny. I have also found that roller coasters make me sick now and again, funny eyeballs for ages, but when I was young I lived to ride roller coasters

The escalators at North Greenwich are normal sized from the platform to the ticket hall, and only slightly bigger from there to the outside. There's a lift and stairs as well.

I used to have a thing about going down escalators and wouldn't use them for years. I can now, but cant just step on, I have to wait and step onto the middle of one of the 'steps' and if I'm with someone they have to go first.

Someone mentioned the Clipper, the last one leaves the pier by the London eye just after 11pm.

Anxiety cannot harm you. You will not collapse or faint. I promise. Keep trying!

though This sounds a bit balancy etc I quite like it when I am reminded how dangerous/sensory things are. We are so trained to be inches from danger and to tune things out. I love it when suddenly I am reminded that I am going up and down in a lift or that climbing stairs means I am getting higher and higher.. or when going over a canalbridge gives me the 'stomach-rising' shot of fear.. makes me feel alive again! Er.. so philosophy is my solution! .. also look at the person in front's back. fwiw the changing display posters do disorientate me momentarily. so it could be that. .

I get this too, also going up more than down but I can't stand either. I have no coping mechanism other than just going for it, standing wedged in a line of people so I can tell myself that should I fall, I can't go very far. Going up my heart races and I am very tense. I try to avoid escalators as much as possible. Like the OP, I am fine in shopping centres etc.

I get this too, also going up more than down but I can't stand either. I have no coping mechanism other than just going for it, standing wedged in a line of people so I can tell myself that should I fall, I can't go very far. Going up my heart races and I am very tense. I try to avoid escalators as much as possible. Like the OP, I am fine in shopping centres etc.

all tube stations have stairs somewhere, but remember that they can be VERY deep!

as mentioned, the tube map now shows accessibility, i.e. where there are lifts. In central London where the stations are older and less accessible, walking distances are short. So you should be able to work round this.

If you are starting at the mainline St at Waterloo, lifts down to the tube ticket hall are near platforms 1-4. (Straight ahead iirc). Once you are at the jubilee line ticket hall level, go through the ticket barrier and the lift is past the escalators on the left hand side. Really easy to find.

OP, is it just tall escalators? Or could it be vertigo - ie when you're up high on something, and feeling sort of 'exposed' physically? I ask because I developed vertigo in my 40s, never having had any problem with heights before. So did my dad, apparently. Its very physical, and I think not particularly anxiety related in my case - I just get dizzy (which then can make me anxious, of course, but not the other way around).

Anyone out there have similar experiences? I have arthritis and over the past few years have developed a fear of steps/ stairs without handrails. It began when I climbed up a flight of steps with nothing on either sides got to the top and froze petrified feeling dizzy and thinking I was gonna fall , had to virtually crawl back down with hubby's help. Also now sometimes feel like I am falling backwards when going up steps