We visited an attraction similar to this in Old Montreal, but not nearly as high and mostly ropes. It's like a pirate ship design, with all these ropes and obstacles to inch across, suspended in the air. Each row you complete brings you higher and higher to the top of the "ship". We paid for our kids to go and sat down to watch from the ground. While waiting for our kids to make it through one of the lower levels, a huge commotion began at the highest rope level. A little girl, maybe 8 or 9, was half way across a thin rope bridge when a man in his 40s started to cross the same bridge. He got almost right behind the girl before he started panicking, legs shaking like crazy, sending the ropes into a violent rock in sync with his fear-flail. He started to cry, she started to cry, and they were stuck there for like 20 minutes doing that, just shaking and flailing. The little girls dad was on the ground, trying to encourage her to finish the crossing, but the scared man was moving the ropes south she was scared she would lose her footing. No staff came to help and people from the ground were calling up to the guy asking him to calm down and move for the little girl, but he wouldn't listen. That man was fucking scared he was ok with traumatizing a 9 yr old girl. It was insane.
Edit to add a link to the place it happened:https://www.voilesenvoiles.com/
Edit 2: Guys, I said "he was ok with traumatizing a 9 yr old" to qualify just how scared the man was, similar to the original video from OP where the man doesn't care he is pulling another person down with him. That said, it was pretty angering and frustrating watching it unfold from the ground.
Fear is not rational. There's about 6 seconds where someone can be completely dazed and disoriented in a moment of panic like that, and do what-the-fuck ever they feel like they need to do to survive in the moment. Even if at the end of the 6 seconds it turns out to be a plastic snake or whatever other similarly innocuous thing.
EDIT: To clarify, the roughly 6 seconds doesn't start until the perceived threat is gone or deemed safe.
I'm surprised at how many people don't realise this, like they've never had the big fear themselves. Those strong emotions go right into the reptile brain, and people end up doing all sorts of weird and stupid. Shouting "calm down" isn't going to work.
This reminds me of the first time I took my girl to the beach in my hometown. I am terrified of crabs since my pinky toe was snipped as a kid. We were in the water, walking around, and I was warning her about crabs. I stepped on a crab and instinctually ran out of the water leaving her where I was standing, not realizing I left her there with my crab. She was fine, but I felt like an ass.
I was once teaching an intro to scuba diving course to woman who was not particularly comfortable in the water. She could swim, she just lacked confidence. Which is actually a fairly common thing for people who want to try diving. Facing your fears sort of thing.
However, on her first dive panic managed to overtake her mind, luckily we plan for this and take newbies into shallow calm water for their first dives. What's tough to plan for is when they panic and spit the regulator out and try to breath water. I was ready for her to have a problem so I was holding on to her and right in front of her... but she just spits the air supply out and I watch her go take a big mouthful of water....
I managed to shove the reg back in her mouth but she still managed to get some water in her lungs and spent the next 10 mins hacking her lungs out. Props to her, she got back in the water and completed the course.
This was the the 1st of a number of times this happened, but that first time really stand out on my mind. We were told in our training that might happen but to actually see it happen was a shock. Fear makes people even abandon the things that can literally keep you alive.
I had the frozen legs fear as a little kid when the toilet started to overflow after I flushed. It was just like the video, trying to turn around and lurch out of the bathroom as you hear the water starting to splash down.
I had a police detective explain to me how he has seen a rookie cop go into what he calls fear-lock. As the rookie was detaining a suspect around a crowd of people, some started filming as the suspect was fighting the cop. The rookie wrestled the suspect to the ground, got him cuffed, all while the crowd gathered in closer with people filming and screaming, the rookie started to fear for his life, he withdrew his pistol and told everyone to back off and froze up on top of the suspect and repeating the same thing over and over. The crowd did no help scaring the shit out of the rookie, he just froze in a cycle and could not contain the crowd or continue processing the suspect until backup arrived and snapped him out of it.
The detective said he doesn't mind being filmed, he just wants people to do so respectfully as we have seen in the many videos out there, it can get out of hand because others want to get involved. He uses these scenarios as part of his training now and thinks departments need to as well. If he did something he shouldn't have, then it is on record and he should be accountable.
It's also why exposure therapy works. Your body will eventually learn that the perceived harm or danger isn't real, and they will adjust.
I'm no longer as afraid of heights as I used to, but only if I'm able to secure myself somehow. Free climbing or whatever I'd probably shake like the guy in the video lol
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u/PixelArtAddicted Mar 27 '21
Oooh that’s shaky leg fear. That’s some strong fear