Crowdophobia

I remember once back when I was really young, we went to a custom car show in Seattle. I don't remember if it was the whole family or just the oldest kids or what. It was a very memorable experience for me because I got to see a lot of very famous cars up close and personal--close enough to touch. The Monkeemobile, the car from the original Batman TV series, both cars from The Munsters TV show (The Dragula and the Munster's Coach) to name a few.

It was very crowded there, and at one point something odd happened that concerned me at the time. I don't know if my dad got ill or almost fainted or what, but we had to go off to the side or back into a corner of the room away from everybody for a while. My mom explained to me that he gets that way in heavy crowds. I remember thinking how strange that was. Well guess what? I understand it now because it affects me too. All it takes is to be in a really thick crowd of people where I'm trying to move but can't. It will build slowly, and I will start to get anxious. I'll find myself looking for any exit from the chaos I can find. I'm sure if I stuck with the fray long enough the color would drain from my face, I'd get sweaty, and would probably faint or something. I've actually had it happen to where I went back the direction I came because it was the lesser distance, essentially giving up on my original destination.  It's very unnerving. It can't be claustrophobia because I have no fear of confined spaces. I can be in a loosely packed crowd with no problem, or in a crowd where I'm not in any real hurry to get through it. It's just crowds that I can't get through when I want to that are the problem. When it occurs to me that I'm being herded, fenced, or restrained somehow, it escalates.  It's very weird. I looked it up on the Internet and found that there are several "phobia's" that have to do with crowds.

Apparently, I have one of them... Passed on from my dad.