dingdong887180022 posted: " From an interesting thread on Facebook, I have learnt that it seems quite a few ringers do not like standing on boxes to ring a bell. I thought that I was the only wuss, but it appears that there is a group of us, and from the names that I recognise," The Accidental Ringer
From an interesting thread on Facebook, I have learnt that it seems quite a few ringers do not like standing on boxes to ring a bell. I thought that I was the only wuss, but it appears that there is a group of us, and from the names that I recognise, some very good ringers amongst them.
People put it down to vertigo which I had never considered because how can you have vertigo when a few inches off the ground? But vertigo is a symptom rather than a medical condition. It is the feeling that the room is spinning even when things are perfectly still. It can affect balance and make you feel as if you are about to fall. The most common causes are inner ear problems and issues with the balance centres of the brain.
An intense fear of heights is not vertigo, but I am guessing that it can feel similar. The room spins, you feel that you might fall and there is an overwhelming feeling of anxiety. I have suffered from acrophobia (a fear of heights) since I was child – no problem with natural places - I can teeter on the edge of cliffs or climb a cairn of wobbly rocks, but give me a man-made balcony/bridge/glass lift/ladder or similar and I am a gibbering wreck. It is not rational and it has nothing to do with the workings of my inner ear. It is a phobia and perhaps "boxes" fall into the category of man-made. Even looking at the photo above has my heart rate elevated and a feeling of intense anxiety. Even thinking about looking at the photo makes me feel shaky and vulnerable.
I wonder how much vertigo when on boxes is actually a form of acrophobia? We are not really at height, perhaps a few inches off the ground, yet for some people that is enough to provoke a psychological reaction. Because we are fearful, we avoid ringing from boxes and because we have very limited experience of ringing from boxes, when we do try we snatch at the rope and it all feels scary and we have reinforced our initial fear. We knew it would feel nasty and it did, so let us not try again. Do ringers who learnt as kids and were introduced to boxes at a tender age (perhaps a wedding cake stack of boxes) ever feel this fear of toppling when ringing? I suspect not.
I have a way to test my theory. Since it is only a fear of man-made heights in my case, what if I stood on a pile of natural materials rather than a box? There would be "solid" ground beneath my feet and no need to feel anxious. A bit inconvenient carting a wheel barrow of soil and general rubble up the tower stairs, but should you ever find a carefully constructed natural mound under one of your ropes, you will be able to guess who has been a-calling.
I will let you know the result of my (un)scientific experiment.
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