In the words of Miley Cyrus, "It's the climb". From two feet to 30 feet, my knees knock every time I mount the rungs. The weak arms of the rungs are always ready to break. I have seen people fall from such dangerous methods of climbing, and now I will not climb using said methods. I fear them like a midget fears a giant. It is not the height I fear but rather this method of reaching tall places. I do not mind climbing stairs or trees or even the framework of a building. But I hate climbing ladders. It seems every time I get on a ladder it wants to tip over, I grip the nearest solid object so hard my knuckles turn limestone white, and my hands bleed as though they've been through a food processor.

I do not know why ladders scare me they just do. At my house we have an 86 X 30 pole barn, it's divided into three sections, the work section on the south end, a storage section in the middle, and a section to store the fifth wheel, and atvs. In the middle section we have a loft that sits in the northwest corner, it sits about eight feet in the air above the bathroom and hot tub room. The only way to get up there. Ladder. Or so I thought. Through my fear of ladders, creativity was born. Because the loft is in the corner of the building, and there are no interior walls, I use the horizontal 2X4 runners that frame the building to climb the eight feet to the loft.

I have tried every method I know to get rid of this irrational, Fear. I hate having this fear, it keeps me from doing the job I need to do. What's even worse than going up? Going down. I hate descending ladders even more than I hate ascending them. Most people fear heights, snakes, spiders, clowns, even mice, but I am the only person I have ever heard of that has Climacophobia, or the fear of climbing ladders or stairs, but has nothing to do with height.