escalaphobia: fear of riding in elevators

I've featured some phobias that I've questioned the legitimacy of. But not this one.

Escalaphobia is super legit. My daughter suffers from this one, and she can't get in an elevator without one of her parents by her side.

If you've ever been in an elevator that wasn't a smooth, soft ride, I'm sure you get it. There are the ones that move smoothly until they lurch into position, lining up with the outer doors at the last second. There are the ones that shudder and moan and make terrible noises that leave you convinced you're about to die in a spectacular crash like the one in Speed.

The worst one I've ever been in was at a high-rise hotel in downtown Nashville, that shoots you up like a rocket and drops you just shy of fast enough to cause you to lose gravity. I'm not even kidding. It was a smooth ride, no lurching, no unwanted sounds. And it was pretty glitzy--a glass elevator in a glass enclosure on the outside edge of the hotel that provided spectacular views of the city as you shot straight up or plummeted down at breakneck speeds.

On the flip side, the coolest one I've ever been in was dubbed an "Inclinator," because it moved diagonally on the outer corners of the pyramid-shaped Luxor in Las Vegas. I never felt unsafe in those things, but the diagonal movement takes some serious getting used to!

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