WHAT IS FEAR OF THUNDER?
Defined as "thunder and lightning", each year this surprisingly
common phobia causes countless people needless distress.
To add insult to an already distressing condition, most fear of thunder
therapies take months or years and sometimes even require the patient
to be exposed repeatedly to their fear.This is totally unnecessary, it
will often make the condition worse. And it is particularly cruel as fear
of thunder can be eliminated with the right methods and just 24 hours
of commitment by the phobic individual.
Known by a number of names - Astraphobia, Astrapophobia, Brontophobia,
Keraunophobia, Ceraunophobia, Tonitrophobia, Fear of Thunder and Lightning
being the most common - the problem often significantly impacts the quality
of life. It can cause panic attacks and keep people apart from loved ones
and business associates. Symptoms typically include shortness of breath,
rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea, and overall feelings
of dread, although everyone experiences fear of thunder in their own way
and may have different symptoms. .
Though a variety of potent drugs are often prescribed for fear of thunder,
side effects and/or withdrawal symptoms can be severe. Moreover, drugs
do not "cure" fear of thunder or any other phobia. At best they
temporarily suppress the symptoms through chemical interaction.
What is the cause of Fear Of Thunder?
Like all fears and phobias, fear of thunder is created by the unconscious
mind as a protective mechanism. At some point in your past, there was
likely an event linking thunder and lightning and emotional trauma. Whilst
the original catalyst may have been a real-life scare of some kind, the
condition can also be triggered by myriad, benign events like movies,
TV, or perhaps seeing someone else experience trauma.
This kind of phobia manifests itself in different ways. Some sufferers
experience it almost all the time, others just in response to direct stimuli.
Everyone has their own unique formula for when and how to feel bad.
Thunder and Lightning
Maybe you have heard about some dogs who, in their fearful state during
a thunderstorm, hide or do extensive damage to their surroundings. Horses
can have a fear of thunderstorms as well, though much less commonly than
dogs, probably due to the fact that horses are an outdoor species.
The effects of thunderstorms can be devastating. Wind, lightning, heavy
rains, hail, and their emotional effects are all potentially damaging,
and it is no wonder that they are feared. At any given moment, nearly
2,000 thunderstorms are active on the earth. Thunderstorms, which have
the potential to be violent, are one of nature's great destroyers and
killers. Each year, thousands of people and livestock are killed and injured
by lightning alone and property loss in the U.S. is estimated in millions
of dollars. Barns and stables have suffered losses from lightning strikes
and resulting fires as well as wind and rain damage.
According to the National Board of Fire Underwriters, lightning is the
main cause of farm fires. Lightning can damage electrical equipment by
striking power lines and surging through a building's wiring system. Building
damage, fires, personal injury and livestock loss usually result from
direct lightning strikes.
Thunderstorms are a violent form of convection. Convection is a process
of cold upper air sinking and warm, moist air rising. As the air rises,
it expands and cools and the water vapor it contains begins to condense
into cloud droplets. Continued upward movement can produce a cumulonimbus
or thunderstorm cloud. These clouds bring strong winds, lightning, thunder,
hail, and rain. Once a thunderstorm has developed, the falling precipitation
creates downdrafts, and the storm dissipates.
Most thunderstorms consist of several storm "cells", each lasting
up to 30 minutes. New cells may form and replace older ones, giving thunderstorms
the potential to last several hours or more.
Lightning
Lightning may be one of nature's most beautiful displays, but it's also
a deadly surge of electrical current. Lightning always accompanies thunderstorms.
Lightning is responsible for human and livestock deaths, airplane damage,
and fires. A bolt of lightning is really the discharge of electricity
occurring within a cloud, between clouds or between a cloud and earth.
It is an uncontrolled, giant electrical spark with tremendous voltage
and amperage. It happens when clouds are charged with negative electrons,
and the ground is charged with positive electrons. The negative charges
are attracted downward and upon contact with the ground, the positive
charges move back upward toward the sky causing a flash of light. The
upward movement happens so fast that it's unnoticeable. This process can
repeat several times along the same path as a flickering effect.
Lighting always tries to follow the shortest, easiest path to earth. But
because it has thousands of amperes and millions of volts, it often follows
several paths to earth simultaneously, aiming for projecting objects like
trees, building steeples, chimneys, poles or wires. Pastured horses are
often the targets of lightning, especially if the horses gather on the
top of a hill during a storm. The lightning can strike one horse and branch
out to many others. Lightning appears to be very broad, but it is actually
about the thickness of a pencil. Its strikes can run vertically for 5
to10 miles, and horizontally up to 100 miles across the sky.
For about 10 minutes or more after the rain ends, even when it brightens
and the sun is coming out, lightning is still a threat; in fact, most
fatalities occur at the time that the storm appears to be ending. These
late lightning strikes can be very dangerous.
Thunder
Thunder is the sound produced by the explosive expansion of air heated
by lightning. When lightning is nearby, the thunder sounds like a sharp
crack, but when it is far away, it sounds like growling and rumbling noises.
Light travels about a million times faster than sound, so the lightning
bolt is visible before the thunder is heard. To estimate how many miles
away the lightning is, count the number of seconds between lightning and
thunder and divide by five.
Thunder is what creates the fear in the animal who fears thunderstorms.
The sudden, loud noise can induce a paralyzed state, start the animal
trembling with fear, or send them into a panic.
Casualty prevention
Learn the thunderstorm danger signs and watch the sky: dark, towering,
orthreatening clouds, distant lightning and thunder, and sudden wind mean
trouble. If you are out riding and a storm is approaching, find shelter.
You are in danger from lightning whenever you can hear thunder. Estimating
how far away a storm is does not mean that you're in danger only when
the storm is very close. In the woods, find an area protected by a cluster
of low trees. Never stand underneath a single large tree in the open.
Stay away from fences, tall trees, and tall structures such as towers,
telephone lines, or power lines.
Hail, often a product of thunderstorms, can range in size from smaller
than a pea to as large as a softball. These balls of ice, or hailstones,
can be very destructive to plants and crops, animals, livestock and people.
If the hailstones are large enough, property damage can also occur. Find
shelter immediately for pets, livestock, and yourself.
For your barn and home, a good lightning rod protection system is recommended.
If you use a fence charger, install surge protectors to avoid fence charger
damage. Lightning naturally seeks ground by the path of least resistance,
so give it an easy route to the ground (other than through your charger)
by installing surge protectors along the fence line. Livestock loss, due
to herds congregating along ungrounded wire fences during thunderstorms,
can also be reduced by properly grounding your wire fences.
The Day My Life Changed Forever
“ One common myth that's makes getting proper medical help for a
lightning strike victim difficult is the 'crispy critter' myth. The myth
being that when you're struck by lightning you're immediately burnt to
a crisp and that if you survive without obvious external injuries then
you are very lucky and will be fine.But lightning and the human body have
a unique interaction that is different from other types of materials.
When lightning hits a tree it blasts the tree apart but when it hits a
human body it travels over the surface of the skin, this is called the
flashover effect. This makes it possible for a person to be seriously
injured but have little if any burning on the skin.
On August 6,1997, Vancouver was visited by a viscious torential downpour.
Vancouver gets alot of rain but not usually in the form of a tropical
storm and with this storm came thunder and lightning. The likes of which
I have never encountered in Vancouver in the past 20 years that it has
been my home. The city had over 2000 strikes in 3 hrs.
Having spent my first 10 yrs of life in Edmonton, I was not new to these
kinds of storms. Since awe inspiring thunder and lightning shows were
a common site on the Albertan prairies, I used to watch from the front
bay window as sheet lightning filled the sky above the vast fields outside
our home. I loved them, they filled me with excitement and wonder.
Somewhere in time, as I grew up living in Vancouver, I developed a fear
of thunder and lightning, it wasn't a disabling fear but I always felt
very uncomfortable when the rare storm struck. Perhaps it was because
Vancouver got the more traditional lightning bolts rather than the sheets
I was used to seeing on the prairies. And Strikes we're always so much
closer and louder than I ever recalled from my childhood.
I worked at an automotive repair shop as an apprentice mechanic. My husband
also works there as a licensed mechanic. It was his day off the day I
was struck.
The rain was beating down fiercely and the whole building boomed every
5 minutes or so as lightning was striking all around. The guys found it
quite funny because every time there was a really loud thunder clap I'd
jump or sometimes scream from being startled. We were all having a good
laugh about how thunder scared me. The humor helped me keep my fears at
bay and it was turning into a scary but sort of fun kind of day. I knew
that people could be struck inside a building and I quoted to the guys
lightning facts that I knew, using these as stress relief. We comforted
each other knowing that our building wasn't tall and if lightning was
going to strike it would strike something higher in the neighbourhood
well before it got our building. (We found out that the myth lightning
strikes the tallest object in an area is NOT true.)
I was working on a vehicle and John our boss came by to see how I was
doing, he laughed as I jumped from another thunder clap and he said "I
don't care if it hits something as long as it doesn't strike me"
I replied "Well if anyone in the shop will be hit, it'll be me."
We all laughed and agreed because everything that happens at work always
seems to happen to me. All my life I have always had the strangest luck.
But never in a million years did I honestly think I would be struck by
lightning, and definitely not inside a building.I was using the vice on
the metal workbench at the far side of the shop. Above this bench are
all the three phase circuit breakers for the shops electrical system.
I took the aluminum thermostat housing out of the vice and had just stepped
back from the bench when BOOM!All I remember was seeing a blue flash.
I was literally stunned, frozen mentally and physically, my muscles started
twitching, my heart spasming, then the pain which was only in my hand
at first climbed up my left arm and down the left side of my body. Over
a period of about 20 min the area that first had hurt went totally numb
and I started becoming paralyzed but only on my left side. While this
was all going on, a customer who was near at the time of the strike came
running, asking if I was alright, he said he saw a bolt of lightning jump
the 3 foot air gap from the metal bench to my arm. I just kept ranting
"I was hit by lightningI was hit by lightning!" over and over
in a very distressed freaked out voice.
The guys in the office when they heard the bang looked out and the whole
shop was filled with blue light. They thought something like a propane
tank had exploded from the sound the strike made. John came down to check
me over at this time I could still walk and talk, Ed took care of me while
John went to call 911. The phones were dead! Lightning had blown the phone
system. (I later learned, when I got to the hospital, that Ed had been
struck too. He was on the phone, it blew the receiver up and left a burn
on his chest.) They didn't know what to do, they figured since I was still
alive I wasn't in immediate danger, it didn't take long and the phones
were working again and when they called 911 it was BUSY!By this time I
had taken a really bad turn for the worse I was turning grey, I couldn't
walk and my whole left side was partially paralyzed, I was in excruciating
pain and my breathing was stopping. It was so strange because I was conscious,
sitting down and then suddenly I noticed something was wrong but I couldn't
figure out what it was, and then I thought "Oh my god, I'm not breathing."
I'd think "inhale" but nothing happened, then suddenly I'd be
breathing normally again, and then it would stop. The times it stopped
seemed like forever but in reality they probably weren't more than a minute.
John finally threw me in a car and took me to the hospital. My breathing
finally normalized about an hour after getting to the hospital. Ed was
the next to come in, they put him in a bed beside me. We thought the whole
thing was too funny.
It was only once the choas of it all subsided and the doctors started
checking me out that the revelation came to me how serious the experience
was.