I've been a groundskeeper for a university for the last ten years, sometimes fill in on maintenance and have learned quite a bit of entry level stuff related to real trades outside of landscaping and irrigation, two things I know a lot about. I've been thinking heavily about getting into HVAC or being an electrician, or any real trade before I'm too old to work anymore (already 31) but I've had a lifelong extreme fear of heights. I can't just man up my way out of it, either, I've tried plenty of times, countless times when I was 18 I'd try to get on a roofing crew, show up to the first day, take one look at the ladder and just leave. I get shaky knees and dizzy if I get on a little step ladder, and it's really impacted what I can do in my work. Someone else always has to trim the trees and the tall hedges, I take the ground part in groundskeeper very seriously.
Is there a good trade to move into that works for someone who's terrified of heights? I love what I do now, pays good, great benefits, free home games, always a lot of young eye candy walking around campus, but after ten years I don't know if I should just keep plugging away or get into something that feels more like a real trade. Any advice would be appreciated.
Also I have no other fears, I have wrestled alligators, swam with sharks, regularly drive my motorcycle like I'm moronic, so the only thing I can't handle is heights.
see a psychologist, they'll teach you to do graded exposure therapy
Tried that, didn't work. The acrophobia is permanent, I don't need tips on getting rid of it, I need to know if I can go be a plumber or something and avoid ladders and climbing
tried what? exposure therapy on your own? you obviously did it wrong. see a fricking shrink you moron.
>I need to know if I can go be a plumber or something and avoid ladders and climbing
What a stupid fricking question. You can obviously do whatever you want, but even plumbers have to climb up ladders and go up on roofs to deal with vents.
Obviously I mean that I tried exposure therapy through a therapist. I've seen many shrinks for many things, they can't even touch the fear of heights, so I don't know why you keep going back to it when I've made it abundantly clear that that's a thing that's not going away anytime soon after many years of trying many different things.
Then, no, you probably cannot be a plumber. They have to climb ladders.
>I need to know if I can go be a plumber
Do pools. They go down, not up.
But how will he get out?!
first, they slope
second, the plumbing isn't in the pit -- with a single exception which the plumber doesn't install
Certainly he does something with the drain. What if it isn't a residential pool? They don't necessarily slope. He could get trapped in the deep end either way.
They'll have a crane to get the mattress out. He'll be fine.
This is going to sound completely absurd and like im some new age hippy but i swear it worked for my phobia anon... Try hypnotherapy, im not kidding, it took one session amd i wemt from being completely unable to go outside for fear of wasps to just being a little nervous around them as soon as i walked out and now im totally unbothered by them years later