Fear of tornadoes.. help!?

Question

I have an irrational fear of tornadoes, which doesn't make sense because I have never seen one, and I live in New England. I just watched a show about them on the Discovery Channel, and now I can't sleep because I don't want to have nightmares about tornadoes all night. How do I get over this silly fear?

I once drove all the way across Oklahoma without stopping because there were tornado warnings on the radio...

Answer 1

It can be difficult to get over such a fear.  Perhaps it will help to realize that the tornadoes you saw on DC represent only a very tiny percentage of tornadoes.  By far most tornadoes are small and brief, do relatively little damage, and rarely injure or kill anyone.  Less than 5% of all tornadoes cause the more significant damage and injuries.  Even in tornado alley, the chance that one of those striking your location is very small. They are not the powerful vacuums that they are widely believed to be, and they do not suck up everything in their paths.  In reality, they are just a circular area of very powerful winds, and if you can just get out of the way of those winds, you will have an extremely good chance of coming out just fine, in the very rare instance that one would come your way.

Hope that helps, at least a little :)

Answer 2

Floridian here, we are in the midst of a tropical storm right now, don't mind that, but there are tornado warnings all over the place. I am not crazy about that, but ya know what. There is nothing you can do about it.  It is possible, however, unlikely you could get a tornado in New England. They have had warnings in Mass before. Sometimes a hurricane headed your way will cause them and you do get the remnants of them .  I use to live in Upstate NY and we had several small tornadoes go thru, so anything is possible with mother nature.

However, do not live your life in fear. It is like wanting to go to Europe but not going because you fear flying, you would be letting fear control your life. Hey we all gotta go sometime and when our number is up, it is up!

Answer 3

i used to have a lot of fears about earthquakes and stuff. i guess you just kind of outgrow it. just know that theyre not in your area. also, keeping busy helps keep your mind off worrying about things that dont matter. good luck!!!!!!

Answer 4

Don't worry about it...Just think that you've seen a tornadoe and you'll hide somewhere like an underground parking lot.Think of an escape!

Answer 5

pray

Answer 6

Stop worrying. You're in New England. Srsly. Even in Texas Tornadoes are a joke.

Answer 7

I have a fear as well.

When I was six, we were driving to Florida from Canada through South Dakota. There were constant warnings on the radio as we passed through Fargo. We even saw a few tornadoes in the distance. But my mom stayed very calm and it helped me and my siblings calm down.