WHAT kind of 3rd world MRI places are you guys visiting, I've had 1, my wife 1 as well. They asked/told us both at least 3 times to remove any/all metal objects.
THEN
did just shy of a full body/cavity search to make sure

Do tell..

Me and my buddies during college.

What is this phobia of which you speak?

You guys were skinnier than I have ever been, I think.  Just my chest wouldn't have fit in those spaces, much less my shoulders.

I dont have claustrophobia but I had an MRI on my head once.
I was AOK right up to the point where they put that umpire mask
cage thing right on my face.

Made it through the 1st half of the scan when the tech came on the speaker
and was asking if I was OK. Evidently I was breathing pretty hard and squirming.
Was able to suck it up and finish but I wont have that done again without some
pharmaceutical help.

IIRC a cop walked into the suite with his weapon.

Contrary to TV the magnet on a MRI is never "off". Once the magnet is cooled to -400*F ish with liquid helium it becomes a superconductor. An electric charge is introduced and if everything was perfect it would remain spinning round and round forever as long as the magnet is cooled. It can take weeks to chill the magnet and get it going.

You don't want to be in the room if something bad happens and they have to push the little red button. Bad this happen with little red buttons...
The button quenches the magnet. Now this huge electrical charge that has been happy spinny away meets resistance. Resistance = heat...
Heat and a shit ton of liquid helium are bad news...
There is a vent to let the now boiling helium escape... But if things go really wrong the helium can escape into the suite... Moar bad news...

In theory it could make the air in the room "rain" as the different gases in the air become liquid and fall out of suspension..

Now your in a tiny little tube and its raining liquid nitrogen, oxygen and helium!!!!

Well, that's the dummy cliff note version.

Back to cop..

The 1911 was pulled across the room and into the magnet. The magnet was strong enough to disengage the safeties and crank off a round....

There was much debate here on GD about it but IIRC the conclusion was that it was possible for the magnet to defeat the safeties and the firing pin sans hammer fall to get enough momentum to fire the round.

It's not usually gun that get into the magnet.. It's O2 bottle, wheel chairs and floor polishing machines that take a ride.. People have been killed when there was a medical emergency in the MRI and people responding with O2 bottles and the like got too close and there bottle sucked into the magnet.

And things don't just fly towards the magnet and stick.. They bounce around like a fucking coked up kitteh..

There are many YouTube vids of people tossing shit into MRI machines that are being removed..

The MRI at the hospital had to be super quenched when the floor polishing machine he was using took a ride into the magnet and caught fire..

sedatives can be given to patients with claustraphobia for MRI's.

Good friend of mine is very claustrophobic.  He cannot wear the facepiece on fire dept breathing apparatus.

During Vietnam he was a tunnel rat.  Was buried alive 3x.

Whatever you do, don't crowd him!

People have groundless irrational fears, I quit trying to understand them.  Roaches, non-venomous spiders, heights, etc.

FUCK






THAT
If I have to exhale to fit, I don't fit.
Small rooms don't bother me in the least.  But having to worm my way through tight places, especially at awkward angles, hell no.  I'm a big guy, and I don't want to get stuck or have any limbs be restricted.  I hate not being able to move my arms around me in a tight space.
An MRI or something like that would not bother me.  Working under my car doesn't bother me.  As long as I know I can get out easily, I'm fine.
 

If that's what cave I think it is California, I've been in that exact spot.

 

My wife gets claustrophobic in a MRI machine, anxiety attacks unless she is drugged and I have to hold her leg when she goes in.
Since she has MS, they make her do one every year.

I get claustrophobia when I feel I can't get out of a place, and my head is at the same level as my body.

Sometimes claustraphobia is catching. When people tour the Roman catacombs, sometimes if one panics, others will too, so they try to discourage some people from going in.

This thread is making me uneasy.

You have no idea.

The mere thought of having an MRI makes me go cold with dread.  The ER docs wanted to put me in one of those things for a head injury but my reaction to their suggestion made them STFU with a quickness.

You have no idea.

The mere thought of having an MRI makes me go cold with dread.  The ER docs wanted to put me in one of those things for a head injury but my reaction to their suggestion made them STFU with a quickness.

Hell, if things are a bit tight I usually just close my eyes and relax.

I won't fit in a regular MRI to begin with so I always go to the open sided.  Even then it's a MAJOR anxiety attack unless I'm virtually unconscious on Valium.  Laying on my back with something that close to my face is absolutely unbearable.  Not so bad in most elevators but I did have to bail out of the little capsule that would have taken me up in the Gateway Arch.  No way, just way too small.

My wife was not claustrophobic until the day the dumbs hit staff at an MRI place forgot she was in the tube and got ready to go home for the day.

It was by luck that someone found her in there about 20 minutes later and took her out.

She now does open MRI's, or I sit next to her holding her hand and trying to keep her calm, which doesn't always work...

MRI's are fine but you put me in an elevator or airplane and I can't leave when I want to??? Massive anxiety. As for the cave dwelling shit.....fuck that.

There are lava tubes in N. AZ that look JUST like those pictures... always freaks me the EFF out when it's time to go under that one part like that.  

I had a foot MRI...it made me mildly uncomfortable and I only had my lower half in that tube.  It's a control issue for me, when I'm in a tight place I'm limited on options and lacking control over my next move.  I start to think "what if...." and run through all kinds of things, like tornadoes, building collapse, every terrible thing I can think of .  I can generally control it, but it takes a lot of concentration.  I feel my respiratory rate, heart rate, etc. increasing.  Typical sympathetic nervous system response.  If I ever need to actually be IN an MRI for a while I'll want some valium .

ETA: I wasn't claustrophobic when I was really little...until I locked myself in a car trunk, in the middle of the Texas summer for a while.  I don't know how long, but when they opened the trunk there was blood on the inside from me pushing on it, beating on it etc to get out.  It was supposed to be a funny joke to play on my mom.  It didn't work out quite right.

How the hell does everyone here live in a basement then?

Not only no, but FUCK no. FUCK no.

PTTTHHHHH.......

Try that underwater while wearing a SCUBA rig.

I can do things like MRI because I know it's not going to cave in and I'm not going to get stuck and all I have to do is ask and I'm out.

Going into a cave, you CAN get stuck. Or someone could get stuck in front or behind you. Or there is the (unlikely but in my mind very real) possibility of a cave in. It's the thought of being trapped that makes my breath short and my heart beat hard.

I'm with Rikwriter on the breathing thing. Rode DropZone at Kings Island and the shoulder bar had an extra safety belt that had to be latched. To get it to latch it compressed my chest and shoulders a bit. I had to make a conscious effort to remain calm, and breath shallowly and regularly. But, there again, I could have unlatched and jumped off, so it wasn't that bad.

I remember the earthquake in CA (on TV) and the bridge collapsed and one dude was trapped in a small spot in his crushed car for 4 days. Made me short of breath just to think about it. They would have had to take me straight to the looney bin.

On the other hand, I've got video of me hanging my toes over the Cliffs of Mohr in Ireland. (800 feet down to the rocky ocean below).

It's a valid condition in some cases......some people are hypochondriacs......some are just looking for attention.......I work in healthcare, diagnostic imaging including MRI, and 3 out of 4 claustrophobia hypochondriacs are women.

THAT being said......I couldn't do that cave stuff that is shown in the pictures!!!........but I sleep during my MRI's.

That would be my definition of insanity.

If I wasn't completely nuts before they stuck me in that thing, I sure as hell would be after.

And I would not go into it quietly either. It'd be FO time fer sure.

Doesn't bother me in the least. I have been in underwater caves where my chest was against one side and my tank was scraping along the other. Thankfully it widened back up, but it was sketchy for a bit.

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i've had three MRI's and one Cat scan....
i had to be woken up after each......let me lay down, and tell me not to move for 45 minutes and i'll fall asleep, no problems....

i've done my share of crawling around under houses, some tighter than others....and quite a few tunnels under houses with concrete slabs...no worries....
that said, i won't crawl around in my attic for anything...we've had our house for ~5 years now, i've been up there three times, and twice my feet didn't even leave the ladder...

not sure if it's because i was being paid for the stuff under houses, or what....but i won't do that shit no more....

also used to love running up trees - literally running, if possible, up a tree - grandpas house had a tree in the backyard i used to get up on the roof - wouldn't even have to used my hands to get up, just run....nowadays, i hate being on a roof - i get a real anxious feeling and start getting vertigo - mostly from my mind over-thinking about the ramifications of falling off i guess..

This.

Don't think I'm claustrophobic.  But fuck that cave shit.

I've developed claustrophobia over the last couple years, apparently.  Never bothered me before, granted I didn't find myself in very confined spaces often anyway.

But I ended up in the back seat of a tiny 2-door car (2001 Celica), and started freaking out.  It was a weird feeling.  I told my GF and her dad to roll their windows all the way down, because the rushing air made me feel less confined.  Same thing on a plane.  I have to have the air blowing full blast on my face.

Last year, I watched the movie The Call.  A lot of the movie takes place in the POV of a girl locked in the trunk of a car.  Just watching it actually gave me physical reactions when I pictured myself in that same situation; sweaty hands, increased heartbeat.

I have an MRI in a couple hours, that's the first thing they asked me too.

I'm on our confined space entry team.  We inspect and repair sewers from the inside.  Our training prop, the "habitrail" has an 18 inch pipe we practice crawling through pushing our SCBA ahead of us, so tight spaces aren't a concern for me.  There was one time though that had me question my choice of added duties on the team.  A contractor took a bore sample right through one of our pipes.  It is a 36" pipe right near the Willamette river's water table so we couldn't pump grout into the borehole.  I'm in this 3 foot pipe, 175 feet away from the manhole.  SCBA on, forward in backward out as there was no way to turn around.  My partner and I got the holes patched and I started backing out of the pipe against what felt like 12 inches of class 3 rapids.  I'm struggling against the current, sweating and cursing when my brain decided to take a quick vacation from lucid thought.  I had to stop, burn some air with the SCBA on bypass and close my eyes pretty much telling myself, "I'm in my happy place!  I'm in my happy place!"

Fortunately, that was the extent of my bad trips in confined spaces.

So, I guess you're not a fan of Das Boot, huh?

Do they do anything different, depending on how you answer?

Or do they just want to be prepared for a freak-out, if you are?

Only in groups of people, in small confined spaces not an issue.  I use to sleep in the front hall closet when I was a kid

 

How about the scene in Pandorum where the guy falls down this tunnel and gets stuck, pinned upside down. He gets a light on and sees a skeleton hanging next to him in the same predicament.

I get somewhat claustrophobic, but I've been trying to overcome it.

It's not really something you can explain, it's just something that is. I've known people to be afraid of the strangest things, it's just a trigger that goes off in your brain.

I liked to work on my bear and other cave animal noises. It makes it exciting!

Theres a movie, with some women who go into a cave, dont remember the name.  One of them gets stuck for a moment, I felt butterflies in my stomach, started breathing hard and thought I was going to have to leave the movie to catch my breath.  Dont know why but it freaked me out.

A local over look here, you have to crawl in on your stomach, then roll over, inch your body up until you are sitting, wiggle your body up until you are standing and crawl out.  I turned that trip down with my friends.

Good luck.

I don't think I want to watch that.

Just want to be prepared, and possibly encourage the person to get some pharmaceutical help.  I actually wish my office would stop asking that question.  Those that know they are usually have already talked to the doc about it.  If you don't know, it will be a surprise for all involved either way.   And if you answer maybe?  Well 87% of the time you are

What's the main drug they use to treat it?

I remember reading about claustrophobia, and finding out it's actually a "mental disorder".  I started a thread about it, proclaiming my mental illness.

As long as I can comfortably breath, I'm fine.  If I have to exhale to get through, I can feel claustrophobia start to come on.  Not quickly, but it's very much there.

Diazepam, valium, some people take xanax or the like.  The ones I always love are the ones that self medicate with alcohol.  Sorry sir/ma'am,  your images look like hammered dog shit because you are to drunk to hold still...

Mine was probably "seeded" when my brother locked me in the trunk of our family










































 

If you answer that you are claustrophobic, they stuff you extra far in and prepare their cell phones on video mode to watch the freak out.