Why do you get the urge to jump?

Emp_Fab · September 2023

...when you're looking over a high balcony?

What is that?

There's a part of the brain that says "Do it!!"... "You can do it without even thinking... one small jump and there's no turning back..."

Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets these thoughts!

merlin · September 2023

Just because you "can", doesn't mean you "should".

Many people have that urge.

blobb · September 2023

I call it the 'Insinkerator' moment. An Insinkerator, if you don't know, is one of those waste disposal devices you find in some kitchen sinks where there is an unnerving sensation of 'what would happen if I put my hand in there?"

Top tip, don't give into the Insinkerator moment, the result will be messy. As it would with your high balcony.

RaymondLin · September 2023

It's the same as licking the inside of a freezer.

Emp_Fab · September 2023

Oh I doubt that very much! One would result in a frozen tongue, the other would hurt a bit more.

Danny1969 · September 2023

When I was a lad we were on our way up to the 12th floor of a council block of flats to join a party.

If I boot the lift door really hard says one friend the lift will stop and we will be trapped in here for hours .

Really ? says the other friend and booted the lift door really hard.

3 hours later we were rescued from the lift by the fire brigade

DrCornelius · September 2023

A friend at school climbed on top of a 2 story shed with a golf umbrella and jumped off thinking he’d do a Mary Poppins and flutter to the ground.

2 broken legs later…

axisus · September 2023

I've never had that.

Sassafras · September 2023

Can't say I've ever had the urge to jump off Beachy Head.
Especially when I saw the twisted, mangled wreck of a Ford Escort on the rocks below.

merlin · September 2023

I get the urge to fly, not the urge to jump.
I can't fly so I don't.

Grumpyrocker · September 2023

Douglas Adams thought it was the ancient ape part of our brain calculating the jump, as it would have done in trees millions of years ago, meanwhile the modern part of your brain is going "Christ no!".

Jonathangus · September 2023

Personally, the urge is to get as far back from the edge of the balcony as is humanly possible...

Reverend · September 2023

It's the call of the void

Kilgore · September 2023

I usually get the urge when I got my back against the record machine.

EricTheWeary · September 2023

Is it the same part of your brain that tells you that King Charles is one of the lizard people?

Jetsam1 · September 2023

Probably more to with your brain going "Do this and this will happen, so don't" same idea as mad thoughts or pushing someone under a train or throwing you small child into the oven etc and anon. Survival thing. You imagine the consequences and go "Yes brain" That WOULD be bad".

Robin Ince had a good stand up about the concept.

CHRISB50 · September 2023

Are you sure it's not your Mrs whispering, "Do it, jump...", in the background? And you just think it's inside your head.

Shrews · September 2023

From that height you might live (with multiple compound fractures, paralysis, scrambled insides and bleeding brain). It's not going to be a pleasant recovery period.

I've parachuted before and felt that it might be a good way to leave this life if you were suffering from some nasty terminal illness. Certain death, great thrill on the way down, probably wouldn't even feel real until a few seconds before you hit, at that point close eyes and give two fingers to life.

But, I've never felt that about jumping from a tower block.

However, I think it would be appealing if in a Twin Towers type situation. Being burned alive or suffocating in toxic fumes, I think a jump into fresh air would be peaceful in comparison.

So maybe that's where the urge might come from, a feeling of escape.

Bezzer · September 2023

Because everything is so relentlessly shit all the damn time that the blissful nothingness of eternity calls so very, very strongly.

NothingOnTheTele · September 2023

Do a flip!

rlw · September 2023

Yup. Common feeling.

Paul_C · September 2023

I have wondered what it would feel like to put my hand against the blade of my bandsaw - I still have all my fingers

sev112 · September 2023

Might as well …

mrkb · September 2023

sev112 said:

Might as well …

Go ahead and...

TeleMaster · September 2023

Intrusive thoughts. Most people can dismiss them but some people are affected by them much more, which leads to compulsive behaviour and OCD.

TeleMaster · September 2023

Woops, double post.

Sporky · September 2023

Paul_C said:

I have wondered what it would feel like to put my hand against the blade of my bandsaw - I still have all my fingers

I've done it.

Not with the bandsaw running though.

Grumpyrocker · September 2023

The worst feeling I get like this is near those big reservoir overspill voids. They gave me the creeps as a kid.

Shrews · September 2023

I worked with bandsaws for about three years and never had an issue. I also never felt the urge to put my hand on one whilst running.

However two lads I worked with did. One cut his middle finger knuckle clean off. The second cut between third and fourth finger into the middle of his hand. Given the cold temperature both said they never felt anything until noticing the blood.

Something like this

Not quite as quick but not far off.

guitars4you · September 2023

Emp_Fab said:

...when you're looking over a high balcony?

What is that?

There's a part of the brain that says "Do it!!"... "You can do it without even thinking... one small jump and there's no turning back..."

Please tell me I'm not the only one who gets these thoughts!

My ex had a fear of jumping from such heights so hated heights
Be it a cliff face , balcony, even a hill side

S56035 · September 2023

Its either jump or an urge to push depending on who I'm with.

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Why do you get the urge to jump?

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