Yesterday I went hiking with some friends at the Red River Gorge in Stanton, Kentucky, and 3 of us took the most strenuous and potentially dangerous trail a person can take in the park.

The week before the hike I had major anxiety about climbing rocks at such heights and had numerous nightmares and panic attacks about falling off a cliff. But during the actual hike I had no anxiety whatsoever, and in fact I did some things that would terrify me if I had to think about it too much. Is it normal to have such crippling anxiety beforehand but then have very little anxiety during the actual event?

Also, a friend of mine was on the other side of the gorge and was able to take a picture of us. If you zoom in you can see us. Note: I didn’t climb the gorge to get up there, I climbed something called the “Indian staircase”, which is still challenging, but at a lower elevation.

https://imgur.com/a/DA44f