Did you have fire drill anxiety as a kid/teen?

[Aniko]

No, a lot of things give me anxiety but I was fine with drills, unless I was in P.E.
I have hearing problems, it was worse as a child and a teen because of otitis, so there were sounds I couldn't hear at all and others like muffled, so the alarm was not that aggressive for me and the drill itself, just gave me a little break from class...but seeing how stupid we were, not taking the instructions seriously made me a little anxious about the security. I thought that if it wasn't a drill we would be all dead.

 

[Xara]

Kind of. I was never anxious about fire drills themselves, when they would happen, or the alarm, but rather I was anxious about participating in them. I have mobility issues that affect my balance and make it hard for me to walk quickly, so I was always anxious about trying to get outside with hundreds of other people and then back inside without falling or getting separated from my class. I was especially anxious about a fire drill happening while I was in an upstairs class and having to go up and down the stairs with so many people (this was a challenge with having classes upstairs in general since I always need to hold onto the handrail, and that wasn't always easy when other people were climbing the stairs).

I missed a few days of school myself just to avoid fire drills, but thankfully nothing bad happened during any of the drills I did participate in. There was a bad fire in my apartment building a couple years ago, though, so I have bad fire alarm anxiety these days.

 

[Aerith]

No, they were startling initially at the worst, and then I was just happy to not have to do school work for a bit. Unless it happened in the fall/winter, then it was just cold and annoying.

 

[mewp0ka]

nope; i just made sure to follow everyone and be semi aware of my surroundings, even if it was only a drill and not the real thing.

 

[Savont 2.0]

i did.... still do

 

[Donnaus]

I used to tense up whenever the alarm buzzed, even if I knew it was planned. Deep breaths and standing near a calmer classmate helped me get through it.

 

[Roxxy]

No, it just happened but a small primary school so not scary as it was quite common. We hadn’t known anything to happen so didn’t think.

Now life is so scary

 

[Chris]

Somewhat. I work in a school, so that hasn't left! I luckily have a colleague who is good friends with our office staff and gives me the heads up on planned fire drills so I can keep my coat and water bottle nearby. I'm honestly more anxious about not having my water bottle to hand than the alarm itself. I am someone is constantly sipping water.

They're not always planned though. Historically our unplanned alarms are due to kids vaping in the toilets or accidentally hitting the alarm.

 

[Squidward]

I don't recall ever having a fire drill in school. But I'm not sure if that's because they're an American thing or?

 

[Corrie]

Luckily we never had actual fires so I knew they were always drills. I just hated how ear piercing the alarms were. Otherwise I didn't mind. Beats sitting in math class.

 

[-Blue-]

I can't really remember them so they probably didn't really bother me. I remember the bus evacuations they did more than the fire drills. Especially when it was so cold outside or raining. I hated having to jump out of the back of the bus in rain.

 

[ShawnFuzz]

I enjoyed fire drills because it meant we got to go outside and I didn't have to sit there doing work/pretending to do work

This is exactly what I was going to say!

 

[PapaCrossing]

It didn't bother me as a kid, but it did much later when I was in college. The dorms would have a practice run in October. The PA system would mumble something when I'm half asleep and then a loud alarm begun blaring. This was about 5:00am in the morning.

So in the cold October weather, just about everyone is in their PJs and such.

On a related topic, we do mock lockdowns at my job (I work at a school) and we rehearse what to do in a situation should there be a hostile intruder.

 

[Doo]

No, it didn’t really bother me to be honest. Surprisingly given how bad my anxiety was at school lol

 

[Halloqueen]

I wouldn't say I had anxiety about the fire drills themselves, but I never liked the loud alarm.

 

[PKMrBear]

I was sensitive to sound when I was younger. I didn't like being startled, so when I knew a fire drill was happening, I was very nervous the whole day. One day when I was in middle school, someone pulled the fire alarm and a voice on the intercom said "this is not a drill" and it put me and my friend back then in a panic. It's safe to say I don't miss fire drills.

 

[X2k5a7y]

I don't remember doing fire drills, tbh. Once when I went to public school, but there was actually a small fire. We all thought it was a drill. So, we took our time getting outside. Now that I think about it, I don't really remember ever doing a fire drill. Even at the school there was a fire at, I don't remember there being any alarms. We were in the gym though, which had doors leading to the outside. So, we weren't inside very much. I did have an alarm clock (old one that made that awful beep beep beep super loud), and hearing that sound to this day does give me a jolt of anxiety. So, I can see how something like that would affect someone so negatively, especially when they already have sensitivities to sounds. Once a month seems over dramatic. I'm sorry that that happened to you in such a way.

 

[RoxiePico]

In 2nd grade to around 10th grade my school had lots of fire/earthquake/all sorts of drills, and they never actually told us or scheduled it so when they WOULD happen it felt real, but after a while we realised they're drills (thank goodness they were.) and stayed pretty chill throughout them. Although I do remember crying on a drill in 2nd grade since they made us lock the classroom door and ACTUALLY made dudes march outside our doors to make it look real....