I'm scared of rollercoasters. Can I get over my fear?

❓❓ FAQ (has spoilers)

🎢 Haven't you done stuff like this before?

My phobia's specifically about rollercoasters: the clack-clack of the lift hill, the lack of control, and especially that stomach-drop feeling you get when you crest a hill too fast in a car. No emergency stop button, no pilot, no brake, no way out other than to push through it: that absolutely terrified me. If you've been on 'Pirates of the Caribbean' at Disney World? Even that tiny drop bothered me, I got that awful stomach-drop, tense-tingling, panic feeling going over it. (Some lucky folks won't know what I mean here, because they don't get that stomach-drop feeling. If that's you, I'm envious.)

Over years of making videos, I've been lucky enough to film things that chipped away at what I thought I knew. I did a loop in a glider: I felt the stomach-drop, but not strongly. I got to fly in zero gravity: no stomach-drop, no panic. And I thought, that's odd. Then I got to do high-g, and inversions, and aerobatics. No stomach-drop. Turns out stomach-drop isn't some built-in freefall reaction. It's just fear. You can turn it off: if you're not afraid, then stomach-drop, the thing I hate... it just doesn't happen.

With that knowledge, what was left behind was the core: the phobia of rollercoasters that I've had since I was a kid. Rollercoasters looked really fun. I just needed to not be afraid.

To be clear: I'm not acting (I can't act), I'm not playing it up for the camera. If the phobia or my reactions seem overblown to you, then I want you to imagine whatever it is that you're scared of, whatever it is that you would never ever want to meet, whatever the basic, animal part of your brain screams about. Spiders, clowns, deep water, whatever it is that sets all your nerves on edge. I want you to imagine that in just a few minutes, you'll be meeting that. This was a big deal for me.

💷 Is this an advert for Alton Towers?

No. (The "paid promotion" flag is for the NordVPN ad!) Alton Towers had no control over story or editing; we approached them; we were not paid. If I'd passed out, or sworn never to go on coasters again, we'd still have published. But we did fact-check with them to make sure that we got details right, and of course, they gave us incredible access to the park and rides, and the schedule for the day was pre-arranged between my team and Alton Towers. (Thank you so much to all the team there!) Hopefully that's clear from the video!

⚠️ Why the disclaimer at the start?

Alton Towers wanted to make clear that filming is NOT ALLOWED on rides except by special arrangement. If you take a camera or phone out on a ride, you'll be kicked out and banned, for good reason: if that camera falls at high speed it could do serious damage. No-one outside our team was allowed to ride the coasters with cameras attached. (You can see two of the team in the back on Wicker Man; that's for train balance!)

😱 Did you actually get over your fear?

The phobia's gone. I'm not blasé about it, I still have nerves if I'm going on a new ride. And if I'm spending the day at a theme park, I'll have to work up from smaller rides to larger ones, to remind myself that this is now a thing I enjoy. And I do enjoy it! I've got a new thing to learn about and be overly-interested in! I have opinions on rollercoasters now! (I really enjoy B&M's steel coasters, particularly the long air-time filled ones like Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure. And B&M flying coasters are joyful: I rode Superman Ultimate Flight six times in a row at park closing. So far, my least favourite is the Steamin' Demon at Six Flags Great Escape, which is so rattly that it hurts.)

It's not an exaggeration to say that this is life-changing for me. I know that sounds overblown, but until I filmed this, "I don't do rollercoasters" was a surprisingly big part of who I was. I'd turned down opportunities because of it. I'd always been the person holding the bags and getting photos of friends on coasters, safely from the ground. And then, I pushed through the fear. It feels like a fundamental part of my identity has suddenly, drastically, changed for the better. And all I had to do was not be afraid.

That's probably a metaphor for a lot of things.

👥👥 CREDITS
Series Producer/Director: Kirsten Taylor
Assistant Producer: Han Evans
Production Assistant: Phoebe Steen
Edit Assistant: Adam Lawrence
Camera Operator: Bryn Williams
Editor: Chris Leggat
Executive Producers: Cambria Bailey-Jones, Guy Larsen
Special thanks to Louise, Sian and all the team at Alton Towers!

📚📚 CHAPTERS
00:00 Intro
01:17 Runaway Mine Train
04:25 Wicker Man intro
06:57 NordVPN ad
08:22 Wicker Man ride
12:35 Nemesis

[tomscottplus]

I can't overstate how much of a big deal this was for me: thank you so much to everyone who made it happen. (And there's quite a long FAQ in the description which should answer a lot of the obvious questions here!)

[salsaul]

"That was a problem for future me, and now I am future me, and this sucks."

Sounds like the story of my life.

[NotCallum]

Watching Tom go through the 5 stages of grief whilst laughing like a maniac has gotta be one of my highlights of the year

[aclonymous]

I love how aggressively british he becomes when he's scared and angry, like he completely 180s from a very calm documentarian to full force "CAHM ON INGERLAND"

[ikeglinsmann]

"Bravery isn't the absence of fear. It's being afraid and doing it anyway."

You absolute king.

[marmar]

From "this is what I would call my limit" to "I wanna do every rollercoaster in this park" is so heartwarming.

[drbm]

I love how accurately this shows the change from terrified screaming to maniacal laughter that people haven't been on many roller coasters experience.

[audigex]

I love how you can visually see the moment Tom goes from "this is terrifying" to "wait, this is FUN"

[MaxPalaro]

So fun to watch you scream to face the fear. That's EXACTLY the way my wife overcame her fear. Now she is braver than me

[trzw]

After Tom did crazy things like standing on the top of a flying plane, being scared by normal rollercoasters was not on my bingo card.

[Mcguy]

The moment when you changed from outright screaming to laughing enthusiastically on the second ride was insane

[SuperBubba]

The worst part of roller coasters is just waiting in line, your mind can torture you more than the ride.

[timhoffman]

The literaly transition from fear to fun that you had on the last two coasters literally gave me an emotional reaction. Not only did you concur your fear, you realized that it was something you enjoyed all along.

[lucasalvarenga]

Congratulations Tom. It's not the fearless that are the most brave, but instead those who fear something and have the courage to face it.

[MadMovieMakers]

Being afraid of a roller coaster is actually a really special experience after you've done a ton of them

[jefflondon]

The two seconds of film where Tom goes from unbridled fear, to realizing that he has the power to overcome that fear, is probably the best and most powerful I've ever seen of him. Huge respect brother, so amazing to watch.

[saadakbar]

Coming back to this video after seeing Tom's announcement he's taking an extended break from making YouTube videos, and I have to admit that this isn't just one of my favorite Tom Scott videos, but one of my favorite videos on the entire platform.

He's so open and honest about his fear of roller coasters, but still trudges on, giving us a play-by-play of each moment as he experiences them. The transition from his guttural yelling at 10:32 to his ecstatic laughter at 10:54 feels so cathartic. I'm definitely going to miss his regular uploads, but I'm glad he's created so much content for us to enjoy for years to come.

[jason]

Seeing tom go from terrified to laughing giddily like a child absolutely made my day

[kestrylsinflight]

As someone who has a panic disorder, “I’ve wasted so many opportunities to do cool stuff like that because I was just too scared” hits hard. Learning to trust outside of your fear, leaning into a bit of faith that is “this will be okay” is incredibly emotional, and even more so when you conquer it. I hope you find pride in your bravery, and more importantly, happiness.

[VadeSatana]

Tom being sat on fire: “this is gonna be so cool”
Tom being on a roller coaster: this is fine,

You sir are just awesome.