Photo: UGC Fear of heights, called acrophobia, is one of the common phobias that are related to space. The human body is not designed to be at significant altitudes, so in the mountains a person experiences dizziness, which is considered a normal physiological reaction. Discomfort is considered problematic when staying at low altitudes. Let's tell you more about the fear of heights and ways to overcome it.
What is acrophobia
The feeling of fear is one of the signals that helps us save life. Where there is danger, fear appears, which warns that things may end badly. Psychologists say that the fear of heights is inherent in us from birth. At the level of instinct, a person is afraid of falling. This contributes greatly to survival.
Therefore, if you experience anxiety while on the roof of a multi-story building, then this is a completely normal reaction of the body. But if you are afraid to even climb the stairs, then you have a serious psychological illness. It is called acrophobia and is associated with a pathological fear of absolutely any height.
About every twentieth person on earth suffers from acrophobia. For some, it occurs in a rather mild form. A person is simply afraid to go on rides or look down from a ninth floor balcony. And some are terrified to even stand on a stool to replace a burnt-out light bulb.
When rising even half a meter from the ground, an acrophobe:
- your head starts to feel dizzy;
- sweating increases;
- nausea appears;
- heart rate increases;
- trembling appears in the whole body or only in the limbs;
- panic arises;
- thoughts about death appear.
If you experience these symptoms when going up an escalator, for example, then you most likely have acrophobia. However, only a psychotherapist can establish a more accurate diagnosis. Such symptoms are not always a sign of pathological fear. They are also characteristic of the instinct of self-preservation.
Behavioral therapy
If you regularly encounter danger without consequences, fear is dulled. There are cases where severe patients got rid of phobias on their own, without the help of a therapist, daily taking small steps towards danger.
This method is also effective in combating acrophobia. If you live on a high floor, look out the window or go out onto the balcony more often. Do this every hour, and after a month you will notice that you no longer feel dizzy when you look down.
If you live low, do this exercise at work or admire the view every day from a high bridge or embankment. An ordinary land crossing will do: the main thing is that all these places are truly safe to be in.
Causes of fear of heights
We have already found out that the fear of heights itself is a manifestation of the instinct of self-preservation. Indeed, a strong fall can cause serious injuries. However, panicking when climbing stairs or going on rides is not a normal reaction.
Such a pathological fear of heights can develop for several reasons.
- Fall in childhood . It is difficult to find a child who has not fallen at least once. Children often fall from a sofa, from a chair, from a bicycle, from trees. The fall itself may not have any impact on the child. But the reaction of adults will be imprinted in his subconscious. If parents have panic, hysteria, tears, then the child will forever remember the height as something terribly dangerous and unpleasant.
- Serious fall-related injuries . If a child’s fall results in serious injury, the child will remember this experience for the rest of his life. It will cause great fear. Trauma can also cause acrophobia in adults whose profession involves heights (climbers, parachutists, stuntmen, assemblers, etc.).
- Heredity . Psychologists have found that phobias can be inherited. If the parent has not coped with his fear and the child sees the adult’s reaction, then he will copy the parent’s behavior. Adults, without knowing it themselves, instill in children a strong fear of heights.
- Vestibular and vision disorders . This is the physiological cause of acrophobia. A person with such impairments simply cannot adequately assess height. He is disoriented in space, and incorrect signals and impulses are received from his senses. As a result, even a small height seems intimidating to a person.
When a person knows well the cause of his fear, he is already on the path to recovery. And it happens that a person discovers a fear of heights only at the moment when he climbs, for example, a mountain. He begins to feel dizzy, nauseous, and panic. As a result, he crawls the rest of the way on all fours, afraid of falling.
Distraction
This method will be useful for those who are paralyzed not so much by height as by the very thought of the danger associated with it. One patient living on the 12th floor was frightened not by the height, but by the very memory of this fact. Living in constant fear has a detrimental effect on health and leads to depression, and the first step necessary for successful treatment is distraction.
If you feel the approach of an oppressive state of danger that covers you from head to toe, try at this moment to switch your attention to something else (nature, people around, weather, important things to do for the day) or remember something pleasant. This method will not always work, but it will help you get out of the funk and take the first steps towards a state of confidence.
Treatment methods for fear of heights
To help a person overcome their fear of heights, you can use one or several methods at once:
- relaxation;
- psychotherapy;
- drug treatment.
Relaxation
To cope with a fear of heights, as with any other type of fear, you need to learn to relax. The ability to calm down and pull yourself together helps prevent panic and anxiety from building up. You can learn to relax with the help of:
- meditation;
- breathing exercises.
As soon as you feel fear, start breathing deeply. Take a deep breath through your nose, hold your breath for 2 seconds, and then exhale completely. The exhalation should be such that you feel as if there is no air left in your lungs at all. This way of breathing helps to overcome fear.
Learning to meditate is a long process. The effect of meditation is usually cumulative and slow. Meditation helps you better understand yourself, feel your body, and put your thoughts in order. Special applications for smartphones have now been developed to help you master this art of relaxation.
Psychotherapy
If a phobia has become pathological, a person will not be able to overcome it on his own. Closing his eyes, the acrophobe immediately imagines himself on the edge of an abyss into which he is about to fall. Such obsessive fear greatly wears out the nervous system and interferes with normal living.
However, psychotherapists are able to cope with such advanced cases. There are several ways to do this.
- Cognitive behavioral therapy . Helps to identify the cause of fear, find negative attitudes and correct them.
- Hypnotherapy . The doctor puts the patient into a state of hypnosis and looks for the cause of the phobia. Then the patient seems to live through the same situation again, but with a favorable ending. This method helps to overcome deep-seated fears.
Psychotherapists often use visualization techniques in the treatment of acrophobia. The patient closes his eyes and mentally imagines himself on the edge of a cliff. At the same time, he needs to convince himself that he is not afraid of falling. Feel bold and courageous. By performing this exercise every day, a person gradually overcomes his pathological fear of heights.
Doctors are very actively using modern technologies, in particular virtual reality, to treat the disease. It helps the patient feel the height, but without risking his life at all. Although everything looks very realistic to a person, the patient is confident in his safety. As a result, fear gradually goes away.
I suggest you watch a short video from which you will see for yourself the effectiveness of using virtual reality in the treatment of acrophobia.
Drug treatment
Medicines cannot overcome a phobia; they only eliminate negative symptoms and consequences. Only a doctor can select and prescribe the necessary medications. Therefore, under no circumstances take strong sedatives on your own without the advice of a specialist.
Several groups of medications are used to treat anxiety disorders.
- Antidepressants - help suppress depression and restore a sense of joy. The longer a person is depressed, the more frequent and painful the attacks of fear are for him.
- Benzodiazepines – block anxiety states, help relieve symptoms that occur during attacks of fear. They are prescribed only for severe panic conditions.
- Beta inhibitors – reduce the production of adrenaline. It is this hormone that is actively produced during stress and provokes a rapid heartbeat and increased sweating.
Since the fear of heights is aggravated by poor vision, the doctor examines the patient. If he has vision problems, then in addition to sedatives, medications are prescribed to improve vision.
Symptoms
There are no identical people and reactions to heights in the world.
Everything is individual for everyone. Experts identify average indicators of symptoms of neurosis. The first thing people with acrophobia note is that they have absolutely no control over their body and mind in a moment of “danger.” There is a persistent obsessive thought about jumping down. Such suicidal tendencies appear only when there is a threat of falling. The fear of slipping and falling headfirst onto the ground is a concomitant symptom of phobia.
How does the body react to heights with acrophobia?
- The head refuses to perceive reality and is treacherously spinning.
- The stomach strives to return its contents to the outside. Cases of diarrhea are common.
- The heart may either slow down or begin to jump out of the chest.
- Tremors in the hands or feet are also quite common with fear of heights.
- Excessive sweating and frequent urination make it impossible to live normally.
- The muscles remember what state they were in at birth, which is why “hypertonicity” occurs.
- The pupils completely fill the eye.
- Nightmares and poor sleep deplete a person’s nervous system and exhaust the body.
These were vegetative or somatic symptoms.
Mental abnormalities are expressed in possible aggression, excessive irritability and even anger. A person cannot concentrate and focus on any problem; he resembles a compressed spring. He lives for one terrible moment, reminiscent of Groundhog Day. Often deja vu.
Tips on how to overcome your fear of heights
If you are determined to overcome your fear of heights, I will offer some tips to help you do this. Set yourself up for hard work and don’t get discouraged if you don’t get quick results. He will definitely be there!
Understand the problem and its scale
The very first and most important step on the path to healing is awareness of your fear. Determine its degree and analyze the sensations. Take a stepladder and begin to slowly climb up the steps. At what altitude do you start to feel the first signs of panic? What are you afraid of? Bruise, dislocation, fracture?
If you fall from a height of half a meter above the ground, you are unlikely to break anything. Although dizziness and trembling knees can aggravate the likelihood of falling and the consequences of it. Once you realize this, you will feel that there is nothing to be afraid of. This means that your fear of low heights is not unfounded.
Many of the injuries you fear because of your fear of heights are much easier to get while jogging. Climbing skyscrapers, going on attractions or flying on an airplane is much safer than driving a car, for example. Statistics show this. If you have aerophobia, that is, a fear of flying in an airplane, then know that the chance of crashing is 1 in 20 million. While lightning strikes 1 person in a million.
Maintain consistency
You should not try to overcome your fear of heights in radical ways: bungee jumping or parachute jumping, climbing onto the roof of a high-rise building. This is dangerous for a person who experiences a panic fear of heights. Consciousness can turn off at any moment - and your health or even life will be at risk.
Psychologists recommend getting used to heights gradually and be sure to praise yourself for every achievement. Keep a diary in which you will describe your struggle with the phobia, each height conquered, and your feelings. Re-read the notes and be proud of yourself.
Start conquering heights with minimal discomfort. Have you climbed to the third floor and felt fear rolling in? Stop, stand a little, use deep breathing techniques, focus on the fact that your health is not in danger. And best of all, enlist the support of a loved one who can calm you down.
Next time, go up a few more steps. It will take more than one day or even a week before you can calmly climb to heights that previously frightened you. The next steps on the path to overcoming acrophobia may be:
- Ferris wheel;
- roller coaster;
- climbing wall;
- hiking in the mountains with an instructor;
- diving, etc.
Do not forget that you must always start from a low height. If you are afraid to stand on the balcony, then do not look down, grab the railing tightly and try to admire the view.
Trust Exercises
In children, a fear of heights may arise due to the fact that no adults were nearby when they fell. There is a fear that no one will help. This fear continues into adulthood. In this situation, it is necessary to restore trust in people. There are simple exercises for this.
- The acrophobe turns his back to his friend and falls backwards, and his friend must catch him. This exercise helps to get rid of doubts and uncertainty.
- The acrophobe climbs onto the stepladder, and his friend holds it tightly. The person will feel safe and the fear of falling will decrease.
The support of a loved one in itself already gives confidence and helps to quickly cope with fear.
Communication
Since fear of heights is quite common, it will not be difficult for you to find people who suffer from a phobia just like you. With them you can discuss your fears, share methods and successes in solving the problem. It is quite possible that you will learn new ways to deal with fear.
You can also talk to people whose work involves working at heights:
- window cleaners;
- industrial climbers;
- crane drivers;
- installers, etc.
They can also give valuable advice on how not to be afraid of heights.
Recommendations
Frequently living with anxiety and tension wears out the cardiovascular as well as the nervous system. And this threatens with a heart attack, asthenia, psychosis, and so on.
So check out breathing techniques that will help you overcome stress and get rid of its negative effects. After all, it is impossible for a person to avoid situations that worry, upset or anger him.
Reality is not as beautiful as we would like. Therefore, it is important to be able to get rid of negativity and relax.
Meditation will also help you with this. Listen to yourself, your desires and enlist the support of loved ones, perhaps they will keep you company in training.
Additional fighting options
Any person has a set of characteristic behavioral and personality traits that are unique to him. Therefore, even in theory, it is impossible to create a technique that will help all people understand how to deal with the fear of heights. In this case, the best option would be to contact a psychologist who works with phobias. And he will select a remedy suitable for a particular person.
Moreover, experts themselves warn against thoughtless self-medication. An inexperienced person may lose sight of small nuances, and his entire treatment will end unsuccessfully. And qualified psychologists work for a long time and in detail on all aspects of subconscious fears, increasing the chance of finally getting rid of the tormenting nightmare.
A popular method of treating acrophobia is a course of hypnosis sessions. An experienced doctor puts the patient in a suitable state and corrects all the necessary points. Such treatment ends successfully, and most patients do not even remember the existence of phobias in the future.
Harm
Fear, which has a strong emotional overtones, often turns into obsession, causing certain harm to the human psyche. In more detail, the organs of a frightened person function in an unusual mode. This change confuses the body, leading to loss of consciousness, stroke, or heart failure.
Being in a state of severe fear for a long time wears out the human body, shortening its lifespan. Psychiatrists claim that those with fears of water, transport, and so on, live 20 years less than other people who are more successful in controlling their emotions and can say that “I’m not afraid of heights.”
Unfortunately, not all phobias can be eliminated on your own. Without appropriate treatment, a person will gradually begin to fear the very thought of the object of his fears. This fact will increase the time period of being in a state of stress, which will contribute to the occurrence of somatic or psychological diseases. In more advanced cases, patients went crazy or committed suicide.
