Doctors call a pathological fear of heights acrophobia. This psychological disease, which affects about 5 percent of the world's population, has become widespread due to the development of technology and science.
Technological progress has given people the opportunity to rise to previously unattainable heights and intensified pathology.
When a person experiences fear on the roof of a high-rise building or near a cliff, this cannot be considered acrophobia. After all, if it were not for this protective reaction of the body, it would not recoil from the edge and could easily fall down.
If you are afraid of being at high altitude, do not worry. The brain is just trying to send you a signal to mobilize your strength and be careful.
But when you feel dizzy, your hands are shaking and you start to feel sick on the 4th floor balcony, this may be a symptom of a disease. In this case, it is worth thinking about how to overcome your fear of heights. After all, if the disease continues to develop, you will begin to experience horror even in situations that do not threaten you with a fall.
Psychologists note that acrophobia often leads to thoughts of suicide, and patients often choose jumping from a skyscraper as a method.
Causes of the disease
Scientists have different opinions about the causes of acrophobia:
- The main theory is somatic pathology. It lies in the fact that the work of the vestibular apparatus, which regulates balance, is disrupted in the body, and the person begins to feel severe fear at high altitudes.
- Some believe that fear of heights is caused by negative experiences acquired in childhood and a person’s rich imagination, which is able to imagine in all colors all the consequences of falling from a height. This theory is not entirely justified, since many people have not had a negative experience in life, but despite this, they begin to have a panic attack on the edge of a steep cliff.
Carrying out numerous experiments, scientists have proven that fear of heights is inherent not only in intelligent beings, but also in animals that are able to see the space around them.
Why is a person afraid of heights: the main causes of phobia
To date, psychiatry has not developed a consensus on the causes of fear of heights. There are several versions that do not exclude, but complement each other.
Innate fear
An interesting experiment was conducted. Scientists specially organized an unusual surface: one part of it was completely transparent, and the second was made like a regular floor. Below this model there was a void, creating the illusion of an abyss.
It was found that young children categorically refused to be on a transparent surface, despite the persuasion and inspiring examples of their parents.
This suggests that a person has a fear of heights at the genetic level. Such fear, by the way, is also inherent in other representatives of the animal world that have the function of vision and do not have the ability to fly.
Organic brain lesions
This pathology can occur in connection with previous diseases of infectious or viral origin. Abuse of alcohol, drugs and psychotropic substances also has a detrimental effect on neural connections.
Psychasthenic personality constitution
There are people who are called thin-skinned or highly sensitive. Their nature is such that they react sharply to all experiences, have suspiciousness and high anxiety.
Such people do not feel well in bright light, loud sounds, or prolonged communication with people. They are the ones who turn away when watching films with scenes of violence and are afraid of the sight of blood. Highly sensitive people are misunderstood by many and their reactions are often considered a weakness. Meanwhile, there are about 10 percent of them among us.
A special mental makeup can lead to the development of many phobias, including fear of heights.
Traumatic events from the past
If a person has once had a fear of heights or had an unpleasant experience of falling in the past, they may develop acrophobia. At the same time, he does not necessarily remember the circumstances of his fear, which could be deposited in the unconscious. This is a direct connection between falling from a height and the fear of it.
Another factor causing acrophobia is considered to be weakness of the vestibular apparatus, which is responsible for the ability to maintain body balance in space.
Thus, acrophobia is a pathology that may have one or several causes; it is not always possible to reliably determine them.
Symptoms
Fear of heights manifests itself in different ways:
- Some people, describing their condition, say that when they find themselves at a high altitude, they cease to control themselves and their actions. Often there is an irresistible desire to jump down and end the panic, although in ordinary life no suicidal tendencies are observed.
- Fear of extreme heights sometimes manifests itself as self-doubt, an unconscious fear of slipping or not being able to stay on your feet. This causes dizziness and sometimes diarrhea. A person’s pupils dilate, their pulse and heartbeat quicken, their hands sweat and tremble.
- When the fear of heights is constant, it is very difficult to live a normal life, because a panic attack can begin at the most inopportune moment and significantly limit freedom of movement.
- In severe cases, people experience fear not only when they are at great heights, but also when simply contemplating high-rise buildings or mentally imagining the situation of climbing to the roof along a steep staircase.
Probable causes
Why are people afraid of heights? Acrophobia can be congenital or acquired. In the first case, genetic predisposition and deviations in the psycho-emotional state play an important role.
The acquired form of phobia becomes the body’s reaction to specific situations that a person has had to endure.
To identify the factors that provoked the development of pathological fear, it is enough to analyze the patient’s explanations, but sometimes this may require a comprehensive examination using psychotherapeutic procedures.
Possible causes of acrophobia may be the following factors:
- excessive impressionability (as a character trait),
- weakness of the vestibular apparatus,
- falling from a height, accompanied by physical or emotional trauma,
- children's fears (emotional stress associated with heights).
Do you need to fight fear?
Many people think that fear of heights is not such an important problem to focus on if it is not expressed by constant panic attacks. You just need to not get above your head, don’t go near open windows, and everything will be fine. But this is far from true.
We never know what the future holds for us. Perhaps someday you will have to climb to save your life, and you will not know how to overcome your fear of heights.
In addition, almost everyone suffering from acrophobia is afraid of flying on an airplane. You can, of course, exclude this type of transport from use and travel only by train, but who can guarantee that flying by plane will not be needed in the future, and you will start to get hysterical right at the airport.
People who experience constant fear at heights and do nothing to overcome this condition can become severely depressed, the recovery from which will be difficult and painful.
How to become aware of your fear
Since the natural fear of heights, inherent in nature, is present in everyone and forces us to be careful in dangerous situations, it is quite difficult to determine the fine line separating it from a phobia.
If your fear of heights is difficult to cope with on your own, take a short test and answer questions to find out how much fear affects your life:
- Have you turned down a lucrative job if the company's office was on the top floors of a skyscraper or if the job required air travel?
- Have you canceled an important meeting if it was to take place at a very high place?
Sit down at the table, take a piece of paper and write down all the situations when a fear of heights prevented you from living a normal life. If the answers to the questions are positive and the list is very large, you may need to consult a specialist.
Treatment
Find a good psychotherapist for yourself and make an appointment with him. The doctor’s task is to teach you to control your fear of heights and gradually weaken it.
Before entrusting your mind to a doctor, check his accreditation. Review certificate and education information. Try to find out reviews about this specialist, proving that he is strong in the treatment of phobias and emotional disorders.
The doctor will teach you techniques that will help you control attacks of fear and reduce anxiety:
- Therapy for fear of heights by immersing the patient in a deep hypnotic trance has excellent results.
- During treatment, the doctor instills certain attitudes in the patient, changes his attitude towards being at heights and causes a positive feeling towards an environment that previously provoked fear.
- The method allows you to remove the root cause of fear and ensure recovery. Therefore, when choosing a psychotherapist, make sure that he is fluent in this technique.
Sometimes the disease is offered to be treated with antidepressants and other medications. Many doctors believe that this is practically pointless. Such therapy temporarily removes the symptoms of the disease, but the cause remains and over time begins to bother you again, often more strongly than before.
Tablets can help reduce fear of heights, for example, before flying on an airplane, but the phobia lies dormant on a subconscious level and returns as soon as the effect of the drugs wears off.
Relaxation
A psychotherapist may suggest relaxation therapy. This is a good way to understand how to overcome your fear of heights and get rid of it completely.
First of all, you need to learn to relax your muscles and enter a state of rest. To do this, you need to sit on a chair, straighten your back, close your eyes and alternately tense and relax the muscles of your arms, gradually moving to your shoulders, back, and legs.
During the exercise, it is useful to imagine yourself in a forest clearing or on the seashore. This will increase the depth of relaxation. The method can reduce anxiety and help in treatment.
other methods
Some time after constant relaxation sessions, the moment comes when the doctor offers a practical lesson. It involves the patient rising to a small height and provoking his fear.
During the first session, it will be enough to go out onto the 3rd floor balcony and look down. When the fear of heights becomes active, you should try to remove it with a relaxation session, alternately relaxing and squeezing the muscles. With each new lesson, a person, accompanied by a doctor, rises higher and gradually ceases to feel the discomfort.
The final stage of treatment may be a flight on an airplane, a parachute jump, or a ride on a Ferris wheel.
Alternative Methods
Acrophobia is often psychological in nature, so acupuncture is a good way to combat it. It is one of the main methods in Chinese medicine to improve health and well-being. It is carried out with thin needles. They are injected into certain areas of the human body.
A professional acupuncturist knows the important points where the nerve endings responsible for fear and anxiety are concentrated, so the procedure can bring a noticeable effect.
It is important to choose a competent specialist who knows his business 100 percent, and only then entrust him with treatment.
Essential oils are good for relaxing the nervous system. If you don't know how to overcome your fear of heights, buy several bottles of oils, for example, pine, orange, lavender oil and inhale their aroma several times throughout the day.
Methods to combat phobias
How you can overcome your fear of heights depends on the forms that this phobia can take in each person. Therapy is based on the following methods:
- drug correction of mental state;
- cognitive behavioral psychotherapy;
- hypnotherapy;
- relaxation techniques.
How best to get rid of the fear of heights, and which treatment regimen to prefer, remains at the discretion of the doctor. You can fight the disorder on your own, but, as practice shows, self-medication for acrophobia practically does not produce results.
Professional help
The tablets are taken orally, regardless of the time of meal, the dosage of the drug is determined by the doctor
A qualified psychotherapist will help both overcome the fear of heights and normalize the general psycho-emotional state of the patient in order to prevent the development of phobias in the future. The doctor will offer several treatment methods to choose from.
As a rule, medicinal methods are not used to get rid of fear of heights. Drugs are prescribed only if the patient has a neurosis-like condition, sleep disturbance, depression or other mental disorders provoked by a phobia. Therapy usually uses short-course tranquilizers (Gidazepam, Adaptol), antidepressants, and antipsychotics.
Note! The drugs will not get rid of the phobia, but will only relieve general anxiety and normalize the functioning of the nervous system. A person will have to fight his fear of heights on his own, but under the supervision of a doctor. Therapy and treatment of acrophobia usually begins with cognitive-behavioral correction
This technique is aimed at changing a person’s attitude towards the subject of fear. In essence, the doctor helps to develop adequate reactions to everything related to altitude. These reactions should replace pathological fear and panic when climbing to a height
Therapy and treatment for acrophobia usually begins with cognitive-behavioral intervention. This technique is aimed at changing a person’s attitude towards the subject of fear. In essence, the doctor helps to develop adequate reactions to everything related to altitude. These reactions should replace pathological fear and panic when climbing to a height.
Self-medication
How to get rid of acrophobia yourself depends on the severity of the symptoms. You can conquer and overcome your fear of heights with the help of auto-training, relaxation methods, and gradually changing your own attitude towards the subject of fear.
It is important to understand that you don’t need to be afraid of heights, and then you will be able to overcome your fear. However, practice shows that self-medication is ineffective
It is recommended to seek help from a specialist rather than waste time trying to cope with the phobia on your own.
General recommendations
During treatment for pathological fear, it is necessary to constantly exercise. Join a gym and train several times a week. Do exercises in the morning and breathing exercises afterwards.
- To do this, stand up straight, close your eyes, take a deep breath and hold your breath for a couple of seconds. Then exhale forcefully and repeat the exercise 10 times.
- Normalize your sleep. It should be calm and long-lasting. Go to bed no later than 11 pm, having a relaxation session before bed.
- Start eating right. Eliminate fatty, spicy foods from your diet and instead try to consume more natural fruit juices, herbs, fish and dairy dishes.
- Doctors recommend giving up strong coffee. The caffeine it contains can increase anxiety and aggravate acrophobia. As soon as you stop drinking the aromatic drink, you will notice that the symptoms of fear have lost their severity, and the constant tension has decreased.
