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.
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.
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.
Manifestation of acrophobia in children
In children, acrophobia can be either congenital or a consequence of the child being dropped or falling on his own. Sometimes the fear of heights in children is provoked by the parents themselves through excessive care.
The child experiences significant discomfort even when he is on a slight elevation - a stool, a high chair. Like an adult in a state of panic attack, a child's heart rate increases, he becomes dizzy, feels nauseous, and has a fever.
If an adult with acrophobia cannot control his emotions, then what can we say about a child whose psyche is just developing. Panic does not allow the child to make a decision about how to protect himself and get down from the hill.
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.
Breathe evenly
The suitcases are packed, the vouchers are purchased, but the passengers are in trouble. To relieve tension in the body, the expert advises using breathing techniques. “You need to do several breathing cycles, and the exhalation should be longer than the inhalation. Try to breathe not superficially, but more deeply, with your stomach. Place your hand on your stomach, and you will feel how the air fills you and frees you,” suggests Irina Frolova.
When performing the exercise, the specialist advises focusing on breathing. All thoughts should be put aside and allowed to take their course, like clouds in the sky. You just need to watch how the air slowly enters and leaves the body freely. This technique can calm the nervous system, level out an elevated pulse and calm an agitated heart.
In addition, according to the expert, there are many different points in our body, by influencing which with massage movements we initiate self-regulation without any drugs. In particular, these are the “reset buttons” that are located under the collarbones. They switch the nervous system, mobilize our brain to think clearly and force energy to move in the right direction. The psychologist recommends massaging such points for at least 30 seconds on each side.
“You need to make a “pistol” out of your fingers - connect your index and middle fingers, and put your thumb aside, as if you are showing “class.” Then feel the dimples under the collarbone. Press your fingers into them and massage these points with pressing movements. Place your other hand on your stomach near the navel to feel the air movement. Inhale through your nose and exhale through your mouth. The exhalation should be longer than the inhalation. Swap your hands - this is necessary for the integration of the left and right hemispheres and the body,” the psychologist recommends.
On board, to distract yourself, you need to take your favorite books, a selection of films, a playlist or some kind of game. You should choose clothes that are as comfortable as possible, loose and not tight.
Photo: depositphotos/Rosinka79
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.
Why is a person not afraid of anything?
In any struggle with conflicting feelings, we must not forget that fear is a natural reaction aimed at preserving the life of a particular individual. Therefore, if a person is at a certain elevation and feels relatively safe, this condition is no less dangerous than a panicky fear of heights.
Such emotions often lead to manifestations of carelessness, when a person, without realizing it, can jump down. This is a less studied side of such a phobia, which can cause no less dangerous fearlessness. Therefore, if a person wants to jump from a high-rise building, believing that nothing will happen to him, then he urgently needs to be taken to a psychotherapist.
All fears are part of a person's daily life. Therefore, they will always be present in it, taking any form of feelings. But if their presence greatly harms the quality of life, then they must be gotten rid of with the help of a specialist. We must understand that he cannot help without the desire of the patient himself. Therefore, he himself must want to manage his life, directing it in the necessary direction.
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.
Imaginary danger
It should be noted right away: in car accidents, which occur much more often, the likelihood of dying is thousands of times greater than in a plane crash. This is evidenced by dry statistics. An airplane passenger has a one in 45 million chance of crashing. Let's do the math: even if he flew every day, such a death could have overtaken him only after 123 thousand years.
Pilots go through several stages of training. They are people too and they want the number of takeoffs to equal the number of landings.
As for modern aircraft, they are very reliable and have several redundant systems. That is, if one fails, the other will start working, which will allow the plane to land safely at the nearest airport. Both the crew and ground services will make efforts to achieve this.
Of course, we have heard news more than once about plane crashes with many victims. Each case has its own reasons, often a coincidence. But all of them are carefully investigated, studied and measures are taken to ensure that this does not happen again.
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.
