Fear of heights is the most common phobia, an acrophobia. Acrophobia causes dizziness, anxiety attacks, panic and shortness of breath when a person is exposed to heights. The word acrophobia is composed of the Greek words for ‘top/end’ (acro) and ‘fear’ (fobos). There are different types of fear of heights and almost everyone suffers from it to some extent. It was long thought that fear of heights was caused by a traumatic experience, but fear of heights is probably partly innate.
Contents
- Fear of heights is a phobia
- How do you get scared of heights?
- Different types of fear of heights
- The difference between fear of heights and a phobia
- What makes you afraid of heights?
- Is fear of heights dangerous?
- Can fear of heights be treated?
Fear of heights is a phobia
Fear of heights is a common phobia that affects everyone at some point. There’s nothing wrong with a little fear of heights. Fear protects people in some cases, it doesn’t let you do stupid or dangerous things. Fear of height makes you be careful on the stairs, not to stand too close to the rock edge and not to lean too far over the railing. But when does a healthy fear become a phobia? A phobia is an irrational fear, a fear that is too great, a fear that can seriously disrupt your daily life. If you are careful on an open staircase, that is smart, if you do not dare to climb the stairs and have a panic attack at the mere idea of having to climb them, you have a phobia.
Learned or innate
How do you get scared of heights?
Many phobias are learned or appear after severe trauma, a phobia of heights probably develops differently. In one study, scientists had babies crawl across a glass plate. In the first test, the children could not see the depth below and quickly crawled to mom on the other side of the glass. During the second test, the children could see the depth and refused to crawl to their mother. But it’s not just people who are affected by the depth, several animals that were tested also didn’t want to walk over a clear abyss. This makes caution at heights seem innate.
Different types of fear of heights
There are different types of fear of heights, but most people suffer from a combination of different phobias. People with optical acrophobia are afraid when they have to look around from a height. With cognitive fear of heights, people think of all kinds of terrible things that could happen to them if they actually fall down those stairs. In addition, there is construction fear, knowing for sure that the tower will collapse while you are standing on it. A bathophobia is another variant and is a phobia of depth. For example, people with bathophobia do not dare to swim in deep water. Still others become panicky just when they have to look up at a building. Usually the height itself doesn’t matter much. People with acrophobia can also panic on the 1st floor of an apartment.
The difference between fear of heights and a phobia
Source: Comfreak, Pixabay
A healthy fear of heights is normal, but when does a healthy fear turn into a phobia? When you panic at a height, you pin yourself to every handhold you can find and sometimes you can’t even walk any further, then you really have a phobia. Fear of heights also has all the symptoms that also occur with other phobias: dizziness, sweating, palpitations, fear of death, chest pain, nausea and flight behavior. A slightly uncomfortable feeling on a high ladder is completely normal. Refusing a job because the office is on the 12th floor of an office complex is a phobia.
What makes you afraid of heights?
Fear of heights is partly a normal innate fear of height or depth. But the phobia, the extreme fear, is probably mainly learned. A phobia only appears after a traumatic experience, in this case, for example, an accidental fall down the stairs, or when parents set the wrong example. Parents with a fear of heights can pass that fear on to their children. Fear of heights usually worsens with age. It is not entirely clear what exactly causes this, but it may have to do with a reduced sense of balance.
Is fear of heights dangerous?
Healthy caution at high altitude is of course not dangerous. Acrophobia can cause problems. The danger of any phobia is a limitation in social life. Not being able to visit a friend because she lives on the 5th floor, not being able to go to the shopping center because you have to cross the bridge. In addition to this limitation, there are also panic attacks that can be dangerous. In severe panic, people can also lose sight of all caution and impulsively endanger themselves.
Can fear of heights be treated?
Fear of heights can be treated. Psychotherapy is usually recommended, sometimes supplemented with medication. The therapy consists of a slow habituation, patients are carefully exposed to the situations they are afraid of, in this case height or depth. Virtual Reality can be helpful here. The big advantage of VR is that many situations can be programmed and it saves enormous time. Psychotherapy is usually sufficient to reduce the fear of heights to normal proportions.
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