Do you feel intense fear when you look out onto a balcony? Do you feel a very unpleasant sensation of vertigo when you walk over a bridge? Then it is possible that you have fear of heights. It can become a phobia, which limits the lives of many people out there. It is worth mentioning that the name of fear of heights is acrophobia. If you want to know how to overcome it before it becomes a problem for you, read on.

Fear of heights: acrophobia

Acrophobia or fear of heights is an irrational and extreme fear of heights. This type of phobia generates anxiety and avoidance behaviors in situations that involve being in high places.

Symptoms of Acrophobia

As with all types of phobias, acrophobia is expressed through a series of symptoms that manifest themselves in specific situations. Moreover, many of these symptoms are shared with the other pathological fears, so it is only the trigger that varies.

The main symptoms of fear of heights

Agitation and muscle tension

The incapacitating fear of heights is expressed, among other ways, by a state of muscle tension that causes the whole body to tremble. This occurs because the lymphatic nervous system is highly activated, causing the muscle fibers to receive more signals that they are ready to react quickly.

Anxiety

The anticipation of accidents and misfortune caused by the presence of a precipice causes a person to experience anxiety. This is a state of physiological and cognitive activation in which the entire focus of attention is on possible dangers. This condition produces discomfort and, in addition, prevents a person from thinking rationally and reacting in a way that is proportional to the danger that is before him.

Panic

Panic is a wave of fear that causes a person to experience a mixture of sensations produced by the anticipation of pain or death. It also causes sensory stimuli that arrive as soon as the person faces the situation that bothers them.

In the case of acrophobia, panic about high places has to do with the constant appreciation of the distance between the individual and the bottom of the cliff or slope that is near it. When this feeling of fear is very extreme and comes on abruptly, that person can have panic attacks.

Loss of control

One of the cognitive aspects of acrophobia is the loss of control, which consists of the inability to manage executive processes such as attention management or the establishment of consistent plans and sequences of actions.

Tachycardia

The abrupt increase in the blood pulse also causes the appearance of the sensation of shortness of breath.

Headache

Along with the appearance of the other symptoms, it is very common for a person with acrophobia to also experience a headache. This is caused by changes in blood pressure and overactivation of the nervous system.

What causes fear of heights?

The causes of fear of heights are multiple. It is worth pointing out that it is an evolutionary fear that is part of our survival instinct and that is present in other animal species.

Still, other factors may explain the origin of the fear of height It is possible, for example, that a person has had traumatic experiences involving high altitude, so that he or she has developed an irrational fear and begun to deal with its consequences.

The consequences of suffering from height phobia

In general, people who are afraid of heights avoid occasions when they have to expose themselves to high altitudes, so they are terrified of lookouts, elevators, bridges, sports involving heights, or cliffs.

In more extreme cases, acrophobia becomes a fear that disrupts daily life, because it can affect situations as common as getting into the elevator, climbing stairs, looking out onto balconies, or being in tall buildings. There are even people who end up having their quality of life drastically reduced, not even being able to leave their homes.

In addition, sometimes the fear of heights provokes in the person a feeling of incapacity or inadequacy. After all, he sees that other people can perform without fear the activities that he avoids, which is why his self-esteem deteriorates.

How to Lose Your Fear of Heights

Pathological fear of heights can be treated by psychological intervention, thanks to which most of the symptoms will subside (although in most cases they will not disappear completely).

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Cognitive-behavioral therapies have shown the greatest effectiveness in treating fear of heights. Specifically, exposure is widely used in this and other types of phobias.

Treatment of acrophobia by exposure

Exposure involves dealing with the source of the fear gradually, leading the person to set simple, short-term goals, either by physically going to high places (in principle, accompanied by the psychotherapist) or by using the resource of virtual reality.

Each time a goal is reached, such as standing near a cliff for 30 seconds, that person starts a more difficult phase. In this way, he or she goes through a series of tests ranked hierarchically according to their level of difficulty, and progress is accumulated over time. In view of this, going through this series of situations marks an ascending difficulty curve.

Of course, the supervision and guidance of a professional who is sufficiently knowledgeable in these techniques is indispensable for the realization of the exhibition. It is worth pointing out that he or she needs to be specialized in the area of Health Psychology.

Implosive or flood therapy

Implosive or flood therapy is another of the techniques used to deal with fear of heights. It consists of directly exposing the person to the anxiety-causing situation, preventing him from escaping. Of course, before getting to that point, the psychologist must have worked with the person on his phobia, teaching him relaxation techniques that allow him to control his anxiety response.

With this technique, faster results can be achieved than with systematic desensitization. However, if the person is not properly prepared, the experience can become extremely distressing and unpleasant.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis has also been shown to be very effective in curing phobias. In fact, this is a much safer option. After all, its addition to therapy avoids the anxiety that can be generated by using cognitive-behavioral techniques alone.

Traditional hypnosis works by direct post-hypnotic suggestions directed at the unconscious. Ericksonian hypnosis has also shown very good results. This is because by using indirect suggestions hidden in metaphors and stories, it can better reach the unconscious and attack the roots of fear.

Final thoughts on fear of heights

As you have seen, fear of heights is known as acrophobia. This extreme fear that the individual feels when encountering heights often ends up impairing the individual's own routine.

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