How to stop being afraid of heights and overcome the fear of falling

• What is acrophobia
• Causes of fear
• Symptoms of the disease
• Symptoms in adults
• Symptoms of childhood acrophobia
• How to overcome acrophobia
• Medication method
• Psychotherapeutic methods of struggle
• Methods of self-medication

Your legs are shaking, your eyes are running wild, your head is spinning, and your heart is about to jump out - this often happens to people when they look down from a height. This condition is called acrophobia or fear of heights. A person who suffers from such an illness will be afraid no matter where he is, on a second floor balcony or on a high bridge. At such moments, you need to know how to overcome your fear of heights.

Fear of heights is called acrophobia

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.

Symptoms and manifestations

Acrophobia is the fear of something that might cause you to fall. Elevators, glass floors, balconies, cliffs and even bridges. But the more civilization develops, the more places appear that can lead an acrophobe to a severe traumatic disorder and an uncontrollable state.

For someone who is not afraid of heights, any climb is not characterized by any manifestations. But those suffering from acrophobia are familiar with the following symptoms:

• the desire to find support, to hold on;
• inability to adequately assess the situation;
• dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath;
• throws into sweat;
• legs and arms are shaking;
• diarrhea, vomiting;
• dry mouth, excessive salivation.

Even in a dream, life at altitude is reflected by symptoms of the disorder in reality.
Losing support mentally or in real life is difficult for acrophobes. A common phobia is more difficult to treat than others. You shouldn't rely on medications. Most medications can only weaken the manifestations of the disease, but cannot eliminate a person’s fear of heights.

You should not self-diagnose a phobic disorder. A neurotic condition is assessed only by a specialist, who also prescribes treatment, group or individual therapy. Only a quarter of people are able to overcome fear on their own.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.).
3. 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.
4. 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.

Forward to the present!

A good method of getting rid of phobias is to return to the present. There are differences in height: it is dangerous to be on a slippery roof that is not equipped with protective barriers, but not on the stairs of a ground crossing. The situation that once caused uncertainty is no longer there today, and there is no reason to jump down.

Returning to the present is a complete rejection of the negativity of the past, of its commanding power. After all, problems are solved only in the present tense, and there is no point in increasing the number of problems at the expense of old episodes, in which nothing can be changed anyway.

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.

1. Cognitive behavioral therapy . Helps to identify the cause of fear, find negative attitudes and correct them.
2. 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.

1. 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.
2. Benzodiazepines – block anxiety states, help relieve symptoms that occur during attacks of fear. They are prescribed only for severe panic conditions.
3. 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.

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.

1. 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.
2. 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.