Acrophobia (fear Of Heights): What Is It And How To Overcome It?
There is a wide variety of phobias; Virtually any situation that we can imagine can become the focus of a pathological fear. Acrophobia, or the fear of heights that is extreme is one of those types of phobias that, in different degrees of intensity, attacks some people when they are near a cliff or a steep slope or even when they imagine it.
In this article we will see what acrophobia consists of, what symptoms it produces and what psychological intervention measures can be useful to deal with it.
Acrophobia is an extreme fear of heights which is to a certain degree disabling for those who experience it and, consequently, damages the quality of life. Therefore, it is an irrational fear, since it is not an adaptive response to a danger that really poses a threat.
Fortunately, in urban life there are not usually as many locations in which the person is exposed to places where vertigo can occur compared to natural mountain environments, but this phobia can also appear in elevators with transparent walls, rooftops, steep or ladders, high bridges and balconies or glass floors.
Besides, In many cases it is not necessary to be near a high place for the symptoms of acrophobia to occur. ; Sometimes, just imagining situations in which there is a cliff nearby, the feeling of intense discomfort appears. That is why fear of heights of this type can affect many people, wherever they live. In fact, acrophobia is considered to affect between 2 and 5% of the population, and is much more common in women than in men.
Vertigo and acrophobia are not the same, although the former is often spoken of as a synonym for what we experience through fear of heights.
The difference is that vertigo is, specifically, an illusion which makes us notice as if the things around us, including the ground, are spinning or shaking, which causes us to lose balance. When this occurs in a situation where one is near a cliff or similar descending void, this phenomenon is known as height vertigo.
Thus, acrophobia is related to height vertigo, but technically it is not the same and, in any case, the second can be one of the symptoms of fear of heights.
Symptoms of extreme fear of heights
As occurs in all types of phobias, acrophobia is expressed through a series of symptoms that are expressed in specific situations. Besides, many of these symptoms are shared with the rest of the pathological fears with the source of the fear (or trigger) being what varies the most.
Thus, the main symptoms of acrophobia are the following:
1. Muscle agitation and tension
The disabling fear of heights is expressed, among other things, through a state of muscle tension which makes the whole body shake with tremors. This occurs because the sympathetic nervous system is highly activated, causing the muscle fibers to receive more activation signals so that they are prepared to react quickly.
2. Anxiety
The anticipation of accidents and misfortunes due to the presence of a cliff causes anxiety to appear. It is a state of physiological and cognitive activation in which all the focus of attention is concentrated on possible dangers. This produces discomfort and, furthermore, prevents us from thinking as rationally as we could do in other contexts.
A wave of fear through which all of the person’s mental activity is directed toward experiencing the mixture of sensations produced by the anticipation of pain or death and, at the same time, sensory stimuli that come about the present situation and that, in the case of acrophobia, have to do with the constant appreciation of the distance between oneself and the bottom of the precipice or slope.
When this feeling of fear is very extreme and arrives abruptly, panic attacks can occur.
4. Loss of control
One of the cognitive aspects of acrophobia is the loss of control, that is, the inability to manage executive processes well such as attention management or establishing consistent plans and sequences of actions.
5. Tachycardia
The abrupt increase in blood pulse also causes a feeling of shortness of breath.
6. Headache
Once the rest of the symptoms have appeared, it is very common to also experience a headache, produced by changes in blood pressure and overactivation of the nervous system.
Overcome fear of heights
The pathological fear of heights can be treated through psychological intervention, thanks to which most of the symptoms will subside (although in most cases they do not disappear completely).
Cognitive Behavioral Therapies are the ones that have shown the most effectiveness in this regard. Specifically, the exhibition is widely used both in this and other types of phobias
Treatment of acrophobia through exposure
Exposure involves facing the source of fear gradually, setting simple, short-term goals.
To do this, you can physically go to high places (at first, accompanied by the psychotherapist) or use the resource of virtual reality.
Each time you exceed an objective, such as staying near a cliff for 30 seconds, you move on to a more complicated phase. In this way, it is stopped by a series of tests arranged hierarchically according to their level of difficulty and progress is accumulating. Going through this series of situations marks an ascending curve of difficulty.
Of course, To carry out the exhibition it is essential to have the supervision and direction of a professional sufficiently instructed in these techniques and who is dedicated to the field of health psychology.
