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Acrophobia is a pathological fear of heights. Symptoms of this type of phobia may appear regardless of age person.
The difficulty of diagnosing acrophobia is complicated by certain nuances.
Height can provoke a feeling of fear in almost every person; in rare cases, the feeling of emotional discomfort is completely absent. Normal form of anxiety and pathological fear have a specific facet.
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Definition and types
The fear of heights is called acrophobia. Acrophobia is considered mild neurotic condition.
In most cases, the pathology does not lead to complications, but its presence always indicates an increased risk of developing mental disorders and the presence of imbalances in the body.
Acrophobia differs significantly from the normal fear of heights.
This phobic state accompanied by characteristic symptoms and involves the use of various methods of treatment.
Acrophobia can be complemented by other phobic conditions:
- batophobia (fear of a sudden change in altitude);
- climacophobia (fear of stairs);
- (fear of flying);
- illingophobia (fear of dizziness at altitude).
How is it expressed?
With acrophobia, a person experiences panic fear, not only being at a height, but also at the sight of thematic images(for example, parachutists, skyscrapers, mountain peaks, etc.). Phobia can manifest itself with varying degrees of intensity.
A mild degree is accompanied by an attack of fear, nausea and dizziness.
In severe stages, physiological signs phobic state (allergic reaction, fainting, panic attack, etc.).
A person experiences panic fear with acrophobia in the following situations:
- ascent on the Ferris wheel or presence at observation decks;
- being on the balconies of high-rise buildings (including the view from the window);
- flight by plane (as well as other equipment used for flight);
- movement on bridges (height does not matter);
- being at any height (in severe cases).
Normal form of anxiety and pathological fear of heights - the brink
At high altitude, most people have a natural sense of fear. If emotional discomfort is felt in combination with dizziness, then this condition is not considered a deviation from the norm.
In addition, height plays an important role (top of a mountain, skyscraper, or a short distance from the ground). Acrophobes experience panic at any elevation.
Even getting on a chair becomes difficult for them. Fear becomes the cause of numbness of the body, impaired speech and coordination of movements, as well as other symptoms of phobia.
Indicators of the norm:
What is acrophobia? Excerpt from the TV series "Secrets of Fears" dedicated to acrophobia - the obsessive fear of heights:
Probable causes of occurrence
Why are people afraid of heights? Acrophobia can be congenital or acquired. In the first case, a genetic predisposition and deviations of the psychoemotional state play an important role.
The acquired form of phobia becomes the body's response to specific situations that a person had to endure.
To identify the factors that provoked the development of pathological fear, it is enough to analyze the patient's explanations, but sometimes for this a comprehensive examination may be required with the use of psychotherapeutic procedures.
Possible reasons acrophobia can be the following factors:
- excessive impressionability (as a character trait);
- weakness of the vestibular apparatus;
- falling from a height accompanied by physical or emotional trauma;
- children's fears (emotional stress associated with height).
How does it manifest?
Acrophobia can be accompanied not only by mental symptoms, but also vegetative symptoms... The general state of the human psyche and the degree of progression of the phobia play a key role.
In severe cases, the height can provoke a panic attack and bring the acrophobe to a critical state.
A person will scream, try to press his whole body to the surface, his skin will turn pale, and his pupils will dilate.
TO acrophobic symptoms the following conditions apply:
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Features of acrophobia in children
The symptomatology of acrophobia in children is slightly different from the symptoms of a phobic state in adults.
The fundamental difference lies in the risk of complications and in the treatment of fear of heights. The child will cope with such a phobia much easier than that of an adult.
The first signals indicating the presence of acrophobia in children are the fear of climbing slides, swinging, jumping on trampolines.
What to do? In this case, parents need to take several measures. Recommendations for parents:
- the child needs maximum psychological support;
- training can be done gradually (from a low height);
- strengthening of the vestibular apparatus plays a special role;
- if the fear of heights persists, then you need to seek help from specialists.
Methods for Overcoming Fear
How to overcome the fear of heights? Acrophobia responds well to treatment.
With a mild degree of phobic state, the correction can be carried out independently.
In severe cases help from specialists(psychologists or psychotherapists) will be inevitable.
When treating a phobic state, various techniques are used, which include not only psychotherapeutic techniques, but also a course of treatment with special medications that have a beneficial effect on the psyche and emotional state.
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Psychotherapeutic effect
The course of psychotherapeutic procedures is selected individually. When drawing up a course of therapy, the doctor takes into account the causes of the phobia, the degree of its manifestation and the general state of the psyche of an acrophobe.
In some cases, it is possible to get rid of the phobia in several sessions, but in the presence of a serious lesion of the nervous system, an integrated approach is required, which includes the use immediately several psychotherapeutic tactics.
In the treatment of acrophobia, the following psychotherapeutic procedures are used:
Pharmacological therapy
The need for drug therapy for acrophobia arises in severe cases. The reason for prescribing drugs is a critical state of the psyche or the absence of a result of psychotherapeutic procedures.
The list of medicines is being selected individually. You can only take medications with a sedative effect (Glycine, motherwort or valerian tincture) on your own.
When treating acrophobia, the following medications may be prescribed:
Afraid of heights: how to overcome fear? Acrophobia is one of the most common phobias in the practice of psychologists and psychotherapists. The phobic state can manifest itself regardless of age. Experts recommend starting the treatment of pathology as early as possible.
The younger the acrophobe, the more chances he has of getting rid of the problem quickly and as efficiently as possible.
Acrophobia can cause extremely negative consequences for humans. This phobia disrupts the work of the nervous system, internal organs and provokes the development of neurotic disorders.
Mental abnormalities in the stage of exacerbation can cause suicide with an attack of a panic attack. It is imperative to fight against acrophobia. Otherwise, negative consequences cannot be avoided.
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What is useful fear of heights? Learn from the video:
Slight dizziness when a person is at a high altitude is normal. This is how the vestibular apparatus "jokes" because of the difference in impressions: the legs are firmly on the ground, and the eyes see a solid surface far below. But some people experience extreme discomfort even at low elevations. Then we can talk about a phobia. What is the fear of heights called? What is it caused by? How to deal with it?
What is the name of the disease "fear of heights"?
An obsessive fear of heights is called acrophobia. It is diagnosed in 2-5% of people, and women have won the "palm": there are twice as many patients among them.
The word "acrophobia" is translated from ancient Greek as "fear of the upper". This fear belongs to the group of phobias associated with spatial and motor discomfort.
Fear of heights: phobia or norm?
Staying at altitude is not always safe. And in some cases, the fear is justified. You should not look for signs of a phobia in yourself if discomfort arises:
- before a parachute jump;
- when on the upper steps of an unstable ladder;
- when walking on slippery / sloping roofs, etc.
Fear of heights, which manifests itself in really dangerous situations, cannot be considered a pathology. This is a normal reaction of the body to stress associated with a clear threat to life. This is how the instinct of self-preservation works.
What is acrophobia: symptoms
Signs of acrophobia are necessarily associated with the experience of fear. The main symptoms that patients complain about:
- Nausea, vomiting.
- Dizziness, noise in the head, lightheadedness.
- Accelerated heartbeat.
- Sweating.
- Feeling hot or cold extremities.
- Panic thoughts about imminent death.
Often a person tries to reduce the height and defend himself by crouching down and covering his head with his hands. Signs of panic can appear both in more or less logical and in the most unexpected situations. Acrophobes are afraid:
- stairs;
- elevators;
- high floors;
- balconies;
- escalators;
- mountain slopes and cliffs;
- bridges;
- attractions;
- transparent floors, etc.
Even standing on a stool to reach the top shelf can be overwhelming. In all cases, when the acrophobe is even slightly above ground level, he experiences fear. Attacks are uncontrollable: a person sincerely thinks that he will fall and die. People often cannot descend from a height on their own. Sometimes acrophobes experience a sudden urge to jump down, even if they do not suffer from depressive disorders and, in principle, are not prone to suicide.
Often, the phobia is exacerbated when thinking about being at a height or when viewing relevant images. The intensity of fear at this moment can be as significant as in real situations.
What is the fear of heights called when flying an airplane?
Airplanes, as "representatives" of air transport, by their nature are forced to gain significant altitude. And it’s not surprising that acrophobes are afraid of flying.
The fear of airplanes is called aerophobia. It often complements the fear of heights, as phobias tend to "coalesce." Almost always, acrophobia implies aerophobia, but the fear of flying in an airplane is not necessarily related to altitude: some people worry solely about the risk of getting into a plane crash, for example, due to a terrorist attack.
Why does a phobia / fear of heights occur?
Like other pathological fears, acrophobia develops under the influence of a combination of several factors. Among them are the main ones:
- Organic lesions of the brain and the malfunctioning of its individual sections. This happens if a person has suffered a serious injury or an infectious disease of an inflammatory nature.
- Abuse of alcohol, drugs, certain medications.
- Bad heredity. The risk of phobias increases if the parents have a history of mental disorders.
- Regular exposure to stress, frequent excitement, overwork.
- Wrong upbringing. If a child was little praised in childhood, often scolded, severely punished, then in the future his psyche will not differ in health, which will serve as a favorable factor for the occurrence of phobias.
- Personal characteristics. Unreasonable fears and experiences mainly develop in suspicious, anxious, overly emotional and sensitive people.
- Negative experience. A person who has experienced a traumatic situation associated with being at a height may in the future be wary of being at any elevation.
Fear of heights develops in those who have a tendency towards it. The factors described can affect other people in the same way, but they do not provoke acrophobia.
How to get rid of the fear of heights by colliding with the object of fear
A person is often afraid of what only seems scary to him. The main role here is played by imagination and the habit of winding yourself up. Therefore, a good way to overcome the fear of heights is to face it head-on. It is not necessary to immediately rush to conquer the peaks of the mountains and jump with a parachute - it is enough to start small. Should:
- climb the stairs of a multi-storey building;
- look out the window of a skyscraper, stand on the balcony;
- climb a stepladder;
- walk to the top of a gentle hill;
- drive at least one flight in the elevator;
- cross a small river across the bridge;
- take an escalator ride in a shopping mall, etc.
It is recommended that you independently determine for yourself a list of what causes the most severe panic attacks, and go through this entire list from the simplest to the most difficult. It's good if there is someone close to you who can cheer you up, support, help you go down. The key is to practice regularly. Gradually, the height phobia will recede.
Fear of heights: how to overcome with visualization techniques
Visualization is a process in which a person imagines an event, image, place as fully and in detail as possible. In this way, you can defeat the fear of heights.
You need to lie down, relax, imagine a certain frightening situation and yourself in it. For example, you can “look” into the deepest cliff, “stand” on the roof of a skyscraper, “fly” in a helicopter over the sea, etc. It's important to focus on your emotions: what are they? Acrophobes predominantly have a sense of eerie fear. It is necessary to survive the fear, being in the visualized "picture".
The exercise must be repeated regularly. Gradually, the experiences will dull, and each new attempt will be easier. Then you can imagine something more extreme: for example, "jump" from a bridge and enjoy a free fall. The sensations in visualizations will "reconcile" the psyche with the height and help it to stop considering any height as dangerous.
For those who have little imagination, computer games will come in handy. Flight simulators allow you to look at the world from a height, while being in the most comfortable conditions.
How to overcome your fear of heights using breathing and counting
Once in a stressful situation, you should immediately get distracted. The more a person focuses on their fear, the worse they feel.
Therefore, at the first signs of a panic attack, you need to start breathing evenly and deeply. You can count up to one hundred / thousand at a time in order to use all available attention to the process of tranquility. In two or three minutes, the body will come to its senses, and the situation will cease to inspire such horror.
There are other options as well. For example, you can read poetry, hum your favorite song, name historical dates, or list all your blond friends by name. If there is someone nearby, you need to start talking to him. Tactile contact will also be useful: it will make you feel more confident.
Acrophobia: treatment by a psychotherapist
The involvement of a therapist can be very relevant for those who suffer from severe fear of heights. In most cases, the phobia can be stopped by the methods of cognitive-behavioral therapy. The patient is helped to change internal attitudes and begin to behave in a different way - more productive and meaningful. A competent psychotherapist will teach a person to control the emerging symptoms of fear, thereby reducing the severity of a panic attack.
Taking medication is rarely suggested. Since acrophobia does not belong to severe mental disorders and in many cases is compatible with normal life, mild sedatives are usually enough (for example, before flying on an airplane, when the patient does not have time to reflect on the situation and come to terms with it). In difficult situations it is possible to use hypnosis.
Overcoming the fear of heights means expanding your own capabilities. Acrophobia limits a person in travel, adventure, and experience. Even if the fear is mild, it is worth getting rid of it, without waiting for the petty fear to grow into something more serious.
Acrophobia is the fear of heights that occurs when a person feels a great distance from the ground to the place where he is at the moment. It is necessary to distinguish between the instinct of self-preservation inherent in all of us and the fear of heights. A person standing on the edge of an abyss or skyscraper may feel dizzy and nauseous, but they will not panic and try to stand at a safe distance from the edge. Acrophobic sufferers can feel bad and even fall if they see themselves as threatened by any height, even the smallest.
Many researchers agree that the causes of acrophobia are inherent in human nature itself. At the genetic level, we inherited the fear of heights from ancestors who did not have any suitable devices for movement, for example, along the edge of a mountain, beyond which a bottomless abyss began. As a consequence, the risk of falling increased. Today, our main rhythm of life does not imply constant being at a height, but acrophobia still annoys more than 5% of the world's population.
What causes a phobia?
It is believed that any fear is based on the experience of severe stress or psychological trauma, which provoked the emergence of disturbing thoughts. However, the fear of heights has a slightly different nature. The thing is that the principle of self-preservation is violated in a person and works in any, even the safest, situation. For example, a person needs to stand on a stool and take out a cup from the top shelf of the cabinet. The very fact that it is necessary to get off the floor at the slightest distance disorients a person and exposes him to a state of panic. Or, the fear of heights may suddenly appear while on the balcony.
Usually, acrophobia arises not from the very fact of the presence of a hill, but from the fact that a person begins in his imagination to draw pictures of a fall and subsequent injuries. This may be due to unconscious memories from childhood, when the baby could accidentally fall out of the cradle or fall from a tree at school age. The moment of falling and the pain that follows it, already in adulthood, manifested itself as a fear of heights, was fixed in the subconscious.
Sometimes a person is afraid that he will not be able to cope with the desire to jump down, so he tries with all his might to avoid high-altitude places. At the same time, the individual never had thoughts of suicide. People also experience discomfort at altitude due to the fact that they may slip or simply lose their balance and fall.
It happens that acrophobia is closely intertwined with aerophobia: a person is afraid to fly an airplane because of the fear of heights. However, such a combination is rare, acrophobia generally exists on its own.
How the fear of heights manifests itself
Fear of heights is usually accompanied by a number of characteristic features. A person suffering from this phobia has an increased or slower heart rate, shortness of breath, dizziness, followed by nausea or even vomiting. Also, the individual has increased sweating, diarrhea, pain in the region of the heart and other symptoms. All these signs can appear in an absolutely healthy person if he suddenly finds himself at a high altitude, since in this case the self-preservation mechanism will work and the person will try to protect himself as much as possible, for example, not to stand on the very edge of the abyss.
If all of the above symptoms occur when contemplating a tall object or being on a transparent floor in a cafe or shopping center, you should pay close attention to your own psychological state. After all, a constant source of stress, be it a skyscraper or being at a low altitude, can undermine the inner state of mind and lead to various mental complications. Therefore, it is necessary to get rid of the fear of heights on your own or with the help of a specialist.
Methods for dealing with phobia
Fear of heights, like any other panic disorder, can be dealt with with a special therapy called cognitive behaviorist, or any other psychotraining. Treatment through therapy involves influencing the patient's thinking. A special technique allows the patient to relax all tense muscles and relieve anxiety. The therapist uses defocusing techniques to achieve the best result.
A professional psychologist, having held several conversations with the patient and identifying the primary source of the phobia, will help overcome the obsessive fear of heights. Acrophobia can leave the subconscious mind without medication, therefore, in this case, the use of strong sedatives is not recommended. It is enough to take a light sedative as prescribed by a doctor to normalize the general personal state.
Overcoming a phobia on your own means gradually getting rid of the fear. Every day, a person suffering from acrophobia can set an acceptable height bar for himself and try to overcome it. Gradually, the fear will go away, and with it the acrophobia.
Fear of heights is not uncommon today. A lot of people depend on it, who, out of fear, limit themselves to some of the joys of life. A professional psychotherapist, as well as constant work on oneself, will help to overcome fear and start living a full life.
Fear of heights or acrophobia is inherent in a large number of people. 10% of the entire population of the planet has some degree of phobia. With its weak manifestations, overcoming fear is possible on its own, but if the fear turns into a panic state, you cannot do without qualified help.
Acrophobia is a fear of heights, an obsessive fear of it. This phobia causes in the human body not just fear, but panic, a feeling of horror. A person with such a disease (and this is precisely the disease), due to his illness, is forced to deprive himself of a lot.
It is important to distinguish between simple fear and phobia. When a person is afraid, this is a completely normal brain reaction to a possible danger from which he must protect himself. A person can get goosebumps when he looks from the balcony of the 10th floor, however, this does not interfere with life. Another thing is when horror is instilled by a 2-meter height.
Acrophobia prevents its wearer from living fully:
- a person with acrophobia will never go to the mountains;
- he is afraid to go up to the floor if it is higher than the third;
- he is frightened by bridges - he cannot drive over them or walk on them.
A person suffering from such a phobia constantly thinks that the balcony on which he comes out will surely collapse; insurance that will protect him when climbing a mountain - will break off; the bridge over which he passes will collapse. And now imagine with what horror such a person lives.
Often patients with acrophobia say that being on a hill, the thought comes to them of jumping down. Moreover, none of them have suicidal tendencies.
Aerophobia
Acrophobia is often combined with aerophobia - the fear of flying in an airplane. But with this phobia, a person is afraid of the plane, of the fact that he may crash. Height also enhances this action. So we can say that acrophobia is more benign than aerophobia.
However, the height is not felt at all on the plane. If a person clearly feels the height, this can be one of the manifestations of fear, even if it is not accompanied by a rapid heartbeat, sweating and dizziness.
Some argue that it is the free time that appears during the flight that negatively affects the emotional state of a person. Willy-nilly, he listens to all the sounds that inspire fear. What to do in this case?
The fear of heights in the mountains is still easier - even climbers do not feel very comfortable climbing the mountain. People suffering from acrophobia should not approach the cliffs and are on rock formations.
It should be clarified that often all problems come from the subconscious, and external physical manifestations are nothing more than psychosomatics.
Symptoms
The main symptoms are:
- Sharp dizziness and profuse sweating, in rare cases, nausea may appear.
- Being at a height, a person tries to kneel or get on all fours in order to be closer to the ground and somehow protect himself.
- He is looking for an object to catch and hold on to, since he no longer trusts himself or his own balance.
- Sometimes he is seized with a numbness - he simply cannot get out of this position, even after several hours, and this will continue until other people help him. Panic fear can paralyze not only physically, but also psychologically.
- Hysterics is possible. A person suffering from acrophobia begins to scream, cry, he does not understand what is happening, loses the gift of thinking and speaking clearly, his arms and legs are shaking. At the same time, he can say something incoherently, but the words will necessarily refer to the fear of heights.
Why is it important to treat acrophobia? Because it can lead to psychosis. Symptoms such as an elementary fear of sleeping in bed or sitting on a chair are the first signs of psychosis, and in this case, you need to see a doctor immediately.
Causes
Some time ago it was stated that only those people who grew up at a height suffer from acrophobia. However, this statement was quickly refuted. Acrophobia affects those who grew, figuratively speaking, on the ground, and those who have never fallen from a height, and even those who have never climbed to a significant height.
It is believed that people of the emotional type are most susceptible to this disease. As a rule, their fantasy is very developed. Frequently, fear of heights and other phobias appear in people with creative abilities.
Psychologists are trying to find out whether all mammals are subject to a panic fear of heights, or only humans are capable of experiencing this. Even a cat does not dare to step on a glass floor located at a height - but only for the first time. But she does not experience the panic fear that a person has.
How to overcome fear of heights
One of the most effective ways to get rid of the fear of heights and any other phobias is the ability to relax, no matter how strange and ridiculous it may sound.
There are several techniques for this:
- meditation;
- auto-training;
- breathing practice.
Having mastered one of them, you can learn not only to suppress the incipient panic, but also to get rid of the phobia forever. It is advisable to conduct classes daily, this will help to relax the nervous system, which in turn will lead to understanding the problem and increase stress resistance in all situations.
Quite often, in their practice, psychologists use the visualization method, which makes it possible to realize the insignificance of the problem and proceed to active actions. It is recommended to recreate as accurately as possible a picture of how a person with acrophobia conquers mountain peaks, stands on the roof of a skyscraper or jumps with a parachute.
Using this technique, you should present everything in great detail. This is a great training that allows you to focus on the situation and external elements, rather than on internal experiences and emotions.
Treatment and therapy
Acrophobia requires medical attention. You shouldn't deny it, hope for "maybe" and that everything will pass by itself. It is possible to overcome the fear of heights, including the unreasonable one, in full measure, a professional psychologist will help with this.
Any disease requires the identification of the reason for which it develops, also with acrophobia. As a rule, the psychologist identifies it in the first conversations.
In some cases, talking to a psychologist is enough to get rid of the fear; in others, doctors resort to medication. These can be both simple sedatives and strong ones, depending on the patient's condition.
In adults
Psychology has several options for treating ailment. The patient is advised to overcome his fear on his own, but gradually, step by step. For example, today he rises to a three-meter height, and next time he will try to overcome the fear of a four-meter one.
Drugs prescribed to a patient during drug treatment:
- Antidepressants (long-term treatment).
- Tranquilizers (short course of treatment).
- Medicines to stimulate blood circulation in the tissues of the brain.
- Vitamins as adjuvants in drug treatment.
When treating acrophobia, psychotherapists often use:
- cognitive behavior therapy- a technique is used that relaxes the muscles, reduces anxiety: gradually the patient is brought closer to the object of his fear, until he gets used to it and begins to perceive the height normally;
- gestalt therapy- the patient must experiment and observe the phenomena occurring in the course of this process;
- NLP- neurolinguistic programming, technique "Changing personal history": a person must return to the past, to the moment when he experienced the strongest fear of heights, remember when it happened for the first time - this therapy is designed to transform negative emotions into positive;
- psychotherapy.
In children
In the treatment of acrophobia in children, the use of medications is possible only in difficult cases. The psychologist identifies the cause of the fear - often acrophobia occurs due to injuries sustained when falling from a height - and then proceeds to therapy.
Many parents, without hesitation, themselves become the initiators of the emergence of such fears in children. Do not scare him and constantly say that "standing on this chair is dangerous, you can fall." So you yourself, in your own words, inspire him with fear, which in the future can develop into acrophobia.
The fear of heights, even in its most progressive form, can be overcome. Unfortunately, many people prefer medical treatment, which gives only a short-term effect.
Turning to an experienced psychotherapist and making every effort on your part, you can permanently get rid of fear, which has a negative impact on the quality of life.
Video: Acrophobia - obsessive fear of heights
Each person has encountered an unpleasant feeling of discomfort, finding himself on the roof of a high-rise building, flying in an airplane, or simply imagining a picture when he is not in his usual environment: high from the ground.
What is it: awareness of the value of one's life and the instinct of self-preservation, or is this fear of heights a phobia, scientifically called Acrophobia?
The fear of falling in love is like the fear of heights.
We are not afraid of heights, but of falling.
author unknown
What is Acrophobia?
The statistics are relentless: 5% of the world's population have a problem - fear of heights. 400 million people around the world are affected by acrophobia.A slight degree of fear: there is no desire to fall, with a real opportunity to do it. If a person falls into hysterics, feels animal fear and loses his head at the slightest prospect of being on top - this is a manifestation of neurosis.
The psyche of modern man reacts to threats from the outside, as primitive people did. He tries to leave the risk zone, squeezes. Adrenaline is injected into the blood, the heart begins to "jump out of the chest."
How to distinguish a normal state of fear from pathology?
It is natural for a person to feel a sense of fear, which appears only when there is a real threat of falling. Fear of heights has nothing to do with attacks of terror at the thought of falling from a height.The first parachute jump, base jumping without detailed instructions, jumping from a springboard for an unprepared person will cause unpleasant sensations.
When there is no time to avoid an unpleasant situation or there is a lack of information in one of the listed areas, the fear of falling is an adequate reaction of the body to the threat. Only with the real onset of such a situation, when a person realizes that something may go wrong, such a fear of heights will not be a deviation in the psyche. This is the main difference between phobia and ordinary fear.
The fine line between deviation and normal behavior is sometimes wishful thinking. How to distinguish between 2 forms of fear?
Fear of heights, as a pathology, is not associated with the ability to find yourself in a life-threatening situation in real time. This is a game of the mind or imagination.
A person cannot control this feeling, cannot suppress it or somehow influence it. His life is subject to fear. Finding himself on top, he ceases to be who his friends and acquaintances know him. In this state, there is no way to direct your actions. One of the symptoms is the urge to jump.
An exception: slight malaise in the mountains. It cannot be perceived as a signal of a phobia, this is a normal reaction of the body to an extreme situation.
Causes of acrophobia
To diagnose an abnormality of the body, a person's condition must meet established medical criteria. Why does this feeling of animal fear arise?Phobia is subject to fantasy: the more impressionable a person is, the greater the likelihood of his illness. There is no need for any extreme situation, just a thought that will give an impetus to panic. Seeing a person's fall in a dream, you can be charged with negative emotions for the whole day and be in a state of trance or excitement.
People have evolved, but the connection with the past has remained. If thousands of years ago it was a crime for primitive man to fall or rise to the top, then genetic memory begins to impose this fear on him. There is a desire to jump.
There are theories proving that animals are also subject to acrophobia. Conclusion: if there are eyes that can see, then there is fear.
Scientists identify the following medical reasons for the appearance of fear of heights:
- At a certain time, the brain was damaged by mechanical action or inflammatory processes took place.
- Regular frequent stress.
- Frequent alcohol consumption.
- Psychological factor: at one time the child was either not appreciated or overrated.
- Excessive emotionality, slight excitability or, on the contrary, shyness and timidity.
- Experienced a similar situation. She leaves her mark on the memory, and begins to control the thoughts and feelings of a person.
Symptoms
There are no identical people and responses to altitude in the world. Everyone has everything individually. Experts identify the average indicators of the symptoms of neurosis.The first thing that people with acrophobia note - they have absolutely no control over their body and mind at the moment of "danger". There is a persistent obsession with jumping down. Such suicidal tendencies appear only with the threat of a fall. The fear of slipping and diving headfirst to the ground is a concomitant symptom of a phobia.
How does the body react to altitude with acrophobia?
- The head refuses to perceive reality and is treacherously dizzy.
- The stomach tends to return its contents to the outside. Diarrhea is not uncommon.
- The heart can either slow down or jump out of the chest.
- Tremors of the arms or legs are also quite common with fear of heights.
- Excessive sweating, frequent urination make normal existence impossible.
- Muscles remember what state they were in at birth, so there is "hypertonicity".
- The pupils completely fill the eye.
- Nightmares, poor sleep drain the human nervous system and exhaust the body.
Mental abnormalities are expressed in possible aggression, excessive irritability and even anger. A person cannot concentrate and focus on some problem, he resembles a compressed spring. He lives for one terrible moment, reminiscent of "groundhog day." Often déjà vu.
Treatment
Efforts from a person suffering from this kind of phobia will require colossal efforts. What do we have to do? Complex treatment: drugs + psychotherapy. The use of tranquilizers for a period of 2-3 weeks and antidepressants for a period of 6 months or more is inevitable.
Medicines that stimulate blood circulation are used by doctors to treat acrophobia:
- Benzodiazepines calm the patient and have an anticonvulsant effect.
- Beta-inhibitors prevent adrenaline from being actively produced, prevent panic attacks, normalizing a person's condition.
- Nootropic drugs are used to stimulate the functions of the brain, increase resistance to emotional and mental stress.
- Also, a person prone to acrophobia needs to take vitamin complexes.
Many people try to cope with the symptoms of acrophobia on their own, but this is almost unrealistic if the case is neglected. With self-medication, the situation may worsen, because a person may incorrectly diagnose himself or be guided by false advice.
The technique for helping to cure a phobia is based on 4 tips:
- It is necessary to find the cause of the phobia.
- It is necessary to overcome fear by imagining a picture of being on the roof of a house. Do the exercise every day.
- Try to be at your best often.
- Control and self-hypnosis of the absence of danger.
There is cognitive behavioral therapy that has been widely used in recent years. Two factors, mental and physical, must be controlled. Thanks to the system, fear remains at the hormone level.
Neuro-linguistic programming is a technique that affects the past. It is necessary to return to the moment when there was a fear of heights. The negative is reborn into the positive.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a specific technique for muscle relaxation and tightness. The patient at a slow pace overcomes the fear of heights, in small steps.
Psychotherapists use cognitive behavioral therapy with deep hypnosis techniques. The technique acts on the subconscious of a person, fights against internal unconscious reasons. The emotional state and the program of behavior, which previously gave the installation to panic, are normalized.
Research stages
- The doctor begins to work with the patient by examining his condition. He simulates situations that cause fear in the patient. Corrects emerging feelings and emotions.
- The psychotherapist confronts the person with a real threat. Terror attacks occur. Virtual reality simulators help to control the situation. A stable stable reaction is formed on the basis of experience.
- Yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises can help overcome fear. You need to master the relaxation technique.
- Computer games, where the player personifies with a virtual hero, runs and jumps, can have a good effect. Films with staged jumps contribute to getting used to the idea of life without fear of heights.