What is a person who is afraid of heights called? Why dream of height and fear of falling. Who is most susceptible to acrophobia

An obsessive condition in which a person experiences a strong fear of heights is called acrophobia. From the point of view of psychology, it has positive and negative sides. Strengthening speaks in favor of the first, the second is the development of fear to a panic attack, when one thought of the abyss below terrifies.

What is acrophobia?

The natural fear of being on a shaky and unstable support, under which there is an airy abyss, is inherent in all people. Protective mechanisms are activated in the body - they protect against a possible fall and painful death. Acrophobia is a persistent, persistent fear of high places, rooftops, balconies, mountain peaks, and other elevated places where the surface is unstable.

A platform on which a person is afraid to lose balance causes animal fear. This obsessive state is closely related to bateophobia - the fear of the impenetrable abyss, the depth beneath. This feeling can appear among scuba divers, rock climbers, high-altitude firefighters, employees of the Ministry of Emergency Situations. It takes months and years for people to get over it.

Acrophobia - symptoms

A person knows his weaknesses and tries to avoid situations in which he is left alone with his fear, but if this happens, you will not envy the sufferer. In a state of severe stress, he develops a physical reaction: the release of adrenaline and norepinephrine makes his heart beat in a frantic rhythm, his hands shake with small tremors, and his legs become "cotton".

1. The body is covered with cold sweat, ceases to obey, becomes "wooden" due to muscle spasms.
2. The skin of the face acquires a deathly pale hue.
3. Fear of losing balance leads to a real violation of coordination in space: it intensifies, dizziness.

There is a desire to get on all fours - several points of support create a sense of security. When you try to look down again, acrophobia increases many times - up to a fainting state. Acrophobia does not pose a serious threat to health, but its manifestations make the patient think that he is close to death from cardiac arrest.

Why is a person afraid of heights?

People experience intense fear for reasons that are due to unpleasant experiences in the past, mental illness, physical exhaustion. It can be provoked by: an unsuccessful fall, diseases of the spine, diseases of the brain. Qualities of character: suspiciousness, excessive emotionality - increase the fear of heights, the phobia takes on grotesque dimensions.

The use of the instinct of self-preservation in case of a threat to life is considered the norm. Without it, the mortality rate of people would have increased many times over. A person who is afraid, but ready to overcome fear in force majeure situations, does not suffer from acrophobia. He does not lose his composure, clearly analyzes what is happening, makes quick and correct decisions.

Fear of heights - benefits and harms

It has long been noted that people who are not afraid of heights find themselves in delicate circumstances all the time and often create them themselves. These pictures and their own feelings firmly settle in the memory, forming. Other individuals, at the thought of how not to be afraid of heights, burrow deeper into the blanket and prefer to drive away obsessive visual images from themselves.

Benefits of fear of heights

With acrophobia, a large amount of adrenaline is released - this hormone is produced by the adrenal glands. It activates all vital systems. The body is preparing for a possible fight, for the struggle for life. The blood supply increases, the heart pushes blood 2-3 times faster. A person feels a rise in strength - this helps to believe in oneself and not be afraid of heights.

1. Time "stretches" - the daredevil makes precise, quick movements and it feels like an hour has passed, although in fact it was seconds.
2. In such moments of life, people are able to analyze their lives. There is a reassessment of values, which will allow in the future to change the character and actions for the better.
3. Overcoming acrophobia builds a sense of self-respect.

A person knows that if he takes a wrong step aside, his life will be over, so he learns to appreciate every second of being. Indulging laziness and spending time on the couch in front of the TV is no longer for him. But skydiving, overcoming mountain peaks, flying from a high springboard, long hikes acquire an alluring attraction for him.

Harm of fear of heights

Acrophobia also has a downside. People with a sensitive nervous system tend to self-criticism and underestimate their own capabilities. If they suffer from an inferiority complex, then they turn a small problem into a whole tragedy. Against its background, failures occur in the work of the self-regulation system, and this manifests itself at the physical level in the form of:

• rapid wear of the cardiovascular system;
• constant thoughts that fear of heights is not good;
• depletion of the central nervous system and, as a result, premature death (acrophobia can "take" up to 20 years of life).

How to stop being afraid of heights?

To overcome acrophobia, psychologists advise presenting a possible situation with a winning side for themselves and consolidating the successes achieved (skydiving or bungee jumping, diving from a tower into the water). With constant work on oneself, the fear of heights loses its scale until it disappears completely. You can start getting rid of acrophobia with the following steps:

Choose a platform of low height and visit it regularly until you have self-confidence and a feeling of firm stability on the surface. Gradually change the place of "deployment" to the one above.

1. Give preference to hills that have protective fences (railings, double-glazed windows, fences).
2. With increasing dizziness, focus on one object, peer into it until the fear passes.
3. Returning to the old place, mentally imagine that this time everything will go well, and acrophobia will not manifest itself.

Acrophobia: fear of heights

Pozharisky I.

Acrophobia is the irrational fear of heights. This is a mental disorder, expressed in an abnormal fear of heights, which keeps its owners in a […]

Acrophobia is the irrational fear of heights. This is a mental disorder, expressed in an abnormal fear of heights, which keeps its owners in a vice throughout their lives. Acrophobia is widespread and is one of the ten most typical phobias: according to some reports, it affects about 10% of the total population of the Earth. Acrophobes are more likely to become people who experience fear of flying. This fear in different people is caused by different reasons, manifests itself with an unequal degree of severity, but always gives them discomfort and even quite tangible suffering. As with many such disorders, acrophobes often cannot cope with their problem on their own, so they need treatment.

What is acrophobia

Acrophobia must be distinguished from a simple fear of heights, which many people have to a small extent. It is normal if a person is afraid to stand over a huge cliff or on the roof of a multi-storey building. In this case, the fear is dictated by a real fear for one's life and is quite understandable. The fear experienced by those suffering from acrophobia is beyond logic.

Acrophobes are afraid of any height, for example, they never ride in elevators, escalators, do not rise above 1-2 floors? they are afraid to stand on a chair, where the floor is only 0.5 m, and even calmly look at images and photographs of tall objects. The fear of acrophobes is so great that it haunts them even in nightmares or takes on a paradoxical form when they are afraid, lying on their backs, to look at the ceiling or at the sky. At this point, they think that they can fall from a height (in their mind, up and down are reversed).

Irrational and illogical fear is acrophobia. Although it does not cause direct harm to the body, its very presence suggests that people predisposed to it have imbalances and a tendency to mental neurotic disorders.

Both men and women can suffer from acrophobia, but there are certain groups of citizens who are more prone to the appearance of this disorder:

• people who survived a fall from a height;
• impressionable children who were forbidden by their parents to climb heights;
• suspicious girls and guys who imagined themselves a picture of how they would fall and severe pain after it;
• individuals with phobic anxiety disorders.

In them, acrophobia occurs much more easily, since there is already prepared soil for it. Therefore, it is often these people who need the qualified help of a psychotherapist in order to overcome their fear and live on without it.

Causes of acrophobia

Attacks of acrophobia can occur for various reasons. Brain damage as a result of inflammation, infection or injury, frequent alcohol intoxication, chronic stress can start the disorder. Of great importance in the development of fear of heights are mental illness, low self-esteem, anxious and suspicious character, excessive impressionability and emotionality.

Own traumatic experience is also the cause of acrophobia in humans. It can be falls from a height, resulting in injuries, bruises, fractures, and so on. After that, the fear of heights developed as a defensive reaction to the possible danger of falling and injuring.

It has been established that many acrophobes who want to commit suicide choose a jump from a height for this, explaining that there is simply nothing more deadly for them.

The reason for the appearance of acrophobia is the ancient fear inherent in the genes, which accompanied our ancestors on the hunt. He protected them from falling from a height, and we inherited it already in the form of fear, which in some people can take the form of a phobia.

Not only fear plays a role in the formation of acrophobia, but also the living work of the subconscious, the tendency to fantasize and exaggerate. A person with a vivid imagination can easily draw a picture of himself with details of how he will fall, what he will experience and what it threatens him with.

Acrophobia can be not only in adults, children can also suffer from it. It cannot be said that this fear is innate, it is acquired in early childhood. Often the fear of heights appears when the child is trying to learn to walk. He climbs onto a chair, falls off it, and, naturally, cries. An unpleasant sensation is fixed in his subconscious and eventually develops into a phobia.

Parents themselves can also bring up acrophobia in their child when they accidentally drop the baby on the floor. Or they constantly pull him up, do not allow him to climb trees, so as not to fall and break.

Symptoms of acrophobia

Fear of heights is expressed in a number of symptoms that begin to cover a person as soon as he approaches a place of potential danger. These are strong vegetative-vascular reactions:

• numbness and trembling in the limbs;
• dizziness;
• "cotton legs";
• rapid breathing;
• chest tightness;
• frequent heartbeat;
• nausea;
• dry mouth;
• severe anxiety;
• fainting.

To these symptoms, the acrophobe is accompanied by a vertigo reaction, that is, he loses his balance, it seems to him that everything is spinning around him, or that he is spinning around his axis. His body temperature drops, "cold sweat" appears on his forehead and body, his hands and feet become cold. Vomiting and nausea, shortness of breath, salivation, or, conversely, dry mouth may occur.

Often, acrophobes cannot even get close to the object that causes fear in them, because even when they look at it, all the described symptoms begin to appear. Often they are so strong that they force patients to consult doctors, for example, cardiologists or gastroenterologists. But it turns out that their internal organs are healthy, and they need the help of another specialist: a psychotherapist.

Moreover, acrophobia also has psychological, and not just physiological symptoms. Actophobes, forced to be near the object of fear, become irritable and impatient, aggressive, overly restless, compressed into a spring. They cannot concentrate on anything other than the fearful height, their head becomes empty, dizzy, their legs give way, some have a feeling of unreality of what is happening and they are afraid to go crazy.

The ratio of mental and physical symptoms for each actophobe is individual and determines the state of the body and the course of an attack of phobia. If mental signs dominate, and the patient is also inclined to fixate on his feelings, then this condition often provokes the development of depression. Such a patient at the beginning of the treatment of fear of heights may be distrustful, suspicious, not too confident in success and fear the appearance of side effects from strong medications.

Treatment of acrophobia

Treatment of fear of heights is necessary if it significantly complicates the patient's life, for example, he lives in a high-rise building and is afraid to climb even to his own home. To correct acrophobia today, drug therapy is used. Patients are given sedatives, anti-anxiety and sedative drugs, antipsychotics, tranquilizers and antidepressants. Additionally, nootropics are prescribed to stimulate cerebral circulation and multivitamin complexes.

An excellent treatment option for anxiety is a combination of medication and psychotherapy.

Auxiliary means: drugs that stimulate blood circulation (nootropics) in brain tissues, vitamin complexes.

Books and cartoons will help children overcome acrophobia, in which the characters successfully overcome various trials and emerge victorious from them. The example of brave heroes helps the child to overcome his own fear. Parents can also become an example for the baby if they show him how to overcome his fear.

For those who cannot cope with acrophobia on their own, the help of an experienced doctor will be very helpful. Today, patients are offered several methods for treating fear of heights:

• Cognitive behavioral. The first stage of treatment - an acrophobe learns to independently control his condition in order to no longer be afraid of heights. Then comes the practical part. The patient and the doctor go to a hill, where they continue to work out the learned techniques already in practice.
• Hypnotherapy. This method involves introducing the patient into a trance, finding and deeply working out the root cause of the phobia. And then the correction of the patient's attitude to height and the elimination of fear. This is achieved with the help of clear and direct instructions that the specialist inspires in his patient.
• System constellations, psychodrama. With the help of this method, the doctor first introduces a person into a trance, then corrects his attitude to the situation that caused acrophobia. Then he eliminates fears, teaches him to adequately perceive situations related to height that may arise in the future. The phobia goes away forever.
• Erickson hypnosis. This is the most gentle yet effective form of hypnosis. The treatment of fear is not carried out by direct installations, but by activating the body's own reserves of the acrophobe, therefore it is highly effective and harmless.

Treatment of acrophobia should only take place under medical supervision. The method of treatment and the number of procedures are also selected by the specialist. Treating a fear of heights on your own is undesirable. Usually self-chosen therapy does not give the effect that can be expected from a well-chosen treatment. Self-medication can even worsen the condition, increase fears, deform the personality and often lead to the addition of other phobic disorders.

Each person has experienced 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 a fear of heights.
We are not afraid of heights, but of falling.
author unknown

What is Acrophobia?

Slight degree of fear: no desire to fall, with a real opportunity to do so. 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 outside, as primitive people did. He strives to leave the risk zone, he is pinched. Adrenaline is injected into the blood, the heart begins to "jump out of the chest."

How to distinguish a normal state of fear from a pathology?

The first parachute jump, base jumping without detailed instructions, ski jumping for an unprepared person will cause discomfort.

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 response of the body to a threat. Only in the event of a real occurrence of such a situation, when a person realizes that something can go wrong, such a fear of heights will not be a deviation in the psyche. This is the main difference between a phobia and a normal fear.

The fine line between deviance and normal behavior is sometimes wishful thinking. How to distinguish 2 forms of fear?
Fear of heights, as a pathology, is not associated with the ability to find yourself in a real-time situation that would threaten life. 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 dominated by fear. Being on top, he ceases to be what his friends and acquaintances know him to be. In this state, there is no possibility to direct their actions. One of the symptoms is the desire to jump off.

Exception to the rule: slight malaise in the mountains. It should not be taken as a signal of a phobia, this is a normal reaction of the body to an extreme situation.

Causes of acrophobia

A phobia is subject to fantasy: the more impressionable a person is, the more likely he is to get sick. No extreme situation is needed, just a thought that will give impetus to panic. Seeing a person fall in a dream, you can recharge yourself with negative emotions for the whole day and be in a state of trance or excitement.

People have evolved, but there is a connection with the past. If thousands of years ago to fall or to be on top was a crime for a primitive person, then the 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.

1. At a certain time, the brain was damaged by mechanical action or inflammatory processes took place.
2. Regular frequent stress.
3. Frequent use of alcohol.
4. Psychological factor: the child at one time was either not appreciated or over-praised.
5. Excessive emotionality, slight excitability, or vice versa, shyness and timidity.
6. Experienced a similar situation. It leaves its imprint in the memory, and they begin to control the thoughts and feelings of a person.

Symptoms

The first thing that people with acrophobia note is that they absolutely do not control their body and mind in a moment of “danger”. There is a persistent obsessive thought about jumping down. Such suicidal tendencies appear only when there is a threat of a fall. The fear of slipping and diving headfirst to the ground is a symptom of the phobia.

How does the body react to altitude in acrophobia?

• The head refuses to perceive reality and turns treacherously.
• The stomach strives to return its contents to the outside. There are frequent cases of diarrhea.
• The heart may either slow down or begin to jump out of the chest.
• Tremor of the arms or legs is 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 “hypertonicity” occurs.
• Pupils completely fill the eye.
• Nightmares, poor sleep deplete the human nervous system and exhaust the body.

Mental deviations 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 deja vu.

Treatment

Efforts from a person suffering from this kind of phobia will require colossal. What do we have to do? Comprehensive treatment: drugs + psychotherapy. Inevitably, the use of tranquilizers for a period of 2-3 weeks and antidepressants for a period of 6 months.

Drugs that stimulate blood circulation are used by doctors to treat acrophobia:

• Benzodiazepines calm the patient, have an anticonvulsant effect.
• Beta-inhibitors do not allow adrenaline to be actively produced, prevent panic attacks, normalizing a person's condition.
• Nootropics are used to stimulate brain functions, increase resistance to emotional and mental stress.
• Also, a person prone to acrophobia needs to take vitamin complexes.

Many try to cope with the symptoms of acrophobia on their own, but this is almost impossible 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 that helps to cure a phobia is based on 4 tips:

1. You need to find the cause of the phobia.
2. You need to overcome fear by imagining the picture of being on the roof of the house. Do the exercise every day.
3. Try to be on top often.
4. Control and self-hypnosis of the absence of danger.

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. Negative turns into positive.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a specific technique for relaxing muscles and stiffness. 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, struggles with internal unconscious causes. The emotional state and the program of behavior that previously gave the setting to panic are normalized.

Research stages

• The doctor begins work with the patient from the study of his condition. He models situations that cause fear in the patient. Corrects emerging feelings and emotions.
• The therapist confronts the person with a real threat. There are panic attacks. Virtual reality simulators help to control the situation. A stable stable reaction is formed on the basis of experience.
• Yoga, meditation and breathing exercises contribute to overcoming fear. You need to learn relaxation techniques.
• Computer games, where the player is personified with a virtual hero, runs and jumps, can give a good effect. Films with staged jumps help to get used to the idea of ​​life without fear of heights.

A person may experience discomfort, even being on a small hill. This is normal, because it directly follows from the instinct of self-preservation given to every person by nature. But sometimes the fear of heights becomes a pathology and requires intervention.

The concept of "acrophobia": what is it

is the fear of heights. Fear of heights is a fairly mild stage of neurosis. Pathology is not considered critical in medicine just because it cannot prevent a person from socializing and living a full life.

For example, (fear of open areas and large crowds of people) can lead to the imprisonment of a person within his home, the inability to work and perform basic household activities (going to the store). In order to live a normal life, a person does not need to jump from a parachute or climb Mount Everest.

Acrophobia can only lead to some restrictions for a person: refusal to live on a high floor, the impossibility of riding a cable car, flying in a hot air balloon, visiting a water park, etc.

At the same time, the presence of acrophobia indicates that a person has deviations in the functioning of the nervous system and prerequisites for mental disorders. The number of people suffering from a fear of heights in the world is 5 percent, which is not so small, given the population of the planet.

What is the difference between acrophobia and a natural fear of heights

Probably, there is no person who would not “suck in the stomach” at the moment when he is standing on the edge of a cliff or riding a cable car, riding a “ferris wheel”. Fear is a basic feeling of a healthy psyche.

Without fear, humanity would have died out long ago, committing insane acts. But, if a person is simply afraid to be on the roof of a multi-storey building, he will take measures to step back from the edge and will not take steps forward. At the same time, his physical and emotional state will practically not change.

Another thing is a phobia, in which a person is paralyzed with fear. He loses a sense of reality, consciousness can “float”. Acrophobe cannot make sane decisions at this moment. For example, calmly take a step back to be safe.

Unlike natural fear, in the case of acrophobia, the pathological fear is constantly increasing. Symptoms appear even when hitting a low altitude, when there is no real danger. For example, an adult is afraid to stand on a chair with his feet.

Another distinguishing feature of a phobia from a reasonable fear is avoidance behavior. A person who does not suffer from a pathological fear of heights is able, if necessary, to be on the hills and does it quite calmly. The acrophobe will consciously avoid places and situations in which he will have to experience fear.

Acrophobia has an irrational nature, based on logic, and a person is not able to evaluate his fear. It is objectively clear that if you do not take a step forward, you will not fall and there is nothing to fear.

Thus, we single out three main distinguishing features that are inherent only in phobias.:

• Paralysis of will and consciousness in a state of fear.
• The increase in symptoms of the disease without proper treatment.
• Avoidance of traumatic situations.

These signs can be used to recognize any kind of phobia.

Why a person is afraid of heights: the main causes of a phobia

To date, psychiatry has not developed a consensus on the causes of the fear of heights. There are several versions that do not exclude, but complement each other.

innate fear

An interesting experiment was carried out. Scientists specially organized an unusual surface: one part of it was completely transparent, and the second was made like a regular floor. At the bottom, under this layout, there was a void, creating the illusion of an abyss.

It was found that young children categorically refused to be on a transparent surface, despite the persuasion and inspiring examples of their parents.

This suggests that a person has a fear of heights at the genetic level. Such fear, by the way, is also inherent in other representatives of the animal world, which have the function of vision and do not have the ability to fly.

Organic brain lesions

This pathology may occur in connection with past diseases of an infectious or viral origin. The abuse of alcohol, drugs and psychotropic substances also has a detrimental effect on neural connections.

Psychasthenic personality constitution

There are people whom he calls thin-skinned or highly sensitive. Their nature is such that they react sharply to all experiences, have suspiciousness and high anxiety.

Such people do not feel well in bright light, loud sounds, prolonged communication with people. It is they who turn away when watching movies with scenes of violence and are afraid of the sight of blood. Highly sensitive people are misunderstood by many and often seen as weakness in their reactions. Meanwhile, there are about 10 percent of them among us.

A special mental warehouse can lead to the development of many phobias, including fear of heights.

Traumatic past events

If a person has once faced a fear of heights or had an unpleasant experience of falling in the past, he may develop acrophobia. At the same time, he does not necessarily remember the circumstances of his fright, which could be deposited in the unconscious. This is a direct link between falling from a height and fear of it.

Another factor that causes acrophobia is the weakness of the vestibular apparatus, which is responsible for the ability to maintain the balance of the body in space.

Thus, acrophobia is a pathology that may have one or more causes, it is not always possible to reliably determine them.

What are the symptoms of acrophobia?

Fear of heights has different manifestations depending on the physical and emotional state of a person. However, there are a number of typical signs that a person has symptoms of acrophobia.

Physical

The first reflex of a person who is afraid of heights and who finds himself on it is the desire to grab his hands on any nearby, stable object: a tree, a handrail, etc. Many instinctively lie down on a hard surface or sit down on it.

As with other types of phobias and panic attacks, the characteristic manifestations are:

• Heavy, shaky breathing.
• Dizziness.
• Increased sweating.
• Dry mouth.
• Unpleasant sensations from the gastrointestinal tract, diarrhea.

Blood pressure may rise sharply, body heat and hot flashes may appear. In some cases, nausea and tremor of the limbs appear.

Mental

The main mental symptom of fear of heights is the loss of a person's control over his emotions and consciousness. The person is in prostration, poorly understands what is happening around. Many acrophobes at the same time feel the desire to jump down, the abyss beckons them.

A person begins to panic, he strives to close his face or eyes, a stupor sets in. Acrophobe gets stuck in one place, from where it is very difficult to move.

Fear of heights often co-occurs with other types of phobias.:

• climacophobia- Fear of climbing stairs.
• Aerophobia- fear of flying in airplanes, balloons, helicopters.
• bathophobia- fear of a sharp rise, a difference between height and depth.

All of the listed forms of phobias are not necessarily present at the same time, but in most cases complement each other.

Manifestation of acrophobia in children

In children, acrophobia can be both congenital in nature and be a consequence of the fact that the child was dropped or he fell himself. Sometimes the appearance of a fear of heights in babies is provoked by the parents themselves by excessive guardianship.

The child experiences significant discomfort even while on a slight elevation - a stool, a high chair. Like an adult in a panic attack, a child's heart rate increases, dizziness, nausea and fever.

If an adult with acrophobia cannot control his emotions, then what can we say about a child whose psyche is just being formed. Panic does not allow the baby to make a decision about how to protect himself and get down from the hill.

Any jumping (on a trampoline, jump rope), cycling and scootering, climbing a rope and children's sports ladders are very helpful to form a child's adequate reaction to height and stabilize the work of the vestibular apparatus. Such activities should be encouraged.

If your baby had a negative experience of falling from a hill and fear has already formed, then you need to gently explain to him that nothing terrible has happened and you should not be afraid of possible falls. A good educational example is cartoons and children's programs in which the characters overcome similar fears.

How to get rid of acrophobia with the help of specialists

Acrophobia is a disease in which, if it is mild, you can live comfortably and not worry about your mental health. In most cases, no one forces people to climb the peaks and stand on the edge of the abyss.

Another thing is if the fear of heights causes daily stress. And its manifestations are expressed very clearly. For example, a person lives on a high floor and is unable to move to another apartment or works on the top floor of a building. Such people who systematically suppress their phobia are more likely to develop a depressive disorder.

Thus, depending on the severity of the disease and the frequency of its manifestation, the phobia must be treated.

How to prevent panic attacks with a fear of heights:

• and visualization. In a calm and relaxed state, imagine yourself on a hill, preferably in the place where you actually experienced a panic attack. Convince yourself that you are safe, take an inner look around, find arguments that exclude the causes of fear. With regular exercise, the subconscious mind will fix positive reactions to the height.
• Determine for yourself a critical height, for example, 3 or 4 meters. Gradually carry out exercises to raise to a lower height - 1-2 meters. Gradually, you will be able to safely climb a level that does not cause panic.

If the disease is pronounced and interferes with normal life, then you should contact professionals: a psychotherapist or a psychiatrist.

The doctor will first diagnose, finding out the duration of the symptoms of the disease and its specific signs. Practical tests with fixation of the patient's sensations can be performed.

Drug treatment is used only to relieve acute symptoms of the disease, such as neurosis, excessive anxiety, if they occur in a person. Anti-anxiety, sedative drugs, and in rare cases, antidepressants are prescribed.

Good results in the treatment of acrophobia are shown by sessions in which entering a trance is accompanied by a corrective effect on the patient's subconscious.

On the principle: “The best way to conquer fear is to face it,” the following therapeutic method is based.

First, the therapist helps the patient to relax by the method of complete relaxation. No medications are used for this.

Next, a practical lesson takes place, during which a person is placed on a small hill, while the doctor is nearby. There is an artificial injection of fear, its provocation. Altitude simulation can be created using special virtual simulators.

As soon as fear arises, the patient begins to apply the knowledge received from the doctor to neutralize it.

As soon as a small height is conquered, all three stages are repeated at a different level, until the signs of panic attacks completely disappear.

If acrophobia interferes with a normal life, and you cannot overcome fear on your own, contact specialists. There are enough methods of assistance in this case in modern psychiatry.

Acrophobia is the fear of heights, derived from the Greek for "upper" and "fear". A phobia has a huge destructive potential for a person. Yulia Chumakova, an expert on fears and fears, will tell about the causes, negative consequences and ways to deal with acrophobia.

Why are people afraid of heights

Acrophobia is an irrational fear and can develop for two reasons. People are afraid of heights because of:

1. Traumatic events when a person or someone fell from a height before his eyes.
2. When it comes to neurotic fear, in other words, when there were no traumatic cases with a person, however, there is some internal energy that found a way out precisely through this fear.

Fear can be compared to a chest. Looking for one thing, you can find something else. It may turn out that the basic experience of a person may be a lack of support, a feeling of constant stress or dissatisfaction with their needs. Here is an example. A person does not like his job, this is reinforced by, say, difficult relationships with superiors and an office on the 9th floor. Over time, dissatisfaction accumulates and turns into a fear of heights. As a result, it’s hard to climb high or up stairs that have holes between the steps, some have a fear of flying (read how to stop being afraid to fly on airplanes), as well as transparent floors.

The most interesting thing is that, according to research, people who experience this fear are absolutely not inclined and not prone to suicide and depression. There is a threefold situation here. On the one hand, there is an understanding that it is impossible to fall, on the other, fear, and on the third, helplessness and numbness. If you understand more deeply, then the fall = death = freedom. Such parallels indicate that a person seems to be drawn to freedom, but cannot realize it in the world around him, and the instinct of self-preservation prevents such liberation from being achieved.

What is the expression of fear?

1. A person cannot control himself, even knowing that he will definitely not fall;
2. Cardiopalmus;
3. Sweating of the palms;
4. tense posture;
5. Tension of the muscles of the arms and shoulder girdle;
6. "Pushing in" the head;
7. Curvature of the legs and their tension;
8. fading of breath;
9. Shortness of breath, gasping for air;
10. Active production of adrenaline.

Negative Consequences of Increasing Fear

It is not so much the fear itself that hinders people, but the symptoms. However, this is only half the trouble. There are also inner experiences. For example, a sense of shame (we advise you to familiarize yourself with how to get rid of feelings and), together with a fear of heights, is a serious conflict.

An important meeting is scheduled on a high floor, you need to discuss something with a colleague face-to-face on the balcony, admiring the view. But a huge fear interferes with an adult who begins to gnaw at himself for such weakness. In general, it has been observed that the more an individual tries to remove fear on his own, through a huge amount of thoughts in his head, he is thereby doomed to worsen the situation. Indeed, in this way, fear is fed and unwound: “Pull yourself together! Don't be scared, it's not scary…”

What then? Fear develops into fear, then into a phobia, and then panic attacks.

A few words about panic attacks

A panic attack is a way of the body's response to stress, which is characterized by a rapid heartbeat, lack of air, muscle tension, and sharp stuffiness can roll in. Pre-fainting state. It usually occurs in a situation where there is no object of fear. Absolutely spontaneous. Moreover, the switch that turned on the panic is forgotten. That is, attacks can be manifested only from one thought, even without being at a height.

It can be caused by fear or severe stress, when a person does not rest for a long time - this is the culmination of the development of a phobia.

Who is most susceptible to acrophobia?

1. Managers are most susceptible to any phobias. This profession, which carries all the delights of phobias. In other words, these are leaders, people who work hard and have little rest .;
2. Also, these are those who are in the family, but feel lonely. They do not receive support, they are not accepted.;
3. If we talk about roles in society, gender division, then this problem is most often encountered by male leaders and single women who are not accepted. Representatives of the stronger sex accumulate stress faster, because they cannot, to the extent that the beautiful half of humanity can show their emotionality. "Do not Cry! You're a man!" - the most popular phrase at the stage of raising a boy. And besides this, men need to support their families and earn more, as a result, work more .;
4. Of course, you can talk about the role conflict. For example, when a husband claims to his wife that he wants a child, otherwise he will leave, but she is not ready, therefore, does not accept her role .;
5. The last category is people with unfulfilled dreams, goals, ambitions. An example would be a female astronaut. In society they say that this is unthinkable, they do not understand the profession as such. This is how the girl grows up, and everything seems to be fine - college, successful work and ... Phobias! How to explain? And it's very simple. The childish need was preserved until the adult state, since it was not realized anywhere. The energy then choked in the past, but remained in the depths, and, unfortunately, found an outlet in fear.

How to overcome fear of heights

First of all, it is worth understanding what is at stake - about the norm or pathology. If a person is afraid of heights absolutely justified, because he is in a situation of danger, then it is perfectly acceptable to be scared, but if there are no factors, you should be wary. In other words, people have fear - something that is inherent in nature. But a phobia is just not about fear, but about thoughts about the object of fear.

On one's own

In general, it is worth trying to help yourself first. You also need to own your body. For example, start doing yoga or doing special exercises for relaxation.

It is important, since tension occurs at the moment of a phobic reaction, and if a person learns to control his body, he will be able to relax, his breathing will become more even and stability will appear.

Only a small number of people can be attentive to their bodies. Usually a person does not track that he is frozen in an uncomfortable position or that any part of the body aches.

You should catch yourself on the sensations, run through your body, ask a few questions. How are my legs? Do they feel supported? Are the legs tense? What's going on with the hips? Am I breathing with my stomach or chest? What happens to the arms and shoulders? Answering these questions can be the key to relaxation.

Let's go back to the base. It is necessary to look for stability and kicking first of all. The usual reaction of a person if he is sitting somewhere at a height is tucked up legs and a hunched position of the body. And this is absolutely wrong, because in this way he will more likely aggravate his condition. It is necessary to put your feet in such a way as to feel support, to “ground” yourself. And try to relax as much as possible.

It is very important to control your breathing. It is important to monitor the work of the lungs, because if a person begins to breathe correctly, then the symptom is removed, disappears.

With the help of a psychologist

A psychologist or psychotherapist can invite a person to experience their fear, but not alone, but in a pair with a specialist. The main conditions are support, being in contact and safe conditions.

If the fear is of a neurotic nature, then the therapy will be longer and will be aimed at finding the cause of the appearance of fear in order to understand the sources of the energy existing in the phobia and the ways of its direction.

It is not necessary to seek support in the person of a psychologist, even close people can help. Those who will accept and provide reassurance, even when it is scary, in cases where their own support is not enough.