What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the word “Height”? For some it’s thrill and adventure, it’s a challenge for some and for some, it’s a nightmare. What brings a rush of dopamine for some fills the hearts of others with extreme dread. ACROPHOBIA is made from two Greek words. “Akron” which means summit or high point and “phobia” meaning fear, which together form the word acrophobia which means “fear of high points”.
Acrophobia is an anxiety disorder that falls into the category of specific phobias, which makes a person feel anxiety and causes panic due to extreme fear of heights. For people suffering from Acrophobia even thinking of climbing a mountain can trigger panic and anxiety. Acrophobia makes people avoid any kind of elevated places altogether.
It is said to be one of the most common types of specific phobias. Many people suffer from acrophobia and it can affect the quality of a person’s life, as it will impact the people living in big cities that are filled with tall buildings and towers, it will create a lot of problems in their life. Let us get a deeper understanding of acrophobia.
Symptoms
People who are suffering from acrophobia do not only experience the feeling of fear when they are at heights. It’s not just discomfort or uneasiness of being in high places. They can have panic attacks and anxiety even when thinking about situations that involve being in an elevated place. People having this phobia try not to go to such places. The symptoms of Acrophobia are the same as those of any other kind of specific phobia.
Physical Symptoms
The physical symptoms of acrophobia include increased heartbeat, sweating, pain in the chest, feeling dizzy, and feeling nauseous, difficulty in breathing, shivering, etc. The anxiety due to the phobia makes the person completely avoid situations that involve elevated places. For example, a person might refuse to go on vacation if their hotel is located at a height. They might also avoid going to school because the classroom is on the top floor. This can cause problems for the person to adjust properly in their daily routine.
Psychological Symptoms
The emotional or psychological symptoms of acrophobia include feeling panic or having panic attacks when you are at a height. You may try to find something to hold on to because you don’t trust your balance and feel that you are going to fall. Even thinking about being in such places can cause panic for them. They have extreme fear that they will be trapped on extremely high points and constantly worry about being on heights in the future. People with Acrophobia might feel anxious while climbing the stairs or even looking out of the window.
Causes
Sometimes acrophobia develops due to genetic or environmental factors, like you have someone in your family who has a fear of heights because of which you have it. But acrophobia can also be developed as a trauma response, which means you have witnessed something bad happening to others or some accident happened to you that involved height. For example you fell from a height or saw someone else fall, this memory stays in your mind causing you to fear and avoid heights forever. It is also seen that conditions like vertigo might play a role in causing acrophobia.
The answer to what causes extreme fear of heights can also be found in something called as ‘’evolved navigation theory‘’. Evolved navigation theory says that some processes like the perception of height are developed in humans due to natural selection. In simple words, it means that fear of heights is a trait that earlier protected humans and increased their survival rate, which now has turned into acrophobia. Though it helped earlier humans and protected them from falling off mountains and cliffs, in the modern world it can create problems of adjustment.
Diagnosis
Any phobia can only be diagnosed by a professional including acrophobia. Telling about your symptoms can help the mental health professional with a better diagnosis. Generally, acrophobia is diagnosed when the person avoids heights altogether, the person keeps worrying that he will be in an elevated place and this starts to create a problem in their daily life. A person who might have acrophobia gets anxious and panics when he is on heights. All these symptoms might lead to the diagnosis of acrophobia. Another important thing for the diagnosis of acrophobia is that all the symptoms should be experienced by the person for more than 6 months.
Treatment
Most of the time people don’t seek professional treatment for their phobias because avoiding the object of their fear does not create a lot of problems in their day-to-day life. People seek professional help when the phobia starts interfering with proper functioning in their daily lives. For example, when the person starts avoiding going to the office because it is on the top floor.
There are many treatment options for treating acrophobia including exposure therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, sometimes even medications help and now even virtual reality is used in the treatment of acrophobia.
Exposure Therapy
Exposure therapy is effective in treating specific phobias like acrophobia; people with acrophobia generally try to avoid getting in situations where they have to face their fear. Exposure therapy slowly tries to expose the person to their fear so they can try to cope and learn to manage their anxiety. Exposure therapy works on the slogan “Face your fear”. Gradual exposure to the object of fear, in the case of acrophobia it is height, encourages the person to manage their anxiety.
CBT
CBT which is cognitive behaviour therapy is a psychological treatment used to help people in dealing with their issues. CBT tries to give the person a different outlook to look at their problems. In treating acrophobia therapists try to understand the thoughts of the person and why they fear heights and help them realize the reasons because of which they fear heights, therapists try to make the person understand the different side of their fear.
Medication
Even though therapy is more effective in treating acrophobia sometimes medications can also help in treating the anxiety. Different medications that can be prescribed include antidepressants for reducing anxiety, Beta-blockers to reduce the physical symptoms of phobia including increased heartbeat, benzodiazepines can help you relax and control the amount of anxiety that you might be feeling.
All these medications can have side effects and it is recommended that you seek help from a mental health professional and do not take any medications without proper advice from your doctor.
Virtual Reality exposure therapy
Virtual reality exposure therapy is a new advancement in psychological treatments. It works on the same lines as that of exposure therapy; however virtual reality is used for exposure instead of it happening in reality. In this type of therapy, virtual environments of objects of fear are created. Research shows that virtual reality exposure therapy is as effective in treating specific phobias as the original exposure therapy.
Virtual reality exposure therapy has several advantages including the exposure happening inside the therapist’s office, control of the intensity of exposure to fear, sequence of exposure, etc. but this treatment method is still very costly and not everyone has access to it.
Take Away
Acrophobia is one of the most common types of specific phobia, but with the help of proper treatment from a mental health professional, it can be controlled. It is important to seek help if you find yourself struggling with the symptoms of acrophobia, therapy can help you overcome your fear. Talking to your friends and family, meditating, following a proper sleep schedule and exercising regularly are some of the things that might help you to deal with acrophobia in addition to seeing treatment from a professional.
FAQs
1. What is acrophobia?
Acrophobia is being extremely afraid of heights.
2. Can acrophobia be cured?
With the help of proper treatment from mental health professionals, acrophobia can be treated.
3. What are different treatment options for acrophobia?
Psychological treatments like exposure therapy, cognitive behaviour therapy, virtual reality exposure therapy, etc. are some of the treatments used to deal with acrophobia.
4. What can be the cause of acrophobia?
Acrophobia can be developed due to certain genetic factors or environmental factors or as a response to some kind of trauma.
5. What is evolved navigation theory?
Evolved navigation theory says that fear of heights is a trait developed due to natural selection that helped earlier humans to survive.
6. What are some of the common physical symptoms of acrophobia?
Symptoms of acrophobia include panic and anxiety even on thinking of being on heights, difficulty in breathing, sweating, shivering, etc.
References
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