Acrophobia is an extreme fear of heights that can lead to panic, nausea, and dizziness. It can limit daily activities and is possibly an innate trait. Exposure therapy is the most common treatment, but medications may be used in the early stages.
Acrophobia is one of the most common phobias and is an extreme fear of heights, which can lead to feelings of panic, panic attacks, nausea and dizziness. This phobia should not be confused with agoraphobia, the fear of the outdoors or open spaces, which contributes to many people feeling like they can’t leave the house. Both are serious conditions and both common, but of the two, acrophobia is more prevalent and is possibly an innate trait in some people.
What constitutes heights can vary for each person with this fear. For some, it only occurs when a person is in a particularly high place, such as a multi-story building or atop a cliff overlooking a cliff. For others, going up a flight of stairs or climbing a ladder is enough to induce panic and distress. Fear can easily limit daily activities, especially when it is extremely pronounced. Like the agoraphobic person, a person with this phobia may not want to leave their home because they may be faced with panic-inducing unexpected heights.
Many people can feel mildly uncomfortable when in high places, and this experience isn’t limited to humans—other mammals also exhibit discomfort if they reach certain heights. Usually, this term is only used when the person or animal can be said to be extremely uncomfortable and goes into a state of panic when confronted with being in an elevated place. The leading theories used to explain this phenomenon suggest that, like all phobias, the fear became uncontrollable after a traumatic incident in early childhood.
Since other animals have been shown to show some signs of a fear of heights, researchers are now speculating that the fear might have to do with how the internal sense of balance works. The person with acrophobia may not be able to rely on their natural sense of balance and continue to rely on what they see as an elevated place. The feeling of imbalance can lead to panic, nausea, and dizziness or lightheadedness in some cases, because it goes against the body’s natural tendency to stay balanced.
This would suggest that people may be able to overcome fear by closing their eyes and relying on natural balance to stabilize themselves. Usually, however, acrophobics have so many incidences of this sensation, that this may not be enough by itself, as the fear of heights can be associated with mental trauma. While the fear itself may not be physically irrational, repeated instances of emotional trauma associated with heights create irrational fear.
Like most phobias, acrophobia is treated with a variety of therapies, most commonly exposure therapy. Under the guidance of professionals, the person is guided through staged height experiences, often starting first with virtual reality views of elevated places. This can help gradually desensitize the individual to the situation. Sometimes, medications such as tranquilizers or antidepressants are helpful in the early stages of treatment, but once the person is able to recover, they may not be needed in the long run. Additionally, there is some suggestion, given the internal balance theory, that psychiatric drugs would do more harm than good, since many of these drugs affect balance.
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