ARE WE BORN WITH A FEAR OF HEIGHTS?

Even though a slight fear of heights is normal and habitual which keeps us safe from any type of danger, people with acrophobia have an intense irrational fear of heights. Acrophobia is sometimes inborn, some may encounter a fear of heights without any first-hand experience with tall structures or heights.

 

Furthermore, Acrophobia sometimes develops in response to traumatic experiences involving heights, such as, falling from a high place, watching someone fall from a high palace, having a panic attack or other negative experiences while in a high place.  To clarify, the triggers of acrophobia are mainly either seeing and even hearing about any event regarding height as tall structures or sometimes thinking about heights.

 

Here are your long-awaited tips on How to Reduce Acrophobia. Beat Your fear of heights!

 

1. Gradual Experience of Fear:

Fear is an emotional response. And it triggers when we perceive a danger or threat in our environment. Facing your fear is never easy, especially when it comes to fear of Height. But once you gradually face your fear with small steps, the ability of your fear to control or dictate your decision will slowly vanish.

 

2. Visualize your success in Overcoming Acrophobia:

Visualization is a relaxation technique through which you can imagine yourself to be successful in handling your fear of Heights. As a result, it will help you to take the challenge in real life and conquer your Acrophobia.

 

3. Choose Your Own Defense Behavior:

Try to find out your own safety measures while experiencing height. For instance, holding on to a railing or shutting your eyes when you are near heights might help to recover your acrophobia.

 

4. Can do Perspective or Mindset:

You have to educate yourself that you can do it. Try to help yourself by learning more about acrophobia and relevant ways to manage your fear of heights. And, always remember others have overcome their fear by experiencing it and you also can DO it.

 

5. Relaxation Technique:

Relax! Relaxation techniques such as meditation, yoga, breathing, prayer, progressive muscle relaxation, aerobics,  walking or jogging regularly might help to lessen anxiety and it will certainly help to recover acrophobia.

 

6. Choose the Right Activities to work on:

By being patient, compassionate, regular towards your activities to resolve acrophobia, your fear of heights will naturally fade. Be careful and clever while choosing activities, for instance, it can be outdoors or indoors, so choose the type of activity you like. Whether you want to fix your fears indoors or out, try to come up with small-scale objectives that you want to conquer and focus on conquering them one at a time. Don’t be too tough on yourself. Go easy on yourself because phobias can not be overcome in a day.

 

7. Train Yourself Mentally:

Take time to prepare yourself to encounter any activities related to acrophobia. If you previously know that you need to be in a situation that requires you to be at a height, devise a plan to prepare yourself mentally so that you are not agitated or frightened in that particular situation. Try to stay calm and focused towards your activities.

 

8. Stop “Avoidance to Heights”:

Avoidance of Acrophobia is the key reason behind not being able to overcome fear of heights. Avoidance behavior is reinforced through negative thoughts and thus an acrophic couldn’t encounter or experience heights or tall structures.  Avoidance might help to reduce anxiety for a short period but hinders the path to overcome fear of heights.

 

9. Virtual Reality:

Nowadays Virtual Reality has been thought to be an essential remedy to deal with fear of heights. There are cheap as well as effective VR tools available to reduce your fear of heights. Those tools can be used for treatment purposes.

 

10. Seeking Help from Professionals:

If you find yourself avoiding and worrying too much about situations related to heights, or can’t help yourself by taking the above mentioned ways to reduce acrophobia, it is better to seek help from counsellors or any mental health professional who can help to conquer your phobia. Remember, you are not alone, millions of people are having traumatic experiences related to tall structures or heights and it is very treatable. With help and support, you can start managing your phobia of heights and move on with your life.