Description of acrophobia and methods of struggle

Fear of heights is one of the most widespread phobias that occurs in both children and adults. The causes of anxiety, anxiety and panic associated with height are diverse and largely individual. Currently, this phobia is quite successfully treated with the help of qualified psychologists or psychotherapists.

The fear of heights in psychology is called acrophobia. This phobia appears in people for various reasons, delivering rather unpleasant and serious experiences. According to the theory of evolution, man needs fear to develop internal resources in extreme living conditions, however, fear is extremely harmful to the body and even dangerous to health.

In the early stages, acrophobia is accompanied by a depressed psychological state, anxiety, but somatic symptoms are also connected in the later stages: uncontrolled trembling, pain, palpitations, increased sweating.

Fear of heights is natural for a person, it protects us from risky acts and makes us cautious in the hills, where you can fall and cripple. However, when she is comprehensive and intrusive, and its manifestations cause significant discomfort, we can talk about phobia.

In medicine and science, it is customary to distinguish between natural caution in high altitude and a pathological, uncontrolled fear of being at their best. In the first case, a person is afraid, but can control himself, feels a slight discomfort, but controls himself and the situation. In the second case, the disease is obsessive fear, which can not be overcome, it significantly interferes with daily life.

Ordinary anxiety occurs only when a dangerous situation occurs (for example, when a person has his first flight on an airplane or jump into the water) and becomes stronger when there is a lack of complete information, as well as a lack of time to study the situation, choose the right solution, and prepare. This is characteristic of all healthy people and is absolutely normal.

It has various clinical manifestations - both at the psychological and physiological levels. Between normal fear and pathology in psychology, there is invariably a rather thin line. Crossing it is very easy - just get into adverse circumstances and any of us with a greater or lesser likelihood of developing acrophobia.

The obsessive fear of heights is determined even in our subconscious, and in some individuals predisposed to it, it can become stronger, more palpable and arise more often and obsessively, becoming an obvious disorder. This is not a rational feeling, but an uncontrolled fear. The patient himself does not understand why he is so scared by height, cannot explain his behavior and cannot control himself. That is why getting rid of a phobia is very difficult - much harder than getting rid of ordinary fear.

Acrophobia is a real panic horror, which over time seizes the patient more and more, and spreads to all areas of his life. Such behavior can lead to social isolation - both partial and almost complete. A person under the influence of such a disorder is deprived of freedom, constrained, cannot participate in many social events, and sometimes he is shy of his reaction to heights in front of other people.

Acrophobia is a lot of inconvenience. A person becomes truly dependent on his unconscious and all-embracing fear. He cannot go hiking with friends, relax at ski resorts, make an air flight or even calmly walk up the stairs. It often happens that an acrophobe refuses visits to relatives and friends who live in high-rise buildings.

The transparent floor in modern buildings and bridges over rivers also cause painful discomfort. On similar objects in a sick individual in the literal sense panic begins: he literally cannot move, often sits down, tries to cover his face, grab onto something stable or squeeze a person’s hand nearby.

At the physiological level, the phobia also has obvious signs: severe dizziness or fainting, nausea, trembling. It must be borne in mind that such manifestations are life-threatening, because at the height you need to control your movements, and uncontrolled somatic symptoms are dangerous with possible injuries.

American psychiatrists have studied acrophobia for many years and their survey results demonstrate that, in the opinion of the vast majority of phobic sufferers, these people cannot control themselves, control their feelings, decisions and their actions when they are in an anxious state in a critical situation for themselves.

According to those suffering from a phobia, they think they will fall, and they also occasionally have a conflicting desire to jump. It should be noted that almost all the people interviewed had no visible symptoms of depression, and there was absolutely no tendency to commit suicide.

Acrophobia is independent of gender and age - it can occur in men, women, adults, adolescents, young children or the elderly. Today, specialists do not have a common and unified interpretation of the causes of acrophobia. It is generally accepted that such a disorder arises from unfavorable external and internal factors that act comprehensively on the psyche.

The leading role in the formation and development of any kind of phobia is played by the conditions of personality formation: it is from childhood that a predisposition to certain types of mental disorders can be laid. Very often, fear of heights is determined by carriers of “burdened” heredity, that is, those who have a history of mental disorders. Sometimes a phobia can be associated with organic damage to brain structures.

The occurrence of acrophobia is often preceded by the following situations.

• Regularly experienced stresses: it can be difficult responsible work or failures in personal life. It’s not even the factor that provokes stress that matters, but our reaction: if a person is restless and inclined to panic from little things and such situations in life become more and more, then the risk of developing any phobic disorder increases many times.
• Alcohol abuse and uncontrolled use of psychostimulants can also lead to phobias. Remember that you can not abuse alcohol, and medicines should be taken under the supervision and constant supervision of a doctor.
• Negative Growth Experience Together with excessive severity, detachment and criticality of parents can also portend a phobia. Inconsistent upbringing and insufficient attention to childhood fears or negative feelings from communication in a bad company lay in the child a predisposition to the development of a phobia, which can manifest itself at any age.

Among acrophobes, there are often individuals with a psychasthenic constitution, the dominance of properties such as suspiciousness, timidity, sentimentality, timidity, shyness, as well as excessive sensitivity. Such people are prone to disorders from birth - they are very anxious and highly excitable individuals.

In some rare cases, a strong and irrational fear of high places can be directly related to personal negative experience, however, such a direct relationship is not recorded too often. Typically, the formation of a phobia requires many factors in combination. It is rarely possible to identify any one, but an experienced doctor will be able to detect the most dominant factors. To defeat a phobia, it will be necessary to fight precisely with its main causes.

Acrophobic disorder can be either congenital or due to all sorts of negative circumstances from the long or recent past. This phobia is completely unrelated to the height itself. Often, acrophobia can appear in impressionable subjects with a rich imagination, so children are often exposed to it.

Some of these patients may experience fear of heights even in their sleep. Another interesting fact is that Acrophobia can cause great anxiety and an attack of obsessive fear, even when not at altitude.

Many professional psychologists agree that any real phobia is determined by the presence of any negative experience in a person experienced in the past. However, recent research in the field of psychology refutes this theory. Many of the people in their past did not have the slightest prerequisites for acrophobia. Acrophobia is a disease that may already be present in an individual from birth. Sometimes it is combined with intolerance to loud harsh sounds - the psychologists have not yet been able to identify the reasons for such a pattern.

In turn, some modern scholars argue that acrophobia is a prehistoric phenomenon. Our ancestors were very likely to fall from a height and crash when they lived in the wild and fought for survival with other individuals. Thus, acrophobia is rooted in evolutionary mechanisms; ancient people needed it for their own safety.

Studies by scientists of this disorder prove that acrophobia is not unique to humans. It can be found in all types of animals with good vision. Sometimes, among the causes of the appearance of acrophobia, a poorly developed vestibular apparatus of a person is distinguished, because it is he who regulates the balance of the body position in space, and also provides a constant connection between our vision and the brain through the cerebellum. In this way, Today among psychologists there is no unified theory of the appearance of acrophobia.

Symptoms of acrophobia are very variable: this disorder is characterized by both psychological manifestations of fear of falling from a height and psychosomatics. The obsessive fear of heights in each patient can manifest itself in different ways. Often people affected by acrophobia say that while they are at high altitudes they are unable to control their actions, thoughts, decisions, and possible actions. The extreme situation for an acrophobic gives rise to real panic. Along with this, a sick person may have a desire to jump.

Acrophobia experiences dizziness, which can be combined with nausea, sometimes it turns into vomiting. Often at the physiological level, problems with the gastrointestinal tract, for example, diarrhea, are manifested. Breathing at the moment of a panic becomes very uneven and quickened, and the pulse can both slow down and speed up. With fear, many perspiration intensifies, pain in the heart is felt, cramps, pupils expand involuntarily.

Sometimes in patients with this phobia, obvious hypertonicity of the muscles is also noticeable, motor activity increases, which is visible from the side - these are scattered movements with which the acrophobic tries to hide from danger. Such behavior at altitude is really dangerous for humans.

In some situations, when fear and obsessive anxiety manifest themselves systematically, it is most logical to turn to specialists. A phobia without the control of a doctor can develop further and can become a serious problem that will spoil the patient's quality of life every day. In a patient suffering from acrophobia in advanced stages, freedom of movement is significantly limited, and his lifestyle changes.

To overcome a phobia in the early stages is possible independently. In order to overcome fear, the patient must have sufficient willpower and enlist the support of close friends and relatives. Overcoming a phobia can be relatively quick or long, depending on the individual situation. In difficult cases, it is better to treat acrophobia under the supervision of a doctor - psychologist or psychotherapist.

Recommendations will depend on the causes of acrophobia and the degree of neglect of the disease.Sometimes it is suggested to speak out your fears or draw them in order to throw out emotions and defeat a phobia, they are also engaged in group therapy with patients. Hypnosis is often used. - Such techniques can quickly get rid of a phobia at any age. In complex cases, phobia can be cured with medications prescribed by a psychiatrist.

You can contribute to the treatment yourself. For example, it will be useful to train the vestibular apparatus, gymnastics is perfect for this. Specialists also consider yoga, meditation and breathing exercises to be extremely useful. - so you will calm down, relieve stress and learn to control yourself. Try to devote meditation several minutes a day, and when panic occurs, remember to breathe properly.

Other relaxation methods, such as massage. You can also drink herbal infusions to calm, ensure proper nutrition, limit the use of alcohol. Distract from a phobia will help creativity, interesting work, sports and a pleasant pastime with loved ones.