Acrophobia Disease
Acrophobia is an excessive fear or extreme fear of altitude. Phobia is part of anxiety disorder, where a person has an intense or irrational fear of objects or certain situations.
Acrophobia is one type of phobia that is quite often found. Most of the people with Acrophobia are women.
Causes of Acrophobia
Some factors that are predicted to trigger the onset of acrophobia in someone, among others:
- A traumatic experience, especially with regards to falling from high places or other accidents. Fear of altitude is a normal fear of being found in humans.
- However, if a traumatic experience arises, this fear can turn out to be excessive and cause a disturbance of acrophobia. This excessive fear can also arise from witnessing others experiencing accidents related to altitude.
- Evolutionary factors. As previously described, fear of altitude is essentially naturally experienced by everyone. Even infants and young children show fears when exposed to altitude. If this protection mechanism becomes extreme, one can experience acrophobia.
- Modeled after. A child with a parent who experiences acrophobia tends to be easier to be exposed to acrophobia as well.
The Diagnosis of Acrophobia
If you experience symptoms of acrophobia for six months or more, and those symptoms to interfere with your daily life, you should consult a doctor immediately.
Generally, these disorders can be diagnosed through anamnesis or detailed medical interviews. The doctor may ask about the symptoms that are perceived when they are at a height, the symptoms appear, traumatic events in the past are related to altitude, and so on.
Symptoms of Acrophobia
The recognizable signs of a person who has a disturbance of Acrophobia include:
- Panic attacks while on high altitude. This panic is usually accompanied by symptoms of rapid breathing, irregular heartbeat, sweating, nausea, shaking, fainting or dizziness, and so on.
- Strong fear of climbing, descending or altitude.
- The anxiety that arises when going to a high place.
- Sudden reaction to altitude, such as kneeling, looking for something to hold, and so on.
- Avoid the altitude (one can refuse to work in tall buildings, or refuse to meet friends who live in high apartment floors, and so on).
- In some cases, vertigo attacks may also arise.
- Realizing the fear is irrelevant.
Treatment of Acrophobia
Several types of therapies and medications can be considered to overcome acrophobia, including:
- Desensitization. This therapy is considered as an effective therapy to treat acrophobia. The therapist will provide a sense of exposure to the patient, and gradually try to reduce the fear. For example, in the case of Acrophobia therapists can give the task of climbing stairs, gradually stairs that need to be ridden will be higher and fear climbing stairs trying to be reduced.
- Through this process, the therapist seeks to understand why and how the patient becomes afraid of the altitude. Relaxation methods can be taught to patients to help overcome those fears.
- Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). Through this therapy, a person with acrophobia will be taught to modify the behavior of fears with positive behavior.
- Medications can be prescribed anti-anxiety medications and anti-depressants to help control the symptoms.