Acrophobia or a fear of heights that can cause panic and anxiety attacks even if you are just a few meters far in from the ground. You might not know what triggered the phobia. This phobia can affect anyone's life by being mentally taxing, restrictive and hard to overcome.
Like most of the other phobias, your ability and willingness to overcome the phobia deals a significant part of being successful with it. Here's a useful steps to overcome that phobia.
Step 1: Start slow.
An exposure to being above the ground can help you to overcome the anxiety. You need to desensitize yourself to all the things that can trigger your panic or discomfort.
Start low, like walking to the bottom of the hill and build yourself up to walk a little higher, then a little higher than that. You can also do this in a multi-storey building by gradually moving up to the next level.
Be patient with yourself. A study in 2010 from the US National Library of Medicine reported that fear of heights or acrophobia affects in every 1 out of 20 people. So you are not the only one who has that fear.
If you like outdoor activities, you might find your fear of heights restricting you from going to a certain places or have fun with some activities. To challenge yourself to try new activities is one of the best ways of facing your phobia head-on. But, you still need to remember that you can always start from small and then aim high rather than starting an intense challenge. Begin in familiar places and try activities you haven't done yet with a group or team support so you can be comfortable enough to not feel pressured and can take your time
Step 2: Watch for the triggers.
It can be tough to overcome that fear you feel when you face situations that trigger your anxiety. If you are thinking that this fear is uncontrollable for you, you could get stuck in that cycle of anxiety. You should know that some acrophobia is only normal and it was programmed in your DNA for you to keep you out of danger.
Try making a conscious effort that trigger your fear. Then try to calm yourself and tell yourself that you don't need to be afraid and that you are safe. This mindset can help you to overcome your fear of heights.
Step 3: Prepare yourself.
If you know that you will be in a dangerous situations like crossing a bridge, climbing a ladder or going up a skyscraper, it help you to prepare yourself. You should know what should you expect, then analyze the problem. Look for a safety measures available to keep you out of harm and evaluate it as this process can help you make a strategy of staying calm.
Step 4: Control the symptoms.
With panic and anxiety attacks, minimizing these 2 symptoms will help you.
Rapid heartbeat, excessive sweating, short breathes are all obvious and known symptoms when you have fear of heights.
If you practiced relaxation techniques, this will help you to minimize the symptoms and have them under your control. Exercise breathing deeply can also help you feel more relaxed.
Step 5: Exposure Therapy.
A team led by Dr. Tara Donker discovered a treatment that uses only a smartphone app and goggles that is called Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy.
The therapy is not that expensive and can be controlled by the patients.
You can use Virtual Reality in this therapy for you to expose yourself to anything that can trigger your acrophobia. When you are getting comfortable already with a scenario, you'd like to choose another situation that can be more uncomfortable for you.
Doing this treatment repeatedly can reduce the symptoms greatly.
You should be afraid more of being drowned than height. I've overcome that fear already.