What is Acrophobia?

For those of you who don't actually know what acrophobia is the simple definition is an acute fear of heights.

I'm not talking about feeling a bit queasy or uncomfortable because you're up the top of the Sky Tower in Auckland and you're walking on the glass floor looking down. That is definately NOT acrophobia, that's not even a fear of heights, that is relatively normal.

No, a person suffering from acrophobia wouldn't even be able to make it to the entrance to the elevator on the 3rd floor of the building.

A formal definition of acrophobia is this:

"Acrophobia is an extreme or irrational fear of heights. It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort that share both similar etiology and options for treatment.

Acrophobia can be dangerous, as sufferers can experience a panic attack in a high place and become too agitated to get themselves down safely.

"Vertigo" is often used, incorrectly, to describe the fear of heights, but it is more accurately described as a spinning sensation, which may be caused by looking down from a high place, as well as by some other stimuli. Vertigo is qualified as height vertigo when referring to dizziness triggered by heights."

So in reality what does this mean? 

An extreme fear of heights is a debilitating phobia, people don't realise how much so until they are affected by it themselves, or like me, has a partner with this phobia. There are so many things people take for granted that we can't do such as go to the movies at the mall, park in a car parking building (do you know how frustrating it is trying to find a park on the street in the pouring rain!), stay in hotels, visit friends and family at the hospital - this is a big one - my partner couldn't say goodbye to his grandfather because he was on the 7th floor of the hospital. 

That is the sad reality of having acrophobia. There are so many more examples of how life is limited by this horrible phobia but I don't think it would help anyone by listing them all.

What I ask from people is that you don't say you are afraid of heights when in reality you're not. There is something quite demoralizing when you hear a group of people talking "oooh I'm so scared of heights, I couldn't look down when I was about to bungy jump, it was soooo scary, I hate heights!"

It's like a size 6 girl going on to the size 24 girl about how fat she is, don't you hate that!

As always, I would be most interested to hear from others that suffer acrophobia / acute fear of heights (especially if you have overcome this!)

Acrophobia | Fear of Heights | Do you know how to cure this phobia?

Does anyone know how to cure this phobia? I certainly don't. We've tryed hypnosis with 3 different "therapists", one of them was even featured on 20/20 (A NZ show similar to 60 minutes) But I think the fear of heights has actually gotten worse!

Let me clarify, I am not the one with the phobia. That curse belongs to my partner. When we first met around 4 years ago he was fine (no phobias) we used to have lunch on the roof at work which was 5 floors up, then one day literally out of the blue he was in a hotel and started taking the escalator up to the conference room on the 3rd floor and had to go back downstairs as he started suffering vertigo. Since that fateful day it has progressively gotten worse. There were no more lunches on the 5th floor; he could only make it to the 3rd floor at this stage. A few months later he couldn't make it past the 2nd floor. Now 3 years later we can't even eat in a restaurant that is upstairs.

This means we can't go to the movies, eat out at a lot of places, park in car parking buildings, stay in hotels... the list goes on.

I would love to hear from others who suffer acrophobia / an acute fear of heights (not just those people that feel uncomfortable because they're at the top of a 50 floor sky scraper standing on a glass floor - that is NOT a fear of heights!)

I would love it even more to hear from people that have over come their fear of heights.

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