Acrophobia - Causes, Symptoms, and Management

Introduction:

Fear of heights is something we encounter in daily life. At a minimum, we could have seen our friends, siblings, or loved ones exhibiting such fear and symptoms as nervousness and breathlessness when exposed to ladders or up hills. Acrophobia is a condition showing extreme fear of heights demanding proper management and care. About two to eight percent of the world population has this phobia and is seen more in women compared to men.

What Is Acrophobia?

Acrophobia is a mental health condition of extreme and irrational fear of heights. The phrases acro and phobia are from the Greek terms meaning peak and fear. It is a specific phobia in which state a person displays a wide range of psychological and physical symptoms during such exposure and anticipation. This kind of anxiety strictly interferes with one’s day-to-day activities and is thus reflected in conduct.

What Causes Acrophobia?

Acrophobia is a pervasive condition arising from the perception of the future. The exact cause of acrophobia is nevertheless under study and is a bias. While illustrating the reason, the foremost thing is traumatic or conditioning experience to look at. Genetic and environmental factors also play a role indeed for the fear of heights. All these causes are commonly attributed to humankind’s concern about falling from such extreme and further possible hurt.

What Are the Symptoms of Acrophobia?

Any and every person exhibits a range of symptoms as they fear, from walking on a ladder to trekking up a hill. However, fear and anxiety are the first sign of being manifested in a person with acrophobia. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5 presents various symptoms and says that fear and those symptoms persist for six months and more. Herein included several physical and psychological symptoms.

Physical Symptoms.

• Elevated heartbeat.

• Shortness of breath.

• Dizziness.

• Light-headacheness.

• Paralyzed feeling.

• Dryness of mouth.

• Nervousness and trembling.

• Excessive sweating.

• Chest pain and tightness.

• Even yelling.

Psychological Symptoms.

• Intense state of panic when at high places and anticipating such things.

• Lower the body in search of a way to escape.

• Nostalgic panic attacks recur in case of past experiences.

• A strange fear of getting captured or trapped over there.

• The precautionary feel on endangered future traveling.

• Avoid visualizing and hearing that stuff and view.

What Are the Conditions Related to Acrophobia?

Fear of height is a prevalent phobia and not a complicated condition to deal with. However, in some cases, it might worsen and deteriorate daily actions. As well as acrophobia can get misinterpreted with several other conditions. The correlated conditions include the following;

• Vertigo: Vertigo is a symptom manifesting as an internal or external sensation of spinning or dizziness. Vertigo is not a correlated condition but an allied symptom.

• Bathmophobia: Fear of slopes and stairs. People with bathmophobia are afraid to take a steep incline and often synchronize with acrophobia.

• Climacophobia: It is a fear of climbing. It is related to acrophobia as both drew on heights.

• Aerophobia: Aerophobia is a fear of flying. People encountering this condition fear taking flights and avoiding airports.

• Cremnophobia: It is an irrational fear of cliffs, crags, and precipices.

• Gephyrophobia: It is the fear of crossing bridges.

How Is Acrophobia Diagnosed?

After reporting to a psychiatrist or other medical professionals on persistent, daily interfering symptoms and conditions, they will examine and diagnose. Firstly, the doctor will investigate the issue, symptoms, and health status. Then, they apply the diagnostic criteria proposed by the International Classification of Disease, ICD-10, and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), to diagnose the condition. Here are the diagnostic criteria provided by the fifth edition of DSM.

• Extreme and illogical fear.

• An acute anxiety attack or response when in high.

• Exhibit avoidance in the actions.

• The fear persists for six months or more.

• The thoughts and behavior influence life and daily activities.

Supplementally, they pick the following assessments in order to evaluate acrophobia.

• Acrophobia questionnaire. An order of 40 items in detecting anxiety level with a 0 to 6-point scale and degree of avoidance with a 0 to 2 score scale.

• Attitude Towards Heights Questionnaire, ATHQ.

• Behavioral Avoidance Test, BAT.

• The Height Interpretation Questionnaire, HIQ, is to determine further the judgments and results obtained from the above tests.

• Eventually, depression and anxiety stress scales validate the outcome of HIQ.

However, as the questionnaire assessments are based on self-record, they might sometimes show invalid results in a few cases.

How Is Acrophobia Treated?

Acrophobia, not often, demands professional treatment to let go of anxiety, fear, and other accompanying conditions. The treatment also aids in behavioral avoidance of the illness and situation. The management comprises the subsequent psychotherapies and pharmacotherapy aiming at relieving the symptoms.

Psychotherapy:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): A commonly practiced talk or psychotherapy in which a medical counselor eliminates negative thoughts and beliefs, endangering heights and life through sessions. By employing this therapy, an individual is likely to gain a different perceptive and give away the fear to a minimal heightened location.

• Exposure Therapy: It is a classical intervention that gradually incorporates exposure to locations like high buildings and hills. So, through this therapy, an acrophobic person learns to adapt to the situation. Exposure therapy is considered a typical treatment for anyone with a phobia.

• Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET): In the year 2017, researchers found that exposing a person to virtual reality would induce free of stress and anxiety. It is all about virtual reality equipment with a headset presenting the circumstances of heights that all mimic real but aren’t. Healthcare professionals suggest three to four sessions of VRET would be worthwhile.

• Hypnotherapy: The intervention utilizing hypnosis is hypnotherapy, used to treat fear and alleviate false, irrational beliefs. Here, the therapist will place the individual in a relaxed mental state and ease the condition. However, hypnotherapy for managing fear of heights is quite under study.

Medications: Though there exists no specific pharmacological drug for phobias such as acrophobia, the doctor prescribes the medicines below for fear and anxiety.

• Benzodiazepines: Often known as sedatives, given for anxiety intermittently or only when needed.

• Beta-blockers: Medications such as Atenolol, Metoprolol, or Acebutolol may be prescribed to amend the heart rate, anxiety, and chest discomfort.

• D-Cyclosporine (DCS): It is a weak immunosuppressant enhancing exposure therapy as per the study of 2019.

Only a few recognize their illness and seek medical care rather than not considering their lifestyle effects. In such incidents, management with virtual reality therapy is favorable, while other interventions imply acute short-term effects. Yet, despite everything, acrophobia, when left untreated, can exacerbate anxiety disorders or depression.

Conclusion:

Acrophobia is not a profound condition to be worried about. It is common among phobias to require good measures of medical and support systems. It can be effectively treated with appropriate therapies and care. However, these issues must be considered and treated at the earliest. As aforementioned, exposure therapy efficiently treats acrophobia. So, one should never hesitate to bring into the open hidden fears as there are righteous therapies and doctors to help overcome such conditions.