Whether you are a climbing enthusiast or not, you may find that one of the amusement projects that domestic mountaineering scenic spots especially like to engage in in the past two years is the "high-altitude glass trestle". A transparent glass bridge built between two high mountains at an altitude of several hundred meters, if accompanied by strong winds, let alone going up and walking, just looking at it from a distance feels a little frightening. Therefore, we can often see tourists staggering or even struggling on the flat bridge deck.
However, if you find that a friend is afraid of heights in a high-rise office, or even sweaty, heart-racing, and difficult to think normally, you need to pay attention - your friend may have "fear of heights"!
Image source: Visual China
Fear of heights is a real psychological disease, is a common anxiety disorder, not in the general sense of "timidity", specifically manifested as fear of standing on a tall building or on the top of the mountain, close to the bridge, subway road and other psychological fear. In general, the point of fear of heights patients is usually the fear of falling from a high place will be injured, and some people with fear of heights will have an abnormal, uncontrollable urge to jump down, and will also feel as if there is an external force to pull them to the edge of the highland, and may even have visual fantasies, even if the feet stand firmly on the ground, but there is a feeling of the body falling downwards, feeling that they fall or slide down is a form of body appearance, and the fear of heights will cause a feeling of dizziness.
Fear of balconies, stairs and elevators is all related to fear of heights. These fears are strong even when there are guardrails or enough away from the edges of heights that it is impossible to fall.
According to statistics, one in fifteen people in the world will have a tendency to fear heights to a greater or lesser extent, and to some extent, "fear of heights" has evolutionary significance. This "fear" itself is also a protective measure for human beings to protect their own lives, which can make people instinctively stay away from dangerous areas and reduce the chance of casualties caused by falling from a high place.
In addition, there is another point that makes people avoid the high places, that is, human beings have become accustomed to seeing things from a perspective parallel to the ground, and at high places, people's eyes are perpendicular to the ground. For example, if a person sees a car on the ground, he sees the side, and from the plane down, he can only see the cover. Although they are all three-dimensional, it is necessarily inappropriate to convert the ability to balance the body and the ability to distinguish directions in the horizontal perspective to the vertical perspective. After the visual information obtained changes, the body is very easy to lose balance and sense of direction, which will cause people to feel the lack of security, and need to return to the horizontal perspective as soon as possible. The above two reasons determine that "fear of height" has become a fear rooted in everyone's heart.
Since fear of heights is normal, it may even be beneficial to survival, but fear of heights ≠ fear of heights. Fear of height is more of a warning of danger, thinking that the height may not be safe enough, if you can confirm that you are safe, you generally do not feel how afraid. Fear of heights is different, fear of heights will have a strong sense of anxiety in the high place, even if they know that they are actually in a safe environment, they will still involuntarily panic, and lose confidence in their sense of balance, want to lower the body weight (squatting or even lying down) to seek security. In addition, there may be physiological reactions such as trembling, sweating, palpitations, etc., and in severe cases, it is even impossible to think normally.
True fear of heights is rare, and the standard for judging whether you are afraid of heights or really fear of heights is to think about whether the fear of heights has affected your normal life. If it does not affect normal life, the fear of heights belongs to the normal range; on the contrary, if you cannot live and work in a high-rise building because of fear of heights, or if you climb a few steps and are afraid of not being able to do it, it is likely to be a real fear of heights.
In addition, unlike fear of heights, the anxiety felt by patients with fear of heights is stronger, lasts longer, and has symptoms of anxiety and autonomic nerves during the attack, and may have dry mouth, increased heart rate, flushing of the face, etc. At the same time, patients with fear of heights know that this fear is excessive, unnecessary, unreasonable, but they cannot control it.
Fear of heights can be cured, the most famous of which is a systematic desensitization treatment option: exposing patients to environments they don't like for a long time until they weaken or eliminate their fears. Of course, for safety reasons, virtual exposure is also recommended, that is, to recreate a high-level scene in virtual reality created with special equipment. Clinics with this type of equipment are more willing to choose this type of treatment because it allows therapists to treat more patients more effectively and in a more timely manner.
Author: Tang Yicheng, Beijing ZhongkePu Mental Health Promotion Center Review: Wang Kui, Associate Researcher, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Source: Scientific Debunking Platform
Editor-in-Charge: Zhang Zhaodu