UNDERSTAND FEAR OF HEIGHTS
The first thing to understand is that fear is a natural and
normal human 'negative' emotion. The purpose of negative emotions
is to tell us that something isn't quite right; an indication
that we need to take some kind of action.
In the case of fear, the message is 'danger'. While we are born
with fear of loud noises and fear of heights 'pre-wired' in our
nervous systems, and all other fears are learned from 'experience'.
The catch is, our mind is so powerful, that the 'experience'
doesn't have to have been real, it could just have been vividly
imagined. (That's why you can get feelings about heights or high levels just
by thinking; you don't have to actually be there).
Learned fear is an important survival mechanism, but just occasionally
the wires get crossed and we learn a fear response for something
where it doesn't belong – where there isn't a significant
danger
– and Fear Of Heights can develop.
The Root Cause
The root cause of Fear Of Heights varies from individual
to individual, and whilst no two individuals are the same, most
fall into one or more of the following categories:
A Single Traumatic Incident. A highly
stressful or frightening real event at which, instantaneously Fear Of Heights is
created. Similar to, say, a child being bitten by a dog and
developing an immediate phobia, a single traumatic incident
is a one-time experience at which there is such extreme fear
- even if only for a moment - that the nervous system 'learns'
to associate fear to help the individual avoid such situations
in futre.
The initial fear, by the way, may be nothing to do with heights or high levels.
We often hear from clients that the problem started at a time
when they were under extreme stress for something completely
unrelated, but the mind somehow associated the negative feelings
to heights or high levels anyway.
An Associated Traumatic Experience. This
is where the individual does not directly experience the fear,
but 'associates' to someone who does, either in a real situation,
or, more rarely, when watching someone in a movie - or even
a dream - experience a traumatic event.
A Slow Build. A slow build occurs when a
mild case of Fear Of Heights escalates over time to become
a severe one. What is happening here is that the individual
is 'accumulating' fearful associations to heights or high levels,
so that the evidence used by the mind and nervous system is
becoming increasingly irrefutable that fear is the appropirate
emotion. That means that anxiety isso it is created automatically
in anticipation each time... creating a self-fullfilling prophesy.
Sometimes Fear Of Heights can simply be developed from seemingly
harmless experiences, or seem like 'its always been like
this'. The truth is it hasn't always been that
way (there's no such thing as a new born baby with irrational
fears and phobias) but it may have started way back in an early
childhood, possibly school, experience.
A 'Learned' Respose, like Fear Of Heights can
Always be UN-learned...
In all the years we've been helping people overcome the most
extreme fears and phobias, we have never found a case that could
not be overcome, provided the individual was determined to do
so.
The human system is capable of learning new responses incredibly
quickly (how else could a single incident lasting only a few
seconds or minutes create a problem in the first place?) and
with the correct techniques a fearless, comfortable response
can always be restored.
The first step to overcoming Fear Of Heights is
to take
this quick – free – self-assessment now.
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