Height vertigo and acrophobia

Oh HELL NO to that picture, OP. You lost me at hike. Anything involving cliffside or narrow trails on the side of a mountain is a NO. I have a terrible fear of heights, always have.

I have a terrible fear of being R2.

Fear of open water.

Claustrophobic here.

R3 Jaws did that to me. Can't wade into water over my knees, can't step onto a boat, I know I'm missing out on a lot but water terrifies me now.

I don't have acrophobia, per se. I have what I've discovered is a relatively common phenomenon - the urge to jump when I'm standing on some place high.

I am not now, nor have I ever been suicidal, nor do I actually WANT to jump. I just start getting the urge to do so.

I tend to avoid unsecured high places and rarely go the the edge and peer over.

You bet, that picture makes my palms sweat. I even have trouble driving over narrow bridges and avoid them if I can

I have acrophobia and at one point in my life a therapist recommended aversion therapy, in which you face up to your fears., So I went skydiving. It was the scariest thing I ever did. I passed out the moment i jumped (there's a rip cord that shocks you awake a few seconds later -- this was at a time when you were allowed to train all day and then jump in the late afternoon alone, now I hear you have to have a skilled partner the first time).

I do not recommend aversion therapy for acrophobia.

I don't think it counts as a phobia when you feel fear in a situation in which there's a reasonable possibility you could get hurt or killed.

It’s not so much a fear of heights for me as it is a fear of falling. A few years ago friends and I traveled to Namibia for the main purpose of hiking some sand dunes there. It was amazing. And high. At some point the trail really started to seem more and more narrow... like I was walking a tightrope. I became paralyzed a few times but finally did make it up.

I don't fear heights, but I fear widths.

R1, yes. This happened to me on the Vessel at Hudson Yards in NYC. I have flown to HI and been to lunch at Windows on the World and the Empire State Building. After waiting an hour to get on the Vessel, I made it to the 4th level before I had to leave it. I was scared beyond belief. It may stem from the fact that the walls are clear glass and only hip high. According to my ticket, I was on the damn thing for about 10 minutes before my feet hit the ground. I so wanted to climb to the top but it wasn't happenin'!

R6, I have this fear as well. There's a turn on the Cuomo bridge aka Tappan Zee that makes me feel like doing a Thelma and Louise. Also, I think the Chesapeake Bay Bridge has a similar turn where you can't see anything but sky. Many elevated roads in Houston are the same way.

I don't want to die but that urge is extremely scary.

R12, those walls do look low.

I don’t have a fear of heights, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to leap off of one. No bungee jumping or skydiving for me.

Yep. Since about age 30 I get height vertigo if I'm close to the edge of any location that has a sheer dropoff of 50+ feet without a sturdy railing. Height vertigo is 10X worse if the vista ahead is wide open.

Had one of the worst panic attacks of my life visiting Mt Rainier on vacation.

Like R10, my fear is of falling. I like being in high places as long as I feel secure. If I'm sitting in a window seat on an airplane, I enjoy looking out at what we're flying over. I don't have a problem with being in tall buildings looking at the ground below. But if I'm in an open high spot like an observation platform or a balcony with just a railing separating me from certain death, I get an uneasy feeling and my body becomes simultaneously weak and tense. I remember once when I was maybe 6 or 7 years old being in the Texas state capitol building on one of the high floors that overlook the rotunda/dome area and being terrified to approach the railing to see the view. I probably wasn't tall enough to even see over the rail, much less fall over it. But I remember my parents trying to get me to go over to it and my legs just froze and I wouldn't budge from my spot. As I've gotten older, the fear has subsided somewhat and I can handle being in a situation like that. But it still makes me feel uneasy.

[quote] Had one of the worst panic attacks of my life visiting Mt Rainier on vacation.

R15, I can relate. Years back, when I was younger and less fearful of mortality in general, I experienced my first fear of sheer drops on the Half Dome hike in Yosemite. It actually wasn't the cables that scared me so much as it was the series of stone steps leading up to the cables -- no railing and crowded as an amusement park. I don't think I would do the hike today. It's also scarier going down than it is going up.

R14, skydiving does sound frightful.

R16 i am the same! My partner pretty much dragged me up a steep pyramid in the yucatan, no guards no rails no ropes and i almost had a panic attack. You can see my fear, terror and flop sweat in the selfie he took of us. I’ve been this way since i was a teen.

A photo to trigger you guys.

^^It sure does, I can't even look at it. Yikes!

Yep, been getting worse as I get older. I can't even stand on a balcony more than three flights up anymore without getting dizzy and panicked. Flying in a window seat? No problem. But like the poster above, if there's no protection from falling, I'm out of there.

I tried to challenge myself by walking up to the first floor of the Eiffel tower. Was behind a bunch of kids who were having the time of the life. Me? I just barely made it up there in a deep sweat. Took some photos and ran back down.

Terrible acrophobia. I've had it all my life. One of my worst experiences was trying to cross a long, high, narrow suspension bridge over a ravine whilst hiking. I couldn't even get halfway across, clinging to my partner.

Claustrophobia, I was in Hawaii and was standing in front of a cave the entrance was 2 stories high but I couldn't take another step to enter the cave. Watching the programs on TV where explorers go through small tomb openings or small cave openings brings out the anxiety and makes me sweat.

Your therapist is insane R8. Aversion therapy is meant to start with minuscule exposure to your fear, like looking at pictures of people on high ledges, then maybe walking across a bridge. Did you leave out other steps, or did you just start with skydiving?!?!

R20, it does trigger me! Just looking at it causes all the muscles in my legs to tighten!

R26, you're not alone. That photo sure triggers me.

To be honest, I'm more scared watching other people do dangerous things on hikes or in heights -- people wading near waterfalls, leaning precariously over edges, unattended pets and small children. You hear about these accidents happening in the news all of the time...

R25 - yes there were other steps. The parachuting was the last.