5 Tips on How to Overcome a Fear of Heights
There are a lot of people in this world who have a fear of heights. While some people develop this fear early in their childhood because of some accident or traumatic incident, others just happen to have it by birth. While some people would be okay climbing up a tree, but wouldn’t be able to look down from the 40th floor of a building, others can’t even as much as climb a ride in a theme park, which is just 8 feet high. This variation depends on the origin of the fear. However, fear of heights, also known as Acrophobia, can be dealt with in a variety of ways. Here are some methods.
1. Psychotherapy
Irrespective of however old you are, or however severe your fear of heights may be, psychotherapy can help a great deal. Most approaches work around CBT – Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, where the basic thought process affecting the fear, is what is worked on. In other words, if the thoughts or feelings of a person are making the fear worse, or have led to its development in the first place, then the therapy aims at reworking on the thinking patterns of the person. There will be a lot of physical and reading exercises incorporated along with some homework exercises to change the thought process.
2. Medication
If you are already undergoing psychotherapy, then it’s best to consult your psychotherapist for medication as well. He himself will not be providing any medication to you, but will refer your case to a psychiatrist, who will work in combination with your psychotherapist to make the treatment a success. Mostly, the medicines help reduce anxiety and mental stress, so that negative thoughts are under control, and the person can take new challenges to fight the fear.
3. Homeopathy
There are a lot of people in the world who do not believe in homeopathy, but those who do can swear by it. Homeopathy takes into account a person’s full case history, along with family history, to be able to understand where the fear might have come from in the first place. The medicines work towards reducing stress and anxiety, so that the person can have a calm mind while trying to fight the fear. Once the factors that cause the problem have been identified, homeopathy simultaneously tries to get rid of those factors too, so that the problem doesn’t reappear. It may take a little while to see the effects, however, the results are long lasting. Also, homeopathic medicines don’t cause any side effects, like some allopathic medicines may cause.
