How to Overcome Your Fear of Heights

Throughout your life, there may be many situations that give you a fright, everything from a horror movie to a car speeding down the road. However, it is the persistent fears, the ones that recur again and again, that need to be faced head-on.

A fear of heights is, first of all, very common, so if you suffer from this, you are not alone. Secondly, a fear of being high up is not what would be classified as an essential irrational fear, because there is sometimes a risk presented from being, for example, on the top of a tall building.

What you need to do is find a way to overcome this fear so you can live your life as care-free as possible and not have to worry anymore, which is why this helpful guide has been put together.

There are three essential steps that you need to go through to start confronting this issue:

1. Understand where the fear you have is coming from.
2. Find a form of therapy/a therapeutic activity that is going to help you practically deal with this.
3. Employ certain methods in your day to day life to get through moments where fear feels like it is going to take over.

Understand where the fear is coming from

Understanding what causes a fear of heights is important in dealing with this problem because, once you can down a logical thought process of why heights scare you so much, you can take the sting out of the tail of this phobia.

Sometimes this can be an easy task if, for example, you had a bad experience with heights as a child and this has simply stayed with you into adulthood. If a child in the school playground tried to push you down some stairs, something as simple as this, could be the source of your fear.

If not, then you need to consider the more primal fear of protecting yourself from harm has simply been exaggerated when it comes to heights.

Explore your fears in a safe environment

The researchers at Oxfordvr.org are combining their expertise in psychology with the immersive experience of virtual reality (VR) technology. In this way, automated therapy treatments use a virtual coach to enable quicker, cost effective and high quality access to therapy services. They work because the therapies are designed to trigger the same psychological and physiological responses as a real-world situation, while the patient knows that they are safe and secure.

The effect of this means that people are able to learn from VR therapy to give them practical coping methods in the real world.

Keep your cool

As you work through your fears, it is a good idea to find practical things to do when confronted by your fear in the meantime so that you can establish some control over a scary situation.

Simple things such as breathing techniques, closing your eyes, or having some water, can have a calming effect and get you back to feeling like yourself.

It is also important to remember not to push yourself too hard at the beginning as this can actually make your fear worse if you spook yourself.