Acrophobia.

bobwysiwyg · Oct 8, 2008

I think age may be a factor as well. While in college (long ago) I was fortunate to have an apprentice job as a wire lather. We placed and wired re-bar before the concrete was poured on high-rises being built in lower Manhattan. Back in the 60's it was great pay, hard work and I thought nothing of walking a narrow, plywood form 200 ft. in the air. Now.. well just this past week I was painting the trim on my daughter and son-in-law's house and some of the trim was a good 25' up and one strip required my climbing on the roof of the attached garage. The only way I would consider it was tossing a rope over the roof and tying it off to a fence post for some stability while up there. The sphincter factor was 9.0 end bumped to 9.5 while trying to get back on the ladder to come down.

mooseontheloose · Oct 8, 2008

Like many of you I don't have a fear of heights -- I love hiking up all kinds of trails -- but it's the going down that always gets me. I used to think that it was because I was short and had a short reach that I've always been so careful about going down any kind of slope, but I've come to realize that it's because I have problems with vertigo, and fear the fall.

I have no problems flying, driving, or walking in high places, even near the edges, although I will crawl on my hands and knees to be able to deal with the edges. But usually when I'm in places like that the wind is so strong it's not very good for photography anyway.

monkeykoder · Oct 9, 2008

I'll have to say I have no real fear of heights I would love to go rock climbing but being short and rather stocky isn't the best combination for that... The only time I ever get weirded out by heights is when I'm in a car especially with me driving. Then again I just don't like cars...

BobbyR · Oct 11, 2008

I don't have a fear of heights, but if I have not been dealing with it, a ladder or taking a tree down from the top-down,it takes me a few hours before I am totally at ease, stretching over the abyss, or going up on the rungs, or bending branches, you are not supposed to be on, and few days before I start acting like a monkey in a tree.

Continual exposure, may not make you feel at ease, but it may make you more comfortable.

nsouto · Oct 11, 2008

I'm actually the opposite: claustrophobic in the extreme. To the point I won't get into a packed lift at work:
prefer to wait for an empty or nearly empty one.

Buses? No way. Trains? Only off-peak. Cars? They need to be large/no passengers.
Caves or tunnels or narrow corridors? Yeah, right...

Weird. And it's getting worse with age.

Claire Senft · Oct 12, 2008

I tend to be bothered by it at least when watching tv and the camera is pointing down a tall building. The best way for me to cure it is to be near a snake...I forget all about the fear of heights for awhile until the snake is dead.

arigram · Jan 28, 2009

Can you treat it?
As in make the phobia disappear or at least make it insignificant as it doesn't impede your life?

panastasia · Jan 28, 2009

BobbyR said:
I don't have a fear of heights, but if I have not been dealing with it, a ladder or taking a tree down from the top-down,it takes me a few hours before I am totally at ease, stretching over the abyss, or going up on the rungs, or bending branches, you are not supposed to be on, and few days before I start acting like a monkey in a tree.

Continual exposure, may not make you feel at ease, but it may make you more comfortable.

I'm the same way, somewhat. There is the initial fear that I overcome rather quickly.

Example: The first time going up a very tall ladder I'm clinging to the ladder and looking down, feeling very tense, but after being on the ladder for a few minutes the tension goes away. After that I'm practically running up an down the ladder, feeling at ease. I don't have a problem looking down from the edge of a roof, or cliff, as long as my toes aren't hanging over the edge, but only after standing back for the first few seconds.

JBrunner · Jan 28, 2009

I don't have a fear of heights. I have been frightened of falling on occasion.

jmooney · Jan 28, 2009

JBrunner said:
I don't have a fear of heights. I have been frightened of falling on occasion.

It's not the fall, it's the sudden stop at the end that worries me.

ken472 · Jan 28, 2009

I used to have a fear of heights til I spent 4 years in the Air Force working in a 100' high tower and riding in helicopters.

c.d.ewen · Jan 28, 2009

Heights have always made me "nervous", in that my mouth would go dry and my palms would sweat and, at times, I would uncontrollably tremble. It didn't stop me from repelling down rock faces in Yosemite, or joining the ladder company in the local volunteer fire dep't. Madness? Death Wish? Maybe just a thrillseeker.

Mental picture for acrophobics: you climb, alone, 50 maybe 75 feet up an aerial ladder to put water on a burning house. You're spraying 500 gallons a minute with such force that every slight movement causes the ladder to groan and twist in the opposite direction. As you move the stream from one window to another, the water column hits the building between and you're violently flung backward until it reaches the next window and you drop immediately towards the fire. Your pants still dry?

Acrophobia.

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