Chronic Fear of Heights

Holybejaysus

Has anyone here ever had treatment for their fear of heights? I suffer from chronic acrophobia, and it's something I'd like to try and conquer. (Although for some strange reason, I am fine when in a plane.)

I have been trying to get over it myself by getting into mountain climbing, with mixed results. I'm still terrified when I come to a steep part, but I just force myself to go anyway, even though my legs are jelly.

I understand there has been very promising developments in the field of Virtual Reality, whereby the patient is gradually acclimatized until they are no longer fearful.
Has anybody here ever had treatment, or heard of this in Ireland?

hotspur

I don't know of anywhere in Ireland that does it and would be very surprised if one existed. It is a technological enhancement of a behavioural therapy protocol which can be done without it.

It is systematic desensitisation. For fears with which it is practically difficult to expose the client to the actual phobic stimulus in a therapeutic environment the use of hypnosis has been shown to be beneficial. We all have our own virtual reality machines in our brain (in fact that is a common metaphor in contemporary philosophy of mind).

Pebbles68

If you are near Dublin


>>>>>>READ THE FORUM CHARTER!!!!!

Holybejaysus

hotspur wrote: »

I don't know of anywhere in Ireland that does it and would be very surprised if one existed. It is a technological enhancement of a behavioural therapy protocol which can be done without it.

It is systematic desensitisation. For fears with which it is practically difficult to expose the client to the actual phobic stimulus in a therapeutic environment the use of hypnosis has been shown to be beneficial. We all have our own virtual reality machines in our brain (in fact that is a common metaphor in contemporary philosophy of mind).

Interesting. I've always considered hypnosis to be something of a psuedo-science. Perhaps I have been too dismissive of it.

Pebbles68

Pebbles68 wrote: »

If you are near Dublin


>>>>>>READ THE FORUM CHARTER!!!!!

sorry, I was only trying to help

Odysseus

hotspur wrote: »

I don't know of anywhere in Ireland that does it and would be very surprised if one existed. It is a technological enhancement of a behavioural therapy protocol which can be done without it.

It is systematic desensitisation. For fears with which it is practically difficult to expose the client to the actual phobic stimulus in a therapeutic environment the use of hypnosis has been shown to be beneficial. We all have our own virtual reality machines in our brain (in fact that is a common metaphor in contemporary philosophy of mind).

Would you not consider psychoanalysis or CBT as a valid therapy Hotspur?

If not may I ask why?

hotspur

Odysseus wrote: »

Would you not consider psychoanalysis or CBT as a valid therapy Hotspur?

If not may I ask why?

I consider systematic densensitisation to come under CBT in the broadest sense. It is a behavioural therapy created by the great behavioural therapist Joseph Wolpe (whose classic book "Practice of Behavior Therapy" is very good). For him it was purely behavioural and based on the principle of reciprocal inhibition - in this case you cannot both relax and be afraid at the same time (though you could replace relaxation with food or sex and the same principle of incompatibility with fear holds).

With the cognitive revolution it was extended with cognitive coping and restructuring additions to it and other exposure therapies like flooding. These appeared to increase efficacy. When I mentioned that hypnosis was good for working with phobias which are difficult to expose to in a therapy room I meant that adding hypnosis to the cognitive and behavioural strategies is helpful because it can heighten the vividness of mentally creating the feared stimulus. My understanding of such work using hypnosis is that has an additive effect.

Psychoanalysis for phobias is an interesting one. I utterly reject the idea that all phobias are symbolic and for every Little Hans there are a thousand Little Alberts. I have little doubt that behavioural protocols with cognitive enhancements are the most parsimonious and efficacious ways of dealing with specific phobias.

Psychoanalysis seems more usefully suited to more complex fears such as agoraphobia, social phobia etc. I know little about any short term psychodynamic therapies for phobias, so I'm not best placed to say, but generally I have little interest in the application of psychoanalytic therapy to specific phobias. In fact it is a topic about which I have got annoyed. Within the past year someone with arachnophobia asked a psychoanalytically inclined psychotherapy lecturer were all phobias symbolic and she said "Yes". I hit the roof. A baffling level of ignorance of the science of psychology displayed by her.

I suspect that with a lot of different types of therapy for phobia if they do work then they work mainly due to behavioural principles which operate in the therapy whether they are the expected or intended mechanisms or not.

I mentioned on here before the work of Lars-Goran Ost whom I respect for his pioneering work on brief protocols for phobias. I think I linked this before, but here he is working in David Barlow's clinic in America showing them his protocol for a snake phobia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCNwrqRVK-c

psycjay

Holybejaysus wrote: »

Has anyone here ever had treatment for their fear of heights? I suffer from chronic acrophobia, and it's something I'd like to try and conquer. (Although for some strange reason, I am fine when in a plane.)

I have been trying to get over it myself by getting into mountain climbing, with mixed results. I'm still terrified when I come to a steep part, but I just force myself to go anyway, even though my legs are jelly.

I understand there has been very promising developments in the field of Virtual Reality, whereby the patient is gradually acclimatized until they are no longer fearful.
Has anybody here ever had treatment, or heard of this in Ireland?

The fact that you can "feel the fear and do it anyway" suggests that you are already doing the most important part of the treatment process (exposure). Going into a virtual reality program would almost be a step backwards you have shown that you can do it in real life.

I would recommend someone who specialises in a behavioual therapy such as CBT or ACT. These treatments typically combine systematic desensitisation with cognitive therapy and or relaxation techniques.

Best of luck,

jay

regedit

I do not know when I developed fear of heights (acrophobia) but first time I noticed it was in Paris (Eiffel's Tower). After that it became worse. The thought of driving in the continent is an absolute nightmare. Definitively had no fear of heights in the past. Also, planes do not bother me at all. Tried to desensitise myself last year in New York in the top of the rock (Rockefeller building). Managed to get to the top but it was not a pleasant experience.
Went for NLP and one session of hypnotherapy none of which worked even though the therapists were convinced they would. Have done a search for Virtual Reality and seemingly, there's a company in Dublin (Dundrum sh.c.) who has the "machine". Will not post the name as it may be against the charter but an internet search should find it for you. If this does not work will go for CBT which is probably the longest and most expensive option.
Strange enough people talk about a trigger and it's very difficult for me to think what the stressor was.
Any thoughts of others here hugely appreciated.

JuliusCaesar

regedit wrote: »

CBT which is probably the longest and most expensive option.

What makes you think that CBT is necessarily

1. long
2. expensive?

regedit wrote: »

Strange enough people talk about a trigger and it's very difficult for me to think what the stressor was.

Triggers are not necessarily events; they can be situations, thoughts, feelings etc.