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Asked by thefemaleboss26 to Amy, Karen, Sarah, Vijay, Will on 18 Jun 2012.
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Amy Birch answered on 18 Jun 2012:
Hi thefemaleboss26!
Well it’s quite normal to have a fear of heights, because if you fall then you are in danger of seriously injuring yourself!
People who have acrophobia have an extreme or irrational fear of heights, and tend to have panic attacks if they are in high place. It is thought that this is because they have problem with maintaining balance. We maintain balance using our vestibular system (in the ear) and visual cues, but when we are in high places the visual cues that we would usually use are not as obvious anymore. Normally our brain would just rely more on our vestibular system at this point, but it is thought that with acrophobia our brain is not able to do this and therefore people get stressed out and confused because they find it difficult to balance.
Hope this answers your question! 🙂
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Karen Reed answered on 18 Jun 2012:
Hiya, I think its a throw-back to instinctive behaviours hard wired to protect ourselves. We know its not a good idea to fall from a great hight, so you are hard wired to avoid great hights. But most people can, if they want to, override this natural fear when they know they are in a safe environment but up high. Others – like myself- have more difficulty. I recently visitied the blackpool tower where there’s a glass lfloor and you’re up rather high… it took so much will power to make myself walk out on the glass floor and my legs felt like gelly and my heart raced, even though I knew perfectly well I had nothing to fear – it was just difficult to over-ride that fear.
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