I’ve had a fear if heights for as long as I can remember, but I’ve recently decided that I want to get more comfortable with heights, so far I’ve been pushing myself to do things I’d have previously avoided (including a trip to the top of the 90m high battersea gas holder!). I’ve done go ape and that was great, but a little expensive, so what else do you suggest that’ll push my comfort while being safe and relatively inexpensive? Thanks.

Bouldering?

Indoor climbing

spinnakertower.co.uk/abseiling …….

My experience of working on very high scaffolding is that it initially frightens the crap out of me, then as time passes that eases until after a couple of days I’m fine with it. Until the next time when the whole process starts all over again.

I guess the answer is keep working at heights but there can be very long periods when I don’t.

It never ceases to surprise me how quickly I can sometimes get used to it though.

Inexpensive I am not sure about, but the two zip wires in Wales are worth considering, I struggle with heights too, but weirdly for me it’s heights 10-30 feet off the ground that get to me, over that height and I am fine.

If you have done go ape, then I can recommend the zip wires, I would love to do them again, plus there is a cycle centre next door to one of them too 😉

Move to Norfolk! Unless of course you already live there, in which case move down the lane by the ditch.

I do get a bit weirded out by heights, so I stay away from cliff edges and balconies, and avoid rock climbing. Seems to work. Also get this sort of ‘vertigo by projection’ thing when looking up at a tall building, tree or what have you. Combine looking at a high thing from a high place (ie looking at a jet plane from a balcony) and my knees lurch making me go ‘gnnnnnnn!’

Am fairly confident I’ve been no help whatsoever 🙂

I’m not great with heights either but find that the only way to get over it is to expose yourself to heights a bit at a time. I’m ok if I can do things at my own pace, stop for a few mins whenever I feel the need to get used to it before moving on. I’ve had a few sphincter twitching on ski holidays though when disembarking cablecars onto metal grating over mountain edges. No chance to stop and get myself used to things there, I just look to the sky and let the crowd sweep me off and onto firmer ground.

I’ve had a fear if heights for as long as I can remember,

As a rock climber, I can say that a fear of heights is a perfectly logical and reasonable approach. I’ve certainly got one, or at least a healthy respect for them! If you can manage to get across a Go Ape course, then it doesn’t sound like you have a completely disabling fear of heights, you’re doing more than many people could manage already.

Rock climbing on a top-rope, hill walks over easy ground with drops on one or both sides, all these kinds gradual exposure can boost your confidence.

Where’s that video of the chaps climbing the mast when you need it… 🙂

takisawa2 – Member
Where’s that video of the chaps climbing the mast when you need it…

In my work file – welcome to the day job 😉

And weekend playtime…

[video]http://youtu.be/yAGJZ2k_ZdM[/video]
[video]http://youtu.be/dpzum_MUV4Q[/video]

Fear of heights or fear of falling? Two actually different things. Never chalenged this, but I think vertigo is falling. I can rock climb, go up silos ladders etc, but I wobble riding near an edge.

I’d say indoor climbing

May be do the course so you can belay

Its fun and there is a real sense of progression

I think having to concentrate is excellent for keeping your mind occupied

Although I still find the being lowered a bit weird and the more Abseil the more I hate it

vertigo is more of a dizziness than a fear/phobia

i’d bet that most people have some level of discomfort when looking down, quite possibly because the brain has learned so much looking horizontally and up but when looking down it’s almost impossible to determine heights and distances anything like as easily.

for a fear, i’d go up tower bridge or somewhere with a glass floor, and jump up and down, exclaiming yeah baby i’m in control, so get lost phobia.

Indoor climbing is probably your best bet.
I do both sport climbing and climb masts for work and I always feel more comfortable when sport climbing. Traversing around a lattice tower double landyarding 50m up always concentrates the mind.

Thanks all, I like the idea of the charity abseil (especially as they do one at the John Radclifde Hospital for one of the neonatal charities that helped us when our son was born prem)!

Become a sign fitter.

Come to work with me.

Mate had the same problem, he broke his leg last week and had to get helicoptered out via a cradle (winched up, there was no place to land).

He is no longer scared of heights, he is now terrified.

mattbee – Member
Come to work with me.

See you at 5:30am…..

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7k4Xk1mEwmI[/video]

Climbing wall is a decent suggestion I think. I am a little uneasy about heights but had a lesson at Calshot (Hampshire) recently and had a great time. Not only that but with each ascent I felt more comfortable. Not saying it was a proper cure but if the fear isn’t disabling it is in my view a good way of conditioning yourself to that exposure / height

That tower climb 😯 I would be frozen in place. No way I could do that. Respect.

There is just so much wrong there from a rock climber’s point of view I hardly know where to begin. But thanks, my palms are dripping now and I need a poo.

These tower/urban guys need to be put in perspective.

[video]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wX_rh8Qugt0[/video]

Its a pity you can no longer ask Fred

Fred Dibnah what a bloke he was. Must have been such a fit and strong person to make that look easy

I love the line about spending half a day out with the undertaker!!

Not so much heights as the fear of the sudden stop at the bottom! I think I could walk across the new glass walkway on Tower Bridge in London, and I’ve been up The Shard, my issue is with unguarded high places, like cliff edges, or narrow paths with steep drops, and I really don’t think I could overcome that fear.
About the only thing worse is confined places; I was watching Underground Britain the other evening, and the presenter had to crawl through a very narrow passage in Dan Yr Ogof caves, to get into the Cloud Chamber; I could barely breath watching it, that is my absolute worst fear of all, utterly terrifying!
And I really don’t mind admitting to it.

I’ve done a cave where you squeeze through a vertical slot into a 120 vertical shaft.

Its so tight you can’t put the abseil device on the rope until you pelvis is mainly through

That could be a long term goal 😉

Well if there is a solution I’d like to hear it. Have had a fear of heights since a kid but its definitely go worse and it definitely impacts my bike riding and hiking in Alps. It becomes a self fulfilling condition as the more nervous you are the more likely you are to fall as you lose “motor function”, i.e. you start shaking and lose the ability to actually move

OP I would suggest trying some counselling, I’ve tried the “aversion therapy” type approach, e.g. climbing to top of yacht mast, abseiling etc but its never made too much of a difference. In my case its definitely a fear of death/falling. If I am clipped on and confident (key word) then I can deal with it. I can ski some very steep slopes and be in relatively exposed places with mush more comfort than I can on a bike for example.

I read somewhere that when we are born we only have two fears, loud noise and falling. Mayby the heights thing is to do with the falling we were born with. Apparently all other fears we create.

When you expose yourself to a fear, thing to remember is to do it (whatever you are scared of) and still expect to feel scared. Repeated exposure reduces the symptoms.

Studying it, reading about it, talking about it didnt help me when i had anxiety, it just fuelled the fear. Just do it, feel scared, do it again,feel little less scared and so on until it comes down.

Its a case of showing your fear centre in the brain that it is safe, but your brain will still react with fear initially. Treat it as lagging behind your consciousness a bit.

The bottom of my feet actually ache when I look at photos of big drops and people hanging from big towers.

I’m somewhat afraid of heights, nothing problematic but I get a bit uneasy looking off the edge of bridges etc. Climbing helps a bit, in as much as I become able to climb reasonably comfortably, providing I do it regularly. However, it doesn’t make the weird feeling when I look down off a bridge thing any better, it just allows me to climb. And if I don’t go climbing regularly that gets uncomfortable again too. So, learning to climb will help, specifically with rationalising that you are safe when properly equipped but in all likelihood you will still be at least somewhat scared of heights in many other situations, although it may be more manageable.
As an aside, in my experience, a substantial proportion of climbers will admit to having some degree of troublesome fear of heights, I think it’s part of why climbing is satisfying, when you get into the zone and are only thinking about how to make the next move it pushes all the fear and conscious thought out of your head, which feels good.