UKC

To whom it may concern

I go walking quite a lot now in the Snowdonia range and have been for a few years now. The only thing is i am quite afraid of heights but im slowly getting better each time i go, however i want to progress in my climbs into more strenuous and the ascent and descent that involved in the walks

Any advice on how to overcome my fear of heights in order for me to progress onto climbs etc ?

Regards

Chris

 im slowly getting better each time i go,

Probably answering your own question there. Go more!

however i want to progress in my climbs into more strenuous and the ascent and descent that involved in the walks

Mrs Diluted has the same problem, she'll climb on a rope pretty much anywhere I can lead, but unroped on steep ground she often freezes up and gets 'the fear'.

Try short sections of steeper terrain, take a direct line upto a feature from a path on terrain that is steeper than you might like but where a slip would have no consequences. Then descend, this could only be a short way, say 25m to start. Build up and familiarise yourself with steep grass, steep heather, scree, rocky ground etc. Aspire to Crib Goch and it will come. Try to assess at all times the balance between consequences of a fall v likleyhood of a fall.  High consquence + High likleyhood = take great care, opt out if need be. High consequence + low likleyhood = take due care and enjoy the thrill.

Probably best just to have a go see how you get on with it. Start out somewhere non-intimidating.

I've long suffered jelly legs at significant heights. I'm fine if I know I can't fall to my death, in the case of climbing usually a rope that will stop me. It's only semi rational, working safely keeps it under control but does mean I've never been able to solo safely or enjoy it.

jk

Improve your skill, on a top rope if necessary, and while the consequence won't reduce the likelihood of falling off will feel like it will reduce and you will get more confident.

Having to work at height (150ft) on tubular structures without a harness in an  Oil Industry Fabrication Yard cured me.  I realised that once you were a few feet up it made no difference and you could just concentrate on what was around you and that ladders tied on to scaffolding with bits of bailing twine would not collapse specially for me.

Deep breaths help.  Even singing. 

PM sent

Hi Chris,

You're in good company. I work in the outdoors and have been leading Overcome Your Fear of Heights courses for around 12 years now. 

In our brain we have an acorn-sized part in the middle and at the back called the amygdala. It gives us that fight or flight response, and it kicks in when we need super fast reactions like when the car in front of you on the motorway suddenly brakes at 70mph. 

Some people’s amygdala is however overly sensitive. It triggers for the slightest stimulus and at that moment the amygdala hijacks the brain and takes over completely. When it does so it is a negative and stressful experience. Adrenalin pumps, the heart rate quickens, tunnel vision occurs, an inability to reason takes over. All this reinforces the brain’s memory and programming for the future. The brain is actually reinforced in its belief that the stimulus needs to be avoided at all costs and is permanently on the look out to avoid any further such situations. In turn we have a negative spiral of events that slowly gets worse with time making our fear of heights worse.

But if you're into the outdoors and you just want to enjoy more and better adventures it can be quite frustrating. You need the frontal lobes to do the thinking in order to rationalise the situation. One tip for you in the high stress situations is to recite your phone number backwards - the amygdala simply can't process the information required and then hands back to the frontal lobes. 

For more information on our courses here's the link: https://www.will4adventure.com/overcome-fear-heights/ 

Best of luck with this,

Will

Take up rock climbing.  Indoor and outdoor.  How else?

Go on some guided roped scrambling. Lifts and parners will offer a cheap route as will mountain qualification aspirants posting on UKC/H. Given your issues it might be better to pay for a specialist who has helped with your specific requirements (get recommendations).

Many climbers still have a healthy fear of heights... just not uncontrolled vertigo. Many started climbing as they felt they needed skills in the situation you face, and got hooked.

I forget the science but there are sound physiological reasons for this; giving the parasympathetic nervous system a kick maybe? Whatever, I’ll often take 3 deep breaths before plunging into something that’s freaking me out a bit.

I recall reading somewhere that Don Whillans was a vertigo sufferer. I believe that it is a different condition than fear of heights.

As a kid I remember being terrified of walking across a harbour wall where we went on holiday every year.  Basically a 1.5 metre wide path with a drop into the water either side.

It was starting to climb 'real climbs' with ropes that cured that - so for me its the climbing that cures the fear, not that you need to cure the fear in order to climb.

btw prior to the site experience I shook like a leaf going up a ladder so I really did have a fear of heights and everyone there knew it.  As another poster has well put it, to climb you have to use the rational to conquer irrational assumptions such as:

It will get more difficult the higher I go

My hands will just let go of their own accord

The ladder that has served everyone else on site for weeks will come unfastened when I climb it

My feet/hands will spontaneously lose their ability to grip

The Rope/Harness/Sling will snap, just for me, or the enormous anchor rock will be outweighed by my body mass ...

Vertigo is still most used most commonly by the public for describing the spinning dizzy sensations that are one of the symptoms of Acrophobia (fear of heights) but the sensations are more usually the result of a wide variety of medical conditions. Although they are technically correct, one might argue the medics should sensibly call it something else.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrophobia

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo

I think the OPs doing that already, which is probably the right way forward.

I think that applies to the vast majority of people. Fear can be controlled to an extent, but that doesn't mean it's 'conquered'.

For me it's a cost/benefit thing. How much do the benefits of doing something genuinely 'frightening', (as opposed to being a bit nervous beforehand), outweigh both the potential consequences and also the level of fear experienced throughout the activity?

For example I could start getting into increasingly violent confrontations with strangers to become feared as the local 'hard man' who's able to overcome his fear of getting a kicking and intimidate everyone in the pub. Some people do that and enjoy it. I'd rather avoid being in that situation in the first place.

My question to the OP would be 'do you really want to do this in the first place?', as I've met a fair few people who I'm convinced don't actually enjoy whatever 'adventurous' activity they've taken up, they've just bought into the perceived 'coolness' or lifestyle.

If the OPs answer is yes, then I think he's going about it the right way by gradually increasing his comfort zone, as there's no magic 'cure' for fear IMHO.

I get severe vertigo on behalf of my kids (4 and 7). The walk up to the top of Baggy Point from Croyde is a case in point, such that I won't go there with them now as it makes me feel so ill in my stomach thinking of the consequences of a fall.

Yes, what is commonly referred to as 'vertigo' is, in most cases, really acrophobia. But your reading of the two links is slightly confused. The sensation of spinning and dizziness is characteristic of vertigo. Acrophobia is characterized by agitation, panic attacks and an over-reliance on visual cues which defeat the proprioceptive and vestibular branches of the equilibrium system.

Sounds like the director's instructions for just about every Hollywood film with a climbing scene.

I'm hearing the Benny Hill theme tune...

that's how rational those films are !