Fear of heights

^ this.

#1 Is what psychologists say. It does not NEED to be right, it just needs to sound good.

Thanks for explaining this. Now I can understand why I'm only sometimes afraid of heights since I realize I have these episodes play out in my brain.

Its not heights that scare me, if falling from the height that i shit bricks about.

im not really afraid of...anything. except paranoid big city fears like getting mugged or raped or killed in some stinky alley...whatever.OT

whenever im someplace high above the ground i always get the urge to jump. same thing happens when i drive and i see a big wall- i always speed up a little as if i wanna crash- head on and real brutal. ive gone into the sea at night so many times even tho im really afraid of the dark waters. i stay there until my limbs get numb. when there's fire i always stand close to it or try to jump over it at lest once (which is actually a tradition in bulgaria we do it in the spring to "leave behind" or "melt" the winter away but i'd do it anytime)

idk i wouldn't want to hurt or kill myself but in the back of my mind there's always this really strong and very frightening urge to plunge into danger.

Mine manifested from a traumatic experience when my dad hung me in the garage. He took a rope (that was attached to a pulley), tied it under my armpits, pulled me up to the ceiling and had me hang there for a few minutes. I guess the mixture of pain, embarrassment( my mom and sister were watching), cased me to fear heights.

I can still go up ladders but only till the approximate height of my garage. At that point I freeze.

It's cuz u think u gonna fall down and die. I'm serious.

I have this bizarre urge as well. I have NEVER been able to explain it well.

Afterthought: It appears that this phenomenon is more common that I thought.

Apparently, yes.

No. If Im in secure place I dont feel afraid. Like say being in an airplane an looking down at the city. Though I do remember getting a little wobbly legged when I looked down from a very high place....I just dont remember what the place was or how high I was~>n<;

Fear makes us human. All humans have different kinds of fear that allows us what we are doing "abnormally". So it's alright to have them :)

This.

I'm afraid of heights, but I take it to another extreme. I don't care how safe the platform is, if I'm able to see the ground below me. I can be on the roof of tall, several story building, and be fine because my perspective is that the floor is the ground. However, if I walk towards the edge and see the ground, I get nervous or worse sometimes I get overcome with a dizziness similar to vertigo, and then I'm forced to back up or I might actually fall.

For a lot of people, it is the fear of falling. However, perspective plays a key role in when you find yourself afraid and when you do not.

I have a fear of heights, but it's not of the height itself. It's how gravity (pun not intended) can easily break my neck if I landed the wrong way if I fell off, and then there's the falling which feels like when you fall off a cliff when you're trying to sleep.

That impulsive fear + pain + possible death = bad

But as alot of people have said already, if I'm in a secure place that fear just melts away or won't even surface. Back in 2001 I flew to Canada with my parents, they were shit-scared, but I wasn't

Acrophobia, minor or extreme, is not an irrational fear if that's what you're thinking; it is rational unlike something such as fear of breathing.

You know, acrophobia is pretty common, and I myself have minor acrophobia.
and from my experiences, its really the fact that you could fall, there is something chilling about being in a place high up and looking down while taking the risk of falling off.
I guess there is some level of a fear if death as well.

I have an irrational fear of heights. I think the irrational part is why it's difficult to find out WHY people are afraid of heights.

Of course, I'm also extremely stupid when it comes to wanting to fit into social situations, so regularly I'll put that fear into myself intentionally, whether it's jumping from a bridge into a lake, or riding a giant roller coaster with more sharp drops than sharp turns.

I can say this, however, that the point in which I start being frightened, is the falling part. When I'm looking down, I get light headed, and breathe hard, but it isn't until I'm falling that I start screaming like a little girl.