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I don't mind looking down from tall buildings, as long as there is a substantial wall or railing to lean up against. What bothers me are things like railway tunnel air-shafts or any other deep, dark hole in the ground such as wells or mine shafts. They give me the shivers. Likewise lift shafts.
 
Really wish I hadn't bothered with this thread, feeling lightheaded and woozy!
 
Ditto Swifty. I really don't do well above four feet above ground level, and so I thought the answer was 'confront your fears' - Ha!...utter balderdash.

My supposed answer was to do a static line jump from nine thousand feet - did I mention utter balderdash?

It was an amazing sensation. Went up to ceiling height with the aid of a small cesna, with about eight others, and knew that If I didn't jump first, I'd suffer the ignoble experience of returning to the airfield with my 'chute virgo intactus. I hyperventilated all the way up so that by the time we reached the required height I could've charged a bull elephant.

Climbing out of the cabin and putting my right foot onto the small undercarriage wheel while hanging onto the wings cross member was a feat that I performed s.l.o.w.l.y., realizing that the point of no return had been approached, ignored and regretted. This was the moment that I supposedly waved byebye to my fear of heights.

I looked at my jump master, waiting for the 'GO', fully aware of nearly two miles of nothingness beneath me.

It was all routine really - a gibbering, sort of routine. I let go, dropping feet first, shouting to myself and anyone else who cared to listen ' one thousand, two thousand, three thousand, four thousand, all the while, back arched, searching for toggles, making sure the canopy was opening correctly [with thoughts of 'how soon after do I know the static line didn't work, or that the primary chute is rooted/tangled/packed incorrectly and need to use the spare'?] I plummetted back to earth.

All of a sudden I was jerked into an position I can only describe as an armchair position [rather comfortable actually], with the whole of the upper Hunter Valley extended out before me - tiny little patchwork fields of green and brown, the silver meander of the mighty Hunter river looking exactly like the topo maps portray - while a beatific sensation invaded my mind. No vertigo, no locked knees, no pain.

Oh Gloria in Excelsis Dio!!

All was wonderful until I reached a height of about five hundred feet when that bloody mongrel tapped me on the shoulder and reminded me that It all looked far too high, and that I could get killed from this height [what an utterly absurd thought to have!], and it all came rushing back at me. So did the ground.

I landed awkwardly, forgetting the required approach and not assuming the correct position, with the consequence that being back on Mother Earth was a bit painful. I gathered the chute and hobbled over to the collection area thinking, shit, my foot hurts, no, no, it really really hurts...how the fuck am I going to ride the bike home with a bung left foot - that's the gear change foot, and there's all those windey bits, and hills &c.&c.&c......

Needless to say I got home alright, I gritted my teeth and channeled all those Dan Dare moments that I absorbed as a child from those post war comics - and somehow it worked.

I did break two bones in my left foot, and all those lovely elderly Ladies from the Library who were sure that I was going to die in this foolhardy act felt justified in the result, sounding much like Terry Gilliam does when he does his 'older lady' role, saying 'I told you so, but would you listen, 'eck as like you would, &c.&c.&c.

As much as I thought that this would work to correct my fear of heights, that saying, 'when man plans, God laughs' comes to mind, as I now, in my slightly advanced years suffer from acrophobia [still], deafness, tinittus and a problem with balance, which makes me resemble a caricature of some old geezer three sheets to the wind.

But Skinny, like you, I now realise that it wasn't a fear of heights that played upon my mind over all that time- it was the desiring to jump from that height [which really is what I'm called to do in that situation], and the subsequent landing.

Prescience is a wonderful thing.
 
Ever seen this one then?


I don't suffer from vertigo...but I deny anyone not to feel somewhat nauseous from watching it. Total madness. Takes a different sort of person.
.. and then there was this pic that's become legendary .. New York workers enjoying lunch apparently ..
Lunch-atop-a-skyscraper-c1932.jpg
 
Always reminds me of Stan and Ollie getting their Harold Lloyd on in Liberty:
 
Partner has what can only be described as a phobia about going over bridges even 8 lane motorway ones. Pedestrian ones where you can see through the cracks leave her virtually speechless. Yet hight situations don't bother her. Just weird.
 
I really hate going over bridges with water under them, but also we have a place that the road dips and either side, nearly level is water either side, it scares me.

I do go on things that tend to be high, the big wheel,the pirate ship, castle turrets, lighthouses, when i get near the edges it doesnt look that far to jump, and i think i can survive, luckily reason takes ahold
 
Acrophobia is the fear of heights. Vertigo is a nauseating spinning sensation caused by balance problems in the inner ear. I've had that briefly a time or two and its debilitating..you can have the sensation even when lying flat on your back. The confusion with fear of heights probably owes almost everything to the Hitchcock movie.
 
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So, would you also class as vertigo, the feeling when you are drunk of the bed spinning, and having to wait for it to slow down so you can get on? Like temporary vertigo maybe>
 
I read somewhere that a fear of driving over high bridges can be a precursor to agoraphobia.

I'm not agoraphobic but I do hate driving over bridges (the Humber bridge is a case in point). I'm terrified my car is going to suddenly swerve and fly off the side.
 
driving over bridges (the Humber bridge is a case in point). I'm terrified my car is going to suddenly swerve and fly off the side.
If it hadn't been for an attentive passenger actually grabbing the steering wheel, I would have done this off the side of the Forth Road Bridge. I wasn't succumbing to the call of the void, however, just gawping at the rail bridge.
 
Last week I visited Liverpool's Royal Liver Building, which they have opened for tours. They take you up to the space inside one of the clocktowers and you get an audio-visual show. There are warnings that people suffering from acrophobia or claustrophobia might not enjoy the spiral staircases.

It was not so bad and all enclosed in the sturdy stone structure. Once at the base of the clock, however, you can see the open metal spiral staircase up to Liver Bird levels. I was relieved to find these were not included in the tour!

There have been belfries I have chickened out of in a sensible, flightless way. One or two in Split and Dubrovnik come to mind, where I was relieved that my companion wimped out first! I know they say that structures are more robust when they have some "give" in them but some of those belltowers looked like scaffolders had recently botched together a replacement for some firmer-but-failed erection. :eek:
 
I have had a mild case of Vertigo for over a year now..on and off....they thought it was related to my high blood pressure but now they think it is probably a mild case of Meniere's disease. I don't take any med for it...just sit or lie down whenever it happens.
not necessarily related to the vertigo but I also don't like heights....
 
I have had a mild case of Vertigo for over a year now..on and off....they thought it was related to my high blood pressure but now they think it is probably a mild case of Meniere's disease. I don't take any med for it...just sit or lie down whenever it happens.
not necessarily related to the vertigo but I also don't like heights....

I sympathise. A friend has Meniere's and at time she finds it quite debilitating.
 
I've only ever suffered vertigo once - it was following a deeply unpleasant bout of flu (actual flu, not just a sore throat and a temperature, don't get me started on misappropriation of the F-word...) and the vertigo continued for over a month after I had completely recovered from the infection. Long after the illness had passed, I was still literally having to hold onto furniture as I walked through the house, and couldn't stand still for more than 10 seconds or so without huge waves of nausea hitting me. Even sprawled totally motionless on the couch, I'd feel like I was about to topple over. My GP made me do a very bizarre and lengthy series of physical tests before informing me that it was "just" vertigo - I'd love to know what the other possibility was, but I was too busy trying not to fall off my chair to ask her.

It bore absolutely no resemblance to the butt-clenching, sweaty-palm feeling I get when looking over a high-rise window ledge or watching those Youtube vids.
 

I get some kind of vicarious 'vertigo' when watching videos like these. What I mean to say is it there were a bird perched in a precarious position far above the ground, it would generate no effect, but when I see a human (visible or implied by the camera) or some similarly imperilled creature, I feel anxiety.

Still images do not generate the effect as there is no movement and hence no risk.
 
Videos and even static photos of the exploits of Patrick Edlinger can make anyone feel deeply uncomfortable.
Known as le roi de l'escalade (the king of free-climbing), he died in tragically ironic circumstances in 2012 by falling down stairs at his home.

patrick.png
 
I have had vertigo in the past, caused by an inner ear infection. Very weird sensation! But twice I have had a temporary bout which only lasted a minute or so and involved loss of balance and skewed vision. The curious thing about these two incidents is that they were at exactly the same spot on my local golf course. The course is quite hilly in places and I have put the incidents down to the slopes creating an optical illusion, etc. The problem with this solution is that I have played the course hundreds of times with no problem.

I have read somewhere that the workforce used to build the first skyscrapers in New York were mainly Native Americans as apparently they have no fear of heights. I know this is a bit of a generalisation and probably is only true of some tribes , but interesting if nothing else!
 
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