When people say they are afraid of heights I get really confused because isn’t almost everyone in the world afraid of heights ? What makes someone with a fear of heights
in the sense of a phobia different than a “regular” fear of heights ? I don’t really know
the difference.
In: 0
To your point, some distress around genuinely unsafe situations involving heights is more common than not. The point of phobias is to be uncommon and out of proportion to the situation. Let’s look at the two big sets of diagnostic criteria for phobias. Here’s the ICD-10 (World Health Organization):
“*In this group of disorders, anxiety is evoked only, or predominantly, by certain well-defined situations or objects (external to the individual) which are not currently dangerous. As a result, these situations or objects are characteristically avoided or endured with dread. Phobic anxiety is indistinguishable subjectively, physiologically, and behaviourally from other types of anxiety and may vary in severity from mild unease to terror. The individual’s concern may focus on individual symptoms such as palpitations or feeling faint and is often associated with secondary fears of dying, losing control, or going mad. The anxiety is not relieved by the knowledge that other people do not regard the situation in question as dangerous or threatening. Mere contemplation of entry to the phobic situation usually generates anticipatory anxiety*.”
and the DSM-5 (American Psychiatric Association):
“*Marked fear or anxiety about a specific object or situation. (In children fear or anxiety may be expressed by crying, tantrums, freezing, or clinging.)*
*The phobic object or situation almost always provokes immediate fear or anxiety.The phobic object or situation is avoided or endured with intense fear or anxiety.*
*The fear or anxiety is out of proportion to the actual danger posed by the specific object or situation and to the socio-cultural context.*
*The fear, anxiety, or avoidance is persistent, typically lasting for 6 months or more.*
*The fear, anxiety, or avoidance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.*
*The disturbance is not better explained by symptoms of another mental disorder, including fear, anxiety, and avoidance of situations associated with panic-like symptoms or other incapacitating symptoms; objects or situations related to obsessions; reminders of traumatic events; separation from home or attachment figures; or social situations.*”
So, key points: **A phobic fear of heights would be consistent, intense, and disproportionate. Think about comparing a person to ten or twenty randomly chosen peers–would they be more afraid of heights than anyone else in the group? Would they be visibly distressed in various situations involving heights**?
Latest Answers