Check the link in Uniqueorn’s profile.
As mentioned higher up the thread NLP, EFT, Hypnosis, EMDR and a few other things. In the 20 seconds example, a lady told me that she had such horrible anxiety of changing careers that it made her physically sick.
So I asked where in her body she had this sensation of anxiety (in her stomach area) and I asked her what it would be like if she imagined moving it behind her eyes. She did it and the anxiety was (and still is) gone.
Usually, it takes quite a bit longer, but again, 30 minutes max.
I am not here to give advice or sell anything, just to invite people to be skeptical about any belief they might have that a phobia/anxiety can’t be cured or will take ages to sort out.
Google NLP, EFT, etc and there are even lots of videos on youtube showing you how to apply the stuff on yourself.
Good luck!
P.S. I just deleted the link in my profile, as I am not associated with that site anymore, but it was a link to a site that helps you cure allergies. Works really well.
Smart move on your part. 
There’s fear of heights and then there is pathological fear of heights.
You SHOULD be uncomfortable at 20 feet when unsecured because a fall from that height can kill you. It’s like not wanting to stick your hand in fire or not wanting to be bitten by a wild animal. It’s a potential danger situation. The “anxiety” is a protective mechanism.
If you feel fine when “secured”, and you’re not paralyzed by the experience, then it’s, shall we say, a normal fear or respect for heights.
On the other hand, if being two feet off the ground results in a major panic, THAT is when you might want to see a counselor. Complete lack of any fear of heights is also potentially pathological, as it indicates a normal safety mechanism is not functioning. Note, that is an actual lack of fear, not a comfort with heights. Nick Wallenda might walk a high-wire for a living, but I presume based on how he conducts himself during such walks that he has some concern about heights even if he’s well practiced moving about at altitude.
Joseph Heller would have called this “a morbid aversion to dying” and a “deep-seated survival anxiety.”
(In Catch-22)
My opinion about my personal fear of heights: sometimes it is useful because I avoid foolhardy risks, but sometimes it has the perverse effect of making falling more probable - on hikes where I walk along a drop I am sometimes so afraid I cannot walk normally (and walking normally obviously is the mode I am most skilled at).
This is me, I find myself avoiding these situations. Occassionaly I feel like I am missing out but not often.
At my age, falling from a standing position scares me.
As I understand it (& have confirmed by asking many people myself), there is a difference between being attached (ladder, building, bridge, etc) & detached (aircraft) from the ground.
Many ‘scared of heights’ people are fine in an aircraft.
I get a little queezy in an aircraft just as I feel the thrust let off, takes a few seconds for me to settle.
Nothing irrational about vertigo, it’s a dizzy sensation caused by a number of physical or neurological conditions.
Someone once tried to argue that there is no such thing as a “phobia” of hand grenades. It’s perfectly rational to be afraid of hand grenades.
I showed him a photograph of one, on a magazine cover.
He admitted that, yeah, having a strong fear-reaction to a picture of a grenade kind of moves it into the “phobic” region.
(I have severe arachnophobia, and pictures of spiders are absolutely hideous to me. It operates at a level far below that of reason in any way.)
If the fear reaction is, itself, disturbing to you, you might seek therapy. Otherwise, it isn’t too hard to avoid too much exposure to high places. Ask the nice hotel desk clerk for a ground floor room, just for instance; they’ll usually do all they can to accommodate you. Most people are fairly considerate of phobias.
(A very small minority of real jerks will play mean-spirited games with rubber spiders, plastic hand-grenades, or high balcony windows. Poopyheads.)
I have a fear of heights and it’s totally irrational. For example I was just watching a TV show about the tallest buildings in the world, and seeing the host atop a super-tall skyscraper caused my legs to go weak. I was scared for him, for his safety, even though I knew he was safe and he wasn’t going to fall.
Through training I’ve worked with my fear: a USMC retired veteran, I’ve parachuted, and rappelled out of helicopters and off of towers, and did the Confidence Course (large obstacles) in boot camp. I enjoyed trying to control my fear. I enjoy flying at lower altitudes to enjoy the scenery, I enjoyed the parachuting and rappelling because I trusted my gear and focused on the training, and forced myself to look out and ‘enjoy’ the view.
Yet there are times when I’m absolutely frozen with fear. One example was atop the Gateway Arch in St. Louis. I wasn’t close to any windows (I couldn’t see outside) and yet I was petrified for a good 10 minutes before I could walk away from the elevators.
I seriously doubt anyone could help with my fear. It’s totally irrational, I get that, but I’ve been this way since childhood.
I know my fear is acrophobia and not just rational anxiety because when I am in a situation that triggers it (standing on a fifth floor balcony, for example), I’m not just afraid I’m going to fall; I’m also terrified that I will be unable to resist the strong urge to throw myself over.
I’ve heard other acrophobes say this as well, that being next to a high drop engenders the contrary impulses to freeze and cling, and also to jump. I’m still terrified at the thought of plummeting to my death, you understand; nevertheless, that impulse to leap is still strong.
I think that’s why my acrophobia is not triggered by skyscrapers or airplanes or even roller coasters - in those situations, I’m enclosed and secured and safe. Although like Bullitt, seeing someone else sitting on a ledge or a standing on the roof of a skyscraper makes me uncomfortable as hell.
I have heard this a lot. I have heard people say that you won’t actually jump you are just afraid you will, I am not so sure that is true. 3 times in my life I have put my hand into moving fans and didn’t even know I was doing it until it hit me.
It’s okay to be afraid of things that can kill you.
You get to that age where the operative rule of thumb is “Never let your ass be higher than your head.”
Yes, but when the fear grips you so hard you’re petrified and can’t move, and when the fear is purely irrational (say, f’rinstance, you’re on a solid bridge that is certainly not going to collapse in the next 1 hour), it begins to get ridiculous.
That reminds me of this: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a17/willie.gif
