I recently did a “Sky Walk” thing while on vacation. This is where you go to near the top of a radio tower (like the C.N. Tower or similar), put on a harness, and walk around outside on a narrow ledge without handrails of any sort. It’s all completely safe.
I pit myself because I very nearly had a panic attack, and I was miserable for the entire 45 minute period we were outside. I refused to perform any of the basic “challenges” that they presented (hang your butt over the edge, spread-eagle yourself over the edge, etc.), and I couldn’t even turn to look over the city at any point (I was sort of okay looking into the distance as long as I kept my head level and the building in sight).
I know I suffer from minor vertigo. I’m tall and when I get near a handrail, I tend to shift my center of gravity below the handrail before leaning over for a look. I won’t approach a cliff or roof edge without being on hands and knees, lest vertigo affect me. But damn it! I used to rappel! I trusted the harness and never had an issue or incidence of vertigo. I’ve gone paragliding without vertigo. I put up Christmas lights and do other work on my roof without vertigo, and used to go up in a scissor lift somewhat regularly. If this Sky Walk platform had been only a couple of meters off the ground I’d have had no problem.
I assumed that I’d have no vertigo due to the knowledge I was strapped in, but nope. One of the most uncomfortable experiences of my life. I know I shouldn’t hate on myself, but damn it, I hate myself and vertigo right now.
I’ve gotten increasingly cautious and even vertiginous (cool word!) … okay, and downright SCARED of things like heights and other dangers that I would’ve laughed at in my youth.
I just look at it as my self-preservation circuits finally getting strong enough to overcome my natural recklessness.
So, don’t hate your body for trying like hell to protect you (from yourself).
I took a ski lift style ride at the local zoo and damned near had a panic attack. I’m fine in cable cars or any kind of enclosed space at a height, but the knowledge of how easy it would be for me to slip through and wind up literally in the lion’s den was unnerving. Somehow I’d assumed there were some kinds of seatbelt or other restraints that would prevent somebody from falling out, but, nope.
What made me as nervous as my own situation was freaking out over all the parents with their small kids that I was passing on the same ride. I can’t even imagine how the parents weren’t freaking out, unless they’d loaded the kid up with life insurance and were practicing sad faces for Anderson Cooper or something. I also can’t believe the zoo’s insurance would allow it.
I managed to get back down without embarrassing or soiling myself (the ride is on a loop so there’s no bringing you back quickly) and I asked the kid who was running it (another thing that makes you feel secure about it) if anybody had ever had a full fledged panic attack on it. He assured me that they were good for at least 2-3 “screamers” per week, and that wasn’t counting the kids who cried the entire time.
I’m planning a trip to NYC and my traveling companion wants to take a skylift tour that goes to the Empire State observation deck. I wish him well.
No vertigo here, but at 55 I slipped down the steps inside my house a little over a year ago. Shattered my ankle. Never really gave railings a thought before that. Now, I’m clutching for them every time…
My wife (Cspine fusion in Nov) and i have been debating how much we want to continue skiing. The idea of possibly falling is a hell of a lot less appealing than just a few years ago.
I had an attack of horizontal vertigo on an airplane just after take off. Only at the time I didn’t know what was going on and I was wondering why all the other passengers were not screaming with all the barrel rolls the plane was doing.
Nitpick: Vertigo (the sensation that stationary objects are moving and associated dizziness) and Acrophobia (fear of heights) are different problems. In the Hitchcock movie Vertigo, the Jimmy Stewart character’s fear of heights triggers vertigo, shown in the movie as moving spirals.
I suffer both severe acrophobia — I can’t even ride Ferris wheels or cross some simple bridges — and also, unrelated(?) occasional spells of vertigo. (Recently I started taking Betahistine dihydrochloride for the vertigo and disequilibrium, but discontinued it when I got severe headaches.)
Interesting; I’m not aware of too many threads that get moved out of The Pit.
So far, I’m still okay on ski lifts, and mostly okay on mountain bikes. I took a ski lift (well, “luge” lift) and road a MTB down the same hill on my vacation, too. I suppose, though, that fear on MTB’s isn’t the fear of heights when fear does occur, though.
Now that I think of it, I’ve always been claustrophobic, but I don’t seem to have any problems being in airplanes (small, confined space + heights). Knock on wood that doesn’t start to change.
I am afraid of heights. According to my mother. I was born that way. That little Dad move, lifting baby up in the air? Nope. Scared me from day 1. I don’t want to walk out on the balcony, nor ride the Ferris wheel or roller coaster. I have an horrendous photo of myself and The Boy, in the overlook room at the museum at the New River Gorge bridge. My mom wanted to take the picture. I had to duck walk over to the window - I just couldn’t manage to stand upright in that room. Terrifying.
Oddly, maybe, I’m not afraid of flying on a large (jet) airplane. Small planes or helicopters scare me half to death. I think it’s a matter of getting above the clouds - the height seems more abstract past a certain point.
I’ve also inherited some inner ear problem from my grandma. I don’t get dizzy, but my balance is off. My oldest aunt and a couple of my cousins have the same problem. No idea whether these issues are related.
I wanted to try zip lining. It looked fun. I had done sky bridges, suspension bridges over the canopy, with little problem. I don’t mind heights per se.
I had a horrible panic attack after my first line. It was really fast, and worse, to stop it I had to be the one in control with my hand. Did I mention my strength in that arm is not good? Worse, I had to do 4 more lines before I was able to get out of the loop. At least a couple of them I had assistance. But it was really bad… crying in public and meltdown.
So zip lining sucks for me.
I also don’t like jumping into water. Oddly, it is the decision to jump. I know, rationally, that I will fall in water, that I’ve fallen into the water, and that I can swim out of it. Also, I’m not afraid while I’m falling, the fear is just that decision to jump. This has caused me some problems in some hikes.
In my case, I have “can’t-escape-phobia”; I usually call it claustrophobia because that’s a word people are familiar with, but it’s actually got pretty little to do with the spaces themselves. I’ve been in Altamira, I’ve been in the Caves of the Spider and in tiny crawlspaces without a problem. The Barra Honda caves are beautiful and I’ll recommend them to anybody who’s going to Costa Rica, but having to wear a safety harness while going up and down the too-narrow ladder? That triggered the worst attack of the phobia I’ve ever had.
It might be that there was a similar problem for you, that the safety harness actually made you feel less safe. Which ok, is illogical, but so’s love, or liking one color better than another. But if that’s the case, there shouldn’t be any problems with things that didn’t cause one before.
