The heart races, the vision freezes, the legs weaken, fear arises. if you’ve ever felt these sensations on a Himalayan footbridge, on the edge of a precipice, or while climbing or via ferrata, you probably suffer from acrophobia, that is, the fear of emptiness, “vertigo” in everyday language.
Fear of heights is acquired in young people as soon as they know how to move. It provides us with a great service by alerting us to a dangerous situation where the danger of falling is real. But if it becomes pathological and occurs when the danger is small, that fear becomes a poison; the edge of the void, unable to move forward or backward. What are the reasons for this phenomenon? What exercises are there to overcome vertigo?
Tip #1: Awaken proprioception and inner ear
According to researcher Antoine Depaulis, director of research at Inserm, in the case of dizziness: “It seems that the brain is unable to combine different information to ensure the balance of the body.” So overcoming vertigo first requires re-educating our balance. This is supported by three elements: proprioception (parts of the body that are connected to the ground, joints, muscles send messages to the brain), the inner ear (which indicates the position of the head and body in relation to gravity), and visual information; However, in our daily lives, proprioception and the inner ear are often insufficiently trained, leaving the essentials of our orientation in space to vision.
The good news. Thanks to the adapted exercises, all this wakes up very quickly. At the beginning of the hike, on an easy path, try walking only on rocks or branches to test your balance; then blindfold yourself and let a teammate guide you for about ten minutes to relearn how to trust your legs; close your eyes, try to stand on one leg and maintain balance. Back home, pick up good habits: walk barefoot, use your weak hand…
Tip #2: Reconnect near and far vision
However, the visual sense should also be worked on. it is our eyes that see emptiness and interpret it to cause an attack of vertigo. In the middle mountains, guide Beatrix Voigt has developed a method that allows hikers to cross open passes. In addition to the proprioception exercises mentioned, he encourages participants in his courses to focus their gaze so that they don’t see what is troubling them, the emptiness. How Just passing the scarf from the top of the head to the chin? With blinkers provided in this way, instead of wandering to the left or right, the gaze remains focused on the path, the immediate environment. Another additional method is to follow a friend while you connect with them with walking sticks. They then create a kind of visual “protection” that can make you forget about a nearby fall.
At the same time, we have to retrain our bodies and our eyes to the proximity of rocks. Step by step you slowly approach the edge of the abyss. When camping in an upright position that is neither overly cautious nor distracting, you simply look at the immediate environment and then at various elements of the landscape. This back and forth allows you to reconnect near and far vision and reconnect your perception of space.
Tip #3: Take risks in stages
Once these good practices are in place, you should use them to banish the memory of vertigo forever. For Frédéric Vire, high mountain guide and head of acrophobia courses, it is therefore not possible “Overcome fear without feeling it”. Don’t stay in your comfort zone during and after your self-perception and visual rehabilitation exercises. Step closer to the void, inch by inch closer to danger. It is by exercising our “fear muscle” that little by little we succeed in those challenges that were previously unimaginable.
Specifically, this can mean going to the edge of a cliff of several meters, then crossing an open trail, before continuing easy ridge runs via via ferrata, all the way up on multi-pitch routes. The habit of emptiness, combined with sensations that have become reliable, will lead to the correct perception of risk.
Source: Le Figaro
