The reason why the great poet Han Yu burst into tears was...丨Science Museum

Ancient scholars advocated "reading thousands of books and traveling thousands of miles", and liked to climb mountains to see far away, visit famous mountains and ancient temples, and broaden their horizons. With more opportunities to climb high, some things that would not happen on flat ground in daily life also happened...

Han Yu, a Tang Dynasty poet who wrote the famous line "Diligence makes one proficient, laziness makes one lose; thinking makes one successful, carelessness makes one fail." climbed Mount Hua with his friends. After reaching the top, he looked around and was so frightened by the height that he lost control before he could even admire the beautiful scenery. The county magistrate at the time took great pains to rescue him. This experience became an embarrassing incident in Han Yu's life that was often ridiculed by others.

Coincidentally, the Qing Dynasty historian Bi Yuan also suffered the same setback on Mount Huashan, but his situation was more serious than Han Yu's. In the end, he was drunk, tied up with a blanket, and lowered down the mountain with the help of ropes (you can imagine this scene yourself).

What happened to these usually well-mannered and knowledgeable people? Why did they behave so unbecomingly?

After checking the information, Holmes Fatko finally found the answer - they all suffered from acrophobia!

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Acrophobia, also known as fear of heights, is the fear of heights or high environments. It is a type of "specific fear (referring to excessive fear of a specific situation or thing, which seriously affects the patient's life)". People with acrophobia have an excessive or unreasonable fear of heights, which is generally manifested as abnormal fear and anxiety in high environments, which can cause autonomic nervous system reactions. In order to reduce fear and anxiety, patients will actively take avoidance behaviors.

There was a case reported in the news before: a passenger turned pale and his hands trembled slightly while boarding the plane. When the plane closed the door and was about to slide onto the runway for takeoff, the man lost control of his emotions and had a mental breakdown. The man later expressed great guilt, but he just couldn't control his fear.

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From this case, we can also see that people with acrophobia will have a strong sense of anxiety. Even if they know they are in a safe environment, they will still feel fear involuntarily. This is very different from the common "fear of heights" in our daily life. So how do we distinguish between "fear of heights" and "fear of heights"?

Pang Ke gives an example so that everyone can feel it vividly. If you stand by the window of a building dozens of stories high and look down, you will feel scared. In fact, this feeling is reminding yourself to be careful and not to get too close to the edge. We can feel that this fear is reasonable. And once you leave this scene, for example, walk into a room, sit on the sofa, or lie on the bed, this feeling will disappear. From the perspective of biological evolution, fear of heights is a self-protection mechanism passed down from generation to generation in evolution.

But if you still feel scared when you are lying on a bed in a high-rise building, like the passenger mentioned above, he knows that flying is safe and feels very guilty, but he cannot control his fear and his reaction has exceeded the reasonable range. In other words, his fear of heights has exceeded the instinctive reaction we mentioned earlier, then this is true fear of heights.

Seeing this, are you curious about why fear of heights occurs? This is actually mainly related to genetic factors, physical fitness factors, physiological factors and psychological factors.

As a type of phobia, acrophobia has a strong family hereditary nature. If someone in the family suffers from acrophobia, their offspring are likely to suffer from the disease as well. In addition, both adults and children are susceptible to acrophobia. In addition, personal experience can also have an impact on it. If a person has experienced falling from a height or suffered a blow from something, then his chances of suffering from "acrophobia" will greatly increase.

Does that mean acrophobia will be a lifelong accompaniment and there is no cure?

Of course not! Objectively speaking, acrophobia is a fear of heights, but the root cause is still a psychological barrier. Therefore, in terms of treatment methods, doctors often use cognitive behavioral desensitization therapy to help patients get rid of the negative impact of "fear of heights" on their lives.

The first is exercise. The elements of the human body responsible for controlling balance can only function normally through exercise. Therefore, insisting on exercise can not only improve one's physical fitness, but also enhance the body's balance ability and effectively reduce the symptoms of dizziness and weak legs. Growing children can also train their body's orientation ability through actions such as walking on a single-plank bridge, somersaults, and spinning.

In addition, another method to treat "acrophobia" is systematic desensitization, which is mainly divided into two methods: meditation desensitization and situational desensitization. Meditation desensitization means constantly imagining terrifying scenes in your mind to enhance your psychological tolerance to fear until the fear reaction completely disappears. For example, the "glass plank bridge" mentioned above, if you walk through the glass plank bridge in your mind every day, after a long time, psychological tolerance will be formed, and the fear will naturally disappear.

Both situational desensitization and meditational desensitization are imagination, but the difference is that situational desensitization allows patients to accept their own tension and anxiety. Under repeated stimulation, patients are made to realize that "even if anxiety arises, the worst case scenario will not happen" until they break through the psychological barriers.

(Copyrighted image from the gallery, no permission to reprint)

Of course, with the progress of society, there are now many high-tech treatments, such as the use of VR virtual reality technology for treatment. In real life, everyone has some fear of heights. Mild fear of heights does not need treatment, because it may become our umbrella to keep everyone away from dangerous environments. As long as it does not affect normal life, it is acceptable to be afraid of heights. So what is it like to have acrophobia? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area!

Creative team: China Science and Technology Museum New Media Team

Review expert: Li Xianhong, national second-level psychological counselor