OCD and fear of heights - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

danvel · 06-01-2004, 11:47 AM

A friend of mine and myself were discussing our fear of heights. During this discussion, it came out that she was afraid she was going to jump and I was afraid someone would push me off. We started laughing because we have the same fear, but an entirely different basis for the fear. We both have been diagnosed with OCD, but she also has had addictions in the past. Is the treatment the same for the fear of heights even though the basis is different. We would like also to know if you are afraid of heights, is the reason fear of jumping or fear of being pushed. thanks for your thoughts

hry33 · 06-01-2004, 04:34 PM

these unreasonable fears are common with OCD

antidepressant meds and studying books on overcoming OCD help
a book called brainlock helped me a lot but is now out of print, there are others, try a library

Portia26 · 06-02-2004, 10:30 AM

I have a fear of heights... depends where I am. If I am driving over a bridge, I am scared it's going to collapse. If I am at the top of a high flight of stairs, I am scared I am going to fall down them. If I was on the edge of a building, I would definitely be scared I was going to jump! I sometimes will randomly imagine myself jumping out of windows too. EEK! So it changes depending on where I am. Like if I am waiting for the metro (what we call the subway here in Montreal), I always stay back on the platform because I'm scared someone is going to push me in front of the train. But I often fear I will spontaneously jump out of a window. Weird. I have Generalized Anxiety Disorder with OCD tendencies.