Confronting Acrophobia at the Calgary Tower (and High Hopes for VR Treatment)

Confronting Acrophobia at the Calgary Tower (and High Hopes for VR Treatment)

By Leilani Spring Fischbeck

Off to Calgary, Alberta, the land of bike riding, sun shining (at least the sunniest throughout Canada), and historic rodeos with a law prohibiting hurling snowballs unless the mayor approves (Geoscalgary, 2024). 
It is to be expected that Calgary is another one of those large city healthcare systems demanding improvement by many local residents; the good news is Alberta has a publicly administered and funded healthcare system that guarantees that citizens receive universal access to medically necessary hospital and health care services under the Canada Health Act (Alberta Health Services, 2024). One of the more unique attributes of the city is the iconic Calgary Tower, topped with a naturally gas-fueled cauldron installed in 1987 for the Winter Games Olympics. What does it feel like to go up to the 190.8 metre tower and overlook the entire city?


Calgary Tower Glass Floor | PC: Leilani.Spring

 An acrophobic would probably be in a full panic if forced to find out; even some of the visitors with a rational “fear” of heights refused to step onto the impressive glass floor. Personally, my legs felt like jelly but I made the leap (pun intended). Are these avoidant visitors just scared of heights, or are they acrophobic?  


Human beings are naturally conditioned to fear high places because 'heights' are perceived as a threat to safety. It makes plenty of sense! Falling from a high distance often leads to an inevitable death. Even so, society continues developing skyscrapers and building elevators and airplanes, etc, and all of those heightened developments become part of the “ normal” human routine. This happens all while our survival instincts are still intact to fear heights. Needless to say, we still have to make it up to the 20th floor for that work meeting. 


So what sets apart a phobia from a rational and/or irrational fear? 


A phobia is defined as “...a persistent, excessive, unrealistic fear of an object, person, animal, activity, or situation” (Harvard Health, 2024) and, is partially genetic (Thanks again, family). Fear typically involves a rational response to a perceived threat (like being high off of the ground), whereas a phobia is an extreme fear of a threat that isn’t really warranted (like standing in a skyscraper that is securely built and closed off but still very high off of the ground); the person cannot really tolerate the situation therefore, a phobia actually hinders someone’s quality of life. 
Acrophobia is considered a natural environment type phobia, leaving the individual feeling extremely fearful and anxious about situations that involve being far off the ground (@verywellmind). The distance doesn’t necessarily have to be far from the ground either; it is still one of the most common phobias. Being afraid of heights might make you sweat a little bit going to the top of the tower, but being acrophobic would send your body into survival mode.  Phobias affect 1 in 10 Canadians, (Canadian Psychological Association, 2020) and throughout the U.S., acrophobia affects 3-6% of the population, making it one of the more common phobias (Cleveland Clinic).   


Bottom of Calgary Tower in Downtown | PC: Leilani.spring

Thankfully, several scientific methods are effectively treating symptoms of acrophobia and more is being revealed. Most are familiar with the treatment of psychotherapy- verbal communication, and exposure therapy-a psychological treatment designed to have individuals confront their fears (American Psychological Association, 2024). Now, they are uncovering more information about a treatment for acrophobia that seems very promising, and clients don’t even have to go a foot off of the ground to try it. 
Glass Floors and Dirty Nikes | PC: Leilani.Spring




The treatment is called VRET-Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy- a type of virtual reality that allows individuals to confront their phobias in virtual scenarios.

A scientific study published by Science Direct facilitated an educational simulation exposing users to heights in a safe environment through virtual reality. The intention was to give users, "...more experience to handle their fear in the secured environment and gradually decreases their anxiety level of acrophobia" (Suyanto et. al). Statistics revealed positive results, even in the early stages with researchers identifying several areas for improvement (i.e. creating more realistic scenarios with objects, sound, etc). Overall, VRET has been deemed useful in reducing the anxiety paired with heights in acrophobia sufferers (Science Direct, 2017). 

https://www.instagram.com/andreapiacquadio_
Senior VR | Photo by @andreapiacquadio_

The interesting part: isn’t so much about the fear, but rather a visual height intolerance. Virtual Reality is a fast-developing technology; scientists believe if we can treat the relationship between height intolerance and overcoming the symptoms of acrophobia, we may be able to lessen the anxiety and panic systems that are associated. 

 Now that we know it works, the next step is making it accessible. According to the NIH, “...The latest generation of VR solutions has the potential to improve clinical availability and treatment options”. Even with a system like Alberta’s, which has universal access to “medically necessary” hospital care, we don’t have access to “specialty” treatment and, that's where VRET falls under the healthcare umbrella.



The good news? There are multiple ways to treat acrophobia systems or an extreme fear of heights, particularly with newly emerging VR techniques. The harsher reality is that it will probably take a while to make these resources accessible.



Calgary Tower Alberta Canada
To the Top of Calgary Tower | PC: Leilani.Spring


Works Cited

Calgary, GEOs. “10 Things You May Not Know about Calgary! | GEOS Calgary.” About Our ESL School | GEOS Calgary, GEOS Calgary, https://www.geoscalgary.com/visiting_calgary/10_cool_facts_about_calgary.htm. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.

Calgary Tower. “ABOUT | Calgary Tower.” Calgary Tower, https://www.calgarytower.com/about. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.

Canadian Psychological Association. “‘Psychology Works’ Fact Sheet: Phobias - Canadian Psychological Association.” Canadian Psychological Association - The National Voice for Psychology in Canada, https://www.facebook.com/CPA.SCP/, 30 May 2020, https://cpa.ca/psychology-works-fact-sheet-phobias/.
 Erick Marchelino Suyanto, Denny Angkasa, Harfondy Turaga, Rhio Sutoyo,

Family Psychology Place. “VR Therapy Calgary | Family Psychology Place.” The Family Psychology Place, https://familypsychologyplace.com/counselling/vr-therapy/. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.

Niazi, Amil. “Scared of Heights? How Virtual Reality Can Help People Overcome Their Phobias | CBC Radio.” CBC, 4 June 2023, https://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/virtual-reality-therapy-phobias-1.6860987.

NIH. “Acrophobia and Visual Height Intolerance: Advances in Epidemiology and Mechanisms - PMC.” PubMed Central (PMC), https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7718183/. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.

Science Direct. “Overcome Acrophobia with the Help of Virtual Reality and Kinect Technology - ScienceDirect.” ScienceDirect.Com | Science, Health and Medical Journals, Full Text Articles and Books., https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877050917321129. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.




Location: Calgary, AB, Canada

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Recreation Therapy in the United States and Canada Explained

Image
  Author's Sidenote:  While preparing to head over to Canada to cross Niagra Falls off of my bucket list, I thought, “How does the field of recreation therapy work in other countries?” It has always been a challenge to explain my profession as a Recreation Therapist (RT), whether I am traveling or settled down in the homeland (Southern California). As many RTs will tell you, half the battle of our career is explaining what we do, why it is beneficial (to literally anyone),  and letting people know we go further than simply “playing bingo” or "having fun". I began to wonder how Recreation Therapy is practiced in other countries, particularly with our neighbors to the North. So let’s start from the ground up: here is a general idea of what the practice of Recreation Therapy looks like and how Canada and the United States view and utilize the growing practice of Recreational Therapy. _______________________________________
Read more

Four Important Health Hacks for All Travelers

Image
Travel Views Out of The Window | PC: Leilani Fischbeck Four Important Health Hacks for Traveling  All seasoned travelers have their own hacks to avoid getting sick when traveling. Whether you are a regular traveler or just preparing to venture out for the first time, here are some #healthhacks that are bound to make navigating your travels easier (and cleaner).   1. Ask them to change the air filter in hotels.   Did you know that most hotels should change their air filters more often? Every hotel varies, and it is becoming more of an outstanding issue after the #Covid outbreak. If you start to feel your allergies kick up during your stay, or experience any sort of sinus symptoms, this could be because the air filter had not been changed for a while. On top of that, the traffic in hotels is exponentially higher which means the air filter gets more use than those in your home. This creates more dust, bacteria, and particles in your breathing space so there is even more of a...
Read more

Investigating Open-Mindedness Abroad In Ireland

Image
Traveling around Ireland has been quite an ear-opening experience.  Starting off in Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom (reminds me a lot of the Kingdom of Hawai'i as "part of the US" #iykyk) and spending the remaining part of my trip in the city of Dublin, I have found a commonality across the country of Ireland: a pattern of speaking freely about.... well, everything.  It felt strange and foreign to me (pun intended) given the political climate and massive division in the United States, genocide and war across the globe, and being stifled to speak given the fear of being rejected or worse.  Ir eland, however, seems to be very free-flowing with their various thoughts and opinions and they don’t mind talking about it. The major difference that drove me to dive deeper into this from a health perspective was the radical acceptance of people's thoughts (or opinions) whether in agreement or not.  It was surprisingly refreshing to be in a climate to share opini...
Read more