To ask if there are ways to overcome vertigo?

[DameCelia]

Severe vertigo, as in six steps up a ladder is the limit.
Are there any courses or treatments that have actually helped?
I need to be able to climb the mast of a boat to complete a qualification (and to potentially save myself in an emergency), at the moment I'd just be standing on deck looking at a stuck rope or broken light.

Is it actually vertigo, or is it anxiety about heights? The two are very different and need different treatments.

@Maireas, sorry, you are absolutely right. I call it vertigo but it doesn't involve dizziness, falling over etc.
It is a fear so paralysing that I sweat, shake, and can't eg walk over a footbridge over a motorway, even if it meant saving my child's life 😳.
It's as if my body simply refuses to cooperate beyond a certain height.

I was going to say - is it a fear of falling or a fear of heights. With you it seems to be a fear of height.

I've got a fear of falling, so I 'm quite happy to be winched down into Gaping Gill in a bosuns chair (happy even to look down at the distant lights of the people below me) because I know nothing I can do will make it go wrong, but I can't get further than 4 steps up a step ladder.

Presumably the mast is more like Gaping Gill, in that you'll be fastened in. Good luck! I hope you overcome it.

Ok so not vertigo - I blame the Hitchcock film for that confusion! If it's anxiety based there are strategies to help. I know a colleague that has used YouTube tutorials to good effect. Maybe give those a go? Best of luck x

Acrophobia is fear of heights: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acrophobia

Vertigo is a spinning or dizzy feeling: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo which may be triggered by being at height (among other things).

Decide which is your problem, then see a therapist for trying to get over it.

DH has aero-acrophobia, fear specifically of high places that are open. So Go Ape is OK because under cover of the trees but it used to be that walking over the crest to the top of a mountain made him lightheaded and freeze up.

Exposure helped him - he really wanted to learn to ski in his 20s so gave it a go. The first time we came off a chair lift at the top of the mountain he couldn't speak and I had to lead him down the first bit by the hand. But once he'd done it, it got easier.

Oddly, although he's much better now about being in situations himself which would once have completely freaked him out, he really finds it difficult when the DC are in those sorts of places. He hated it when we were all going across the sky bridge at Gatwick for example.

Hypnosis might be worth a try - worked beautifully to help me overcome a similar(ish) issue. To find someone properly trained and insured, I used www.hypnotherapists.org.uk/therapist-finder/