It belongs to a category of specific phobias, called space and motion discomfort, that share similar causes and options for treatment.

A head for heights is advantageous for hiking or climbing in mountainous terrain and also in certain jobs such as steeplejacks or wind turbine mechanics.

People with acrophobia can experience a panic attack in high places and become too agitated to get themselves down safely.

[2] The term is from the Greek: ἄκρον, ákron, meaning "peak, summit, edge" and φόβος, phóbos, "fear".

[4][5][6] Confusion may arise in differentiating between height vertigo and acrophobia due to the conditions' overlapping symptom pools, including body swaying and dizziness.

[11] More studies have suggested a possible explanation for acrophobia is that it emerges through accumulation of non-traumatic experiences of falling that are not memorable but can influence behaviours in the future.

People tend to wrongly interpret visuo-vestibular discrepancies as dizziness and nausea and associate them with a forthcoming fall.

The newer non-association theory is that a fear of heights is an evolved adaptation to a world where falls posed a significant danger.

Researchers have argued that a fear of heights is an instinct found in many mammals, including domestic animals and humans.

Experiments using visual cliffs have shown human infants and toddlers, as well as other animals of various ages, to be reluctant in venturing onto a glass floor with a view of a few meters of apparent fall-space below it.

[15] While an innate cautiousness around heights is helpful for survival, extreme fear can interfere with the activities of everyday life, such as standing on a ladder or chair, or even walking up a flight of stairs.

Besides associative accounts, a diathetic-stress model is also very appealing for considering both vicarious learning and hereditary factors such as personality traits (i.e., neuroticism).

The human balance system integrates proprioceptive, vestibular and nearby visual cues to reckon position and motion.

[18] However, most people respond to such a situation by shifting to more reliance on the proprioceptive and vestibular branches of the equilibrium system.

[20][6] An acrophobic, however, continues to over-rely on visual signals, whether because of inadequate vestibular function or incorrect strategy.

Some proponents of the alternative view of acrophobia warn that it may be ill-advised to encourage acrophobics to expose themselves to height without first resolving the vestibular issues.

[35] Many different types of medications are used in the treatment of phobias like fear of heights, including traditional anti-anxiety drugs such as benzodiazepines, and newer options such as antidepressants and beta-blockers.