I'm not afraid of heights (outside of the normal sense of being afraid of anything that will kill me), and I had to do exactly the same thing to look over the edge at the Cliffs of Moher. Going in, I thought I was going to be cool about it and just walk right up and look over the edge, but about five or six feet from the edge my hindbrain said "no sir, bad idea" and took away my voluntary movement privileges.

I have to admit there are a couple of drives just minutes away that make me shit myself.

I have this phobia even on the second floor.

pgfsh... just bike along the cliffside

I don't mind heights when I know I'm safe (looking off of high buildings, etc) - what really gets me though are aluminum ladders...man those things feel so unstable lol. A nice stiff fibreglass ladder is fine though. Weird.

My friends growing up were the type to grab onto you and scream while you're at the edge. I'm always certain it will happen again whenever I get into these situations. Probably has more to do with the time they screwed up and I went down a 100ft sand embankment.

Spoiler: I survived.

I just recently developed a fear of heights. For me it's not that I'm going to go over the edge, but that at that moment when looking over, the building will fall over or the ground under me will give way and crumble. It's only in the past few years that this fear has developed. I don't know why and I hate it.

I did exactly the same thing when I was a kid in Calgary.

You should go to Toronto and do the CN Tower Edge Walk.

The void calls us to jump into it.