Fear of Flying

[ClemmyIndyBambi]

I'm not sure if this is the best place for this question, but I figured it does impact my transportation to WDW. We used to fly to WDW 3-4 times a year when I was growing up, but then TWA 800 went down the day before we left for a trip. I became terrified (I was 10 or 11), and we only flew once or twice more to WDW. Since 2004 I've only flown twice on public airlines. My grandfather does own a small plane that I've flown with him on, and I did spend several years in the early 2000's working on getting my pilots license (I have the hours, but never ended up getting it). Anyway, I really want to get over my fear so I can travel to WDW more than the once a year we go now, because we drive 22 hours to get there.

I'm wondering what others have used to help get over their fear of flying.

 

[FCDub]

The TWA incident is understandably shaking, but think about the hundreds of thousands (millions?) of flights in the 20 years since that have taken off and landed without and incident.

It would help to have an iPad or laptop loaded up with movies or shows to distract you. Or some favorite music. Anything to help you relax and take your mind off of flying.

 

[BadPinkTink]

I love the whole flying experience, regularly fly short flights around Europe and long haul transatlantic every year. For me I make it into a day out, have an airport routine , things I always do.

I guess maybe if you knew what to expect, ie someone wrote out a walk through from your departure airport for you it might help, things like, where the check in desks are, what happens at checkin, how long it takes, how to get from check in to TSA, what happens at TSA, how to find your gate after TSA, where the rest rooms are, what shopping and food facilities are in the departure gate area. Then what happens at the departure gate , what boarding is like, what happens between sitting down in your seat and the aircraft door closing, what taxi is like, what take off is like, the noises and sounds the procedures that flight crew do .

Most people have a fear of the unknown, so knowing the logical sequence of events, knowing the normal sights and sounds when flying with a commercial airline will help ease your mind.

Also things like knowing whether the airline has inflight service and what is usually provided, whether you need cash or card for these purchase, or needing to chew gum to ease the air pressure all help nervous flyers.

 

[frozenheart]

I'm not a fan of flying either. I take my anxiety medicine when I'm traveling by plane, but obviously not everyone has that. I normally sit in an aisle seat (I fly Southwest), pop my headphones in and close my eyes during takeoff/landing. Once we're in the air though, I usually just watch a movie on my tablet or read a book. I've only experienced rough turbulence once and it was 10 years ago when I was in HS still. It's mostly why I hate flying now, but I've flown a lot since because of my parents living out of state/vacations/etc. and my flights have all been pleasant. Fingers crossed my track record with good flights stays that way in 10 days.

Oh, I have tried melatonin (and other sleep aids) to try to sleep through the flights, but it never worked for me. Probably because of anxiousness.

 

[CarolynFH]

I used to have the same problem, also triggered by a terrible crash. Something that helped a lot was a statistic that at any given moment, there are 50,000 people in the air over the US. I kept reminding myself of that over and over! Also I knew a retired airline pilot who told me to think of turbulence as "just bumps in the road." That helped too - but it took years!

 

[ClemmyIndyBambi]

Distractions and anti-anxiety meds don't seem to work for me. The last time I flew we tried those methods (I was prescribed the highest dose of two anti-anxiety meds possible) and it was my worst flight. It was a Bridesmaids kind of trip, where I freaked out and cried the whole way to Phoenix and the whole way back. Luckily the attendant was the same woman down and back and she held my hand while I freaked out.

I think too it did not help when I went to get my pilots license, because I know how planes fly... but I also know people who've died in small plane crashes. In fact, my grandpa's friend just crashed and died a few weeks ago and he was a great pilot, and a family that flies out of the airport my grandpa flies out of died in a crash a few days later. My aunt was actually supposed to be on a plane that crashed and killed everyone on board in 1995 in Indiana, but she canceled her trip the day of because it was on Halloween and she wanted to take her son trick-or-treating. So, I think there is a heightened awareness of all this. I do know statistically it's unlikely, but it's really hard to not get past that initial fear that there is a higher risk than driving.

 

[moopdog]

Jumping on board on this, as I have developed just over the past year (no known reason), what I can only describe as a sudden onset of claustrophobia. I didn't associate it with flying until I boarded a plane in June and literally almost had a panic attack walking down the aisle. It had to do with being in the back of the plane and it got worse upon landing, having to wait for everyone else get off the plane ahead of me (seemed like 10 or 15 minutes), I'm short so I could only see a mob of people. I held it in at the time, but it was tough. I kept my eyes locked on the flight attendant hoping he'd notice the sheer panic on my face - but no. I am now starting to experience it when boarding rides, going into confined spaces and being strapped into a roller coaster with the overhead bar. I am honestly thinking of going to my doctor about getting something so that our entire trip does not land me in the loony bin (or divorced!). But I don't like to take meds in general, so I'm hoping there is something on the market to take the edge off without feeling groggy or loopy. Anyone have any advice? TIA. And thanks to the OP for giving me a chance to post this.

 

[ClemmyIndyBambi]

Jumping on board on this, as I have developed just over the past year (no known reason), what I can only describe as a sudden onset of claustrophobia. I didn't associate it with flying until I boarded a plane in June and literally almost had a panic attack walking down the aisle. It had to do with being in the back of the plane and it got worse upon landing, having to wait for everyone else get off the plane ahead of me (seemed like 10 or 15 minutes), I'm short so I could only see a mob of people. I held it in at the time, but it was tough. I kept my eyes locked on the flight attendant hoping he'd notice the sheer panic on my face - but no. I am now starting to experience it when boarding rides, going into confined spaces and being strapped into a roller coaster with the overhead bar. I am honestly thinking of going to my doctor about getting something so that our entire trip does not land me in the loony bin (or divorced!). But I don't like to take meds in general, so I'm hoping there is something on the market to take the edge off without feeling groggy or loopy. Anyone have any advice? TIA. And thanks to the OP for giving me a chance to post this.

I have a lot of anxieties, so I can suggest things I've done to deal with other fears in my life. Everything else I can overcome, but planes I'm hung up on. Anyway, for me yoga was really helpful in terms of dealing with panic attacks. There are several different yoga breathing methods that can help calm you down pretty quickly. I was also taught a technique where you take the thumb of your dominant hand and gentle push it into the palm of your other hand. Then you do small rotations pressing your thumb into your hand (it basically looks like a little wiggle you thumbs doing into the palm of your hand). Then you switch hands after 30 second to a minute. That's also useful along with breathing to come out of a bad panic attack. My panic attacks escalate until I pass out, and I can tell you once I start doing that I rarely get to the point of passing out. I thought it was stupid when my doctor suggested yoga, but I've been shocked at how well it worked. That was 10 years ago.

Another technique that I use to help prevent panic attacks is counting things around me. For example, "I see three people in red shirts, I see five people with blonde hair, I see two magazines, etc". That works well in the very beginning stages to distract your mind enough to prevent you from going over the cliff towards panic. I've also been told that I'm supposed to picture a red stop sign any time I start to feel panic, but that does not work for me. It might work for you. In extreme cases (where I'm just not able to calm myself down and I'm shaking) I cover my eyes for a few minutes, and just look into the darkness. I think about myself being safe in the darkness, nothing is around to harm me. That's pretty good at bringing me back around too, and then once I'm done I immediately jump into my yoga breathing.

Hopefully others have some ideas too. If you want to know more about the yoga breathing let me know and I'll try to write out exactly what I do.

 

[Dizjunkieee]

Distractions and anti-anxiety meds don't seem to work for me. The last time I flew we tried those methods (I was prescribed the highest dose of two anti-anxiety meds possible) and it was my worst flight. It was a Bridesmaids kind of trip, where I freaked out and cried the whole way to Phoenix and the whole way back. Luckily the attendant was the same woman down and back and she held my hand while I freaked out.

I think too it did not help when I went to get my pilots license, because I know how planes fly... but I also know people who've died in small plane crashes. In fact, my grandpa's friend just crashed and died a few weeks ago and he was a great pilot, and a family that flies out of the airport my grandpa flies out of died in a crash a few days later. My aunt was actually supposed to be on a plane that crashed and killed everyone on board in 1995 in Indiana, but she canceled her trip the day of because it was on Halloween and she wanted to take her son trick-or-treating. So, I think there is a heightened awareness of all this. I do know statistically it's unlikely, but it's really hard to not get past that initial fear that there is a higher risk than driving.

I don't love flying, but certainly don't have the level of fear that you experience. I am so sorry as I DO know how debilitating anxiety can be! I also have some motion issues so my routine includes taking Dramamine, which also makes you very sleepy. I don't love that feeling, but it does seem to also calm my nerves a bit, so that helps. I wish I had an answer for you One thing I will say though is statistically, we are all much more likely to be in a car crash than a plane crash. That is something I tell myself as well. When I have dealt with anxiety with other things, doing a breathing exercise really seemed to help. I was not confident at all that it would, but I was SHOCKED at how it calmed my anxiety. look on Youtube for breathing exercise videos and give it a try to see if it might help. Good luck

 

[Hitchhiker99]

Personally I benefited from the iPhone app, SkyGuru, which was designed to help overcome flying anxiety. The app tells you, what is exactly happening during the flight, so you aren't afraid of unusual sounds and movements. You may find a more detailed description of the app here: http://www.cntraveler.com/story/new-app-skyguru-promises-help-for-nervous-fliers