The Fear of Flying?

User Named

I have being flying about 10/12 times a year for the past 4 years. I have always been terrified of flying, but only in the last recent monthes has it really affected me. I mean I would be thinking constantly about the flight in the weeks leading up to it. I am not one for panic attacks but have come fairly close with being soaked in sweat being quite common. Iv realised that understanding why certain things occur is key and im in the process of trying to do that. Any suggestions or tips on how to get over this problem?

pclancy

You're not alone...its very common and stops a lot of people travelling or taking on certain jobs. Can you identify what exact fears you have? Is it the obvious one of crashing or more along the lines of clostrophobia or the fear of not being in control? If you want plenty of info on how planes work or how pilots are trained etc theres plenty of people here that can help...ask away! If you dont know what the exact fear then maybe something like hypnotherapy or even a good dose of valium helps many people.

Take a look at this good article on irishhealth.com, its also got info about courses that are run by Aer Lingus that might be of use:

http://www.irishhealth.com/index.html?level=4&id=3283

Also some things I always say to people when they tell me they're scared of flying...

1. An airliner is one of the most scrutinised pieces of technology that exists. Every time it lands its inspected carefully for airworthiness and doesnt leave the ground if any serious problems are found. They're extremely well built and well maintained. If you think about your car which probably gets serviced and looked at a mechanic at least every year, an aircraft spends a lot of its life in ahanger being checked, checked and checked again to make sure its safe.
2. Pilots and Air Traffic Controllers are amoungst the most highly trained people in the world, having medicals and simulator tests performed every 3-6 months just to keep their licences.
3. Everything on an aircraft is duplicated and has backups. 2 engines of which 1 is more then capable of flying the plane on its own, 2 fuel/electrical/hydralic systems, 2 autopilots, 2 radios etc etc. Both captain and first officer and constantly checking what the other is doing etc...Because commercial air travel has had so long to learn from its mistakes in the 70s and 80s when air crashes seemed common, safety and redundancy has been built into planes for a long time now.

I'd write more but im out of time...heres a nice statistic for you if it helps...

You have a 1 in 84 chance of dying in a car crash
You have a 1 in 5552 chance of dying in an air crash

Source- Wikipdedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_safety

Danbo!

I used to love flying when i was younger and then, for some reason, I got on a plane about 3 years ago and was scared stiff. Dont know why this came about, but it did and lasted a year or two. Someone showed me this http://www.fearofflyinghelp.com/intro.shtml and i read/watched it a few days before a long haul flight. it did the trick and havent had a problem since. Having said that it may not work for everyone, but give it a shot

chickenhawk

http://flyingwithoutfear.info/index.htm

Apparently a good course to go on.