Fear of Flying

[Hoddy]

Yesterday I took someone to Heathrow to catch a flight for New Zealand. I have never seen anyone so apprehensive of flying.

Does anyone have any advice to offer which might help alleviate the problem ?

Thanks

Hoddy

[Russethouse]

Valium worked for me, just one, about an hour before I fly.

[Annabell]

Valium works for me too.  But if its short notice and I can't get to the doctor in time I use the Bach Rescue Remedy, either drops you put on your tougne or a spray to spray on your toungue.

[Clarkkent]

This can be a really serious problem. In extreme cases its manifestation can put other travellers in danger. This what www.aviation-health.org says:

Aerophobia, or fear of flying, is an anxiety unlike other phobias because it can recur even after supposedly successful treatment. However, there is a great distinction to be made between other anxiety disorders and the nervousness that most passengers experience when they fly. The attitude of aerophobics is caused mainly by their lack of knowledge about the relative safety of flying.

The phobia is complex, which goes some way towards explaining its unusual feature of recurring. There are six elements of aerophobia that have been distinguished. These are -

• Claustrophobia, in which a person feels trapped and fears suffocation.
• A panic related anxiety in which the subject fears that he or she may experience a heart attack, go crazy or lose control yet have no means of escaping from the aircraft.
• Space phobia, whereby a person is terrified by the idea of being 'surrounded by nothingness'.
• The fear of the aircraft crashing because of adverse weather, mechanical failure or a terrorist bomb.
• The fear of heights.
• Post-traumatic reaction in which the fear of flying follows an emergency landing or ear problems

Most studies demonstrate that anxiety disorders such as this are more predominant in the middle-aged than in the young or elderly and are more common in women than in men.

There are various methods of treating aerophobics -

• Most airlines run courses for fearful flyers.
• The medical profession provides psychotherapy through chartered clinical psychologists (UK) and cognitive behavioural therapists (US).
• Stress therapy such as transcendental meditation is a useful alternative to clinical intervention.
• Confronting the fear directly. This method, based on behavioural concepts such as desensitisation, is practised by many airlines. The fear is gradually overcome through repeated confrontation of the object or situation.
• Those who like to feel more in control of the situation may benefit from trying out a simulator in which they can experience ' piloting ' an aircraft for themselves.

For people who suffer from serious fear of flying  a temporary pharmacological fix will not be of any real help.

[GRT17]

Our older daughter (Clinical Psychologist) hates flying but she now deals with it by giving herself a good dose of "cognitive therapy" and actually manages quite successfully to go on flights on her own.

There are courses run by airlines to help people overcome the fear of flying. (apolgies, I realise ClarkKent has mentioned this in the previous posting)

Gill

[Renaud]

Old shaggy doggy story...

Man goes to his shrink and says that he is frightened of flying because he is afraid that there might be a bomb on the plane.

Several sessions later and the shrink is getting nowhere so tells the man "You should see my brother who is an actuary, instead of me".

Somewhat mystified the sufferer troops along to the brother.

The acturary hears out the problem and presents his solution: "It is simple, you should carry a bomb on the plane yourself".

"Why"?

"The odds of there being one person carrying a bomb on a plane are say 500,000,000 to one. The odds of there being two people independently carrying bombs on the same plane are several trillion times that".

[Miki]

[quote]Old shaggy doggy story...Man goes to his shrink and says that he is frightened of flying because he is afraid that there might be a bomb on the plane.Several sessions later and the shrink is getting n...[/quote]

Boom Boom Mr Reynard (sorry Renaud)