Do you suffer from the Fear of Flying? |
Posted: August 5, 2011 |
When this anxiety reaches a level that significantly interferes with a person’s ability to travel by air, it becomes the phobia known as the “Fear of Flying”. The fear of flying is a phobia; no big surprise there! It could be a distinct phobia or an indirect combination of one or more other phobias. What is a Phobia? What are some the other phobias that could be in combination with the fear of flying. Well let’s see, there are: Now that you are totally panic stricken is there anything that can be done to help alleviate or prevent this fear. Here are a few ideas that may help. Fear of Flight is a learned behaviour. Did you know, that fear is a learned behaviour? When we were born, we had no fears so there had to be something that triggered this fear. The first thing you have to do if you wish to overcome your fear of flying is to… Admit you are a fearful flyer. You can’t fix what you don’t acknowledge and rest assured that you are not alone in your fear. Then you can try to remember what the circumstances were that may have caused your fear of flying symptoms to first appear? What was happening in your life before the fear of flying symptoms developed? What exactly might a fear of flying prevent you from doing? Who knows by going to this exercise you might end up in treatment for something other than fear of flying, or you might be able to solve the problem yourself without professional help. The next thing you have to do is educate yourself. Did you know statistics compiled by the US Department of Transportation have led to the conclusion that airline travel is 29 times safer than driving an automobile? The problem with the above statistics is that knowing this will not stop they do not stop people from being afraid of flying. Statistics do not help because the fear of flying actually has little to do with risk as such. If the fear of flying were actually caused by the potential for an accident, then everyone who fears to fly would be even more afraid—29 times more afraid, to be statistically exact—to drive or ride in an automobile. But that is clearly not the case. What else can you do? As far as overcoming the fear of flying examples of some of the things that can work include. Medication Keep in mind that psychiatrists are sometimes reluctant to prescribe any medication for the treatment of fear of flying due to the need for patients to medicate irregularly. Though benzodiazepines effectively reduced anxiety on the ground, research indicates higher anxiety and sharply increased panic when flying versus placebo. Another form of self-medicating is alcohol, which is served in many commercial airline cabins and is how some deal with their anxiety. Most mental health professionals would advise against consuming alcohol as a medication both due to the strong risk of dependency (alcoholism) and due to the particular physiological effects on the body of air travel. On the other hand, some professionals believe that if an individual is capable of controlling his or her drinking—i.e. is not an alcoholic—and consumes only a small amount at a time, that an alcoholic beverage before or during a flight may be beneficial as a short-term treatment of mild fear of flying. Most would still advise a more long-term strategy of therapy. Children and Fear of Flying Consider whether the child’s anxiety relates in some way to family conflicts. The child’s fear of flying may not be about flying at all. Is this all there is? I have been asked if I could recommend a program or an option that I like. I did find a program a couple years ago that I have recommended in the past and the results of the wonderful. It was put together by a 40-year aviation veteran and fear of flying expert. Captain Ron Nielsen has been widely consulted and quoted in the media since he began working with fearful flyers 20 years ago. In addition to his aviation and fear of flying expertise, he holds a Master’s Degree in Professional Counseling. If you have any stories or questions about the Fear of Flying and would like to share or any travel related themes you would like to discuss, send them off to us. We will read the all and post our favorites. Well this is all we have for today’s post, let us know what you think. If you would like to receive further German posts, your options include: Stay in touch: If you have any comments, we would love to see them.
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