Remedy for Flying Anxiety

A little nervousness before a flight is a common experience. Airplane flights are statistically more safe than driving a car, but the novelty of flying still sets some people on edge. For those who are terrified of flying, there are a number of treatment options available to treat their phobia, in addition to support groups to offer encouragement and reassurance.

Phobias

• People experiencing a flying phobia may experience sweating, dizziness, feeling trapped and other unpleasant sensations while flying or even thinking about flying. According to HelpGuide.org, the difference between a normal fear and a phobia is that those with a phobia fear for their lives even when there is no danger present. For this reason, many of the therapy treatments for flying phobias focus on reassuring the person that his fears are unfounded.

Therapy

• HelpGuide.org lists the primary therapeutic treatment for flying phobia as exposure therapy or systematic desensitization. If you're suffering from a fear of flying, systematic desensitization will gradually show you that flying can be a safe and efficient method of travel. First, the therapist or specialist will have you encounter an imagined airplane or imagine what being in an airplane would be like. Then, the therapist will gradually increase your exposure to the object that causes you fear. You may watch first-person videos of someone hang-gliding or piloting a small aircraft. You may visit an inoperable plane and sit inside the vehicle while your therapist teaches you relaxation techniques. Over time, this type of therapy challenges and negates the fearful thoughts previously held about flying and allows you to control your behaviors and responses, ending the phobia.

Self-Help

• An important aspect of the treatment of flying anxiety is self-help. Self-help treatments are activities, techniques and behaviors that you can do without the help of a specialist. Highly effective self-help methods include relaxation techniques, stress-relieving techniques and visualization. For example, if you board a plane and begin to feel that telltale dizziness that signals the onset of an anxiety attack, you could instead close your eyes and visualize a place that makes you feel calm and serene, imagining how the place is experienced by your senses (what it feels like, smells like, tastes like, looks like). These types of techniques can greatly reduce your feelings of anxiety until you no longer feel the anxiety at all.