The fear of flying is one fear that almost everyone who has flown has experienced to some degree. For many, the experience is no more than a nuisance; a bit uncomfortable, but nothing to worry about.

Others, however, experience physical and mental symptoms that can range from simply tense to outright panic. There are many effective methods for dealing with the fear of flying. What will be successful for you may depend on where you fall on the spectrum.

Fear of flying symptoms often mirror the symptoms of other things that happen when flying. Knowing this can help a person who has mild fear of flying overcome their anxiety more quickly. What usually happens is that a person experiences a symptom and assumes it is caused by their fear rather than some other reason. Then, they get more and more agitated until major panic sets in. If the passenger can recognize this cycle early on, they can stop it in its tracks and prevail over their fear.

One example is this. Unstable air pressure in the plan can give many passengers inner ear problems, which result in a number of possible symptoms including prickly ears and skin, loss of orientation, nausea, and dizziness. A passenger with mild fear of flying may experience these symptoms and attribute them to the their fear, as many are also caused by anxiety. And this misunderstanding can trigger even greater fears and anxiety.

Additionally, spending long periods in the tight seats in an airplane cabin can cause muscular pain, joint pain, and tingling from lack of blood flow. These too are all symptoms often experienced during panic or severe anxiety attacks. Therefore, the passenger who feels these symptoms may misdiagnose a mere physical reaction to small seating quarters as a fear of flying.

Clearly, there are those whose fear of flying is more significant than the mild fear described here. For those folks, mere recognition that the physical symptoms could be coming from other sources thank the fear of flying may not be enough. But for some, this awareness is the first line of defense in combating their fears for good.

Over 1 Billion people flew on commercial airplanes in the year 2000. There were over 18 Million flights and only 20 fatal accidents. Compare this with almost 42,000 traffic accidents in that same year, and you can see that airline travel is much safer than driving by car.

Nevertheless, rational human beings who have no problem racing all over town in their car every day break into a cold sweat and experience other physical and mental symptoms any time they are faced with the thought of flying on a plane.

A critical thing to keep in mind is that, although it may appear that the danger involved with flying is the cause of the apprehension, that is probably not it at all. As with all phobias, it probably stems from anxiety, which can be triggered in many different ways.

There is very little that an airline passenger can control in his surroundings. The climate cannot be adjusted if it is too hot or too cold. If the surroundings are cramped, it is difficult to make space and you can’t open a window to get fresh air. When turbulence rocks the plane, we have no brake or other controls to manage the situation. We can’t even see and probably don’t know the pilot. Contrast this to an automobile, which we either control by driving ourselves, or know and trust the driver personally.

With such little control, all those things that are just annoyances in our real life become bigger than life on a plane. Waiting on the runway our minds run away with the possible reasons the plane hasn’t taken off yet. The close quarters become tighter and tighter until it feels like the walls are literally closing in. A little turbulence becomes an out of control plane doomed to crash in our anxious minds.

While many are able to identify and conquer these anxieties before their conscious mind even experiences them, there are many more who encounter some form of panic when flying, which may vary in degree from tolerable, to uncomfortable, right up the scale to full out panic attack.

Luckily, there are many options to beat the fear of flying without drugs or expensive therapy. The first step, however, is to understand why you are afraid to fly, so that the fear can be faced.