Fear of Flying Explained
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.