Plane Anxiety

I recently had to take a 6 hour flight then a 15 hour flight, 90% over the ocean. I did as much exposure as I could before the flights. Listening to a podcast interviewing everyone from pilots to mechanics to flight attendants, who educated on the science of flight. Watching take offs and landings on YouTube, in all sorts of weather, planes during the day and at night. When I took my flights I could pinpoint what noise I was hearing and I didn’t feel as afraid as I had before (like that noise is the landing gear releasing) I understood things more, so didn’t scrutinize every facial expression of our flight attendants. Something I heard on the podcast is there are over 2.9 million airline passengers daily, safely flying above us. I’m not sure if this is the right way to practice exposure but it 100% helped me.

Same with me. The idea if something goes wrong and I’m stuck in the air with nowhere to go and around a bunch of strangers

Hello, Flying can be a particularly potent fear because of the lack of control while on the plane. One thing that has been found with fears, like this, is that avoidance of the fear tends to intensify the fear, however sitting with the fear leads to conquering it. At NOCD we can walk you through a process called exposure therapy to help you in conquering that fear.

Would you rather drive? I ask, because statistically, if you drove by yourself, your chances of dying alone are far greater in a car than in a plane. So, why the fear? Other than it is possible that you think that you are in less control in a plane than you are anywhere else. But, what control do you need in a plane? Again, I ask because this is how anxiety contorts things all of the time. It would rather you do something with more risk due to the fact that there is a perception of more control, but that, in reality, makes no sense. No one said anxiety was logical though, right? It is not, it is emotional, and that is why we get anxious doing safe things and feel safe doing more dangerous things. My recommendation is to go on the flight and do as little safety seeking behaviors as possible. Show yourself that you can handle the flight, and allow yourself to learn that your fears need not be the things that you pay attention to.

Behind the fact that it is extremely unlikely that something will happen to an airplane, there are many people working behind it. In reality you are not just depending on two people, but on thousands and thousands of people working to do it possible. I've been researching airplanes lately, and also incidents, most of them are surreal and strange coincidences all lined up to happen, most of them don't even end tragically, it is a myth that if something happens to the plane it's always catastrophic. It's not like there's going to be a giant turbulence that knocks it over, a lightning strike, or even a flock of birds, the plane is overthought for security and everyone involved (pilots, ATC, maintenance personnel, airport workers, cabin crew) is super trained, like you have no idea, they live in the air and live for it, airport jobs are usually for the extremely dedicated, perfectionist and detail-oriented. Don't think that if something happens they react without a plan, no, they have super long manuals on board that indicate exactly what to do in all possible cases, and believe me, in almost all of them there is a solution. It's like your mind is sure that tomorrow you're going to win the lottery twice with the grand prize and you will become a billionare out of thin air, it's the rarest things you can live

Hi there. How are you feeling now?