This is an old thread and everything was resolved, but just to address don’t ask’s question, they were given to me because the helicopter work was a one time thing and it came up suddenly. I also have a fear of flying in airplanes, but I do that on a very regular basis (once a month or more), and for that, I’ve dealt with it using CBT. The helicopter stuff was for a project I was working on in a very remote location in the mountains of the Yukon. I was asked to go about two weeks before I left, so I spoke to my doctor and she suggested the Ativan.
As it is, I took it for the trip out (a three hour helicopter ride through the mountains) but ended up just dealing with it for my daily rides as they were pretty short and the weather was good. I also took them on my flight out on a small fixed wing. Short, uneven gravel runway, very quick take off and rough weather. I’m glad I had the Ativan or I might have had a bit of a breakdown!