Scare-plane! (Please help me with my fear of flying.)

Hey all. I hope this is the right place in the forum to post this.

I live in Montreal and I’m going to Halifax with my sister in a week. We’re flying there. I haven’t flown in several years and the last time I was flying, we hit some bad turbulence. It made me feel sick and scared the hell out of me (I get motion-sick ridiculously easily.)

Does anyone have any tips on being able to deal with motion sickness/turbulence/general fear of flying?

Thanks.

Drugs.

Seriously.

Talk to your GP, get some nice meds for motion-sickness (bonus points if they make you drowsy as well) and tell him that you have a flying phobia and ask for a prescription for just a pill or two of something like Xanax.

Best stuff ever (in my experience) for temporary blanking of inconvenient phobias. It’s hard to describe - you’re still aware that you’re in a situation that you’re phobic about, but really, it all is just too damn much trouble to worry about, so you’re just sort of there. Weird, but worth it to be panic-free through situations that normal people don’t even think twice about.

For the people who may comment that you don’t have a phobia yet, I’d focus on that “yet”, and make the suggestion that if one case of turbulence has you quite agitated about the whole idea, then it probably wouldn’t take much more to get you into a full-fledged phobia, which will then be harder to deal with. Better (again, IMO) to deal with the small fear by preventing it from being reinforced in the immediate future by giving you a nice peaceful and calm flight (even if medically enhanced) and then working on dealing more purposefully and consciously with the fear later, if you choose to do so.

Moved (via ground transportation) from MPSIMS to IMHO, our forum for medical and psychological advice.

I would talk to your local pharmacist regarding motion sickness. My Wife sometimes gets sick when SCUBA diving or in a boat. It’s over the counter stuff. And it works.

Or perhaps a scrip for the scopalamine based motion sickness med. Combine the lack of nausea with something that might be a bit relaxing.

By beloved is prone to motion sickness and flying. She starts eating valium a few hours before the flight and probably puts away a pack of smokes in the same timeframe. Seems to work for her.