I just posted this in a thread in IMHO and it got me thinking …WHY?
"Flying, I hate it, with a passion, really bad. I am a mess for days before and days after the flight, full blown anxiety and panic…lol, absolutely the worst thing I can imagine doing. BUT…it seems to be only commercial flights. I’ve flown for hours at a time in helicopters on SAR missions and have spent four hours at a time in a Cessna flying fire patrols, not the best experience of my life, not really totally relaxed, but not anywhere near as bad as the 2.5 hour flight from say Halifax to Toronto.
So maybe someone can help explain this to me cause I don’t have a clue why I am like this, the only thing I see is the fact that I am sitting up front and can see whats going on???"
Not just flying but watching them on tv, freaks me out completely!!!
When you’re “up front,” you have more of a feeling of being in control, and you can see that the pilot is in control. When you’re back in coach, you’re being a helpless “victim,” at the mercy of some unknown pilot’s skills, or lack thereof.
It’s probably the control thing, as panache45 said. I’m the same way. I’m fine in a small plane where I can see the controls and what the pilot is doing, but in a big plane I have to make an effort to relax myself and remind myself how unlikely it is that anything ‘bad’ is going to happen.
I don’t know, but MammaHomie is terrified of flying. She simply won’t do it. She’d rather drive 16 hours than fly 2. She would love to go to Europe, but unless they start offering passage on trans-Atlantic ships or someone builds a bridge from New York to Southampton, she’s not going.
I would suggest bringing this up to your doctor. He may give you a script for a one-time only anti-anxiety medication (probably Xanax) to take before the flight.
ETA: I’m sure that you’re aware, at least academically, that the number of Americans who die on average per year in aviation fatalitites is something less than 200 (ISTR; no cite), while the number who die in car accidents is in the tens of thousands (again, not cite, just a vague recollection).
Even cheaper, though mostly out of Florida, are repositioning cruises from various companies like Royal Caribbean and Princess, etc. 14 days in an inside stateroom for 400$ US.
You aren’t really afraid of flying, you’re having anticipitation anxiety. You flew once on a commercial airline, and for some reason you had a panic attack.
Now you’ve come to associate being on a commercial plane with having a panic attack. So just the thought gets you.
It’s like I had a dog that hated water. Once he got squirted with the hose. So now whenever he saw someone head to the hose, he associated it with getting squirted and he ran.
I found that Paxil works wonders for that kind of thing. I had SUCH a fear of flying and I took Paxil and it simply killed the panic. I now can fly without Paxil, because I’ve learned that I can get through. I don’t enjoy flying, but I can do it. I just look at it as a necessary evil.
I tend to just drink a lot of booze the night before a flight. Hangovers are a great way to sleep on a plane for the duration of a short flight. I’m only awake for the takeoff and the landing, which are the most likely times for the plane to have a problem. Once we hit cruising altitude, it’s nighty-night time.
